[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Find some books and read them.
--[X] Semi-random; whatever has an interesting name or cover.
[] Congratulate Script Mak3r on getting post number 1000.
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Make some Friends in Host's basement while Danny naps. You don't want him to know about the precise "Biological Innovator" aspect of your powers just yet.
--[X] One or two human-sized(ish) Friends.
[x] He might be right, if only because you shouldn't break his sleep schedule.
-[x] Ask to go out shopping.
--[x] For hats. You want more power options.
--[x] For hardware and tools. Host's home needs fixing.
-[x] Wear your "nurse hat" to help Danny recover sooner.
This way, we don't interfere with Danny's sleep cycle but help him recover anyway. We can wear the nurse hat between trying out all the other hats. And while we're out getting hats, we may as well pick up hardware and tools too. Though if we can't do both, I'm prioritizing hats.
We can work on biotinkering friends any time, but Danny will probably soon be busy with work, so we should take advantage of his wallet to get more hats. It'll be difficult for us to acquire hats on our own after all.
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Find some books and read them.
--[X] Semi-random; whatever has an interesting name or cover.
Lets's get Danny's input for human sized pets...
Also, Reading may give us a better idea on how to behave.
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Make some Friends in Host's basement while Danny naps. You don't want him to know about the precise "Biological Innovator" aspect of your powers just yet.
--[X] As many pet-sizedFriends as you can manage on short notice. Provided, they'd be rather big pets...
We have the hats, now we need the Zerglings to wear them.
Let's be honest: the only shard better than the Queen Administrator at communicating and coordinating would be Broadcast itself. Every human would be lectured on proper communication.
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Make some Friends in Host's basement while Danny naps. You don't want him to know about the precise "Biological Innovator" aspect of yourpowers just yet.
--[X] One or two human-sized(ish) Friends.
Everything else can wait until Danny is rested and the house secured.
All this talk about telling Danny made me think about something: will there ever be a time when Taylor is recovered enough to take back control? Even not accounting for the time that will pass on this story, keysl consider human life cycles: wildw she ever recover before her body dies?
We have a hat, and there are probably more in the Basement, however he is useless as a Hat-Gatherer if he is too tired to give the task the attention it deserves.
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Find some books and read them.
--[X] Semi-random; whatever has an interesting name or cover.
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
-[X] Find some books and read them.
--[X] Semi-random; whatever has an interesting name or cover.
Let's try to give the poor man some rest and not have him wake up to our antics. Just for the first day?
Either the next update or a Danny Interlude will be up tomorrow afternoon.
Lung was snarling, "…the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or—"
Escalation's host was interrupted by a quiet whurrrrrthump. One of the gangsters waiting nearby yelped and clutched at his foot, all eyes turning to the victim before inevitably looking further downward. His attacker, a grey and disc-shaped robot of some kind, turned to its next victim and slowly whirrrred toward them. The target simply stepped away with the ease of long practice.
"...What the fuck?" someone asked incredulously.
Seconds later, a quiet whiirrrrring sounded from all around the group, countless round machines slowly making their way out of nearby alleys and from further down the street. Several of them were wearing shark or dragon costumes and yet more had knives duct-taped to their fronts.
One of the gangsters poked the closest robot with the end of his shoe. It briefly shut off, then flickered back on and started rumbling toward his other leg. Outright standing on it led to similar results. After several seconds went by with gangsters making a game out of balancing atop their would-be attackers, an emotionless voice emerged from a speaker mounted atop a nearby disc.
"Run, little humans. Run. You'll only die tired."
They laughed, of course, but such sheer absurdity was what you'd been aiming for. Your little minions are too weak to fight Escalation's host now, but you'd call such a successful distraction a win on your part. Especially after one of your little robots pulled the pin on the grenade duct-taped to it.
Fear not, Vlad the Thirtieth. Your sacrifice will be remembered until Host's unreliable memory makes me forget.
