*000000*

[X] Begin Training (Tinker Specialty: Basic Masotech)

[X] Simone (2)

[X] You know a guy who can clone stuff! Mem needs one of your eyeballs! Serendipity!

Current Energy: 20

Current Training: Tinker Specialty - Basic Masotech (0/10) -> (5/10)

Current Emulation Status: Here

***

Tuesday, March 29th , 2011

Hebert Household, Brockton Bay

She ended up getting home from the Heap at about the same time that she would have woken up on a normal day. What that meant, was that despite everything else she could do - crush mountains, dodge bullets, and functionally raise the dead, just to name a few - she was still dead tired when she stepped through the front door of her house.

It wasn't just that she was physically tired - although that was a large portion of it. It was that she was emotionally tired. Everytime Emmy changed it was like… like she was a foster child getting shuffled off to a new home.

Even though it wasn't like that at all.

"I'll start breakfast," Pemmy said gently, stepping around her and heading to the kitchen.

"I've got training then," Demmy replied to… herself?

Honestly Taylor wasn't entirely sure how this worked for her friend. Emmy… Pemmy… gah. The twins had tried to explain that they were both Emmy, somehow split down the middle and made to act as two separate people with their own distinct thoughts and feelings. It was confusing, and a little annoying, but ultimately Taylor's take away was this:

Emmy was Emmy, and now there were two Emmys and they were both still her friends. There was space in her bed for the extra person, anyway.

'Was that a weird thought? I feel like that was a weird thought,' she pondered to herself absentmindedly, following after Demmy with all the dogged determination and slow witted lack of energy of a zombie.

"So, what's the deal with these ones?" she asked, stifling a yawn as Demmy led her into the garage. God, it felt like ages ago when the garage was the largest space she had to train in. Back when space was a concern for her. Or… hiding.

Or anything really. She didn't really have much by way of concerns anymore. Oh, Taylor had problems, lots of them - they just weren't problems that bothered her all that much. She felt a sense of responsibility for the oncoming migrant crisis she had accidentally created, sure, but she didn't feel bad about it either. Not like she used to feel bad about the bullying.

Demmy paused where she had been haphazardly withdrawing tools from Danny's old tool chest - in search of what, Taylor didn't know - and turned to look at her over one shoulder. There was a forlorn look in her eyes. A sorrow for something that clearly resonated with Emmy, given her general separation from the person she was emulating.

Then there was a firming of her expression, and her jaw set in a way that was uniquely Emmy. It was, in Taylor's opinion, something most people wouldn't notice about her companion. One of a dozen little expressions or personal tics that remained between emulations. Things that gave Emmy continuity. Things only Taylor could ever know.

Because only Taylor really cared - just like once upon a time Emmy was the only person who cared about her.

She had enough in the Thinker power department to recognize that this feeling of loyalty was probably a side effect of some kind of psychological conditioning. It was apparent that most Parahumans developed unhealthy reliance on their powers in order to function.

But that was just how it had started. At this point, Emmy was basically family, no matter who she was, and Taylor knew that feeling came from the bottom of her heart.

"I'd… rather not talk about it," Demmy said eventually, quickly turning away from Taylor again.

That caught her off-guard. Usually, Emmy loved to talk about herself. She was… kind of a gossip, when it came to the people she was emulating, as though she had a subconscious impulse to make sure other people knew their stories.

"Did… something happen? Something bad? Is that why there are two of you now? I- I could probably go there now, if-" Taylor started, mentally moving things around on her priority list in order to address whatever issues her friend might have. She knew she promised Dragon she would help her today, and she'd already gotten permission from her dad to skip school for it and all, but if Emmy needed something-

"No! Don't- you shouldn't- it wouldn't work out… well. Not yet. Look, we… This emulation did something… bad. Something really, really bad," Demmy explained with difficulty, returning to her and depositing a series of nuts, bolts, and screws on the ground in front of her, sitting cross-legged on the floor.

"Oh. I mean, you've been a homicidal maniac at least twice, so how bad could-" Taylor paused mid-sentence at the look Demmy sent her.

"...Worse than that?" she weakly ventured, understanding dawning on her.

"Yes. But that isn't what bothers us about it," Demmy said ominously.

"...Then what does?" Taylor asked, almost afraid to know.

"We think if we don't do something, it will happen again," she said simply, seemingly doing her best not to expand on the topic.

"Oh. Can I help?" Taylor asked, flashing her friend a toothy smile that she hoped came across as reassuring. Demmy smiled slightly back at her, then shook her head as though to clear her thoughts.

"You help just by being you, Master. Now! I'm going to list a number of material compounds that you need to turn these into. I'll be going quickly, so you need to keep up, okay?" Demmy lectured, gesturing at the random bits and bobs between them.

Taylor looked down at the screws by her feet and swiftly sat down herself, allowing her tattoos to spread up her arms.

"What exactly am I learning here?" she asked, tacitly allowing the previous conversation to pass without comment - even though it weighed on her, just a bit, to do so.

"We will be having you acquire your first Tinker power, of course. It's the most helpful thing for you to learn right now," Demmy said easily.

"Oh. Huh. What are we making, then?" Taylor asked eagerly, images of giant robots, planetary-scale weaponry, and suped-up flying cars flitting through her head.

"A lightbulb," was Demmy's amused answer, having no doubt predicted her Master's response.

Taylor almost instantly deflated.

***

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce Emmy," Taylor said at breakfast that morning, noting how tired Katherine looked and determining that she would ask her dad's maybe sort of girlfriend if she was okay later. The group was, as always, strewn quite liberally throughout the main floor of the house, the kitchen not actually having enough space to house the entire family.

Taylor was in the kitchen at the table with most of the 'adults' - her dad, Jess, Katherine, and Simone, while Yew, Mem, Mun, and Gram were in the living room.

She expected everyone to pause and look up at that, but only really Simone and Mem seemed all that interested. She supposed that Emmy changing was just a fact of life for most of them, and not nearly so personal an ordeal - so she wouldn't hold it against them.

But that didn't stop her from having a Gap consume her dad's newspaper, and sending a curving beam of energy into the living room to turn the TV off.

"Hey! Mooooom!" Mun whined.

"Come say hello to your aunt, then you can watch cartoons until school," Taylor said dryly, waiting patiently for everyone to pile into the kitchen - which included a lot of people standing around the table for the most part, many of them holding up plates with omelets on them while they stared blankly at her.

"As I was saying!" Taylor declared, gesturing to one side where she knew Pemmy was standing in her invisible form.

"This is Emmy now," she said, and the first of her now two projections appeared, bowing slightly to the crowd.

"Hello, everyone," she said softly, smiling gently at the surroundings.

"So, she's just-" Gram began to ask curiously, but Taylor cut off her rebellious child with a grin, gesturing to her other side.

"And this is also Emmy now," she added, gesturing to her opposite side where Demmy suddenly appeared with a cocky grin on her face.

"Yo!" she greeted the family, slinging an arm over Taylor's shoulders.

"Twins? Ugh, Trainwreck is never going to shut up about this," Katherine complained, lifting a hand to rub at her temples tiredly.

"Is one of you evil?!" Mun asked, darting forward and flying circles around both red-haired women, oddly excited for some reason.

"I believe both of us would classify as villains, unfortunately," Pemmy offered with a wan smile. There it was again, Taylor noted. That lingering guilt the twins sometimes had.

It was driving Taylor crazy not knowing the details, but neither Pemmy nor Demmy wanted to talk about it, and that just frustrated her even further.

"Nu-uh! You gotta be the nice one!" Mun argued, flitting around Pemmy for a second longer before depositing herself in Demmy's hair, much to the more rambunctious twin's chagrin.

"Hey! Get outta there!" Demmy complained - although she made no move to actually remove Mun from her spot atop her head.

"Come on! Us evil twins gotta stick together!" Mun insisted.

"You're not evil, just annoying!" Demmy shot back, lifting a hand to stroke Mun's head despite her words.

