witch's cape, not hat

[characterquarry]

Grendyne groans and starts pulling on her boots when the alarm goes off. Again. She quick-marches to the broom hangar, sits on her machine and is handed a plethora of loaded weapons by attentive corporals.

"Two flyers in one day? They're getting way too common."

"It's worse," the commander informs them, "South Karlsland got hit with three at once. We're taking Lytee's express and sleeping there. You can sit out if you absolutely need to, but Freya's still recovering so we could use you as a comms relay."

"No, I'll come. I just reserve the right to complain about it."

The 42nd United Forces Witch Wing takes off and assembles into a perfect synchronized formation as Lytee charges her teleport power.



...This is not South Karlsland wilderness.

[note: halfway through this thread I created a unique account for Grendyne. Do not be alarmed by the change in account. -Rockeye]

Comments

[witchwatcher]

"I've stopped even trying to copy tinkers. It just won't happen. Sometimes I can get a little manual dexterity or automagic mental math or something out of them, but the making things bit, no. Hm..."

She studies Cranial's tinkerness, tilting her head to the size quizzically. "...Yeah, copying you is just giving me the ability to see complex patterns, and isn't helping me know what to do with them."

[wormcan]

"That's fine. I got what it looks like when you're copying a power, and since it didn't work it definitely isn't just what happens when you get a particular one. Hm.
Yeah, looks like the memory gadget is going to help with recalling that too. Just a couple minor changes. You think it's going to speed up how fast you can copy?"

[witchwatcher]

"Oh, definitely. Remembering the patterns is most of the work at first, until it gets worked into my power's equivalent of muscle memory. And I can stop worrying I'll forget something. There might never come a day where Aegis's overly stubborn physiology is the best way to solve a particular problem, but if that day comes I want to remember how to use it."

[wormcan]

"I'm with you on that one. Say, when we're done here you want some extra skills? It's what most of my business is. Another ten thousand and you can have your ten thousand hours' worth of practice in whatever you think is most useful."

[witchwatcher]

Shrug. "I have Uber. His power's finicky and tricky to use, but gets things done. I'll buy a rapid-fire tech education, though. Earth Gimel's state of the art was the steam engine and I'm still catching up."

[wormcan]

"Sure, I can give you that. Who's Uber?"

[witchwatcher]

"Small-time villain-ish from Brockton Bay. It doesn't give me skills so much as techniques. I can't learn programming or writing, just how to type fast and how to structure a paragraph. For example."

[wormcan]

"Hm. Might still be worth copying some. Update some of the skills I've got on file. Gimme an hour watching you cycle through techniques and I'll knock the tech stuff down by half?"

[witchwatcher]

"Sure. I might have to leave suddenly, I've got contracts for emergency healing out. Teleporting is much faster than an ambulance. But we can just pick up again later if that happens."

[wormcan]

"For now, though, you still need the memory and emotion alterations. This'll take a bit longer than the scans did."

[witchwatcher]

"They won't be a device that I might lose or break? Convenient. Unless they can break me."

[wormcan]

"I call it an implant 'cause it works better with literal ones, but it turns out people object to having chips in their heads no matter how many medical degrees I tell them I have. You can get most of the same effect without that, though. Don't even have to put you under. Just don't teleport out part way through having your brain messed with."

The thing that does the messing with is a chair half-surrounded by so much machinery it's almost a small room in its own right. It's all white and ovoid and the visual impression is like nothing so much as a giant egg.

[witchwatcher]

She sets her thing down and settles into the chair without comment. Tinkertech is tinkertech.

[wormcan]

A band settles around her forehead, keeping it in the same approximate place. "I'm leaving the unnecessary sound effects off this time. If you're wondering if the Deneuralyzer is doing anything, it is." There's no visible sign of whether it's doing anything. For all Gren can see, Cranial could be playing Galaga at the controls and expecting her customer not to notice.

[witchwatcher]

Gren idly considers trying to alter her Siberian-projections, but it's a very specific pattern, doing something weird involving physics she doesn't really understand. It wouldn't work if she changed something, in all likelihood.

[wormcan]

It takes about forty minutes before the tinker announces "Done."

"Next up, instant tech education.
You sure you didn't want the free practice with anything else too? Languages, martial arts, piano? The kind of things where you'd have to prove you're eighteen first?"

[witchwatcher]

"Is there a martial art that's good for dodging, or for striker powers that just have to touch to win? This world's version of Suomic and Ostkav might be nice, in terms of languages. Spanish too. As to the last thing, no. Just no. It'd be creepy to learn that from machines."

[wormcan]

"Spanish and Finnish, and I don't know what Ostkav is.
For martial arts, baritsu is a good one for avoiding contact. Slipping through and leaving the opponent clawing the air and all that. Works as well as any for landing touches too, if you're the striker involved."

[witchwatcher]

"Baritsu it is, then. Ostkav... I don't think it actually has a counterpart, here. The nation of Ostmark is a dozen or more countries in this world. Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Ukraine. Nevermind."

[wormcan]

"Just the three skills then. Five thou each and two hours of letting me copy techniques?"

[witchwatcher]

"Deal."

[wormcan]

It's just information being downloaded, but it feels like Gren is experiencing learning the things as normal except sped up several thousand times. It somehow makes learning languages not boring. She gets three "I Know Kung Fu" moments in less than half an hour.

[witchwatcher]

It's also just a little bit scary how easily the grey mush that is her can be changed so deeply. At least she's only getting things she asked for changed, Heartbreaker wouldn't be so considerate.

She's in a thoughtful mood today, huh?

The two hours of demonstrating techniques so Cranial can copy them will go by subjectively quickly as Gren considers her new knowledge.

[wormcan]

And after Copycat pays the rest of the money, it'll be a successful dubiously legal business deal.

[witchwatcher]

After she takes care of some outstanding jobs, it's time to pay an invisible visit to Brockton Bay to see if the Undersiders are being evil, and to try to find Coil again.