*000000*

Surprisingly enough, it's Kid Win who comes bursting into the shop first, among the Wards.

He doesn't so much as arrive as a person, as he does swoop in like a force of nature, arms cradling a half dozen cardboard boxes which quickly take up the vast majority of your counter space. "Light! Good, you're here! Come check this out."

"Hello, and thanks for having us." Vista follows in after him, seemingly annoyed with having put up with him for the journey. "Don't mind us, we'll just be... Here." Content to ignore them, Kid Win begins opening up the boxes and arranging the contents on the counter, vague drone-like objects hovering over his shoulders as he works, seemingly new additions to his gear.

"I've made all this progress since you gave me those samples. Huge progress, tremendous breakthroughs, though I don't know if they're tremendous compared to the potential there... Here, check this out." You blink in surprise as he tosses you something small and cylindrical, catching it on reflex and looking it over. Some kind of canister, wide and flat on the top with a narrower base, lightweight and likely hollow. "It's a battery. Open it."

You do so, noting the softly glowing blue crystal inside. Is that... Ice Aether? It's cold, but it doesn't exactly have the same consistency. It's certainly not frozen water, or frozen oxygen, or... "So, you know how Clockblocker can freeze things in time? I got to thinking, why can he only freeze solid objects? We tested it, he can't freeze liquid, and he can't freeze gas, even if it's visibly distinct from ordinary air." It's kind of intense, the way he starts to ramble, hands working away as various components snap together and seemingly integrate on their own.

"There's ways to freeze oxygen, of course, or freeze CO2 to make dry ice, but what Clockblocker does is different. He doesn't make things cold, he just halts all atomic motion. Normally this would mean the things he freezes get cold anyways, but they don't, because he's not freezing the thing he's freezing time. Which means time is a thing that can be frozen, which means space can be frozen, you know?" He rambles, finishing the device he's been making. A gun of some kind, assembled from a half dozen component parts. "I mean, in theory. So I took those materials you gave me, applied them to some ideas I had a while back, along with some new inspiration, and... Well, I made that stuff. Frozen space-time."

His own artificial Ice Aether Crystals. "They're super energy intensive to make. That one should last two weeks without decaying, on its own, but it took a ton of materials and the full use of my dynamo back in my lab to make. But they also hold the energy really well. I mean, it's frozen space time, where else can the energy go? Which means they make excellent batteries." He grasps the cylinder from your hands and puts it into the gun, turning around and pointing it to an empty section of the store.

"Ah, right, I should explain." He pauses, removing his hand from the trigger. "Energy goes into making the crystal, and when it's destabilized, that energy comes out through here, the input device. That's consistent with whatever blaster I want to make. From there it's a matter of choosing the output device, here-" He points to a component attached to the battery holding area, "and then adding on things like stabilizers, aiming modules, and components to shape the blast. For instance, if I want to make cover, I'd use this set up, set the distance and size, and then..."

He pulls the trigger, giving a slow sweep from left to right with his arm, and a three foot high wall of ice appears along your wooden floor. "Tada! It's not really ice, just a less energy intensive form of the Frozen Space-time... It'll last about five minutes, less if it's absorbing a lot of kinetic energy, but it's instant cover. You can also fill doorways, or lock down larger objects and such."

"It's also super annoying to work around with my power." Vista pipes up. "It's still 'empty space', but it's locked and I can't bend or twist it."

"Same with me, really." Clockblocker notes. "Still registers as 'gas' to my powers I guess, because I can't freeze it."

"Oh, yeah, I've got this too!" Kid Win continues, his voice getting a bit high pitched in his excitement. His hands rapidly disassemble his blaster, swapping out parts for the ones in the other boxes. "I'm going to attach all these to my new costume of course, to carry them around easier. All the parts are self contained too, energy-wise, but applying a battery to the input device super-charges what they're capable of."

"So, this... Steel bar, right? Ordinary, mundane steel." He holds up what looks like a crowbar, giving it an earnest attempt at bending it, to no avail. "You put this output device here, set the power level, and..." There's a faint popping noise as a globe of green energy is discharged from the front of the barrel, striking the crowbar, to seemingly no effect. At least, until Kid Win reaches out and casually bends it into a knot. "Works on anything inorganic with a certain amount of purity. Metals, alloys, that sort of thing, but not wood or living tissue."

He demonstrates by shooting his own hand, then waggling his fingers happily. "I'm working on a blaster that shuts down the Central Nervous System, but leaves the Autonomic Nervous System alone. A taser of sorts, but less dangerous. Honestly the things you've given me have jump started a whole bunch of projects, and I can't possibly thank you enough."

"Armsmaster thinks it's all because he's started to figure out his specialty." Vista explains, as Kid Win returns to messing with the boxes. "He's really 'coming into his own'."

"He's been dead set on showing up and impressing you for a few days now." Clockblocker adds in. "Seriously though, he had me in his lab for a full day, just telling me what to touch and how, for the sake of 'science'."

"And the slash fanfic writers rejoiced." Vista mumbles.

"I was thinking that..." Kid Win pauses, hands going still as he chooses his words. "I should do something to thank you, you know? And I might need more materials from you eventually, and... Well, I could make you something. I'd have to come by regularly to maintain it, depending on how complex, but I wouldn't mind."

He pauses, glancing over towards Vista for some reason, who's pointedly looking away at one of the racks of clothing. "I mean it may be inconvenient to you, though. I'm just saying, I could afford to spend the time with you, and..."

"Dude wants to hang out." Clockblocker calls from behind a shelf. "If that's cool."

Well... Sure, you don't mind spending time with Kid Win. He seems so enthusiastic, and who knows what he'd make of your other crafting skills. "It'd be good for him to get out of the lab once in a while. Socialize, make some friends, you know?" Vista adds, something about her voice seems a bit... Strained, though.

"Y-yeah, as friends. Just guys being dudes." Kid Win nods with a wide smile. "I mean, you've got that thing with- Ah... I mean, you're seeing someone, right?" You nod, suddenly feeling like the room has gotten just a little bit awkward.

"Hey, Light? You um... You do custom costume designs right?" Vista calls, drawing your attention over to her. "What do you think of my current look? I haven't changed it in a while, and I feel like it makes me look too childish lately. I could use something that shows off a bit more, don't you think?"

Hmm, her costume... It's nice enough, you suppose. Emerald green boots and gloves, with matching ceramic body armor across her chest. Below that, a short skirt with wavy line patterns above white leggings. All in all, it seems kind of... Plain. The sort of costume a younger girl would wear to draw attention away from her body. "I had to replace the chest piece quite a few times over the last few years." Vista laughs, stretching out backwards and pushing her chest out for emphasis.

"Ah, weren't we just saying Light was seeing someone?" Clockblocker teases.

"I'm getting a professional opinion!" Vista huffs. "I think the costume is cute, but I could do better, don't you?"

Hmm, maybe replace the top with a long jacket, improve the boots to come up over her thighs, with a small gap between the tops and the bottom of her skirt? Gloves as well, they should be less bulky than the gauntlets she's got on. Yeah, you could make improvements, for certain. You nod, grabbing the pad of paper that you write your commissions on, and taking down a few notes. "Awesome! I'll come in some time for a fitting, okay?"

Well, Vista seems super excited about that, at least. Maybe you should talk to Missy about that? You wouldn't want her to get the wrong idea or anything. Regardless, you can't do any custom work today, and it wouldn't be your best effort to just grab something off the rack. What you can do today, though, is put together a proper staff for Vista, and a pocket watch for Clockblocker.

The watch is easier to do first, since it's just something you're mostly throwing together. There's no real significance to it, beyond the desire to do something nice for him. If you had any ideas for the other Wards, you'd do the same, really. Well, Aegis got those gauntlets you made him, so that counts, right?

"This is sweet." He seems to like it, at least. "Really, really cool. Probably the most expensive thing I own now." He takes his time inspecting it, noting that it doesn't need to be wound or anything like that. Honestly, unless something damages it, you won't even need to do any repairs on it during his life time.

The tougher project is the staff for Vista. You've never worked with time/space magic before. You've heard rumors some people out in Dalmasca could do it, but Omega never found any evidence. Omega itself probably knows a few tricks, but the Warrior of Light never did. From Vista's description... It's all rather confusing. It honestly seems like even she doesn't know how she does it, beyond 'want something to happen, and it does'.

It makes you wonder, really. To hear her describe it, it almost sounds like she's an amateur arcanist, using pre-written pages from an ancient grimoire, with no knowledge of the language inside. Just flipping to the right page on instinct and having at it. Except that can't be right, because she never makes mistakes. The things she does are always tailored exactly to her desires and needs, not prefabricated spells meant to do general purpose things.

Still, different branches of magic need different things. Summoning requires a grimoire with plenty of space for data, to store all the complex programs written inside for various Egi. White magic requires a focus to channel ambient Aether through, distilling and purifying it to match the recipient. Black magic requires a focus that can store immense amounts of energy, drawing it in from the environment and releasing it with focused precision.

