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Frankly, I don't know why Piggot decided the garage where we stored the PRT vans was also the right place to store some demented Ice Cream Truck. I'm just a guy who makes sure that our vehicles are kept maintained and that the usage logs are filled out correctly, so I wouldn't have the authority to question her decision anyway.
At first, it wasn't an obstacle to me doing my job and keeping the squad vans in shape, but seeing it every day got annoying after a week. During the slow period around lunch, I decided to take a closer look. I really shouldn't have done that. Not just because I was told to leave it alone, but because it only looked crazier when inspected. The clown decoration scheme in the cabin clashed horribly with itself and only made the PS3 controller mounted where the wheel should be look normal by comparison. I tried to calm myself down by closing my eyes, taking a few deep breaths, and straightening my hair with my hands, but when I opened my eyes I noticed that the passenger seat didn't actually have seatbelts. It was literally as if someone just took a chair from an arcade cabinet. That was too much for me. I marched back to my desk and spent five minutes by my watch lining up my pencils and pens in order by size.
At the end of my five-minute cooldown, I thought about how I would've made an ice cream truck. It would have a steering wheel with a cab in a black and grey color scheme, four wheels with a spare in the back, normal seats with seatbelts, in fact, it wouldn't be an ice cream truck at all, it would be something normal like a FedEx van. Just comparing what was in my head to what was in the garage only made me more pissed off about having it in my space. I just left work at that point. I walked out the door, drove home, and called it a day.
I settled in at home and sent an email to my boss saying that I had left work early due to not feeling well and might not be there tomorrow. Even that didn't let me relax. It's absolutely ridiculous that some weird car being in the wrong place would affect me so much, but I always liked having a routine. I could almost feel a soothing shield building up in my mind. Wait, know, I could actually feel that in my head. I poked at it for a second and I could almost feel it want to change and become knowledge. Maybe cars, maybe computers, but definitely something real.
From my job, I knew that this had one obvious explanation. I was a cape now. I knew immediately that if I went to work in the morning and told them, I could be promoted to the Protectorate and that was tempting, but I knew how triggers worked and I wasn't sure I wanted to go back to a place that was stressful enough to make me trigger. I could at least use up my PTO while waiting for some clarity.
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I woke up in the morning at 7 on the dot, despite having already arranged a sick day for work. Having slept on making any important decision, I was still happy with my plans. I'd take a few days off work to figure out my power before actually doing anything with it. I could still feel that energy and how it promised me knowledge if I pushed it some more. It seemed like the smart thing to do would be to test it with something I was already knowledgeable about so I could check how accurate the knowledge is. I took a second to decide between automotive maintenance and PRT operations for my first time and decided to go with automotive maintenance. I pushed that blob of energy just so and felt a wave washing over me. My previous knowledge was mostly left intact, but filled out and polished as if I had gone through everything I had ever learned on the topic and seen how it fit together. I could feel parts in my brain where new things were flitting about and tempting me, but most of the "energy" in my brain was gone with a slow trickle that failed to respond to my thoughts.
At the end of the day, the energy was refilled enough for me to use it on PRT operations. It was just like before, my existing knowledge cleared up in my memory, filled out by cross-referencing it against itself, and then filled out even more by cross-pollinating with my vehicle maintenance skills. I was marveling at suddenly understanding why the PRT customizes its vehicles the specific ways it does when I realized that I would be unlikely to pass a Master/Stranger screening at this point. I was already diverging from my MS baseline and unless I decided to pick up infiltration skills in the next few days, they would realize pretty rapidly once I went back to work unless they had already pegged my sick leave as unusual already. I still didn't want to go back to the place which made me trigger, but my options would start being eliminated pretty quickly.
Spoiler: Charges
Automotive maintenance: 1
PRT Operations: 1
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So, you have a few days where you're not expected at work or anywhere. What do you want to do? Do you even want to go back to work? Plan voting preferred.
