Celestial Saga

[Oblation]

So, I've mentioned multiple times how there are shenanigans going on on Earth-Bet, separate from and sometimes Pre-Dating Scion showing up in 1965.

One of the more minor but persistent things is a bit of a Charles Atlas Effect .

It's very subtle, but if you were to compare, say Strongmen of Earth-IRL and (Saga's) Earth-Bet, not only would you find the Bet-Strongmen Stronger, but strangely you'd find the age of their Strongest members to generally be around the same age IRL-Strongmen consider to be about as old as you can be and still compete competitively.

Basically, the idea of the Charles Atlas Effect is that you train your way into superpowers.

But not like, learn to punch so well, you can now use magic and call yourself the Iron Fist.
Charles Atlas Superpowers are (generally) more along the lines of the stuff Batman can do, or things taken as default in DC.

Like having a group full of people casually pulling off what would on Earth-IRL be the Olympic gold medal level of Parkour, assuming such a sport existed.
But then to also have some of those people be detectives on the level of Sherlock Holmes, and also have a mess of other world-class skills, such as multiple different martial arts, hacking, gymnastics, infiltration and a few other "minor" skills like: Cooking, Dancing, Music in general and Guitar in particular, Photography, and of corse, Vehicle Repair.

The kind of things where having that level of skill in any ONE of them would make someone a world-renowned expert on Earth-IRL, and do you want to know who I just described?

A 14-year-old Dick Grayson, currently known as Nightwing, but known at the time as Robin. The SIDEKICK of Batman.

So, when I mentioned that there were superheroes before Scion, to be clear, I wasn't talking about idiots in spandex with a shared hobby.

If Sherlock Holmes is what happens when a Genius Charles Atlas's himself into a thinker 2-3, then just imagine what a Brute 1/Mover 1 would be…

Well, admittedly, there'd be no Batman, or even a Knightwing.

I don't know many people who could handle them on Earth-Bet NOW, much less in the '50s.

But it is totally possible to effort yourself into being a 2 or even 3 in something on the PRT scale.

Emily Piggot actually would've counted as a Brute 1/Thinker 1 for the insane effort she put in the 9 months before challenging the Goblin King.

And while she's mostly just accepted "pretty good shape" since then in chapter 28, I did my best to portray two people who have quietly worked their way into thinker powers without anyone noticing.

Specifically, Emily's Thinker 2 Psychoanalyzing power, which slowly works up to a Thinker 3, thanks to the extra effort she's started to put in with Saga.
And the old fishermen she's met, who has a sort of vague spatial sense, for the sea and an increased ability to understand and predict it.

---

Oh, and as a sidenote that'll likely not come up anytime soon. The Numberman is one of the few to independently discover this quality of Earth-Bet. Before he triggered, actually, though comparing Bet to other Earths, since has made it a lot clearer.
So this is one of the few things the much-reduced Culdron is still putting active research into.

One interesting detail about this research is that it, plus her so far fruitless search for Fortuna (or to at least confirm her death), has led to the Non-Bet-Native Dr. Mother developing into a Thinker 1.
Before, in a moment of hopelessness, she drank one of her more dangerous but potentially powerful thinker vials.

While the power she got hasn't led to Fortuna, it did allow the Numberman to confirm that people on Bet who work their way into minor powers are actually something like 10x as likely to get through a vial trigger without mutation or death.
So while the resulting powers also tend to be weaker on average, Cauldron has mostly sought out people the Numberman believes to have developed low-level powers for Vials.

Some local examples of this include Coil, Triumph, Gallant, and Battery.
With the only unexpected cases being Triumph, who largely got a Shaker power when he was expected to become a mid-tier Brute and Coil, who had a nearly 0% chance of granting any cognition enhancements at all.
So getting the two timelines was unsurprising, but being able to seamlessly focus on both was quite startling, and made Culdron wonder if he'd actually been the rare natural Thinker 3, before drinking the Vial…

 

[Oblation]

The problem with Saga Byrne is that Emily genuinely can't find her problem.

First starting in the tense atmosphere of her childhood home, Emily had learned how to build a basic model of people around her.
When this model was detailed enough, they would never surprise her, as had eventually happened with her parents.

And contrary to what people thought, the few times she had attempted to explain this, it had nothing to do with being rational, or even just mapping out the topics where a person would be irrational.

That was basic social dynamics, to the point that small children were expected to do it instinctively.

The closest Emily had ever come to someone understanding her was when talking to an Old Fisherman who often helped the rather strange PRT branch in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The way he talked about navigating the Ocean.
A man who couldn't even drive (legally anyway) due to his poor eyesight, but would frequently navigate hundreds of miles by boat.

So even if she couldn't easily explain it, she knew that it worked, and she knew when a person was near the edge.

Not necessarily in a mental health way.
God knew Emily was in no place to judge on that account.

There were plenty of Ways to describe it: "Possessed of Humours," "Fey-Touched," "Mask of Sanity," "Lucid eccentric."
And Emily's favorite, from that old fisherman: "Still waters, dark depths."

But regardless of how you put it, Capes all had it.

Oh, it's not just capes, they weren't even the majority of people in the world who were like that.
But every cape whom Emily had talked to for more than a few minutes would start to show the signs, and in all but a single case, those signs had been confirmed as she got to know that cape further.

Except for Saga Tara Byrne.

Oh, not all capes were as obvious, or as close to that edge.

It was clear that Miss Militia had been deliberately moving away from the edge for decades, though that sort of thing made its own kind of mark on a person.

On the other end, there were the more confusing cases like Battery, who almost seemed to be the exception until she pieced together a bit of her past as Elene Galvani and realized that she was probably the worst of the lot.
Emily wasn't sure what kind of crazy-reckless thing Elene had managed to talk herself into within the two months she was unaccounted for, but whatever it was had seemingly scared her enough to have been on a similar, if faster version of Hanna's path to Sanity ever since.

So it's been quite the upheaval to continue to interact with Saga and to keep finding… nothing.

…

Honestly, the custody thing had mostly happened without her intervention.

Grant Renoch, the Deputy Director who was in charge of The Bay's PRT on a practical level, had jumped at the chance for the city to get its first PRT Ward, and had some hopes of eventually transitioning the city into the Texas model, with Protectorate-Wards being the exception rather than the rule.

She personally doubts he'll manage it with two of the first Wards in the city and Legend nearby. Not to mention, as decent an administrator as Grant was, he was no Accord in terms of planning.

Still, what was meant as a temporary arrangement while she officially investigated the girl's report of abuse turned into a permanent thing before she was able to confirm it was a simple case of misplaced priorities.

Given the tendency of recent triggers to feel a burning need to exercise their powers right away, Hanna had essentially led Saga to believe that she was required to work until exhaustion in power testing, rather than being encouraged to experiment in a safe environment until she felt satisfied.

Still, she was a PRT Ward now, and the protectorate was fully aware that Emily had no fault in that particular decision.

Plus, it's not as if this would bring no benefit to the Protectorate either.
There are certain resources earmarked for PRT-Wards specifically, which can be utilized by any Ward so long as there is at least one PRT Ward nearby that is using them as well.

Emily was actually quite proud of the tutoring scheme she'd worked out for those with kids near Saga's age.
Particularly in how little it required her to utilize her legal bullshitting skills.
Hell, from a paperwork perspective, she'd essentially stated the truth.
Saga was the excuse, Employee and Trooper Morale was the purpose.

But PRT-Wards are rare enough in New England that any excuse to keep one around, even going as far as bribing a Protectorate member with expensive, advanced tutoring for his son, would seemingly be accepted.

…

But that gets back to the girl herself.

She had gone into that explanation halfway expecting some kind of blow-up or sulking. It wouldn't even be strange out of a non-parahuman 11-year-old…

But nothing.

She didn't quite pick up on all the nuances of the situation.
If nothing else, Emily's pretty sure the bribing of Dauntless went completely over her head.

But she was fine with it.

Seems to have figured out that it would help the PRT so long as she went along with it, which would in turn make the PRT more lenient with her, so she would.

Perfectly. Reasonable.

What??

…

The fact that terms like "Most potential since Eidolon" are being bandied about for a kid that all of Emily's instincts are telling her isn't a parahuman is just icing on the cake.

…

The only real silver lining with the situation is that her instinct for capes didn't make her disposed to them, and they had often noticed.
But, well, there's a reason "Mask of Sanity" is one of the ways to describe that type of person.

Even Hannah or Elene were a bit too close to the edge for Emily to ever completely relax around them.
In the same way that having one of those ice-cold killers like Tom Calvyrt around always managed to leave her tense.

So whatever was up with the girl, as far as her instincts for people go, she is just what she seems to be.
An 11-year-old girl with a knotted mess of mental issues and more power than is healthy for an adult.

Not exactly the picture of stability, but also not someone Emily is worried would snap without the kind of External pressure that, as her guardian, Emily is meant to pick up on and navigate her past.

…

Plus, it doesn't hurt that by appearances alone, they could easily be mother and daughter, as blonds with Scandinavian roots who are about 30 years apart in age.
She might have simplified it to Piggot after moving out, but she was born a Pikettsen after all.

…

Though the situation with splitting up two sisters was a bit unfortunate, she didn't like the idea of forcing Saga near Assault more than necessary, for more than the usual reasons, now.

Whereas anyone with a brain can see the benefits of encouraging the bonding between the Shaker 9 and one of the Bay's two most stable parahumans.
Which obviously means it's only a matter of time before Armsmaster attempts to interfere.

But there was no sense borrowing future headaches.

For now, the situation is stable, and she was as close to happy as she ever got with the recent developments.

Spoiler: A/N

I'd recommend reading On Non-Shard Powers and a bit of what Cauldrons been up to... if you're confused about the very much Non-Parahuman Thinker 2-3 Emily Piggot seen here.

 

[Oblation]

As she gives the go-ahead for Saga to utilize her power once again, Emily contemplates the numerous different offers for resource exchange in regards to her.

From Hero's generous offer to hold off officially thanking Saga for that Ring all the local nerds are so excited about, until the Bay is in need of a PR boost or a Show of Force.
To the more dubious offers, like the half-generous-offer and half-dangerous-threat from Glenn Chambers to take over Saga's PR and Marketing strategies, personally.
To the mildly unnerving fact that her weekly summaries of the girl's development had recently begun making their way to the president's desk…

This whole guardianship thing was turning out to be exactly as complicated as Emily expected.

But the strange part was how few of those complications came from Saga herself.
Functionally, none, if you count her power as a separate source of tension, like Emily has been.

The closest thing the girl had done to annoying was the plan to take down Uber and Leet, but unlike her initial concerns, Saga seemed completely content to wait weeks for any initial action, and for any significant actions afterward to functionally be PRT operations with her brought along as mascot.

But even then, it was less a headache due to Saga herself, and more due to needing to balance the egos of her Security Team, who would insist on heading the project along with the not-so-subtle encouragement she was getting from multiple fronts to offer up "Phoenix" as the at least nominal "Head" of the operation.

Absolutely ludicrous, but PR wants "The Next Eidolon" to start building a reputation, and too much pressure is coming from too many directions for Emily to do anything but keep an eye on things herself to make sure the rest of the operation is as professional as possible.

Plus, though she does her best to leave the day-to-day stuff to Grant, it's true enough that every other city in her jurisdiction would have long since assigned at least a handful of staff permanently to such a long-term group as Uber and Leet, even if action against them might get delayed repeatedly.

But, as far as anyone could tell, other than coming up on the analyst's normal rotations of local capes, nobody had spent significant time investigating the duo after their first year of activity.
A state of affairs that would be horrendously embarrassing if any of their tinkertech ever malfunctioned in a particularly harmful way, and caused a scandal for not having already taken them down.
Something that the reports generated by Saga's team were painting as not only an inevitability but one that seemed to be increasing in likelihood every time they poked their heads out of their hole.

…

Oh, and it seemed everyone was in agreement about the first of the two rolls today, she should probably read it to make sure."

Battlecat - Masters of the Universe - 100cp
"You may create or import an animal companion to be given a battle form. By default, they will be an Eternian tiger or panther. They will be able to change into a form capable of carrying you into battle. Their physical prowess, when transformed, will make them quite effective in melee as well. Even if they could not before, they will now be capable of human speech in both their battle and normal forms.
-50cp to apply to personal Animal Form.
Cost: 150cp
Bank: 550cp"​

Well, that's not so bad.
A bit unclear on what "battle form" would even be for a bird. But making her Changer state bigger shouldn't hurt anything, so she gives the final approval, as Saga's guardian.

Not that the girl seems to understand that's why.
As if Emily would normally have more than the occasional interaction with local wards, even the so far hypothetical PRT-Wards.

She stands back to work through a bit of paperwork as the new form is tested, and is genuinely surprised with the rest to have discovered the apparent telepathy this has granted her.

Still, only communicating with those touching her, and only in the larger or smaller bird forms, isn't that bad.

Though Dragon's insistence that the process didn't involve sound transmission of any detectable type was slightly worrying, as she was rather under the impression that genuine telepathy was considered impossible.

But, it's not as if Emily couldn't have told them all about Saga's strangeness for a cape from day one, so she let the discussion pass her by, as did Saga.

Eventually, Dragon picked up on the girl's wandering attention and prompted the last roll of the day:

Basic Spellbooks - Durmstrang Institute - 200cp
" The basic set of instructional textbooks for beginner Mages, with a preference for magic of Eastern European origin, and for setting the foundations for later education on, and defending against the Dark Arts.
-100cp for Books inventory attunement. ("Magical Tutorial Mode" rather than physical texts.)
-100cp for Magical Focus inventory attunement. (Inventory now generates temporary magical focuses of average strength and potency for any type of magic you have access to.)
Bank: 400cp
Cost: 400cp"​

Saga wasn't looking pleased at the possibility of being told to deny this one, given how she's glaring down that scientist, so Dragon told her the final decision was "hers," and I nodded when she looked at me.

So it seems we'll just need to keep an eye out for "the foundations [of] the Dark Arts."

…

A few days later, Emily watched as Vista further cemented her reputation as "the cute one" by visibly trying to act mature and "set an example" at the PR event as Gallant held his pretty solid poker face and Glory Girl flat out cooed at Vista.
Saga, of course, managed an actual aura of maturity by calmly allowing herself to be tugged along in her sister's wake and occasionally sitting on someone's shoulder in smaller bird form for photos.

While Emily was no great expert in PR, she did understand the reasoning behind it, and she'd certainly had more onerous PR duties than answering some questions as some Wards and Glory Girl wandered around for photographs.

The closest thing to a disruption came when a teen-aged couple sauntered up to get a picture with Gallant, and Glory Girl started leaking her master-aura for a moment.
But Gallant said something, and she pulled it back in.

Worrying, but good to confirm who the girl saw as allies, given that the only ones to seemingly react negatively were the two teens.

…

Pulling Gallant aside later didn't provide much explanation beyond "explaining her anger would tread heavily on the Unwritten rules."
Though he did elaborate:
"Normally, I wouldn't even say this much, but showing up like that was close enough to the line that I think its simple turnabout, but I really shouldn't say more."

