Understandable, have a great day
The Eldritch One (Celestial Forge)
- Thread starter Optimal Robotics
- Start date
Handholding? The highest form of degeneracy.Eh
(insert plagiarized monster girl scene)
[Slime girl] [multi mouth][handholding]
Barbaric Bob
The Barbaric One
- Location
- Soon to be plundering a village near you
wow, full stop! hand holding!? LEWD!
She does seem overly eager to dispose of things.
Chapter 19: Girl Talk
Waking up the morning after was an experience. I dealt with it by going to school and reading some books. And my God, am I having trouble with that. I accidentally read through seven entire novels before homeroom ended. And then I had nothing to do but contemplate my life choices. What a nightmare.
To slow myself down I started reading the most technically dense books that I can find in the library. That ought to slow me down. Except it didn't slow me down as nearly as much as it should have. It's like I kept accidentally stumbling on the books that I could just barely understand and get something out of. Absolutely maddening! At least the Arcadia library will probably never run out of the good stuff to glut my eyeballs on. This place is a college prep school for rich kids. That means the library is well funded.
All told, I taught myself calculus by accident, can now build a clockwork watch, could probably pass the written portion of a welding exam, and memorized twenty recipes utilizing bacon. All things I am unlikely to use in my day to day life.
After school I tell the union courier about the boardwalk job, the reasons for it, and that I, Taylor Hebert, am now in the cross hairs of a billionaire family because of that stupid dickhead who tried to murdalize me at a party. Telling him about it now because I don't have any excuse not to anymore. No major updates on Dad's end.
When I got back to the loft something weird happened. Lisa was missing while we were in a fake timeline. She's here in the real timeline though. God I hate this. Coil has been using his timelines since I was recruited, but never on me or anywhere I could tell. Until now. I went for a very enthusiastic walk in the fake timeline once I couldn't reach her on her phone. An out of town walk so I don't scare the locals. And holy motherfucking shit, have I been underestimating my top speed. Wait, no, I got faster. I definitely wasn't going this fast when I was out jogging. Point is, once I got out of town, I hit Boston in under ten minutes. Mental.
A few minutes after I got back to the loft in the actual timeline, Lisa decided to comment on my discomfort. "Taylor how the hell are you more agitated than me right now?"
"Well first of all she got fuckin' laaaiid~" from the couch.
""Shut up Alec!!"" Holy shit that's mortifying. I might just have to-
"Can't really blame him for that though. I knew the second I walked in the door." She says tapping her noggin. Stupid cheating thinkers. "So what's got you so wound up?" I pointedly look over to Alec.
"Maybe away from certain nosy assholes?" She nods and we leave for a local diner. This time it's a flapjack place.
Once we're seated she starts talking immediately. "So what was it about him, was he too much of a perv?" I stare at her judgingly. What? She's a dirty cheating thinker, how does she think this is actually about Alec? "...Was he too vanilla for you?"
"No, this is about 'bossman.' He put a disposable timeline up, and you aren't answering your phone there. What would he have you doing that's so important?" The instant frown on her face tells me she's not happy, though with me or Coil I couldn't say.
"He'd have to physically separate me from my phone for me to not text you back at least telling you I'm busy. Doesn't bode well for my physical health. Say, how do you know it's a fake timeline?"
I shrug. "Dunno. Sometimes one starts as fake, sometimes they're both maybes. Sometimes one turns fake for a couple hours, sometimes it just closes out."
"Sounds like you're marching to the time of his drum then. Still useful though." She bites her lip and thinks as the waitress gets us our pancakes. Mmm, blueberry. "If he's not allowing me access to my phone, then it's nothing good for me. I'll see if I can't set up some sort of alarm system for this in the future. This does mean you'll have to carry a phone with you in school."
"You do realize that there's a faraday cage thing in Arcadia's walls, right? That won't be able to get to me while I'm in school."
