-The docks, at the purchased property--
The two of them couldn't take Joseph Pratt to the PRT, considering the fact that she was still banned from even going within two feet of the PRT building, much less step a foot into it.
So, they called them instead and told them to meet here to pick up Annette's latest summon.
Annette didn't see the harm in letting them know where the base was, as seeing they were planning to be independent heroes who worked with both the PRT and New Wave.
And meanwhile while they waited, She kept on practicing her combat moves.
>Ding<
Roll 13--Reema construction. A system of building using prefabricated reinforced concrete panels which came into being in the late 1940s and was still in use well into the 1960s.
Annette and nearby Allies gain tinker ability to build with concrete.
"Hi-yah!" Annette let out a karate yell as she practiced a spinning flip kick.
>Ding<
Roll 17--Solar Thermal Collector.
Annette and Clarence gain an add-on to their existing knowledge and ability to create alternative energy sources. This time, it's how to tie water heating sources into alternative energy sources.
She then dove in, sending a flurry of punches towards her imaginary opponent.
>Ding<
Roll 29-- Skyscraper (2018 film)
Effect: the fictional Pearl skyscraper tower from the movie now exists on this land…. Permanently becoming part of Brockton Bay's cityscape. It also has a mild trump/master effect that turns everyone who steps foot into the building to act and feel like invincible action stars. If any violence is ever committed here, then the building will enable all people, both normal and parahuman, to survive things that they normally wouldn't be able to. And any action taken here will automatically be enhanced to seem and sound ten times cooler than they normally would be.
Also? Unlike the unfortunate building in the movie, this building will regenerate itself from any damage taken quickly, much like the Space Rocket. So this is a building that is very, very difficult to destroy.
Everyone startled as they watched every warehouse and road in sight be torn down and paved over only for there to be some kind of instant construction project that was building up in record time.
Annette had once watched a time lapse video of a building being constructed, and it was exactly just like that. Annette, Joseph and Clarence choose to move out of the way while the building was… well, building itself. But that was easier than said, as apparently this was a building that took up entire blocks at the ground floor. Just how big was this building going to be??
"You know, I was hoping that your power would summon some gold or some other resources that we could use to fund the creation of our office building. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to jinx it, because I noticed how your power tends to do the opposite of what it's told to do. BUT, I didn't think your power would go out if its way to BUILD The office building for us!" Clarence sounded a tad hysterical as the three of us ran, looking for the safe boundary where they could stand aside from a safe distance to watch what was being built here.
On their way out, they could see a few frightened homeless people who had presumably been squatting in the warehouses nearby their purchased property running for it too.
Everyone finally found a way out of there, and they stood there in the middle of the road as they turned around to watch the skyscraper build itself in a manner that looked like a real-life time lapse video.
Annette heard some vehicles coming, and turned to see a PRT van and Armsmaster coming up on his motorcycle.
It seemed that they had arrived just in time to see the building complete itself, topping itself off with a ball-shaped object that the building seemed to be holding.
Armsmaster eyed the massive sci-fi-looking skyscraper, and then looked at Annette who just shrugged with a mildly sheepish expression on her face.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hours later, after Armsmaster had picked up Joseph Pratt and taken him back to the PRT, The entire Automata group save for the Thompsons was now exploring the massive Skyscraper that Annette had basically made with her powers.
And to be on the safe side, they all had suited up as their superhero personalities. There were definitely going to be crowds rubbernecking as they checked out the tower that just appeared out of nowhere. So it only stood to reason that they couldn't afford to be seen leaving the building in their civilian personalities.
This was the first time Annette got to see Mr. Yamamoto in his red and white armor, but she liked it. He looked like he was a part of the actual group. Clarence, he hadn't fhinshed his armor yet so all he was wearing was a helmet and his usual business suit.
Clarence sighed loudly. "This is way too much… we have more space than we know to do with."
"I like it. How many superheroes can say they got a superhero base that has its own shopping mall, swimming pools and an entire park on the inside?? It's the most awesome headquarters ever!" Taylor bounced slightly on her feet.
Danny/Hermes grimaced slightly. "With this, we won't be able to lay low any longer. We're now in the public eye, far as everyone is concerned."
Annette pondered this. "Maybe that's a good thing? This building shows that we're here to stay, whenever the gangs like that or not. And, let's all think of a good way to use this building to our advantage, okay?"
Clarence then said. "Normally I'd agree with that. But, this building is taking up entire blocks where old warehouses used to be. And, well, we only brought the property of two warehouses…the rest of the buildings that it destroyed to make way for this one didn't belong to us. I can't help but fear that there's going to be consequences for that. Ones that we might not be able to afford."
Annette then gestured at the entire chain of mall stores that was already stocked full of various items that apparently had been summoned from some other reality, because she was seeing brands and objects that she didn't recognize.
"We could always sell those things off? I'm sure we'd be able to make some money back to pay the people whose warehouses we destroyed." She pointed out.
The man paused at this, and then simply nodded. "True enough… although by placing this building here, you've raised the property values considerably and the next ones most likely won't be content to settle for 500 dollars.... We've got to keep that in mind, okay?"
Everyone nodded at this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Automata group was then greeted by crowds and news crew vans as they stepped outside of the building after they were done exploring the building from bottom to top, and they waved to everyone.
And just to be safe, they had locked down the building so that nobody could get in or out save for them.
One female reporter and her news crew was bold enough to get close to them and they called out, "Were you the ones who put this building here?"
Kismet then cleared her throat, before saying in a loud, firm voice: "Yes, we are. We are the Automata group, a group of new independent heroes seeking to work together with the PRT and New Wave. We put this building up to show everyone that we are here to stay, whenever the gangs like it or not!"
Yeah, they were just gonna pretend like they meant to do this all along. And this was a good way to debut anyways now that she thought of it.
=====================================================
A/N: So, since we summoned that skyscraper from that action movie… I had to look up everything about that fictional building… and well. I had no friggin how ridiculously huge this thing was until I used a map of Brockton bay for comparison.