Well, it seems we've got rough physical descriptions of all the Undersiders now.
For PRT records, if nothing else.

Not a wild leap from "someone that would make a new wave member angry on sight" to "two of the 4 teen villains recently discovered to be working for Coil."
Along with the appearance of Hellhound and Hijack being on public record.

Showing up like that was a stupid move, but what else can be expected from a group that manages the headache trifecta of gang thugs, capes, and teenagers?
She almost wished Coil luck, needing to deal with that particular time-bomb of a team.

More reason to stop looking a gift horse in the mouth with Saga, Emily supposes...

Spoiler: A/N

+150cp added from the Time-Skip Reserve.
(The CP generated by side works and explanations kept in Reserve rather than granted immediately, so that CP generation will continue to seem somewhat consistent from an in-story perspective.)
If you're curious about that second roll and its additions, I've given a bit more detail about how rolling works in chapter 8 of Celestial Saga: Behind the Scenes: Saga's Base Build & The Balance of RNG / Intention behind Rolls.

 

[Oblation]

Spoiler: Note, for the purposes of this chapter:

"Big Boss" is the head of Saga's Security team (Firewatch), acting in his role for the video as the Leader of a Metal Gear: Spec. Ops. Team.
While "Raymond" is him acting as himself, reporting Mission Success to Saga.
"Little Boss" is Saga's role, in this case as the grizzled general type, who assigned the Spec. Ops. Team their mission.
And "Phoenix" is Saga acting as "Herself" or at least the version of herself who is a Ward who asked her security team to field test some Tinkertech for her.

This chapter is a little confusing, with them switching names, but this is as clear as I could get it without just getting rid of the Roll-Play aspect, and that would defeat the point of going to all this effort.

But keep in mind that the POV on this is "Raymond" explaining to "Phoenix" about the successful mission to raid an office with ties to both the Dockworkers Association and Uber & Leet, with frequent flashbacks to the mission itself where the team were all using codenames so Raymond=Big Boss and Saga=Little Boss.

It's still kinda confusing, but this is my best shot at describing an in-universe video clip in a purely written format for AO3.

Please Enjoy:

Firewatch – Operation Uber & Leet Cleanup

​

After-action report transcript

(PRT Archive sting, faint static)

Raymond: Little Boss, this is my after-action report for Operation Leet Cleanup. Intel flagged tonight as a fresh recruitment push for Uber and Leet's next stream. Primary targets: Uber and Leet, expected but unconfirmed. Secondary: regular logistics crew, seven known. Unknown number of new part-timers being briefed. Field test on copper armor, heavier dark blue variant, and cloaking vials.

(Video angle: Phoenix at ops desk, her words typed out, flat)

Little Boss: Firewatch. Primaries unseen. Seven regulars, spread. New recruits tonight. Number unknown. One regular likely briefing them. Force only if armed. Fast, clean. Zero continues. Cloaks: one use, three mins.

(Bodycams power on: light rain, copper HUD border faint)

Raymond: We moved at 2200. Raven led in dark blue heavy armor—slower, but could tank anything short of a bolt from the big guns. Rain muffled approach; HUD held stable except brief static.

(Meryl's cam: storage corridor, crates stamped "U&L LIVE")

Raymond: First regular dockworker spotted near loading bay. Holding a controller-looking tinkertech prop—probably for show. He turned, dropped it fast when Meryl stepped forward.

Meryl (steady): PRT. Hands visible. Step back, slow.

(Dockworker complies, breath fast)

Raymond: Raven zip-tied him clean. Tinkertech looked like a foam controller—harmless, but logged for evidence.

(Otacon's cam: narrow office corridor, second dockworker adjusting headset rig)

Raymond: Second worker had a cheap VR mask. Likely for the stream set dressing. Didn't resist; backed into Otacon's field of view, hands up quick.

Otacon (calm): Down on your knees. Stay still.

(Worker nods, drops headset)

(Quiet's cam: server room, low hum; third dockworker near tower case covered in U&L stickers)

Raymond: Third tried to shuffle drives into a bag. Quiet stepped in, hand near baton but didn't draw.

Quiet (flat): Step away. Hands high.

(Worker pauses, steps back, muttering)

Raymond: Drives stayed; evidence kept intact.

(Solidus's cam: back hallway; fourth dockworker with gauntlet prop, plastic lights flickering)

Raymond: Fourth one had a fake power glove, tinkertech but no charge pack. Tried to look tough; Solidus moved in fast.

Solidus: Off. Hands open.

(Worker obeys; glove hits ground, small spark)

Raymond: No fight. Just nerves.

(Vulcan Raven's cam: fifth dockworker in corner of main warehouse, tinkering with something like a cheap "power-up" prop)

Raymond: He didn't notice Raven until too late. Raven's shadow alone got him to freeze. Zip-tied him quick; no resistance.

(Meryl's cam: sixth dockworker by crates, old "Game Over" light panel under arm)

Meryl (firm): Drop it. Hands behind head.

(Worker sighs, complies)

Raymond: Six regulars detained. Props logged: harmless, mostly plastic with LEDs. No weapons confirmed.

(HUD update: "SECONDARY TARGETS DETAINED: 6")

(Liquid's cam: big central room; about ten nervous part-timers in casual clothes, half-listening to a regular minion speaking fast)

Raymond: Found the recruits. Number unknown going in; turned out to be ten. Regular minion with headset was hyping them up, promising livestream clout and quick money. Saw him gesture toward us, telling them to "rush the door if it opens."

Liquid (quiet, codec): They're wired up. Might try it.

Raymond: Ordered hold; no weapons sighted yet. Solidus moved in cloaked to flank.

Big Boss (Raymond): Confirm cloak timer. Wait on my go.

Otacon: Timer ready. Solidus in place, left rear.

(Solidus's cam: shimmer in air; breath fogs slightly)

Raymond: Cloak held about two-forty-five clean before shimmer edges. Long enough to position behind them unseen.

(Minion raises voice: "They're coming! If we rush, we can get out—don't freeze!")

Raymond: Four part-timers stepped forward, shaky but ready. Liquid shifted left; risk of being cornered.

Big Boss: Solidus—now.

(Solidus drops out of cloaking mid-stride; part-timers jump back)

Solidus (controlled): Hands up. All of you. Now.

(Room freezes. Two bolt for side door; rest drop hands, step back)

Raymond: Regular minion tried to run too—Raven stepped through crates, cut him off without a hit. Eight surrendered on the spot; two fled into storage, caught later by Meryl and Quiet near exit.

(HUD: "TERTIARY TARGETS SCATTERED OR DETAINED: 10 | PRIMARY TARGETS NOT PRESENT")

Raymond: Uber and Leet never showed. Evidence suggests they planned to arrive later or supervise remote. Otacon dumped sponsor lists and IP logs; upload successful.

(Codec beep)

Big Boss: Little Boss, site secure. Primaries absent. Upload done.

Little Boss: Good. Fast. No shots?

Raymond: None fired. Props harmless, but still logged. Raven's heavy dark blue took baton and crate hits; zero damage. Copper plates stopped bruises; stayed mobile. Cloak vials worked; shimmer visible near end, never too early.

Phoenix: Noted. Dragon edits footage. Keep short.

(HUD scroll: "MISSION COMPLETE | CONTINUES USED: 0 | MISSION RANK: B")

(Rooftop cam, team grouped under drizzle)

Liquid (quiet): Primaries slipped us.

Solidus: We'll get them next run.

Liquid: And no continues.

Raymond: Phoenix, thanks for gear. Kept us and them safe. End of report.

(Black screen)

PROPERTY OF PRT ARCHIVES – FIREWATCH

FIREWATCH WILL RETURN - PRESS X TO CONTINUE

(Post-credits codec hiss)

Solidus (low): They learn quick.

Liquid (quiet): So do we.

(Legal card)

METAL GEAR: UBER & LEET OPS | FIREWATCH RAID After-action report by Raymond to Phoenix. Seven regular minions detained. Ten new recruits scattered or caught. Primary targets Uber & Leet absent. Props harmless; video evidence secured. Armor and cloaks tested in field. No lethal force used. Video edit and archive by Dragon of the Guild. #Firewatch #UberAndLeet #MetalGearOps #PRTHeroes

(Video ends)

 

[Oblation]

I got a roll that became the bane of my existence lately:

Gold Pouch - The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim - 100cp
"Gold! You've struck gold! You now have 100 gold coins and will gain an additional 15 per day, but don't go spending it all in one… Or actually feel free to do just that, after all, these coins are rather small.
Still, 15 gold is enough to buy you a night's stay and a bowl of stew at any inn in Skyrim, at least.
Cost: 100cp
Bank: 900cp"​

Ok, I guess we get to find out what an efficiency 3 gold pickaxe does with real-world physics.

Diamond would be better, or netherite, but since I'm nearly certain I'd get in trouble for selling the coins, and they're too small for much else, I can basically just treat them as nuggets.
But I'd 100% get in trouble if I sold the ingot, especially after Dragon made such a big deal about the diamonds.
I mean, apparently the diamond block completely solved whatever problem was causing her artificial diamonds to explode, so I'm not getting any more from that direction.

So, for the moment, if I need an obstacle broken at speed, then 3x gold tools seem to be the way to go.

And yes, I do know I'm skipping the obvious thing, but unfortunately for me, the golden apple is the problem.
I mean, not the one I made, that got sent off for testing the moment after I showed it to Emily.

Oh, I'm sure the golden apple will be awesome, but the problem is how its regen is simultaneously insane and kinda trash with Panacea in the same city.

Over the course of 5 seconds, it restores 20% of health.

In a videogame, that's fine, but in real life, that's insane.
Because it's not 20% of the way to being cured of whatever.
It's as if you could measure the distance between perfectly healthy and dead, it gets you 20% of that distance closer to perfectly healthy, and in only 5 seconds.

But it's got a downside.

It instantly grants you 20% of health back or gets you to 120% if you're at 100% already somehow (not how real life works, but technically possible).
… For 2 minutes, then it just as instantly reverts.

Basically, whoever eats it is, unless they're REALLY messed up, going to suddenly be not just fully healthy, but a little bit better… for 2 minutes, then their injuries suddenly come back, mostly healed, but not completely, especially after the awful feeling of having the 2 minutes end.

Basically, the golden apple is a miracle cure… that'll get me sued the first time I offer one to anyone outside the PRT.
But if I offer them more than a little, even within the PRT, then people WILL find out and they WILL demand the miracle cure.

So… golden tools it is.

I hope the scientists like the golden apple they got, because I'm done.
I'll try to build up a few for emergencies, but I don't want to deal with the headache of treating these like the potions.

No wonder Amy looks so tired all the time.

 

[Oblation]

In happier news, the video is doing well.
Like really well.
Like really, really well!
Ok, I'll stop.

But I didn't really think twice about Dragon's offer to edit the footage at the time.

I mean, I did want it to be seen, Firewatch put too much effort into researching not just Uber and Leets operations and Dockworks connections, but their psychology.
So they idea of doing a Video game-themed takedown of Uber and Leets operations, and to upload the video on the Birthday of a beloved video game character.

It was Genius.
Even Emily approved, though she was mostly focused on making sure Firewatch stuck to the parts of PRT protocols that are actually important and not just for the red tape.

But the thing about Dragon is that, as personable as she is, she's also a big deal.
Specifically, a Big Deal who's that nice to A LOT of people.

Meaning, when her name is on something, people know.

But most of what her name is on is Tinkertech or Normal-tech, which is made from studying Tinkertech.
But on the rare occasion when her name ends up on something else…

Suddenly, people are popping out of the woodwork to praise and promote that thing.

I mean, Glenn Chambers, "The Fixer" himself, has apparently been put in charge of the Firewatch PR… somehow.
Like, I'm pretty sure their still mostly my bodyguards and like, part-time with the PRT at best.
But now Glenn and Raymond… talk, I guess.
And the roll today just riled that all up even more:

Bollywood Hot - Buffy and Angel - 200cp
"You are very appealing, even by Bollywood standards.
No matter what, you look damn good. Nothing supernatural, but for some reason, you always seem to give your best face.
Your bedhead looks like it took a specialist hair designer hours to perfect, and when you actually put effort into it, it's as if you'd just walked off a Bollywood runway.
Cost 200cp
Bank 900cp"​

Honestly, I can't really see much difference.

Not in an arrogant way, just that I basically look like I always did, except there's this undefined air of "intentional" about my appearance that makes things seem better.
Like I'm not just wearing whatever was around, but I am actually making a statement of some kind with my mismatch of clothing.

I'm not sure how mismatched Hero merch is a statement, but since PR has a basically endless supply of the stuff, it might as well be one of the silent perks of working for the PRT that you can get really good clothing on the cheap if you're willing to Demo Hero merch from PR.

So, PRT Troopers tend to be pretty colorful out of uniform, funny enough.

I always imagined Bluejeans and Bomber Jackets, not Legend Blazers and Accord pants.
And now Phoenix Jackets, thanks to Glenn Chambers.

My only concession was that they make one in that not-quite-tinkertech material and send it to my sister.
A bit of Payback for all the Vista Murch that's been passed off over the years.

But if it's got some armor to it, she'll never outright refuse it.
So she'll wear it.
She'll wear MY murch, and the cycle will be complete.

At least Glenn seems to grok my reasoning, and promised to personally make sure her's would be the best.
He must have an older sibling.

 

[Oblation]

Ok, I don't know how Glenn made something this great this fast, but Missy's jacket is actually really awesome.

Oh, and I'm an idiot.

She doesn't wear her armor everywhere; I just see Vista instead of her.
I realized when she put the jacket on… over her costume.
Or actually kind of inside it a bit.

Which works well enough for when we're in public, but means I'll never know if it's Sister time or Cape time.

I have emotions about this.

But emotions are icky and powers aren't, so come on, big money:

Ancient Whip - The Legend of Zelda Series - 50cp
" An ancient treasure from the Era of the Sky, the end of it has an orb of light that grabs tightly to whatever the user desires. It is also possible to hang on poles, branches, and other things with the whip and swing in the air with it. This whip can extend to reach up to fifteen feet, and can be used for a number of other purposes, should one be clever enough.
Cost: 50cp
Bank: 800cp"​

…

Ok, so not BIG money, but still.
A bit of testing with the science types shows… well, exactly what the description said.

I point it at something up to 15 feet away, it shoots out, and whichever of us is lighter gets pulled towards the other until I let go or hit the reset switch.
It's basic tinkertech.

Though it does interact with my 3x copper armor weirdly.

The armor is a bit cumbersome, but not that bad.
But when I'm wearing it, especially the full set, the grappling hook treats me like I'm 3x heavier than I should be.

Still not an issue for the grappling hook idea, since the hook doesn't count the individual brick or wall it hits, but the whole building.
But with people, it could work as a way to disorient them, if one of the Firewatch in their modified copper armor can grab even someone big and pull them over like a ragdoll.

…

I'm glad the cycle has become complete, and that I've realized the thing with Missy/Vista, but the issue is that Glenn did such a good job that Missy seems to genuinely like the jacket, and got all glompy when I went over to Battery's apartment to give it to her.