"Pshaww." She waves me off. "I'll just patch you into the system the Wards use to get their alerts. Shouldn't take more than a week to set up. Is there anything else I can do to ease your concerns over this?" I frown at the situation.
"Not right now, no. You mind if I help out with that? It would give my twitchy fingers something to do." Now it's her turn to frown.
"Sure."
It was obvious from the tone of her voice that she didn't expect much from me, and to be fair, neither did I. At first. Then by the end of the day I learned more about coding, tech support, and the internal networking of the PRT and Protectorate than I thought was feasible. Just enough to be useful as a proofreader for her work. I might have to exploit this in the future
"Lisa I think something's up with my learning speed." As I look through the function directory for C plus.
"No, really? What was your first clue?"
"Har dee har har. And to answer your question, it was when I started learning calculus this morning. On accident."
"How'd you manage that?"
"I was looking through a technical manual on how to build a watch. It got really detailed in the math. Look, that's not the point Lisa. The point is that I think I outed myself to my teachers with how fast I'm finishing my work."
"Ha! No Taylor. I'm sorry to break it to you, but that ship sailed a while ago. The PRT briefed the staff there to not play any fuck fuck games with you because of your bullying history, and probable trigger."
"Oh for fuck's sake! Is nothing in my life private anymore?"
"Not with me here!" She says with a grin. "Hey, could you look through this next section of code?"
"Sure." I walk over and start scrolling. "So what else does my file say about me?"
"Says you go everywhere as a projection due to extreme social anxiety." I stare at her judgingly.
"Hey, I'm not the one who said it! They came to that conclusion all on their own. Apparently the opinion solidified of them when you didn't collapse when the rot asshole triggered."
"And this is significant because?"
"Nearby Parahumans do that when somebody triggers."
"Huh... Dean collapsed when that happened."
"No shit, really? He's probably a Ward then. And he's been dating Glory Girl for half a year now! Which one do you think he is?"
"No idea." I highlight a section of code. "This right here is calling on the wrong variable."
"Thanks Taylor, you are such a time saver. We'll probably get this thing done a few days early with you here. You wanna skip school for a couple days to get it done even earlier?"
"No." I go back to reading up on functions.
"I think he's either Aegis or Gallant, he doesn't fit any of the others based on his height and face."
"Isn't speculating on this stuff kind of a big deal? I know half of VoidCowboy's bans on PHO are for this exact thing."
"Not when it's in private. And it's only a big deal for us if we plan on going after a hero in their personal life or home. And that ain't ever going to be on my agenda."
"Yeah, well I don't even feel comfortable even talking about this in private. Could we change the subject?"
"Fine. Let's talk about Alec lover girl. How can you stand that asshole?"
"He makes me laugh."
"Really? Is that all it takes?" I glare at her
"All right you stuck up bitch, have you considered the possibility I don't want to die alone? Considering my biology that might be a lot more likely than you think." As I turn my arm to slime and open some mouths for her to look at.
"I think you're underestimating how pervy this world is. There are probably thousands of dudes in this city alone that would tap that. Hell, get any guy drunk enough and he will go for it." I stare at her for a while.
"...I don't think we should talk to each other about romance."
"You know what? That's fine by me."
To slow myself down I started reading the most technically dense books that I can find in the library. That ought to slow me down. Except it didn't slow me down as nearly as much as it should have. It's like I kept accidentally stumbling on the books that I could just barely understand and get something out of. Absolutely maddening! At least the Arcadia library will probably never run out of the good stuff to glut my eyeballs on. This place is a college prep school for rich kids. That means the library is well funded.
All told, I taught myself calculus by accident, can now build a clockwork watch, could probably pass the written portion of a welding exam, and memorized twenty recipes utilizing bacon. All things I am unlikely to use in my day to day life.
After school I tell the union courier about the boardwalk job, the reasons for it, and that I, Taylor Hebert, am now in the cross hairs of a billionaire family because of that stupid dickhead who tried to murdalize me at a party. Telling him about it now because I don't have any excuse not to anymore. No major updates on Dad's end.