Space magic... You have no idea what she'd need. If anything it seems like she's been getting along well without a focus at all. There's some limitations regarding bending space around people, but that seems to be more of a failsafe against causing injury. A mental block maybe? If she felt better about her concentration and focus, perhaps she could offset that limitation a little? Or extend her range even.

Something with a focus on intelligence and mind then. Something to help her remain calm in the face of stressful situations, a beacon of comfort to rest in her hands. It ends up smaller than a normal staff, more akin to a wand or scepter than the canes White mages use as well. Capped with a trio of emeralds, each carved into a whorl, like space pulling and twisting in on itself, all set within glistening electrum and hardsilver, laid out like the revolutions of the solar system.

"It looks too delicate." Vista notes, grasping the handle with trepidation. "And valuable. What if I break it, or it gets stolen?" Well, that's not too big of a deal, is it? If it gets stolen, you can replace it. If it somehow breaks, you can fix it. What's important is how it feels to her.

"It feels... Comfortable. Like it was made for my hand." She acknowledges seriously, hefting the weight of it and swinging it about. "Like I've been carrying it my whole life." Well, that was the goal wasn't it? If it becomes something like a security blanket, something she reaches for and holds for a boost of certainty and confidence...

You reach for it, to try and take it from her, and space twists and warps around it. No matter how you stretch and reach, your fingers never clasp around the gems atop it. "Whoa... I've never had this kind of fine control before. It's almost instinctive." She draws it back, and gives it a lazy swing towards your arm, and suddenly you can feel the wood grain of the distant shelf against the back of your hand, as if you were flung across the distance in an instant. "This is... Well, I suppose this works brilliantly."

Others try, reaching out in attempt to steal it from her, but each time she easily twists their grasps out of the way, defending her prized possession with casual ease. "Okay, let's see if.." She trails off, leaving it on the counter and stepping back. A simple gesture of reaching, and a moment later it's firmly within her hand once more. "Hah! That's... That's so cool!"

---------------------

"Hey uh... Thanks. A lot." Eventually it's time for your guests to leave, though Vista hangs back for a moment. She's been closer to you than the others all day, sitting nearest to you while you worked, and speaking with you readily. Somehow she seems the most comfortable with your presence. "I came expecting... I don't know what, really, but... Instead you gave me this. It feels like you put a lot of thought into it, a lot of... I don't know... Heart and soul, into it? It means a lot to me."

You give her your usual bright smile, and you're sort of surprised to feel her step closer and give you a hug. "You genuinely care huh? Even about people you barely know..." It comes out as a whisper, but you can see the smile tugging at her lips. "I'm a lucky girl..."

"This girl you're seeing... Are you serious about her?" Vista asks, catching you off guard. It doesn't take a moment for you to nod firmly though, you wouldn't betray Missy for anything. "Heh, good answer... She must be really special to you." Of course, everyone you know is really special to you. With a parting grin, Vista turns and follows the others out of the store, leaving you to clean up for the night. You've got other orders to fill before tomorrow morning after all.

Ah, but first...

Light: I think Vista likes me too.

Missy: Of course she does -.- Why are you so popular?

Missy: Rhetorical question, its the same reason I'm head over heels for you.

Light: I'm just trying to be a good person.

Missy: You make the rest of us look bad.

Missy: She's cute though right? Vista's my favorite super hero. You weren't tempted to kiss her?

Light: Not if it would make you upset. Do you want to kiss her?

Missy: Now you're starting to sound like Rosalia lol.

Missy: She keeps teasing me with these 'fun' ideas, and pictures of you.

Light: 'Fun'?

Missy: I'd probably die of embarrassment. She keeps pointing out I'd probably die happy though.

Light: No dying allowed.

Missy: Duh. Rosalia's probably going to tease me all night about a MissyxLightxVista threesome. Did you know she writes fanfiction? Really bad, smutty stuff. Specifically to torment me.

Light: I didn't.

Missy: Don't tell her, but it kind of works.

Light: So... Do you want to kiss Vista?

Missy: ...

Missy: I'll consider it . Maybe you can pass one along for me, next time you see her lol. No kissing Rosalia though. Tell her it's my own form of petty revenge.

Light: Won't that make her torment you more, if she knew?

Missy: That's the plan 

Missy: Wherever my normal, boring, sane life has gone... I'm not quite sure I miss it.

Tomorrow is Monday:

[X] Plan Charismatic College Detective

-[X] Dancer 4

-[X] Scholar 4

-[X] Astrologian 2

-[X] It's time to investigate the the college incident. You should be able to suss out the problem with Scholar and a bit of cheating via precog. And hopefully Dancer will smooth over any issues. Your last time on a school's property didn't exactly go great.

Missy: You're doing WHAT?

Light: I'm just going to check it out. Crystal Pelham is going with me to show me around. There shouldn't be anything dangerous until Wednesday at least, and maybe I can head things off.

Missy: Did you tell the PRT? This seems like something they should know about.

Light: If too many people get involved, the future can change a whole bunch. I'll tell them if I don't find anything, and maybe there won't be any danger on Wednesday that way, but I want to see if I can fix things myself first.

Missy: If it's going to effect the entire campus... It's too much for one person to deal with.

Light: Crystal's with me.

Missy: Can you bring that other cape? Riding Hood?

Light: She's... Taking the day off.

Missy: ... Text Vista. Call in a favor. I'd feel better if she was there to watch out for you, and you can cover more ground that way. Please?

That's how you end up on the Brockton College campus, flanked by Crystal in her everyday clothing, and Vista, looking intimidating in her full costume. You, yourself, are wearing your dancer outfit, which... Draws quite a few looks on its own. "So where do we start?" Vista asks.

Well, to be honest you don't have much to go on. Just that there's going to be a disaster on Wednesday, potentially. A low body count, even if things go horribly wrong, but plenty of property damage at the very least. It doesn't really give you a ton of leads to start from. "Best guess would be something like a trigger incident. Freshly triggered cape lashing out at whatever caused their trigger?" Crystal suggests. You've done some research, enough to know most 'triggers' come from mental breakdowns.

But what could cause a mental breakdown on a college campus?

Too many things. Far too many things. Your mind, boosted by your abilities as a Scholar, struggles to put a plan together with so little information to go on. You could start by asking around about known issues, problematic professors and such, or maybe about recent events? If there's a big party on Wednesday, for example...

Well, to be honest you need a lead. Just a single thread to get you going. So Astrologian it is. Your Planisphere comes out, floating above your hand as you hold it up and focus, little lights dancing at the edge of your vision as a field of stars plays out around you. This draws further attention, though there's few students on campus at the moment.

You look towards Wednesday, towards the worst outcomes. Explosions, destruction, complete disintegration. The damage is varied, but always devastating. It all happens simultaneously as well, at distant points around the campus. Bombs, then.

"A tinker?" Crystal reads over your analysis with a frown. "They usually take time to build up power."

"It's possible they've already triggered then. We should investigate the bombing sites, in case they're already rigged." Vista notes grimly. "Where's the closest one?" You point, and begin to lead the way, thinking over what else you can glean from your limited vision. Only two days away, the future is more certain than it was last time you looked, possible avenues closed to you, making the likely outcomes more concrete.

"There's not many people on campus at least." Crystal notes. "It's summer, so it's mostly grad students working on their personal projects. Professors too, in some cases."

"That narrows it down, at least." Vista agrees, her head on a swivel as you lead her through the campus. "Do we think it's a grad student then?"

"Hard to say." Crystal shrugs, seemingly put out by the idea. "I don't know of anyone personally who's been having a rough time... It's kind of disturbing, to think someone could trigger in such close proximity, without anyone noticing."

"We don't know what caused it yet. There could just be an accident or something..." Vista mumbles, lost in thought.

There, right ahead, is the first casualty of the bombings. A statue, standing in the middle of a serene looking garden. It explodes an hour before anything else, like a signal to everything else. "Dr. Samuel Masters. He's the head of engineering, apparently he's a super genius. Like, gets a thinker rating even though he's not a cape." Crystal explains.

"Apparently?" Vista asks, tilting her head in thought.

"Never met the guy. Not my department." Crystal explains. You glance to the side, noticing a disk flying in your direction, and prepare to move when suddenly space twists and the disk goes flying back where it came from. The men in the nearby field watch in awe, and a bit of disappointment, as it returns to them.

"Hey!" Not to be deterred, one of the young men comes running over, a bright smile on his face. "What brings you lovely ladies to our neck of the woods?"

"James, seriously? They're clearly capes, don't mess with them!" The smaller of the two boys whines, staying partly behind his friend as he follows along. "Sorry to bother you!"

"It's alright." Crystal sighs. "We're just poking around a little bit. You two wouldn't happen to be engineering majors would you?"

"Nah, Literature for me, Chemical Science for Bill here." The taller man, James you assume, explains, running a hand through the shaggy mop of brown hair atop his head.