It kinda defeats the point if it's not embarrassing to be wearing her little sister's merch.

Still, the jacket is genuinely cool, so I just played along as if it were always meant as a late birthday gift.
Something to welcome her into teenagerhood.

...

Oh, and Battery was nice too, but Assault still freaks me out.
Though it was nice to explain why I flinch when he goes towards me, which he seemed to get.

Missy (and I'm like 80% sure it was Missy not Vista) was all intense about how "The Director" was being, but I just told her Emily is chill.

They all looked at me at that, but the thing is, she's 100% honest.
If she says something, she means exactly what she said, no backhanded BS, no changing her mind, then flipping out when called on it, nothing.
She says words and means them.

It's nice.

Assalt did mention a rumor that she hates capes, but I just explained my theory that she thinks we're all borderline crazy people who like looking over the edges of cliffs, and asked him if he thought she was wrong?

But mostly Missy just glomped me, and thanked me for her (genuinely great-looking) birthday jacket.
I know the Gift-Shop ones will be simpler, but I'm honestly pretty hyped to see what Glenn comes up with, given how random my powers are so far.

 

[Oblation]

Psijic Robes - Elder Scrolls Online - 100cp
" The monks of the Psijic Order are often considered as the greatest group of mages in all of Tamriel, and their standard uniform reflects that. Created from a rare kind of magical silk, these yellow robes may not be the best for protection, but it does greatly increase both your magicka pool as well as the rate at which your magicka replenishes.
-100cp to create a magicka pool of average breadth and depth.
Cost: 200cp
Bank: 900cp"

That took WAY longer than it should have.
For something called the "Celestial Grimoire," it's been weirdly hesitant to give me actual magic to play with, and as fun as it's been to get the memories of my clone working through the Harry Potter Magic tutorials, it's also frustrating how quickly it exhausts me.

But at least I have a good reason as to why, now.
I wasn't casting from my mana pool or magical core or whatever, I must have been casting straight from physical and Mental energies, since I learned how as part of knowing how to make (and charge up) the Storage and Explosive tags.

Well, now I can really get to cooking with gasoline.

I made 20 tags today, and barely felt it.
Plus, since me and the Clone on the storage island share a Mana pool, I just had her put on the full robes set (as goofy as it looks), and now my pool is at 180% and I assume my regen rate is the same.

…

Well, it seems like cooking with Gasoline wasn't the answer.

In my head, I figured I'd live out my dreams of becoming the world's most valuable cape by repairing old tinkertech with my hand-wavy magical "Reparo" skills.
But I completely blanked on the whole "complicated technology needs to be specifically designed to work with magic" idea.

Still, it's not actually any more broken than it was before, and Dragon is apparently really interested in just how "hand wavey" my spell was.

I mean, it finished bricking a piece of Leet tech.
But before that, it did what looked like a whole bunch of fine control telocanesis, and some crazier stuff to make parts become un-exploded.

So Dragon had me go around reparo-ing things.
Turns out I can go up to about cars in tech level before it becomes a problem.

Dragon says cars with integrated computers might be an issue, but people nowadays buy cars more based on gas mileage, and if the parts can be replaced without involving the dubious world of international shipping, so computerised cars are super rare.

She kind of half-heartedly tried to talk me out of going around Reparo-ing cars, but agreed when I mentioned how much of a PR boost it could be.

…

I don't get why Vista hates PR so much.

It's crazy, but the more you do, the more you're allowed to do, and in the meantime, the PR department is so starved for actual volunteers (rather than Volen-tolds) that they'll organise just about anything.

Up to and including figuring out the paperwork for zapping 20 to 30 people's cars with tinkertech magic this Friday.

I made them figure out the legality of that, and organise it in just a few days, and somehow they end up thinking of me as (and I quote) "Best Girl" just because I offered and idea and promised to actually do it myself, rather than being practically dragged into doing something generic, like a murch signing.

 

[Oblation]

So I guess there's the downside of only giving the PR people a week. I reparo-ed like 60 cars, over the course of like 5 hours, and we all politely pretended 40 of them weren't PRT and protectorate employees, with the rest being reporters and the sort of people who actually read the PR posts on PHO.

I mean, Battery literally drove up at one point with Vista in the car.

The reporters didn't seem to notice, so I assume they were both out of costume, but really, they could've just asked.

It was so strange pretending not to see anything interesting about a robot and a ward driving up to my little PR-Repair shop.

Oh, yeah, they gave me a little cosplay auto mechanic outfit to wear.
Kinda silly, but they didn't need to be so shocked when I put it on.
I mean, the Phoenix outfit is practically cosplay already, so I don't know why I'd mind a different one.

Anyways, I did it, it took most of the day, and in the meantime, I've built up some decent credit with the PR people, and hopefully the Protectorate entirely, since I'm pretty sure this'll count towards their required monthly PR duties too.

Though it did end up being called a bit early due to some concerns about problems out of the immigrant community or the ABB.
Since it turns out some Shaker attacked Japan, and ended up flooding the city of Sendai.
Which sucks because that was one of their really big and still kind of safe cities.

I guess there's talk of Imperial involvement, though the Chinese are insisting it was just a natural earthquake.
But come on, if you're gonna lie, at least try to come up with a better excuse than "it just happened."

…

After that, I had another video call with a Case 53.

I've been doing this every so often since January, so they can find out what they looked like before their powers.

I'm not sure what the scientists are doing, but so far I've always been doing it in the science room with the scientists involved in this a lot more prone to taking over each other (and me) and arguing over the most mundane details.

Did I need a 30-minute lecture on hair types and the difference between 2C and 3A specifically?
No.
Were Sanguine and I forced to sit through one before I could go back to describing him?
Yes.

This time, it was a Protectorate member called Gentle Giant who was surprised to discover he was? Is? Whatever, he's black to my eyes.

I don't know why that's surprising.
Pictures of him show what looks like a mossy statue of a giant guy, like one of the Greek gods, where he's meant to be larger than life.

But the facial features are all the same, as with the black kid I see in the video call.

Dragon says it's confirmation bias, but I think if someone had asked me to paint the statue before I got powers, I'd have guessed dark skin and black hair.

Anyways, Gentle Giant seemed interested when I mentioned my theory of him being Greek, since he looks like a Greek statue and Greece is close enough to Africa that he could have ancestors from there and still be from Greece himself.

The scientists were getting upset and tried to cut off the talk, so I just went to my room and asked Dragon for his contact so I could message him from my tablet.

I don't get why their so upset, though.
It's not like any of them have ever figured out the identity of a Case-53.
Might as well make one up based on available details rather than insisting a nice guy like Gentle Giant just remain unknowing forever.

And it could totally fit.

He's a black guy who got powers by turning into a giant mossy Greek-style statue.
But I'M the problem for suggesting that he's probably from the Mediterranean.

The thing is, Case 53's have all been really nice, and their literally the only other capes who look like normal people to me, so insisting they're not just making up an identity, when 40 years of research has never once found one of their original ones, just seems needlessly skummy.

Anyways, Gentle Giant lived up to his name, and although he's already got a first name, he did mention wanting to find a Greek or Egyptian last name, which seems smart.

Also, I wrote up an email and sent it off to Dragon, Emily, and Dr. Armstrong, and Weld asking if I could just talk to case 53's on my tablet from now on.
Since the scientists seem to be more interested in them as things than as people, and don't like that, I disagree.

…

Oh, and thanks to the latest roll, I'm a meme now!

Roc's Cape - The Legend of Zelda Series - 100cp
" A beautiful cape crafted from silk and bird feathers. It has been enchanted to vastly increase the wearer's jumping capabilities. Additionally, you gain a bit of affinity for wind while wearing it, allowing you to stay in the air for longer than seems plausible.
-0cp changed to match Phoenix coloring.
Cost: 100cp
Bank: 800cp"​

I'm a cape with a cape!
There aren't many of us nowadays, despite the name.

But this one lets me do parkour in human form, and that's pretty cool on its own, but I really love this roll for how well it synergizes with my Pheniox form, and I can tell it is, since it adds in some white feathers to that from when I transform while wearing it.

I can't wait to show Fox this and the battle form once he gets back from his latest expedition!

…

It was kind of late, but I ended up flying for a while anyway, since the cloak just makes it so easy.

And since I was in such a good mood, I also flew up to Boon Island so I'd have someplace really remote in case I needed to get someone out of the way at some point.

Plus, the exhilaration of teleporting 25 miles, doubling my distance, made the point feel even more solid in my memory.

 

[Oblation]

I finally got a new island today.
It seems like in most fics, the first few roles are all about expanding the warehouse, but somehow this is my first one that does it.

Enchanter's Tower - Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Base Cost: 250cp
Lore: If you aren't a fan of going out and finding, buying, or looting powerful enchanted gear, then you'll probably want to do it yourself. This tower (or room, if you prefer) is completely devoted to the art of enchanting, with a high-quality enchanting setup and a replenishing stock of soul gems. You possess five of each kind of soul gem, all of which restock after a week, yet none of them are filled.
Details: Any enchanting done here will automatically have 2x the potential, with the ability to use more resources to boost potency up to 3X with luck.
Final Cost: 250cp
Bank: 850cp

Granted, it's not a big island.
It's actually smaller than the starting one, since this "tower" is meant to be attached to the player's house in Skyrim if you bought that DLC.

But unlike the starter shack, it's new.

It's got a cellar, a first floor for enchanting, and a second floor for storage that I'm having Clone move into to keep the buff active.

Oh, and I'm glad I've been forgetting to try the golden tools, because I decided to test with some of the copper and ended up with a 9x sharpness copper sword thanks to the different buffs working together.

My inventory lists this monster as doing 45-50 damage per hit.

I'm pretty sure "Standard Human" is 20 health.

So obviously, I gave it to Armsmaster.

Or, well, I asked Dragon if she wanted it, and she asked if I would bring it to Armsmaster to add to a halberd, which makes sense.

…

Sis was right, Armsmaster looks like a robot.

Weirdly though, he looks less realistic than Miss Militia, even with her weeping angel vibe, or Battery with her steampunk robot.

Because he's got a face, but it… Well, it just sits there, with its creepy glowing robot eyes staring at me.

He's one of the most human-shaped capes so far, but he doesn't move or act like a person.
I mean, even Assault's weird elastic-stretched to its limits thing still shows movement when he talks or moves.
And while she doesn't move if I'm looking at her, Miss Militia usually has a changed facial expression when I look back at her.

But Armsmaster has a C3-PO thing going where his face is just his face, and it stays like that, except unlike the goofy bumbling C3-PO, Armsmaster gives off strong "Danger" and "Angry Robot" vibes.

…

In the end, he had some diamond bits himself, so I ended up throwing together the absolutely ludicrous 9x diamond sword (72 damage) that he promised to credit me for if he ended up taking out an S-Class threat with.
So that's nice of him, I guess.

Either way, I've still got 4 diamonds left over from Armsmaster's experiments with copper, so I found Chris and asked him to declare Aegis the Shovel Knight and to give him the 9x damage diamond shovel.

Chris at least played the game, so he understood why it should be a flying brute and not the knight-themed Gallant, and so he promised to do it and send me the footage from his helmet cam.

Plus, I'm pretty sure Aegis will find an excuse to use it, since 45 damage should be the highest damage of anything in the wards, if my guesses as to how my inventory numbers line up with reality are accurate.

Spoiler: A/N

I reorganised between chapters 35 and 36, so rolls/perks will be formatted differently.
But hopefully this new standardised formatting will keep things clearer, while letting me switch between the different Celestial rollers more easily.
I also pre-rolled a bunch from all 3 and modified them to fit how things work in this fic, so the CP costs should be a bit more consistent.

A problem I was having in the background was that most Celestial documents have CP cost varying WILDLY.
But I'm trying to keep things consistent for power level/utility and CP cost.
So, every roll I would need to re-evaluate how much a thing should cost, with about 50% of rolls getting more expensive, 20% staying the same, and 30% getting cheaper.
So while this isn't a perfect system, at least now I do have a buffer of randomly rolled perks that are formatted so I don't need to rebuild and revalue them each time.
I'm still going to roll from my list, but I don't know how to program, so it'll just be a D30 I have lying around for that.
Not as random as the random number generators most rollers use, but since these perks were already randomly selected from rollers, I think it'll be fine.

 

[Oblation]

Wow.

Lots of stuff happened last night.

Apparently, Coil and the Undersiders found out Lung was out of town because they attacked a bunch of his most profitable businesses.

Oni-Lee seems to have blunted the attacks of most of Coil's Mercenaries (through prodigious application of murder), but apparently, the Undersiders cleaned out his casino basically without resistance.

But that's not the crazy part!

Apparently both sides were hiding a Tinker, and they ended up having a showdown over the course of like 6 blocks before the Protectorate pulled up.

Supposedly, Nuwa is claiming to be a hero who "just happens" to be defending ABB territory with the help of ABB gangsters, but I guess if she doesn't actually do crime, there's nothing illegal about being a gang-affiliated vigilante, just super weird.

Meanwhile, Charion was just straight up there with Coil's mooks, so he vanished the moment the heroes showed up.

Oh, and New Wave was apparently in Boston for some kind of costume thing, so have been doing damage control today for why their rival did this huge thing with them doing nothing about it.

…

In less interesting news, I've been experimenting with the enchanting tower, and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to count potions as the same thing, but interestingly, golden apples do count, since it apparently gives Absorption III now.

Even more reasons to not hand it out, but in a pinch, this should save someone's life even if the injury should be mortal.

…

Also, I'm counting my lucky stars for one of my perks operating under Fallout: New Vegas mechanics, because I don't need to make new armor sets for the full boost for Firewatch.

Just like in the game, I can take two perfectly good things and merge them to combine their durability, or in this case, their buffs.
So I can just combine 2 of the armor sets (the two that person likes the least) into a single set of 6x mobility, 6x armor, copper armor.

And the craziest part is this new armor matches the 3x Diamond!
Inventory is calling it 60 armor.

I mean, the diamond armor still looks cooler, and it's fitted now.
So I'm not gonna ask them to give it up, but its really nice to know that Firewatch are getting properly protected, and that the only difference is that the diamond should last a lot longer and be more eye-catching, since whoever's wearing it is probably the tank of that mission anyways.

…

Oh, and speaking of missions there's another one being planned, since Uber and Leet have apparently doubled down and begun arming the people still willing to work with them with actual tinkertech…

Or, well, actual Leet-tech, anyways.

So Emily gave the go-ahead for Firewatch and at least one PRT squad to plan either a single big raid or, more likely, a couple of separate raids on their more distributed network.

…

Also, and I have no clue how to deal with this, but a guy asked to join Firewatch.

Like, asked if they were taking capes…?

Raymond just laughed at me when I said I had no clue, but said he had agreed to be paid in gear rather than money, so I guess we're getting a new Brute.

Some guy calling himself Aspirant, who is some kind of Changer/Brute combo that knows Kung Fu.

I guess his whole issue is that he's a non-bulletproof Brute, and that's messing with his head.

