Celestial Saga

[Oblation]

So, I've got some awkward conundrums here.

I guess Rachel told Grue from her old team that joining NOVA was a thing, and now he wants to, which is fine, except the part where there's some kind of wacky triangle thing going on with Lawrence and of all people Kairos.

Oh, yeah, I guess someone gave Taylor the talk about not invoking the Faerie Queen so "Queen Administrator" only lasted a few days.
So she went with a Greek word for "the perfect moment for decision or action."

Anyways, Grue is asking to join Firewatch so he can stay in the city most of the time, and I guess the reason this might actually happen is that Kairos offered to become a part-timer with Firewatch too if we let him stay in the city, and for all of his grudge with Grue, Lawrence REALLY wants Taylor to join our team.

I don't want to deal with the mess, but if there's one thing I'm sure of it's that it's way better to be an ally than a rival of Taylor, so I'm currently combining my lessons with Emily, and my super research and paperwork skills plus the help of a friendly AI to make this legal nightmare somehow a thing.
It would've been 3 AIs, but Pern disagrees with Grue joining Firewatch rather than NOVA, and Dragon fails to understand the mind-melting danger of being the enemy or rival of the Queen of Escalation.

The only real silver lining is that Joshua didn't need much instruction to start taking over NOVA operations, and promised to "make something of it," which is exactly what I've spent several weeks failing to do so far, so I wish him luck, and try not to think about just why he's living in the clinic with Tsunade, even now that he's healed.

…

Oh, and I found out why Alex didn't just go get a pet bird right after getting his power, because he somehow talked Fox and Albus into getting a Post Owl over to Earth Bet.
So now a member of Firewatch is bonded to an owl that is genuinely a terrifying tracker.
All it needs is a name to find someone, even a pseudonym is good enough if they're in costume at the time.
(As we found out when he started tracking me all the way to New Brunswick, where I was petting Samson the other day.)

All this would be really impressive if he'd followed through and given the bird an equally awesome name…
Instead, he gave his kid nephew the job of naming our new member of Firewatch.
Barney.
Great.

…

Oh, and Lung got broken out unfortunately, but at least we've got the go-ahead to go for Nuwa on sight now, and Chris seems to have been inspired to act as the heroic member in their rivalry as tinkers between Nuwa, Charon, and him.

Though it's been a while since anyone's seen Charon, apparently, he's been working with Uber and Leet, but is suspected to still live in the city, unlike them, so who really knows what's up with him.

…

On a more personal note, I've been playing around with enchanting, and managed to even get Silk Touch on the Protectorate Wards' beloved Diamond Shovel, which is really trippy to look at, what with it removing obstacles but not in a destructive way now.

I offered to give Armsmaster and Dauntless enchantments for their gear and was actually glad for my hallucinations thing for once because they apparently spent the next 3 days glaring at me every chance they got… which I can't see.
LOL

Though I did manage to get Protection 2 on every piece of armor used by a Ward in the city, plus all the dog armors, and the Firewatch team, and have started working through the boots worn by PRT troopers and NOVA employees.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a good enough catalyst to get more than the occasional Prot 3 or Prot 4 out of the process, and that's pretty rare.
Still, Prot 2 is guaranteed, with just a bit of amethyst, which we can get by the truckful from Canada.

So it's not a huge issue for now.

…

The only downside to this whole thing is I can't double enchantments.
Combining enchanted items nullifies the effects, unfortunately.

Also, while I've been pretty much just resting and enchanting for a few days, it's still pretty heavy on my reserves.
So I'll need to keep the enchanting to a lower level for a while if I want to actually get things done, sadly.

…

Although funnily enough I did manage to confirm two interesting qualities.

First, my leather boots work as a sort of snowshoes, even for people across the country it's a bit easier walking on or through snow with them.

And second, Frost Walker doesn't make a platform of ice, but does let me walk on water just fine.
Which I know because I got it on a pair of leather boots that are now my new pair since they were yellow and that's one of my colors so PR doesn't mind.

So now I can Jesus walk on water!

Spoiler: A/N

The Frost Walker thing is the best compromise I could come up with for an enchantment that relies so heavily on game mechanics.
If it did make an ice platform, Saga would rapidly slip off into the water, because she got the enchantments, not the game mechanics.
(I'm treating the Walking on powdered snow thing as an enchantment all leather boots come with, but even there it's weakened from its in-game version.)
So instead, no ice, but keep the walk on water effect.

Does anyone have an opinion about what Brian's been up to?
The easy answer is to just have him kept his head down from when the war against New Wave picked up until now.
But I'm tempted to add some heavier stuff to his record from that time and the things he did to survive after Coil was taken down.
I'm just not sure if that's a good idea or not?

 

[Oblation]

Brockton Bay: Danny's Truck- 8:35am

TAYLOR:
I don't care about a paycheck, Dad. I care about rooms where people who know how to do this let me watch, then let me try, and don't treat me like a problem when I mess up the first time. I care about gear that fits my hands, so I'm not guessing while someone bleeds. I care about rules that don't change when I look away, because that already happened and I'm not doing that again. I want this. I want the map they're offering. I need you to say yes and keep them honest when I can't see the whole picture.

PRT HQ Conference Room 9:00am

THINKING DANNY:
The room is glass on three sides. The lights are bright. The table is polished and a little dented at the corners. Raymond stands at the head, jacket open, hands relaxed. Taylor sits one seat back on my left, jacket straight, fingers laced. Phoenix sits across from Taylor, tablet on a kickstand. The screen stays dark, for now.

[Raymond sets a booklet in the center.]

RAYMOND:
This covers the scope and protocol for live ops. I am open to better wording. The frame stays where it is.

THINKING DANNY:
I came ready for confrontation. I get a door held open instead. I still do the job she asked me to do.

DANNY:
Start with control. Taylor decides. She sets the pace. She picks up any extras. Keep me looped in so choices stay choices. I am not here to block her. I am here so she gets the benefits without getting railroaded.

RAYMOND:
Sure. The agency stays with Taylor. We supply structure, options, and continuity. If snacks somehow become the bottleneck, I can escalate to the Boss.

THINKING DANNY:
Fine. A joke helps the wheels turn. The point still stands.

[Danny reads the page headers: Training. Patrol. Safety. Protocol. Compensation in kind.]

DANNY:
Baseline next. Training first. School hours stay protected. One patrol a week. Anything extra is her call after you tell me.

RAYMOND:
Got it. The baseline is modest on purpose. Extra hours pile up where she already prefers to be. I expect she will volunteer past the cap without a push. My priority is clear procedure when she is active. Clear order of operations beats posters and pep talks every time.

THINKING DANNY:
He knows the gravity here. He leaves the names off it. That's fine. He doesn't need to say Lawrence's name for me to hear it.

[Phoenix taps the tablet and tilts it toward Taylor. Success Kid. Taylor's mouth twitches, then she straightens.]

RAYMOND:
We start with precision. We layer timing under controlled pressure. When schedules converge, we add partner work. Rhythm and trust keep people alive.

THINKING DANNY:
He doesn't look at Taylor when he says converge. The air still shifts. I don't follow it. I keep us on the track we picked.

DANNY:
Hard rule. Chain of command. Put it on the record. She needs to know exactly what happens when sirens pull attention sideways.

RAYMOND:
Authority follows function. Orders travel through the vest, not age and not reputation. In a live scene, she follows the chain without delay. If the most qualified officer is twelve, that officer commands. Quick compliance. Clean execution. Boring, but it keeps people breathing.

[Phoenix swipes. Rage Comic face. Taylor presses her lips together, then fails not to smile.]

DANNY:
No fuzzy language. Cause first. Fuzzy rules make people freeze at the worst time and get people hurt. Write exits that open when hands shake. Taylor can step back at any point. No penalty on paper and none in practice. She moves forward when she is ready. No pressure verbs. No hinting at the answer you want.

RAYMOND:
We will formalize a step back with no adverse record and a public rationale of the school and health. We will map an opt-in progression that needs explicit consent and evidence of readiness. Coercion can file paperwork and get declined like everyone else.

THINKING DANNY:
Good. Keep going until daylight reaches every corner.

DANNY:
Compensation next. No checks. We get that. Be clear that you are replacing money with training, gear, and access. List her compensation without brochure gloss.

RAYMOND:
Compensation is not monetary. Training is tuition-free on the mat, the range, and the simulation floors. Mentored blocks across the term. Standard gear is issued with custom fitting when needed. Consumables and raw stock for practice with a locker that locks every time. Transport with vetted drivers. Medical coverage for incidents on or off the clock. Counseling available, opt in unless safety requires a mandate. Confidentiality is guarded by policy and by habit. No tote bags. There might be a mug pilot in discussion because tradition is stubborn.

THINKING DANNY:
That's the trade school I expected. Mat time. Tools that fit. Doors that open when you pull. It can grow a life or grind one down. Which one it does depends on exits and on honest people and realistic schedules.

[Phoenix swipes. Doge. Taylor hides a laugh behind her wrist.]

DANNY:
Media. Do not turn a student into a sign. Cap mandatory appearances at twice a month. Veto stays with us. No cameras on school nights. No mask off images. No leaks from clever angles.

RAYMOND:
Outreach stays scheduled and chaperoned. Releases are opt-in. No end to the request. Some community nights are consistent and useful. If she chooses those, crowds and cameras behave. A steady team does more for public safety than a slogan. I will still approve a tasteful poster for morale.

THINKING DANNY:
He talks rhythm and keeps optimism off the page. Good habit.

[Phoenix swipes. Grumpy Cat. Taylor coughs into her sleeve and pretends she didn't.]

DANNY:
School day protection. Pulls during class go through me unless someone is in immediate danger. Break patterns so no one maps her walk.

RAYMOND:
Approved. We meet her at the doors when needed. The umbrellas belong to people. We even open them when it rains. Revolutionary, I know.

DANNY:
Pair work. Heat sticks to people and places. If you put her with someone who draws it, record the plan, the location, and the exit. Put an adult in the room who can end drills with one sentence and will use it before pride performs.

RAYMOND:
Plan documented. Exit named. Adult empowered to stop the moment stopping is needed. Transparency note. A reconciliation block launches next month. An independent under observation runs basics under heavy oversight. The focus is de escalation and safety culture. Presence matters. Kairos stabilizes groups in measurable ways. If Taylor volunteers, the room steadies faster. Faster is ideal when gauze is the alternative.

THINKING DANNY:
That matches what I heard. It also matches where she'll be on her own time if I pretend she won't. Better to write it down and supervise it.

[Phoenix swipes. Bad Luck Brian. Taylor snorts, covers it, and looks back at the page like she just caught herself drifting.]

DANNY:
Equipment scope. Basic issue first. No live-edge toys. Do not start with a lethal kit outside supervised sims. Eye protection. Respirator. Gloves that fit. Storage that locks. Sign in and sign out. No side lending to friends or teammates.

RAYMOND:
Agreed. We track equipment by serial and by hand receipt. No unauthorized transfer. No exceptions. If she needs specialized fittings for unique capabilities, we schedule fittings and document usage limits.

DANNY:
Training schedule. Cause first. School comes first. No weekday drills start after nine. No scheduled overnights on school nights. Weekend blocks are fine if she asks for them and her grades hold. Quarterly review with me and with your training lead.

RAYMOND:
Accepted. We can set it as a rolling six-week evaluation with adjustment windows. If school performance drops, we pivot to academic training until it rises again. If she accelerates safely, training volume can step up by request.

DANNY:
Transport. No unsecured rides. No last-minute pickups from unknown numbers. If a ride changes, a live human calls me, and I call back the number on file.

RAYMOND:
Yes. Dispatch calls with a single-use code phrase you choose. No code, no ride. We will keep the phrase boring. Boring is harder to guess.

DANNY:
Medical response. If she's hurt during training or during the weekly patrol, I get the call before the press does. Keep me out of spin. Keep her out of press conferences.

RAYMOND:
Affirmed. Family first, not optics. The media office can learn patience. We have a binder for it.

[Phoenix swipes. Trollface. Taylor's eyebrows jump, then drop. She looks at me, not Raymond.]

THINKING DANNY:
She keeps her voice careful. The edge underneath is an old cut. She wants the work. She wants the gear. She wants a schedule that overlaps with someone she trusts. I hear it. I don't repeat it. Knowing is enough.

DANNY:
Therapy. Make it easy. No grading. No punishment in a friendly wrapper. If she says she's going, that's the end of the conversation.

RAYMOND:
Access is low friction, in the building and outside. No black mark for using it. Safety is the metric, and we enforce it. Notes get read, not filed and forgotten.

DANNY:
Contact chain. Nights fail where you forgot to look. If I call, someone answers. If I ask for eyes, someone with eyes goes to her.

RAYMOND:
Confirmed. Live voice. Live presence. If you get voicemail, I owe coffee and an apology, in that order. Good coffee, not punishment coffee.

DANNY:
Privacy. Names and addresses break fast and don't fix clean. If a reporter plays games, call me first. If a rival plays games, call me faster.

RAYMOND:
Carefulness is a habit. Faster is the principle when harm starts sniffing around. I can Sharpie it on my hand if that boosts confidence.

DANNY:
Boundaries on appearances. No recruiting pitches using her likeness. No staging her next to someone who needs a photo op. If you want her at a community night, you ask her and you ask me. If I say no, that's a no.

RAYMOND:
We'll route all appearances through the same approval path as operations. No back doors. No surprises. I dislike surprises almost as much as lawyers do.