When I got back to the loft something weird happened. Lisa was missing while we were in a fake timeline. She's here in the real timeline though. God I hate this. Coil has been using his timelines since I was recruited, but never on me or anywhere I could tell. Until now. I went for a very enthusiastic walk in the fake timeline once I couldn't reach her on her phone. An out of town walk so I don't scare the locals. And holy motherfucking shit, have I been underestimating my top speed. Wait, no, I got faster. I definitely wasn't going this fast when I was out jogging. Point is, once I got out of town, I hit Boston in under ten minutes. Mental.
A few minutes after I got back to the loft in the actual timeline, Lisa decided to comment on my discomfort. "Taylor how the hell are you more agitated than me right now?"
"Well first of all she got fuckin' laaaiid~" from the couch.
""Shut up Alec!!"" Holy shit that's mortifying. I might just have to-
"Can't really blame him for that though. I knew the second I walked in the door." She says tapping her noggin. Stupid cheating thinkers. "So what's got you so wound up?" I pointedly look over to Alec.
"Maybe away from certain nosy assholes?" She nods and we leave for a local diner. This time it's a flapjack place.
Once we're seated she starts talking immediately. "So what was it about him, was he too much of a perv?" I stare at her judgingly. What? She's a dirty cheating thinker, how does she think this is actually about Alec? "...Was he too vanilla for you?"
"No, this is about 'bossman.' He put a disposable timeline up, and you aren't answering your phone there. What would he have you doing that's so important?" The instant frown on her face tells me she's not happy, though with me or Coil I couldn't say.
"He'd have to physically separate me from my phone for me to not text you back at least telling you I'm busy. Doesn't bode well for my physical health. Say, how do you know it's a fake timeline?"
I shrug. "Dunno. Sometimes one starts as fake, sometimes they're both maybes. Sometimes one turns fake for a couple hours, sometimes it just closes out."
"Sounds like you're marching to the time of his drum then. Still useful though." She bites her lip and thinks as the waitress gets us our pancakes. Mmm, blueberry. "If he's not allowing me access to my phone, then it's nothing good for me. I'll see if I can't set up some sort of alarm system for this in the future. This does mean you'll have to carry a phone with you in school."
"You do realize that there's a faraday cage thing in Arcadia's walls, right? That won't be able to get to me while I'm in school."
"Pshaww." She waves me off. "I'll just patch you into the system the Wards use to get their alerts. Shouldn't take more than a week to set up. Is there anything else I can do to ease your concerns over this?" I frown at the situation.
"Not right now, no. You mind if I help out with that? It would give my twitchy fingers something to do." Now it's her turn to frown.
"Sure."
It was obvious from the tone of her voice that she didn't expect much from me, and to be fair, neither did I. At first. Then by the end of the day I learned more about coding, tech support, and the internal networking of the PRT and Protectorate than I thought was feasible. Just enough to be useful as a proofreader for her work. I might have to exploit this in the future
"Lisa I think something's up with my learning speed." As I look through the function directory for C plus.
"No, really? What was your first clue?"
"Har dee har har. And to answer your question, it was when I started learning calculus this morning. On accident."
"How'd you manage that?"
"I was looking through a technical manual on how to build a watch. It got really detailed in the math. Look, that's not the point Lisa. The point is that I think I outed myself to my teachers with how fast I'm finishing my work."
"Ha! No Taylor. I'm sorry to break it to you, but that ship sailed a while ago. The PRT briefed the staff there to not play any fuck fuck games with you because of your bullying history, and probable trigger."
"Oh for fuck's sake! Is nothing in my life private anymore?"
"Not with me here!" She says with a grin. "Hey, could you look through this next section of code?"
"Sure." I walk over and start scrolling. "So what else does my file say about me?"
"Says you go everywhere as a projection due to extreme social anxiety." I stare at her judgingly.