So I asked if the team would let him wear the diamond Armor, and they agreed, so now it's his armor so long as he's working with Firewatch, and in the meantime, he gets paid in stuff I can buy with my Invisibility potion money, like actual bags of groceries, and a decent phone.

A bit of a big advance, but Edmund said it's important to let capes think you value them a lot more than you do; otherwise, they're more likely to become your problem out of spite.

So, ok, I guess.

I gave a guy a bunch of food and a phone, and he's going to spend like 20 hours a week doing bodyguarding in the diamond armor and help out as tank for the next raid.

I'm really not sure how this happened.

I mean, I'm a Ward, having bodyguards has happened, but a minion?
Like an actual cape minion, who takes orders from a guy who takes orders from me?

What???

 

[Oblation]

I was hoping for another magic system, or possibly more people to help Firewatch, since I know there's a good number of perks that are just pulling people from worlds where videogames are real and making them into your new minion.

My first roll was just another minor charisma thing.
I mostly grabbed it, as part of my ongoing "the easier it is for PR to work with me, the more I'll get away with" strategy that I picked up from Emily.

Call me Darknorth - The Chaosverse: Desolate Era
Base Cost: 50cp
Lore: Seems like you really have a catchy name, when you perform feats worthy of fame, your name sticks around far more than it should, spreading faster than communication can allow.
Details: PR seems more effective for you, and people rarely seem to attribute your actions to others. But keep in mind, taking this perk means your negative actions will be just as memorable, and even actions you take stealthily are more likely to be labeled as "a mystery" rather than being attributed to someone else.
Addons: N/A
Final Cost: 50cp
Bank: 800cp

But my second one worked in a big way!

Tsunade Senju: Legendary Sucker, Slug Sage, 5th Hokage - Naruto
Base Cost: 100cp
Lore: Legendary Medical Ninja and Fifth Hokage. Princess Tsunade is one of the legendary Sannin, renowned as the world's greatest medical ninja. Her monstrous strength terrifies her opponents, while her medical jutsu can heal fatal wounds. Despite her terrible luck at gambling, her leadership and protective instincts make her an invaluable ally and mentor.
Details: Thanks to a particularly wacky noodle incident, a newly rejuvenated Tsunade Senju has decided to move to the same general area as you after giving up the title of Hokage to Kakashi.
Thanks to the Celestial Systems intervention on her behalf and for restoring her to a youthful body, she's willing to waive her usual fees for healing for any ally of yours so long as they bring her at least one bottle of high-quality alcohol per person healed.
Earning her way (and then some) as a Rogue Healer, she's come to view you much like a young Naruto, so will always heal you for free and is likely to barge into your life every few weeks "for your checkup."
Also, if your allies have a favored drinking establishment, expect her to become a regular.
Note: She will not formally join any team (even yours) and values her ability to stay out of both paperwork and politics. (This is post-retirement Tsunade, even if she feels 25 again.)
Addons: -50cp Part of the Celestial System's intervention for Tsunade was granting her legitimate documentation and a minor stranger effect that causes her backstory to be accepted. (She can still be seen as a bad influence, but people won't question her medical, administrative, or combat expertise and won't connect this perk to her if they know about it.)
Final Cost: 150cp
Bank: 750cp

Well, kinda, she's not actually part of Firewatch, since she just kind of popped into existence with a clinic and regularly scheduled check-ups I now need to go to. But at least it's cheap medical care for Firewatch, that doesn't involve owing New Wave any favors or poking the sleeping Nilbog that my memories keep insisting Panacea is.

…

Oh, and I was able to mention the roll to Emily without getting foamed, so that's nice.

I pointed out that I'd been going to PRT doctors before now, then just showed her the description of the roll.
Thankfully, she didn't foam us, just had people look into Tsunade, but I guess that stranger effect worked because she came back nearly as legit as the Firewatch team did.

I'm not in love with spending 50cp for someone who's not even on my team to get a stranger power, but 50cp to skip the whole "3 days in the M/S room" thing is 100% worth it.

I asked Emily to forward the background check to Raymond so he'd know she was legit and to stock up on booze just in case, and Emily told me that I should never order "my men" to buy booze even if I knew they would anyway.
It's another weird adult thing, so I just mentioned I could keep it in my inventory if she thought they were going to drink it instead of trading it for healing, but Emily made the valid point that we'd both get in trouble if anyone found out about that.
So instead Emily is buying the Booze and will keep it in one of the extra rooms in the Director's Suite, for whenever someone on Firewatch or the PRT team that work with us gets injured.

…

In other news, I managed to get all the stuff for a few crossbows and a few fireworks arrows.
It's kinda expensive, but I've now got a weapon in my inventory that fires arrows with 9x force, and those arrows do 9x damage, on top of being "poisoned," though I'm not sure how that'll work together.

Specifically, I'm using the most recent Potion to make it to the "Pending" stage, the 3x "Oganics Damage" potion added to firework arrows that already do damage to people (or at least Minecraft players, and mobs), but not the landscape.
I figure it'll either be awesome or not much.
Either way, it's in the inventory if I need it.

I've learned enough about the Tinkertech process to avoid my instinct to hand it over to Firewatch.
Though I did send off a 3x force crossbow and a few 3x speed firework arrows to the Testing Authority.
So it's even possible I won't need to burn any of my credit with PR by the time I end up needing this, since it's pretty simple, as Tinkertech goes.

…

I also made a few Levers, because I had an idea about Redstone… before all my experiments proved it doesn't actually exist within the stuff I can make.

So I just have a bunch of levers and buttons, but I actually did end up sending them off, because it turns out they can hack.
Or more specifically, you can slap one down and override door controls with it.

It's a pretty nice consolation to the whole "no redstone" thing, along with my other disappointment, "no maces." Since it would've been really cool to drop down from like 400 feet as a bird on Hookwolf, then pull out a mace last second and smash him before getting sent right back up out of danger.

Though the button and lever thing seems to have become a bit of an obsession for Armsmaster, Kid-Win, and Dragon since Sis said they've spent hours working together trying to make a program for the Ward's common room door that a button couldn't just override.

I guess they got it in the end, but it's still really cool that a bit of wood so small I didn't even pay for it is enough to make an infiltration tool so powerful, it takes America's #2 and #3 Tinkers working together for several hours just to invent a door it can't beat.
Plus, with the whole thing about other people's Tinkertech having maintenance issues, I'm willing to bet there won't be many doors that get that treatment.

Spoiler: A/N

The "Tsunade Senju" perk is a bit long under the new format, but since I'm rewriting all perks before they make it to the fic now, I'm also more willing to let them be descriptive, since it's my own writing. That said, most of them are still only a few sentences, like "Call me Darknorth." So if you hate long perk descriptions, I wouldn't worry too much.

Also, while the "rolling for a person to add to your Harem" thing has been something I was avoiding so far, under the new system, I've decided to accept those rolls but modify them into friends and allies. In particular, ones where there is no mastering going on, at most, there is something they are fully aware is happening. In this case, the Celestial System makes Tsunade like Saga more as part of saving her from the noodle incident. But she's a Jonin, she could easily ignore it, if the person it were directed to weren't (by ninja standards) "just some little Genin with a weird bloodline." As it is, she doesn't really see the harm.

 

[Oblation]

I had lunch with Battery, Assault, and Sis again, so I guess this is a thing now.

But in the positive news, Fox is back, and I got to spend a while showing him my new cloak and the bigger bird form.
It was so nice, I think I could probably teleport straight to Battery's apartment, which is good, since Sis lives there now.

Also, assault made a pun and Fox gave him a face so judgmental that even Battery thought it was too harsh, so that was fun.

…

Then they tried to get me into a confined space with the mess of imminent disaster called assault, so I turned into a Bird and just flew above them.
There was a bit where space got really funky, so I teleported to a spot I had nearby and waited until the car started moving, then followed it.

Turns out they were trying to take me to Tsunade's clinic, which they could have just said, rather than doing that stupid song and dance about god damn control, and even roping Missy in as just another leash.

Well, ha ha fuckers, I can teleport, you've got nothing on me.

…

Oh, but Tsunade was cool.

The exact kind of no-nonsense attitude that makes Emily so understandable.
She doesn't have any nonsense for herself, so why would she subject me to it?

Tsunade is the same, just gave me a folder with medical stuff to give to an adult who's "less of an asshole. Because little secret here, brat, when you get right down to it, we're all a bit of an asshole."

So I'm giving it to Emily, and telling her I want to meet assault and Battery somewhere more public next time.

If nothing else, those two are basically brutes, so I can escape, but Missy needs lots of space without people in it to do her thing, so I'll take her Manton limit as a challenge.

I know it makes her uncomfortable, but maybe try not being a traitor if you don't want me to use personal knowledge against you, huh sis?

…

Oh, and Fox wanted me to take a chill pill, so he ended up teleporting me all the way to Canada, where I found out the Professor had come over to Earth-Bet!

He was just chilling in a cabin next to Holland Cove, Prince Edward Island, as if crossing world boundaries without dying horrifically or opening a gate for monsters to spill out is a thing people can just do if they feel like it!

…

But he did bribe me with candy, so I'm just gonna let any monster gates be Canada's problem.

…

Anyways, since Harry Potter is apparently a real place, I figured I'd show off the spells I knew since I was like 99% sure just which old man from England professor with a Phoenix who talks about magic this was.

Even if my memories were saying he should have died in 1997.

Eh, the memories are wrong about all sorts of stuff, who cares?

…

I'm not sure if his poker face really was just that good or if Fox had snitched, but…
Well, who am I kidding?
Fox obviously snitched.

Anyways, the Professor did his best "adult congratulating a child for doing something they do all the time" thing, then did something weird.

He cast a spell on me, and suddenly the Magic tutorial was all in English.
Most of it was even American.

Or, as it turns out, Canadian.

I guess he had some issues with the Durmstrang lessons and thought I'd be better off learning spells meant for English speakers.
So he gave me the best Canadian magical schoolbooks he could find up to the 5th year, as compensation for purging the ones I had for Durmstrang up to the third year.

Not sure how he can effect the Celestial Grimoire like that, when so far the closest has been dragon knowing when I roll.

But whatever.
He's a 130-year-old magical professor who's friends with a Phoenix.
It would be weirder if he weren't awesome.

Not that he looks 130, that's another thing the memories got wrong, they say he should've looked 70 or 80 in the 1990s, but here he is in 2011 looking 65 at most.

…

He did ask if I would roll, since apparently he wanted to see what he could pick up, and I was a bit suspicious, but the thing is, I only really trust like 3 people.

Missy, who's once again proved she'll break my trust for the smallest bit of approval from an adult.

Emily, who's perfectly straightforward but also only cares in so much as I'm useful.

And Fox, who saved my life.

I'm not an idiot.
If Panacea can't see me with her power, and I was dying, which I'm pretty sure I was, then the only other person I know with healing abilities is…

So, well, if the Professor… if Albus has been Fox's friend for more than 60 years…

Well, at this point, what I'm saying is that either Albus Dumbledore is a good person and I'm just paranoid, or the world really does suck and I should stop wasting my time here and start looking for whatever crack in the world Albus used to get here in the first place.

…

Apparently, Albus's response to awkward silences is to offer bribes, so lemonhead in mouth I rolled:

Loyal Ninja Clan - Fate Legends: Land of the Rising Sun
Base Cost: 400 cp
Lore: Having made a deal with the Celestial System to escape a terrible fate, this "ninja clan" will come highly versed in the stealth skills of your world, but will not have access to skills, tools, or powers not theoretically accessible to anyone.
(If your world has schools of magic open to those with the ability, then they know some magic, but if magical knowledge is hoarded by noble families, or in strict master-apprentice lineages, then they won't.)
Thanks to the bargain they made, they consider the Celestial System to be their patron deity, and you the wielder of a Celestial Artifact as its voice in the world. So they will obey, to the best of their ability, any order you give. But keep in mind that it is the Celestial System they consider divine, not you. Should you get multiple of them killed needlessly, they may start a work-to-rule strike during an inconvenient time.
The entire clan includes around 60 members, but there's not much sneaking a great-grandmother or toddler can be doing.
Details: You can expect to have about 10 ninjas capable of taking just about any mission you can assign, with 30 capable of taking lower-level assignments or doing more mundane work, such as information gathering or guarding your property.
Also, keep in mind that while you can order the clan around as a military or civilian force, you are neither a member nor the leader of the clan.
Order the what, and when with as much detail as you wish, but remember that the clan itself will sort out who and how.
Finally, if your reputation with the clan is good, don't be surprised to find their members doing things to help or support you in their free time.
It would look quite bad to order this kind of thing, but if they like you, don't be surprised to find annoyances being quietly resolved, or the occasional meal you like quietly appearing near you.
Addons: -150cp Due to being near to multiple individuals from another world, you can choose to have the Ninja's educated in some of the esoterica of that world. While this won't grant them a full magical education, every member of the clan will become a squib educated in the limited magics such people are capable of and with a limited number of magically derived tools and resources.
Final Cost: 550 cp
Bank: 750cp

FINALLY, a high roll!

It seems even the Celestial Grimoire approves of Albus, if being near him is enough to grant the new forces some magic.

I start writing down the roll for him, but he waves me off.

I'm pretty sure Blank is keeping him from reading my mind, so apparently he picked up on the roll off sheer vibes…

Or maybe his magic glasses let him see unseen things.
It could be either one, honestly.

…

Suddenly, Albus's shack is… bigger and…

Ok, so I guess the Celestial Grimoire really likes Albus, because it just made him into the head of a Ninja Clan.

Even he was startled by it, but apparently he was offered some kind of deal, and in trade he would keep the remaining members of this Ninja Clan Alive until its heiress as of age, and in the meantime he would do his best to organize the clan to help me.

It seems like a lot, but his end seems fairly obvious, since whatever rate wizards age, they apparently still do, but suddenly Albus looks 45 at most.

Losing 20 years of apparent age and probably like 60 of actual age just to lead a small group of ninjas until the 15-year-old Asuka turns 17 probably seemed like a pretty great deal for Albus.

…

For now, he offered to help me even out my magical education for a few days while he gets to know the group he'll be leading, so I guess I'll be driving home the "don't try to confine the girl who can teleport" lesson a bit harder than I planned to.

So just to make it up a bit, I flew off to the nearby town of Charlottetown and sent an email to Emily and Dragon on my tablet that I was on Prince Edward Island and was only a little furious about the car thing but that I'd met a Ninja who'd offered to teach me magic so I'm gonna do that for a few days.

…

I have a sneaking suspicion that email's not going to help, exactly.

But on the other hand, I really wanna be good at magic, and other than the paperwork, this'll cause Emily, I honestly can't say I care…?

Yeah, I mean I've got people I like, and while I'm thinking about it, I send an email to Raymond telling him to do a training thing to get the new guy up to speed, since I'm also doing a training thing, and won't need bodyguarding.

But beyond Emily, who lives and breathes paperwork, and Dragon, who's got a million things to worry about anyways, I genuinely can't think of a reason not to spend a few days learning magic from a 130-year-old-ninja…
other than the whole "don't be irresponsible" notion, but since I'm in Canada, I have the perfect response to that notion:
"Eh."

