Time elapses. Rewind is allowed to leave her prison—er, hospital room. She needs to go around on a wheelchair, and it'll still take at least a month for her bones to mend completely, and she needs help to move around and do stuff. But she definitely won't complain about being able to eat real food more often (she is very thankful for the bot bringing her takeout), and she can keep riding along with paramedics even when she can't really move around a lot.
And one of these days, while she's in an ambulance, something lands on it, rocking the vehicle and startling her from her thoughts. The ambulance stops, and whatever it is makes noises as if it's moving and then jumps off it. Rewind twists to see through the window, and—
"Console, a really weird leafy monkey just jumped on the ambulance and then off it," she says into her comm.
"Well, that sounds familiar. Let your bot out. Glam, give it some company."
Some company is provided! Now there are more bots.
And Rewind's shoulderbot goes back to her, since the rest of the flock can send back video enough to self-sustain Glam's "presence", and they chase the leafy monkey.
Echo's location is really nowhere near Rewind's.
"...Be careful, it seems like he's really got them spread out and may be able to suddenly reinforce an assailed position."
Almost immediately after that, the heroes receive two similar reports. "Follow but do not engage if they do anything," Armsmaster overrides over both teams' channels on the comms. "There seem to be several of these creatures, we wait until we have more information."
Lorica's real bots start spreading out over the city, multiplying with Glam's help whenever they spot anything, making sure there's a presence to coordinate at each site heroes are accumulating.
Armsmaster calls a video-conference with the non-deployed heroes. "Drupe, Miss Militia, Dauntless, and I are here, Velocity is watching one of the buildings. How do you believe we should we best deploy the Wards?" he asks Lorica.
"Me and Glam held back for coordination and copies respectively, if you feel the need to deploy Rewind even though she doesn't have her armor yet give her Glimmer as a tank, Windflower with Silica and a lot of bots."
"I'm limited on the number of copies I can effectively have fine control over, but I think I can interface them with the bots too so they're not too limited while I'm not actively helping them. Could send one with each group," Glam suggests.
"Yeah, do it, the bots can handle it. Make me-copies too."
"Can do."
There's a moment of silence from Armsmaster, and then: "I'll send a Glam and a Lorica copy to each location, then. Miss Militia, Drupe, and I will go only with the copies. Best not to use Rewind—"
"Oh, come on!"
"—so Glimmer will go only with the copies," he ignores her. "Silica and Windflower are a group, Echo and Dauntless are another, and Velocity will go only with the copies, too. Objections?"
"Are all the targets priorities? Bots could watch them in case something changes and we could concentrate force more."
"We do not yet know these creatures' capabilities, I'm relying on Glam and your versatilities to cover anything we don't like, but other than that none of the targets are particularly significant and all have the same priority. Given their number, assume master five for general strategies, mover two for the monkeys, mover four for the bats. If anything changes, I'm counting on your bots to inform us and adapt."
"Okay."
So the various copies are produced, with their respective bots transmitting their environments so Glam can keep track of everything, and the different teams are deployed.
Rewind grumbles but deals, and goes all paramedic here paramedic there etc.
And Lorica's bots operate themselves and copies and Loricas and, whenever Glam's too occupied with one battle to focus fully on the others, they operate Glams too.
Miss Militia, Armsmaster, and Silica and Windflower enter a building that has half a dozen very eight-feet-tall bears with thick bark covering their skin. Except one of these bears, staying in the back, seems to be... performing mitosis.
Glimmer and Echo and Dauntless enter two buildings with lots of those leafy monkeys. Lots of them. About three dozen. Furthermore, every thirty seconds one of them does the mitosis thing, becoming two monkeys.
Velocity and Drupe each find a building with a swarm of bat-plant hybrids, with thick leaflike wings. Those don't seem to self replicate.
And what all the buildings have in common is perpetually active sprinklers causing all of the creatures to be wet, and a large tank filled with goop in the back.
Oh, another thing they have in common is that all of the creatures attack the heroes as soon as they step inside.
Silica's golems cannot be poisoned and Silica is watching via robot from quite a ways away and there's no people in the building. Windflower cuts loose, compared to her usual, while golems cover her.
The monkeys simply mob the heroes, duplicating quickly and constantly, wave after wave of them. They're not hard to take out, but they are lots.
And the bears have thick enough skin that Miss Militia and Armsmaster do need to turn to their more lethal weapons in order to take them down. When they do, another bear brings its fallen comrade to the replicating one, who absorbs it and replicates that much faster. To top it off, once the replicator is taken down, another bear takes its place.
The good news is that they're not immune to Windflower's poisons, even if they take a while to be affected, so that group is the first one that leaves the Lorica bots alone for long enough that they can actually disable the sprinklers and explore the tanks—every other group is attacked by monkeys or bats or debris thrown by bears so they have to dodge and abandon their targets before getting much information.
The tanks, apparently, contain a goopy substance that's being treated and sent to the sprinklers, some sort of nutrient soup perhaps? Given how fiercely the creatures defend them, it might be a good idea to disable them somehow from that alone.