DANNY:
Probation window. First four weeks are training first, patrol second, zero discretionary interventions. She builds rhythm and understands the board. Four, she can volunteer for one extra patrol every week. That stays volunteer, not expectation.

RAYMOND:
That is workable. We can publish a four-week plan with milestones and a first four-week review. If she wants more after that, she asks. If she wants less, she says it. Paper will match reality.

THINKING DANNY:
This is where the hook usually hides. I don't see it on the page. That doesn't mean it isn't in the room. I'm here for the page.

[Phoenix swipes. Philosoraptor. Taylor nods once like she filed the idea where she'll find it.]

DANNY:
Grievance path. If she's told to do something that violates safety or ethics, she stops, says stop, and calls me. No retaliation. No freezing her out. No schedules that look like punishment while pretending they aren't.

RAYMOND:
Agreed. We will write a stop clause and a no retaliation clause with examples. We will add an escalation ladder that reaches me directly. If retaliation appears, I want the chance to end a career with due process.

DANNY:
What I want to avoid. I don't want Taylor used as a symbol. I don't want Taylor carrying the weight of adults who should know better. I don't want Taylor choosing between someone she cares about and a procedure you forgot to teach. I don't want Taylor alone in a room where the plan fell apart, and people act like that's normal.

RAYMOND:
What I want to avoid. Overextension, heroics, and the illusion that instinct replaces training. Also, meetings about preventable messes. We can collaborate on all four.

[Phoenix swipes. Doge again. Taylor tries not to grin and looks exactly fifteen.]

TAYLOR:
I'll play by the rules if the rules are where I can see them. I'll follow orders if the orders fit the situation and the person giving them knows why. I'll add hours if I'm steady and school is steady. I'll walk back if I need to, and I won't let pride dig the hole deeper. I want this. Please let me have it, and stand behind me when I say Slow down.

THINKING DANNY:
That is the whole ask. Training. Gear. Time in rooms that make sense. A schedule that lines up with a person she trusts. We both know it. We don't say it.

DANNY:
If Taylor adds hours, she tells me first. If Taylor needs out, she says it, and we do it. That rule is not up for debate. Policy can keep up.

RAYMOND:
Agreed. Simplicity helps in the field. Honesty too, when we use it.

DANNY:
Next steps. Send me the redlined draft. Include the step back clause, the no retaliation clause, the media guardrails, the equipment list, and the schedule template. We will sign when the language says what the room said.

RAYMOND:
You'll have it today. Orientation would be Saturday morning if she accepts. Gear fitting at eleven. ICS overview at noon. Scenario block after lunch. We will bribe participants with pizza, which is ethically complex but effective.

THINKING DANNY:
I can live with that. She can walk out after any block and call it a day. That exit matters most.

[Raymond nods and steps into the hall to take a call. The glass door settles.]

[Taylor slides an inch toward Phoenix. Phoenix mirrors the inch. The tablet becomes their small stage.]

[Phoenix brings up Grumpy Cat, then Rage Comic, then Trollface in quick succession. Taylor tries to school her face and only gets the edges.]

TAYLOR:
If I ask for extra blocks, I'll text you first. Pacing keeps hands and keeps friends. If I need air, I'll say it. You don't have to guess.

DANNY:
I hear you. I'll hold you to that, and I'll hold them to this paper. The rest is calendars, rides, and locking up after.

THINKING DANNY:
That's the shape. A partner. A square of floor. Two people sharing it without speeches. A friend learning daylight who needs a steady witness. A city that does better when good rules get followed and bad ones get deleted.

[Raymond returns with a short nod. Danny collects the folder. Taylor pockets her phone. Phoenix clicks the case shut.]

RAYMOND:
For the record. I appreciate coherent parents. It makes my job resemble a profession.

DANNY:
For the record. I appreciate you writing what you mean.

RAYMOND:
Dangerous precedent, that. Let's keep it going.

THINKING DANNY:
Baseline holds at one patrol per week. Training leads. Extra hours will grow where the right people stand close. That's fine if she's the one planting them and if the exits work. Reconciliation block is coming. Four weeks to learn the rhythm, eight weeks to test the load. Twelve and sixteen sit next to each other in my head and refuse to move. Both are mine in the ways that count.

[They stand. The door opens. The hallway carries the afternoon forward.]

THINKING DANNY:
We step into that and try to hold our promises where someone can see them.

Spoiler: Question for Readers

I'm always wary of writing main characters straight-on.
Everyone's got their own idea of how they sound, so there's no way to please every reader.
I'm just trying to keep the heart of their voices and still let this version breathe inside the AU timeline.
So, do these scenes feel like Danny and Taylor, or did they drift into DINO and TINO?

 

[Oblation]

Spoiler: Sugarhouse Sentinel and Mrs. Maplelight

Dropped into a blaster mess today.
One of the NOVA squads blocked a robbery, and Sugarhouse Sentinel showed up to yank the loot back.
I rolled in mid-fight, so I don't even know who got hit.
The room smelled like maple and smoke, and everyone was yelling over the hiss of the pans.

Pern put me on evac and collect:
"No heroics. Get our people out. Bag the weird."
I kept the line open and did exactly that.

The fight was inside a sugarhouse (funny enough), with steam everywhere and bad sight lines.

Sentinel was carving lanes for her people to evac, though.
The floor was wet and loud, and every ricochet sounded like a coin in a cup.

The storage tags Tsunade and I cooked up in science class were finally ready.
They ate her light balls and even a few beam slices like the paper was hungry.
I grabbed what I could reach and kept dodging and weaving in bird form.

Everyone local knows the name Sugarhouse Sentinel.
She sounds old school, and she acts like she stepped right out of 1989.
She moved like she'd done this a thousand times and wanted us to notice.

Her power has been a question mark forever.
People say heat balls and ice lasers, then move on.
But since NOVA is probably going to keep crossing paths with her now, guesses aren't good enough.

I dropped the haul at the lab once the team was stable:
Thirteen spheres.
Six beams.
I wrote the counts on the bag twice so nobody would ask.

Dr Müller took one look and told me to eat something while he made the room safe, the rest is his show:

…

Official: PRT: SCIENCE!: Preliminary Results Chat (record it before you forget it!)

CarambaQuantico [Mod] >>

Posting this before the coffee crash wins. Twelve hours on benches. Instruments behaved. I will keep it plain.

Sugarhouse Sentinel first. Civil age is 66. In person she reads late 30s because the power pays her back in little slices of time. She runs with the Keepers. Think winter volunteer corps that treats the county line like the edge of the map. Her effect is thermal. She calls organic or inorganic before she shoots. A clean hit pulls a third of the target heat. A bright ball appears and spends about a minute and a half bouncing and leaving tidy coin burns. É batata que o relógio manda, a energia só finge que manda. [The timer is what matters.]

Her daughter is Maplelight. Civil age is 44. Same family of effect with calmer delivery. Slow draw by type. Stores charge. Spends it to keep a person walking. Hits like a bat, not like a torch. No time refunds. No glamour. She is the one you want when the wind bites and the ambulance is still on the far side of the county.

We did not have either cape in person. We had artifacts. Ward Phoenix brought thirteen spheres and six beam segments in paper seals. I knew Phoenix could lock down objects. I did not expect a paper that could hold a slice of a power and keep its clock. Selos de papel que guardam comportamento, não só coisa. [Paper seals preserve the effect.]

On release the spheres behaved like the rumor that would not sit still for instruments. They do not fade by use. They end by time. Call it ninety seconds with a short side near 87 and a long side near 95. Early contacts burn. Late contacts burn the same. Thermal cameras put peak heat where it starts and leave it there until the light dies. No slope. No mercy from the clock. O tempo é rei, o resto bate continência. [Time is in charge.]

Beam segments behaved the same way. Open one in a test bay with a valid target and it performs the full three-second draw like a metronome. At the end, you get a fresh sphere with a full window. The segment does not care about the donor. It cares about the rule and the countdown.

Deposit marks read like tiny craters. Hot rim and cooler center. You see it on steel. You see it on damp cloth. You can coax it on frosted wood if the sphere returns to the same spot. Water stays friendly. Drop a sphere into a bucket and you get one perfect ring ripple and a polite hiss. No flash. No chain. Água é advogada de defesa com carteira assinada. [Water mitigates.]

Here is the part that asks textbooks to sit down. Pulling a third of a person's heat in three seconds should be lethal. Case reviews do not show that outcome. People shiver, stumble, then recover with blankets and warm fluids. We ran phantoms with sensors and saw the same shape. Skin and near-surface blood take the insult. Core dips less and rebounds if you fix the basics. My read is that the power obeys a floor inside living targets. It will punish reaction time. It will not push hearts off a cliff. Jeitinho de vida mínima garantida. [There is a floor on harm.]

Typing rules are petty and reliable. A tool in your hand makes you count as connected for organic. A free-standing barrier that is not touching anyone breaks the link and gives the Sugarhouse Sentinel a small strain when the shot fizzles. Clothing with trapped air beats pure R values. Foil blankets are not suggestions. They are treatments. Spray and fog blunt the burn when the ball starts tapping the room. A wet sack on a long net will park the thing and let the clock grind it down. Do not get clever with shiny steel in tight rooms. Você monta um pinball do capeta sem querer. [Avoid reflective steel in tight rooms.]

Beam visibility refuses to showmanship. No bright line. Just shimmer. Absorb starts at contact and runs a clean three-count. If you are timing a push, do not trust your eyes. Count in your head and move on two.

Collision testing without the Sugarhouse Sentinel in the room still told us a few things. Two spheres of the same kind met with a sharp noise and a low-pressure wave. Teeth felt odd for a breath and then the room settled. Opposite kinds met with a soft flash and a measurable bump in background temperature at floor level. No lingering light. No mess. With the Sugarhouse Sentinel present, you would expect her health markers to jump. We did not have her. All we can say is the bookwork is finished and left nothing dirty behind.

Sphere size stays constant. Always a plum. Always bright. That, plus a constant window, forces two bad options. Either the 1/3 claim hides a cap on what any shot can truly take, or the ball is topped from somewhere so presentation never changes. I do not love either. I will plan around what I can measure. Poder com cara de termodinâmica e alma de relógio. [This is about timing.]

A word about Phoenix. Those paper seals did not hold things. They held behaviors with clocks. That means the seal cares about rules, not edges. We need a clean program to test limits. Start with a heat lamp field or a fogger cone that you can stop and start. Build to a tethered sphere inside a cage. If Phoenix can pause that without breaking it, we have a new class of tool. Put ethics in the room at the start. Put maintenance in the room too. Cada jeitinho vira puxadinho no manual. [We will need to update procedures.]

Side note before I forget. Test how far Phoenix can go with sealing things that are not objects. If the paper can hold a power segment, maybe it can hold other field effects for study. Bring a thinker field only with consent and guardrails. Volta pro assunto. [Continue.]

Practical notes for anyone who will face this in weather. Split your team so spheres do not find each other unless you want them to cancel or to feed the Sugarhouse Sentinel. Use fog and water to soak the deposit. Carry foil. Carry wet sacks and a long net. Expect the last second to burn like the first. Do not count on decay. If Phoenix says an empty patch of air is busy, believe it and keep your hands out. Se a Phoenix falar, assina embaixo. [Trust Phoenix.]

Open questions that kept me longer than planned:
Why do late contacts look as hot as early ones?
Where does the bookkeeping live when the donor is not present?
Why do three correct hits on a cold, tired person stop short of catastrophe?
Why does an opposite meet feel like the room exhaled and then forgot?

Honest answer for tonight. This is a timing engine that paints with heat. The timer is real and obedient. The energy story will keep lying to your intuition. I am logging everything before memory blurs. Boa noite. [Good night.]

Se der ruim, me chama que eu finjo que não ouvi.
- Dr. Albert Müller

 

[Oblation]

So…
It might have been a mistake, but people have been complaining about the boat graveyard as long as I've been alive.

Plus, as cool as my power is, this was the first time I've had a perk that would just
pop away one of the Bay's biggest issues.

But this, the Y-Gun?

Point at the big one, the one that started it all, and hold for a few seconds, and it's done.

Y-Gun - Gantz
Base Cost: 300cp
Lore:
Black spheres conscript the unlucky into lethal hunts across crowded modern cities each night.
Combat suits and strange devices appear between missions after brutal resets of body and memory.
Teams chase points and prizes while targets vanish cleanly with unsettling, clinical precision.
Right and wrong blur as technology erases obstacles and silence fills the space left behind.
Details:
Handheld emitter sized like a short carbine with an under-barrel drum and twin-ring sight. A half pull starts a three-second lock on one visible nonliving object. On lock, the drum launches a capsule that bursts into micro nodes and lays a faint lattice over the surface. The lattice maps rigid connections by welds, bolts, rivets, solder, adhesive, and crystalline grain. On fire, the lattice swaps the captured mass into the nearest uninhabited dimension. All living tissue is excluded, and all items worn or carried by a living being are excluded. Straps on a wearer stay with them and detach at the target anchors. Objects only resting on the target remain, while fastened cargo goes if truly connected. No blast heat, light, or force on nearby air, water, or structures. The lock fails if the capsule cannot reach the target within ten seconds. If this occurs, the shot dissolves, and the lock resets. After firing, the core locks out and self-recharges over one day. A side ring fills during recharge, and the gun arms again when it closes.
Addons: -0cp The option to return the Y-Gun to your inventory. If used, it will return after 1 week, and the old one will dissolve. However, if you take this option, then the Y-Gun will be fully usable by others, even enemies, until the respawn timer is complete.
Final Cost: 300cp
Bank: 1950cp

The perk even said it "swaps the captured mass into the nearest uninhabited dimension" and "No blast heat, light, or force on nearby air, water, or structures."
It's basically perfect, just point, and suddenly the bay gets better.