 

[Oblation]

It turns out Narwhal is much less fun than her description would lead you to believe.

I mean, 7-foot-tall Amazon with glowing purple hair and a giant horn on her head.
Even if I saw something different, I'd been assuming certain things from that description.

Instead, I got… Emily, but with a bad first impression.

Though props to her for learning from Battery and Assault, I would've expected the forcefield cape to try to box me in, but instead she just asked that oh so classic "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I should have let that opportunity pass me by, but honestly, I just didn't want to.

But I should explain, unlike the so far mostly human-shaped capes in the Bay, at least of the ones I've seen. Narwhal is… well, the only real word of it is alien.
I mean, she keeps to the basic form factor of a person: a head and torso with limbs coming out of it, but the details had a distinctly surreal quality to them and would never hold still, even if I focused on them.

Plus, there's none of the symmetry that my monkey brain likes so much, just a bunch of possibly abstract, possibly intentional shapes and forms.
Oh, but it is all glowing that blueish purple color of her force fields, so it's still visibly her, even if it looks like some higher-dimensional entity using the same stuff her force fields are made of to create a form that only bears the faintest similarities to people.

So, when she dropped that line, there really was only one proper retort I could make, and thanks to the tablet from Dragon, I did just that.
"E.T. go home?"

Then I turned into a bird and left.
Or tried to, I kinda forgot how fast she could fly.
Hint: Faster than a bird.

…

Oh, I should probably explain,

Albus did spend a lot of yesterday correcting all the spells and wand movements I know.
But that really isn't much, and I mostly have them down, even if I could make them better with him showing me and explaining the meaning of the root words, so I knew some of the How to go along with the What.

So we were pretty much done by dinner time, but I spent all that emotional enegy on deciding to spend a few days away just for it to be done in a night, so i slept over once again and then decided to explore Prince Edward Island with Fox… right until the gerk led me over to a little shoping area where Narwhal was apparently signing autographs or something.

Oh, and of course Fox got away clean, the slippery bastard.

…

Anyways, I offered to just teleport back, but apparently the excuse was that I'm doing cross-departmental training with Narwhal, so I actually will do that.

I'm like 80% sure she means we take pictures, then I teleport home, but even as a glowy alien, she's still an adult and feels the need to make things needlessly opaque.

…

Oh, and before I forget, I gave the Ninjas their first orders, and they are:

"Settle in, familiarize with the area, and establish connections within New England and the Maritimes. Focus on breadth, not depth."
The idea is that if I need someone or something in the area that they'll at least know of it, even if they don't have specifics until after I ask.

The roll said it's only like 40 people who can take missions, so I'm not expecting miracles, but I honestly don't think they'll be much help in the Bey, since all the factions are pretty dangerous there.
Probably some, but I figure building connections into Emily's entire zone of control is better than hyper-focusing on the Bay where it feels like any spark could be the thing that finally blows things up.

I'm also including The Maritimes because I genuinely can't think of any major heroes from here, so I figure I should keep an eye out for oncoming trains from here.
I figure Emily's been doing the same, but it can't hurt to independently verify.

Also, Albus has apparently manufactured Canadian Citizenship and is confident he can do it for the whole clan, but is less sure about American, so it should just be easier this way.

…

Well, shit, I wasn't expecting that.

She brought me over to the shoreline and said:
"You kept your cool, you communicated, you didn't hurt anyone."
"You left, not ideal, but it could've gone worse, and I want you to know I see that."

But followed up with the kicker:
"But disappearing, even when you're right, makes it harder to protect you."
"Makes it harder for your team to trust you'll have their back."
"So we're going to practice that."

Ouch…

…

After that, I'm glad for the time to just fly, because damn, but that's actually fair.

Apparently Narwhal likes to fly too, because she's not just headed to some town with a PRT department.
We actually go over to Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia.

…

The training scenario is pretty simple, if a bit backhanded.

I'm here as part of a Hero squad to capture a villain team.
The rest of the team split off to go chase down the remainder of the team, but I'd been wounded and was put in charge of waiting for the evac for the two villains we'd captured.

It's vital that I stay put to keep an eye on the villains, even if they're unconscious, until the evac and medical team arrive.

… it's time out with extra steps.

Though, silver lining, Narwhal did mention:
"If you do it right, I'll tell you how I once almost got mauled by a moose while trying to do something like this."

It's basically just a test to see who's more stubborn, me for waiting here or Narwhal for waiting me out.

So I hold on to the "coms device" aka my tablet, and conspicuously do not notice how it suddenly gained signal again when the scenario started.

…

Well, Narwhal, let's see what type of adult you really are.

So, I Lock In.

 

[Oblation]

An hour or so across the water, then down into Kejimkujik. Trees spread like a living maze, lakes like polished mirrors between them. Remote, contained, quiet. A place where expectations could be gently but clearly shaped.
The flight was quiet. She didn't need to look back to know the girl was following, tight turns, controlled speed, keeping just behind and above. Smooth. She wasn't trying to get away this time.

Narwhal dropped altitude as the trees broke open, aiming for the clearing she'd picked earlier. Isolated. Open. A good place to work, better still for watching.
She touched down on the boulder at the center, just high enough for a commanding view. Clear lines in every direction. No cover. No tricks. She'd keep eyes on the girl the whole time. And the girl would know it.

Wings rustled behind her.
Phoenix swept in low, quiet as a shadow.

And then, in a blink, there was no Phoenix.
Just a girl, standing exactly where the bird had been.

The transformation was instant, seamless. One second, feather and wing, the next, boots on stone. Not even a shimmer of light. No visible motion. Just presence. There, and then human.

She stood on the boulder a few feet off, arms at her sides, face unreadable. Ice-blue eyes locked forward. Cold. Guarded. Watching everything. Watching her.

Then, just as suddenly, the tablet appeared in her hands. Smooth black glass, no holster, no bag. One second empty, the next, there. Clean conjure. No motion wasted. Her tool, her voice if she needed it, though she rarely used it.

Narwhal didn't comment. Just took it in.
That was control. Not showy. Not loud. But exact. Efficient.
Still no words, but that was fine. They had other things to say.

Narwhal gestured to the clearing and began without preamble.

"You're part of a strike team," she said. "Villain gang. Two members captured, foamed up nearby. You were injured during the chase. The rest of the team is pursuing the others."

She held her hands open, indicating the tablet. "This is how you call for evac. Medical pickup is on standby."
The girl held it with both hands, fingers tight around the edge. No eye contact. No nod. No spoken word. No use of the device. Just acceptance.

"You're to remain in place," Narwhal said. "No flight. No teleporting. No leaving the perimeter. You are not being pursued, but you are vulnerable. If you leave, the team assumes something's wrong. That pulls them off the mission."
The girl's jaw clenched slightly. Not a wince, more like a reset. Narwhal read it for what it was: understood.

She stepped back. No countdown. No timer. She simply turned and walked to the tree line, found a boulder, and sat.

Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. A half hour. The girl sat cross-legged, tablet resting on her lap, glancing around occasionally. No pacing. No testing the boundary. Just sitting, waiting, like a hawk that hadn't decided if the tree it landed in was worth nesting in or just a temporary shelter.

Narwhal didn't move. Just watched. Measured breath, light humming in her earpiece from background comms she wasn't paying attention to.

An hour passed. Then more.

A flicker of movement in the trees, a squirrel or a staged distraction from a planted drone. The girl's eyes tracked it, cold and unblinking. Her body didn't move. Her hand didn't reach for the tablet.
She knew it wasn't real. Or she didn't care. Either way, she stayed.

Narwhal waited longer. Not because she needed to. She'd seen what she came to see. But she knew this girl didn't trust words, not yet. She trusted actions. She trusted silence. So Narwhal gave her both.
When the sun had shifted enough to mark a meaningful change in time, not long enough to hurt, just long enough to matter, Narwhal stood and crossed the clearing.

The girl's eyes flicked to her. She didn't rise. Didn't reach for the tablet.
Narwhal settled back on the boulder and spoke quietly, knowing the girl could hear even if she wouldn't respond:

"A few years back, I was on patrol in northern Ontario. Cold day. Snow everywhere. Quiet. I was flying low, running a solo sweep near a smuggler route. Saw some tracks in the snow, looked recent. Landed to check them out. No forcefields. No alerts. Nothing on radar. I wasn't being reckless, just figured I had it under control."

"I didn't hear it until it was right on top of me. Big bull moose. Huge. Way too big to be that quiet, but it was. It came out of the brush fast and hit me hard. Got one of the antlers in my ribs, sent me flying. I scrambled to put shields up, but it kept coming. I was on my back, trying to keep it from stomping me flat. Couldn't get a clean launch, too uneven. Had to crawl, get clear, think. Took a few minutes before I could get airborne again. By then, it had wandered off like nothing happened."

"I didn't lose the fight, but I didn't win it either. And it stuck with me. Not because it was a moose. Because it was dumb, angry, and didn't care who I was. That's what gets you sometimes. Not the big plan, not the scary villain. Just something you underestimated. Something that doesn't play by the rules. Ever since then, I don't let the quiet fool me. I don't assume I'm safe just because things look simple. And I never take my eyes off the trees."

Then, after a moment:
"That's enough. You can go home."

The girl didn't blink. Didn't nod. She just shifted, feathers forming in that elegant sweep of her shift, then jumped off the boulder and vanished, gone with a single beat of wings into the nothing between places.
No noise. No flash. Just a shimmer of feathers and space pulling in around itself, then nothing. Not even a breeze left behind. Just trees. Silence. The clearing.

Narwhal stayed where she was for a few seconds. Let the quiet settle. She looked at the spot the girl had been, then up at the tree line.
"Alright," she muttered to no one. "That's one way to say goodbye."

She rose slowly into the air, not rushing. Her forcefields shimmered faintly as she angled west, into the sky. Still low enough to see the tops of the trees. Nova Scotia shrinking behind her.
She thought about the girl. The cold stare. Ice blue eyes, always watching, never trusting.

Didn't talk. Barely typed. But she listened. Sat through the whole thing. Took it in.
Didn't argue. Didn't run until it was time.

Not bad.
Stubborn, yeah. But not stupid. That mattered.

Narwhal flew a little higher. Clouds thinning, horizon widening.

She'd been expecting trouble. Resistance. Maybe another tantrum, another flight. But the kid had stayed grounded. Literally. Waited her out. Measured her.
Didn't trust her. Not yet. Maybe not ever. But that didn't mean she wasn't learning.

She ran. But she didn't lash out. Didn't escalate. Gave notice. Handled it clean. Smarter than people were giving her credit for.

Didn't need punishment. She needed space. Choices. Control.

Still dangerous, though. If someone pushed her wrong again… if another idiot tried the Vista trick, boxed her in… she'd bolt. Or worse.
But today, she stayed.

Narwhal angled west again. The wind rushed louder in her ears. The lakes were out there somewhere, the long line home.
She thought of the girl's face again. Sharp. Quiet. Watching every move like it was a test she hadn't agreed to take.
"Good instincts," she said aloud, just once.

Not a compliment. Not really.
Just the truth.

She sped up. She had a report to write, and Toronto wasn't going to fly to her.

 

[Oblation]

Ok, so I had this whole thing planned out for meeting Battery, Assault, and Sis on the boardwalk, but the roll today is just too wonderful, so I'm just gonna hope they count for manton and invite Sis to come pet them all with me.

Pack is Pack - Wolfwalkers
Base Cost: 100cp
Lore: Beneath the moon's cold silver glow,
Grey wolves in winter's softness grow.
Fur like clouds, yet eyes still gleam,
A predator wrapped in a gentle dream.
Details: 40 wolves living primarily in a small forest in some far-off corner of the Warehouse.
They'll appear to you in times of danger or emotional distress.
They have the ability to double your mana pool when you are working to directly aid an ally in their presence. (Such as shielding or healing, but not abstract ideas like "avenging.")
By default, they are no smarter or stronger than regular wolves, though they instinctively know how you view people and will act accordingly. However, this is reciprocal, if you find yourself suddenly disliking an ally, there's a decent chance they were cruel to a member of the pack."
Addons: -50cp wolves respawn if killed and will otherwise receive the "long rest" ability of tabletop RPGs in regards to injuries.
Final Cost: 150cp
Bank: 700cp

They're all just so fluffy!
God, I love my power!

And apparently, it loves me right back because these guys are returning affection for affection.

Oh, and they can go in and out of the warehouse, though sadly for clone, they seem to be on some faraway forest island, so no puppy piles for clone to sleep in.

But I can still do that, and totally will!

And I…
Oh, Assault and Battery just showed up.

I guess I have a terrible poker face when surrounded by 40 Grey Wolves because we all went silent and cold in an instant, which is a lot more obvious on 41 faces than it is on one.
Oh, but I guess I'm actually freaking out assault, so that's nice. Though I guess Battery's probably brute enough to win this fight, sadly.

…

Eventually, the adults left, and I decided to just be chill with sis.

The stuff with her is disappointing, but not exactly surprising, and I guess the wolves picked up on that because about 10 decided to go and be fluffy in her General proximity.
It was a pretty obvious invitation to me, but I guess she's still on her maturity thing, because she just sat there looking longingly at all the fluffiness.

I would have told her to go for it, but I was buried in floof at the time, so I couldn't go for my tablet.
I did sort of send a vibe to the pack, I guess, because one of them decided to sit in her lap.

She obviously started glomping it, which made sense, but then she just started crying, which didn't.

Unfortunately, the wolves shared this vibe too, because the ones near her started to back off, which just made her more upset?

Does she like wolves or not?
Pick a lane sis!

…

I'm sure I had things to do today, but honestly, when one has access to 40 wolves, it's surprising how the hours tend to melt away.

 

[Oblation]

I got something really annoying today.
I guess the Celestial Grimoire didn't want me to get too comfortable with the "40 wolves" kind of power, because:

Chat Room - SCP: Serpent's Hand
Base Cost: 100cp
Lore:
Shadowed hands that slip and weave,
Breaking rules the sane perceive.
Serpents writhe in whispered schemes,
Guardians of forbidden dreams.
Details:
You and any allies, teammates or vassals of yours now have access to a mental chat.
You are able to create separate channels for different aspects or projects, but all who have access to any of it can access the public chat.
Addons: -0cp You can grant people access to Private Messages, where they can initiate contact with a single individual for the duration of a few minutes without it being logged or others being notified.
Final Cost: 100cp
Bank: 650cp

I mean, granted, I had the ability to talk to 95% of these people through my tablet already, so this didn't seem like that big a deal.

I mean, it's a bit strange for this to be 100cp, but it's probably just that it can't be spied on or taken from my control or something?
Right?

Well, kinda, but it turns out that the Celestial Grimoire takes a really broad view of "allies, teammates, or vassals."

Which is how things became such a mess so fast.
There were like 200 people all thinking questions into the group chat, all at once.

Luckily, I've got some actual old memories to rely on here, rather than the blurry, inaccurate nonsense or memories of games and books that don't seem to exist on either Bet or Aleph.