"English Lit? Isn't that the most stereotypical useless degree?" Vista snorts quietly.

"Not just English Lit. Literature in general. At the moment I speak seven languages fluently, and another 5 conversationally. I can read and write eighteen." James boasts, puffing up his chest proudly. "But I'll admit, most of my classmates are kind of useless trust-fund kids."

"So uh... What are you poking around for?" Bill asks timidly. "Nothing dangerous, I hope? I mean, three capes..."

"If you're looking for a tour, we can show you around to the interesting places." James adds with a wink. Surprisingly, Vista steps closer to you at that, her arm brushing yours as she shakes her head.

"No thank you, Crystal's more than capable as a guide." The shorter girl informs them.

"That's right, you go here too don't you? I've seen you around, but we don't drift in the same circles it seems." James nods, offering a hand to the older girl. She takes it lightly, an honest smile playing across her lips.

"Thank you for the offer, but unless you know anything about the engineering department, I think we need to keep looking." Crystal replies evenly, turning to look back towards the statue. "Maybe we should speak to him?"

"Dr. Masters?" Bill asks, following her gaze. "Mr Ominous Name himself huh? He sounds kind of like a super villain doesn't he?"

"Unfortunate." Vista agrees, looking around at the distant buildings. "Are there other things named after him on campus?"

"Ah... I don't know really." James shrugs. "But hey, we'll leave you to it. If you need us for anything else, we'll be hanging around for a little while longer. Got some friends coming by."

"Jeff may know." Bill suddenly speaks up. "He's dating that engineering student right? Think he'll bring her?"

"Oh shit, right!" James perks up. "I'll text him and see. Hey, if you want to stick around, our friend's girlfriend is an engineering major, so she may be able to answer some questions."

"We'll swing by later then, if we don't get any more leads." Crystal agrees.

----------------------

"I swear it's like finding a needle in a haystack." Crystal whines two hours later, floating up a few feet and stretching out. "Nothing tips off anything?"

You shake your head. None of the people you've seen have the right body language, from a scholar or dancer perspective. All the evidence you've gathered points towards someone having a grudge against Dr Masters, though no one you've spoken to has anything bad to say about the man. "So let's go check the engineering building."

"It's off limits." Crystal shoots the idea down quickly. "Student access only. There's a bunch of sensitive equipment there, and..."

"Sensitive equipment a tinker could make use of?" Vista guesses, likely coming to the same conclusion. "We'd get in a lot of trouble breaking in..."

"What are the odds our tinker is even in there right now?" Crystal shrugs.

"Doesn't need to be. If we find any signs of tinkering, we can work from there to figure out who it is. They have sign-in logs and such, right?" Vista notes. "We'd just need an engineering student to let us in..."

"Jeff's girlfriend?" Crystal smiles grimly.

-----------------

"Hey, you made it!" James calls, waving you all over. There's about a dozen people milling about in the shade by the field now, with music filling the air. "Welcome, welcome. Let me introduce you to everyone!"

You tune out the introductions, instead listening to the music for a little bit. It's got a soothing rhythm, a catchy beat... Not ideal for dancing, but you can definitely work with it. You smile and shake hands for a bit, before drifting back over to Vista, who never seems to be too far away from you, almost like she's insecure outside your presence.

On a whim you grab her hand, and tug her into a slow and easy dance. "H-hey!" She squeaks cutely, following along as your powers nudge her into the right moves. It must be a combination of Scholar and Dancer, but her body language screams that she's into you, but doesn't want you to know. It's kind of adorable, really. "What's all this about then?"

You smile back at her, as if to let her know her crush is okay, and also adorable, and her face beneath the green visor goes bright red. Turning and spinning, the dance picks up the pace and soon enough she's lost in it, feelings on full display as the two of you bump together. There's some whooping cheers from the onlookers, and you pause to reach out a hand and fling someone else into the dance.

Soon a whole crowd is dancing, laughing and singing poorly to the music, your power directing things just enough that no one crashes into one another. Spirits are lifted as you spin Crystal, feeling her stress melt away as she mingles with people who would normally be her peers. Others, like Bill, are pulled from their shells, surprisingly adapting well to the traditional 'female' role of the particular dance.

The music changes and you find Vista in your arms once more, her blush returning as she holds you tightly. You can definitely see why she's Missy's favorite hero, if they ever met they'd get along famously. Thinking on it, you didn't get explicit permission to kiss Vista from Missy, but... It was fairly close, right?

Pass along a kiss from Missy, from her biggest fan? Something to that effect. It's kind of hard with her visor in the way though, your nose ends up pressed to the glass of it, her head tilting as if stretching out to meet your lips. "Hey you two!" Crystal calls, before you can work something out. The feeling's there though, the intention clear between the two of you, that you both, for a moment, desperately wanted to connect.

"Damn it..." Vista swears quietly, turning her head towards Crystal but refusing to let go of her grip on your arm. "We'll figure this out later. I'll... I'll take you to a rooftop, under the stars, and you can..."

"This is Stephanie, Jeff's girlfriend. She's an engineering student." Crystal introduces you to the girl, rather plump with cute brown ringlets for hair. "She's agreed to let us look around the engineering building."

"So long as you don't break anything." The girl giggles, squeezing herself into her hold on Crystal's arm. Your fellow hero gives you a brief pained expression, but she seems willing to go along with whatever this is, if it gets you results. "Shall we?"

--------------------

The engineering building is huge. From the inside, you can see all sorts of expensive equipment that you barely recognize the use for. It reminds you almost like the labs the empire would set up, filled with magitek devices for all manner of things. Construction equipment, fabrication equipment, sensing equipment, this place has it all.

It's kind of no wonder this place gets hit the worst on Wednesday, if everything goes poorly. Millions of dollars worth of damage, at the very least. "A lot of this stuff is state of the art. People come from all over to be students here, just to use a lot of it. Heck, a lot of it is built by our graduate students. It's sort of a tradition to add to what we've got at our disposal here."

"Dr. Masters likes to say it's our duty as engineers, to build the tools that will build the future." Stephanie continues, taking pride in her words as she leads you around. There's a few students here, judging by the log-book, less than half a dozen, which actually makes it rather busy considering the time of year.

"The log book is wrong." Vista whispers to you, out of earshot of Stephanie. "There's supposed to be four people here. I'm detecting five. Someone forgot to sign in? Or..."

Worth checking. You kind of don't want Stephanie to get involved though... Vista moves away from you and catches Crystal's ear, likely thinking the same thing. A few moments later, the giggling guide is moving along, urging the famous hero to follow after her, leaving you and Vista behind. "What is it you think she thinks we're going to do?" Vista frowns, noting the glance and wink Stephanie throws in your direction.

You shrug, more focused on the task at hand. "There's a pair working on the top floor, and another two near eachother on the second." Vista explains, looking off in a seemingly random direction. Given the fact that someone didn't sign in, they're probably trying to hide the fact that they're here, so... Whoever's isolated should be your first target. "The fifth person is in the basement. Fabrication labs."

That's your best suspect then. You nod, finding the nearest sign and following the directions to the elevator. It's an awkward ride down, with Vista stealing glances at you every so often. Maybe that dance is having lingering effects, or... Ah, maybe you should explain things. To you this makes sense, given Missy's response to yesterday, but... From Vista's point of view this must be super strange.

Now's probably not the best time though. The elevator opens, and both of you cautiously creep out. The hallways are lit by fluorescent lighting, branching off from a central nexus into different laboratory space. Vista nods in a direction, and you follow along quietly until you approach an open door. Inside is...

Well, it's a bit of a mess really. Not just the lab itself, with various parts and components splayed about across every available surface, but the person inside as well. She's got Hingashi features, like Missy's roommate, you think they're called Asian here? But most of what you can make out from her is... Muddled.

Baggy clothing, hair recently cut short, likely by herself given the haphazard job of it, and... When she does turn in your general direction, you can see the harsh bags under her eyes. A lack of sleep, and likely a bit of crying as well. She seems to tremble a bit as she works, and you spot quite a few empty cans of energy drinks over by the main control panel.

All in all, this is one strong contender for your suspect.

More alarming, however, is the device she's building in the center of the room. It hangs down from the ceiling on a robotic arm, a thick cylindrical device that narrows to one side, the outside a mess of wires uncovered by the plating splayed around it. Honestly... It looks like a laser gun of some kind.

"What do we do?" Vista whispers softly, crouched down by the door with you. "We have a tinker building a death ray in the basement of the engineering building. This is definitely our suspect, right?"

Well... It does seem likely, yes. An engineering student, possibly with a grudge against Dr. Masters, who looks like she had a breakdown recently, building what looks like a laser. Honestly though, if she's anything like a machinist, there could be any number of defenses around the lab if you just rush in there.

You need a plan.

[X] Step in and try to negotiate. Between Scholar and Dancer, you can get a pretty good read on this woman, and hopefully diffuse the situation.