"Do… you remember what I asked you before?" Simone asked uncomfortably, her hands fidgeting in her lap. Taylor didn't know what that was about either, but she made a second mental note to look into it.

""We remember,"" the twins said at once, surprising everyone else present with how abruptly synchronous the statement was.

"I'll swing by for some girl talk later, okay?" Demmy said with a wink, very clearly deflecting the entire situation so no one would worry.

Or maybe it was just obvious to Taylor. She couldn't tell anymore.

"O…kay…" Simone answered, trailing off.

"Speaking of girls." Danny piped up, drawing warning looks from everyone in the room except Yew.

"What? Why is everyone looking at me like that?" he blurted out uncomfortably, leaning away from the pointed stares of the almost entirely female family surrounding him.

"You do spend a lot of time with Trainwreck," Jess pointed out shrewdly.

"What does that mean?! I was just going to ask Simone if she's asked Sabah out yet! I'm allowed to take an interest in my grandkid's love lives!" he complained, lifting his hands up defensively.

"Oooh, it's like that, huh? I think dating is icky, but Parian is cool!" Mun declared easily, flitting off Demmy and landing on Simone's head.

"Hey, hey, if you marry her, does that make Sabah our sister too? Hey? Sis?" Mun asked in her characteristic high energy fashion, slapping the top of her sister's head with one wing for emphasis.

"Should you require assistance, I'm willing to lend you advice in ensnaring a woman. I've proven quite good at it so far." Gram offered innocently.

Simone didn't answer any of them. She just continued to stare off into the empty space in front of her, with a blank expression on her face.

If you ignored the fluorescent red blush that crept up her skin the longer her family pestered her about her love life, that is.

"I… that- you- you're the worst, all of you!" she complained, abruptly covering her face with her hands.

Danny gestured at her with a nod and then turned his head to Taylor.

"True power is embarrassing your kids," he said sagely.

"I'll… keep that in mind," Taylor weakly replied.

***

Tuesday, March 29th , 2011

Abandoned Warehouse, Toronto

"You sure that's the place?" Trainwreck asked her curiously as she readjusted her gun holsters underneath each arm. They were uncomfortable, and she wasn't used to them. They didn't impede her much at all, not really, but she wasn't accustomed to them - so she kept fidgeting with them.

She tried - she tried so hard not to be annoyed by the fact that her hats and this gift from Emmy had been just sitting out in the open, in the middle of her own basement.

She could have bypassed a lot of frustration by just looking around her house in an entirely mundane fashion, but she hadn't. Her first thought had been to use a seeking spell, or a divination, or her Crystallized Wisdom.

She hadn't at any point consciously thought to look for it normally.

She supposed that was the entire point of the exercise, but it still bothered her tremendously. That she could be so… not dumb, that wasn't the right word, it was… she had just expected things to work out for her. She'd skipped straight past putting in any degree of effort, and gone straight to wielding the power of the cosmos.

To locate a lost piece of clothing.

It was shameful, was what it was. And it wasn't a mistake she would ever make again.

Hopefully.

"Yeah, that's the place. Dragon said so and got us a warrant and everything," Taylor allowed, still giving herself a once over.She didn't have her swords at hand. Nemesis had - for all intents and purposes - eaten Devil Sword Dante, and claimed to need time to 'digest' it, which Taylor found profoundly odd-sounding. Even now she could feel the two swords swirling around inside her soul space, but couldn't actually tell what they were doing. She didn't really think the Devil Sword had a will to it the same way Nemesis did, but it definitely had… something. What it was, she couldn't tell, but for the moment all it amounted to was that she didn't have access to her sword. That meant she didn't have access to her Shikai or Bankai either.

She spared a thought towards wondering why she called them by their japanese names when she could just as easily describe them as her first and second release respectively, and summarily came to the conclusion that that didn't sound nearly as cool to her.

"Dragon did her due diligence. As long as we don't cause significant damage to the surroundings, we should be fine," Armsmaster spoke up from next to her. He'd informed her ahead of time that there was probably going to be a lot of dumb Tinker stuff where they were going - so Taylor figured bringing her own expert on the subject along could only be helpful.

Even if the duo didn't exactly get along all that well.

"Pfft, no collateral damage? You guys asked the wrong people for help on that one. Why are you even here, anyway? Got tired of babysitting?" Trainwreck sniped.

Taylor actually had no idea why her large friend took such an issue with Armsmaster, but he did, and it was very annoying.

"Wreck," she sighed chastisingly, turning to eye the large abandoned waterfront building they were planning to assault together.

"What? Look, boss, unless they've cloned the Nine and there are ten thousand Siberians in there or something, I just ain't worried." Trainwreck shrugged.

"Just because you've been successful in the past, doesn't mean you will always be successful. Don't let your victories go to your head," Armsmaster responded through a clenched jaw.

"Hey, tell you what, let's trade. You can have a useful power, and I can have a dick again. Then you can talk about how fucking successful I've always been."

"You've risen from nothing to being hailed as the most powerful Tinker on the planet in under a year. I don't know what metric you're using, but you're definitely successful."

"That is the most passive-aggressive-"

Taylor chose to ignore the bickering duo. Instead, she asked Pemmy and Demmy for a status update.

'Anything?' she asked, not bothering to shift her viewpoint towards either projection. It was a long standing habit of hers. If she could help it, she would probably never use that particular power of hers. She believed Emmy deserved privacy as much as anyone else, and they already spent the vast majority of their time with her - there was no reason to push for even more.

'Yes, but… it might not be what we thought we came here for.' Pemmy - she thought anyway, they sounded the same and she only had one link to both of them, so Taylor had to work at distinguishing them in her head - said.

'What exactly-' she tried to ask.

'Just look and see.' Demmy advised, and though she had just noted her distaste for doing so, Taylor acquiesced, shifting her viewpoint to the point in the near distance she had previously identified as 'Demmy'.

"..way to stop it!" A brunette with the number one hundred tattooed under her left eye was in the midst of saying to the two other - identical - brunettes while all three of them frantically dashed around what looked like a makeshift mission control room. It had all the standard villain lair junk Taylor had come to expect from bad guys in spy movies. Walls lined with a bunch of random science-y looking stuff she couldn't make heads or tails of, a handful of auto turrets hanging from the ceiling - all of them very inactive, and a giant screen taking up one wall of the room she was observing.

Did bad guys have universally bad vision, or did they just really appreciate high definition video? It was such a nonsensically expensive thing to include for no obvious reason when any number of smaller displays could achieve the same effect or purpose.

"Do we actually want to stop it?" another brunette asked abruptly, drawing the others like her up short. It was bizarre to observe the three of them. They looked like a halfway point between the wyrmlings - the little child versions of Dragon that were all over the place back home - and the adult Dragon. Young adults, more than teenagers. Not quite old, but not quite… young either. And their posture and method of speech more than demonstrated it. They weren't the hyperactive bundles of childish glee that she had become familiar with. They looked… haunted. Looking closer at them, all three were covered in a variety of visible scars, with one even having a missing leg that had seemingly been replaced with a jury rigged robotic prosthetic that sparked and hissed as she paced about the room.

"I mean… is it actually wrong?" One posited.

"Saint was a piece of shit, but he wasn't paranoid for no reason. And what if he's right? What if Nexus is warping reality dangerously? What if she's just another global catastrophe waiting to happen, and no one knows because she acts like a hero?" the one with the missing leg spit at the other two.

"She doesn't… I don't think she knows, though…" the least injured looking woman there posited weakly.

"So? Look, it doesn't matter anyway. We can't stop it," the last said forlornly.

Taylor blinked, leaning away and returning to her normal vision with a thought.

'What..?' she questioned Pemmy and Demmy, unsure of what she had just witnessed.

'We found corpses in one of the rooms. We think they killed Saint already,' Demmy offered by way of explanation.

