[X]Yes. You've already greeted the hosts, as planned. Anything more than that would have been a bonus.
-[X] But first accept Dennis' offer of eternal servitude. It would be rude to ignore it and your host could always do with more friends!
--[X] Give him an elephant both as a signing bonus, and as chastisement for his irrationality. This will tell him he is both a valued member of the team, and that he can expect you to be a tough but fair boss.
-[X] Explain that you will meet Efficiency after you've given the younger shards and hosts some advice as helping them was one of the reasons you came here. Hopefully they will be more appreciative than Radiance's host.
You would like to spend some more time socializing with the group of shard-hosts approximating Host's own age, but you suppose that can wait for later. However, talking with Efficiency can wait until after you advise the local hosts.
"That would be acceptable. But first, I will appreciate it if we delay that set of actions for an indeterminate amount of time while I dispense advice."
<Current abilities?>
<APPLICATIONS.>
By the time Miss Militia managed to register your words and begin formulating a response, you've already begun.
"Warp, you've been doing an excellent job of working with your fairy. However, I do not understand why you have not done the obvious and used it to effectively extend Dennis's range. Dennis, your reluctance to use the deadlier aspects of your power is something I find rather silly-"
For some reason, most of the hosts present look horrified when you say this. Interesting. Looks like Host's aversion to murder is shared by many others of her species.
"-but that doesn't justify not working in tandem with other capes to trick or move a terror drone into a web of time-locked wires. Your abilities are among the few with the potential to kill one. Disposition..." you pause. Disposition has yet to inform you of his current abilities.
<QUERY.>
<͙̟̞͟ ̛̙̳͇̳̫̯ͮ ̢̼͋͌͆̿ ̰͕̥̰̥́͐̂̆͑̈́ͅͅ ͏ ̙͓̣̆ͤͣͬ͌͆ ̸̜̹̞͕̝̥̈ͯͤ̍̚ ̲̥͉̜ͫ̍ͮͭ́̚ ̺̗̙̆̊̾̾̒ͮ ͈̜̊̉͌̍̄͛ ̷͌ͧ͊͂̏̇ ̀̇̅̂͏͙̳͎̗͎ ̤͕̖̻̜͉ ̬͙ͨ̂̇ͩͤ̒͘ ̐̇͗̂͒̇ ̸̣̼̮̼̀̄̅ ͈ͬ̚ ̥̺̟͕̤ͨ ̵̪͔͎̰̞ͫͫ̚ ̥͍̓͊̾͒͐͑͠ ͩ̎ ̵̺̣͓͔̙͗̆͗̍ ̯̬>͢
The response you receive is rather jumbled and confused. It would appear your anti-thinker measures, the joy Host is constantly experiencing, and Disposition's emotional observation have combined to effectively disable Disposition and his host.
"You're currently hallucinating too much for me to assist you."
The other hosts look surprised at this declaration, glancing over to Disposition in order to confirm. Did they not notice? That doesn't exactly say good things about their teamwork. Or perhaps Disposition usually uses hallucinogenic substances anyway and they hadn't really realized it was noteworthy until you pointed it out.
"Substitute, the gift your fairy granted you is capable of slowly regrowing limbs and rerouting your entire nervous system. Despite this, you have not grafted additional sensory organs or limbs to different parts of your body, allowed the old ones to regrow, and repeated as necessary. It might take some getting used to, but it would definitely increase your combat effectiveness."
The looks of horror grow even more intense. Maybe Host isn't the only one who dislikes visible non-standard body modifications? Annoying, but definitely worth noting.
"Finally, Miss Militia. Your power can assume numerous shapes you have not yet attempted. I don't understand why you have not used fusion weaponry, especially against terror drones. The fixation on specifically avoiding nuclear weapons when you have access to significantly more destructive alternatives with less fallout is rather silly."
Every other host in the room, excluding Disposition, turns to face Miss Militia with various expressions of surprise. Miss Militia herself looks just as surprised, especially when the weapon in her hand reforms into a sleek-looking cylindrical launcher.
You open your mouth to announce the completion of your goal, then pause. If Instant/Dennis = Clockblocker, and Clockblocker=a certain person on the internet...
Interesting. It would appear Host acquired a friend. Perhaps you hadn't been failing at social interaction after all, although Dennis may be in need of some assistance.
"Dennis, your offer of eternal servitude is accepted. Your irrational statements will need to be amended, in real-time if necessary, but I am confident we will be able to cure your madness over time."
. . .
<Why did you give me a host this stupid, :Father:? Whyyyyyy?>
"Wait, what?"
<Don't worry, Instant. He's the perfect partner for you.>
<Hey!>
You finish mentally designing a fake, robotic elephant and manifest it into the room. You're not sure what noises they're supposed to make, but you did see a few pictures of them and certain sounds seem to be fairly common among the creatures of this planet...
You press a miniscule pressure-sensor on the inside of the fake elephant, whereupon it promptly roars.