I wouldn't say it was anything like a hive or a swarm or something, because the nanomachines were literally incapable of acting on their own. They were too simple for that, too small to even begin to consider autonomous functionality. It was like a bunch of those super-small RC cars instead of a collection of coordinated Roombas.
Hm. That'd be a difficult power to munchkin. Tinker ability, restricted to construction and control of small but macro-scale robots with no manipulators, articulation, weapons, air travel or sharp edges. Just rounded boxes-on-wheels.
What could you do with an army of perfectly coordinated Roombas?
What could you do in the Worm setting, though? I don't see any combat use other than perhaps tinkering their speed up to sufficiency, which might be difficult in atmosphere. So it'd be just espionage and sabotage?
Hm. That'd be a difficult power to munchkin. Tinker ability, restricted to construction and control of small but macro-scale robots with no manipulators, articulation, weapons, air travel or sharp edges. Just rounded boxes-on-wheels.
What could you do with an army of perfectly coordinated Roombas?
Hn... Tape on some cameras and go scouting? How durable are they? Any particular camouflagability? What range? If no range, or at whatever range we have, does this mean we can have some sort of localized awareness of each unit? If so, mass communication and tactical coordination between distant groups by way of using units to communicate (either with actual coms equipment or by way of translating some specialized language of rotation and movement, if limited to literal control of literal Roombas)? Coordinated awareness of an entire local space, particularly during large-scale battles like Endbringer attacks? Weapons like grenades or whatever on timers? Large enough army of Roombas with suitable vacuuming power in order to combat gas-based attacks by just sort of drawing them out of a given space? Use them as coated with a corrosive for moving environmental hazards? Or, carrying around something on fire? As Roombas with some item-carry capacity, both item transport, and doing a sort of Trojan Horse thing with the carrying of something dangerous? Reverse vacuum suction in order to spray harmful chemicals, gas, allergens, or other things into the air? Smoke bomb cover? Dropping a shit ton of Roombas on top of a non-Brute-rating cape from above (off a building)? Driving into the field of battle and trying to trip people up or distract them at crucial times? Fill them with specialized containment foam canisters and drive them into things that need containing? (Well, that works for just about any other existing weapon, or item that needs proximity to be effective, although it requires either speed or ambush to be effective.) Redistributing loose environmental hazards (e.g. minor rubble, land-bound bugs, toxins) or triggering traps before they have a chance to kill anyone? Classic is knives and such on the Roombas, of course. Possibly sonic weaponry on the Roombas, or at least some variety of sound-based disruption or distraction? Deliberate malfunction causing electrical hazard? Attempts to foul up loose flowing parts of various cape costumes?
Not entirely sure how many of these idea count as sufficiently weaponized, though. A lot of the better ideas require at least a little bit of Tinkering beyond "literally just directing Roombas".
[X] Your desires can wait until AFTER Danny rests. He'll need to sleep either way; best if he does it now.
"My own desires can wait until after you rest. You will need to do so either way, but if you don't sleep now, you'll be exhausted and unable to perform effectively. Forcing you to perform at low effectiveness seems... unwise."
Danny spends several seconds squinting at you before shaking his head and wandering off. Since he seems to be headed toward his own bedroom, you're not sure why he felt the need to signal disagreement.
You'd more than halfway expected a "good night" despite the wrong time of day. None is forthcoming until he's already gone upstairs.
"Love you Taylor!" he calls down.
"Love you too!" you reply automatically, then freeze.
...Why did I just say that? I shouldn't have any reflexive responses yet. Host?
You try reaching toward the back of your brain to check on Host. It's harder than it was when you were first connecting with her, but you're pretty sure the vague contentment is from her, right? Right?
After a few moments wasted on pointless panicking, you choose to do what every sapient species has dabbled in at some point or another: ignoring the problems in front of them. You have books to read and a culture to analyze. :Mother: wouldn't let anything truly bad happen to you anyway.
Finding one of Host's old bookshelves is the work of mere minutes, although choosing suitable reading material takes slightly longer. Why would humans living in urban areas need to learn how to kill mockingbirds? Why are there multiple books titled using what seem to be names, including a few your vocabulary insists are explicit or otherwise inappropriate?