Granted, I've never heard of Discord, but IRC is a familiar concept, so I quickly grouped people into separate areas, then pinned a quick note about this being my latest roll and them all having access to an IRC with everyone else who can be called my teammate, vassal, or ally.

But like, this roll went really far for 100cp, because it's got everybody from the Wards, and Emily, to Glen Chambers, Dragon, and Weld in here.

So eventually I just muted the entire main chat and put everyone into their own channel, then created a bunch of branching Servers like "Official -> Capes -> Ward's-HQ" or "Phoenix -> Firewatch -> Firewatch-Command" or "Official -> PRT -> Kingslayer's-Domain" and "Phoenix -> Tenkō-no-Tomo -> Ninja-Command."

Then I spent the rest of the day setting up whitelists and naming mods…
and getting requests and demands to make different/new mods…

But I was getting tired, plus there were a few with no clean answer like Addison, who I eventually just dropped into Wards-HQ but didn't add into the Cape group.

Though the funny part was when the Bay Wards accepted Weld, Hunch, Sanguine, and even Glory Girl and Addison into the chat, but got offended that the only Mods of them all were Weld and Addison.

But as the complaints and issues continued, eventually I just gave up on the idea of actually managing this myself.
So I created the "Hand of the Queen" rank that has every ability this power will let me grant, gave Emily, Dragon, Albus, and Raymond that rank, then set up a thing to respond to any pings to me with "Phoenix is sleeping, talk to the hand."

…

I can tell this'll be really cool, but for now, I'm just really tired and want to return to the puppy pile.

 

[Oblation]

The great thing about the pack being Grey Wolves is that they're all around me sized.

I mean, I'm taller, obviously, but the average fully grown Grey Wolf is 100-110 lbs, meaning that I can pretty much go full Glomp mode on any of the non-puppy ones and know they'll be fine.
Plus, honestly, the puppy ones seem to want me to be a bit more intense with them, and they reciprocate.

So this means I've essentially got the ability to glomp a fluff at any time of the day or night, and it's been doing wonders for my chill.

I mean, I'm sure I've got a good enough poker face that most people don't notice when I'm getting upset, just when I've had enough.
But now, whenever I start to get non-chill, I find at least one wolf next to me giving me the "what are you waiting for?" eyes.

I honestly don't think I've been more than "a little bit upset" since Saturday.

I hadn't really thought about it, but Emily pointed it out.
Apparently, I've never really given off a cape vibe to her, but since getting the wolves, I don't even really give a "fucked in the head" vibe anymore.

Which is cool, I guess.

…

Oh, and the roll today was interesting, since it not only buffs me, but everyone using something magic-based I've made, so long as they're in the range.

Spell Obelisk - Overlord
Base Cost: 100cp
Lore:
Quartzite gleams with ancient fire, its crystal veins alive and bright,
Veiling secrets in its depths, a silent song of mystic light.
Polished smooth by countless years, it hums with power yet untold,
A beacon forged from earth and time, where raw magic does unfold.
Details:
You can generate a Quartzite Obelisk, and whenever you are within 10 miles of it, any spells cast are 150% as effective for 50% the cost. (Enchantments are only boosted while in the zone, but previously made enchantments are grandfathered in so long as they are made by you or the Celestial Grimoire).
Addons: -100cp spawn an additional pillar every 30 days. (Effect des not stack, this increases range)
Final Cost: 200cp
Bank: 650cp

Plus, it works out that the PRT HQ is already pretty central for the city.
I mean, most people don't think so, since everything gets pushed up against the coast, and the HQ is more than a mile from it.
But if you draw a 10-mile circle around PRT-HQ you get the majority of Brockton Bay inside it.

…

Oh, and the tablet has become sadly kind of useless lately, since the chat is literally the speed of thought and seems to add anyone Emily introduces me to after a day.

I know, because Dragon seems to think it's a big deal, so she has been pushing for it, to the point that my impromptu "training" with Narwhal is going to be repeated with Kidwin and Hero sometime in the hopes that he'll get added to the network.

They haven't tried dictating how it's run to me yet, but on the other hand, basically the only thing "Hand of the Queen" can't do is override me, and I've been letting them run everything under "Official" how they want, with the same for Albus and Raymond in "Phoenix."

Hell, they can even overrule other hands if they outvote each other.
So they really don't need me unless it's to make new channels permanent, which takes like 5 minutes per day at most.

…

And in other news, I've discovered that I can talk to the wolves, and Emily, but only sometimes with sis, which sucks in a way that's hard to describe.
But also, is kinda nice that even my weird, broken brain recognizes how consistent Emily's been.
Even if it means it's figured out just how flaky sis can be.

Also telling the doggos they're good.
It's very important that they know this fact.

 

[Oblation]

I guess Firewatch are getting antsy, since word has been that Uber and Leet are planning something in direct retaliation for the video.
Plus, supposedly, they built some surprisingly stable stealth tech in response to the cloak vials.

So whatever they're doing, the organizing of it hasn't been the kind of thing Firewatch can raid directly.

So instead, they've been looking into the dockworkers, which has been causing them some damage due to their already low reputation and hostile relationship with the PRT.

I had no idea any of this was a thing, but since the dockworkers are less a union of one type of worker and more a network of the Bay's blue-collar types, all using nepotism to throw each other work, discounts, and the like, the PRT has been keeping a close eye on it for years.
Since, on the surface, that seems fine, but I guess they meet like 7/10 of the qualifications of a gang and just keep insisting they're not without ever really being able to prove it.

So Firewatch is investigating the Docworkers association building itself, basically the hub of this whole network.
And that's what caused the current… whatever this is.

Because it would seem that the dockworkers are a bit more gang-like than previously noted, since they've got at least one cape.
And it's a depressingly familiar cape, for all I've never met her.

…

I was doing Overwatch in bigger Birdform for another most likely unsuccessful raid by Firewatch on what is theoretically a building owned by the Dockworkers, but has been connected to Uber and Leet.
But right as they were about to enter, about 100 guys showed up and attempted to intimidate them.

But, well, Firewatch is professional and loaded up with my gear that is borderline indestructible inside that new obelisk's range.
Plus, Aspirant is a kung fu master in diamond armor; the guy has every right to feel tough.
Not to mention the PRT trucks that were with us for backup.

So I genuinely wasn't sure what they were trying to accomplish with the mob, other than possibly some PR thing about police brutality, to obscure that we might have actually found an Uber and Leet location for once.

… And then the cape showed up, and suddenly things had a possibility of getting real.

Taylor tried her best to intimidate our side, so I, well, stopped her.

Because Harry Potter magic is all about utility, even if I don't have much to fight people with from it, certain things can be done easily.
And muting a person for about 8 hours is one of those things.
Plus, the "did I leave the oven on?" charm, which makes people just kind of wander off.

All of this was going according to the plan:
1. Mute the enemy capes/leaders to keep them from inciting violence.
2. Set up the "these are not the wards you're looking for" effect (as Emily calls it).
3. Do not seem threatening, and allow the crowd to disperse peacefully.

But I did run into a bit of a snag.
Because the Wolves apparently decided I was protecting my pack (aka Firewatch) from disaster (our lady of escalation) and so started awooing.

It was adorable, and I knew that it would give some kind of boost when they did that, but I wasn't expecting my magical control to go haywire.

The thing is, the perk did mention getting boosted from their awoos, what it failed to mention was that as I started the "mute Taylor" spell, that my magical reserves and channeling capacity would double.
I didn't just end up overcharging the spell, I massively overcharged that thing!

But part of the plan is to seem calm and in control.
So I just finished it, had my staredown with Taylor, then let her start to leave when she decided to.

...

Honestly, things had mostly calmed down, with the dockworkers slowly pulling away, but I guess one of them was a bit too excited to be evil because I heard a yelp and saw some fucker kicking one of the wolves.
So I did the obvious thing and teleported him to Boon Island, an abandoned rock about 7 miles from shore, and then got back in under a minute.

I quickly turned back to human and had my tablet read out, "The next person to hurt a dog gets left IN the Atlantic, not just near it."

Then Taylor turned a back around and we had an awesome "acknowledge each other" nod and she left.

I wish I could say I walked in the other direction like a badass, but alas for me, there was paperwork that had to be done on site if possible.

…

Oh, and Emily wasn't even that mad about teleporting the guy; she just asked where he was so she could send a boat out… Tomorrow.

 

[Oblation]

Seems I'm not the only one branching out lately.

I found out that sis finally got over her endless pining for that chameleon, Dean.

I guess she and Addison have been spending most of their days together since their at the same levels in tutoring, so she finally got sick of his boyscout routine and asked him out.

So as I was having an epic staredown with the Queen of Escalation, sis was going on a date.

Though I guess the whole thing ended kinda funny since there were like 20 people tailing them the whole time, and sis can tell that kind of thing from her "person-shaped space I can't warp" sense.

So eventually she got fed up and decided to take a page out of my "spontaneous Canada trip" playbook while also reminding people why she's got the "evacuate the city and call in an airstrike" rating, by warping a line all the way to NYC and getting pizza with Addison.

So sis is back to being awesome, if she can just manage trustworthy, things'll be perfect!

…

Also, it seemed like such a shame to let April Fools pass me by without rolling, but in hindsight, it might have been for the best if I had…

Partitioning the Gift - Ars Magica
Base Cost: 100cp
Lore: Born beneath a veiled star and marked by unseen hands, you awaken to the Gift: a single window into the secret music of Creation. One Form - and no more. Yet from that narrow keyhole, miracles may yet spill forth: the power to call storms, heal wounds, break minds, or mold stone as clay. Beware: the world recoils from such power, and every boon carries a curse unseen. Wield it wisely, for the Gift opens many doors... but bars far more.
Details:
You gain 50 points to cast spells with, one point per level in a spell.
Points recharge 1 per hour, or 50 after a long rest.
Roll a D10: You can cast any Technique, but only your rolled Form.
(Rolled D10 = Vim )
Addons: 450cp
Your Form is claimed, but 90% of the Gift remains.
You can grant 1/45th of the gift to 45 people who see you as a friend, teammate, or similar.
The gift lasts as long as they are alive unless explicitly specified before it is granted, or if they willingly and without coercion surrender it.
Roll a D5 from the 5 techniques (Creo, Intellego, Muto, Perdo, Rego) then you are able to pick which of the 9 remaining Forms (Animal, Aquam, Auram, Corpus, Herbam, Ignem, Imaginem, Mentem, and Terram) you think would suit this person best. However, so long as there is at least one Form available, you must pick it. These empowered people have the same 50-point pool as you do, with which to cast spells.
Final Cost: 550cp
Bank: 650cp

Because on the one hand, this is an obvious yes, but on the other, I've just gotten used to being a walking unhackable IRC, and now apparently I'm a power-granting Trump, too!

Not to mention that this one isn't so much learned as shoved into my head.

Oh, sure, I'll need to practice the actual casting a lot (and by practice I mean clone will), but I've got a bunch of combinations in my head all of the sudden, and it seems like this roll is determined to make me every kind of trump.

I can enhance people a bit, but importantly, I have the ability to interfere with or even cancel certain types of effects, and I figure there's a decent chance this'll work on cape BS if I use the write spells.

So like I said. I'm the kind of Trump the public is afraid of and the kind capes are at the same time, and it's all from that one stupid perk!

But what was I supposed to do, reject it?

Hah, as if!

...

Still, silver-lining is, I actually have 90 points thanks to the robes Clone wears, and if I'm in obelisk range, the spells will be cheaper and more powerful.
So whenever they decide I'm not Teacher 2.0, I should be able to make the PRT the biggest cape group in the city, by 2 or 3 times!

 

[Oblation]

They put me in M/S quarantine…

There was a tense moment when that robotic voice commanded me to send the wolves away, but I just did a reply:all in the "Official" server:
"Heads up, from the M/S Quarantine Cell - If you assholes foam the wolfpack, then I'm done pretending to be restricted or confined in any way by you or your fearmongering bullshit."

There was a minute of silence that felt different, then the voice just came back with a "message received," and the pack has stayed.

I guess things were getting too good lately.

It's important to remember that no matter how nice they are about it, the PRT thinks of me as a tool, and no matter how much I may like their individual members, I need to remember that the PRT itself is just a means to an end.

One way or another, the current arrangement is Temporary, even if it probably won't be me that pushes things too far.

…

Regardless of what else they're the PRT is an attempt to contain the parahuman problem. One that's becoming clearer to everyone as insufficient as time goes on.

At some point, the demand will be:
"Submit, or Die!"

And my answer will need to be:
"No, you."

…

But you know… more poetic and stuff.

Maybe I'll say some kind of "give me liberty or give me death!" kinda line… yeah, that'd be cool.

…

Still, M/S is a lot more zen in the middle of a puppy pile than as a single person like last time.

…

Oh, and I rolled, since I might as well.

I guess they put the machine in here somewhere, because the voice came back and ordered me to reject whatever the roll was, but a middle finger is a pretty clear response, me thinks. :3

Cult of Mystery - Honey, I Joined a Cult
Base Cost: 100cp
Lore:
You didn't just stumble into this life, you crafted it, weaving half-truths and twisted promises into a tapestry of obedience. Your kingdom isn't forged in steel but in whispered doctrines and shattered wills. Every follower is a piece on your board, every secret kept a blade in the dark. The world outside may sneer and hunt you, but within your walls, your word is law, and your cult thrives on faith, fear, and the fine art of plausible deniability.
Details:
There exists a Cult dedicated to the Celestial System on your world. They have recently discovered that you wield an artifact connected to it (the Celestial Grimoire) and have assigned 20 priests to get to the region where you live and start protilitising in your name.
Essentially, a small group of fairly strange PR agents, they are guaranteed to have your best interests at heart and will do their best to improve your reputation within the community and nation.
They will avoid direct interaction with you or your team, as they would classify this as interference with the will of their deity.
Addons: -50cp the Cult counts as your "allies" for the sake of rolls, and will do their best to work with your team, rather than completely in the background. Also, they have been granted a mild version of the [Blank] perk by the Celestial Grimoire in order to keep up their efforts from being derailed by outside forces.
Final Cost: 150cp
Bank: 200cp

Oh, well, I guess there's the downside to a few medium rolls.

Guess I should hold off for a bit..

 

[Oblation]

"By accepting this power, you hereby consent to the following conditions: any use of it against Saga Tara Byrne, whether direct or indirect, or any continued association exceeding seventy-two hours with an organization opposed to her, shall result in automatic and immediate termination of the power. The grant shall remain valid for exactly one hundred consecutive days from the moment of acceptance, subject to expiration at that time, with possible reinstatement should materially identical conditions exist."

Man, did the PRT hate me adding that clause!
Especially since they know these powers could be permanent, but after their BS, I'm refusing to grant them without this clause.

So now they're off to do legal stuff over a power they'd have gotten for free if they hadn't punished me for rolling a scary power.

Also, Firewatch, Albus, and the Ninja get first pick.
I've even got their contract made up:
"By accepting this power, you agree that it shall remain with you so long as you serve Saga Tara Byrne and in no way act against her; but if you turn it upon her, or align yourself with her enemies for more than seventy-two hours, it shall be revoked instantly and without appeal."

