behemoth, meet the opposition

[mrglam]

Sadde doesn't seem quite able to focus on homework at the moment. He's fidgeting, and sometimes stares off into space for long periods of time before James has to snap him out of it.

Comments

[thinkering]

"I'm glad to hear it. I wanted you to know that you made a huge difference out there. Not just saving lives, but saving lives who could then go on to save more lives. I ran an estimate and today alone there are about a hundred fifty people who are still walking around because of you, and that's to say nothing of the ripple effect when the capes are there at the next fight and the next."

[peterxy]

She blinks. "Cool! I kinda don't remember a bunch of that, though."

[thinkering]

"You're not immune to your own memory loss? I was going to ask but the alarm went off before we could schedule something."

[peterxy]

"Immune? No, everything rewinds, why would my brain, you know, not?"

[thinkering]

"Some people are immune to parts of their own powers. I'm immune to your memory loss, by the way - and my robots can compensate because they're a distributed architecture - so you can be a little freer about bopping me and them for transport or healing than you might with other teammates."

[peterxy]

"Oh. Aren't you a Tinker though? How come you're immune?"

[thinkering]

"Secondary power. Did you read your handbook yet?"

[peterxy]

She makes a pained face. "Not really."

[thinkering]

"Well, whenever you get around to it, under 'Master/Stranger protocols unique to this HQ', there's a bit that says 'trust Lorica above your own senses while protocols are in effect'. I'm generally immune to mind-affecting anything."

[peterxy]

She nods, seriously. "I have a secondary power, too, but it's, like, to complement my primary. I can - sort of - see where stuff was."

[thinkering]

"Oh?"

[peterxy]

"It's hard to explain. It feels sorta like colors? Everywhere, like this shadow behind everything, and I can tell just by looking where a thing was and what it was doing and how it was moving, and if I concentrate a little bit I can even replay the events in my head. It's how I know I used my power on myself, the colors change suddenly."

[thinkering]

"Huh, that's really useful and explains how you can land so precisely when you're porting around."

[peterxy]

"Yeah. I can see stuff even from when I wasn't around. Like, I know you were talking to someone for a bit just before you came looking for me."

[thinkering]

"I don't exactly look very different when I'm talking; do you see a shadow of the other party or are you guessing?"

[peterxy]

"It's not just seeing, it's like, watching it happen. I can hear stuff, too, so I know you were talking. It's been more than ten minutes now, but when we started talking I could've figured out what you were saying if I tried."

[thinkering]

"That's really interesting! The ten minute limit decreases the effectiveness some, but like - could we give you a phone and tap it for the last ten minutes of conversations on it?"

[peterxy]

"I dunno. I mean, I could prolly figure out the last ten minutes of stuff the person on the other side said, sure, but not this side, I think."

[thinkering]

"Half a log might be better than none, and that's the half that would usually be harder to get, anyway. By default my bots are recording anything that happens to them and you can use them as transcription if you want to relay something you see or hear to the rest of us."

[peterxy]

"Uh, what do you mean?"

[thinkering]

"I mean if you're listening to a phone, you can say what you pick up from the phone to a bot, and then we'll have a record, instead of just saying it to a person who might forget."

[peterxy]

"Oh! Yeah, I can do that."

[thinkering]

"I also wanted to ask how you decide what gets rewound. Like, you rewound me with my suit; is that optional, could you have gotten the suit and not me if you had nastier intentions?"

[peterxy]

"No, it's like, my power kinda decides that stuff counts as one thing? Like if I poured water in a glass and then I touched the glass, both the water and the glass would return to where they had been, even if that means separate. So, like, your suit and you counted as one thing, to my power, I could only choose to affect you separately if you were, you know, actually separate."

[thinkering]

Lorica loosens a glove. "So if I detach part of it but it's still on me, how does that affect it?" She holds out her hand.