Here's some HD maps of brockton bay you can find here:
And well, here's my map of where all the summoned buildings-slash-objects I summoned are:
https://imgur.com/QPZIrrE
The scale of the skyscraper:
https://imgur.com/XszdSRZ
And for fun, here's a 3d model that you can view on sketchup here: https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/75f12c2c-b757-40d2-8dab-fbefde841d5b/The-Pearl-Second-Version
And this article that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about this fictional building:
https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/towering/pearl
But at any rate, I like how Clarence tried to act like he wasn't trying to profit off Annette so that they could have the funds to build their headquarters, but RNG Jesus was like: "Ah, so that's what you wanted, huh? Here, let me build something for ya!"
And now that the news media has their eye on Annette, she's all like "Um, yeah. I totally meant to place this building here…. Yeah, I'm in perfect control here! *sweat*"
The next few days flew by in a blur, as the Automata group had to deal with both the PRT AND Building inspectors employed by the local government to ensure that the Pearl building was both safe to work and live in, AND That it didn't have any weird effects on the population.
And apparently, they were already noticing some very mild master effects where anybody who stepped foot into the building felt like they were given a massive confidence booster and could take on the world?? But that wore off as soon as they stepped off the property. Which led to even more testing, centering around Master-stranger screening...
And while that was going on, some of them went back to work to provide for their families and the like. It had been difficult for both Danny and Annette to go back to their workplaces and then keep a straight face while their coworkers and friends speculated out loud about the new Automata group and that building of theirs.
There was something of a new debate going on within the group though. About whenever some of them should move into the building to live there.
Mr. Hideo Yamamoto was sorely tempted to live there forever after he saw how luxurious and futuristic the penthouses were on the upper levels… not to mention all the technologies like the tablets and holographic interfaces. It was really the perfect place for him to work and develop his Net-Navi Artificial intelligences from.
Of course, there was the problem that right now there weren't any other people living there… so Mr. Yamamoto would get outed pretty fast if he was seen commuting to the building and also from there to his work.
The Thompsons were retired though, so there'd be no problems if they choose to live there 24/7. This way they'd be able to have help on hand AND have all the materials they wanted to build any time they wanted.
But of course, there was again the issue of public records.. It'd raise some eyebrows if the elderly couple was to move out of their house and then sell it, only for their new address to be where the Pearl building currently was. Of course, they could always just keep their old house, but then people would notice that they weren't living there anymore. Unless, they were to rent their house out while they lived elsewhere, under the cover that they were now living at a retirement home??
There was no problem for Clarence Birdseye though, considering that he didn't actually have any valid ID or anything like that… so there was nothing stopping him from living there right away. Besides, He was starting to feel bad for mooching off the Hebert family and living in their guest bedroom.
So he had been one of the first ones to call dibs on a penthouse apartment on the 180th floor, one facing the ocean.
Annette and Danny were more reluctant about living there though, having some sentimental attraction to their house in the south docks, even if it was falling apart at times. Even Taylor wasn't keen on the idea of selling their house, although she seemed to think having a second home at the Pearl Tower wouldn't be so bad.
Everyone did agree though, that it might be more secure to move all of their works over to the Pearl Tower. This way, they wouldn't be outed as tinkers accidentally should anybody visit their regular houses and find tinker tech laying around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Uh, this sucks." Annette let her head hit the table with a loud thud, just to emphasize how worn out she was from doing all the paperwork to keep the Pearl Tower nice and legal.
>Ding<
Roll 17--Conflict of Interest.
Everyone currently working on paperwork around the table along with Annette now gains knowledge on laws specifically tied to conflicts of interest, etc.
Danny patted his wife on the back, and said, "Hang in there, we'll be done with the paperwork in no time once everyone else is done here.."
Their daughter Taylor was the only one not at the table, as she was at Emma's house currently. Not that Annette had really expected her daughter to help out, she was only 13 currently after all.
But the rest of the adults here looked as worn out as she did. Heh.
She yawned loudly, and--
>Ding<
Roll 11-- Deinking.the industrial process of removing printing ink from paper fibers of recycled paper to make deinked pulp.
Everyone gains knowledge on how to remove ink from papers and other fibers.
"It might be time for me to take a break? I'm so tired that I can't even stop my power from dinging when it wants to." Annette muttered wearily, and she got up to go take a nap on the sofa.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was in the following days that Danny and Taylor finally completed the weapons they had been working on, at least the ones that were designed to seamlessly become part of their armors.
So, It seemed like a good time for all of them to patrol again. This time they took Rusty with them, just so that Taylor could help the Thompsons train their robot dog in being an effective deterrent against gangs while keeping civilians safe.
Rusty was currently in hover-board mode as Taylor rode him, so Annette and Danny ended up following after Taylor using the jet-packs on their back.
They decided to patrol the Docks, considering that the boardwalk tended to be mostly occupied by New wave and the PRT but they didn't really patrol both the North and South Docks that often. So as a result crime tended to happen here more often.
Speaking of which, the three of them saw two skinheads in the process of mugging a dark-skinned man, so they moved to stop that before anything more serious happened.
Taylor/Karma was the first one there, jumping off Rusty in order to do a superhero landing between the skinheads and the mugging victim. She then stood up dramatically and said, "Halt, evildoers!"
She then giggled slightly, obviously having wanted to say that no matter how cheesy that sounded in real life.
Kismet and Hermes then dropped in as well, but this time behind the skinheads so that they couldn't run away too easily.
With that, Kismet was able to take down one of them quickly and swiftly, while the other one made the mistake of thinking that he could take on her husband Hermes.
She then pulled--
>Ding<
Roll 22--LINE (combat system). a close quarters combat system, derived from various martial arts, used by the United States Marine Corps between 1989 and 1998, and then from 1998 through to 2007 for the US Army Special Forces.
Annette and her family gain thinker-based combat skills in line with this army-style martial arts.
Hermes then did a specialized move where he was able to quickly subdue the attacking skinhead and knock him out.
Taylor then turned to check on the would-be victim while her parents pulled out zip-lines to tie up the skinheads.
Unfortunately, it seemed that things weren't over so quickly…. Because it appeared that Cricket and Alabaster was coming their way.
Apparently, people had seen them flying overhead and had alerted some of the Empire Capes that the Automata family were coming this way.
"Well, well…. If it isn't the new family of capes that we all have been hearing so much about…" Alabaster smirked as he boldly walked over. Cricket was more wary of any possible attacks coming their way and thus walked behind him, knowing that Alabaster would make for an effective shield.