We'll see how much is left by the time the PRT makes up its various minds.

…

Oh, and I guess there's something new going on with my cape-ovision, since it turns out Taylor not only still has both arms, but her powers aren't even Bug themed, yet I'm pretty sure it's Khepri I'm seeing.

Still, it could be worse; at least she moves and acts like a person, even if the costume is off.

Also, she's still really bad at names, so somehow my Joking submission of "Queen Administrator" has ended up as her working title, while I was in M/S.

Shit, does she have human-master powers?
Do they know something I don't?

I can only see that she's listed as a Thinker-Trump, but that could mean a million things, and with QA, probably literally means a few million things…

…

Oh, also in hindsight, this moves like a normal person, but the wrong costume thing might just be a protagonist thing, since Glory Girl was kinda glowy, but otherwise just seemed like a college student in a sweet jacket.

Missy, Vicky, Taylor.
Yeah, no coincidence that these would be the three least affected by my cape-o-sight.

…

Also, I'm getting worried about the Uber and Leet rumors.
Capes are rarely willing or able to hold off on things like revenge for this long, and Tinkers only get progressively worse with additional time to build up.

But even Dragon can't get much of a Video out of a series of raids on buildings they'd already left, or where the dockworker's non-cape-related shady stuff totally wasn't happening (wink, wink).

…

But since he's both a friend and sis's new boyfriend, I've decided to grant Addison the first roll of the new Power-Grabbing-Trump thing.

I'll just give him the service contract, but replace all the uses of my name with Missy.

Easy as cake.

 

[Oblation]

Well, now I just kinda feel bad…

Though Addison seemed happy enough about it.

…

He accepted the contract for the magic spells I can grant.

"By accepting this power, you agree that it shall remain with you so long as you serve Maeve Vidja Missy Byrne and in no way act against her; but if you turn it upon her, or align yourself with her enemies for more than seventy-two hours, it shall be revoked instantly and without appeal."

And then rolled Creo, so I explained the options, and despite having pyrokinesis and illusion magics available, he decided to become… Panacea but worse.

…

"Creo-Corpus" lets him mostly just heal people, but he's only got 50 points to my 90, so even if he's inside the Obelisk range, he can basically just do a bad impression of Amy like 15 times, then he's out.

Still, I made him a list of spells, since this power doesn't seem to grant its knowledge along with the fraction of the power.
Which is weird, since I can't cast any of this, so why do I need to have it in my head?

…

5 - Stitch the Flesh: Closes minor cuts or rashes.
7 - Straighten Bent Fingers: Fixes small bones and sprains.
8 - Ease the Fever: Removes illness symptoms.
6 - Restore Skin Tone: Removes bruising.
15 - Gift of Tireless Limbs: Strengthens muscles.
17 - Stabilize the Wounded: Prevents worsening injuries.
16 - Clear the Lungs: Relieves respiratory illnesses.
18 - Refresh the Mind: A full night's sleep.
25 - Restore the Fallen Knight: Heals major injuries.
27 - Revive the Fainting: Restores near-death victims.
28 - Purify the Blood: Removes toxins from the body.
30 - Mend the Broken Spine: Fixes severe skeletal injuries.
35 - Regain the Prime Form: Mends grievous injuries.
40 - Renew the Vitality: Cures magical diseases.
50 - Recreate the Lost Limb: Restores lost limbs.

…

And sure, "Recreate the Lost Limb" sounds awesome, until you realize that casting that spell takes forever, and Panacea can do it by moving body fat around as long as she's awake, whereas Addison's got two in the tank, and only if he does both in Obelisk range.

Though it's not all bad, "Refresh the Mind" and "Restore Skin Tone" are probably gonna make him popular with the troopers, so it's all about silver lining's I guess.

…

Still, Emily was pleased, since she was able to talk Dauntless around into making Addison a PRT Ward so he could get some "leadership experience" and, in the meantime, the PRT now has a healer, even if his healings are gonna be rationed.

Still, it works out for me, since if Addison is my "Team Leader," then sis should hopefully take the hint and try hanging out without Assault and Battery trying to shove in every time.

…

Addison even loves the wolves, though it's sad he's too much of a Boy-Scout for any teasing to work.

I even spent a bit calling him "supreme glorious comrade leader," and he just continued on like I said his name, the spoilsport.

 

[Oblation]

Today was a lot, so I'm just going to list out all the magic powers that were given and the basic theme of their spells in the order I gave them to people:

Missy (Wards) Creo-Ignem: Firebending, plus it's strangely cheap in terms of points for what it does.

Fox (Himself??) Rego-Mentem: This one's just straight-up master powers, but there literally isn't anyone I trust more than Fox, and he promised not to be mean or boring with it, so I think it'll probably be fine.

Albus (Tenkō-no-Tomo) Muto-Terram: Basically transfiguration, but he really wanted to study how Ars Magica does his favorite subject, so he got this.

Asuka (Tenkō-no-Tomo) Muto-Corpus: Shapeshifting, scale grows with spent points.

Raymond (Firewatch) Perdo-Imaginem: Becomes a master with higher-level spells, but he was mostly interested in the lower-level stuff, which is a bunch of utility spells like suppressing a single sound, up to just muting sound in an area. He thinks this will go perfectly with the 3x invisibility potions (which do nothing for sound, unfortunately.)

Casey (Firewatch) Muto-Imaginem: Illusions, though a bit more focused on hiding things or people.

Edmund (Firewatch) Rego-Aquam: Waterbending, kinda underpowered, but it's unclear how much water he'd have control over, so we'll see.

William (Firewatch) Creo-Terram: Spontaneous fortifications made of stone.

Ansel (Firewatch) Intellego-Herbam: He's a hippy now? I guess he talks to plants, and they tell him things that have happened near them? Seems like a low-level thinker power, but he seems really excited about it, so I guess it's that saying, "One man's trash is another's treasure."

Alex (Firewatch) Intellego-Animal: We were kind of low on good options, but Alex is now determined to get himself a pet Sparrowhawk or Merlin somehow that he intends to bond with using this power.

Sandra (Firewatch) Perdo-Ignem: Another kind of specific one; she can remove fire, but it's the kind of thing that'll be great when it does come up.

Chris (Wards) Muto-Terram: He can shape materials like stone and metal. I don't think this sounded precise enough for tinkering, but he wanted to give it a shot.

Aspirant (Firewatch) Creo-Corpus: Another healer, he was fine with being team healer along with Tank, but this is the other half of his "non-bullet-proof brute" thing. So now he can take it and heal if someone gets a lucky shot.

Aegis (Wards) Rego-Auram: Basically, airbending is kind of expensive for what it does, but he can fly for free, so it's more relevant for him.

…

I wasn't going to do any more wards, but Aegis was on patrol with Chris when I found him, and everyone says he's a good guy, so I went with it. I also discovered he's a protagonist, since he just seems like a guy in costume. Hell, since he was on patrol at the time, I probably was seeing what someone actually looks like for once.

…

Also, I learned I could stop midway because Emily was wary to begin with and didn't like any of the Perdo options (they're all about destroying or killing stuff), so I broke it off.

I can start again, but she's still got Perdo every time, so we're just going to leave it be, sadly.

 

[Oblation]

Parahuman Response Team: East North East – Brockton Bay Division
Incident Report
Date: April 9, 2011,
Classification: Villain Activity – Uber & Leet
Reference Code: ULLive.2011.04.09
Executive Summary:
On April 9th, 2011, Uber and Leet executed a coordinated, citywide criminal operation designed to maximize spectacle, draw Protectorate and PRT attention, and enable simultaneous thefts by affiliated operatives. The event was broadcast live across multiple online platforms, styled after the aesthetics and themes of the indie video game *Hotline Miami*.
The operation succeeded in spreading PRT and Protectorate resources thin. While the central spectacle produced significant property damage downtown, 19 of 20 planned raids by operatives were completed with stolen assets secured and escape effected. One team was intercepted and neutralized due to effective coordination between the PRT auxiliary squad, Firewatch, and PRT-Ward Phoenix.
Main Spectacle: (Uber and Leet)
At approximately 1840 hours, Uber and Leet initiated their stream by driving a heavily modified van through the downtown district. The vehicle was reinforced with layered armor plating and customized for high mobility. The pair were dressed in Hotline-style masks and retro clothing, with Leet handling technical systems and Uber performing to the camera.
Their actions included:

• Deploying strobe grenades, smoke projectors, and sound cannons to disorient civilians and responding officers.
• Performing staged "executions" of mannequins dressed as PRT troopers, complete with pixelated overlays and score counters projected by Leet's rig.
• Smashing windows of storefronts and office buildings in a choreographed sequence to maximize visibility and spectacle.
• Broadcasting a constant narration themed after *Hotline Miami, mocking the Protectorate as "cops chasing pixels while the real players farm loot."

Uber and Leet remained highly mobile, drawing pursuit through several downtown blocks. Protectorate members Assault, Battery, Dauntless, Armsmaster, and Velocity engaged in pursuit and crowd control, but the villains continually evaded capture by abandoning vehicles, seeding confusion with decoys, and maintaining unpredictable routes.
Simultaneous Raids: (1900–2100 hours)
While Uber and Leet drew concentrated focus, operatives (16 total individuals, divided into 3-4 person cells) conducted a series of coordinated smash-and-grab style raids across the city.
Targets:
Cash-focused: 3 payday loan offices, 8 ATMs.
Electronics-focused: 1 computer retailer and electronics warehouse, 6 small data centers.
Government/PRT-focused: 1 PRT satellite storage depot, 1 municipal communications office.
Methods:
Crews employed Tinkertech equipment provided by Leet. Each device was deliberately styled to resemble improvised Hotline Miami weapons. Examples include:

• Resonance hammers capable of shattering reinforced doors.
• EMP shotguns disable electronic locks and alarm systems.
• Plasma cutters used to breach safes and ATM housings.
• Smoke/strobe generators to create sensory confusion.

Each raid lasted 3–11 minutes, with crews entering, looting, and exiting rapidly. Civilian injuries were minimal due to intentional avoidance of confrontation. The crews fled in stolen civilian vehicles, abandoning them for fresh vehicles after each raid, complicating pursuit and tracking.
Exception: Interception at Dockside
At 1950 hours, one three-man crew attempted to breach the PRT satellite storage depot located on Dockside. This target had been previously flagged as vulnerable to attack, and PRT auxiliary squad Firewatch was deployed nearby in anticipation.
Ward Phoenix (in avian changer form) provided high-altitude overwatch. Her surveillance enabled Firewatch to confirm the assailants approach vector and prepare an ambush.
When the crew initiated their breach with a resonance hammer, Firewatch deployed concussive munitions to disorient, followed by foam restraints to immobilize.
Phoenix maintained overwatch, confirming no reinforcements or secondary threats.
Engagement lasted ~90 seconds, ending with all three suspects captured alive and their equipment secured.
This represented the only successful interception among the 14 simultaneous raids.
Damage Assessment
Property Damage: Estimated $8.8 million, with downtown storefronts bearing the bulk of costs due to Uber and Leet's highly visible spectacle.
Stolen Assets: Estimated $3.2 million in cash, electronics, and computer hardware.
Civilian Impact: No fatalities reported. 37 minor and 7 moderate injuries, primarily due to trampling or accidental exposure to smoke/strobe effects.
Operational Costs: Protectorate and PRT resources were severely overextended, with multiple squads diverted to tracking Uber and Leet's movements rather than intercepting crews.
Analysis
Uber and Leet achieved their primary objective:

1. Maximizing visibility and humiliation of the PRT/Protectorate.
2. Broadcasting an uninterrupted live feed of their activities.
3. Successfully enabling 19 of 20 raids with minimal interference.

The coordinated spectacle and simultaneous raids represent a significant escalation in Uber and Leet's operational sophistication. The use of thematic tinkertech gear tied directly into the Hotline Miami aesthetic, reinforcing their reputation for spectacle-driven crime while simultaneously profiting from the distraction.
While the Firewatch/Phoenix interception at Dockside demonstrates that proactive intelligence and coordinated response can yield results, the broader operation underscores vulnerabilities in the current deployment strategy when confronted with simultaneous, citywide diversionary actions.
Recommendations

1. Expand aerial surveillance capabilities, both parahuman (e.g., Phoenix) and technological, to track dispersed raiding parties.
2. Develop rapid-response "net" tactics to counter Uber and Leet's mobile distraction strategies.
3. Monitor online platforms more aggressively for pre-event chatter, potential leaks, or coded announcements tied to gaming culture.
4. Increase security at known PRT and municipal depots to reduce vulnerability to opportunistic raids.

Filed by:
PRT Intelligence Division: Brockton Bay
Reviewed by: Director Emily Piggott and Deputy Director Grant Renoch.
Filed: April 10, 2011

Actions

 

[Oblation]

[Title Graphic on Screen: "PRT Public Update – April 10, 2011"]
[Background: evening skyline of Brockton Bay; ambient city sounds fade under soft, unobtrusive music.]

[Camera cuts to the grandfatherly Deputy Director Grant Renoch at a simple desk. He sits comfortably, hands folded, warm lighting, slightly leaning forward as if speaking directly to viewers at home.]

Grant Renoch:
"Good evening, Brockton Bay. I want to take a few minutes to talk about what happened yesterday. Many of you may have seen the images, the videos online, maybe even heard it happening live: Uber and Leet staged a very public, very flashy event across the city. Their goal was to grab attention — to create chaos that anyone watching would notice immediately. And in that, they succeeded.

While all that spectacle was going on, some of their associates attempted to hit multiple locations — cash offices, pawnshops, a few technology stores, and even one of our own PRT depots. The idea was clearly to take advantage of the distraction and move quickly before anyone could respond. There was property damage, and while minor injuries occurred, thankfully, there were no serious injuries or loss of life .

Now, in the middle of that chaos, something important happened that I think bears mentioning. At the Dockside depot, one of these teams was actually intercepted and stopped. That was made possible by a combination of quick, professional work on the ground and the guidance of Phoenix, our PRT-Ward, who maintained overwatch from above in her bird form. Phoenix is someone we've seen develop quickly and effectively, and she brings a level of focus and judgment that makes a real difference in situations like these. Because of her presence, the team on the ground was able to intervene safely and recover the stolen equipment without escalating the risk to bystanders or our personnel.

I want to emphasize that Phoenix's contribution highlights a broader point: the PRT benefits when our field teams have the opportunity to work directly with capable heroes. She's young, she's talented, and she's committed — and seeing her in action yesterday was a reminder of how coordination and trust make all the difference in real-time operations.

For the other crews, the ones who weren't intercepted, the events downtown and across the city mostly remained part of the spectacle. That kind of situation is always challenging because the villains are using distraction as a weapon. They want eyes on them, they want chaos, and they want normal responders tied up while secondary operations unfold elsewhere. Our teams did what they could to keep civilians safe, manage the crowds, and monitor all of the activity. In situations like this, the primary goal is protection first , and yesterday's response reflects that priority.