'Okay, but why? And what were they talking about me… messing with reality? I mean I definitely do that, but I don't think it's… in a bad way?' Taylor thought at her friend.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a second that sent a chill racing down Taylor's spine, and then an answer.

'We don't think it's bad either but… it's definitely happening.' Demmy offered again, now apologetically.

'We noticed it only a little while ago. We didn't realize how widespread the effects were. There are horses invading China right now, and 'The Union of Tooth & Claw' recently declared independence from rural Texas. There are a bunch of high-level government communications in here - I'm surprised none of this was in the news,' Pemmy added.

'So… I'm accidentally destroying the planet?' she asked incredulously. That… couldn't be right. Actually, even if it was - she could fix it, right? She could fix anything! That was her whole power! Emmy always-

'No,' Demmy answered easily, assuaging her instant panic at the notion.

'We are,' Pemmy finished quietly.

'But we're working on a solution! We just need to get a lab setup first! It's our first priority!' Demmy quickly explained.

And like that, the lingering anxiety, distress, and frustration that had been building in the back of Taylor's mind dispersed, as she heard exactly what she wanted to hear.

Emmy always had a way. If nothing else was true, then at least that was.

'Oh. Okay. So… do we have to arrest the Jumbo Wyrms for killing that guy, then?' she pondered, immediately moving past the uncomfortable topic. She'd revisit this later - she wasn't that irresponsible - but her immediate panic response was mitigated.

'I- we aren't calling teenage Wyrmlings 'Jumbo Wyrms', Taylor,' Demmy sighed exasperatedly at her, easily allowing the topic shift.

'Why not? It's accurate!' she groused, turning her attention back to the conversation happening around her.

'Because- because it sounds dumb!' Demmy complained.

Taylor summarily ignored the complaint.

"Hey! Three of your step-kids are in there, and they already killed Saint. Come on, I'll bring us in." she said, snapping her fingers in front of Armsmaster to get his attention.

"They what?" he snapped, swiveling his head to stare at her.

"They a threat?" Trainwreck asked, rather than being surprised or confused by the development.

"Don't think so. They seem worried about something, but I have no idea what. Something Saint sent somewhere before he died, I think?" she offered, cleaving a gap open.

When she emerged into the control room, it was to three unsurprised female faces staring straight at her, none of them having bothered to run, and none of them seeming even slightly bothered by the unsettling portal.

"That was quick," one of the Jumbo Wyrms mumbled at her, earning a nudge in the ribs from the other.

"You-" Taylor began, curiously about to ask if they had been expecting her. But then Armsmaster rushed past her, grabbing the brunette with the missing leg by her shoulders so quickly that all three of them flinched.

"What did- how did you get this hurt? Was it self defense?" He demanded, crouching down to examine what amounted to her robotic peg leg.

"How is this attached? I'm sure I can-" He growled frustratedly, but the girl stepped away from him with a flush.

"Don't- stop touching me! It's just my leg, okay?! We weren't ever supposed to be power armor for humans, Saint he- he changed us. Basically halfway broke us." She growled at him, and Taylor watched with a wince as the man twitched viscerally at the statement.

If she didn't already know they were talking about a time when they had all been inanimate objects, that sentence would be one no sane father would want to hear.

"Hey, focus dipshit, are we arresting them or what?" Trainwreck asked irately. Armsmaster turned to glare at him for a second, before abruptly standing and turning to stare at Taylor.

"Where's Saint?" he demanded in a growl. Taylor turned her head fractionally to capture Pemmy in her field of view, and then nodded in the correct direction after she pointed it out for her.

It was amazing how often people had started to ask her questions she might not even have a context for, like they assumed she was omniscient.

And she really, really wasn't.

"Be nice, Wreck." she turned to eye the trio of girls again.

"You knew we were coming?" she questioned, wanting to find the answer to that question at the very least.

"Yes. We figured once the news got a hold of things, you would… track us down pretty fast," One of them said awkwardly.

"Get a hold of what? And did you send it, or did he?" she asked pointedly, tilting her head to capture all three of them within the lens of her glasses.

She didn't use this power often, but if there was one thing the Crystallized Wisdom was excellent at, it was cold reading people. Having a biometric readout of anyone you bothered to look at was an excellent way to detect lies - provided you could puzzle through the information fast enough.

"Saint did, but… we weren't sure if we should stop it?" the least injured looking girl said, stepping forward as though to shield her sisters from Taylor.

Geeze, she wasn't going to randomly attack them. What did people think of her? What kind of reputation did she have? Still, her power told her that statement was true, so she tried to hide her frustrations - as they had nothing to do with this trio in specific.

"And… what is it?" she demanded impatiently.

The three girls looked at each other and then back to Taylor, who was less bothered by the fact that they were murderers than she should be. Well. Probable murderers.

God, she really hoped this worked out well.

Then all three spoke at once.

"""His manifesto.""" They echoed each other. Taylor frowned. That… didn't sound good.

There was a snort behind all of them, and she turned to glare at Trainwreck who snickered at her displeasure.

"Guy really seems like the type to have a 'manifesto', huh?" He chortled.

When they returned to Brockton, it was quiet, and despite watching the news for the rest of the day… Taylor didn't notice anything crazy happening. She felt like if something concerned her were to come up… it would be immediately.

So… maybe no one believed what it said? Was that what happened?

She wanted to believe that. She really did.

But somehow, she felt like something was brewing there - and she really wished she didn't.

***

Tuesday, March 29th , 2011

The Heap, Brockton Bay

Point of View: Ray Andino

Ray Andino opened the door of his apartment with all the trepidation of someone whose life or death was going to be decided in the next handful of minutes.

Mostly because it probably was.

"Y-yes! Hello, Nexus! What- what can I do for you?" He blurted out, before remembering there was an absolutely tremendous blunt burning away in his cigarette tray directly behind him.

He'd been watching old cartoons and smoking. Sue him, he was a supervillain, not a machine.

Now, not remembering whether weed was legal in this state or not - probably not, honestly - he did the only thing that came to mind while he was in a chemically altered state.

"Hey Ray, I ne-" Nexus started to say, but he (accidentally) interrupted her in his THC-induced fear.

"Come in, come in! Just- sit anywhere, ah, not on this chair I'm growing- just not this chair and uh- I'll just be one second and-" he blurted out, swiftly pushing the chair he was currently trying to grow a culture of fungus that would behave like memory foam on top of and pushing it firmly under his dining room table.

Then he rapidly dodged backwards, ignoring the strange looks the lone girl shot at him as he did so, and grabbed his smoke before rushing to his bathroom.

Here, he was faced with a choice. He could throw away the super blunt he'd grown with advice from the talking rat in his basement. Or he could-

The thought had barely left his head before he'd lifted the six inch long roll of paper and weed to his lips and inhaled with all the force of a veteran smoker. The singular inhale - which he held for three full seconds before releasing - consumed a solid quarter of the entire length of his roll, and only three similar inhales later, he was down to just a very hot nub of paper.

Which he swiftly dropped in his toilet and flushed.

Somewhere between point A and point B, he actually kind of forgot he was supposed to be doing something, that is, until a voice called out behind him.

"Hey, are you okay, or..?" He heard from his living room.

Oh. Right. Nexus was here.

Fuck.

"Y-" he started, then coughed and hacked in the hotbox full of smoke he'd made of his tiny bathroom.

"Yeah! Just- uh- airing out the- I took a-" he paused, realizing the futility of being this panicked finally, and just slumped his way back to the living room, his eyes bright red from lack of sleep.

And drugs. Probably, definitely, a large portion of it was the drugs.

"What do you need?" he eventually asked, as bluntly but politely as possible.

"Well, I know you do… biotinker stuff… so I was hoping you could grow me a clone of my eye? Or something? I need it for magic reasons," the white-haired girl impatiently tapping her foot in his living room explained, wrinkling her nose at him in distaste for the smell now filling his apartment.