"Hey, I'm not the one who said it! They came to that conclusion all on their own. Apparently the opinion solidified of them when you didn't collapse when the rot asshole triggered."
"And this is significant because?"
"Nearby Parahumans do that when somebody triggers."
"Huh... Dean collapsed when that happened."
"No shit, really? He's probably a Ward then. And he's been dating Glory Girl for half a year now! Which one do you think he is?"
"No idea." I highlight a section of code. "This right here is calling on the wrong variable."
"Thanks Taylor, you are such a time saver. We'll probably get this thing done a few days early with you here. You wanna skip school for a couple days to get it done even earlier?"
"No." I go back to reading up on functions.
"I think he's either Aegis or Gallant, he doesn't fit any of the others based on his height and face."
"Isn't speculating on this stuff kind of a big deal? I know half of VoidCowboy's bans on PHO are for this exact thing."
"Not when it's in private. And it's only a big deal for us if we plan on going after a hero in their personal life or home. And that ain't ever going to be on my agenda."
"Yeah, well I don't even feel comfortable even talking about this in private. Could we change the subject?"
"Fine. Let's talk about Alec lover girl. How can you stand that asshole?"
"He makes me laugh."
"Really? Is that all it takes?" I glare at her
"All right you stuck up bitch, have you considered the possibility I don't want to die alone? Considering my biology that might be a lot more likely than you think." As I turn my arm to slime and open some mouths for her to look at.
"I think you're underestimating how pervy this world is. There are probably thousands of dudes in this city alone that would tap that. Hell, get any guy drunk enough and he will go for it." I stare at her for a while.
"...I don't think we should talk to each other about romance."
"You know what? That's fine by me."
I don't know about that; she might not be able to make brand-name watches but I can't find many of them below twenty dollars online; could be a supplementary, and much more easily sold, source of income.
The IRL distance between Brockton and Boston is twenty-something miles so to get there in ten minutes she'd have to be traveling at one-hundred-and-twenty-something Miles-Per-Hour, which is seventy-four-ish Kilometers-Per-Hour, and I don't remember what we calculated her average land-speed to be.
Might want to uncap some of that Antimatter and cut off that timeline.
Honestly probably harder then just physically installing their own intranet with a terminal on either physical side of the 'Cage.
They'd probably have to make it send-only so that others couldn't track it down with signal-detection but as long as it's only Taylor warning Lisa of timeline-splits and Lisa warning Taylor of things happening in other timelines, either setting the system to send within the 'Cage to do so or having it set of a firework or bomb or something, then it should be fine.
Very in-character for them to go with this solution though.
Probably could be fun; would probably depend on what hardware you could run custom software on.
Hah. I love this. What a way to say Fu to Coil than whenever he starts up a fake timeline you make the Bay go Boom!
Technical note: I think you did the multiplication wrong -- 60 mile-per-hour is around 100 kilometers-per-hour, so 120 would give you around 200.
Wait what?.....Rrrright, I put a-hundred-and-twenty into the wrong side of the converter. Rats.
Kind of hilarious to see people still be on about that.
Taylor totally could just grab one of the Antimatter Fuel Storage Tanks and break it open over Coil's head in a fake timeline.
And all that would really accomplish is getting the snakes clothes dirty. And maybe his head bashed in from the blunt force trauma.
Because the Fuel Refinery making the stuff comes from Starsector. And that means the stuff it's making doesn't go boom unless you intentionally make it go boom. That shit is engineered to be stupid stable, considering it's fucking antimatter, by a civilization that was well on its way to Kardashev 2 status. In all probability, it's not much more dangerous to handle in everyday, peaceful times as any other kind of fuel.
Can it be weaponized anyway? Yeah, obviously. But that would require Taylor to intentionally try to create a WMD. Which... yeah...
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- Location
- Odessa
Thank you for the update!
Like:
- Didn't fall uncontious because power is not her own and there is a power lender/trump on the loose.