You motion for Vista to stay back, out of sight, and summon your Faerie. It hangs behind you as you enter the room, knocking softly on the door frame so as to not startle the woman inside. It only barely works, the woman freezing up at the sound and turning sharply, wobbling slightly as she takes in your appearance.

"W-what the hell do you want?" She snaps, posture tense, fingers twitching. She's a half second from reaching for... Something. You're not sure what. "Who are you?"

You raise your hands slowly, showing open palms, and give her a soft, understanding smile. You're not here to hurt her, or to cause any trouble. You're here to help. That's all. "How... How did you get in here? Huh? This is a private lab, so..." Her voice cracks, her shoulders tremble, but she's not moving to grab whatever it was she was considering.

You point to your throat and shake your head, an almost universal sign you've discovered for explaining that you're mute. Her eyes narrow, but she remains motionless, like prey caught in the gaze of a hunter. Turning your gaze, you instead inspect the laser-like device hanging from the ceiling, trying to get a better feel for what it is. "What... This? Heh, if you're trying to steal it you're too late." She laughs bitterly, something manic tinging her words. "It's my thesis project. It's... Well, it's supposed to be... I've been working on it for ages, and then this bastard claims it's his. Turns out he doesn't even want it, you know? It'll probably be thrown in some storage area and forgotten about, even if I get it to work."

Okay... So, theft? Intellectual theft, at least? That's a decent thread to pull on. You step closer to it, keeping away from the front just in case it's operational, despite what she says. "Supposed to be a medical tool. It uses ultrasonic resonance to map the internals of a patient, something similar to how MRI's work, and then applies even stronger sound waves to specific cells. Like surgery, but you don't even have to open someone up." She explains, calming down slightly as she steps towards it. "Could never quite get it working, and now... Now I have other issues preventing me from finishing it."

So it's not a death ray? At least, it's not originally meant to be one. Maybe she could convert it, if she wanted to, but it doesn't sound like she desires that. If anything, she seems... Grieving. Like she knows this will never come to fruition. "You probably don't believe me, huh? No one else does. They think I'm a moron, some trust fund kid who got in on fluke, who's fumbled her way this far by some kind of miracle." There's the bitterness returning to her voice, the tremble in her fingers as she turns and brushes an empty can aside.

"Why'd you come here anyways, huh? Why here, to this lab?" She turns around once more, eyes narrowing as she reaches for something behind her. Her body language is tense, shifting suddenly past wariness and towards outright alarm, ready to move depending on your answer. You pull up an invisible barrier between the two of you, and then casually point towards her. "Me huh? You're a cape then? Some kind of thinker? Figured you come bust me before shit hits the fan?"

She laughs, a hollow empty sound, and shakes her head. "You're protecting him? Working for him? Or is this all unintentional?"

You shake your head, honestly you have no intention of arresting her for something she hasn't done. If no one's been harmed, if no disaster has really been set in motion... If anything you're here to help. You knew she needed help, so you stepped in as soon as you could. That's all there is to it. "I'm not going to hurt anyone. Honestly, when that bastard's career is in ruins, it'll be his own fault, not mine. If he decides his secrets are worth more than the campus though... What does that say about him, huh?"

Yeah, you're not letting that happen. Whatever the issue is, and you're starting to get an idea, it can be solved without dragging the entire campus down to rubble. "So who's idea was it to send the super-mime?" The woman laughs softly, a half smile twitching at her lips. The fact that you haven't acted already seems to have calmed her down a little bit, reassured her that you aren't here to just beat her up and call it a win. "Maybe they're underestimating me again, huh? Maybe it's to my advantage this time, that everyone thinks I'm an idiot. Well, guess what? I'm not. I'm a genius, despite what that bastard says and-"

She takes a deep breath, obviously realizing she's been working herself into a frenzy, and shakes her head. "Oh, what if we just rush in before she's ready! Surely she won't have contingency plans, or failsafes! We could knock her out, because there's no way she'd have something rigged for if she loses consciousness, right? She's an idiot!"

Ah, that's troublesome, given the way she's wobbling. There's only so much energy drinks can do to keep her awake and aware. If you had an ether, that would help, but just healing her wouldn't be enough to keep her awake if she starts to nod off. "Catch!" You blink, reaching out to snatch the small device from the air as she tosses it towards you. Something tells you it'd be a bad idea to let the thing hit the floor. "So here's the thing. Don't put that down, don't drop it, don't throw it, got it? Easy, right? You want me to trust you, you've got to trust me, and my favorite way of showing trust is having my finger on a detonator, okay?"

Hmm... If you surround the device in barriers, there's a good chance it won't cause any severe damage. How much explosives could she pack into such a tiny thing, anyways? "Man, you just don't lose your cool, huh? What is it with you? You think I'm bluffing?" No, you can tell by her body language that she's not joking about this. You're not sure the device itself is deadly though.

Honestly, you just hope Vista doesn't jump into your aide. At the moment, you're actually doing fairly well getting through to this woman, just by being implacable. Neither retreating nor moving forward, just waiting. "All I want is a confession, you know that? I just want him to admit he did all this, that I'm not crazy, not delusional. I'm a genius, you know that? I aced every test I took. It wasn't... It wasn't him just changing my marks, hyping me up, making me feel special so he could pull the rug out from under me. It was me! I did that! All those accomplishments were mine!"

Ah... So she even doubts her own abilities. Whatever this man did, he's seriously broken her. "And he's going to confess, right there in the hearing. I'll be sitting right there, just the poor helpless victim, watching as he explains to his peers and colleagues all the horrible things he's done." She giggles happily, turning her attention back to her work. "I'll be in the room when the bomb scare is called in. The whole campus evacuated, except for those in the hearing. They have to stay, or the whole building goes 'boom', hahaha!"

You nod slowly, thinking things over. She'd probably use pre-recorded lines, to make it seem like the culprit was far away from the danger, while she in fact was in the room. Probably using a device to control everything the 'villain' does remotely. The perfect alibi. The statue would be an example, meant to make everyone take things seriously. Then it would be a matter of forcing a confession from Dr. Masters.

She'd probably tell the hostages that the campus hadn't been evacuated even, so that they worried for the student's safety. Honestly... As villainous plans go, it's not terrible. Assuming she's telling the truth, and it'd just be property damage... You shake your head though, as good as the plan is, it's unnecessary. You can help, you're here to help. "What? You're going to stop me? Save the day, and prevent some 'terrorist plot'?" She laughs, tensing up once more. "I already told you, if you knock me out-"

You shake your head once more, letting out a slow breath. You're going to stop her, not by knocking her out, or disabling the bombs, or anything like that. You're going to stop her the easy way. By believing her. Whether she's right or not, someone pushed her to this point, and you can't help but feel that they're the villain in this situation. So the question becomes, what do you have to help her?

Well... You have powers. As a Scholar perhaps you can find evidence of wrongdoing, and bring it to the right people. You have money, and lawyers, people to speak on your behalf, and by extension on her behalf as well. Honestly, if revenge wasn't so important to her, you could offer her a job. Clearly she's got powers as well, some kind of tinker at the very least, and that's valuable. You have connections, you could set her up with the Protectorate, and they could look into her circumstances as well.

You have options. Options she doesn't have, acting on her own like this.

On the con's side of things... Well, she's been making explosives. With the intention of using the explosives on a college campus. Even if it's just to threaten people, mistakes could happen, people could get hurt, people would get hurt if things went poorly. Even now, if she were to lose consciousness from sleep deprivation, who knows what kinds of failsafes would go off by accident. These aren't things that are typically easily overlooked.

[X] Plan Listen

-[X] Does she want to talk more? You're here to listen.

-[X] In fact, get her talking about her work, what she's doing, what she's done. Reassure her when you can.

-[X] If you can, convince her to take an ether.

-[X] Then work through what she has planned. Does she really want to endanger other people? Does she think that man is selfless enough to sacrifice himself for the school? She wants to ruin him, but does she have to involve other people? Could she do it in a way that is guaranteed to work?

-[X] If she likes, you're perfectly happy to offer yourself as bait to the man. You've been told you can be quite enchanting. Do a few dancer steps to show off if she wants. Get him alone with both of you, and have him say something incriminating. It wouldn't be hard if you play the distressed damsel you think. Would that work?

"What, this?" The woman pauses when you gesture at the device hanging from the ceiling. "Like I said, it's my old thesis project, nothing dangerous. I... I hadn't even considered using it as part of my revenge plot. I mean, partly because it would point back to me, you know, but..."

She sighs, deflating a little bit as she runs her fingers through her hair again, a habit formed when her hair was longer no doubt. "It'd destroy it. To use it with my new powers, I'd have to destroy the whole thing, and... I get it, that it's stupid, the plans are still there, I can rebuild it over and over, but destroying it for something like this is..."