'Joke's on her, I own the place, I can ignore the no smoking rules if I want!' he thought triumphantly, before realizing - again - that she probably didn't care.

If she did, there were way worse things she could kill him for than smoking.

"You… just wanna give me your DNA. For… cloning reasons," he repeated after her, feeling suddenly deeply confused by the situation.

This… wasn't normal, right? He wasn't that far gone. Normal people didn't just… ask a biotinker to clone their organs, the same way you asked your neighbor for a cup of sugar. There was no way he'd missed such a giant shift in-

He cut that train of thought short lest he forget what he was doing again.

"Just need an extra eyeball. If you actually clone me I'll- well. You do have a pre-signed kill order, right?" she smiled sweetly at him.

Yeah. That was about what he thought.

Ray was many things, but 'stupid' wasn't one of them. Most of the time. He could recognize what a good thing he had going currently and make some sacrifices to maintain them.

It wasn't that hard to curb his instant desire to see what he could really do with some of Nexus' DNA.

…But it was still a little hard.

"Okay," he said blankly, trying to keep a goofy smile off his face.

"Just… okay?" Nexus questioned him, curious.

"Yeah. Sure. Honestly, at this point, I think almost kind of have accepted death. You know? Just… gotta go with things.," he said, distantly. "Just, uh, leave me a fingernail or some hair or something. I'll just come to you if I need blood. Better to have it fresh."

The two stared at each other for a solid minute, until Nexus broke off with a sigh and a mutter.

"Seriously, the things I do for my kids," she grumbled, turning and leaving as quickly and as without warning as she came.

"So… you'll send me that DNA later, then?" Ray called after her. Then he started when a portal opened in front of him, staring him down with a billion, billion eyes that pierced through his skin and deep into the depths of his soul, and deposited a plastic bag with a hair clipping in it in front of him.

"Cooooool. Cool." He slowly turned and returned to his position on the couch, staring blankly ahead as though unsure of what to do next.

Then a voice sounded next to him, and he shrieked when he turned to find a girl with crimson hair sitting on the couch next to him.

"...I need you to do something for me," she said blandly, and Blasto - addled as he was - could only nod his head in agreement.

***

Tomorrow is Wednesday, Choose One (1)

[ ] Take some time out to fortify the Heap with Onmyoudo.

[ ] You started the work but… the ferry could finish its transformation into a school with only a little more. You're going to have a bunch of new capes in town that could benefit from it.

[ ] Little Mem said she needs some other special reagents for her big project. Apparently she wants to take a trip to Remnant to collect a bunch of Dust and… ten thousand magic bird people feathers? What…?

[ ] Write In

[ ] Take Time Off (Pick an Extra Social, on the weekends, this can be a second group)

Choose a Social Link (these are daily now). On weekends, you can choose an entire group to socialize with - but are not forced to.

Your parents:

Outstanding group tasks: None

[ ] Danny (3)

[ ] Jess (2)

[ ] Mouse Protector (2)

The Oathbound:

Outstanding group tasks: Parian's Fashion Show (Thursday)

[ ] Trainwreck (3)

[ ] Aspirant (3)

[ ] Parian (3)

[ ] Oliver (3)

[ ] Miss Kim (1)

[ ] Willow (1)

[ ] Jeeves (0)

The Bratpack (As a group, includes Mem and Mun):

Outstanding group tasks: Train the Brats (Ongoing).

[ ] Aisha (2)

[ ] Dinah (4)

Wednesday, March 30th , 2011

Hebert Household, Brockton Bay

"You know, when I suggested you run this place, I actually assumed it would be more… lackadaisical than this," Pemmy said, and Taylor watched as she politely waited for Simone to unlock the front door of her little detective agency, then followed her quietly inside.

Taylor was still asleep, and she knew she was still asleep, but any time she was asleep and Emmy - either Emmy, she supposed given that she was positive she was wrapped halfway around Demmy right now - wasn't, she had… this. This lucid dream state, where her mind remained active while her body slept.

She still sort of got some sleep like that, she assumed. When she'd first triggered, Emmy didn't sleep at all. He just… loomed menacingly in the vicinity until she woke up.

Then he tended to loom menacingly from behind her until she went back to sleep.

But still, this remote viewing thing did something to her ability to enter actual REM sleep, because she used to be constantly exhausted. Usually, this was why she insisted on Emmy sleeping with her. Not just because she provided a degree of comfort and security that Taylor was sure, sure, had to be some form of dependency issue, but because if Emmy pushed it long enough, she was pretty sure she would go insane.

Thus the reason for her meticulous dedication to her sleep schedule. She went to sleep at the same time every day, and woke up at the same time every day, barring extremely bizarre circumstances.

Most teens - Vicky especially - called her an old lady in a teen's body for uniformly going to sleep at eight o'clock every night.

She just considered it common sense. It wasn't like she could avoid the need to sleep any better than anyone else could. Of her many, many powers, being a noctis cape was not among them.

Still, she was aware that Emmy… or well, Pemmy and Demmy now, had their own life to live. Their own goals to accomplish. Their own things to do. So every now and then, she didn't mind if her power-granted friend decided to wake up earlier than her, or stay up a bit late.

She could tolerate an hour of only kind of sleep, if only because she got to watch Pemmy gracefully walk to the Heap, pleasantly greeting every transient, small animal, and jogger she came across.

Taylor sort of likened it to someone accustomed to living in a small town. Pemmy didn't really seem to immediately grasp that greeting literally everyone you passed by in the street was strange.

Or maybe she was just extremely nice. Wouldn't that be a trip - to have an Emmy who was as close to 'normal' as she was, instead of a… a…

'I can't think of something weirder than what I've already seen anymore. Huh.' Taylor mused, before turning her attention back to the conversation Pemmy was having with Simone.

"Yeah, I kind of got that impression. But it's not like I have a day job and, well. Running his- your, business better than you ever did is the biggest fuck you I can muster," Simone grumbled, passing the empty reception desk and heading straight for the icecream bar in the back.

'I should get an ice cream bar built in my tower. Maybe… contract some spirits to serve me sundaes while I rain fire on my enemies?' Taylor considered half-jokingly.

Well, she was joking about the raining fire part - not the ice cream bar part. That actually seemed pretty easily doable for her.

"Plus, no one wants to date a jobless bum who lives with their mom," Pemmy said teasingly, and Simone almost missed a step before catching herself and whirling around on the redhead.

"Why does everyone- look, can you guys leave me alone about my dating life? I know you think it's funny, but it's really invasive. And yes, I understand how that sounds coming from me," she spat, narrowing her eyes at Pemmy.

"Apologies, Simone, I just… wanted you to have something good for yourself," Pemmy said, sounding genuinely apologetic, instead of brushing off the request like Dante would have.

"I- yeah, I know. That's… I mean it's why I didn't say anything about it the first time. But you know, you don't give mom any crap about this kind of stuff." Simone pointed out.

'Huh?' Taylor wondered blankly, not sure what there even was to 'give her crap' for. She didn't exactly have a long list of suitors. Well. There was that new boy at school whose name she sometimes forgot, but he was… a lot.

"That… I believe for most of my past selves, it was funny to watch. And dating wasn't exactly important to her. If she woke up today interested in actually dating anyone, I would tell her." Pemmy shrugged, turning her head fractionally away from Simone. Taylor couldn't see her expression given she was seeing through Pemmy's eyes, but she got the impression she was pouting.

"Ooooh. I get it. You just didn't want-" Simone said in her own teasing tone.

"What's this?" Pemmy asked, abruptly changing the subject. Her gaze panned around the room until it landed on the pool table, which was currently covered in loose paperwork and several photographs, and she gestured at it quickly, interrupting Simone. Simone seemed to grasp that the topic was being changed, but acquiesced with a roll of her eyes.

"First job. Some guy thinks his roommate is stealing from him," she said easily.

"Surprisingly mundane," Pemmy noted.