I mean, the like 60 people falling into the water were a surprise, but there were a bunch of people filming me, so the authorities knew right away, and they all got rescued.
Plus most of them were arrested, since the cops really did not like going there, it was de facto safe territory for some drug cartel or another.

I wasn't expecting a lecture from Emily, but to be honest, I could tell her heart wasn't in it.

In the end, I just told her that my power was random, but let her keep the Y-Gun as long as she promised to be the one to have it and to actually use it (most of the boat graveyard is still there) and to not hand it off to some scientist who would take it apart and leave it broken in some warehouse like all that Tinkertech the military wasted so much money on in the 70's.

…

Oh, and I wish I'd thought of it before using it, but I enchanted it and managed to get Efficiency 3, Unbreaking 1.

I guess it's down to 13 hours reload, though, if the Obelisks or Enchanter's "Tower" is having any effect on that or not, I have no idea. I have not really tested much outside the Enchanter's Tower, since that's just a waste of resources, and the Obelisks seem to be more consistent with spells than effects… I think.

…

I could really use some more video game perks like the Y-Gun!

I mean, Magic is great, but other than writing down the perks, I can't really figure out what's interacting with what, and how.
Plus the ones I'm afraid to record anywhere, like that sealing one, that could be nothing, or could work to solve Ash Beast in one go… I just don't know.
But what I do know is it is better to hold that in my back pocket than to tell a government that already seems to be bugging Emily to tighten my leash that I MIGHT be capable of even temporarily untriggering someone.

So please, power… if I have any say in this, I could really use some kind of HUD power:

Claw Shard - The Book of the New Sun
Base Cost: -200cp
Lore:
Severian, forgetful torturer, exiled through citadels and jungles, chasing mercy, fleeing night.
With Claw and Terminus Est, he heals and harms, remakes fate, bends light.
Through war and masks, he devours memory, becomes Autarch, wagers Urth on strange rite.
Time arcs, the White Fountain answers, New Sun dawns, mercy crowned in radiant might.
Details:
A thumb-sized gem, it heals one severe wound per day when pressed to flesh, and it glows faintly near mortal danger without telling you what kind.
Addons: -25cp Body Integration. Rather than an object that can be lost or a spell that can be forgotten, it's now your fingernails, granting you fingernails with the hardness of a gem, that need never be cut again.
Final Cost: -225cp
Bank: 1650cp

So, is it all RNG then?
I'd almost say yes, except that addon looks almost like my power throwing me a bone, what with the whole "Rather than an object that can be lost or a spell that can be forgotten" part…

…

In less confusing news, Firewatch now has a Protectorate Liaison, since Velocity has offered to mentor Grue, and because Armsmaster wants him working with the Protectorate Wards, so having Velocity mentor them and Grue at the same time is the loophole to allow that.

Either way, I'm cool with it, and apparently Robin was already friends with the Firewatch team, so it works.

It also gives me a new excuse to meet Ruby again, because she's cute and likes me more than Missy, which is rare.
It's been one of the downsides to this whole cape thing that I haven't been able to see people like little Ruby Swoyer or Jade, one of my few friends who seemed more like my friend than Missy's.

Even if we ran in different circles most of the time, what with her living in the middle of ABB territory and me and Missy being (implied) Empire, given our skin and Missy's "internship."
I wonder what she's been up to…

Spoiler: A/N

FYI for that bit where she's unsure if it's RNG or not:
What Perk comes up is 100% RNG. Rolling before I start writing the chapter gives me some flex in how well Saga responds to it, but the actual rolls are RNG-based. That said, "Addons" is there so I can either break up the cost of a bigger perk or make things easier for her.

In this situation, I am the "Celestial System."
Kind of like "One Above All" in Marvel, where the idea is to have a light touch, but sometimes the answer is just "because the author said so."
In Marvel Comics, the in-universe way to explain that without breaking the 4th wall is the "One Above All."
For me, it's "Celestial System" with the "Celestial Grimoire" being Saga's Power, her list of current Perks, or the list of possible Perks she can get in the future.

Most other fics go with "ROB" (Random Omnipotent Being), but I prefer "Celestial System" with the implication that the various forms (Forge, Grimoire, Holocron, Scrolls, etc.) are tools handed out by the System (aka us authors of Celestial Fanfics) to those it deems worthy/interesting/etc.

 

[Oblation]

Spoiler: Reminder:

Reminder:
This is the Mental IRC that Saga got as a perk a while back.
So it's basically both kinds of Brocton Wards, with a handful of Case-53's she's talked to.
It keeps to the theme of an internet IRC because that's what people are familiar with.
But keep in mind, their not "reading" it, their hearing it in each other's voices.
Not a huge difference, but to the participants, it's more like a very private Discord Server than a text conversation.
Name / Cape ----- Usernames ----- [IRC Roll or Chapter Relevance]
Chris / Kid Win --- "KitJockey" ------- [Just Found his Specialty, and His powers unusual excitement to work with Saga.]
Saga / Phoenix --- "Birds4Brainz" ---- [IRC Queen]
Vicky / Glory Girl - "HaloEffect" ------ [IRC Mod]
Eric / Shielder ---- "GroundControl" -- [PRT-Wards Leader, Overall 2nd by Common Agreement]
Carlos / Aegis ---- "OShallNotPass" -- [Protectrate-Wards Leader, Overall Leader by Common Agreement]
Weld / Weld ------ "FerrousBueller" -- [IRC Mod + PRT-Wards Leader in Boston]

Official: Wards: National Wards Chat

HaloEffect [Mod] >> Boston Bruins doing their annual hope then pain routine
HaloEffect [Mod] >> the affective forecasting here is bleak and I say that with love

GroundControl >> Data says 52 to 48 if the goalie wakes up
GroundControl >> if the penalty kill keeps bleeding, then ETA to heartbreak is Sunday
GroundControl >> we could still steal it if the neutral zone isn't a highway

FerrousBueller [Mod] >> I can fabricate a tiny cup out of scrap so hope has a prop

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I will watch the highlights later
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> if anyone clips just the fights send the link

GroundControl >> Celtics look fine
GroundControl >> if the bench minutes hold then we coast

HaloEffect [Mod] >> coasting sounds illegal and I am here for it
HaloEffect [Mod] >> someone tell Boston to stop making me have feelings

OShallNotPass >> Please keep the feelings off the incident report
OShallNotPass >> Thank you

[SkyRider] changed their name to [KitJockey]

KitJockey >> ok quick drop before the thread leaves orbit
KitJockey>> plates for Saga boots, simple metal plates that attach under the shoes
KitJockey >> hit the latch and they pop out into ice skates
KitJockey >> Saga put Frost Walker on them so yes water is floor now

HaloEffect [Mod] >> Bay Glide
HaloEffect [Mod] >> optics are free money and the confidence placebo is real lol

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I put the enchant on them
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> Frost Walker
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> Jesus cosplay unlocked

GroundControl >> If water is floor then patrol can cross the ferry lane without the dock shuffle
GroundControl >> spacing stays three and we keep line of sight clear

KitJockey >> also I am dumb for not realizing the Lego thing when Saga told me months ago
KitJockey >> my power would not give me long fall boots
KitJockey >> would not even start
KitJockey >> but it threw together a little mod for Saga's leather boots in no time
KitJockey >> that was the hint
KitJockey >> I am a kit-basher and I should have acted like one

HaloEffect [Mod] >> confirmation bias ate you
HaloEffect [Mod] >> happens
HaloEffect [Mod] >> you get cookies for admitting it and also for inventing Bay Glide

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I have an impact softener for feet
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I can add it to a different attachment if Chris makes one

KitJockey >> yes!
KitJockey >> I can make the thing for the softener
KitJockey >> give me your measurements and I will make it click

FerrousBueller [Mod] >> Send a pair of those to Boston
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> I am tired of new craters every time I jump
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> And thanks, Saga
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> You made the first boots that could survive me
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> The sidewalks were less lucky
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> They have unionized and started filing complaints
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> 6x Durability, Unbreaking 4
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> am glad they work
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> ... and fit.
GroundControl >> Shipping to Boston is fine
GroundControl >> we log it as a test and keep notes on landing force and crack radius

HaloEffect [Mod] >> I want the before and after pictures
HaloEffect [Mod] >> people love a clean improvement graph with a happy story arc

KitJockey >> Saga are you in for more builds
KitJockey >> my power was extra happy on this one because it was a colab.
KitJockey >> I think it likes cooperating more than solo work...

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> Yes
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> if you can make an artificial diamond maker like Armsmaster and Dragon
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I can make the Wards Brute 6 for defense while we are in the city
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> Like Firewatch.

HaloEffect [Mod] >> ENE's Era of Sparkly Violence Returns!

GroundControl >> A civic-minded sparkle
GroundControl >> Armor that spikes durability while inside the city grid reshapes patrol plans
GroundControl >> lead pair can anchor the pier head and the reserve can screen
GroundControl >> response time falls and route risk drops

KitJockey >> I can try the diamond maker
KitJockey >> I know the feel I want
KitJockey >> if it clicks we can plate shins and forearms first then chest
KitJockey >> keep weight sane so nobody hates me

HaloEffect [Mod] >> chest plates that do not ruin silhouettes
HaloEffect [Mod] >> I am begging you
HaloEffect [Mod] >> ask me how I know...

GroundControl >> We can start with tiles then move to larger panels if look is clean
GroundControl >> small wins first then scale

OShallNotPass >> Break in
OShallNotPass >> As Wards Leader I am setting priority
OShallNotPass >> Chris you prioritize the diamond maker path
OShallNotPass >> Saga you prioritize this collaboration
OShallNotPass >> We will schedule a controlled test and sign off after impact survives

GroundControl >> Seconded as PRT Wards Leader
GroundControl >> Strategic value on that armor cannot be understated
GroundControl >> patrol survivability climbs and we gain control of the choke points

HaloEffect [Mod] >> Also the morale bump is not a small thing
HaloEffect [Mod] >> people move better when they believe bullets bounce

FerrousBueller [Mod] >> I will clear bench space and lay out a polite mountain of clamps
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> the first clang belongs to all of us

KitJockey >> Aye Aye, Captain!
KitJockey >> I will start sketching tonight
KitJockey >> if the feel is right I can have a first try in the morning

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> Agreed
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I can enchant a sample so we see behavior fast
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> we start small and hit it with a hammer, then Carlos, then Vicky.

GroundControl >> We log hammer hits by location and count
GroundControl >> shin
GroundControl >> forearm
GroundControl >> chest center
GroundControl >> we publish the short version so patrol understands what will break and what will not

HaloEffect [Mod] >> I will write the short version in human words
HaloEffect [Mod] >> You are harder to break here
HaloEffect [Mod] >> Think Tank, not Strongman
HaloEffect [Mod] >> Brute 6 toughness is a whole other ballgame from Brute 6 strength.

KitJockey >> Power Armor splits the sliders,
KitJockey >> It can raise strength and raise durability separately,
KitJockey >> Not like Brute capes that tend to get a go up in both at the same rate.

OShallNotPass >> Yes.
OShallNotPass >> I will make sure people keep this in mind.

GroundControl >>Seconded.

HaloEffect [Mod] >> tldr pls do not bench press the pier for likes. lol

OShallNotPass >> Good.
OShallNotPass >> We keep the humor in chat and the caution on patrol
OShallNotPass >> Call me after the first impact round and we will brag after that

KitJockey >> Boston pair for Weld gets boxed with a note
KitJockey >> do not test off the John Hancock Tower on day one
KitJockey >> I am putting that in writing so nobody gets ideas

FerrousBueller [Mod] >> I would never
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> on day one...

GroundControl >> Back to sports for the room while the builders peel off
GroundControl >> Bruins still need a goalie who wakes up and chooses competence

HaloEffect [Mod] >> rude but true
HaloEffect [Mod] >> Bay Glide debut tomorrow
HaloEffect [Mod] >> I am making the sticker tonight

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> make a small one for the boots
Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I want it to grin at people

KitJockey >> I can laser a grin into the plate if the plate behaves
KitJockey >> not a promise yet

GroundControl >> Noted
GroundControl >> we test first then we decorate

OShallNotPass >> Thank you
OShallNotPass >> I appreciate the restraint

HaloEffect [Mod] >> clip me into the first glide
HaloEffect [Mod] >> I will not eat water in public
HaloEffect [Mod] >> probably

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I will spot you

KitJockey >> I will hold the phone and pretend it is for science

FerrousBueller [Mod] >> I will sweep the pier when you are done
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> the dock union is less strict than the sidewalk union

GroundControl >> Thread returns to sports in three
GroundControl >> two
GroundControl >> one

HaloEffect [Mod] >> Bruins in six if the goalie remembers he is paid
HaloEffect [Mod] >> Celtics in five if the bench is not sleepy

Birds4Brainz [Queen] >> I still want only fights

KitJockey >> I want only wins

OShallNotPass >> I want only reports filed on time

GroundControl >> Dream big, everyone!