[][Downtime] Now what?
[][Charges] You get one charge a day. What do you spend them on?
Also, if you have any comments on my writing, I would like constructive criticism, since this is sort of experimental.
Award Quote Reply
237
PlasticThursday, October 20, 2010
You spend much of the day researching another cape who has a power like yours, Dauntless. You're actually reasonably familiar with him since he works in the same PRT Department as you. A lot of the eggheads believe he'll be as strong as Legend within a few years and while there's plenty of doubt about that, the Protectorate is still grooming him to take over a mid-sized Protectorate branch soon. He has a reputation for being laid-back, so you don't know how demanding he would have to be before the PRT started to push back, but he could definitely get more than he has if he pushed for it.
I put a charge in infiltration and it was about what I would've expected. As I went about my day, I was constantly paying attention to the people around me trying to pick out the distinctive behaviors and clothing that I would need to replicate if I wanted to fit in with them. It was pretty relaxing almost, by thinking of what I would need to do to fit in I started to get my head on straight. I still had a lot to think about, but my rational thinking wasn't constantly overwhelmed by my emotions.
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Vote:
So, I've thought about it and I think the best way to do this is with more free-form write-ins. Instead of having specific prompts that need specific votes. I'll just let you guys do free-form write-ins. I'll try to do what's popular, but I might take ideas from any of the votes or discussion. Also, sorry for taking forever, I don't expect that to happen this time. The vote will be open for at least a day.
Winning Votes said:
[X] Put a charge into Parahuman Studies. I am one now, so I should know all about them. Am I a typical or even a plausible example? Can my power tell me more about where they come from? This seems like a good place to test if my power can push past the current limits of human knowledge since it's such a new field. At work I'll keep laying low, there's no need to rock the boat yet.
Click to shrink...
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Friday, October 21, 2010
In the dream-like border between sleep and waking, I came up with another good idea for how to experiment with my power. Of course, it's probably something the power testing people would suggest in the first minute, but you're still undecided about joining the Protectorate despite it technically being a requirement for any member of the PRT who triggers.
After a quick breakfast at home, I head off to the Brockton Central Library and spend the morning reading through an assortment of Parahuman Studies Literature. It confirms a lot of what I already know, much of the popular knowledge is junk, like the idea that trigger events can be anything other than terrible, but there's some serious science hidden in academic work that uses too much jargon for the public to comprehend, even though the eggheads are short on firm conclusions. I'm pretty unusual for a parahuman given that my power grows stronger over time, but that's almost for a tinker, my power is just much more explicit about it than any other recorded tinker power.
At the end of my mundane research, I move the experiment to the next phase by putting a charge into "Parahuman Studies". I shiver as I feel the knowledge flow into me with a sense of vague malice, but I'm almost immediately struck by a revelation. Most of the research into parahumans consists of recording lots of observations and then trying to find patterns, but the real way you would want to do this research is by examining the corona pollentia and gemma. They're universal in all reasonably-human capes and they develop in the trigger. If there's any place that holds the secrets to parahumanity it's the part of the brain that literally gives people powers.
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I take a break from that frankly disturbing revelation by checking out a few of the interesting books, including one by William Manton, and heading out. I take a brief deep tour through the city park just to smell the nice air, look at ducks, and check out the various athletic people that normally hang out here. It makes me think for a second that my next charge should go into some kind of body language study or maybe martial arts development. It seems a stretch for a tinker power, but the associated skills might be useful.
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I wrap up the day by heading to my parent's house. It's easy to find given that it's the only one I know of with a fricking WILSON flag hanging off the porch. My mom greets me with an enthusiastic "Jonathan" and we mostly spent the evening eating dinner and watching some alleged-documentary of Alexandria's early days. I feel like I could trust my parents with my secrets, but I decide to hold off for now while I'm deciding on what to do with my life. Although, I do mention how I left work sick for a few days this week, but am feeling better now. In fact, I'm actually pretty optimistic about the future.