The family tensed and readied themselves for battle, but the man in literal white just waved them off. "Now, now, none of that. I'm just here to welcome you to the neighborhood, friendly-like. And to give you a message from Kaiser…"
Hermes rolled his eyes. "Let me guess. He wants to sweet-talk us into seeing things his way, to support the Nazi lifestyle, Yadda yadda…"
Danny/Hermes had heard that kind of talk plenty of times whenever the empire came around trying to convert his part of the docks into empire territory. He wasn't willing to tolerate that back then, and he certainly wasn't having any of that now as a cape.
The albino-looking man smirked again. "Something like that, yes. I take it that you're not very receptive to that?"
Annette snorted, before answering: "Not really, no. I just find this white purity ideal to be utterly stupid. More so if one looks at history. 19th century, the Irish weren't considered white enough at all, despite the fact that they had pasty white skin. There were political cartoons in the newspaper depicting the irish as a dangerous gorilla. White supremacists wanted them gone, yet today you Nazis wouldn't even blink if a Irish person wanted to join up with you. After all, to you people today, they'd be white enough to pass now. Not to mention that the European scholars who originally started this movement didn't think that people like the English people or even the Frenchmen were pure enough to join their little club. No, that honor was reserved for people living in the Caucasus region. And I'm pretty sure that 90 percent of the world's white population didn't come from there. So that means, according to the people who sparked this entire movement to start with, none of the people in your little group are pure enough to pass. Ridiculous, right? Yet it's the whole truth."
She couldn't help but start lecturing the empire cape like a teacher, educating the man about the origins of white supremacy and why it was so stupid.
She then viciously pulled at her power, hoping for something that would target this Nazi creep directly. She was praying for something that would at least shrink his penis… or better yet, just kill him outright. She'd be doing the world a favor if she removed one less Nazi from this earth.
Cricket then came to stand by his side, sneering at all three of them. "So those are the guys who put up that huge-ass tower? They don't look so tough."
Taylor/Karma just stuck her tongue out at her.
>Ding<
Roll 24--Fallacy. the use of invalid or otherwise faulty reasoning, or "wrong moves" in the construction of an argument. A fallacious argument may be deceptive by appearing to be better than it really is. Some fallacies are committed intentionally to manipulate or persuade by deception, while others are committed unintentionally due to carelessness or ignorance. The soundness of legal arguments depends on the context in which the arguments are made.
Effect: A thinker power that is both a blessing and a curse. All nearby enemies are cursed to have a thinker power that won't just shut up or can't be turned off. This thinker power will constantly dissect every belief and thought they've had, as well as what other people say, and point out what's wrong with it. But on the upside, this power will also inform whenever the leaders they follow are using fallacious arguments in order to deceive and manipulate others, or if they're just merely ignorant. This power will just keep on going on and on all day long, and when it's been exhausted the hosts will suffer from some of the worst thinker headaches that the world has ever seen.
Only way to manage or stop this power from activating? Stop hanging out with people who keep on making logical fallacies so often.
Annette sighed out loud. That hadn't been what she wanted at all… giving power to the enemy, no matter how double-edged it was, didn't seem like a good thing in the long run?
Alabaster shook his head. "Really a shame. I'll have to go inform Kaiser that you aren't the type to cooperate so easily. The next time we meet, it won't be so amicable. Toodles."
With that, he waved at the three of them condescendingly, and turned to leave. It was then that Annette noticed that Storm-tiger and Victor had been on the roof across the road. Victor had a rifle with him, no doubt in case the three of them ever decided to go for it and attack the Empire cape before he tried to make his case to them.
But Victor and Storm-tiger were roof-hopping away from them now, following Alabaster on foot.
Taylor looked down at the unconscious skinheads they had captured earlier, and said out loud, "They didn't even try to free those two… so much for group loyalty, huh?"
"That's because they're a bunch of assholes who only care about themselves. Come on, let's call this in." Hermes said.
Annette looked around, and noticed that the black guy must had gotten away while they were holding an conversation with the Nazi capes. Not that she could blame him… nobody wanted to get caught up in the middle of a cape fight if one would break out.
===========================================================
A/N: Well… that happened. Annette might not know it yet, but she just effectively mastered four empire goons into having an annoying inner voice that tells every one of them that every Nazi-like belief they ever had was wrong. And not only that, but a thinker power that tells them that Kaiser doesn't even believe in the Nazi ideology, and is only using them all to climb his way to power??
Yeah, I can see that going REALLY well… I can hear [RNG-Jesus] cackling like mad as it awaits all the delicious conflict that is about to occur from that. The Nazi group may just break up much sooner than it did in canon. More conflict for the conflict god!
Probably the only reason why it went along with Annette's request to saddle the guy with something annoying. More conflict equals more DATA. This way it helps other shards out too!
It was kind of anti-climatic, Annette couldn't help but think, that after they had made such a bold statement in public, that they couldn't find any criminal activities more serious than mugging and theft. So far, they had caught a few muggers and some robbers who tried to rob a convenience store.
Still, it was probably a good thing that they weren't literally facing the major gangs straight on just yet. She didn't want to put her family in danger unless she had to, after all.
A part of her wondered if it was due to the fact that the Pearl Tower had alerted everyone to her team's presence and were laying low. But, that was probably too egotistical of her to think so.
But on the upside, this also gave her more free time to spend with both her family and friends.
She had been neglecting to keep in touch with the Barnes family lately, so she thought it was high time that she had them over for dinner. Especially now that Clarence Birdseye was no longer their guest and were living at the tower full time. This way, there didn't need to be any awkward questions asked about why he was currently living with them, that sort of thing.
Annette wanted to be able to gauge whenever she could "come out" to Zoe Barnes and her husband as a cape first before they got introduced to the rest of the team.
So she had made sure to pull something beforehand so that she wouldn't feel that annoying itch at an inconvenient time.
>Ding<
Roll 20--Humanoid robots.
The Hebert family gets their robot tinker ability enhanced, and Annette now can help out with building humanoid robots.
Huh. That wasn't so bad.
Now she could focus more on cooking the fancy dinner she had planned for them all. Steak with shrimp and mashed potatoes on the side… god, just thinking about that was making her hungry. Hmm.
