"Useful. Both ideas are useful. Give me a moment," she says, and types something into her computer that causes its screen to be projected onto a wall. She grabs a stylus and starts sketching.

...Okay. She sits and sketches, herself, thinking about a compact stun grenade.

The sketch is quickly projected onto the wall: white plates, looking like they could almost seamlessly integrate with each other in a large suit. She moves that drawing to the left in what is clearly a more detailed sketch of the suit in action, white plates extended and battle-ready and only the barest hint of the whirring machinery underneath. A third sketch, the suit fully deployed, angular lines and protruding bits and pointy joints everywhere, the previously-humanoid robot-suit now has an almost insectoid appearance, but it somehow flows well with the outer carapace, like a shiny beetle rather than a mess of cables and parts.

"I'm, uh, not super great at aiming the look of stuff I make before I make it? Though... Hmm... Interlocking plates... I can work with interlocking plates like that. Keep everything bundled together and light-colored and clean. Also! My more electrical stuff can come in neat little bundles and have a smooth outside just fine, it's the kinetic stuff that looks like something a junkyard monster spat out."

"Perfect. I understand you may not be able to direct it well but if you had something like that in mind, I'm sure you could do it. I believe tinkers have forms they can fill out to request materials, and I can sign for an extra if you need it."

"I don't know when I'll start tinkering officially, I'm still in, like, orientation day? But it's good to have an idea in mind. What about the mask and costume? I had this bunny-ears thing before," she pulls up the picture, "Folds down. I thought they looked cool."

"Oh they'll let you tinker before you start going out, don't worry," she says with a vague wave of a delicately manicured hand. "What are the bunny ears for?"

"For looking cool! I mean, mostly, I put antennas and batteries in them because might as well, since I had space, and it balanced better because they're sorta folded back, see..." Sketchsketch, "But I could have made a helmet and done the same thing."

"Doesn't quite fit the image we're trying to project, though, does it. Something more sleek and polished could be much better and fit with the theme."

"The white plastic alien-tech thing? Yeah, I guess not. I do need room for some electronics. Make it a beetle-shell helmet, maybe?"

"Yes, that fits the aesthetic nicely, doesn't it?" She sketches it.

Walta also sketches.

"Somethin' like this might be easier to make, see the lines? My power likes segmented type stuff. This'd make it easier to put on and, like, shock absorbant."

She nods and makes the modifications they need, and eventually they have something workable.

"Can you give me an estimate for what materials you would need to build this?"

"Uhh, the tools I have in my old place, or stuff to make new ones, some wire and random electronic components, capacitors and stuff, titanium, hydraulic tubing, valves, pipes, rubber seals, thermoplastic, pressure tanks and maybe some liquid nitrogen, mangetrons, bleach and stuff I can use to make a plastic slurry... I'm used to working with what I find, not making a wish list, though?"

"You're with the Protectorate now, dear. Make a wishlist and email it to me."

"What's your email address? And, uh, okay. Part of my wish list is grabbing all the stuff I made before but I heard that you'll want to, like, safety-inspect it?"

"Yes, yes. My email is branding at protectorate hyphen ENE dot gov."

She writes this down. "Okay. I'll think about a wish list. I don't have an official email yet I think. D'you know where I'm supposed to go next?"

She shrugs. "Don't know, not my problem. Now, shoo."

She shoos. She looks around the hallway to see if anyone's here to tell here where to go next?

Hall's pretty empty actually.

She was supposed to go meet the rest of the Wards. Less Magnet Master, the one she was really looking forward to meeting, but still...

She goes back to the director's office, looking for the secretary. Knocking. Seems polite.

"Come in!"

She does!

"Hi again. I talked with... Branding? Didn't actually get her name. She shooed me. Uh, so basically, what now?"

"Oh! Now I believe Dauntless is meant to show you around, you can meet up with him in the Wards HQ."