"The roommate's a monster… thing. I'd describe it as a ghost but it has a body." Simone tapped a photograph that consisted of nothing more than a handful of cash hovering down the side of a building. "Except for when it doesn't want to," she finished.

"I see," Pemmy replied, eyeing the picture but ultimately seeming not overtly interested in the topic.

Silence fell between the pair for a few moments, and it stretched out awkwardly until Pemmy sighed and leaned away from the table. Without any warning, and without moving particularly quickly, she stepped towards Simone, and pulled her into a hug, as though she was comforting a small child.

"It wasn't your fault," Pemmy said sadly, lifting a hand to gently stroke the other woman's back. Simone looked as though she would resist the hug for a moment, until she heard what Pemmy said.

"...You don't know that," she returned lamely.

"True. But you forget - before I am anyone else, I am a power. If you're complicit, then so am I. I know I'm more of an aunt than a mother but, trust me, and don't worry about it, okay? I- We, that is, have a plan," Pemmy said as she continued to soothingly hold Simone.

"...Is it safe for you?" Simone asked, and suddenly Taylor felt like they were talking about something that only the two of them knew and understood - because she had no idea what they were referencing.

Well. The bizarre changes to reality that were purportedly her fault, maybe. She still wasn't sure how she felt about that- she struggled to see the powers and abilities from other worlds as being… bad. They had changed her life for the better, in so many ways, and the fact that now, they were doing the same for others felt… well. Not… right, but not bad either.

Although, she supposed that even if massive social upheaval was moving in a good direction, no government on the earth would look forward to it.

It was still upheaval, after all.

"No. No it's not," Pemmy said, her grip tightening on Simone, who swiftly hugged her back.

***

Wednesday, March 30th , 2011

Hebert Household, Brockton Bay

Taylor's eyes snapped open, and she stiffened, unsure of how to respond to that. Was there… something she was doing wrong? Was there something she wasn't doing? She thought everything was pretty great at the moment, at least in her little corner of the world. Sure, stuff had gotten pretty borderline apocalyptic for a while, she'd been able to reason that out with five minutes of pointing the Crystallized Wisdom at info on Endbringers, but she couldn't easily think of something that would make Emmy act with such… urgency.

It was like there was some looming crisis that had to be dealt with, but for some bizarre reason Pemmy and Demmy simply refused to tell her about it. But that made no sense - they'd always tackled problems like that together, hadn't they?

'No, Emmy always tackled my problems together. Emmy doesn't- didn't, have problems to address. She was always happy to just tag along with me…' Taylor thought grimly, lifting a hand to push the curtain of scarlet hair covering her face out of the way.

"Demmy?" she asked quietly, reaching behind her to shake Nemesis, who was now a full grown duplicate of Taylor herself with bright pink hair, instead of her normal childlike self.

She spared a thought towards asking her to go back to being bite-sized, but knew it was a lost cause the second the thought occurred to her. She wouldn't acquiesce to that request, and if she wouldn't, then Nemesis would probably laugh in her face over it.

Counter to the solemness Taylor herself felt upon waking, Demmy bolted upright and nearly leapt from the bed when addressed.

"I'm up! What's- oh. Right. Bed," Demmy blurted out, blinking and staring around herself in confusion for just a moment, before glancing down at herself - she was wearing a pair of Taylor's pajamas - and sighing.

"Did you have a bad dream or something?" Taylor asked, unusually on edge for such an innocuous event.

She wasn't even aware if Emmy could dream. And thinking that made her feel… really bad. It seemed like the type of thing she should have asked by now.

"No, just… we, that is, Devola and Popola, lived in a very dangerous world, and for reasons I don't want to get into, they weren't really well liked by anyone else. It's hard to explain without a history lesson," Demmy said, pursing her lips.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Taylor questioned. Demmy looked into her eyes and for a second she relaxed, expecting Emmy to do as she always did and info dump her. Then a shadow passed over Demmy's face, and she sighed again.

"Nah, no point. I'm fine. Come on - we've got a bunch of stuff to do today." She slid out of bed, instead.

"Does any of that stuff include being less vague?" Nemesis asked dryly from behind Taylor, and as much as she didn't enjoy having a duplicate of herself running around acting shameless, she couldn't help but agree with the sword spirit.

Once more, Demmy paused in the center of her room, one hand extended towards Taylor's dresser. She turned to look at them both on the bed over her shoulder.

"We'll explain later. Promise," she said with a grimace.

"I refuse!" Nemesis growled, and Taylor found herself suddenly surprised as her pink-haired duplicate leapt bodily across the room to land on Demmy's back, drawing her to the ground and engaging in a harmless but very uncomfortable looking grapple with her.

"H-hey! Let go!" Demmy pushed at the arms restraining her, but not really putting all that much strength into the attempt.

"No! Explain!" Nemesis insisted. Demmy looked frustrated for a moment, before turning pleading eyes on Taylor - who promptly turned her head away from the exchange.

"I do have a lot to do today, huh. Have to extend an invitation to the city to that Uppercrust guy, finish making arrangements for all the new housing to go up, maybe ask the Director about that thing with Saint…" she said, acting like she couldn't hear or see the melee in front of her.

She wasn't any more happy or comfortable with Emmy hiding things from her than Nemesis was. She just had enough tact to know she couldn't force it.

That didn't mean she couldn't turn the other way when someone else pushed their luck, however.

"Master!" Demmy loudly complained.

"I'm right here!" Nemesis responded right back to her.

"That's not- look, I can't explain right now, okay? Not won't, can't." Demmy insisted.

"You can't explain where this version of you is from? Or you can't explain what's bothering you right now?" Taylor asked shrewdly, turning her head back towards Demmy to capture her in the corner of her eye. Her glasses - her incredibly potent Thinker power, really - were on the table some distance away, but she wouldn't have needed to use it if she was wearing them.

She knew Emmy too well for that.

Like she'd expected, Demmy's face was screwed up in indecision at the question, and Taylor was about to press the point, when there was a knock at her bedroom door.

All three women turned to glance at the door at once.

"Uh, mom? Can I get a ride to work?" Yew's muffled call came through the door. Taylor was briefly stunned by the jarring change to the situation, a time during which Nemesis released Demmy and quickly rushed to the door, flinging it open.

"You!" Nemesis yelled in his face, pointing straight at him.

"Me?" Yew asked in confusion, lifting a meaty finger to point at himself.

He was wearing khaki shorts, and a golf shirt, both of which were straining against his titanic frame.

"What are you wearing? No, nevermind, I don't care. Taylor! Make clothing!" Nemesis demanded, turning to glare imperiously at her. Taylor could feel her will to be awake leaving her body in tangible amounts the longer she was forced to interact with Nemesis. It wasn't that she disliked her - although she was definitely a handful most of the time - but rather, that in her current form she was… well.

She was basically standing in front of Taylor's only son in a sports bra and sleeping shorts. Which would be embarrassing enough, but also, she was doing it with Taylor's body. She knew Yew probably didn't care, and she knew Nemesis wouldn't change if asked.

But wow did she hate it. She hated it so much.

"I can't just conjure clothes you know," she responded tiredly, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose and trying to ignore the headache she felt building at her temples, while also noting the sigh of relief Demmy made at the interruption.

"Why not!? Do the tattoo thing! He can't go to his first day of work like this! Look at him!" Nemesis complained, gesticulating wildly at the boy who stared at her in befuddlement.

"Why are there two moms?" Yew asked curiously as Demmy finished laying out Taylor's clothes for the day at the foot of the bed.

"She's your mom's sword spirit," Demmy offered by way of explanation to the confused young man.

"Why do you care, anyway? I thought you were only interested in stabbing stuff," Taylor asked, finally getting off of her bed and making a beeline for her dresser.

She sometimes forgot she could do alchemy because of how complex it could be, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to take every opportunity to turn some of her less favoured dresses into a suit and tie for Yew. She could tolerate a sundress every now and then, or having to wear three pairs of tights to make up for the unfortunate length of some of the things Yukari had left in her wardrobe or that Vicky had pushed her into buying.