You understand completely. It's like... It's like this device is innocent. Her creation, like a child, who shouldn't be involved in disputes of the parents. You nod, stepping closer to it and inspecting the work. It's incomplete, obviously, just a prototype with numerous exposed places to work on. "It was supposed to be revolutionary. A way to diagnose non-invasively, and then treat the same way. So much of today's technology relies on tinkertech, things that can't be replicated, reliant on the tinkers themselves for maintenance. I wanted to be different, to make something that could be used all over the world."

"On some level I resented Tinkers, and look where that got me?" She mutters, looking on at her creation with empty eyes. "I look at it now, and all I can think of is how to turn it into explosives, or how explosives could make it work. My mind is filled with all of these ideas and concepts that don't feel like my own, it feels like I'd contaminate my work by using them."

"I don't even know if my old ideas would even work. Am I really the genius I thought I was? For all I know, that man was stringing me along for my looks since the beginning. I don't want to be admired for my appearance." She sighs, shaking her head once more. "So is this your plan? Just, swoop in and listen to me complain?"

She has every right to complain, doesn't she? And you don't mind listening all that much, if it helps her get her head on straight. You nod, crossing your arms and waiting for her to continue. "I don't really want other people involved, you know? If the media got wind of this... They'd probably spin it as a dumb student triggering because she failed a test. It's why I was going to phone in the bomb scare, to get the area cleared of any potential bystanders. It's why I didn't just... Mail him a bomb. I want a confession, not a body count."

But accidents can happen. Especially when dealing with something this volatile. Besides, does that man really seem the type to sacrifice his career? When he can simply put attention on the bomber behind the attack? "I'm just so tired, you know?" She looks tired. Exhausted, really. All those hours awake, with nothing but energy drinks to sustain her, it can't be good for her. If you could convince her to take an Ether, that'd be great, honestly. "Who are you, anyways?"

Oh, that, you can do that. Let's see... Your phone, opening up that tab Madison showed you about your store, and the news article on it. "The Hero Light, independent cape and business owner?" The woman reads off, raising an eyebrow. "Huh... Nothing in here about you being a thinker."

Well, by way of that... You bring out your planisphere, holding it up carefully and projecting stars around you. She tenses, but relaxes after a moment of seeing nothing happen, other than glittering lights. "So, what... You predict the future, and that's how you made a successful business?" Eh, not really... You wiggle your hand a bit, scrolling down the article to the part mentioning your numerous creations, including your potions. "A Trump then? Shit, you really lucked out huh? Not nearly as disastrous as mine... All I can really think of is bombs of some kind. Ones that explode, ones that implode, ones that freeze or melt or cause pain... Hard to really get into business with something like that."

Well... There's always demolition, right? Hmm, is it really just explosions though? I mean, there's use for directed explosions in all sorts of things. Does it have to be radial? You could make use of some of that stuff as a machinist... "I think the worst part is I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I had a plan, I stuck to the plan, for years I stuck to the plan, and now... Nothing. No plan, just flying by the seat of my pants, and... I'm probably not making the best decisions am I? But I can't just let this guy walk all over me, and if I wait too long it gets even harder to undo everything. I'll just be that woman who was thrown out of college, even if it all gets undone."

But... Why is that important? You shrug, not entirely understanding it. She's a tinker now, a hero, someone who can build things far beyond anyone else, like this world's own Cid or Nero! Why would she want to go to school? "It's for the validation! I'm a genius, and... If I just drop out and make bombs, everyone will think I'm just a one trick pony. That I got where I am because of my powers, and that's it! It's even worse if he gets away with it, because it'll look like I'm honestly a failure of a student!"

Okay... But why is that important? She knows he's wrong, right? Oh, is this one of those secret identity things again? Even if she's known as awesome as a hero, she'd still be seen as a failure as her civilian identity. Now that you can understand... Sort of. Maybe. But surely there's a legal alternative to all of this? A way to do this without anyone getting hurt?

"Legal-" She snorts, shaking her head. "Are you kidding? Do you know who this guy is? He's the most important person on campus, one of their biggest donors, with the backing of- Do you know what kind of legal team I'd need? What kind of money-"

Oh. It's a money thing? Well... You've got lawyers. "You have... You have lawyers." The woman blinks, looking at the list of names you've pulled up. Honestly, you lost track of who your retainer has hired, but suffice to say, your retainer has retainers, who also have retainers by this point. You'd have to check with Rosalia and Madison about how much money you have by this point, but...

"I can't. I can't just, take your money. This isn't a charity case-" You don't see why not. This is a crime, what happened to her, and your job is to stop crime. Money's just another super power, in the long run. "You don't care do you... Look, I... I get it, you want to help, and what I'm doing is... It's pretty messed up, huh? But this kind of money..."

She could... Consider it an investment? Being a professional tinker, either independent or as a hero, would make her a ton of money. Honestly, with how much she stands to make, it's reasonable to think a lawyer would happily take her case. At the very least, whatever happened to her caused her to trigger, which makes a strong case for suing the school.

Or she could go to the Protectorate, and they'd likely help her press charges. "I very much doubt the Protectorate would be interested in a bomb tinker." Gah, she's not thinking big enough. What if she worked with their containment foam? What if she made 'bullets' instead of 'bombs'? What if... Oh man, what if you showed her your gunblade? She'd flip the hell out.

But you need to defuse this first. "Look... I'm just... I'm going to dismantle the failsafes, and... I guess I'll get some rest. Maybe you're right, maybe the best way to go forward is the legal route. I just feel like my life is a bombed out husk now, like... What do I have left? I isolated myself from my friends, I poured everything into my studies, so I have no hobbies, and now... I was about to become an honest to god super villain. What else did I have left?"

Well... She's got you, doesn't she? That's a pretty valuable resource. Taking a chance, you step forward, noting her body language tense, but she doesn't reach for where you assume her triggers are. Instead, she just sort of locks up as you pull her into a lose embrace, gently rocking back and forth in some semblance of a dance. What happened to her sucks, and honestly, everyone should know about it, so it never happens again. This woman should have the support she needs, not the isolation she's mistakenly brought upon herself.

"You're such a strange kid." The woman murmurs, relaxing slightly in your embrace as you spin her slowly about. "Are you serious though? About the lawyers? They're... They're good right? They've got to be, if they're helping you sell tinker tech. Medical tinker tech, even. So... They've got to be super busy with all your stuff though, right?"

So they can hire more help then. There's room in the budget. "But I'm not taking money. I'll... I'll take a loan, maybe, but I'm going to pay back every cent, with interest and everything, I'll work it out with the lawyers. You're the one that helped me here, not the Protectorate and... And that's my fault, really, but... You're the one I'm paying back."

"About that." Ah, right. You turn, spotting Vista looming in the doorway. She looks... Upset.

"You're a Ward, aren't you? Were you in on this? Did the Protectorate know?" The woman, you really do need to get her name, tenses up upon seeing her.

"Light found out about you via his precog abilities, I came along to make sure he was okay." Vista informs her bluntly.

"Piss poor job, I came pretty close to blowing him up, you know?" The woman laughs dryly.

"But you didn't. I trust his judgement in things like this. Despite not being able to talk, he's surprisingly... Expressive. Like you know exactly how sincere he's being about everything." Vista shrugs.

"I feel like he only has one level of sincerity." The woman agrees grudgingly. "So..."

"So now you disable the bombs. All of them. Not just turn them off, make them completely unusable before something goes wrong." Vista insists, crossing her arms over her chest and sending you a look. She doesn't like this outcome, but she's willing to go along with it. "Honestly, of all the reckless-"

"Save the lecture kid, I probably won't even remember it come morning." The new cape yawns. "Here, I just have to hold down this button and put in the code. See? All the chemicals mix wrong, rendering the bombs all inert. Nothing but paper weights."

"I suppose we'll have to trust you on that?" Vista grumbles.

"Trust goes both ways, right? I'm trusting that there's not a PRT van waiting for me outside." The woman shrugs. "To be clear, I'm not up for meeting with the Protectorate right now, I doubt they'd be as lenient as Light here, with the whole... Psychotic breakdown thing."

"Is that what you're going with?" Vista replies dryly. "It's... I don't like it. Whether you did it or not, you planned to hold a school hostage, and at least one thinker can vouch that you nearly blew it up. That's crossing a line. That's crossing a whole hell of a lot of lines."

"So what, you're turning me in? Now's the time to do it, I just turned off all the bombs." The woman tenses, but doesn't look like she's going to reach for any hidden weapons. She's really disarmed herself. Vista, on the other hand, tenses her grip on the wand you've made her. If this really comes to blows, you may have to step in.

"I don't like it at all." Vista sighs, turning her gaze towards you. "You'd better be sure about this. You can predict outcomes, so you'd better keep an eye on her. If I find out about even one explosion, where some civilian could have been hurt-?"

You nod grimly. The situation has calmed down a little bit, but just because there's no timer doesn't mean this isn't a bomb still. Metaphorically. "Crystal won't accept this at all. I know what her family is like. At the very least, Carol Dallon's going to push for charges."