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Vote: What do you want to do over the weekend before you're expected back at the PRT? Also, there's a good chance that if you don't vote to do something interesting over the weekend, I will come up with something. The vote will probably be open for 24 hours.
Winning Votes said:
[X] Put a charge into Kinesics. The study of facial cues, expressions, and body language. This should synergize with Infiltration and give me a better understanding of other people and better spot check if someone notices anything odd about me and learn if someone else is hiding things. We do leak information like a colander after all.
[X] Put a Charge into Informational Security or Counter/Anti-Espionage.
Click to shrink...
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Saturday, October 22, 2010
As I woke up on Saturday, I thought it would be nice to get some kind of cold reading ability, it would synergize nicely with the infiltration charge I already got. I ended up putting the charge in something called "kinesics", which is supposed to be the study of body language. It might be useful if I get into building robots or something. The feeling of spending a charge was starting to feel familiar to me. My memory of the subject was greatly sharpened and it almost seemed like I was "remembering" things that I had completely forgotten or even never learned in the first place, then I could see how the subject related to other things I knew, including the other charges I had spent. For a bit, I was almost tempted to imagine myself as some kind of PRT spy, with my knowledge of PRT operations, infiltration, "kinesics", and parahuman studies meshing really nicely. It was a lovely daydream, but I could tell that I wasn't actually on that level yet.
After that little bit of fun, I decided to do something that I really should have done days ago, get a notebook, and create a pros and cons list of all the different options I have available to me. The thing that I'm technically required to do is to show up for work on Monday, report my trigger to the PRT, and get a quick transfer to the Protectorate. This is actually a pretty solid plan, the Protectorate will be happy to have a new member, I can use my knowledge of the system to get as good a deal as possible, and I'll probably be out patrolling within a week or two. The first downside is that it will essentially lock me into the Protectorate lifestyle for at least a few years, which is closer to a gilded cage than a Kafkaesque nightmare. The second downside is that it would also end any hope of me staying under the radar as a cape, which is a ticking clock anyways.
If I really wanted to delay making a decision, I could just go back to work as a PRT grunt and try to keep my cape status hidden. The PRT does check its agents for sudden-onset-superpowers every so often, so this would be a risk, but it wouldn't be too big of a risk unless I was going out at night and robbing banks.
Of course, working as a PRT grunt while being an independent cape is also an option. The benefits would be the ability to use my PRT status to either spy on or manipulate the PRT while also having a full cape career. The downside is that the PRT would not be happy if they found it out and the difficulty of working two jobs at once.
Leaving the PRT and becoming an independent does have the benefit of not betraying my current employer and letting me do whatever I want to do, but I would be giving up my paycheck and the statistics on independent cape mortality that the PRT puts out are definitely exaggerated, but not extremely so, so that would be a risk.
It was pretty helpful to get all of that written down in a notebook even though I immediately tore out the pages and put them through a shredder. I then started on the next page where I wrote down the charges I had spent and some ideas of what charges I might want to get. I could do martial arts, either the generic field or maybe something specialized like Kapu Kuialua or Muay Thai. The PRT teaches a basic martial art to all of its employees, but only the field agents really train it professionally. I could also put a second charge into something. Infiltration, PRT operations, and parahuman studies were all good options for this. This would at the very minimum tell me how a second charge in a specialty works and might perhaps get me something like a Thinker shield or power nullifier or maybe some more info on how the PRT handles tinkers. There's also the option of continuing the parahuman studies research from yesterday. To be honest, the thought of a part of a brain tumor feeding me knowledge is pretty creepy when I think about it. Maybe some kind of neurology would be useful? I might also be able to study the Brockton Protectorate for comparison. If I wanted to continue my super-spy studies, psychology or some kind of social combat might also be useful. For all of those suggestions, I could try to find the limits of my power by phrasing them as specifically or broadly as possible and then adjusting the scope until it works.