Eventually, you settle on the 2008 edition of a dictionary with entirely too many hyphens. Proper communication begins with knowing exactly what each and every word means. Somehow, you suspect that won't be enough to understand humans. Much like many of your siblings, they seem to love nonsensical combinations of what are otherwise perfectly good words.
-[X] Find some books and read them.
--[X] Semi-random; whatever has an interesting name or cover.
You change from the dictionary after an hour or so and attempt a new target, one Complete Works of William Shakespeare. The horrifying number of spelling errors and general incomprehensibility soon get to you and force you toward the next book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
After an hour or two of this nonsense, it becomes clear that human fiction is not for you. You simply can't force yourself to care about non-hosts conflicting with non-hosts without even a single connection among the entire cast. Although it was somewhat interesting at first, it quickly turned exasperating after you realized they expected you to actually care about the "main character" and his troubles. Why should you? He isn't contributing anything useful.
You put the book down, force yourself off Host's bed, and begin examining the contents of Host's bedroom. Her clothes are, as expected, in muted colors and intended to conceal as much of her body as possible. You fully intend to ignore these preferences in the future. At least she seems to have a few hats you can use.
This hat seems to grant immunity to the harmful effects of most types of radiation. That's pretty much it.
This hat should allow you to survive without proper sustenance for days at a time. You will also be all-but immune to physical exhaustion, although you don't expect it to prevent Host's need for sleep.
Attempting to use Host's personal computer meets with utter failure; after several confusing screens flick by, you're stopped by a screen demanding a password you do not possess. Operating on instinct and from Host's vague memories, you type in Q7wp6dWotS... and receive only an "incorrect password" alert. Trying with several similar strings only leads to a fifteen-minute lockout timer.
You will have to complain to the management. Which is to say, Danny Hebert. Maybe he can fix it.
As if summoned by your brooding, Danny Hebert slowly opens the door to Host's room and peers through the crack. You meet his gaze and curiously tilt your head. You still don't understand why that's meant to signal curiosity.
"Yes?"
Danny doesn't look even the slightest bit embarrassed and simply opens the door further, glancing around yourHost's room as he does so. You were careful to put everything back exactly where you found it. Whatever he's looking for, he isn't going to find it.
"...I was wondering if you wanted to go out for lunch?" he hazards uncertainly. "Or linner, I suppose. We could order delivery instead."
You straighten your spine and stare intently at Danny Hebert. Eating out = outside = shopping district = hats.
"Could we go shopping afterward?"
Danny's expression briefly reflects pain, slowly relaxes, and suddenly returns to uncertainty once more.
"I know the school is supposed to give us a good payout for what happened to you, but..." he shrugs helplessly. "We shouldn't count on it. That's a good way to end up with unmanageable debt. Could we postpone it for now? I promise, we can go shopping can go as soon as we can safely afford it."
Prompted by Host's memories, you raise both hands and wiggle them from side to side. You aren't sure what it's supposed to convey.
"I can always sell Guardians to the local authorities. Even with limited lifespans, each should be able to do the work of three humans."
Danny frowns and holds up one hand.
"Hold on. What's wrong with doing that anyway? The heroes are outnumbered and could use the help. Just because they can't guard their Wards doesn't mean they're not trying."
You open your mouth to respond, consider what he said, and slowly close it. Although it would likely stress your desired neutrality and may drag you into local conflicts, you suspect involving Host is inevitable. Why shouldn't you curry goodwill with the local authorities? Just because they're supposed to help you regardless doesn't mean they would.
[] Agree to make some Guardians for the local authorities.
-[] Immediately.
--[] Forbid Danny Hebert from watching; make him wait upstairs while you make them.
-[] For free. He has a point.
[] Refuse. You don't trust them with your Friends.
-[] But since he knows it's an emergency option, can you go shopping now?
] Congratulate Script Mak3r on getting post number 1000.