"I didn't actually-"

"You set bombs around campus." Vista shoots her down bluntly. "Which means we're going to need some way to explain this to her. So here's the deal. We found you freaking out about Dr Masters, exactly like you would have been a few days back, yes? We stopped you from triggering, you're not a cape, you don't have powers. In fact, you aren't even aware that you could have become a cape. No powers, no potential to blow up a school, no desire to do so. Understand?"

Oh. Wow. Vista's really jumping on this for you. "That's what I'm going to tell the Protectorate as well. Crisis averted, you're just a normal everyday victim looking to get legal justice for this whole fiasco."

"Right..." The woman, have you really not gotten her name yet? She probably doesn't want to say anything to Vista, come to think of it. "Yeah, I can work with that, it's just... I shouldn't talk to anyone until I get some sleep. I'm kind of... Dissociating pretty hard right now. Like..."

Oh, right. You hand her an Ether, with an instruction tag written on it. "Well, if you were going to poison me, you'd have done it as soon as I disabled the bombs, right?" She laughs nervously. "Either this works as described, or I pass out. I'm good with either at the moment. Bottoms up?" And with that she downs it, blinking rapidly as she sways in place. "Oh ew, I feel like... No, I felt like garbage. Ugh, that's jarring, going from lucid sleep-walking to being completely awake. Hey so uh... Weird question but, have you got somewhere I can stay? I kinda... Stripped my dorm room for parts. I'm not getting that deposit back."

"Let's discuss it on the way outside." Vista insists.

-----------------------

"I'm going to be in so much shit if this gets out." Vista admits, once Crystal has heard the 'official' explanation. Vista's walked you and your new 'guest' home, but seems distracted the entire way. "You know that right? I really stuck my neck out for you."

It's true, you owe her a lot. If the true story got out, things would only escalate again, and your new... What? Coworker? Employee? You're not really hiring her to help at the shop, at least not yet. She can't even be considered a friend at the moment. Well, the new cape would likely have responded negatively to that sort of pressure. Go figure.

"So long as you appreciate it..." Vista nods, slumping down a little bit. "This is so weird." She whispers, quiet enough that you're sure you weren't supposed to hear it. "Hey uh... Today was... Well, I can't say fun, or nice or anything else like that but... Today was a thing, you know? If you wanted to go patrolling together sometime, just us two..."

Is that, like a date? You'd honestly have to ask Missy. You know she teased you about kissing Vista, but maybe that was just a joke? There was that almost kiss earlier today too, and her whispered comment about whisking you away to a rooftop probably wasn't meaning anything platonic...

Ah, you know! You'll text Missy right now, and let her know you're with her favorite cape! Wait... Shouldn't you be her favorite cape? Maybe you should try harder in the future to be her favorite. In any case, you text her quickly, even sending a picture of you and Vista posing together, much to the hero's surprise. And you ask for advice about the whole Vista situation, since you kinda almost kissed her and she kinda wants to go on a sort-of-date.

Maybe Missy will join you? Sandwiched between her two favorite heroes. Who wouldn't want a date like that?

Hmm... Seems like Missy's not answering her phone. Ah, well, you'll have to get back to Vista later about the whole patrol-date thing. You do owe her though... But then, she owes you for the wand... But you don't want to keep score among friends. You just want to keep them all happy.

"Why did you bring home a fubar asian girl, and why is she in my bed?" Rosalia calls from somewhere within the store. "And what the fuck happened to our toaster!?"

Right, you should go take care of that.

-------------------

Tomorrow is Tuesday

[] Loadout (x/10)

-[] Plan (Write in)

// For a peek behind the curtain here. Relationship-wise, Your relationship with Vista/Missy took a bit of a hit here, with you sticking your neck out for Hanabi, which was lessened immensely by the fact that she knows you're just being your usual optimistic self. She's taking a bit of a risk with work, but that's offset a little bit by her being able to claim 'That's what Light told me, and I had no reason to believe them to be lying'.

That hit, in turn, saved you from a huge hit to New Wave rep, which would have come if Crystal had gotten involved. Her and her family would not have been so quick to accept the mitigating circumstances surrounding Hanabi's planned hostage situation. Instead, she's kept in the dark and your rep stays about the same.//

[X] Plan Cookie

-[X] Culinarian x8

-[X] Alchemist x2

-[X] Yesterday was rather stressful for people. To make up for that, your going to cook the best darned food anyone on this earth has Ever tasted, and feed it to all your friends. And there friends. And anyone in range, generally.

-[X] Also, call up your lawyers and get them in touch with Hanabi. You promised her help, and that doesn't just mean amazing food.

"You sure she doesn't want any of this?" Rosalia asks, glancing over at the bed where Hanabi continues to sleep.

"She's probably pretty worn down. We'll save her some for when she gets up. Or make her some new ones." Missy argues, eyeing the spread of breakfast food laid out across the counter. "This all looks so..."

"Intimidating." Madison finishes for her, reaching out to poke at a plate in front of her. "I don't know why I'm intimidated by food but... I mean, the cookies were good, right?"

"The cookies were absurd." Rosalia admits, eyes tracing the mound of glossy fruit topping a custard tart. Not exactly traditional breakfast food, but you went a bit wild with it. A variety of stuff to try, to see what your friends like to eat.

"Hello! Are you upstairs?" And that would be Crystal. You invited her over, as thanks for her help yesterday. Honestly, you invited Vista too, but she claimed she couldn't make it. Kid Win, Amy and Vicky should be over later though, and the invite is sort of open to whoever hears about it really.

"Come in!" Rosalia calls down the stairs, before taking a sip of her milk and- Sputtering, bringing a hand up to her mouth to catch the dribble. "The fuck... What did you do to the milk? Is this... Egg nog?" Sort of, you added a few things to the milk to flavor it, just to add a bit of sweetness and spice.

Madison grabs her glass next, bringing it to her lips and taking a big gulp. "Oh... Oh my... That's dangerous." Madison giggles, her eyes going a bit glassy. "Mhmmm... Meow..."

"R-right..." Missy nods, glancing warily at her glass as Crystal pokes her head into the room.

"Hey, I uh... I brought my brother. You said it was open invite, right?" The blonde girl gives an awkward smile, waving in the younger of the Pelhams. The blue haired boy gives you a bright smile, holding out what looks like a loaf of bread.

"Brought something of my own creation. Hope you like it. It's uh... Walnut bread." Oh? You've never had that before. Taking it, you quickly cut off a slice and take a bite, savoring the taste as you analyze its composition. Yes, you can make this, and improve on it, but Eric's kind of talented. "Family recipe."

"So what's the deal? No one eating yet?" Crystal asks, sliding onto one of the stools and taking a drink of the milk. She pauses a moment later, her vision growing distant as she slowly drinks down the entire glass. "S-so..." Red faced, she places the cup down, eyeing the next nearest on the counter.

"Well, I'm going to try something." Missy nods, sitting upright and pulling over a stack of pancakes. Their lightness and fluffiness causes the entire stack to wobble precariously as she pours a generous helping of butter and syrup over top. Taking a deep breath, she jabs the top one with a fork and cuts off a piece, raising it up to her mouth as everyone watches.

Spoiler: Hngh!

Her body tenses the moment her mouth closes around it, eyes going wide as she slowly chews, not that she really needs to given how light the pancake is. She says nothing, merely going slightly pink in the cheeks as she takes on a relaxed expression, moving to eat more seemingly on auto-pilot.

"Missy?" Rosalia prods, poking the girl in the shoulder as she finishes the last of the stack. She wobbles, blinking rapidly as she licks the dregs of syrup off her lips, and suddenly she topples sideways. You move to catch her, just the same as Rosalia does, but there's seemingly no need. Rather than fall off her stool completely, instead it seems her head falls into Rosalia's lap, and suddenly Missy is cuddled up to the older girl. "Ah... Are you okay?"

"Mhmm..." Missy replies, limp and yielding as Rosalia pulls her up to snuggle properly. " 'mgreat..."

"So... Anyone else want to try the food?" Crystal jokes weakly.

"I'm going in." Steeling herself, Madison grabs one of the cream-filled crepes and picks up the entire thing, angling the tip towards her mouth and taking a bite-

Spoiler: Haaaah!

"Hehe hehehe... Hehehe..." Madison's periodic giggles as she wobbles in her seat are... Worrying. It doesn't look like she's in any danger or anything though, so...

"Well... That's concerning." Rosalia mentions, glancing down at the waffle in front of her. Every divot, every well filled with glistening syrup, freshly made by your hand. "Right... Just a waffle. What could possibly go wrong." Swallowing thickly, she grasps the edge and bites down on the corner.

Spoiler: Waaaah!

Rosalia finishes her waffle in record time, hunching forwards over the counter, over Missy who continues to snuggle into her lap. Her face is red, her breath comes in short panting gasps, and her hands... Her hands clutch Missy's shirt as if it's a lifeline. Their soft groans and moans mingle together, telling you all you need to know.