With another paper destined for the shredder, I decided to just sit back and meditate to clear my mind. It was nice, my normal mind was as chaotic as ever, but it settled down reasonably quickly. As for my power, I did take the opportunity to poke at it a bit. It was strange I could tell when I was thinking or remembering something that was covered by my power because of how reliable those thoughts were, not like my normal thoughts which would get sucked into distraction or get stuck with something on the tip of my tongue. Although, I could really only relax when trying to ignore my power.
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Sunday, October 23, 2010
I decided to start my Sunday, by rounding out my "PRT Super-spy" toolkit with a charge of informational security. It definitely overlapped quite a bit. Having my memories of PRT OpSec enhanced by both my informational security charge and my PRT operations charge was a new experience and it was almost like the charges were an intertwined mass as opposed to discrete silos.
With that done, I decided to just wander around town and window shopping before heading to the Boardwalk and doing some doodles of the rig in my notebook. Of course, I could tell my plan to have a relaxing afternoon was a failure when I saw a flying tennis ball. I recognized it pretty quickly as the "Snitch" that Uber and Leet use to livestream their crimes. Fortunately, I was able to use all of my skills in infiltration to get up and walk away in a way that shouldn't let anyone watching know that I saw the Snitch.
When I was probably off-screen, I took out my phone and dialed into the PRT Console.
"Hi, this is Jon Wilson, ID Number BB04129. Uber and Leet's camera drone is at the boardwalk. I can't see the dynamic duo, but they can't be far behind. I'm currently off-duty, please advise." I said.
"I'll be there in ten," Armsmaster said. "Start an evacua…
I missed the rest of what he was about to say when a garbage truck crashes into what looks to be an electronics store rear-first. The driver gets out and I can see that they're wearing a suit. It's a pristine white on one side and an ashy brown on the other. The color scheme continues on their mask but doesn't continue on the shotgun they're carrying.
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Vote: Surprise! So, here's a random encounter for you. What do? I'll give you a free charge if you do something that puts your character at actual risk which you may use as part of your action. I kinda like this "write-ins only" policy, so I'll keep it up. Plan voting might be for the best, but I won't insist on it. I think I'll have to vote open for 22 hours and do the update 24 hours from now.
[] Write-ins only
Charges said:
Automotive maintenance: 1
PRT Operations: 1
Parahuman Studies: 1
Infiltration: 1
Kinesics: 1
Informational Security: 1Winning Votes said:
[X] Quickly inform the PRT about a garbage truck driver with a weird suit and mask while carrying a shotgun that just appeared in the scene.
-[X] Tell nearby people to evacuate. Then organize the bystanders.
--[X] Sneakily move closer to the shotgun-wielding man and try to nail him in the head with a heavy throwable item if possible.
---[X] If that doesn't work then try to distract the man in the weird suit by talking/shouting to him at a safe distance with a nearby cover that you can immediately dive behind.
Click to shrink...
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Sunday, October 23, 2010
"I'll get right on that Armsmaster," I said "but as an update, Uber and Leet seem to have arrived. They parked a garbage truck inside an electronic store. The driver's an armed man in a weird suit and mask who just went in. "
I shoved my phone in my pocket and shouted to the bystanders to clear out. Some of them seemed to get the hint, but about half of them decided to rubberneck, not to mention the one or two that seemed to have injured themselves getting out of the truck's way.
Obviously, there was a simple solution. I just shouted at the rubberneckers and told them to check on the apparently injured people. I only had to do it two times before they got the idea.
I thought about sabotaging the truck so that Uber and Leet couldn't escape, but I realized that the only way to prevent them from leaving is to prevent them from leaving and that they might just teleport away if they couldn't take the truck.
[roll=1d100]98[/roll]
I snuck up the side of the truck and then picked a brick off the ground. I saw the weird-suit guy walking away and freaking chucked that brick at the back of his head. It connected loudly and he went down immediately and I took the opportunity to run up and pick up the brick again.