We'll be reviewing all the details carefully: how the response unfolded, where gaps appeared, and what we can do to be better next time. Every incident like this teaches us something — about technology, about tactics, and about how to make sure the city is safer in the future. One thing yesterday showed clearly is that having Wards like Phoenix, who can act quickly and coordinate with PRT teams in the field, is a tremendous advantage. It's a capability we want to continue developing and expanding.

So while yesterday was challenging and, yes, disruptive, it also gave us lessons to carry forward. We saw the difference that focus, preparation, and collaboration can make. We saw that when trained teams have the right support, dangerous situations can be contained safely and effectively. And we saw that our citizens, by remaining alert and following safety guidance, play a crucial role in helping the PRT maintain order.

In closing, I want to thank the community for staying safe, for reporting suspicious activity, and for supporting the work that we do every day. We'll continue to improve, to learn from every operation, and to ensure that Brockton Bay remains a city where people can live without fear, even when parahuman threats try to make themselves seen.

[Graphic overlay: "Stay Alert – Report Suspicious Activity" with a subtle PRT logo]

Thank you for listening, and thank you for supporting your PRT."

[Fade to city skyline; ambient music gradually fades out. End of broadcast.]

 

[Oblation]

From: Deputy Director Grant Renoch grenoch@prt.gov
To: Head Office – PRT Operations ho-ops@prt.gov
CC: Emily Piggot epiggot@prt.gov
BCC: Internal Intelligence Oversight inteloversight@prt.gov
Subject: Full Internal Assessment – Uber & Leet Operations, April 9

To Whom It May Concern,

I am submitting my personal assessment of the April 9th operations involving Uber and Leet. The events of Saturday illustrate several critical points about operational capacity in Brockton Bay, as well as the distinct advantages that come from directly integrating parahumans into the PRT structure.

Uber and Leet staged a citywide spectacle designed to monopolize attention and overwhelm conventional response structures. While their associates carried out multiple simultaneous raids on cash offices, technology stores, pawnshops, and one PRT depot, only a single crew was intercepted. This interception occurred at the Dockside depot, thanks to coordinated action by Firewatch in the field and Phoenix, our PRT-Ward, maintaining overwatch in her bird form. Phoenix's involvement was decisive: the crew was stopped safely, equipment was recovered, and civilian risk was minimized.

This stands in stark contrast to the broader Protectorate response. Their Wards were largely occupied with monitoring the spectacle itself. Despite having more numerous parahumans available, the lack of coordinated cross-training or integrated operational doctrine rendered them largely ineffective in stopping secondary operations. From my perspective, the majority of Protectorate Wards function as little more than observers when compared to what can be achieved by embedding Wards directly within a single chain of command — a structure we have implemented effectively with PRT-Wards like Phoenix.

The contrast could not be clearer: Phoenix and her team's direct integration with the PRT resulted in tangible, measurable outcomes. The Protectorate's Wards, by contrast, contribute little in scenarios that demand rapid, multi-site decision-making and cross-unit coordination. While I do not question their intent, Saturday's events reinforce the principle that decentralized Wards without consistent integration into operational planning offer marginal value in high-complexity situations.

Given Uber and Leet's demonstrated ability to combine distraction, mobility, and targeted raids, I recommend the following:

1. Consider raising the threat rating of Uber and Leet to reflect both their tactical sophistication and the operational challenge they present.
2. Continue expanding the PRT-Ward program, emphasizing the direct embedding of capable Wards into field units. The Dockside success illustrates how quickly and effectively such integration produces results.
3. Review current policies regarding cross-agency coordination with Protectorate Wards. While formal partnerships have symbolic value, they do not, in practice, offer the rapid tactical benefit that direct PRT-Ward integration provides.
4. Explore additional training and operational scenarios that leverage the unique advantages of PRT-Wards in dispersed, citywide threat environments.

In conclusion, the April 7 events demonstrate both the risks of dispersed, spectacle-oriented threats and the operational advantage of a cohesive, fully integrated parahuman strategy. PRT-Wards are an invaluable tool; Phoenix's performance is a tangible example of how this structure works in practice. As we move forward, I recommend continued investment and expansion in this model, with a focus on fully utilizing our Wards as active, integrated partners rather than peripheral observers.

Respectfully,
Dr. Grant Renoch, Deputy Director PRT-ENE: Brockton Bay

 

[Oblation]

From: Deputy Director Grant Renoch grenoch@prt.gov
To: All Brockton Bay PRT Personnel
CC: Emily Piggot epiggot@prt.gov
BCC: Internal Intelligence Oversight inteloversight@prt.gov
Subject: Early-Stage Coordination with Wards

OVERVIEW
The April 9th Uber and Leet incident highlighted both the complexity of citywide, multi-site threats and the advantages of proactive coordination with Wards. In particular, PRT-Ward Phoenix's role during the Dockside depot interception demonstrated how a PRT-Ward can provide overwatch, intelligence, and rapid guidance, enabling field units to stop the raid safely while minimizing risk to civilians.

Historically, interactions with parahumans have followed the Protectorate model: Wards operated independently, often peripherally, or alongside PRT units without meaningful integration. While their presence can sometimes help, this model limits tactical effectiveness, slows decision-making, and reduces overall operational cohesion.

STRATEGIC GUIDANCE
The PRT is beginning an early-stage approach within Brockton Bay and the surrounding county, encouraging personnel to actively build relationships and coordinate with Wards, particularly PRT-Wards, whenever possible. This is not a mandate to assign or re-task Wards; it is a call to make the most of capabilities already present.

Personnel are encouraged to:

1. Open Lines of Communication – Initiate contact with local Wards, maintain consistent professional communication regarding operations and patrols.
2. Develop Working Relationships – Understand Ward abilities and limitations, include Wards in planning and briefings, encourage input to improve decision-making.
3. Coordinate Operational Activities – Collaborate with Wards on patrols, exercises, and interventions; use them for overwatch, reconnaissance, or intelligence-gathering; document outcomes for lessons learned.
4. Encourage Active Participation – Allow Wards to participate directly where feasible; follow safety protocols for civilians, personnel, and Wards.

RATIONALE

• Operational Effectiveness: Direct coordination allows faster, better-informed responses in complex, multi-location situations.
• Enhanced Safety: Wards reduce risk to personnel and civilians when effectively integrated.
• Developing Future Heroes: Early relationship-building fosters Wards into capable collaborators operating with the PRT.
• Addressing Protectorate Limitations: Independent Protectorate Wards are less reliable for coordinated operations; PRT-focused engagement improves outcomes without overstepping authority.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

• Include Ward coordination in planning, even for office staff or dispatch personnel handling logistics, communications, or coordination.
• Document successful interactions, challenges, and suggestions for refinement.
• Troopers, squad leaders, and support staff should proactively foster relationships.
• Share feedback with supervisors to refine operational protocols.

CONCLUSION
Early-stage integration of Wards within Brockton Bay operations improves cohesion, operational effectiveness, and safety. Personnel are encouraged to engage with Wards wherever possible, integrate them into planning and exercises, and support their development into heroes who work with the PRT , not just beside it.

Respectfully,
Dr. Grant Renoch, Deputy Director PRT-ENE: Brockton Bay

Emily leaned back in her chair, scanning the memo as it filled her screen. The language was precise, all clearly aimed at city and county personnel. She paused at "Phoenix's role during the Dockside depot interception." That part was undeniable, Saga had been the difference between a lost raid and a clean interception.

The memo hammered the same point: PRT-Wards, not Protectorate Wards. Emily could agree with that. Protectorate Wards were unpredictable and often too independent. Phoenix had demonstrated what could happen when a Ward was integrated properly.

Her brow furrowed, though Grant was pushing the edge of his authority. Technically, he couldn't assign Wards or direct Protectorate resources. He could advise, influence, and encourage, but his language made it clear he wanted his personnel to treat Wards as operational partners. Bold, it could work, but it's risky.

Emily contemplated it, in her own jurisdiction (Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), as one of the PRT's Full-Directors this could serve as a powerful test. If early-stage Ward integration worked in Brockton Bay, the model could be scaled up. But doing the initial testing in multiple cities would be highly politicized and fraught with oversight, complaints from Protectorate leadership, and bureaucratic backlash. Grant, though, as a county-level Director, had the latitude to operate largely as he pleased, as long as his orders remained legally sound and she didn't object.

Still… she nodded. The instructions were practical and actionable for anyone who might interact with Wards from troopers to dispatchers, without actually overstepping any bounds. Emphasis on communication, coordination, and participation made sense. She clicked "Reply" to acknowledge receipt, fingers hovering. Careful, Grant, she thought, but this could work.

 

[Oblation]

The plaza was already buzzing as Glenn arrived, clipboard under arm and eyes scanning for optimal crowd flow. Fountains caught the morning sun in fleeting sparkles, and banners flapped gently over the open square. Today's theme was deliberately whimsical: princess cosplay, designed to engage children and families while testing Phoenix's ability to maintain attention, navigate unpredictable interactions, and test his theory on her mentality.

Phoenix stood near the central fountain, small but commanding in her pastel gown. Ribbons, faux jewels, and delicate lace shimmered with each subtle movement. Her golden hair, neatly braided, reflected sunlight and careful attention to detail. Around her, children arrived in a kaleidoscope of homemade crowns, wands, sparkling skirts, and toy swords. Parents followed, cameras poised, capturing every moment and whispering excitedly to each other.

Glenn's attention was immediately drawn to how Phoenix carried herself. She was calm and stoic, yet every movement conveyed awareness of her audience. She moved fluidly between small groups of children, crouching or inclining her head in acknowledgment. Sometimes, she extended her hands gently, allowing shy children to reach for a small gesture of engagement. Parents occasionally commented to each other, marveling at how cute and approachable she was. Glenn noted: Remarkable, her timing and reading of the crowd is fantastic.

Occasionally, Phoenix would transform into her bird forms, gliding above the crowd with effortless elegance, repositioning herself without disrupting the flow. Upon returning to human form, she continued engaging directly, nodding, bowing, and gesturing. Staff and troopers interacted quietly in the background. A PRT trooper guiding a group of toddlers whispered reassurances to a nervous parent, and a member of Firewatch adjusted Phoenix's gown so that the light would better catch the sequins. Glenn observed the ebb and flow of interactions, noting how children gravitated toward her, yet remained safely distributed.

Over the course of the day, Phoenix developed a subtle strategy. She began flying briefly in one of her Phoenix forms to new spots across the plaza, ensuring attention was spread and that different clusters of children could interact with her individually. Some children received nods, others a small bow, and a few were offered the briefest of gestures that made them beam. Glenn watched, fascinated by her evolving improvisation and the way she seemed to anticipate crowd behavior.

By afternoon, the plaza had erupted into laughter, chatter, and scattered cheers. Parents murmured about how engaging she was, how photogenic, how patient with their small children. Glenn allowed himself a quiet smile. The event had succeeded beyond expectations. Phoenix's poise, strategic thinking, and natural charm had made her the centerpiece of a truly magical experience.

As the day wound down, Glenn reflected on what he had observed. Phoenix had maintained a delicate balance, engaging without overwhelming, moving with freedom but always returning to human form for personal interaction. Her mentality, as he suspected, was that most often seen with movers, constantly seeking vantage, maintaining mobility. He made careful notes for Sunday, knowing the wizard-and-knight theme would raise the stakes even higher.

 

[Oblation]

Sunday arrived with a cooler, brisk morning. The plaza had been transformed: banners evoked medieval courts, fantastical landscapes, and floating pennants hinted at distant kingdoms. Glenn walked slowly across the cobblestone layout, noting positions for children, PR staff, and troopers. Today, the event culminated in a visit from Hero, America's most renowned parahuman.

Phoenix waited near the central fountain, now fully in her wizard persona: a deep blue robe embroidered with silver stars, a tall pointed hat, and a carefully pinned white beard. Children arrived in wands, crowns, and toy shields, their excitement palpable. The Firewatch crew had worn light cloaks and toy swords to echo the theme, while PR staff carried clipboards and cameras decorated to appear as magical tomes and crystal balls. Glenn observed the scene, mentally noting which of the local staff were managing flows well, which needed guidance, and which were simply trying to stay out of their boss's path.

Phoenix quickly engaged with her audience, alternating between stoic acknowledgment, subtle gestures, and phoenix-form flights to reposition herself across the plaza. She added to the wonder of the event with a magical wand she used to generate some sort of minor illusions: a child's hair flickered pink, a plush dragon glimmered. These were occasional, just enough to add enchantment without stealing focus from her natural charm.

Parents sometimes leaned down to murmur excitedly, "She's so composed!" or "Look at her fly! It's like magic!" One mother commented to another that she had been hesitant to interact with capes but was glad to see her young daughter giggling at Phoenix's gentle bow. Glenn felt a quiet satisfaction: she was not just managing children, she was orchestrating a living tableau.

The other hero's arrival marked a stark contrast. Armsmaster remained rigid, armored, and imposing, while his lines were well crafted, they were just as obviously scripted and read with a sort of stern detachment. Kid Win stuttered through a small presentation, tripping over phrasing and gestures while Miss Militia and Aegis waved and grinned, cheerfulness forced and overblown, clearly transparent to even the children. Glenn's brow furrowed. So unfortunate that so few capes are willing to accept even the barest participation in themed events. Phoenix makes that cosplay seem natural and graceful, while these four look badly dressed in their own costumes.

Finally, Hero arrived, the plaza erupting in attention. Shimmering robes layered over his red-and-gold armor gave him the air of a theatrical magical-knight. His voice boomed, sweeping gestures commanding the crowd. Phoenix responded immediately, adjusting her timing, gestures, and illusions to complement him. They danced through a subtle but spontaneous choreography: Hero's bombastic presence paired with Phoenix's stoic, precise timing. Illusions punctuated key moments: a flash of light here, a burst of sparks there, without overshadowing Hero's storytelling.

The Climax unfolded with Phoenix presenting a small cosplay ring to Hero, in place of the one he's been using for Weeks. As he knelt theatrically, accepting it with dramatic flair, playing along with her stoic wizard persona. Children erupted in applause as she remained still, perfectly composed, letting Hero's performance shine while maintaining her own mystique. With a final sweep of his robes, Hero departed, leaving the plaza humming with excitement.

Glenn reflected as the crowd dispersed. Over the weekend, Phoenix had grown into her role with astonishing poise, improvisation, and strategic awareness. She had maintained audience engagement, navigated complex crowd dynamics, and adapted her movements for maximal impact while respecting her Mover instincts. In contrast, the other heroes' rigid, awkward, or forced performances highlighted Phoenix's skill and natural aptitude.

Parents lingered, taking photos, asking quiet questions, impressed by her presence and composure. PR staff whispered among themselves, clearly learning how to handle a Mover capable of autonomous spectacle. Troopers gave subtle nods of approval, aware they had been part of something truly coordinated. Glenn made final notes: autonomy, improvisation, and respect for Mover instincts were paramount. Phoenix had not only captivated the city but offered a living lesson in public engagement, laying a foundation for future national-level events while remaining entirely safe and professional.