Your friends really like your food.

Now then, all that remains is Eric and Crystal. You turn to look at them, expectantly, and both of them give one another nervous glances. "Not that I don't appreciate the offer..." Crystal hedges, glancing at the three girls currently rendered insensate. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Hell, it looks fun." Eric nods nervously, licking his lips as he reaches out towards the platter. He hesitates for a moment, as if deciding what to choose, before taking a single link of sausage off of the tray and-

Spoiler: Glck!

Link after link of sausage disappears as Eric greedily devours them, one in each hand as he chews whatever's currently in his mouth. His face is flushed, and streaks of grease run down his chin, but the happy smile on his face, along with his glazed expression, let you know he's loving every second of it.

You don't fail to notice the way he bounces on his stool, or the ah... Noticeable tent he's pitching at the moment. Crystal at least, pointedly looks away, reaching instead for a fruit smoothy you made-

Spoiler: Sigh!

Well, it seems like everyone's found something they like. You'll have to make more for lunch... Maybe an eggplant and zucchini and squash dish? Ratatouille? There's also that squid you picked up at the market, perfect for frying up as calamari. Maybe Hanabi will like that?

"B-b-bathroom?" Eric squeaks, standing from his stool before collapsing to his knees. Oh no! Is he allergic to something you made? You rush around the counter to support him as he staggers to his feet, hands over his waist as he bites his lip. He leans his weight into yours, giving a shy smile as you help him over to the bathroom itself. He shuts the door a moment later as the girls start to come to their senses.

"Not that I'm complaining..." Rosalia drawls, running a hand through Missy's hair. "But is this a usual thing, with your cooking?" You shrug, honestly this is the first time anyone's had such a positive reaction. Normally your food just makes people healthier and happier. It seems to be working about the same here, if you're being honest.

---------------------

"This is the life." Vicky Dallon sighs as she sips on her blend of fruit juice after binging on several sausages, lounging back in her chair on the beach below the boardwalk. Her sister's lounge chair is pulled up right next to hers, the healer sprawled out having eaten a half dozen tacos.

"I have so much fanfiction to write..." Madison groans, sitting with her feet buried in the sand, typing madly away on her phone. "Screw commissions, I have ideas!"

"Not going to lie dude..." Aegis is wearing only his mask and a pair of swim trunks, showing off his muscles as he throws a ball back and forth with Gallant. "These kind of perks? This is what the Protectorate should be offering all their heroes."

"Yeah well... I still can't get over how Kid Win is geeking out. Not sure what's got him more sprung, Light or her barbecue." Gallant snickers. "Still... Should he... You know, with Missy and all..."

"Kid needs to get out more. Even if it's problematic, the fact that he's got a crush at all is... Well, I was kind of worried about him for a while." Clockblocker chimes in from the side. "Missy will say something if it becomes a problem."

"Hell, with food like this, I'm thinking of making a pass at him." Vicky jokes, garnering a nasty look from her boyfriend.

"Light?"/"Light?" You pause your grilling to look up, spotting both Rosalia and Eric standing nearby. Both of them give one another awkward looks, and seem ready to just shrug things off and walk away. You tilt your head, then motion for them to continue.

"I was wondering-"/"I was thinking-" And once again they both speak, looking fairly embarrassed about it a second later.

"What's up?" Missy appears suddenly, throwing her arms around both of the teens as she steps forward. "This seems like a fun conversation, let me in on it." Eric suddenly seems uncomfortable, while Rosalia seems embarrassed. "Hey Light, I owe you for that thing the other night, right? Let's go on a date again sometime soon, okay?"

Does she mean... Oh right, she was going to give you oral sex the other day, but your gender thing messed things up. You nod, giving her a happy smile, before turning your attention back to the other two. "I was... Actually going to suggest something similar." Eric explains, sending a glance towards Missy. "Only if you're cool with it, you know?" Eh? Eric doesn't owe you anything, especially not oral sex... Does he?

"Eric... Are you trying to steal my boyfriend away?" Missy asks, her voice sickly sweet as she turns her full attention on the blue haired boy.

"Not steal, per say..." The boy laughs awkwardly. "I just... Enjoy spending time with him, and would really enjoy spending more time with him. You can come too?"

"And what role would I play in all this?" Missy raises an eyebrow, her expression becoming... Teasing?

"I can think of a few roles you could play..." Eric teases back. "But seriously, if you two are exclusive..."

"I'm not so sure." Missy hums thoughtfully, glancing towards Rosalia. "What do you think? Should I be keeping Light all to myself?"

"I can see why you'd want to." Rosalia begrudgingly admits. "But... Selfishly, I'd say share the love."

"Hmm..." Missy pauses for a moment, her expression shifting through a variety of emotions, before she steps forward and throws her arms around you. Leaning up, she whispers in your ear so that only you can hear her. "I hate being gatekeeper on this sort of thing, deciding who you get to care about... Just make sure you love me, thoroughly, okay?"

Well... You're not going to stop loving Missy with the same intensity that you love her now. That would be silly. You give her a hug back and an honest smile, which seems to push her doubt away almost immediately.

"Sup. Finally got off the phone with your lawyers." You turn your head as Hanabi drops down onto the sand, looking quite a bit better than she did yesterday. She grabs a drink and a burger for herself, before leaning up against the wall. "They're getting the ball rolling. I'm going to have to head into Boston in the next few days to give statements and stuff..."

"Glad you're feeling better." Missy gives her a happy smile as she steps back from you, and Rosalia steps forward.

"That's good news. You need anything else let me know okay? I know Light makes all the stuff, but I pretty much run the store so..." Your friend gives a halfhearted shrug, and reaches out her hand towards the older girl.

"Hey! Sorry we're late!" You turn your head again, spotting Missy's dorm-mates heading down the stairs onto the beach. "Let's get this party started!"

"Maybe I shouldn't tell them it's open season on you, yet?" Missy whispers quietly, stepping a bit closer and wrapping an arm around you. "At least until I've had my fill of you."

--------------

[X] Plan Mech

-[X] Mechanist (8/8)

-[X] Gunbreaker (2/8)

-[X] Time for fun days. Show Hanabi the gunbreaker stuff, then get to tinkering for fun! Make non-explody bombs. Maybe firefighter bombs? Or how about color bombs. You want to make everyone rainbow colors! Can Hanabi become a gunbreaker?

-[X] You want an airship. So, you're going to try to make one! It might or might not succeed, but damn if it won't be fun.

"So... What, exactly, is this?" Hanabi frowns as you pull out the small brick-like device you'd made for your Machinist class, looking visibly puzzled by its presence. You'd figure she'd be familiar with tomestones, given how popular they are around here, but maybe yours is different somehow? With a shrug, you tap a button on the side and bring up the aetherial projection screen. "Whoa!"

You suppress an urge to smirk, such technology is Nothing compared to what Omega itself can cook up. But still, you feel it's probably rather impressive on the local scale. Honestly, you doubt anyone that isn't such a high level Machinist could possibly- "Is this a fabricator?" Hanabi gushes, rushing to your side and nearly knocking you over. Her fingers touch the screen, passing through without interacting with the delicate aether that makes it up. "Not touch screen?"

You demonstrate, tapping a few buttons, showing how it works for you because you're mostly made of aether... Then you get an idea, firing up the fabricator and constructing a pen. A pen with a compartment for a small lightning aspected crystal to be inserted. Within a few moments, you have the device ready, and pass it to Hanabi, letting her tap the controls a few times to get a feel for things. "Okay so... What, you just gave yourself a tinker power?"

You wiggle your hand a bit, back and forth, which she takes as a 'sort of?' and dismisses. "Well, like I told you, my power only wants to make things explode so..." Hanabi frowns, drawing up a few rough blueprints for explosives. There's the standard fragmentation types, some incendiaries, a few concussive grenades... What's rather intriguing is how efficient they all are. Just working with household items, she seems capable of making things beyond military grade. Working with actual explosive components... Damn, those are scary.

You hold off on letting her fabricate any, for now. Instead, you show off some of the things you can make using your Machinist abilities. Gauss rounds for your gun, auto-turrets, flame-throwers, short duration biological weapons... Okay, that gets Hanabi giving you a look of horror. It's not as bad as it seems though, just a short duration disease that causes nausea! The disease itself doesn't last long outside of a host, can't be transmitted from host to host, and has no deadly consequences!

Hmm, maybe for safety sake you won't use the bio-blaster... People may get the wrong idea. "So, other than this..."

Oh right, you should show her the designs for 'Queen'! You pull up schematics, letting her peruse them for a good long while. "You designed this?" Again, you wiggle your hand a bit. Technically, you borrowed the specs from the Machinist's guild, and then had Omega do a bit of tinkering. But sure, you can take credit, maybe? "The AI here is really something... It can recognize targets? As well as movement patterns, and signs of hostility..."