FerrousBueller [Mod] >> Back to work and to hope
FerrousBueller [Mod] >> both are heavy and worth carrying

 

[Oblation]

Spoiler: Perspective:

This chapter shows sixty seconds of external time inside the Kingslayer's head
It's the minute after everyone arrives but before the funeral for four PRT troopers begins.
It's meant to show her non-shard thinker power by letting her notice tiny sensory cues others ignore and stitch those flashes into urgent associative narratives so the reader feels how she builds meaning from fragments.
People around her are already hunting for someone to blame as Oni Lee's violence has become random because his mind is deteriorating, and talk of a kill order ripples through the group as grief pushes people toward extreme reactions.
Crucial context is that Saga and Emily perceive the world very differently, so whenever Saga describes Emily a lot of details vanish because Saga's perspective is socially oblivious while Emily's is hyper aware, which is why Saga would reduce this to one or two lines in a day summary while Emily experiences the same minute as more than two thousand words.
Hopefully, this stays readable and helps readers understand what's really going on in those "Emily said X" lines in future chapters.

The chapel smells like wet wool and burned coffee.
The heat ticks like a tired metronome.
Four flags wait up front, and four families watch the cloth like it might answer back.
Breath moves in shallow tides that never reach the shore.
Cloth whispers when someone shifts.
A coin taps a thigh like a nervous clock.

I count the room and keep it quiet.
Hands tell more truth than faces, so I watch fingers on programs, thumbs on phone screens, knuckles whitening on purse straps.
I listen for the little sounds that leak out when people try to be stone.
Leather creaks.
Shoes scuff tile.
The organ breathes and almost loses the beat.

Mother in blue keeps smoothing the first fold like gentleness can rewind time.
If I sign, she'll say we spent another life to prove we care, then she'll fall apart in a kitchen that smells like dish soap.
If I don't, she'll call a council friend from church and ask why her son died for nothing.
She's against the order either way, because the only right answer is the one no one can give her.

Father beside her stares through the pulpit and curls the program with his grip.
If I sign, he'll tell me we traded his child for someone else's and learned nothing.
If I don't, he'll stop taking calls and learn the budget book by heart and use it like a slow knife.
He's against, and he'll make it policy.

Older sister with the neat braid keeps one hand on her mother and scans the aisle like a bodyguard.
If I sign, she'll give one clean quote about cycles we never break by shooting faster.
If I don't, she'll call me kind and then call me coward five minutes later.
She's against, softly first, sharply after.

Kid brother in the bad suit watches the rifles like a movie that might let him step inside.
If I sign, he'll try to enlist and a range officer will teach him grief doesn't make a hand steady.
If I don't, he'll build a crowd online and put my name in the first post.
He's for the order because motion feels better than ache.

Grandfather with the cane stands without shaking.
His mouth is a line that knows how to bury people.
If I sign, he'll nod once and take his family home on time.
If I don't, he'll sit back down and refuse to move until the hall is empty.
He's for it and he hates that he is.

The chaplain moves like a medic for the soul and lays clean gauze over dirty wounds.
His verbs spread pain thin enough to breathe.
If I sign, he'll say I chose blood while patience was still on the table, and he'll mean it.
If I don't, he'll say witness saves lives, and he'll mean that too.
He's against as practice, not posture.
He wants fewer flags, not better speeches.

Miss Militia holds the aisle with eyes on hands and exits, not faces.
If I sign, she'll defend the timing in public and argue the method in private, and she'll be right in both rooms.
If I don't, she'll come back with a plan that has clocks and names, and she'll be right there too.
She's for whatever saves bodies this week.
Today that leans yes.

The unit lieutenant wears hollow cheeks and a ledger behind the eyes.
He's already redrawn next week twice.
If I sign, he'll send his people to bed and come back ready to move.
If I don't, he'll triple corners and stop trusting the building.
He's strongly for the order because he counts triangles and wants to stop.

The union rep in the back rows counts everything without looking down.
If I sign, she'll open with thanks through her teeth and close with staffing numbers.
If I don't, she'll call a vote and win it.
She's for the order in the short run and for my head in the long run.
Both are true and she knows it.

The detective with gray at his temples hasn't slept and keeps mapping exits with his eyes.
If I sign, he'll clear his board and draw the retaliation map before breakfast.
If I don't, he'll wait for the next body to pick the order for him and he won't forgive me for that.
He's strongly for it and already building the second play.

The medical examiner stands by the wall with a hand on her bag.
She watches faces, not flags, because faces tell her what numbers won't.
If I sign, she'll write the next report anyway and the math won't comfort anyone.
If I don't, she'll write two more and stop coming here for a month.
She's against the order and for reality, and she'll keep the handwriting neat either way.

The city dispatcher twists a simple ring and listens without moving.
She knows which calls end in static.
If I sign, she'll sleep a little longer for three nights.
If I don't, she'll start turning the ring faster when the phones light up.
She's for the order and she hates that it helps.

The armorer studies boots like they're a ledger.
If I sign, he'll finally get the purchase orders he's filed since spring.
If I don't, he'll issue older plates with a look that says he warned us.
He's for it and thinks it's late.

The ERT medic touches the velcro at her cuff like a tic.
If I sign, she'll pack a cleaner kit and still expect screams.
If I don't, she'll double stock tourniquets and pretend it's enough.
She's against on the level where hands shake after the sirens cut out.

The rookie trooper watches the chaplain like church might set his sights.
If I sign, he'll say finally in a locker room and ride steadier for a week.
If I don't, he'll ride angrier, and angry gets sloppy, and sloppy writes names on more flags.
He's for the order because he hasn't learned how long weeks can get.

The sergeant with the ruined knuckle stands like a doorframe.
If I sign, he'll clap one shoulder and call it overdue.
If I don't, he'll take the next hit himself and tell me he chose to.
He's strongly for it and won't hide it.

The tech analyst hugs a laptop like a shield.
If I sign, she'll strip three phones and map the ripple.
If I don't, she'll bury me in heat maps until I choke on dots.
She sounds neutral and she's for the cleaner outcome.
Today that's the order.

The public defender sits near the aisle with a shut notebook.
If I sign, she'll say state violence never cured the harm it claims to fix.
If I don't, she'll say we're laundering decay through inaction.
She's strongly against and brought lines that will bite.

The community organizer squeezes a folded flyer and watches every badge like a test.
If I sign, he'll march tomorrow and his chant will use my name.
If I don't, he'll march next week and use it anyway.
He's against and he's loud and his grief is honest.

The business owner who sends coffee to stations sits stiff and sober.
If I sign, he'll donate again and say it was time.
If I don't, he'll still donate and ask for a meeting about delivery routes.
He's for the order and for the cameras that come with it.

The mayor's chief of staff hovers like weather.
If I sign, he'll script a podium line about steady hands.
If I don't, he'll sell unity and a task force that eats months.
He's for whatever polls clean.
Today that leans yes.

The state liaison reads faces like spreadsheets.
If I sign, she'll send two legal memos by dinner and a budget note by morning.
If I don't, she'll send five memos and warn me about hearings.
She's for clarity.
The order is clarity.

The federal desk officer is a black suit with careful shoes.
If I sign, he'll murmur that interagency support is available.
If I don't, he'll murmur that it remains available and copy more people.
He's for alignment and he'll call it alignment either way.

The guard at the back door taps a coin on his thigh and thinks no one hears it.
If I sign, he'll stop tapping for one day.
If I don't, the coin will skip faster when the first radio crackles.
He's for it at the level where breath wants less work.

The reporter in the careful suit aims for neutral and lands on hungry.
If I sign, he'll quote two critics for balance and sleep well.
If I don't, he'll quote three grieving parents for patience and sleep just as well.
He's for the story and against dull days.

The council aide in row three texts under the program and smiles without teeth.
If I sign, she'll park her boss at my elbow and call it shared responsibility.
If I don't, she'll book a radio hit about oversight and balloons.
She's for the order when it comes with a lens.

The retired captain stands by a pillar with posture that could hold the roof.
If I sign, he'll say we forgot how to do this fast and clean and at dawn.
If I don't, he'll say the city went soft.
He's strongly for it and stuck in a calendar that no longer exists.

The survivor from last winter holds a cane across her knees and doesn't blink.
If I sign, she'll squeeze my hand in a hallway and say thank you without a smile.
If I don't, she'll avoid my eyes and count steps to the door.
She's for it and the scar on her calf is a vote that never changes.

The teacher from the block sits near the aisle, knuckles around a pen.
If I sign, she'll tell her students grownups finally protected the morning bus.
If I don't, she'll tell them to hurry inside and keep their heads down.
She's for it and she'll pay for that with letters from parents.

The shop steward from sanitation smells like cold diesel and grief.
If I sign, he'll move crews past the hot blocks with fewer calls.
If I don't, he'll reroute trucks and lose hours and patience.
He's for, and he'll say it into a microphone if someone asks.

Saga stands a half step off the front row and decides to do it perfectly.
She doesn't speak.
She doesn't sign.
She won't judge me.
She'll ask one question either way and it'll land where it hurts.
If I sign, she'll ask who I saved and I'll need to answer with names.
If I don't, she'll ask how many more I'm willing to spend and that will need names too.
She's the only clear water in a room of waves.
She makes the currents visible.

Lung isn't here and still is.
He answers in fire or doesn't answer at all.
Boredom in a man like that lights itself.
The daughter isn't here and shapes every thought anyway.
A small hand on a big fuse.
She feeds him and tunes him and keeps him aimed.
If I sign, she won't scream.
She'll measure and pick a target that speaks a sentence.
If I don't, she'll add a part to a device that already works and wait for me to stumble in public.

Oni Lee keeps slipping.
Shorter jumps.
Stranger choices.
Louder landings.
If I sign, there'll be a gap where he stood and some of the noise will die down.
If I don't, the drift will keep eating his mind and the city will keep paying one room at a time.

The folding drill begins and the room leans toward the first triangle like a small task can hold a big day together.
The heat ticks.
The organ breathes.
Cloth whispers.
Hands move like the fabric might bruise.
How it looks matters, so the order of steps matters.
If I sign in front of families, I anchor grief to ink.
It'll look clean now and weak later.
If I move it and lock it to my name, I anchor it to the last interviews, the last calls, and what the girl can field inside forty eight hours.

My hip aches.
I stand anyway.
People notice who sits, who hides, who leaves early.
I won't give anyone an easy line.

I reach into the bag.
The folder weighs more than paper.
The pen clip bites my thumb like a small truth.
The organ lands the last chord and the room exhales like it needed permission.
Winter air slides in when the back door opens and it smells like snow.

I sign.

Strong for rises like heat.
The sergeant's jaw unclenches.
The detective starts a list.
The dispatcher lets the ring go still.
The retired captain stops shaking his head.
The shop steward squares his shoulders.
The teacher breathes.

Strong against pulls like a tide.
The chaplain closes his eyes and counts for both of us.
The public defender writes a line that'll bite.
The mother in blue flinches at the latch.
The organizer studies the door and starts to plan.
The medical examiner looks down and presses her lips thin.

Most people sit in the middle and hate it.
They'll say we chose the least bad fire.
They'll say we chose it late.
They'll say we chose it too fast.
They'll still show up tomorrow, and that's the part that saves anyone.

Saga doesn't look at me.
She will, later.
She'll ask the question she promised herself to ask.
Who did I save.
I'll answer with names and keep counting until the numbers stop moving.
The flags start their slow walk.
Cloth whispers.
Breath finds the shore.
The heat keeps ticking.
The snow smell sharpens like a clean blade.

 

[Oblation]

So… the money issue might not be "solved," but I guess I might be able to give Taylor and Laurance a paycheck now.
I got a new perk, and though it's a bit expensive, it's one of the ones that's just a minor quirk in a game but absolutely crazy in real life.

Loot Magnet - Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
Base Cost: -150cp
Lore & Details:
This world's an alternate seventeenth century where England planted its first colony on Mars.
Red deserts stretch under brass skies while Spanish clockwork airships duel above the canals.
The native Martians watch Earth's empires bring war, faith, and greed to their world.
Sir Walter Raleigh, an exile looking for redemption, caught between crusades and alien warlords.
Jamestown stands as a flickering outpost of survival and pride, held together by lightning shields, iron guns, and people too stubborn to give up.
---
10 minutes per day, all loose and forgotten change within 10 meters slides into your pockets.
Addons:
-50cp Money teleports to your Inventory.
-100cp - 25 meters / 30 Minutes
-150cp - 50 meters / 1 Hour
-200cp - 100 meters / 2 Hours
-250cp - 150 meters / 3 Hours
-300cp - 200 meters / 4 Hours
-350cp - 250 meters / 5 Hours
-400cp - 300 meters / 6 Hours
-450cp - 350 meters / 7 Hours
-500cp - 400 meters / 8 Hours
Final Cost: -900cp
Bank: 2100cp

So, I did the obvious, and flew around at my fastest speed that I can hold for hours.
(About 60mph in bigger bird form at 1.8x speed for about 4 hours if I don't need to cast anything.)

Theoretically, I was just doing another search for where the ABB capes had bunkered down, but in practice, I was collecting more than $20k!
The only downside is that I don't have any handy Inventory money converter, just 120,000 nickels and dimes, and about 25 square miles of city that'll never be this profitable again.

Man, am I glad Bet doesn't have the 1-cent coins anymore like Aleph still does!

Though I'm going to run out of city soon at this rate…
Well, I guess I just need an excuse to fly around NYC a bit and I'd be golden…

That or a perk that would turn all these nickels and dimes into money people won't cuss me out for giving them….