- Didn't fall uncontious because of power BS, like programming her own body to execute specific actions or having some variant of 'backup brain'. Or her body balance is enchansed, she just can't fall even if she lost control.
Admitedly a projection theory fits nicely into 'She didn't lie about not outing shadow stalker, because her projection did'. But the same goes for a potential third party trump halping and protecting Taylor.
By this point there are way too many confusing elements (antithinker, projection, mouths, enchanced leaning, work speed, odd bleached stains, shard network learned about antimatter so some thinkers are likely blaring alarms), feels like time for PRT to aproach Taylor and clear them up. Odities keep piling up and government organisations don't like those.
While amusing, I doubt professionals in the field will go just with that in the document. Making assumtions, especially in this odd case seems like a receipt for a disaster for them given potential alternate explanations.
Like:
- Didn't fall uncontious because power is not her own and there is a power lender/trump on the loose.
- Didn't fall uncontious because of power BS, like programming her own body to execute specific actions or having some variant of 'backup brain'. Or her body balance is enchansed, she just can't fall even if she lost control.
Admitedly a projection theory fits nicely into 'She didn't lie about not outing shadow stalker, because her projection did'. But the same goes for a potential third party trump halping and protecting Taylor.
By this point there are way too many confusing elements (antithinker, projection, mouths, enchanced leaning, work speed, odd bleached stains, shard network learned about antimatter so some thinkers are likely blaring alarms), feels like time for PRT to aproach Taylor and clear them up. Odities keep piling up and government organisations don't like those.
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Fuel is the resource used for orbital bombardment in Starsector.
Moving at slower than light speeds/in real space consumes so little fuel that it isn't even measured.
So i'm pretty confident they're using the antimatter in the bombardment rather than running the engines hard maintaining unstable & low orbits or something.
Given the nature of the typical Persean's understanding of the technology they use & the principles behind it, it's probably pretty easy to weaponise despite being unbelievably shelf-stable.
By that same logic it wouldn't have to be engineered to be stupidly stable because they could easily store it; it's not like hydrocarbon fuels or Lithium batteries are engineered to be stupidly stable just because we use them in vehicles.
Edit: admittedly it might be possible to make some variety of exotic anti-particle, or exotic particle or atom that incorporates both matter and anti-matter, for highly selective pair-annihilation; Taylor might be able to get a Perk or allied Tinker to calibrate her Fuel Production Facility to produce something like that.
They probably have a list of possibilities organized by which ones have the most precedence for indicators shared with Taylor's everything with projections simply being the most common and thus most probable.
That said though being a Changer or Breaker is probably the second-most probable assumption that they could make; those Parahumans tend to form a Core in their most well-defended body-part after all.
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Barbaric Bob
The Barbaric One
- Location
- Soon to be plundering a village near you
Taylor: i'm a freak!
THAT section of the internet: Would!
THAT section of the internet: Would!
You're right, Lisa. You're always right
Yeah, but IRL Brockton isn't Brockton Bay which is made up out of whole cloth. Among other things, AIUI, Brockton Bay is north of Boston while RL Brockton is almost due south of Boston. Brockton also isn't on the coast.
I was going to comment on you reversing the miles-kilometers conversion but others beat me to it.
Well fuck me for thinking that a place called Brockton Bay would be a bay in Brockton. *Googles maps* Aaaand apparently Boston is on the top-right corner of the continent on a slope of a coast going north-east.
Interlude: Alec
"so Taylor, huh?" Says Brian. This is after he dragged me to the gym. Apparently it was to get out of earshot of Lisa if this is what we're talking about. Lord knows I'm not gonna be doing much here.
"Yeah? She's cute you know." I'm sitting down next to him while he's using the leg machine.
"She's also made of acid. How the hell was this a good idea in your head?"
"The power of horni compels me."
"Haha!"
*CLACK*
"Oh holy shit man, don't make me laugh when I'm working out."
"Don't drag me to the gym then." He opens his mouth, then closes it.