Normally they could only afford the cheap tiny version of steak that cost 4 dollars per piece, but they had sold some of the stuff from the mall segment of the Pearl building to the PRT which netted them a lot of money, so this time they splurged and went for the large massive steaks.
Considering that the building had seemed to be summoned from some world where they had futuristic non-tinkertech technology, AND all the stuff seemed to come from 10 years in the future according to the dates on the packaging? Hell yeah ever was the PRT interested in that.
So, she had sold them copious cases of what looked like "smartphones", tablets, and pretty much every other tech they were interested in. Team Automata kept some of those instead of selling them all, of course, because they wanted to use them as parts to build the robots they were planning to make.
It was mostly in cash as both Annette and Danny couldn't figure a way to transfer that into their bank accounts without being outed. But, they were set for now.
Annette was about done with making all of the dishes, when Zoe and Alan Barnes both arrived with their daughter Emma in tow.
Danny was the first one to greet them as he opened the door for them, and everyone chatted pleasantly as they all went to the dining room.
Taylor went to sit by Emma, so Annette chose to sit by Danny while the Barnes seated themselves at the round large dining table.
Annette had taylor set the plates and silverware out ahead of time and she herself had already brought out the food to the table just before the Barnes arrived, so they didn't need to fetch much from the kitchen already. Danny himself had taken care of the non-alcoholic drinks.
"My goddess… did somebody get a promotion or something? Are we here to celebrate some news?" Zoe asked, because she was the first to notice how large the steaks were, and she knew that Annette and Danny usually only went for the smaller and cheaper ones as they wouldn't usually be able to afford the larger ones.
Annette and Danny looked at each other, and smirked slightly. "Yes, you could say that in a way…"
Zoe squealed at this. "Oh, I knew it! Wait, let me guess… you got a pay raise at the university, Annette?"
Annette shook her head. "Nope. Would've been nice though."
Alan narrowed his eyes. "They didn't finally agree to reopening the ferry, did they, Danny?"
Danny sighed at this. "I wish."
Zoe's eyes widened. "Wait… you're not pregnant are you, Annette?"
Taylor choked slightly on her cranberry drink at this.
Annette smirked slightly. "While our love life's been awesome so far…. I have to say no. sorry."
Taylor then groaned. "Let's just tell them already! They're our best friends, what's the harm in telling them? I've been trying so hard to not tell Emma even though I want to tell her so badly!!"
Emma was looking between her friend Taylor and Taylor's parents curiously at this.
Annette sighed. "You're right, Taylor. If we can't trust them, who else can we trust?"
Danny then looked at both Alan and Zoe with a solemn expression. "What we're about to tell you… it's strictly confidential."
Both the Barnes looked somewhat anxious at this. "Sure. What is it?"
Annette took a deep breath and was about to tell them, when Taylor interrupted her by blurting out, "We're the Automata group! We're a family of capes now!"
Taylor then looked sheepish. "Sorry, mom. I just couldn't hold it in anymore!"
Emma's green eyes widened at this. "No way! Shut up!"
Taylor giggled as she turned to her best friend. "YES! I'm the cape known as Karma, and Mom's Kismet while dad calls himself Hermes… We've also got a bunch of other capes joining us too.."
As Taylor rambled on, the adult Barnes were staring at the two of them in shock.
Annette then cleared her throat nervously. "With that out of the way, let's eat?"
Everyone then passed the food around until everyone had an equal share of shrimp, steak and mashed potatoes on their plate. Salt and butter was passed around, and with that everyone started eating.
Alan then blurted out the question he had been wondering. "When did this happen? I work with Carol Dallon, I know how trigger events work… they're supposed to be the single most worst day of your life. That's the reason why many capes don't like talking about it. The fact that all three of you went through this together at the same time… Are you three alright?"
At this, he gave the three of them a worried glance.
Annette hadn't really thought about that, but Alan was right. To an outsider, for a group to trigger together something monumental really had to happen… but she didn't really want to go into detail about her trump power just yet.
So Annette just shrugged her shoulders. "I'm fine… I didn't really remember much of it. Remember when I was in that car crash and I was out of it for a while in the hospital? Um, it happened then I think, when Danny and Taylor were visiting me. That damn Squealer, pushing people off the road like that.... She did that to me and that was the last thing I remembered."
Danny caught on, and so he nodded and went along with his wife's words. He then held on to Annette's hands. "I'm just glad you didn't die, honey. I feared the worst… and it was so bad that even Taylor here picked up on my feelings"
Taylor then piped up. "I'm glad too. I didn't want mom to go away. But I'm okay if we're all together like this."
Zoe blinked at this. "Oh, I didn't know it was that bad. I heard that you got your arm and shoulder broken from the car crash but…"
Annette smiled weakly. "Well, we didn't want to worry everyone else…"
Almost everyone lapsed into silence at this as they ate their food, save for Taylor, who were just rambling to Emma about anything that seemed to catch her interest at the time. Mostly about the robots that she and Danny were planning to make together. Emma would make the appropriate noises at the right time to indicate she was listening, even if much of the tinkertech talk went over her head.
It was then when the topic shifted to school that Annette spoke up.
"What do you mean, Emma? You might have to go to Winslow High next year?" Annette looked at the red-headed young girl with a look of horror on her face.
Annette had heard things about that school lately, and none of it was good at all.
Emma nodded glumly. "Well, they've been testing us for scholarships at Clarendon Middle school, but it's not looking good for me. I've never been good at studying, and my parents can't afford to send me to other schools.. Not even Immaculata, where my older sister went to. She got into there on a scholarship because of how smart she was…"
Annette had completely forgotten about this in the fuss over getting superpowers and then becoming a cape family.
She recalled sitting with Taylor, as she helped her study for various tests as she was going to graduate from Middle School/Junior High to High School sometimes next year. Her help had boosted Taylor's grades significantly, but she had forgotten about Emma's tendency to not study until the very last minute.
And Emma was like a second daughter to her in a way, so Annette was completely horrified at the thought of Emma going to a school like Winslow.
She then stared at Zoe. "Why didn't you come to me about this?"
Zoe just shrugged her shoulders. "Well… I didn't think to? I mean, Studying school topics after school's never been Emma's strong suit… I didn't think you could do anything about that. I don't know how we can boost her grades high enough to get her a scholarship into the other schools."