Chlorophyte Extractinator – Terraria
Base Cost: -50cp
Lore & Details:
This world's a patchwork of wild lands where magic and madness rule the map.
Floating islands drift over jungles and deserts while dungeons sprawl under your feet.
The ground's alive with monsters and minerals both waiting to kill or reward you.
Every cave's a gamble and every sunrise means something new to fight.
You start with a stick and end up rewriting the world, one pick swing and bad decision at a time.
---
Feed any loose fine aggregate, such as sand, silt, sawdust, or drill cuttings.
The drum converts bulk into a truly randomized ore, gem, or fossil bit.
Does not accept organic material.
Max generation 1 per day.
Addons:
-50cp - An Inventory option for waste disposal rather than a physical tool.
-50cp - Max generation 2 per day.
-100cp - Max generation 3 per day.
-150cp - Max generation 4 per day.
-200cp - Max generation 5 per day.
-250cp - Max generation 6 per day.
-300cp - Max generation 7 per day.
-350cp - Max generation 8 per day.
-400cp - Max generation 9 per day.
-450cp - Max generation 10 per day.
Final Cost: -400cp
Bank: 1200cp

The copper coins are interesting, and the Palladium ore was gonna net me a few hundred in tinker budget, but I traded it to Armsmaster through Dragon to get them to help Chris finish his Diamond Maker so I can finally start armoring up the Wards.

I haven't told anyone about the Adamantite yet.
It's cool, but I wanna save it up till I either get a smelting power, or just want something big from Dragon.

 

[Oblation]

--- = New Subject
... = A Few Hours Later


Missy had a good idea.
I took her to pet Samson the Donkey to calm down after another day of not funding the ABB capes, when she asked about the Ninja I've mentioned knowing.

It seems obvious in hindsight, especially with how it took Tenkō no Tomo a day to find at least 6 bases they seem to rotate between, and Asuka even snuck in and got pictures of them.

Asuka and Albus are the only ones sticking around for the raid we're planning, though.
But that makes sense since their all about sneaking… and assassinations.

But Emily says it's best if a Hero takes down Oni-Lee for the public's good.
Even if Tenkō no Tomo are about as trusted as that type can get, their still officially Parahuman Mercenaries, and that would just give an unneeded confidence boost to all the would be bounty hunters out there.

---

On the other side of things, The Empire's been dealing with the Hookwolf vs Kaiser thing still, so The Dockworkers have been pushing into ABB territory, instead of them.

Taylor knows if she helps, it just makes them look more gang-like and might get her marked as a Villain, so she's just been pacing back and forth in HQ, seeming worried.

But it's not all good news, since we now have proof that The Adepts and The Red Hand have opened Branches in the Bay. I guess they figured there was enough of an Opening, so they jumped in.

It's better than a Brockton bay version of the Boston Games, but still annoying that we'd been pushing the gangs back a bit, and now new ones pop into the hole.

Still, The Red Hand are basically just what the Undersiders were pretending to be, minimally offensive thieves.

While the Adepts are a bigger deal, we've probably only got a few of their mid-level members looking to get a branch of their own. Plus, they have a thing about not holding territory so much as specific locations, so it's still an improvement over last year if this is where it stops for new gangs moving in.

---

In less local news, Mr. Graham has been sweet-talking the Canadians somehow, since their now offering to pay for a building for NOVA so long as it's in Canada.

According to Vicky, that would indicate we're a more Canadian/Guild-like group than a PRT/Protectorate one. But that is already true since Parahumans and Regular Humans in the same chain of command is more of a Guild thing anyway.

Either way, we've now got an official HQ in St. Stephen, New Brunswick (Canada).

It's not huge, but it can fit all up to 1000 people in a pinch, and Mr. Graham talked Tsunade to moving there, so I guess I'll be going up there for my Science/Ninja-Magic/Medical Lessons now.

---

Oh, and I'm actually getting a dedicated workshop thanks to Dragon!

I guess she was part of why NOVA got a building, since she has a base in Saint-Andrews, New Brunswick.
A town about 30 minutes down the road that is the closest thing that area has to a port.

But she doesn't really use it for tinkering, just as a base for her Mechs to deploy to New England when needed, since it's right next to the border.
So there's a whole Tinker lab, and Dragon said it would help her a bunch if a Hero made visible appearances there every few days.
So now I have a full lab to play around with, in trade for a weekly patrol of St. Andrews.
But it's only got like 10K people, so that won't take more than 30 minutes.

…

I had history today, and asked about New Brunswick and the two towns, and the only interesting detail is that apparently, those are some of the rare places where the Bet version has more people than the Aleph one.
Despite Aleph having like 1.5x our population, their towns tend to be smaller, and cities are WAY bigger.

Makes sense, I guess, what with them only needing to rebuild two buildings, not all of NYC.
So people probably aren't thinking about Endbringers when choosing where to live there.

Either way, St. Stephen is like 5x bigger since it's where a lot of Canadians who commute into the US moved after Newfoundland sank, and even if it's lost some of that population boom, it's still got 25K.
While Saint Andrews is mostly just bigger because New Brunswick in general is bigger, and with Leviathan wrecking ships in the 80s and capes in general taking opportunities where they can, Earth-Bet shipping is way more mobile and focused on efficiency and speed than those slow-moving mega ships like Aleph has.

I mean, I live in a harbor and the only Containership I've ever seen is the one that used to be blocking the way out at Brockton Bay.
So unlike Aleph, Saint Andrews and other little towns have more sea trade, since people want to have a lot of options with shipping, and even big companies are more likely to use small and medium boats and ports than like on Aleph.

---

But that's enough history, I haven't rolled in a few days, and haven't broken my streak about making a journal entry every time I do, so here goes:

It Just Works - Meme Culture
Base Cost: -50cp
Lore & Details:
Originating with Steve Jobs, "It Just Works." has come to embody the feeling of "I'm a smart person, don't worry about how, just know that it does." Turned into a meme largely after Bethesda Softworks director Todd Howard's use of this phrase to describe a game many would love and hate due to its numerous bugs and glitches. This phrase has remained in the popular zeitgeist ever since.
---
Respond with "It Just Works." and whoever is questioning your plans, creations, and/or strategy will react as if you'd just given them a sound and reasonable explanation. (Info-dump cut-scene skip button, in perk form.)
Addons:
-50cp a stranger effect so that any observers also experience the "sound and reasonable" effect and stop questioning you. Basically, turning any recording of you saying "It Just Works." into a memetic stranger effect, preventing people from becoming suspicious or doubtful of you.
Final Cost: -100cp
Bank: 900cp

MSF Mouse Droid - Ewoks (1986)
Base Cost: -50cp
Lore & Details:
The MSF line of the Mouse Droid was designed to have increased mobility as well as to be capable of repairing each other and acting somewhat in a secretarial role, with audio and visual recording capabilities, and enough intelligence to react to conversational requests.
---
You gain 10 MSF series Mouse Droids. They will follow orders and clean any location you leave them in. Past iterations of this droid have continued operations for thousands of years if left undisturbed for that time.
Addons:
-50cp A stranger effect. While these droids would seem like obvious tinkertech to anyone seeing them, and thus become a likely target for thieves if left unattended, this effect renders them the same, mundane but vaguely cute impression they had in their original setting.
-50cp +10 MSF series Mouse Droids.
-100cp +10 MSF series Mouse Droids.
-150cp +10 MSF series Mouse Droids.
Final Cost: -150cp
Bank: 800cp

Well, ok.

Emily is strangely interested in these guys after I described them, so she gets 8, and Mr. Graham gets 6 for NOVA HQ.
And the rest of us who think they're basically just cuter little vacuum cleaners get to see who can turn these into the more effective counter-espionage force, lol.

Missy also gets 2 since she thinks their adorable and wanted one.
But your supposed to keep them in pairs so they can repair each other.

The other 4 can go to my new lab in Saint Andrews to clean it up… and watch out for thieves too, I guess.

Spoiler: A/N

Without getting into the full differences between the internet here and on this AU-Earth-Bet, I want to remind people that this is 2011, on an economically depressed Earth with significantly less global trade.
The TL;DR of it for the internet is that basically everyone can be assumed to possess at least a BlackBerry with internet access, but smartphones are clunky and VERY expensive still, and the laptop industry hasn't taken off nearly as much. (Tablets are Brand new on Earth-IRL around this time, so not even a pipe dream here.)
Devices tend towards being cheap with easily replaceable parts that are designed to last for years.
Imagine clunky but surprisingly powerful and cost-effective for 2011 desktops, and cellphones that are slightly behind in terms of tech but ahead in terms of reliability and price.

Examples: (Imagine these as cheaper and more durable, but also about as advanced as it gets outside of short-run prototypes from the people working on reverse engineering tinkertech. So a True Smartphone can be seen but only in the hands of a particularly tech-conscious Multi-Millionaire, with a few connections to get their hands on one.)
High-End Cellphone: Motorola Droid
Middle Class Cellphone: Helio Ocean
Cheap but decent Cellphone: Samsung BlackJack II
Old but functional and cheap Cellphone: HTC Excalibur

As a result, 17/20 internet users come in the form of proto-smartphones.
The kind with physical keyboards, but that could still handle something like Reddit, or in this case, PHO.
That meme above is a good example of what you can expect from 2011, Bet-Net.
A Small (37kb) oversaturated meme meant to be easily recognizable even on older and lower quality devices, which can be spread seamlessly in any number of forums, blogs, and meme sites.

 

[Oblation]

Rude.

…

I was all involved in the search for the ABB capes, then we finally find them, and I get sent over to HQ to stand guard all day!

The worst part is, they were right!
The Chosen (Hookwolf's E88) attacked, and it was only all of us under 18 Wards being in the same place that sent him and his minions off.

It's annoying, and I can't even complain because they were right to have kept a reserve.

Even though Lung and Nuwa got away (along with a huge chunk of the gang's non-powered), their still out of the city, and Oni-Lee's dead, which was the whole point.

The whole day went good.
Not perfect, but there are a bunch of ways it could have gone bad and didn't.
And I'm upset about it!

It would've been easier being upset if something had gone bad, but instead the only hitch was that a ramped-up Lung can stalemate the Protectorate for offense, even with my armor's protection.

But even there, it wasn't an issue because they kited him out of town before he got too big, and for once, I guess he grew for speed, not fire, because he got away.

Velocity chased him for a bit, but got called back once it would've taken the rest more than 30 minutes to catch up with him.

Nuwa got away with a bunch of the gang's remaining members, but most of Firewatch + Carlos, Dean, and Vicky (the 18+ wards) still got like 30 of them and one of the most violent lieutenants.
"Madugo" was the leader of the Southeast Asian parts of the ABB, and for a guy whose name literally means "Gory" in his native Filipino, I think it's clear where he got his reputation.

So, today was a success, and my whole part in it was taking pot-shots at Hookwolf and teleporting teammates out of danger with Fox.

Though it would have been nice if Missy would've been able to finish her Solar lens to melt Hookwolf.
But it was too cloudy, and he was too quick to retreat once the minion's clothes started to catch on fire, so it didn't happen, unfortunately.

---

Oh, and no injuries, thanks to Addison.

I also found out why he STILL doesn't have a costume.
Apparently, he's afraid of PR, and so long as he keeps refusing Hero names and costumes, he doesn't have to do any of it.

Missy and Chris think he's a genius for this, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna bite him when he runs out of time and gets slapped with "Boo Boo Buddy" or something stupid like that.

…

Also I rolled but it's just another PR Perk, so I called it a night on rolls.

Gold - Red Rising
Base Cost: -50cp
Lore & Details:
Humanity sprawls across the solar system in a strict color caste, engineered so each person reads as role, rank, and polished purpose.
A lowborn Red is remade into a Gold to infiltrate the ruling caste and spark revolt from within, a one-life gamble to topple centuries of rule.
The series turns that gamble into total war, asking whether overthrowing a cruel order births freedom or just another crown, and what surviving the furnace of revolution leaves behind.
---
You appear gilded and blonde, hair like braided sun, skin warmed to coin, eyes opalescent and sharp, features honed to statuesque calm.
Blood, grime, or exhaustion only adds weathered grandeur.
Onlookers will remember your silhouette as luminous authority.
Addons:
N/A
Final Cost: -50cp
Bank: 875cp

I almost didn't take this one, but I figure Blonde is already close enough to Golden that people might not notice.
So obviously Emily did immediately, which is how I got found out for hiding rolls, but all that led to was a discussion about the money power, and what I was supposed to do with hundreds of thousands of Nickels and Dimes.

Answer?
Pretty obvious given who I'm talking to, but give it to the PRT and get Tinker Budget.

When I brought up the tinker budget only being to build stuff, which I can justify in the paperwork (aka for Ward's usage, not for things like supporting NOVA).
Emily offered to trade it but said I'd need to take a loss on behalf of the caffeine budget.
So we went back and forth for a while, then I gave her the coins and accepted one of those Visa cards, which they give informants and bounty hunters with 92.5% of what I gave her in cash… or well, in digital money, but close enough.

---

I asked how long she thought that 7.5% would last, and Emily said a week??

I thought she was joking, but no.
Apparently, the Caffeine budget for the New England PRT branches comes out to like 20k Per Week.

It really puts into perspective how expensive things are.
I really thought I was going places with this fund, but in reality, I've got less of a budget than Emily does for her departments to spend on Caffeine, for the next three months!

---

Oh, and the PR team's almost finished getting pictures with everyone using the Y-Gun, so I guess there's going to be a grand reopening thing tomorrow, where they want me and Emily to cut a ribbon, then she'll make some kind of "New City" speech now that the ABB got run out of town.

Not that big a Deal, but Taylor's really pumped about it, so I'm doing my best to match her energy.
Though it's hard to get really pumped about… having like 5 ships a day, show up and unload some stuff before leaving later.