"Okay, fine." He extracts his legs from the foam things and fully faces me. "So what made you go after our team horror monster specifically?"
"My man, team horror monster describes everybody on the team except for me and Lisa. But fine, I'll answer your question. It's because I am one kinky freak. I'm not elaborating which kinks to you, cause I get the vibe that you're really not all that interested."
"Dude, she can literally dissolve you." I think about it. "Dude, stop smiling. Look, I don't really care about all that. I'm worried how it will affect the team."
"I imagine dead men don't really have much use for living teams."
"Oh for fuck sake, no! Despite how violent she is, she strikes me as the calculating type. Somebody with principles given how she refuses to give up on school. If you have a bad break up, she could just leave us holding the bag with whoever we pissed off most recently. Or even with the boss if he's used to a certain quality of work. She may not be all that technically skilled in hand to hand, but she's good. A real asset to our jobs." You know what? He's right.
"Well then I have some bad news boss man." He flatly stares at me. "I have never in my life had what you would call a smooth breakup."
"Goddamnit Alec. Okay, look, you can still fix this."
"Don't you mean we can still fix this?"
"Fuck the hell no, dude! I ain't getting in between you two. So. All you have to do is talk to her. Make sure she knows just what you're about."
"... Wouldn't that make her mad?"
"There's a good chance of that yeah. But I guarantee you it'll be worse if you string her along. Communication is key in relationships dude. I read that in a book once. Totally fucking useless for my parents, but you could probably make use of that advice."
"I think I'll try that. Tomorrow night when she gets back from school. Say you wouldn't happen to remember the title of that book would you?"
"Yeah? She's cute you know." I'm sitting down next to him while he's using the leg machine.
"She's also made of acid. How the hell was this a good idea in your head?"
"The power of horni compels me."
"Haha!"
*CLACK*
"Oh holy shit man, don't make me laugh when I'm working out."
"Don't drag me to the gym then." He opens his mouth, then closes it.
"Okay, fine." He extracts his legs from the foam things and fully faces me. "So what made you go after our team horror monster specifically?"
"My man, team horror monster describes everybody on the team except for me and Lisa. But fine, I'll answer your question. It's because I am one kinky freak. I'm not elaborating which kinks to you, cause I get the vibe that you're really not all that interested."
"Dude, she can literally dissolve you." I think about it. "Dude, stop smiling. Look, I don't really care about all that. I'm worried how it will affect the team."
"I imagine dead men don't really have much use for living teams."
"Oh for fuck sake, no! Despite how violent she is, she strikes me as the calculating type. Somebody with principles given how she refuses to give up on school. If you have a bad break up, she could just leave us holding the bag with whoever we pissed off most recently. Or even with the boss if he's used to a certain quality of work. She may not be all that technically skilled in hand to hand, but she's good. A real asset to our jobs." You know what? He's right.
"Well then I have some bad news boss man." He flatly stares at me. "I have never in my life had what you would call a smooth breakup."
"Goddamnit Alec. Okay, look, you can still fix this."
"Don't you mean we can still fix this?"
"Fuck the hell no, dude! I ain't getting in between you two. So. All you have to do is talk to her. Make sure she knows just what you're about."
"... Wouldn't that make her mad?"
"There's a good chance of that yeah. But I guarantee you it'll be worse if you string her along. Communication is key in relationships dude. I read that in a book once. Totally fucking useless for my parents, but you could probably make use of that advice."
"I think I'll try that. Tomorrow night when she gets back from school. Say you wouldn't happen to remember the title of that book would you?"
Thanks for the chapter!
I like this Alec
I like this Alec
IndigoPhoenix
Devourer of Citrus
- Location
- Everywehere
…. I don't think I've ever seen an Alec/taylor relationship of any sort before. Huh. Cool.
- Location
- USA
If I remember right, Go Gently had that pairing though the story has been on ice for almost 10 years.
They're definitely around; I seem to remember that Alec bodyjacked Sophia for Taylor or something to that effect at some point.