Annette just tsked at this. "Well, they do allow kids to retake the tests if they desire before the year's over. And, I promise you that I'll be able to teach Emma some new tricks on how to make studying easier for her. There's no way in hell I'm going to let her go to Winslow If I can help it."
Zoe Barnes then looked grateful at this. "Really? Thank you so much."
The two women then chatted amicably about which schools Zoe wanted Emma to get into, and what kind of requirements they had of kids in order to give them scholarships.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And so thus she wound up going over to the Barnes' house on the weekends regularly whenever she wasn't patrolling for crime or was busy as a university professor. All for the sake of helping Emma get into a better school than Winslow.
>Ding<
Roll 5--Female education in STEM.
For five hours, Annette's teaching ability in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are considerably boosted. Annette's permanent powers such as: the Youth empowerment, the Recreational Mathematic thinker power, and all other knowledge-based abilities are also enhanced greatly.
Once the five hours were up, Annette then told Emma that it was time for a break, as seeing that over studying often lent itself to mental fatigue and that was just as bad as not studying at all.
So Emma went off to watch some TV to destress, while Annette sat down with Zoe at their kitchen table and the two of them drank coffee together.
Zoe then sighed. "I have to admit it… you're a real miracle worker. I've never seen Emma this engaged and interested in any of the school subjects before. I think she's learned more from you than she did the past year in school. Any chance I could hire you to tutor her full time from now on?"
Annette then smiled sadly. "I'd love to. But, I don't know how I'd make the time between my job at the college, my career as a cape and taking care of my family."
Zoe blinked, "Oh right. For a second there, I forgot you were a cape now…"
The two of them sat there awkwardly, before Zoe then asked: "So.. how does your power work exactly? I mean, how the heck did you get that skyscraper building up there so fast?"
Annette smiled wanly. "Well, I can summon things… in fact, you know that rocket over in the boat graveyard? That was kind of my fault… I was power-testing with my family there late at night, and well…."
At the last part she couldn't help but look sheepishly at Zoe, who giggled a little bit.
"That actually explains so much. You know the gangs are still fighting over who gets to own it, right? You should find a way to get it back from them.." Zoe said.
Annette groaned. "I know! But I haven't figured a way to do that safely… I could ask Danny and Taylor if they could build a machine to teleport that rocket somewhere else where it could be secured safely, I guess? But that doesn't seem to be their specialty."
She then scowled. "I can't stand the thought of Squealer using any part of my rocket to help her build vehicles…"
Zoe blinked. "You don't really like the merchants that much, do you?"
Annette scoffed. "Nope. Or the Empire 88 for that matter. They friggin' caused me to trigger after all…"
Zoe nodded. "Yeah, that's understandable."
At this, the two of them sipped their coffees in silence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--A day later--
It was the first official Automata group meeting as all seven members sat down at a table together at the very top of the building. They were actually inside the "pearl" itself, which seemed to be a holographic room that could reform things into solid matter from hard light.
So for today's purposes, they had created a table and chairs out of hard light, while keeping the massive "window" open to let in the natural light from outside.
And what a view it was.
"Okay, let's get the important things out of the way first." Clarence said grimly. "So, our plan to try to buy off the other owners of the warehouse properties that the building absorbed? It didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped."
Danny sighed. "I was afraid of that. What happened?"
Clarence typed at some holographic keyboard that popped up on the table, and then a holographic 3d map of brockton bay popped up on the table, showing the old layout of the warehouses from before the appearance of the Pearl Building.
There was one that was highlighted in red, which Annette recognized as being the original property that they had purchased. All around them, the buildings popped up in bright yellow and then there was a thick black outline all around them, which she immediately recognized as the outline of the pearl's building parmentiers.
"The ones in yellow are the buildings that were destroyed and paved to make way for the Pearl." Clarence explained, as he kept on typing in something… and it was then that some names popped up over the bright yellow buildings.
"Those are the names of companies and various organizations who owned the buildings. Half of them were defaulted on and handed over to the city itself, as seeing most of those companies went bankrupt a long time ago and became defunct as a result. The other half, on the other hand…? Well, they might have moved their businesses elsewhere but legally they still own the rights to those warehouse properties."
He grimaced slightly. "Needless to say, some in city hall and those companies aren't exactly pleased with us right now. We basically stole their land from them, and then offered to pay them afterwards without them being unable to agree to anything first. They're demanding a lot of compensation in return for this perceived slight against them."
Taylor looked confused at this. "But, I thought we were okay with the PRT? The PRT's a governmental organization, so why shouldn't the rest of the city be alright with us too?"
Hideo Yamamoto sighed. "Kid, the first rule of growing up? You've got to learn that the government isn't one monolith entity. There's departments and factions that don't always get along with each other. Take republicans and democrats for example. Politicians of both parties both work for the government, but do they always agree and get along with each other?"
Taylor mulled that point over. "Oh, I see."
Mrs. Thompson sighed. "I thought I'd gotten away from government work when I retired. All that political juggling and trying to please various groups… ugh, that was the one thing I hated the most about helping run a political office as vice-secretary."
Annette cracked her fingers by pulling on them, trying to relive some of the nervousness she felt--
>Ding<
Roll 10--Financial Analyst.
For 10 hours, everyone in the group up here gains normal knowledge of various financial situations, how to analyze them and how to increase their own monetary value as a group. And most importantly, how to make money.
Clarence then smiled. "Luckly, I do have a few ideas on how we can make it up to both the city and the property owners…"
At this, a 3d model of the pearl building popped up. "See those spinning things in the middle of the building? They're wind turbines, which helps power the entire building. And that alone gave me an idea..."
He then sat down, as he explained, "The way we see it, we could turn this entire building into a power plant of sorts, and give some of the city energy. If we worked out a deal with City Hall to give back energy in addition to letting some of the owners use our lower levels for commercial purposes, that would go a long way in helping calming down a lot of people who had their feathers ruffled."
Danny perked up at this. "Huh, yeah. That could work."
Hideo Yamamoto then said, "I've actually been looking into the building's core network… Did you know that the building has a blueprint of itself in its own data banks? The way I figure it, it seems programmed to rebuild itself using those said blueprints. I can't help but wonder, if the building itself would change if we were to alter the blueprint in any way at all… if you get my drift."