"WHAT THE F-"
You cut Dennis's impolite expletive short, ignoring the various responses of the other hosts. They are irrelevant. "There is now an elephant in the room for you to point out."
"That is not an elephant! Elephants do not make that noise!"
"How do you know?" you demand. "There is enough biodiversity in the omniverse for there to be an elephant which makes that noise. The elephant in this room just roared. Ergo, that is the noise an elephant makes."
Just to prove your point, you have it roar again. Louder this time.
"Oh, that is such bullsh-"
"Dennis!" Miss Militia interrupts him. Her power has turned into a small hand weapon now, but she still appears uncomfortable. "Titania, what did you mean by his offer of servitude?"
Excellent. You have now determined what the human threshold for strangeness is before they start ignoring things; apparently, all it requires is the creation of large, loud animals.
"Clockblocker stated the following earlier today: 'I, for one, welcome our adorable fairy overlord.' He was referring to me. I have not yet made any decisions regarding whether or not I want to be any kind of overlord, but as he seems to have assumed such ahead of time, I will happily welcome him as my first subordinate." you pause. "Not my first ally, though. Regardless, my business here is concluded. Shall we go visit Efficiency?"
Without waiting for an answer, you begin walking toward where you last detected him. It takes an effort of will to avoid phasing through the floor to make things faster, but Miss Militia did ask for you to travel with her.
After several moments of silence, Miss Militia hurries after you. She is hampered by needing to use a door, but it still doesn't take very long for her to catch up.
Strangely enough, there aren't any other people in the surrounding hallways. There were several dozen last time you'd scanned.
"Titania, would you be willing to go somewhere else first? I should still get you permission to be here."
"Granting permission does not require my presence, Miss Militia. Efficiency and his host are higher priority. In addition, I note that the various defenses hidden in the walls, floor, and ceiling are not activating. Given as they attacked me earlier, the logical conclusion is that I have already received permission to be here. ...Either that or they have realized resistance is futile. Either outcome is acceptable."
Miss Militia exhales loudly, but doesn't complain further.
It doesn't take Miss Militia and yourself very long to reach the location of Efficiency's host. Strangely, she repeatedly hits the wall with her knuckles before entering. Why did she not just call out?
"Yes?"
"Titania is here. Are we interrupting?"
"No. Please come in." a female voice responds.
Miss Militia heads inside, and you quickly follow. You stop just inside, staring at the female face shown by a nearby electronic display. Something is wrong.
Miss Militia makes some odd gestures with her hands. "Titania, you've already met Armsmaster. The woman displayed on the screen is Dragon. Dragon, meet Titania. Please be careful not to say anything you don't mean around her."
Armsmaster grunts out something unintelligible, focusing entirely on a large halberd. You note that it is not the one he was using earlier. Is ignoring you rude, or can he be excused due to being an Innovator? ...Well, given as you're the one who encouraged Efficiency, you should probably forgive him.
"Good afternoon, Titania." Dragon greets you. You are forced to remind yourself of Miss Militia's advice on false designations, given as Dragon is clearly not a creature of myth.
<QUERY.>
No response.
"Is that you, Replicator? Your host is a little... odd." you stare at the screen, trying to determine why Replicator and her host felt so strange to you. You'd gone through many, many host-species over the course of your lifetime, but all of those had felt 'normal'. Replicator... didn't. Her current host was an anomaly, or perhaps Replicator was the anomaly? No, Efficiency had mentioned working together with her.
"I'm not exactly there in person, Titania. I'm not surprised your detection abilities are confused."
"Irrelevant. I should still be able to talk to your fairy no matter the mode of communication or distance between us. You're not asleep, but you're not awake either? You're imprisoned but still free, here but not, worried but calm, artificial but a person? I don't understand."
<Efficiency? Any insights?>
<Negative. Replicator silent, her host helpful.>
"Perhaps you're getting confused by other signals or data storage?" Dragon suggests. "I wouldn't worry about it."
"Not possible. Where do you live, Dragon? I think I might need to fix your fairy..." you trail off as you finally determine the problem.
Dragon is a machine intelligence. You'd met them before, but to the best of your knowledge, no shard had ever taken one as a host before.
"Disregard the previous statement. Great job, Replicator! I didn't even know you could do that."
"Um... thank you? Regardless, I do have some questions I'd like for you to answer. Your destruction of Terror Drone #7 was undeniably heroic, but your comments afterward have made a lot of powerful people very nervous."
[]Answer all her questions. You won't mention displacing Host, of course, but Dragon may have many questions.
-[]If she asks, avoid answering any questions about your exact powerset. You doubt any host can harm Host, but it's best to be careful.
[]Evade her questions. Even if they are supposedly powerful, the people she mentioned being scared can only be a good thing; scared shard-hosts = conflict = learning!
[]Continue congratulating Replicator and her host. You know Replicator would never have been sent to a machine intelligence on purpose, so she had to have made the choice herself.
[]Wander off. You don't really feel like answering any questions today.
-[]To go do what? (write-in)
[]Write-in
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QM's note: as usual, feedback appreciated.