Well yeah, it's loosely based off of summoning techniques. If she thinks programming an Egi is easy... Hell, just programming the moogles was a pain in the rear, making something like an Ifrit Egi function on a battlefield without micromanagement... Well, there's a reason your codex can hold so much data.

"It's kind of depressing..." Hanabi sighs, slumping a little bit as she scrolls through your designs. "All I can do is make things explode. I mean, maybe I can go non-lethal? Or, less lethal at least? Or maybe I can help with endbringers and stuff, but... I couldn't even finish that project of mine. I kept looking at the parts and thinking of ways to convert it into a bomb."

Well... You'd had a thought about that, actually. What about shaped charges? You bring up the design page again, and quickly draw out a rough sketch. A bomb that only produces its effect in a limited radius, a cartridge that explodes say... Down the barrel of a gun? "Huh... A bullet casing." Hanabi mutters, reaching out and tapping a few things with her pen. "It'd reduce collateral damage, improve effectiveness in a narrower range... Cartridge would have to be expendable, single use, just like a bullet casing..."

"Single use..." Hanabi pauses, reaching up and rubbing her hand through her short hair. "Is that the limiting factor? It's not radial nature, I know that much, so... Maybe..." You back off, letting her tinker with the screen for a few minutes on her own, lost in thought as she mutters to herself. "I can do this. This can work. I... I really am a genius."

Sensing she's had an epiphany, you reach out to tap her on the shoulder, doing your best not to flinch away from the manic look on her face. "I'm the genius. My powers, they give me tools, but I'm the one who decides how to use them. Shaped charges, just like you suggested, only multi-phased. I can use a smaller explosive to propel a radial charge, like a rocket-propelled grenade, or a shaped blast from a barrel to effect a cone... Single use, that's the limiting factor, it needs to be single use. But I can combine multiple devices and-"

She pauses in her rambling, moving back to the screen and scribbling down more designs. "Some kind of sonic device to induce nausea... That explosive to shut down the nervous system... Maybe even..."

Ah, wait, what she's describing! That reminds you, you wanted to show her your gunblade! You give her another tap on the shoulder, and then hand out the railgun-sword for her to inspect. "What the actual fuck... How did... Why did..." She mutters, grabbing it and immediately looking for where to begin disassembling it, to your dismay. "This isn't... It's too compact, too light, what materials did you use for this?"

Oh. That. You tap a button on the side of the screen, bringing up the database on your exotic materials, and watch Hanabi's face go completely blank.

----------------------

It's a full six hours later when Hanabi finally speaks up, lifting her head from the cluttered screen. Among the clutter of images, you can see the full disassembled guts of your gunblade blueprints... Actually, you can see several, all dismantled down to their component pieces. "This... Almost makes sense." Hanabi admits, stepping back and finally noticing the sandwich and drink you placed next to her around noon. "Almost..." She laughs, shaking her head and slumping slightly. "It's not a gun."

You tilt your head in confusion as she takes a bite of her food, waiting while she chews absently in thought. "Well, it is, sort of... But it's not meant to be a gun. It's not a long range weapon, not meant to kill someone before they know you're there, or anything like that. It's not even meant to kill things in one hit, even if most of what it can do is excessive overkill. Did you make this to fight endbringers?"

Again, she's kind of right? Most creatures in Hydaelyn would never die from a single bullet, not from a handheld gun. This world doesn't seem to have that kind of durability in the few monsters that exist, so you suppose this seems a little out of place. "Instead, the ammo contains specific effects, which are triggered when you, well... Pull the trigger." She continues, pointing to a list of effects you can manage as a gunbreaker. Honestly, the whole 'charging the cartridges' thing isn't what takes skill, most people with any aetherial talent could do that much, it's the rest of the fighting that takes dedicated training.

"Some of it makes sense, explosions of heat and force, some of it's... Weird, like here, this one somehow interacts with the energy-state of the blade? Some of it makes no sense at all, like this part, where you put up a barrier. I don't even understand how any of these things do what you say they can do." Hanabi shrugs, taking a deep pull of her drink. "But I can replicate some of it. With my own designs, improve on it even. It's a good design, a robust method of carrying around and accurately deploying single use devices... It's exactly what I need."

Well... You suppose she can have yours, you can always make another- "No, I can't use yours. Whatever system your cartridges use, it's not compatible with my powers. I should make my own, and then design an arsenal of cartridges to use..." You step closer, taking up the gunblade and giving it a few practice swings. Hanabi, who could barely hold the weapon while cradling it in two hands, stares on as you whip it around one-handed, spinning, parrying, and even doing a standing flip.

"And... I suppose I should start exercising. I did used to take gymnastics..." She hums thoughtfully, watching some of your movements. "I likely won't be getting close enough to hit anyone with the bayonet, but... Some athleticism wouldn't hurt. Here, this is what I was thinking..."

Her designs are interesting. The base is rifle-like in appearance, with a handle meant for one hand, and the stock resting on the underside of her arm. The blade at the tip makes it more akin to a spear, rather than a sword like yours, though you presume the barrel gives her more accuracy at a distance. "I suppose the technical term for this is closer to 'grenade launcher spear' than 'gunblade'..."

It could work though. Your more robust materials should keep the barrel from warping, in the event she does need to use the bayonet tip. "So for munitions, I've got the designs I've already worked out; fire, cold, shock, nerve-disrupting. I was thinking of adding concussive, nausea inducing, fear inducing, and a few other ideas. Maybe a containment foam type shell?"

You nod along, not quite understanding the mechanics, but definitely understanding the utility of such attacks. This, this has the potential to be really, really cool.

----------------------

"Why is there half a sailboat in our living room?" Rosalia sighs, looking over the absolute chaos that's taken over the apartment. Hanabi's stuff litters the countertop, next to a gigantic yellow sign cautioning not to touch anything. Your own work... Well, you stole the fabricator back from Hanabi a while ago, and have been printing parts for your own personal project.

A Manacutter! Well, a much larger one if you're being honest. You want yours to be able to fit plenty of people, which means you're making it as large as one of the yachts you've seen in the harbor. Apparently people live on those! Full time! Like this apartment!

Which means you need your Manacutter to be bigger than this apartment. Which means building it inside the apartment probably isn't a good idea.

Huh. Well whatever. Right now you're working on the small pieces anyways, adapting the smaller vehicle design to a much larger frame. You'll need a lot of aether crystals, of every type... A few hundred clusters of each, at the very least, and that's the least of your problems.

There's a sort of weirdness to how your classes work, and it's not the first time you've noticed it. As a Machinist, you can tell exactly what you'll need to build this airship, how everything should fit together, how it should function, all that sort of thing. You can also tell that you'll be able to make all the components, like putting the hull together as a carpenter.

But you can't build the hull right now. Despite knowing exactly how it should work, and knowing you could, potentially, build it. Not without being a carpenter. It's kind of frustrating, if you're being honest. But you'll need to put 6 points into Carpenter, Blacksmith, Armorsmith, Goldsmith, and Alchemist to make the best airship possible. More is better, obviously, going a full eight in each would mean you could push things towards the upper end of what's theoretically possible, at least to your Machinist's skills best guess.

Combine that with four major projects, with three pieces each, and... Ugh, this is going to take a long time, isn't it? Okay, you just need to plan this out, that's all! You want a ship that a dozen people can comfortably live on, that flies of course. That means... A day each of max level gathering, both Miner and Botanist, to get the best possible materials.

Then 2 days of Carpenter, 4 days of Blacksmith and 4 days of Armorsmith for phase 1, totaling 10 days.

Then 4 days of Armorsmith, 4 days of Blacksmith, and 1 day each of Alchemist, Goldsmith and Carpenter, another 11 days.

Lastly, you'll need another 4 days of Blacksmith, 4 days of Armorsmith, 4 days of Goldsmith, 1 day of Carpenter and 1 day of Alchemist, another 14 days.

All in all, if things go according to plan, it would take you 37 days to construct a complete airship. That's one hell of a project... Thankfully you can space it out, and probably get a bit of work done for the store as well, on days you choose to dedicate to crafting.

"A flying boat huh?" Rosalia sighs, looking over your plans. "I won't pretend to understand any of this but... It does sound pretty cool. Still, that seems like a lot of work, you know?"

You nod, thinking it over for a moment. And then your phone buzzes in your pocket. Oh hey, it's Missy! She sent you a photo! It's Missy's butt! You recognize that easily enough! "Wow..." Rosalia mutters, looking over your shoulder before quickly looking away with a luminescent blush. "I uh... Quite the girlfriend you've got there."

Missy: Your roommate has been sending me links to smutty fanfiction all day. I have no idea who commissions all of this but... Anyways, just got out of the shower after work. I think working this hard is good for my figure, what do you think?

Missy: Do you want to go get dinner? It won't compare to your cooking, but I can think of a few things to spice things up.

Hmm, dinner does sound good. Hanabi's still up to her elbows in her own projects, but Rosalia hasn't eaten... You could ask Missy if Rosalia could come too, or would that be awkward?