Annette looked puzzled at this. "What are you getting at?"
Hideo then sighed. "Some of you guys know how to make alternative energy sources, right? I thought I overheard you guys talking about it."
Danny's eyes widened. "Oh yes! Come to think of it, I was talking to Mr. Thompson here about the ideas I had for solar-powered windows.... Using specially made glass that could capture and store solar energy. Something nobody else had come up with on this earth yet."
Annette then grinned. "And our entire building has all that glass on the outside...i see.. The building could not only provide wind energy, but become a solar farm as well! More than enough energy to give back to the city and then some."
Clarence looked thoughtful at this. "That does seem like a excellent plan… but, will the building itself even accept any changes made to it or will it think it's some form of damage and try to repair itself by reverting the changes?"
Everyone looked around at each other.
"Well, there's only one way to find out, I suppose." Mr. Thompson shrugged.
Everyone simply nodded at this.
In the end, once everyone realized that some (but not all) of the stuff that the Automata group could make, could be mass produced? That's when they realized they could easily patent and copyright their technology and allow others to mass produce them… in return for some of that patented/copyright money.
Danny and Taylor would patent the alternative sources of energy that they had come up with, and then publish papers on how all of it could easily be achieved without Tinkertech. Everything from solar windows, solar roofs to using a septic tank as an energy generator. Who ever knew that human waste could be so useful?
Hideo had realized that the cyberworld virtual space he had come up with, could easily be achieved without tinkertech… provided that any computer company out there had some creativity and money to achieve his vision. So he had put in for a patent on that too, along with his designs for a Virtual reality headset.
And they were barely getting started. It was as almost as if everyone was in some kind of thinker frenzy, similar to a tinker fugue… once they started analyzing everything and what could make them all money in the long run, and how to achieve that goal…. Well it was like a switch had been flipped. Over fifty plans and ideas for how to monetize the building and everything else they could make was written down in great detail, before they lost the spark that seemed to inspire this… thinker frenzy.
Considering that it was to last 10 hours and weren't permanent, Annette couldn't blame them too much for acting this way. Especially so when she was acting this way herself too.
They hadn't gotten around to trying to modify the building itself yet, but she felt that Danny shouldn't rush things anyways… the last thing they wanted to do was fuck up the building itself by accident. Instead, first they'd float the idea of using the building as an energy generator for the city itself to both the PRT and city hall itself, as a way to make up for snatching up the property from under them.
If the reaction was favorable then they'd go through with turning the building into a multipurpose energy generator that one could live in and work in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The downsides of filing for patents as a parahuman? More paperwork and red tape. Hooray.
This was one of the pitfalls of being an adult, honestly. She kind of envied her daughter Taylor for the fact that she wouldn't have to deal with crap like this for at least 10 years yet.
Annette couldn't help but desperately ask her power for anything that would speed up the paperwork signing process and….
>Ding<
Roll 26--Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law (including performing rights) in the United Kingdom, which had, until then, been governed by the Copyright Act 1956 (c. 74). It also creates an unregistered design right, and contains a number of modifications to the law of the United Kingdom on Registered Designs and patents.
Annette gains permanent knowledge of UK's laws on copyrights and patents from the year 1988. It also doubles as a thinker power, telling her whenever somebody close by have violated UK's copyright laws.
Annette sighed out loud. Yeah, that was really helpful… not at all! As interesting as it was to know what the copyright laws in the eighties in the United Kingdoms were like, it was completely useless regarding the current laws in America.
>Ding<
Roll 12-- Institutional Racism. Institutional racism (also known as systemic racism) is a form of racism expressed in the practice of social and political institutions. It can lead to such issues as discrimination in criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other issues.
Annette now gains knowledge on how institutional racism works, and how to counter this or use it to her advantage should she so desire to.
Annette blinked, as she slowly started to realize all the different ways the laws in Brockton Bay were deliberately discriminating against certain groups of people without being seemingly blatantly racist in the eyes of the public. Wow. That was so fucked up!
But, she got the message. She couldn't push her power into giving her a useful power that dealt with paperwork quickly and effectively. And, her power would punish her if she pushed it too hard like that.
So, she was just gonna give up and do this the old fashioned way.
Sighing again, she pulled up another paper to look over and sign. Having to act like an adult sucked.
A part of her however, was still mulling over the institutional-systematic racism that had stepped into the legal system. How to dismantle that so that future generations of non-white people wouldn't find themselves unjustly jailed forever for extremely minor and victimless crimes??
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That one cafe at the boardwalk seemed to have become an designated meeting place for the PRT and Automata group to meet up, because there was an appointment to meet up with Armsmaster up there.
It seemed that the PRT wanted to ask her something about the Empire 88?
Danny had to do his job, and Taylor was still in school. Everyone else was mostly busy tinkering, so it was just her alone as she walked in to have coffee with Armsmaster as Kismet.
She was vaguely aware of people pulling out their phones to snap pictures of her as she walked up to the counter and made her order for an iced latte.
She then sat down opposite the table where Armsmaster was sitting, and then asked: "So, you wanted to ask me something?"
Armsmaster glanced at all the curious onlookers looking their way, and sighed softly. It seemed as if he would have really preferred to do this back at the PRT building where they had more privacy, but things being the way they were, he had no choice but to do this here.
So he was just going to keep this short and sweet.
"Did you meet some of the empire capes a few weeks ago?" He asked, straight to the point.
Kismet nodded. "Yeah. why, did something happen?"
She couldn't see the rest of his face due to his helmet, but his lips flattened slightly before he spoke. "In a manner of speaking. Tell me, did you use your power on them?"
Kismet sighed softly. She knew it, that thinker power she gave them must've given them some kind of advantage over the PRT. and now they were going to hate her even more because of it.
She then leaned towards him, so that he'd be able to hear her when she whispered. This was to reduce the amount of people eavesdropping on them.
"I'm so sorry! I couldn't control it… I'm sorry for giving them a thinker power. I didn't want to empower the enemy in any way at all…" She apologized.
But to her surprise, Armsmaster looked puzzled. "Thinker power? So, you didn't use a master power on them?"
It was Kismet's turn to be confused. "what?"