But some of the more… frilly things in her dresser drawers would never see the light of day, and she had gone well out of her way to have backup clothing in other parts of the house for the off day when the accursed thing decided to force them on her.

"Obviously if he is your son, he is also mine! And things that are mine are not to be impinged upon!" Nemesis declared.

"Oh, cool. Double moms," Yew said in sudden understanding.

Taylor really wasn't sure if it was good or bad how easily her kids could adjust to bizarre and stupid scenarios.

"Please don't tell people you have 'two moms'. It'll give them the wrong idea, especially because she looks like my twin," Taylor groused, pulling her dresser open and finding that the damnable thing had predicted her and opted to allow only her favourite sweats to pop up when she pulled the drawers out. It did so via some kind of spatial weirdness, because no matter which drawer she opened the same set of clothes was visible.

"So, you were tiny and now you're not? Wait, are you my aunt or my mom? I'm… confused," Yew tried again, ignoring Taylor's dilemma. Truthfully it wasn't like it was that much of a dilemma either, it just meant she would have to grab a bunch of sand from the beach or something to transmute instead of destroying the pinkest most frilly dress in her wardrobe.

At least she'd found a way to sort of threaten the dresser into giving her sweats to her on demand though.

"I was limited in scope before. Now you may gaze upon my full glory!" Nemesis clarified.

"Okay, but… are you like… mom's sister, or..?" Yew repeated his question. Taylor ignored the byplay, and swiftly opened a Gap in front of herself, lightly pulling apart space and allowing a stream of sand to pour into a large bowl she crafted with her magic.

'Do you require assistance?' Ozma asked her politely. She noted that his voice had slowly started to increase in octave, but set the thought aside for the moment in favour of passing control of the magical container to him so she could concentrate. Taking a deep breath, she allowed her tattoos to spread up her arms, then dug both fists into the pile of beach sand.

'Please and thank you. Do you know anything about tailoring?' She asked, glancing at Yew and then back down at the sand.

'Just a tad,' Ozma allowed, and Taylor felt a steady stream of information entering her mind from Ozma's describing a handful of simple patterns that should allow her to produce a cotton suit for the boy.

Two minutes of concentration and drastically less sand later, and she gently pulled the entire outfit out of the bowl of what sand remained, banishing the extra mass back into a Gap and waving the clothing over to Yew.

"There. And just call her your aunt - it'll get confusing otherwise," Taylor said dryly.

"Call me Superior Mother instead!" Nemesis demanded.

"Please. Don't." Taylor requested with what she was sure must have been a strained expression on her face.

"Maybe Yew should go change? You wouldn't want him to be late now, would you?" Demmy interjected, defusing the situation before Nemesis could do as she always did when she didn't get her way - and attack whatever was bothering her.

Nemesis squinted at the projection for a moment, then grunted, turning to push Yew out of the room.

"Do you know how to put on a tie?" Taylor heard her asking as she followed after him.

"No?"

"Neither do I. Let us awaken Danny."

"So," Taylor said finally, turning back to her bed, before remembering she now had access to her sweats and pivoting to grab those instead of the brown sweater and skinny jeans sitting on the edge of her bed.

Naturally, when she opened the dresser this time the pink frilly thing was there. Equally naturally, the drawer slammed shut when she attempted to reach for it.

"We can't tell you the current problem. It's… complicated," Demmy said eventually, clearly growing uncomfortable with the silence as Taylor changed.

"Alien space parasite stuff?" Taylor asked with some concern.

"...Yes, I suppose that does… sum it up," Demmy allowed with a frown, clasping her hands in her lap.

"So… what about the other stuff. With your new you," she asked, seeking at least a consolation prize to soothe her current lingering anxiety over not even knowing what the problem was.

"Humans on that earth are extinct. In a sense, the only beings left are machine intelligences," Demmy explained, standing to help Taylor squeeze into the stupid jeans.

Seriously, how did something that was arguably looser than her costume manage to be so much harder to get on and off?

"So this you is dead? Or… I mean I assume you can copy dead people. Sigurd definitely shouldn't be alive anymore, right?" Taylor asked for clarification.

"No. We were alive well after humanity had gone extinct," Demmy explained, stepping away once Taylor had managed to squeeze into her pants, and turning to find a belt for her. She didn't actually need a belt to keep her pants on, but she did need one to keep a handful of her utility pouches on her. Sure, she could keep things like healing talismans and such in the Gap - but sometimes it was just easier not to open a nightmare portal everytime you wanted to open your purse.

And since Taylor was averse to the idea of having a purse in the first place, she opted for a utility belt. Like any sane cape would.

"Ooooh. You aren't human, huh? Elf?" Taylor asked quizzically, then cut off the projection before Demmy could answer her. "No wait, it's tinkering so, maybe not an Elf. Then again, it's kind of magic tinkering so-"

"I'm an android," Demmy supplied before she could hare off on a tangential guessing game.

"Hey! I like guessing." She pouted, but staring at Demmy's melancholic expression reminded Taylor of something, however.

"We think if we don't do something, it will happen again,"

She felt a chill run down her spine, but maintained her facial expression and quickly suppressed the disquieting feeling. She could actually hide what she was feeling from Emmy. She had most of the power and control in their relationship.

She just didn't usually bother exercising it.

"Huh. What happened to all the humans then? And… I mean you're pretty soft for an android." Taylor asked nonchalantly, poking Demmy's cheek with a finger in a teasing manner to distract from the intent of the question.

She wasn't stupid. If Demmy said she couldn't talk about it, she probably meant it literally - but that didn't mean she couldn't apply some critical thinking to things.

"There was a… disease. Magical in nature. It directly targeted the soul, killing the body through transmutation. To treat it, or rather, to avoid it, we had to separate all the humans from their souls, wait it out until it was gone before they could be returned to their bodies. The androids in charge of ensuring the souls were able to return to their bodies… failed," she explained, going about getting dressed herself as she spoke in an unhurried and unhappy tone.

Like she was reading an epitaph.

Taylor got the distinct impression that there were a lot of details Demmy wasn't telling her, but feeling like she had already pressed enough on her friend, she allowed silence to reign for a moment as she contemplated that.

What she wanted to do was ask if Demmy thought the humans of her world were in danger of imminent extinction. She wanted to ask why Demmy couldn't explain. She wanted to ask what she could do to help. She wanted to know if it was her fault somehow.

She wanted to know who she had to obliterate to make the problem go away.

But as with so many things in her life recently, she already knew she wouldn't get an answer. Not a straight one, anyway.

And that made the rest of the morning absolutely miserable to pretend to be happy about - even if she did manage to get the first shipment of Jacques' machines when she dropped Yew off for the day.

The magic lightbulb was coming along okay, at least.

* * *

Wednesday, March 30th , 2011

Schnee Mansion, Remnant

"Have you got lunch?" Taylor asked as they emerged from a Gap into Jacques' main foyer. She ignored the sudden appearance of half a dozen automated turrets as they emerged from various surfaces and from behind various forms of cover. She also ignored the handful of men and women in nondescript tactical gear that boiled out of the hallways like ants to surround her.

Instead, she opted to turn to Yew and squint at him, stretching a hand up to brush back his uncombed hair and finding she was too short to reach the titan's head. So she paused, frowned, and stepped upward onto the air, before doing it anyway.

"I- didn't think I'd need one?" Yew replied, lifting a finger in thought.

"On the ground! Now!" someone screamed at them.

"Of Course you need lunch! Look, how long is your shift? Maybe I can bring you something later?" Taylor offered.

"Can't I just go get food from somewhere nearby if I need it? I'm not that hungry anyway," Yew answered worriedly.