Plus, they're already doing that, since the first thing they did with the Y-Gun was clear a path to the Dockworkers.

…

Seeing it in the mirror, I'm not sure how Emily noticed?
Like, my hair just looks like I'm standing in the sun, even when I'm not.
It's not much of a change, but I guess I forgot Emily's still the Kingslayer, since she clocked it instantly, in a way that took me 10 minutes of looking in a mirror to pin down.

 

[Oblation]

We did the PR thing.
There was even a pretty big ship in the background, so it worked out for the pictures.

Emily made a speech about the city entering an era of new hope and possibility, and we all politely forgot that this city is still full of Nazi's and thanks to the new gangs, the number of villains actually went up, if anything.
Then she cut the ribbon and 'opened the bay to new possibilities!'… or something cheesy like that.

Still, Lung and Oni-Lee were a particularly scary combo before they got a tinker, so the situation certainly feels better, if nothing else.

Plus, fireworks are always nice.
Albus even taught me a firework spell, just for that PR event.

…

In other news, I found out that Albus and Tenkō no Tomo found out about the building where my new Lab is at St. Andrews and decided to move in there.
I guess Dragon owns the building and doesn't care about it beyond that her Mech's are left alone, so it works out.

Asuka says she wants the clan to have a territory of its own… but like a heroic one, I guess.

Not protection or anything, but Albus's shack was just a house, and the Building in an area already pretty well covered by the Guild.
But the lab at St. Andrews is a whole base, and in an area with minor importance to a whole region, but no real defenders aside from a mostly theoretical effort on Dragon's part.

So, I authorized them to use any of the cash they'd gotten, plus 100k, which is most of what I've gotten from the money gathering perk, to fortify the Passamaquoddy Bay on my behalf.
It all seemed kinda larp-ish, but I guess Tenkō no Tomo is theoretically a Feudal Clan in service to a Feudal-Lord… aka me.

So, I'm giving them resources in order to protect an area that will be de facto mine in Cape terms.
What with NOVA-HQ 30 minutes away, and my vassal's HQ there, and it being my lab and the storage house of one of my allies.

The whole thing feels kind of strange, but within a few days, I've gone from having never heard of Saint-Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada, to being its Lady-Protector.

Still, everyone agrees that it was basically a sitting duck, being kind of important, but undefended with NOVA-HQ nearby, but still far enough to let villains get away if needed.
Plus, almost everyone agrees that something needed to be there, so it might as well be my personal base, to be looked after by the clan when I'm not around.

…

The St. Andrews thing might have been just in time, too, because a NOVA squad got pictures of Lung fighting a local gang already… in Saint John, New Brunswick.

He barely moved!
Just left the bay for a slightly smaller city nearby.
Hell, it probably would've been St Stephen where the new NOVA-HQ is if that town were a bit bigger!
He literally just found the first port city out of Emily's jurisdiction with more than 50k people in it and set down!

Well, fine, if he does end up settling there (and we don't hear about him getting in a fight somewhere else soon), then I guess it becomes NOVA's job to keep him from really becoming it's King.
What with NOVA-HQ and My Lab only being about an hour away, making us the nearest parahuman support for that poor little Guild Department.

I mean, he was stalemating the BB-Protectorate for years, and E88 at its strongest!
There's no way the locals will be able to keep up…

Spoiler: New Brunswick Map

 

[Oblation]

Welp.

Lung is here to stay, and so am I.

---

We've started to build up NOVA in this area around Maine and New Brunswick.

The dream of all of New England and The Maritimes is still a thing, with a few teams still expanding in Vermont and Nova Scotia, but mostly we're a Maine/New-Brunswick organization for now.
As part of that, I tested a bunch of people and handed out the last few non-master Powers I could from Ars magica.

But the best of them was probably Team Leader Valerez, who got Creo-Animal, and Rachel, who got Muto-Animal.
Rachel is over the moon with healing and shapeshifting her dogs, and is willing to put up with the pseudo dog projections Valerez makes now.

---

Albus has been buying up little chunks of land to put outposts in, so we can hopefully make some kind of Rapid Response over to Saint John if needed.
Plus, some of the middle-aged members of The Clan have been seeking out positions in different towns in the area, so we start to integrate and keep an eye on New Brunswick fully rather than just the surface-level stuff they'd been doing.

So far, the main areas that were focused on, other than Saint Andrews itself are that unfortunately placed Nuclear Power Plant and Eastport, Maine.

Eastport is in a similar position as Saint Andrews, except for the part where someone blew up its docks a few decades ago as part of some final showdown between a hero and villain.

Still, its been long enough since then that its a somewhat important local port for the US side of the Border now.

---

On my end, I've mostly just been making a low-key version of my good boots for the clan and a more thematic one for NOVA employees. Plus a bit of armor when I've got the Mana to spare, now that the first iteration of the Wards-armor is mostly done.

Along with using the Money perk on different towns every day to get a feel for the area, and to collect more cash for operations.
Especially since it's been pointed out that Mr. Graham's not a cape.
So there's nothing illegal about him investing in stable stocks to use the dividends like an operations fund for the stuff NOVA can get from the Perk-Generated funds each employee is paid from.

It's been really busy between the different creations, the way school has been ramping up in the hopes of getting me into Online High School this August, and the setup now that NOVA has an A-Class threat to keep an eye on.

…

The roll is great, though I really wish I'd rolled it before all the paperwork for managing NOVA we've all been doing.
Still, team leads and COs will be very nice and hopefully decrease the amount of crap that gets sent upstairs by the grunts.

Home Office - Library of Ruina
Base Cost: 500cp
Lore & Details:
The City is a sprawling corporate meat grinder where miracles, monsters, and body mods are just part of the urban budget.
You work as a Fixer, a licensed problem solver who takes contracts for anything that normal people or even syndicates are too scared, too fragile, or too politically exposed to touch.
Every Fixer belongs to an Office and lives and dies by its grade, starting as disposable grade nine fodder and clawing their way up toward the rare high-grade elites who can clash with Wings and urban legends.
Your life is paperwork, debt, and spectacular violence, and every job is a gamble where the payout might buy you better gear and status or just pay for someone else to mop what is left of you off the pavement.
---
You've come into possession of an Office, an entirely independent one. Currently, it's staffed by a modest company of extremely loyal Fixers who are equally adept at administrative work and the sanctioned violence expected of them.
You have 25 points.
A Grade 1 is 13 points
A Grade 2 is 11 points
A Grade 3 is 9 points
A Grade 4 is 7 points
A Grade 5 is 5 points
A Grade 6 is 4 points
A Grade 7 is 3 points
A Grade 8 is 2 points
And you have as many Grade 9s as you have points to spend.
Addons:
-50cp All new employees include confirmable backgrounds and a fund to pay them so long as they stay in your service.
-0cp More Staff 1: +25 points, but no Grades above 5.
-50cp More Staff 2 (Requires MS1): +25 Points, but no Grades above 6.
-100cp More Staff 3 (Requires MS1+2): +25 Points, but no Grades above 7.
-150cp More Staff 4 (Requires MS1-3): +25 Points, but no Grades above 8.
-200cp More Staff 5 (Requires MS1-4): +25 Points, but no Grades above 9.
-500cp +14 Points, no strings attached.
-500cp All Grade 1s are now Colors.
Final Cost: -850cp
Bank: 1200cp

I wish I knew what a Grade 1 meant, but the memories have got nothing here, and since that could be 13 new NOVA members, I just can't risk it…

Luckily, I've got the points for most of the "More Staff" options, so I'm sending 25 Raymond's way, since Firewatch has been taking on a bunch of roles, beyond just bodyguarding me.
I was tempted to make it 50, but I just can't help but remember how much 200 has gotten in the past, so I held back.

So, NOVA just got 100 members who can do admin and fighting!
We're really starting to feel like proper law enforcement at this point…

Spoiler: A/N

Unfortunately for Saga, this is one setting I had no knowledge of, since the smart play here was actually to double down on points and get the 3 grade 1's, then just tell them to go solo Lung and every other villain in the area.
Unfortunately, Saga has no way of knowing, but there is a silver lining, and it's that anything about Grades 1-8 involves body enhancements that would inevitably break down without being able to be repaired on Earth-Bet, save for some extremely expensive Tinker services.
So the silver lining is that by grabbing 125 Grade 9s, she still got 125 people with the base skills of a Fixer (aka paperwork and basic combat), but none of the impossible maintenance or massive egos of someone like a Color or Grade 1.
I imagine it as basically getting 125 people fresh out of something like Police Academy. (Or even something like Ranger School, if you want to be generous.)
TL;DR - Saga didn't pick the super soldiers but did get 125 of the PERFECT type of people for NOVA and Firewatch, and that's still great!

 

[Oblation]

One of the Ninjas who got a job as a manager at a canning factory has been making friends with a family who live right down the road from the Nuclear power plant.
I guess it's a big enough deal that it has its own history of villain attacks.
Which is lucky since apparently the ABB has already been sniffing around.
It's all the more reason to have people in the area, if only to keep Lung's people away.
---
For myself, I've been looking into the local area and the points of interest where NOVA will likely need to focus our defence.
So far, what I've found is:
1. Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station - The big target
2. Trivium Packaging Canada - less important, but isolated and would hurt the locals a lot to lose it.
3. Charlotte County Hospital - Near NOVA HQ
4. A.F. Theriault & Son's Fish Boat Factory - A large part of why St. Andrews is a regional port, and the others aren't.
5. The Ganong Chocolate Factory & Museum - Near NOVA HQ
6. St. Croix River's Hydroelectric Milltown Dam - Important but no known villains particularly close to it.
And a few that were going to need to hope the Guild can defend.
Because even if we went straight over, our response time would still be like an hour, unless it's small enough for me to deal with on my own.
1. Irving Oil - Multiple locations, all vulnerable to villain attacks.
2. Saint John & Saint Joseph Regional Hospital - Multiple locations, all vulnerable to villain attacks.
3. Port Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada - Largest Port in The Maritimes, and it's just as vulnerable as the one in BB, but would be MUCH more devastating if it were blocked off.
4. Saint John Airport - A bit further away, but still a concern.

---
The perk this time was pretty helpful, even if it's a bit low-key.
If nothing else, I can finally show people what it's like to roll, so long as I remember to keep them away from that damned powers list and its revealing of my secrets.
Celestial Grimoire - The Celestial System
Base Cost: -25cp
Lore & Details:
The Celestial Grimoire isn't written, it is grown.
A living book that grows new pages whenever it's chosen dares to ask the universe a question.
Every page is a bargain, inked in starlight on one side and in quiet personal cost on the other.
It whispers patterns, designs, spells, and devices that have never existed before, yet each revelation pulls its wielder a little further from the life they once knew.
Those who bear it do not just learn, they are rewritten until they match the Grimoire's Glory.
---
A self-updating list of all your accepted perks.
Includes a summary of the Perk, the date it was accepted, and the CP cost. Also allows you to refer back to the exact wording of any Perk and to have a physical object to interact with for rolling and considering new perks.
Addons:
-0cp Standard Stranger and Recall-Function for the Celestial Grimoire
Final Cost: -25cp
Bank: 525cp

 

[Oblation]

Opening. Carl launches his balloon house. Emotional impact: curiosity about why this old man is so determined and attached to his home.

Russell arrives on the porch. Emotional impact: humor and confusion as a cheerful kid crashes into the story and contrasts sharply with Carl.

Early flight scenes. Emotional impact: light adventure and wonder, with the sense that Carl might be warming up despite himself.

First flashback. Young Ellie dragging shy Carl into her clubhouse. Emotional impact: recognition that Russell's energy mirrors someone important from Carl's past.

Arrival in the wilderness. Emotional impact: excitement and discovery as the world opens up.

Meeting the giant bird. Emotional impact: joy and chaos as the cast grows and begins to feel like a found family.

A wedding flashback triggered by the bonding moment. Emotional impact: warmth and celebration, showing the foundation of Carl's happiest years.

Meeting the talking dog. Emotional impact: humor and delight, reinforcing the growing group dynamic.

Early marriage flashback with the adopted dog. Emotional impact: domestic comfort and emotional grounding.

Exploration continues with signs of danger growing. Emotional impact: rising tension without losing the sense of adventure.

Flashback to financial strain and the smashed Adventure Fund jar. Emotional impact: quiet disappointment and the realization that dreams were delayed.

Storm or villain interference destroys the house. Emotional impact: shock and loss as the symbolic heart of Carl's life disappears.

Hospital flashback. Ellie in bed and grieving. Emotional impact: realization that the house represented more than nostalgia and that the dream was tied to her well-being.

Comic relief moment with the dog yelling "Squirrel". Emotional impact: release of tension and a brief return to laughter.

Present cheer up scene as Russell and the animals lift Carl's spirits. Emotional impact: emotional rebound and a growing sense of purpose.

Flashback of Carl cheering up Ellie with plans to travel to Paradise Falls. Emotional impact: direct narrative connection between Carl and Russell for the first time, showing Carl stepping into a supportive role.

Group shifts to actively seeking the blimp. Emotional impact: increased focus and determination, replacing aimless wandering.

Flashback of renewed travel plans. Emotional impact: hope rising again in both timelines.

The discovery that the blimp is the villain's base. Emotional impact: shock and escalation of danger.

Capture of the bird and dog. Emotional impact: heartbreak and fear of failure.

Flashback of Ellie collapsing during attempted recovery, followed by her funeral. Emotional impact: full emotional crash and clarity about Carl's grief.