Armsmaster then cleared his throat. "We had one of the Empire members turn herself in for master/stranger quarantine. She said, and I quote, 'I don't care what you do to me. I don't care if you put me in the birdcage forever, as long as you undo whatever that bitch Kismet did to me! Bitch mastered me, and the voice inside my head won't stop!' "
Had to be Cricket, by the sound of things. Kismet couldn't think of any other female Empire cape that she might've accidentally empowered.
Kismet then had to explain what happened that day, and what the effects of that thinker were in deep exact detail.
By the end of her short story, Armsmaster couldn't help but look like he was torn between horrified fascination and amusement. She couldn't blame him-- a thinker power that kept on pointing out all the ways one was wrong and couldn't be controlled at all? And most importantly, wouldn't shut up at all?
Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of criminals.
Armsmaster then looked thoughtful. "You say Stormtiger and Victor were also on the rooftops nearby? So you might've gotten them as well. If this information is right, I foresee a lot of in-fighting within the Empire in the next following days or weeks if it hasn't started already… or, they might end up deflecting over to us…?"
As he muttered to himself, the waiter came over with the iced latte she ordered.
Kismet smiled at the waiter, and gave him her thanks. As the waiter left, she turned her attention back on Armsmaster while she sipped on her iced latte.
"Anything I can do to help?" She asked.
He shook his head, and was about to say something, when he suddenly sat up straight and held one finger to the side of his head as if he had just received something over a headset.
"Armsmaster here. What is it?" he said out loud, and seemed to be listening to something inside his helmet.
He then looked up, meeting Kismet's eyes. "Possible group of parahumans are hitting the electronics store close to here."
Kismet quickly stood up, chugging down the rest of her latte, which thankfully had come in a small cup instead of a large one. She then said, "I'll go with you."
He simply nodded at this, and the two of them rushed out the door.
It turned out that the electronic store Armsmaster spoke of were only four buildings away across the street, and the sign above the store read, "Smart Electronics". On a large paper poster in one of the windows, it read: "Get Smart! All Brands 50% off!"
And there was a red pickup van out front, with boxed electronics floating out from the store onto the back of it. It seemed as if they had a telekinetic cape robbing the store…
But that theory of hers was shot to hell when six very familiar-looking robbers rushed out, followed by a red-colored robot that seemed eerily similar to the robot designs that both Danny and Taylor had been planning to build. One could tell that the thing wasn't human...the hands, arms and legs were a little too large for a human being to be able to move inside comfortably, even with an exosuit to help them lift heavy objects. And then there was the face…it was way too animated-looking to be a mask. Even the ridiculous-looking spiky "shoulders" it had looked like no human would be able to walk around in that "armor" very comfortably.
Wait.. how could this be? Annette was sure that she had only empowered both her family and the neighbors. Did her range expand outwards more than she thought it did? Or, were those people driving through the neighborhood when it happened? Their street did get some traffic sometimes as seeing it was a route commonly taken to the rest of the city if one didn't want to deal with the hassle of dealing with the more popular and crowded highways. Oh shit. This meant that she was indirectly responsible for those criminals getting their start. She was indirectly responsible for the fact that one of them almost killed Glory Girl!
Oblivious to the internal shocked thoughts that Kismet was having, Armsmaster just called out: "Freeze! You're all under arrest!"
The robbers only paused for one second, before gesturing at the robot: "Take care of the capes and meet us back home!"
The robot grinned. "Got it. Nobody gets past Gravity Man!"
The red truck took off like the demons of hell were after them, and Kismet yelled at Armsmaster, "Go after them! I'll handle this guy here!"
Armsmaster nodded and took off on his motorcycle.
Gravity man scoffed loudly. "Tsk, tsk. So sure you can take care of me by your lonesome, huh? Fine, you'll learn your lesson quickly… and then I'll go after that Armsmaster guy before he can catch up with the others."
At this something dark spread outwards from under his feet, blue electricity seemingly sparking off the darkness where he was walking. All of a sudden, he started floating upwards while shooting something that looked like stereotypical swirling mini-holes that had blue electric effects swirling around it right at Kismet.
Naturally, she dodged out of the way only for it to hit a parked car behind her. The car started to float upwards… and that was when she realized that this robot was a gravity manipulator. It was in his own name after all… but Annette couldn't believe that those assholes actually created a robot who could control gravity and act like a parahuman themselves!
Gravity man then seemed to "telekinetically" pull the floating car to him though his manipulation of gravity itself, and then hurled the car straight at her!
Fuck this, she was going to use her power right now, hope she got something to help her--
>ding<
Roll 17--Zodac. A character from He-man: The masters of the universe. In a unique curiosity of the Masters of the Universe franchise, portrayals of Zodac vary considerably from medium to medium since the franchise began in the 1980s, leaving many confused over the character. The fact that in the original line and accompanying animated series's run, the character was very seldom used, added to the mystery surrounding him even further. The general representation of Zodac is that he is a neutral character, a cosmic enforcer who participates little in conflict but can aid either the heroic or evil sides in their hour of need.
As Kismet performed a fancy rolling and sliding mavenver on the ground to get out of the way of the flying car, an extremely muscular man appeared.
He was dressed in what looked like an utterly ridiculous looking mixture of a fantasy berserker barbarian outfit and sci-fi armor. Seriously, from the waist down, it looked like he was going for a barbarian look with the white fur loincloth and clawed boots, but there was those weirdly '80s-styled futuristic red armor he was wearing from the waist up. And, he was holding what appeared to be a massive red blaster gun.
Good enough for her.
"Hey! Can you please help me take down Gravity Man over there?" She asked very nicely, as she blasted back at the robot using her built-in weapon inside her gauntlets. Her weapons seemed to only be able to shoot three energy "bullets" in a row before they needed a few minutes to recharge again. She'd have to talk to Danny and see if they couldn't improve this weapon.
The weird-looking man just looked over at Gravity man, and mumbled "Okay" before shooting at the robot himself.
Kismet then used a mixture of her training from her Lustrum days and the military training that her power had summoned a few days ago to try to get herself closer to Gravity Man. That was partially successful, so she was able to engage him into close combat and distract him so that this Zodac person could shoot him from behind.
It turned out that the blaster gun Zodac had was more powerful than it seemed, because it was able to short-circuit the robot and knock it out. Unfortunately, that caused the robot to fall right on top of her, shoving her to the ground itself.