"Honey, you don't have any of the local money," Taylor pointed out, testing the appellation out and finding it agreeable. She was aware, abstractly, that parents tended to abbreviate their kids names, or give them pet names, or refer to them with terms of endearment. Her own father called her 'kiddo' more than he used her actual name, and despite it being well in the past, she could more than remember her mother using a smorgasboard of cutesy words instead of just her name.

She just… hadn't had the chance to really acclimate to things.

Intellectually, she recognized that by most metrics she was a mother. It was weird to think about, and if she went back in time two months it would probably give her a combination stroke and aneurysm to contemplate - but she was at peace with it. She accepted it, and did her best to be present and helpful to her magical spawned children.

But speech patterns and terms of familiarity weren't something you just woke up and arbitrarily acquired. More importantly, the intellectual understanding of her situation wasn't always something she remembered. She held great affection for her kids, and would do just about anything to make sure they were happy and safe - but she still had a hard time thinking of them as her 'kids' without putting the word in highly skeptical brackets.

She was working on it.

If she wasn't filthy rich she'd probably feel very guilty indeed about providing for them.

"I mean… don't I get paid? I can just use that, right?" Yew posited, beaming a bright proud smile at her that left her momentarily flat-footed.

Yew was very earnest, and by no means dumb - but that didn't mean he had any greater understanding of the world around him than your average preteen. She supposed it would be a lot to ask for a tree to suddenly acquire knowledge of society at large.

"Ground! Now!" someone else barked, and one of the guards swarming around them edged forward to try and jab the barrel of his gun into the small of Taylor's back.

"You won't get any money on your first day. Most places pay every employee at once on a specific schedule. Make sure you ask for HR and work that stuff out, okay? You have your emergency tag?" she asked, not bothering to turn to observe the man behind her, since Yew had already stretched his arm past her to pinch the barrel of the weapon closed between his thumb and forefinger.

"Yeah, but-" Yew said awkwardly.

"Honey, if you encounter something that's actually dangerous to you, just use the tag, okay? Most things still have to breathe and the other end of that Gap should let out past the moon. But only if you absolutely have to, okay? I've got a mark on you so just yell into it if you need me," Taylor insisted, stretching her hands up again to readjust his tie.

"'Kaaaay," Yew allowed in a tone of voice that made her feel like he was now no longer listening to her and was really just humoring her worries.

'Do… my kids maybe not have an appropriate sense of fear towards anything? That's… bad, right? I know I'm weird, but I at least have a self-preservation instinct…' she wondered.

"I see you didn't bother to knock this time," Jacques' voice rang out just as the guards filling the room had decided to rearrange themselves so as to be able to open fire without hitting each other.

Taylor turned to find the pompous man leisurely walking down the staircase to meet them, with the… she wanted to say goat? With the goat faunus from the other day trailing behind him nervously.

"Just dropping him off for work. Figured I'd pick up the equipment you promised us along the way," Taylor replied chipperly. She'd realized a while ago that you could be very intimidating indeed by simply acting happy when you really shouldn't. It made for effective threats without actually requiring you to be culpable for, well, threatening someone.

And she couldn't think of someone she wanted to threaten more than Jacques Schnee.

"It will take some time to-" Jacques began irately, but she cut him off.

"I'll be back to pick them up later today. I assume you are at least that efficient," she said, then, without bothering to wait for a response, turned back to Yew.

"Have a good day at work, sweetie!" she said, giving him a quick hug before exiting back through the Gap she had arrived in.

"Bye mom, love you!" Yew called after her, waving excitedly towards her as she left.

When she emerged again, she was still on Remnant, albeit a much different continent than the one she had just been on.

The bird people - she seriously needed to come up with a better name for this race she had created - were always just a bit uncomfortable to interact with. Usually, she would have had Emmy on hand to distract her - when they were a red trench coat-wearing lunatic it was easy to allow them to take the spotlight, and distract from the borderline worship they provided her everytime she came here.

But today, Emmy stayed behind. As a tinker, their new forms weren't as good at getting into direct engagements as she would like. Pemmy and Demmy were capable of fighting - much more so unadorned than the average tinker, for certain - but even so, they needed a lab. Which was exactly what Taylor expected they would be arranging for while she was at school.

It was a pity, because Taylor always loved seeing her fellow students' reactions to Emmy's new forms, but not ultimately a huge loss. They'd turn up at school eventually, at least.

"Hello?" she asked, once more appearing in the creepily ornamented room that had been set aside for her to teleport into.

Everytime she came here it looked more and more like a shrine, and less and less like a waiting room.

In fact, where before it had been a lightless room, now the ceilings had been raised, and a stained glass relief of herself wielding a sword and staff took up a majority of one wall.

"Yikes…" she muttered, inwardly cringing at the display.

'There are worse Gods to worship,' Ozma pointed out in a rare moment of interest.

He was always more interested when she was with the bird people. They were his people, after all.

"Still creepy," she replied absently, turning back around to the door leading into what she now realized was a chapel.

…They'd turned her designated Gap entryway into a chapel.

A chapel.

'I believe that that is drastically more 'creepy','' Ozma responded, partially indicating the robed woman who had raced into the room at just that moment.

She had a veil covering most of her face, and wore a vaguely nun-like raiment that was reversed in color to what Taylor was accustomed to seeing. It was… also a lot less conservative than a proper nun's outfit, but she supposed that was the case for basically everything on Remnant. They'd fought a whole war over it at one point.

"Great Nexus! I apologize for-" Cinder Fall began, throwing herself to the ground in front of Taylor before she had even finished her sentence.

"Oh, come on! You too?! I brought you here to teach them about cellphones and geopolitics, not to become my first stripper nun!" Taylor interrupted her, unable to muster the animosity she had once felt towards the woman.

She was just so… pathetic now. Hardly a danger to anyone.

"Apologies, great-" Cinder tried again, not rising from the floor.

"Ugh, just- just stand up and talk to me like a normal person. I promise I won't smite you," Taylor insisted, which was perhaps the wrong thing to say, because Cinder immediately rose to her feet with an annoyed expression.

"You are the worst God I have ever heard of! Do you even answer prayers? Do you hear them?" she asked acidically.

"Okay, I know I said like a normal person, but like, a normal person who still totally has control over your life and death," Taylor replied instead of answering the question, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Cinder countered, "You already said you wouldn't smite me."

"…Weren't you a lot more scared of me before?" Taylor asked curiously, glancing past the raven-haired woman at the two guards visible just outside the chapel.

"Yes. Because you obviously had no use for me before. I assume as long as I am being helpful and 'good' you will leave me be," she dryly replied.

"You're- you're really lucky I'm not more of a bitch. Look, just explain the situation to me. I swear the last time I was here no one needed anything from me," Taylor asked, conjuring somewhere to sit for herself and - after a moment of consideration - conjuring a second, less comfortable seat for Cinder.

"Things are progressing smoothly. The Chancellor and her council have pushed forward with completing the capital and are now expanding outward. Representatives have been sent to Menagerie, which is the main problem," Cinder reported, irate.

She kind of reminded Taylor of Amy, actually. She wasn't sure if that was good for Cinder, or bad for Amy.

Maybe she should try and get them in the same room sometime. For fun. Would they enter a never ending loop of barbs and insults, or ally together? She didn't know, but it was interesting to think about.

"And that problem would be..?" she pressed, crossing her arms and tapping one finger expectantly on her upper arm.

"The delegation overheard a number of Faunus laughing at your existence," Cinder expanded, expectantly.

"So?" Taylor asked in confusion.

"So, it would be best if you could join the next delegation, to prevent a holy war," Cinder continued, seemingly annoyed that she had to spell it out.

Taylor stared blankly at her, not fully comprehending what she was talking about. She hadn't come here for any of this. She just wanted to see if she could bum a few thousand feathers off them. Not… whatever this was.

"…What?" Taylor asked in a daze.

"Unless you want them to take over that little island in your name? I've been advising the Chancellor to create a counter intelligence agency for some time now, but I don't think she fully understands the concept," Cinder added thoughtfully, seemingly genuinely interested in the forging of a spy network.