Carl chooses action without needing encouragement. Emotional impact: character growth as he embraces connection and purpose on his own.

Third arc rescue and airship battle. Emotional impact: triumphant adventure payoff.

Capture of the blimp and adoption of it as the new home. Emotional impact: closure and a hopeful future built on new bonds rather than clinging to the past.

 

[Oblation]

Spoiler: A/N

Here is an outline of Saga's Earth-Bet's Version of the Movie "UP" for the curious.

Movie nights on their days together kind of grew in sideways, and Ethan never really remembered when they had officially become a thing, only that sometime in the last few months Saga stopped standing by the door the whole time and started actually sitting down while the movie played.
The apartment showed clear signs of a full evening already, with pizza boxes pushed to one end of the table, soda cans clustered like little monuments, and Missy's math notebook half open on the chair near the hallway where she had clearly abandoned it the second Ethan had said they were done.
The only light in the room came from the TV and from the dull glow of the city sliding in through the window, which made the whole space feel smaller and warmer than it usually did.

He sat in the middle of the couch like always, partly because the girls liked that and partly because it let him reach things without getting up, one hand still holding the remote loosely, the other resting along the back of the cushions.
Elene owned the right corner, tucked into it with her feet up and a blanket over her legs, hair pulled back in a way that meant she had written off the possibility of leaving the house again tonight.
Missy parked herself between Ethan and the coffee table, cross legged, popcorn bowl in front of her like a tiny fort, another blanket draped over her shoulders.
Saga had taken the old spare armchair by the window, the one that was technically just furniture but had become hers by habit, and she sat in it with her socks still on and her arms folded, close enough to be part of the shape of the group while still clearly separate.

The movie was already running, no logos or menus left, just the old man in his tiny house doing the same morning routine with the same grumpy determination, and Ethan watched him bang his cane against the floor and adjust his glasses and felt that little uncomfortable twist of recognition sit in his chest.
He thought briefly that if any of them pointed that out he might actually walk out just to make a point, then admitted to himself that he probably would not, because the couch was comfortable and the kid leaning against his side was warm and he was tired from the day.

Elene's face was calm but not blank, the way it got when she was watching people more than plot, and he could tell from the way her eyes tracked the old man's movements that she was already locked in.
Missy was doing her usual thing, staring like the TV might quiz her later, mouth moving as she silently repeated parts of the boyscout's little speech about helping seniors, probably editing it in her head into something she thought would actually work better.
She had been the favored one in her old house, showered with toys and treats every time she made a noise, so watching a kid work this hard to be helpful hit somewhere strange in her, halfway between admiration and confusion.

Saga sat back in the armchair with that not quite relaxed posture that said she was here because she had chosen to be here, not because she trusted the situation yet.
The old man yelling at workers and the kid falling off the porch did not get much of a reaction from her, maybe a little tightening at the corner of her mouth when the old man snapped, but that could just have been annoyance.
Her parents had saved their soft voices and gentle faces for Missy, and for Saga they had kept the sharp looks and the tones that cut, so old people being snappish on screen probably slid off her defenses most of the time.

When the first flashback hit, the one with the little boy stepping into that broken down clubhouse, Ethan shifted his attention away from the screen on purpose and watched his people instead.
The little girl in the movie swung in on a rope and started talking about adventure and the wilderness and all the things she would do, and Missy lit up like someone had flipped a switch, eyes wide, face softening, body leaning forward without her realizing it.
That kind of wild freedom and that kind of fearless joy had never really been encouraged for her either, because her parents had been too busy buying her things to really watch who she was, and seeing it on screen clearly scratched some itch in her.
Elene smiled, not a big grin, just this small real curve of the mouth that said the energy of the kid on screen reminded her of a younger Missy or maybe a younger version of herself that never got to run around like that.
Her thumb rubbed slowly over the back of Ethan's hand where it rested near her hip, and he realized she had tangled their fingers together somewhere in the last few minutes without him noticing exactly when it happened.
He squeezed back a little and she did not pull away, which still felt like a win even after all the years they had been doing this.
Saga watched that clubhouse scene with a different kind of focus, and Ethan saw the way her eyes went sharp when the girl showed off her scrapbook full of places and dreams and big hopes that had clearly been there for a long time.
Saga's childhood had come with rules and punishments and long stretches of being ignored until someone needed someone to yell at, not scrapbooks and words like someday and we will go there together, so that scene probably hit her less like nostalgia and more like a catalog of things she never got.
He saw one of her fingers start tapping against the arm of the chair, quick and nervous, then stop dead when she noticed it.

The balloons lifted the house into the sky, bright colors throwing moving shadows across their living room, sliding over the pizza boxes and the framed photos and the old lamp they kept meaning to replace.
Ethan watched the old man's face shift from anger to something like quiet joy as the house cleared the cityscape, and he felt his own chest loosen a hair in response, which annoyed him more than he could explain.
He checked the girls again instead of thinking about it.
Missy leaned just that bit more against his arm as the house drifted through clouds, her fingers tightening on the edge of the blanket, eyes wide with the kind of wonder he wished she got to have more often.
She had spent too much of her childhood in the back seats of cars going from one appointment to another, one activity to another, or hiding in corners when her parents' parties got too loud, so simple wonder still felt like borrowed clothing sometimes.
Elene had that look she got whenever a story teased the idea of choosing your own path, a kind of hopeful sadness that he had seen on her face in real hospital rooms and at real funerals.
Saga's shoulders dropped a little during the balloon flight, barely noticeable, but enough that Ethan could tell the constant fight or flight tension in her had eased one notch.
She had never had a house that felt like a safe place, much less one that could pick up and leave when the world got too loud, so maybe there was something in the image that worked for her, even if she refused to smile about it.

The jungle scenes came in with the weird bird and the dog, and the whole tone shifted around them in the room.
Missy actually barked out a laugh when the bird knocked the kid over and tried to eat his chocolate, then clapped a hand over her mouth out of old habit before remembering nobody was going to tell her to hush here.
Elene giggled more quietly, shoulders shaking once, and even let a soft snort escape when the talking dog introduced himself, which made Ethan grin because he always liked it when she forgot to be composed for five seconds.
Saga's mouth twitched upward at the bird, the tiniest tug, almost more of a memory of a smile than the real thing, and Ethan caught it because he had been watching.
Her eyes crinkled just slightly when the dog started talking about his collar and how he was a good dog, and for a few seconds she looked less like a kid waiting for the floor to drop out from under her and more like a teenager who just genuinely liked that the dog was stupid and kind.
She caught herself, though, and the expression smoothed away, arms folding tighter, body pulling back into the safe habits.

Then the movie swung back into one of those flashbacks again, and the wedding rolled in all at once, and the air in the apartment went softer just like before, even though nobody said a word.
The couple from the clubhouse, older now, dressed up, nervous and smiling on that little hill surrounded by people who loved them and wanted to see them happy, and the music swelling in that way that was simple and honest.
Elene's fingers tightened on his as the vows started, and Ethan let his thumb rub slow circles over the back of her hand, feeling the tiny tremor there even while her face stayed mostly calm.
She had never really had an easy clean family backdrop for their own marriage either, family who did not quite get capes, coworkers who thought marrying a colleague was asking for trouble, higher ups who saw them as a scheduling nightmare waiting to happen.
Watching a wedding where nothing went wrong and nobody scowled felt like a weird kind of fantasy even beyond the talking dogs and floating houses.

Missy watched that scene like she was trying to memorize it, eyes shining, mouth parted, blanket nearly slipping off one shoulder.
Her parents had loved to throw parties, big loud ones with too much food and not enough boundaries, but the tenderness on screen had never once shown up in her kitchen or living room growing up.
When the cartoon couple sat together on their little couch afterward, eating cake from a shared plate and looking at their new home like it was the best thing in the world, she inhaled sharply, as if the idea of affection that quiet hurt as much as it healed.

Saga's expression did something tight and strange during the wedding montage, and Ethan knew that look from the times he had pushed too hard and hit some landmine by mistake.
There was anger there, and something like grief, and also this flat kind of disbelief, because everything on screen screamed this is normal, this is how it should be, and that had never been her normal.
Her parents' idea of family had been control and punishment and turning her into a problem every time she breathed wrong, and watching a world where a kid like the bride had grown into someone loved for all her loudness and strangeness was probably getting under her skin more than any tragic plot point.

As the story moved through the years for that cartoon couple, showing them fixing up the house, working, laughing, hitting those slow and fast patches, the reactions in the living room stayed out of synch in a way that made sense.
Missy winced slightly when the couple argued and then worked it out without anyone getting screamed at or belittled, because that was not how fights usually ended in her old house.
Elene smiled softly at the little quiet moments, hands brushing, inside jokes, weather reports that meant more than the words, because she recognized those from their own life.
Saga stared hardest at the scenes where disappointment landed and nobody blamed the wrong person for it, and Ethan could see her trying to process that concept like a foreign language.

Then came the storm, and the crashing, and the moment the house really broke, and even though Ethan knew it was coming this time, his body still reacted like he was in some beat up transport again.
He felt himself lean forward, like he could take some of the hit with his own shoulders, and when the house finally fell and scraped and lay ruined, something behind his ribs punched outward in a way he did not enjoy.
His eyes burned, and he told himself he could just blink it off, but one tear slipped anyway, hot and annoying on his cheek.
He swore under his breath, not quite loud enough for anyone to call him on it, and lifted his hand to wipe it away.
Before his fingers reached his skin, the air on the rug in front of him rippled, and a large grey shape pushed through.
The wolf appeared in that quiet way they always did, one second nothing, next second big body, thick fur, long legs, claws tapping lightly against the wood under the rug.
Its eyes went to Saga first, just for a heartbeat, and Ethan saw the way Saga's gaze met it, sharp and focused, the same way she looked at incoming threats on a mission.
For a long time, these wolves had only ever walked up to Saga herself, or to Missy, when those two cried, and even then only after Saga allowed it.
This time the animal flicked its attention from her down to Ethan instead, and then moved toward him without waiting for any hand gesture or spoken word.
That tiny shift told him more than any speech would have.
The wolf sat in front of him, solid and warm and way bigger up close than on nature shows, and it pressed its broad head against his knee with a kind of stubborn patience.
Ethan stared at it for a second, feeling his heart beat a little too fast, then dropped his free hand into its fur because not doing that would have been weird at that point.
The coat was thick and surprisingly soft, and the simple weight of the animal leaning into him grounded him faster than any breathing exercise he had ever been told to try.

He lifted his eyes to Saga again and saw that she had not ordered it away.
Her shoulders were tense and her jaw tight, but she watched him and the wolf with this small wary softness that he did not see often.
She could have called the animal back with just a thought if she wanted, he had seen it happen before when strangers were around, but she did not.
For the first time, she was letting this strange comforting part of her power reach past herself and Missy and touch the adults too, and that meant something she probably would never admit.

Then the hospital scene started, and the whole tone of the room dropped right along with the movie.
The wife on screen lay in that too bright bed with too white sheets, and the old man sat beside her like the ground would fall away if he stood up.
The sounds in the apartment shrank down to the movie audio and the quiet breathing of four people trying to keep it together.
Elene made a small broken noise when the camera caught the look on the wife's face, that mix of tired and apologetic and still loving, and tears jumped to her eyes so fast it looked like someone had turned on a faucet.
She had sat through too many meetings with doctors and too many calls from hospitals over the years, for teammates and for kids and most often for him, and this scene poked straight at that.
Her eyes overflowed, and tears ran down her cheeks, and she did not hide them, but she did press her hand hard against her mouth for a second, like she did not want to scare anyone with the sound.
Ethan squeezed her fingers tighter, shifting his knee so the wolf's head bumped her ankle a little, because he wanted her to feel that weight too.
The air by her feet shimmered then, and a second grey wolf padded out into the room, just as real as the first.
This one also glanced at Saga for that tiny instant, checking the source, and the girl in the chair gave another small nod, almost grudging but still clear.
The wolf moved around the coffee table carefully, then lowered its heavy head onto Elene's lap, laying it there so that she could feel the warm pressure and fling her free hand into its fur without searching.
Elene did exactly that, fingers diving into the soft coat, clutching like she might fall over if she did not hold onto something.
Tears kept rolling down her face, not dramatic, but steady and honest, and she murmured something into the wolf's fur that Ethan did not catch, maybe just his name, maybe a thank you that she was not about to direct at Saga out loud.
The important part was that Saga sat and watched and did not pull the comfort back, letting the wolves stay where they were.

Missy's breathing had gone shallow and quick by then, and she was visibly fighting with herself, trying to decide if she was allowed to cry at a cartoon or if that made her silly.
Her own childhood had taught her that crying made adults annoyed or made them throw trinkets and treats at her as a distraction, never that it brought anyone close with no agenda.
Watching Elene cry without hiding and watching wolves appear just for that pain scrambled all her old rules.
Her mouth trembled, and her eyes finally filled all the way, and when one tear slipped and then another, the wolf between Ethan and the coffee table shifted its body sideways on its own.
It pressed against her shins too now, sharing that solid weight between them.
Missy blinked, looked down, then let out a little shuddering breath and put both hands into the fur like she had been waiting for permission to collapse.

Saga had not shed a tear yet, but by now her eyes were bright, and the line of her mouth was all wrong for indifference.
She had never seen real illness in her family handled with gentle care, only ignored pain or snapped commands to toughen up, so seeing a partner choosing to sit and hold hands and share that burden felt unreal in a way she had not prepared for.
The fact that the wolves were comforting the adults, that she had let that happen, meant she was watching the scene from somewhere closer than she would ever admit willingly.

