the place to be

[point_b]

Bella finds it.

"Alli!" she twines. "C'mere."

"You c'mere. Easier for you."

"No, you need to come look at this, seriously."

"Okay, fine, where are you?"

"Garage."

So Alli comes out to the garage. Their parents aren't home; Charlie's working, Renée is volunteering with some of the refugee kids at a shelter, trying to find which have parents who just wound up somewhere else, which need adopting, which are going to wind up coming of age adrift in the bursting-at-the-seams system. It's just them, not attending school, recovering.

"Whoa," says Alli. "So when you said you were at the garage, you meant that you were at the freakish restaurant that someone put in our garage."

"This isn't somebody's idea of remodeling," Bella says. "It's too big to be the garage."

"Do you think it's safe?"

"I think one of you should go in first, for sure."

"We don't actually know if I work that way," say two Alli voices, but Bella pushes one of them towards the door anyway.

Nothing happens.

The Allis converge, inside the bar. Bella follows.

Comments

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Huh. Hey, Bar, are instructions on how to make this stuff saleable?"

[alicornucopia]

The recipe is too classified. The substance itself I can sell.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"If the recipe is classified but the stuff isn't it's probably not trivial to just bring some of it home and get it reverse-engineered."

[thinkering]

"I know that tinkers do make the things that deploy it," says Lorica. "I think this is just to make it harder to steal them and turn them back on the PRT, but it might actually be hard to spray around otherwise, I don't know. I also don't remember off the top of my head how they get people out of it."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"So not something I can bring home for the benefit of law enforcement everywhere," she concludes.

[thinkering]

"Unless it'll behave itself in a Super Soaker, perhaps not. It's worth a try, though, I think it's pretty cheap."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...Bar, can I get a Super Soaker full of containment foam? I'm not sure if this is a good idea but if it's not it sounds like a really fun mistake."

"I would argue but no, it really does sound like the fun kind of mistake," Helen says.

[alicornucopia]

I must advise against. It needs to be stored under high pressure to remain liquid.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Dang. Wouldn't work in a Super Soaker then, no."

[thinkering]

"How high pressure, like, tinker level of high pressure or more like a regular pressure cooker or something?"

If asked for containment foam in liquid form I could find a non-tinker device of the correct pressure to hold it which would allow small amounts to be drawn off for inspection.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"I'm still not confident enough that the foam itself could be reverse engineered."

[thinkering]

"Up to you."

[point_b]

"So I assume I'm a mover, but there are numbers too?"

[thinkering]

"Yeah. You might rate Brute 1, too, for your basics, and I dunno how to factor in the twining or healing things because interdependent powers aren't so much a thing where I'm from but you could call it changer and possibly master in the sense that someone could construe you as deploying your sister if you did that. I'm not sure how to number you. I mean, I assume you're higher up than Dad because your power is strictly better than his unless you sometimes land in unsafe locations and can't correct, and your power has tactical value in a fight and sometimes it's all he can do to be strategic. But your special feature isn't your ability to teleport into people's faces and punch them, it's your complete ability to run away, probably even out of containment foam. You might not beat up a squad of PRT but unless they managed to knock you out or kill you it would be hard for them to say you as a threat had been 'addressed'... Basically you are a major security risk and very hard to put down for good but you can't actually do very much once you have arrived at a place. How that would shake out would probably wind up depending on your actual demonstrated inclination to punch people and teleport into secure locations. Like, you and a kitchen knife could slaughter a city block of civilians if you wanted, and that would get you an eight, but I'm guessing that is in no way your style."

[whatamithinking]

"Not that I or anyone else I willingly associate with would consider that enough, but don't you think giving people higher ratings if they're more willing to be a threat might create a certain...incentive for some kinds of people?"

[thinkering]

"Actual capes don't give a crap. I mean, usually, there might be oddballs. The ratings aren't secret, but it's mostly for the fan crowd to misinterpret and ooze over. Also, if someone wants to be a psychopath, it's to their advantage to hold back some of what they can or will do, or hide it, so the PRT will be less prepared."

[whatamithinking]

"Fair enough. Of course, some people aren't sensible enough to keep aces in their sleeves when they could be grandstanding instead, but those people are usually all other things being equal less of a threat."

[thinkering]

"Exactly. I mean, unless they're in a team with a smart person and/or a Thinker."

[whatamithinking]

"Wouldn't a Thinker automatically be...no, you said precogs counted."

[thinkering]

"And even the Thinkers with actual smartness-helping powers can be incredibly tunnel-visiony and stupid in other ways."

[whatamithinking]

"There is a difference between intelligence and common sense even in more mundane geniuses."

[thinkering]

"Is there ever."

[whatamithinking]

"And of course the smarter you are the more destructive your lack of common sense can be."

[thinkering]

"I mean, at a certain point people can sort of substitute intelligence for common sense, if it's conventional intelligence. Does not work for Thinker powers or Tinker ingenuity, too specialized. I'm glad I was smart before I triggered."

[whatamithinking]

"Aha. Yes, that would be helpful."