I was a bit distracted when my power got another charge at that point, this is actually something I should have been expecting given how Dauntless is supposed to get charges faster when he's doing fieldwork, but it was a bit distracting to have it happen right then.
[roll=1d100]10[/roll]
Of course, that was the point where some guy dressed as a janitor wearing a mask stepped around the corner carrying an XBOX and shot me in the face with a taser before I could react.
It hurt. Like a lot. In fact, it hurt so much that passing out from the pain was actually a relief.
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I woke up an indeterminate amount of time later in the back of an ambulance with Miss Militia standing over me.
"What did I miss?" I said with a brave face.
"Well, you managed to miss Uber and Leet canceling their stream early." She said. "They uploaded the video afterward and they were apparently planning on doing some kind of thing where they robbed every electronics store in the city while running from the Protectorate, but they apparently canceled it after the first one didn't go so well."
"That's good then. It would have sucked if I got tased for nothing." I said.
"You don't think this ambulance ride is worth it?" She said "Since you don't seem that injured we'll want you to give a statement at the hospital, but it would be nice if you could summarize the key points for me. It's not every day that an off-duty PRT officer tries to knock Leet's head off. Feel free to talk about anything else on your mind, if you want."
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Vote: So, you have one charge to spend and inquiring minds wanting you to explain what you were just doing... Same as yesterday, the vote will be for 22 hours and the update will be in 24 hours.
[][Charge] What do you want to spend charges in? You have one now and will get a second Monday moorning.
[][Conversation] Write-ins only. Give me guidelines of how you talk to Miss Militia.
[][Monday] You're expected back at work Write-ins only. Might be pre-empted (or might synergize) with whatever conversation you have with MM.
1 available
Automotive maintenance: 1
PRT Operations: 1
Parahuman Studies: 1
Infiltration: 1
Kinesics: 1
Informational Security: 1Winning Votes said:
[X][Monday] You're expected back at work Write-ins only. Might be preempted (or might synergize) with whatever conversation you have with MM.
-[X] Make a mental list of all the things that you shouldn't do in order to not out yourself as a Parahuman on the job. Just act like everything is normal and don't stand out.
-[X] Refresh your knowledge on the PRT and Protectorate in general. Investigate PRT Heroes, their habits, and what they do in their free time. Try to talk more with your colleagues as well.
[X][Conversation] Write-ins only. Give me guidelines of how you talk to Miss Militia.
-[X] Be calm, sit up straight, and make steady eye contact with her. Try not to take too fast or stammer. Think about what you're going to say before you start talking.
-[X] Calmly inform her about what exactly happened with the villain duo, but downplay a bit on what you have done. Try to make some small talks as well if she doesn't mind.
-[X] Just relax and make it a friendly conversation with Miss Militia, and do not give out any hints on having powers or whatnot.
[X][Charge] Put a Charge into Infiltration. More sneakiness and subterfuge is always good.
[X][Charge] Put a Charge into Parahuman Studies. Learning more about them is good as well.
Click to shrink...0-0-0-
Sunday, October 23, 2010
I decided that regardless of how I wanted this conservation to go, it would go better if I put a charge in infiltration. Even if it didn't help me in this conservation, it would undoubtedly help in the future. The second charge slotted in quickly and a full suite of techniques for flushing out spies came to mind with corresponding techniques for spies to dodge or mitigate them.
I realized that a lot of my behavior was suspicious, but nothing really definitive, although keeping that up would be really difficult, especially since the PRT has more advanced techniques that I'm not really aware of. The best I could do here was to be professional, stay calm, sit up straight, make steady eye contact, and try not to stammer or talk too fast.
"Well, let's get the summary out of the way. I came to the boardwalk to enjoy the scenery, I noticed the snitch, I called it in, I told the crowd to start evacuating as Armsmaster suggested, I took the opportunity to get a closer look, took the opportunity to knock out one of the perps, and was knocked unconscious by another perp with a taser." I said.