The dog yelled about squirrels, and the tension cracked, just like it always did, and the room let out a breath in different ways.
Missy did that messy laugh sob hybrid that kids do when their emotions are way too full, and wiped at her face with the back of her hand while still clutching the wolf.
Elene snorted mid sob and then laughed because the timing was absurd and cruel and kind all at once.
Even Saga let a rough breath out that could almost be a laugh, and shook her head, which for her was a lot.
As the story climbed back into movement, with the old man deciding to keep going and try to fix things, the wolves stayed put, holding their positions like seasoned support officers.
They were not draining Saga, Ethan could tell, because her posture was still tense in a normal way and there were no signs of the faint sagging he had seen after big power uses.
This was not a physical cost for her, it was an emotional choice.
She was sitting there and letting the manifestations of her strange power born gift sit at the feet of two people who were not her and not Missy, and that was new.

When the movie twisted again later and the blimp was revealed as the villain's home and the bird and the dog were taken, the whole apartment went still.
Missy flinched hard, because losing something bright and fun that quickly pressed the same button the social worker meetings had, and her hands tightened around the wolf's fur.
Elene pressed her lips together, tears mostly done but anger now joining the mix.
Ethan felt that familiar old protective anger flare, the same one that came out whenever someone took something from kids just because they could.

Then the last big flashback arrived, and Ellie collapsed on screen, and that was what finally broke Saga's fragile hold.
She made this low sound that he almost missed, a half breath and half curse, and then tears flooded her eyes and spilled over so fast she had no chance of catching them first.
She tried anyway, dragging her palm across her face, but they kept coming, tracking down over skin that was never allowed to look like that in her parents' house.
Her shoulders hunched forward slightly, a posture he only ever saw when something cut very close to her own memories.
The floor near her blurred again, and a third wolf stepped into the room, already looking at her like it had been waiting its turn.
This one did not glance back at anyone else first, it went directly to Saga, then pressed its head against the side of her leg.
Saga froze for a heartbeat, then let out a breath that shuddered and dropped her hand onto the animal's head, fingers curling deep into the fur.
For once she did not shove the tears away, did not snap at the wolf or at anyone, she just cried quietly into the space between them while the movie walked the old man through the funeral.
It hit Missy even harder to see her sister like that and to see the wolf at her side, and she started crying again, softer now but more constant, her empathy spinning up on full speed.
The wolf in front of the couch bore it calmly, letting her clutch at its fur while still keeping its shoulder pressed hard against Ethan's shin.
Elene 's tears picked up again too, though not as violently as before, like a tide that had gone out and now came back to reach one last line on the sand.

Ethan sat there with his hand buried in wolf fur and his other hand still wrapped around Elene's, and tried to wrap his own mind around what had just happened.
For months, maybe longer, he had watched Saga's wolves come for Missy whenever she got overwhelmed, and sometimes for Saga herself, and never once for him or for Elene, even on the nights where he knew they had gone to bed with their own eyes burning.
He had figured that was a boundary she was not ready to cross, that in her head the wolves were for the kids and for herself only, because letting them comfort the adults would mean accepting that this mess of a situation was something like a family.

Tonight had blown that line wide open without any speeches or agreements.
A wolf had come for him when his throat had closed up at the house crashing down, and another had come for Elene in that hospital scene, and both had checked with Saga first before settling, and she had said yes.
Quietly, without words, she had accepted that they were part of her circle, at least for this couch, this room, this night.

When the old man on the screen finally stood up after the funeral and decided to keep going, promising the kid they were going to get their people back, Ethan felt that line land in the room like a marker being put down.
He watched Saga lift her head and wipe her face with the heel of her hand, watched Missy lean a little toward her, watched Elene straighten her spine and breathe deeper again.
The wolves stayed a while longer while the movie turned loud and silly and triumphant, then faded one by one as everyone settled.

When the credits finally rolled and the TV light softened, Saga was the first to move, which was normal because she always had a clock in her head for when she needed to be gone.
She scrubbed at her eyes once more, then pushed herself up out of the chair, joints cracking faintly in the quiet room.
Usually at this point she would grab her bag, and be halfway to the door before anyone could try emotional anything.
Tonight she paused beside the coffee table first, glancing at Elene and Ethan and Missy in turn, and the look she gave them was tired and raw but not closed.
The wolves were gone, no paws, no fur, just a bit of shed hair on the rug, but their presence still hung there in the same air.

Ethan met her eyes and did not say a thing, because anything he tried would probably turn into something too big for this moment.
"See you next week" Saga sent in the IRC, and the way she sent it made it sound less like checking and more like staking a claim on the time.
"Yeah," Ethan answered, keeping it simple because adding more would have been too much, "same time, same couch, same terrible snacks."
Missy nodded quickly, clutching the blanket, and Elene gave a small smile that said she had heard the real question in that line and was answering yes to that as well.
Saga looked at them all one more time, then grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair and headed for the door, shoulders not quite as tight as when she had arrived.

Ethan listened to the soft click when the door closed behind her and sat there for a second longer, the room smelling faintly like popcorn and city air and something wild that always lingered a little after the wolves left.
He knew she was going back to a place that still did not feel like home yet, and he knew Missy would probably message her before bed anyway, and he knew that letting the wolves help the grown-ups had cost Saga something pride shaped even if it had not tired her power.
He squeezed Elene's hand once more and bumped his shoulder against Missy's, and decided that whatever exactly they were building here, it was real enough that even a girl raised on cruelty and suspicion was beginning to lean into it.
For a weekly movie night at the end of a long day, that felt like more than he had any right to ask for.

Spoiler: Question for Readers

What do you think?
More Ethan + Elene + Missy + Saga bonding?
Or would you prefer this happens in the background and we keep mostly with the plot stuff like NOVA and whatever Lung and his Tinker have been planning?

 

[Oblation]

Chapter Text

So… something really weird is going on with the perks.
It's been in the back of my head that nobody's commented on how familiar some of the perks are. Like, taken directly from Aleph imports or sometimes directly from things that exist in media here on Bet, like Star Wars.
But nobody's brought it up and I just kinda moved on without thinking about it… until I actually showed them a roll, and watched in real time as Emily glaised over the source.
Emily is WAY too good at attention to detail to do that, much less on an important detail like this, but when the perk explains where it's from, she (and everyone else) just kinda… skim past it.
And I mean EVERYONE!
Even Angeles and Dragon couldn't figure out what I was trying to get them to see.
The only silver lining is that I guess when you look crazy enough, they don't put you in M/S, they just call it Powers BS and move on:
---
Oh, and I don't normally include the reject perks, but since it was relevant, what with having a bunch of people read it, I'll include this one:
What I see:
Visage of Terror - God of War
Base Cost: -50cp
Lore & Details:
In God of War, there is a man who once broke a pantheon and now tries to break his own rage. The woods know his name even when he will not speak it. Old gods stir. New gods whisper. The father walks. The son learns. The world breathes around them as if afraid to wake something deeper.
---
Your form hijacks the primitive fear centers in anyone who sees you so hard that dislike gets overwritten by raw panic and obedience.
Addons:
N/A
Final Cost: -50cp
Bank: 1100cp
What others see:
Visage of Terror
There is a man who once broke a pantheon and now tries to break his own rage. The woods know his name even when he will not speak it. Old gods stir. New gods whisper. The father walks. The son learns. The world breathes around them as if afraid to wake something deeper.
Your form hijacks the primitive fear centers in anyone who sees you so hard that dislike gets overwritten by raw panic and obedience.
-50cp
I also got a perk that I accepted, which inspired the rest of the day.
SCP 1425 - SCP Foundation
Base Cost: -150cp
Lore & Details:
The Foundation's basically a cosmic janitorial squad keeping the weird stuff from licking the planet. Most days, it's babysitting a smug toaster or bribing a duck that refuses to die. Sometimes the interns whisper. Sometimes the walls do. Nobody asks questions because questions bite. Everyone still clocks in since the alternative is letting the anomalies out of HR.
---
For 1 hour per day, you can create stories of impossibly fantastic quality, so long as they include some sort of subliminal message.
Addons:
-50cp 2 Hours per day.
-100cp 3 Hours per day.
-150cp 4 Hours per day.
-200cp 5 Hours per day.
-250cp 6 Hours per day.
Final Cost: -200cp
Bank: 1100cp
So… I might not have told them about the additions once I knew they couldn't see them.
At the time, this was mainly just because I didn't want to get assigned to make PR slogans super effective for 5 hours a day.
(Plus, I was right, immediately after this, they made me post something under the official accounts of a bunch of heroes with the subliminal message of "I'm trustworthy and likeable.")
But the sneaky idea that occurred to me was this power's potential for chaos.
My first idea was to reinforce that old "Assault and Battery are siblings" meme, but that's a bit mean for people who've been really decent lately.
But thinking of people whose opinion of me doesn't matter, I asked Vicky if she was dating Dean currently and after the rant was done I asked if she could give me a list of the times he had done that 4-D chess trick of his by having "Gallant," (aka someone wearing his armor) show up at a charity event run by his family.
(It's 4-D chess because it helps Dean, but also counts for Gallant's PR duties simultaneously somehow.)
So list in hand, I slammed together 5 chapters of an actually pretty tame Dean/Gallant smutfic, but made sure to line it up with the dates and times of the actual events and had it as a romance in the backstage moments at these events.
Now, I'm no stranger to Capefic, I don't think anyone who's entered an Earth-Bet middle school in the past decade is.
But usually writing even ok, stuff takes time, so slamming out 8k and 5 chapters in an hour and a half was a really wild experience for me.
Practically an out-of-body experience, what with how I just kept focusing on the subliminal message, yet the fic kept getting written at lightning speed.
That message:
"This really happened."
Good luck Dean… XD

Spoiler: Question for Readers

Any ideas for more pranks Saga can pull with her Infohazard fanfiction power?
Try to keep it more funny than mean, but I'm 100% down to set off some pranks and have them become plot points later as the Internet does its thing in the background.

The best one I've got so far is some kind of smear campaign fic against Uber and Leet that she puts a few minutes into daily, until she either tanks or skyrockets their views.
But that seems a bit too direct/obvious for the use of a power with this much potential for chaos.

 

[Oblation]

So Vicky found out about the new power and apparently made up with Dean in the meantime.

I took the fic down, but it seems I underestimated just how popular supernaturaly good fanfiction would be since it was back up in a bunch of copies within the hour.

Vicky seems to think I should be using the power for "good."
That was all fine up until she got to brainstorming, and we realised the difference in our definitions of "good".

My definition leans more towards what I would call Chaotic Good, whereas Vicky leans a bit more towards a Lawful Good.
Not Lawful as in US Law, but lawfully as in, she has a moral code and thinks those who break it, regardless of whether they have a different code, should be treated as evil.
Specifically, she wanted me to make a fic to convince people that Triumph's Cousin was a psycho and shouldn't be trusted.

This actually became a whole thing and was the first time I really used my "Queen" title on the IRC since I ended up muting everyone in the Wards Chat (including mods like Vicky) for an hour and just pinned a comment saying that, like it or not, I'm not going beyond pranks on comrades.
Even when said comrades are across the country, and maybe or maybe not got your Mom killed unnecessarily.

That said, Vicky (and Eric, who had joined in) are my friends, so I ended up putting 5 hours over the last 3 days to make a full "life of Brandish" biography Speaker For The Dead style with her "technically not a murder" at the end in plain sight with exactly zero obfuscation of who did it.
(Well, her cape name, I'm not gonna out her and go to jail, but I put her cape name in plain English, and mentioned her signing up and getting forced to her new city immediately afterward.)

I guess there's some kind of politics going on in the Protectorate and PRT about my eulogy, but all I've seen of it was a crying hug from Vicky and Emily telling me that, while disapproved of by national PR, it was an unfortunate necessity for team cohesion, so she'd made sure I wouldn't get any blowback.

---

Oh, and as a pallot clensor after all the drama and biographing I've been doing, I wrote up the first few chapters of my Archer's Bridge Merchants fanfic.

I honestly couldn't think of a way to make fun of them, so in the end I decided to do the opposite in the hopes it'll make the real thing seem even more sad.
Specifically, in this hypothetical world, the gang is actually a psy-op for a shadowy cabal/Illuminati-type group that I'll work out the details of later.

So, as a result of this, each member is actually some kind of hyper-competent black-ops agent type whose role as bottom of the bottom-of-the-barrel gangster is actually a super detailed act designed to slide them under the radar as they slowly expand the reach and strategic control of the Illuminati.

It's early days, but the idea is that the Illuminati doesn't actually want to rule the world directly.
They just want to puppet it, so they set up a series of groups that control some of every city so that they can exert wide-scale influence on entire regions at a time.

The only real question for now is if I decide to go hard or soft with it.
Going soft would be a fun SCP-style Illuminati that's just barely hanging on to its influence with the changing world of parahumans.
Going hard though…

Cauldron.
Like straight up, Dr. Mother, Contessa, and the rest, and I just mask off Culdron and see what happens.

I mean, it's REALLY risky, but if I'm trying to use this power against Evil, I can't really think of a bigger one than Culdron, save for something like Ziz.
But everyone knows she's evil, while Culdron is still basically just a meme, for all the damage they've done to people like Weld and my new teammate, Elisa.

I am REALLY tempted…

Spoiler: Question for Readers

What type of Illuminati do you think Saga should go for?
SCP or Cauldron?

 

[prussian-granadier]

oh neat your posting in here too!