branding lady, meet meek little lamb

[mxglam]

Glam isn't allowed to actually patrol the following day (it's a Sunday), so they mostly browse the 'net and read books. Echo's busy with her family (and she is allowed to go out patrolling), and Lorica's... doing something.

They're slightly worried about the fact that Yates hasn't replied to their email, but it's the weekend, so maybe that's why.

Has she replied to the email by Monday?

Comments

[msglam]

She conjures a glass vial, approximately four inches long, shaped like an ellipsoid with flattened ends, about as wide as one of Windflower's index fingers at its narrowest, about 50% wider at its widest.

"Would this be about enough?"

[alicornucopia]

"Maybe? I don't know."

[msglam]

"Oh. Hmm... Well, okay, it's possible to figure this out. If we have enough success with this we might get a Tinker to reproduce something similar. The nonlethal part is, is it possible to make antidotes for your poisons? And if so, do you have any poisons that disable someone but take long enough to actually seriously harm them that we can apply the antidote before that happens?"

[alicornucopia]

"Miracle Max can do sort-of antidotes. He says they're not really antidotes just symptom suppressants but they'll keep people alive long enough to get it out of their system, anyway. And yeah, I've got a range. I've even got the blue stuff that can't actually kill even a rat however much I make. Poor rats though."

[msglam]

"Oh? What does it do?"

[alicornucopia]

"It's inhalation only and it'll make you cough up blood and puke and get really dizzy and sometimes pass out."

[msglam]

"Hmm, okay, not terribly useful. But okay, if it's possible, then that could be your thing: shooting contact darts with poison that disables someone quickly but lets them last long enough to be given an antidote."

[alicornucopia]

"It'd be better than just sort of standing around because if I do anything I'll hit somebody else," sighs Windflower, "I guess."

[msglam]

"Yeah! And it could be useful against the tougher capes Boots can't kick into submission, and some types of minions."

[alicornucopia]

Nod.

[mxglam]

The next afternoon, at a time when neither Glam nor Lorica have to patrol (actually Glam hasn't been patrolling since joining the Wards yet, but anyway), it is power testing time!

Glam conjures a boat. They are now on a boat.

[thinkering]

Boat!

"What do you want to check first?" asks Lorica.

[mxglam]

"Hmmm... I kinda forgot what-all we had to test! There was range, and quantity of things, and time, and how range relates to time..."

[thinkering]

"Well, okay, simple starter test, give the robot a thing and the robot will carry it away."

[mxglam]

Glam produces: a rubber duck. For nostalgia. It is given to the robot.

[thinkering]

The robot accepts it, cradles it carefully, and zooms out over the water.

"And make buoys, one at a time, farther away from you," says Lorica, "and a robot can hop along the line of them and see how far away the farthest one you can make is. If you can make functional binoculars that might help."

[mxglam]

Binoculars: are made.

"As long as there aren't obvious flaws on the lenses to squint at, looking through them won't count, I think. That's the principle behind my mask, anyway."

And lo, they are functional.

Buoys start to be made.

[thinkering]

A robot hops from buoy to buoy, noting its distance from the flock around Lorica.

[mxglam]

They go quite a-ways!

And they keep going, and keep going, and keep going.

They stop at around the distance Glam can't see them with much clarity through the binoculars.

[thinkering]

"Do you have a sense of what's stopping you?" Lorica asks, when the robot has no new buoy to hop to.

[mxglam]

"Well, the obvious thing is that I probably would not be able to tell at this distance whether I was successful with very high confidence." Binocular is replaced by better binocular.

Buoy buoy buoy buoy buoy...

[thinkering]

Hop hop hop hop hop!

[mxglam]

Stop.

Bye binoculars, hello small toy telescope.

Couple more buoys.

Stop.

"Hm. Now if I were to guess it's the angle. It's far enough away that any new buoys would be hidden by the old ones."

But! A few of the buoys have started disappearing. And it's not been half an hour yet.

Glam has not noticed this.

[thinkering]

One of the robots does. "Are you dismissing intervening buoys on purpose so they're not blocking your view?"

[mxglam]

"Uh. No? Where?" Telescope not good for this, old binocular better. They look. They're hard to find, what with all the buoys, but eventually Glam notices a gap. "Huh. That's new."