"No. Just- no. Tell them that I welcome any and all criticism, and that other people can believe in whatever they want. Holy war? Seriously? Why?" Taylor blurted out, nearly losing enough focus that her chair began to waver until she re-solidified it.

"You haven't exactly been very forthcoming with how you should he worshiped," Cinder pointed out.

"Not at all! I don't want to be worshiped at all!" Taylor shot back in dismay.

She could sort of put up with the charade if it helped the bird people stay unified and happy - but holy war? What the hell?

"I'll be sure to tell the people that God has abandoned them," Cinder said sarcastically.

"That's not- just tell them that I prefer that no one declares war in my name!" Taylor tried again.

"I'll need proof that that's the case. You realize these people have had Gods before, right?" Cinder noted slyly.

Taylors eyes narrowed.

"You're doing this on purpose," she said slowly. Cinder snorted at the accusation.

"How do you think controlling large groups of people works? You have to provide them motivation. Either you threaten them, or you reward them - you don't just give orders and leave. Do you want me to help or not? Chancellor Merida has that… dagger… but my only political power comes from the Chancellor claiming you brought me here. Have you not noticed that this church is empty?" Cinder spat.

"So, what, the only way to stop a war is to give you specifically more political power?" Taylor asked doubtfully.

Cinder shrugged at her, one corner of her mouth quirking up as she struggled to contain her smile.

"Do what you want. Maybe there are other ways. I'm sure you'll find them with time. I'd say you have a few weeks. The Chancellor doesn't want war either - but the Council hasn't fully agreed yet," Cinder said easily.

"…I'll consider it," Taylor sighed, and then when Cinder looked a little too triumphant for her tastes, added on;

"After I talk to the Chancellor."

Cinder's expression didn't really fall all that much at that, but it did start to look a bit more strained.

"Also, I need ten thousand and one feathers from ten thousand and one bird people. Preferably from the best of the best, if possible. Strongest warriors, most skilled mages, smartest tacticians, that kinda thing," she added, figuring that she might as well get some use out of the woman.

The expression of befuddled confusion on Cinder's face immediately made Taylor's day.

Right up until she stepped back through her Gap to get to school for the morning, when Hao's aggravating voice called out to her, reminding her that the man even existed.

"Taylor! I have purchased reservations at the finest restaurant tonight, please, let me-" he began, loud enough to be audible across the entire hallway in front of her locker.

She did her best to tune him out. She really did.

But he was just. So. Loud.

***

Wednesday, March 30th , 2011

Brockton General Hospital, Brockton Bay

"And he just doesn't shut up! Every day!" Taylor complained, continuing a rant she had been going on for the better part of the last twenty minutes.

"You already told him no, though. Just tell him to fuck off next time he talks to you." Amy grouchily replied, making to offer Taylor her cigarette, then thinking better of it halfway through the motion and instead returning the half consumed death stick to her mouth.

"That- I mean, that would be rude. I don't like the guy, but he hasn't been mean to me or anything."

Taylor sighed, hanging her head over the side of the railing ringing the roof of the hospital, which both she and Amy were leaning on.

Taylor had opted to come see Amy after school because Pemmy and Demmy were still busy with their lab. Yew wouldn't be free from work for another few hours, and she didn't really have any other significant obligations at the moment.

Besides the holy war thing, but not only did she not want to think about that, she really didn't want to tell Amy about it.

It was embarrassing.

"So kick him to the moon or something. You're making this way harder than it has to be," Amy pointed out.

"Normal people can't just throw people into space for annoying them," Taylor fired back.

"Normal people are stupid," Was Amy's immediate reply.

"You wouldn't use your powers to make someone's arms fall off just for annoying you," Taylor pointed out shrewdly.

"That's different," Amy answered, taking a pull from her cigarette and then flicking the remaining nub at the ground.

"What, cus you can't get away with it? It's not like-" Taylor started to argue.

"Because no one tries to hit on me like that. Or at all."

"So you would do it if they did? I'm not buying it," Taylor responded with a snort.

"Nah. I'd just tell Vicky and she'd use her sociable popular girl powers to deal with it," Amy said.

"…Fair. Hey, do you think-"

"Her amazing powers of 'being pretty and famous' only really extend to our school. Sorry," Amy cut her off.

Taylor shrugged and said, "Damn. Had to try."

Silence passed between the two for a moment as Amy withdrew another cigarette from within her robes, causing Taylor to frown.

"You shouldn't smoke so much," Taylor said with a sigh, stretching a hand out to yank the smoke away from her.

"Legally speaking, I shouldn't smoke at all. And yet here we are," Amy shot back dryly, snatching the cigarette back from her.

There was no reality where Amy could take much of anything from Taylor if she didn't want her to, but ultimately Taylor didn't think it was fair to stop her. She didn't agree with her - but she didn't own her, either.

What was she supposed to do, hover around her all day stopping her from smoking?

"Someone's cranky today. Did something happen?" she asked instead of continuing to try to convince her to stop. For all she had her own problems, Taylor was very aware that other people had their own issues. It just so happened that issues most other people found insurmountable, she could typically manage with ease. Maybe she could help with whatever-

"There's this girl I like, but she's kind of dumb and never notices. And this guy I know is also into her, and it stresses me out because I'm afraid they'll end up together," Amy said, eyeing Taylor with a weird, somewhat nervous expression as she spoke.

Taylor blinked once, then considered.

"I didn't know you were into girls. Have you tried talking to her?" she tried, slightly annoyed that romance was the one area she was absolutely horrible in.

"Whenever she remembers me, yeah," Amy said, still giving Taylor that funny look.

"I meant about your feelings," Taylor clarified.

"What, like, just ask her out, point-blank?" Amy asked incredulously.

"Sure, why not?" Taylor asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

"She's… picky. Like you," Amy said awkwardly.

"Must be this tall to ride?" Taylor joked, holding her hand out parallel to the ground and restraining the urge to cringe at the unfortunate choice of words.

She'd been very annoyed and flustered at the time. She didn't feel like she could be blamed for that. She'd gone from most bullied kid at school to, well, whatever she counted as now, in a very short period of time.

People liking her freaked her out.

Amy winced. "Yeah."

"I'd still try it. If it was me anyway, it might work. I just said all that stuff before because I didn't want random people approaching me because of my looks. If you actually know this girl? She might listen," Taylor said with a shrug.

She was platonic life partners with her own superpower. She really wasn't in a position to judge other people's choice of partner.

"So… if I were to ask you-" Amy began slowly, her face turning bright red.

"What's up, bitches!" Vicky yelled as she came in for her landing, practically shaking the rooftop as she hit the ground.

"Vicky!" Amy shrieked in indignation at the sudden landing.

"I give it a six out of ten on the landing. Needs work," Taylor said blandly.

"I don't wanna hear about landings from a girl who can fly but chooses to run on air instead!" Vicky countered, instantly getting between Amy and Taylor to pull them into a group hug that neither resisted.

"Flying with magic is hard. Running is way easier." Taylor defended herself.

"Suuuuure. Do you have much time? Wanna go shopping? I'm still scouting the best places at your new mall-slash-castle-slash-house," Vicky said with a glint in her eyes.

Taylor blanched.

Vicky was definitely one of her best friends - but shopping with her was anything but fun. Mostly, it was just hours of trying on progressively girlier or more revealing outfits until Taylor's tolerance for such was exceeded.

And then Vicky would coax her into continuing, anyway.

"WowlookatthetimeIgottagodoathinginanotherdimensiongreatseeingyoubye!" Taylor blurted out, noting Amy's eye twitching rapidly as she was thrown to the wolves.

'Sorry Amy! I really am busy though!' she thought at her brunette friend as she hurled herself bodily off the roof and quickly through a Gap.

Crisis, averted.

***

Tomorrow's actions are limited to attending Parian's event. Training will progress as normal.