Panting slightly, she got back to her feet after she slid herself from under the humanoid machine.
"Thanks…." She was saying, but much to her surprise Zodac had vanished, having apparently walked away from the scene soon as he was done helping Annette out.
"Okay, weird…"
Once Kismet was sure that the PRT officials who had arrived on the scene would be able to secure the robot who called itself gravity man safely, she ran off and flew overhead on her jetpack towards where she thought Armsmaster and the robbers had gotten off to.
It turned out that she needn't have worried, because New Wave was on the scene with Armsmaster, and were in the process of arresting them all after what looked like a large-scale battle if all the property damage around here was any indication. The Robber's red pickup truck looked to be trashed as well.
Annette/Kismet supposed that New Wave had jumped at the chance to help out once they heard that the robbers who had been responsible for Amy's trigger and Victoria's near-death were out robbing yet another store. The family would want some payback for that, right?
It looked as if everyone in New wave were here, even Flashbang. She had heard that he was more of a home-stay father those days lately, and didn't go out to fight crime all that often.
Her feet touched down on the pavement as she glided downwards, and walked over to Armsmaster.
"Looks like you didn't need my help after all. The PRT officers are dealing with the one I fought, so it looks like everyone is accounted for." She said, and Armsmaster merely nodded.
It was then that Lady Photon walked over, and politely introduced herself to Annette/Kismet.
"Kismet, I take it? My name's Lady Photon."
Kismet took her hand and shook it, smiling genuinely at the other woman. "Yes. It's nice to finally meet you in person. I hope we can work together sometimes in the future."
Lady Photon stared at her thoughtfully, before saying, "You know, you aren't what I expected at all."
"Oh? Why's that."
Lady Photon chuckled slightly, and gestured at the Pearl building which could be seen from this distance on the other side of the boardwalk. "I heard you were the one who created that building. And I have to say that the building's a little…."
"Overly excessive? Too extravagant? Ridiculous?" Kismet finished for her, smiling slightly.
Photon just merely nodded, relieved that she didn't have to be the one to say it.
"I know how it looks to other people… Truthfully, I didn't mean for our home base to get that large. You know how powers are like right? I'm still getting a handle on mine, and I have a tendency to underestimate how large some of my buildings and objects can be until they're created…" She was fibbing slightly there, making it seem like she had any control over her powers.
And she was intentionally keeping it vague how she had created that monster of a building.
Lady Photon looked like she wanted to ask her a few questions about that, but the two of them were interrupted when Armsmaster waved Kismet over.
"Pardon me, it looks like he wants to talk to me about something…" Kismet said, as she walked away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--Hours later--
Annette sighed loudly as she laid back on the green grass of the indoor park on the 130th floor.
>Ding<
Roll 21--Pink-bellied imperial pigeon. (Ducula poliocephala) otherwise known as the Philippine zone-tailed imperial pigeon, the zone-tailed pigeon, the Philippine imperial pigeon, or balud, is found in the Philippines. It is a fruit-eating bird. According to the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International's Red Book, the pink-bellied imperial pigeon is a "near threatened" species as of 2000. This is due to the loss of habitat and exploitation by humans.
The pink-bellied imperial pigeon is mostly dark green, with a pale gray head, an appropriately pink belly, and a gray, black, and green pattern on its tail. Its eyes are red.
Effect: Those summoned flocks of green-colored pigeons can grow the various Philippine fruit trees into adult fruit-bearing trees they need to survive overnight, using nothing but their poop. They will use those trees to reclaim the space that was taken away from them by humans. Additionally they also have the extra durability they gained from the high roll, and can survive in any weather, no matter how severe the temperature is. They are now para-pigeons who can pass on their supernatural powers on to their offspring.
She didn't even bother to get up when she noticed that she had summoned a large flock of exotic-looking pigeons.
"Mom! There you are!" Taylor ran over, and this was when Annette finally got up.
"Eh? Shouldn't you be in school…? oh, I guess time flew by faster than I thought it did." Annette said as she looked at her wristwatch.
Taylor then grinned. "Guess what, mom. Emma retook all her tests and kept up her grades for the past two weeks… and, guess what? She managed to get a scholarship at that rich snobby school like her older sister did! I've never seen Emma so happy, and she said it was thanks to you."
Annette smiled at this. "That's so great! I'm happy for her."
Taylor's smile then faded as she sat down. "I was going to ditch Arcadia to be with her though, if she was going to Winslow."
Annette raised her eyebrows at this. 'The hell you were going to do that. As if I would let you…' she couldn't help but think.
Her daughter sighed, oblivious to what Annette was thinking. "Emma was so scared about going to Winslow all alone. But now that she's good enough to attend that snobby rich school without making a dent in her parents' wallet, she's not scared anymore. In fact, she even told me that I shouldn't ditch Arcadia to be with her as seeing our family would have a hard time explaining how we were able to afford sending me there without outing our family. She even brought up the fact that because I was a cape, that Arcadia would be a better fit for me."
At that last part, she pouted slightly.
Annette chuckled. She could see how her daughter was conflicted here. Happiness at the fact that Emma proved herself smart enough to meet a better school's standards, and sadness at the fact that Emma didn't seem to need her as much anymore.
"You know she'll always be your friend, right? You two grew up together like sisters… so that kind of bond will never go away." Annette replied.
That seemed to be the right thing to say, as Taylor smiled at this. "You think so?"
"I just don't think so, I know it." Annette said as she moved to give her daughter a hug.
Taylor hugged back with a huge smile on her face at this.
This touching moment was somewhat ruined when one of the green pigeons crashed against the glass windows thinking it could get outside that way. It didn't seem to have killed itself, but it did weakly hop on the ground after it had stunned itself.
Both Taylor and Annette looked up at that, and Annette sighed. "I suppose I'll have to do something about the birds…"
A/N: Been trying to work on all of my stories, but seems that I caught something during my birthday a week ago. Thought I was partying too hard with my friends due to finally getting out of social isolation, but ended up feeling feverish with flu-like symptoms. For the record, we all did our best to wash our hands and wear masks during it.
Pretty sure it's just the flu, although I'll admit that a part of me is low-key freaking out, because it also could be con-vid. So I've been distracted lately instead of updating my stories like I should be.