"Okay, that should be fine for now, just make sure to write it up later. I have some other questions if you don't mind." She asked as she turned on a tape recorder.
"Only if you don't mind me asking a few of my own," I said.
"Sure. Let's start. Why did you decide to get a closer look instead of helping the evacuation?" She asked.
"I saw that the bystanders were doing well on their own and wanted to see what's up so that I could inform the PRT. Did you appreciate my tipoff?" I said.
"It certainly prevented a lot of damage and I was actually curious about that. Did you have any suspicion that the robbery was going to happen before you went to the boardwalk?" She asked.
"No, I mean, I'm not surprised they did it, but I didn't know ahead of time. What about you?" I responded. She shook her head.
"Were you worried about your safety during this?" She asked.
"Honestly, I was in too much of a rush to think about that. I'm sure that you've been in danger more than I have." I said.
"I'm sure I have, but I've been trained for it, not to mention that I always have a weapon of my choice with me. Do you have any training or special talent?" She said.
"I have the generic PRT training, but nothing special. Although, now that you mention your power, I've always wondered what the weirdest weapon you've ever actually used was?" I said.
"It was actually a squirt-gun for killing mice. I used to use it just to prank Mouse Protector, but I actually used it seriously once." She said.
The questions continued like that until we got to the hospital. It was somewhat awkward having to sign in just to immediately sign out, but the ride was nice and the company was even better.
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Monday, October 24, 2010
As I woke up on Monday, I decided that since the 2nd charge of infiltration was so good, I might as well do the second charge of parahuman studies. It was a rush of knowledge, a cacophony of deranged theories, many which I knew to be false, but widely believed and some which I knew to be true. I almost jumped out of my skin as one of the theories I now knew to be true was the "conflict drive" theory.
Jesus Christ! Really? Powers push their hosts to get involved in conflict? Why? What the hell? Eugh! Does this mean my own? What the hell? I can feel my pulse and breathing start to race and it takes all of my self-control to clear my mind and start calming myself down.
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Going back to work on Monday wasn't what I was expecting when I left last week. For one, everyone seemed to know that I knocked Leet out with a brick. I got a lot of pats on the back and had to retell the story, with a few minor embellishments, only a few times. For two, I was still kind of freaked out about the "conflict drive" thing. I could still do a decent job of pretending to be my old self, but it wasn't the easiest.
[roll=1d100]23[/roll]
I actually spent a weird amount of time just thinking of what I would need to do to not out myself as a parahuman on the job. It boiled down to pretending to be the person I was last week. I already behaved quite strangely since I triggered and the PRT has enough Thinker support that they didn't need "evidence" to out me if they really felt like it, but all I could do was do my best.
Most of my downtime at work was spent refreshing my knowledge of the local PRT and Protectorate. There was actually a fair amount of junk available on all of the local Protectorate capes, given how many PR events they did. I wasn't sure how much of it was real and how much of it was acting, but I'd probably find out eventually.
[roll=1d100]36[/roll]
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[roll=1d100]59[/roll]
I took a long lunch in the cafeteria. Just as part of a mission to socialize more. I managed to find the people who investigated yesterday's robbery after I passed out. U&L got away with a fair amount of electronics which they will probably use for tinkering, but they didn't get as much as they wanted and it's an open question as to whether Leet is even in a fit state for tinkering. Obviously, I got plenty of offers to be bought a beer due to my part in the event which I might want to take up in the future.
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Vote: Doesn't seem like anything is on fire right now. Or is it? Vote will be open for 22 hours and update will be up in 24 hours.
[][Charge] Write-in only
[][Tuesday] Write-in only
Charges said:
Automotive maintenance: 1
PRT Operations: 1
Parahuman Studies: 2
Infiltration: 2
Kinesics: 1
Informational Security: 1
Award Quote Reply
165