Bots start attempting various disabling methods on the undefended tank-and-sprinkler-system to apply elsewhere.
...apparently that thing is a bit less electronic than they'd hoped, so yeah, that doesn't work. Freeze ray? Does a freeze ray stop the goop? After a few seconds, it turns out it does!
All right. "Freeze rays for the bots," Lorica directs, and more goo is froze.
And while they're at it, there's a police report saying that apparently these weird hybrid creatures are holding a bank hostage, isn't it weird what capes get up to these days?
Except it turns out to be New Wave jurisdiction. Cue the administration calling them up to see if they're on top of it or need help.
Lorica sends some bots in that direction just in case they do. She has them to spare.
Lorica's teammates, however, can't. Even after shutting down the tanks, there's still some replication left in some of the creatures, and by that time the monkeys were pushing a hundred in each of the buildings and the bats about eighty.
Glimmer's forcefield protects her from damage, but she can't really get much momentum with the numbers. Echo is pretty useless, and Dauntless has to balance protecting her and damaging them. Armsmaster has pretty much dealt with his bears, and after he's sure the PRT is coming, he jumps on his motorcycle to go help someone else.
Lorica suggests to Glam and Echo that they try giving Echo a Lorica suit.
Right now?
So she'll be armored up and better able to punch things. If Glam's attention's spread too thin or Echo doesn't want to try it...
Nah, Glam can focus there for a minute, with some cooperation from Echo, and eventually she's armored up.
Good, now Lorica can worry less about her and so can Dauntless.
Yup! Though some help from Windflower would be appreciated wherever she's closest to, to speed the process up.
Windflower and Silica are pretty much mopped up here. Windflower whisks as much of the poison as she can through an air filter she carries with her treated with some of Miracle Max's stuff, makes sure the PRT knows not to go in there for a while and keep civilians back from the perimeter, and jogs along with the sand golems to the next site.
The closest site is Velocity's, but he's dealing fine, more efficient to go to Drupe's.
Drupe can wear a plant on his face and tolerate the poison as long as she goes with a milder version. Windflower turns up there and helps.
Except Blasto wasn't there, either.
Which is suspicious, but there's no other reports in....
Unless you count a guy whose jewelry store was completely ransacked while he slept soundly on the counter, his last memory being of a bizarre plant creature dropping in front of him and squirting something on his face. Somehow his alarms weren't activated, and his vaults were apparently melted by acid.
...Yep, that sounds like the thing this was a distraction from.
Armsmaster says they still did the best they could, curtly saying that dealing with self-replicators definitely takes precedence over securing material goods. He even sounds like he believes it.
Lorica inquires if she has permission to have bots patrolling the city twenty-four-seven looking for anything suspiciously Blasto-y, so they can try to nip him in the bud before Brockton Bay looks like Ellisburg.
Does she have a way to do it without civilians seeing the bots?
She has a prototype cloaking device that sort of works... at night...
Then after the prototype passes review she may, at night.
She does another round of tinkering on the cloaking device and submits it for review.
It takes a few days, but eventually they let her use them, with the understanding that they are too avoid causing panic and needlessly spooking the civilians at most costs.
The bots will be so discreet! They will fly high and avoid light.
That's what they hope. Still, it's not twenty four/seven, and no signs of Blasto are immediately obvious.
Well, the bots are tireless. And they can plot Transit paths through the city while they go.
Speaking of Transit, is he around today...? Glam might want to ask him something.
Yep. He's hanging out, probably doing something in his helmet but to outward appearances just kinda sitting there.
"Hi!"
"'Lo, Glam."
"So, um, Lorica's birthday's soon."
"So it is. You have something planned?"
"I was gonna ask you the same! 'Cause I don't feel like a party's a great idea, she's not terribly close to the Wards and technically we don't know each other in Arcadia."
"There's going to be a cake, at home. Not a huge party. 'M sure she'd like it if you came though."
"Oh! If you'll have me, I'd love to come."
"Not a problem."
"Awesome! Will it be on the day itself? Should I be a surprise? I should get her a gift. A book, do you think?"
"Yep, day of. Up to you if you want to be a surprise but she'll notice you coming home with us. She does like books."
"Yeah, no surprise, I think, and I'll get her a book, books are the best gifts."
Transit laughs softly.
"Hmm, fiction or not is the question, she likes classic books doesn't she."
"Yep. Already has a lot of 'em, though."
"Yeah," they sigh. "I might just ask her for a suggestion."
Nod.
And off they go after Lorica.
Lorica is in her workshop! As usual.
"Hi, love."
"Hi, what's up?"
"Was talking to your dad about your birthday. So, what do you want me to get you for it?"
"Oh. Um, I don't actually have a wishlist of material consumer goods."
"I was thinking books! Some classical fiction, maybe, but your dad said you have a lot of that, so maybe some sci-fi or fantasy or something but I don't actually know what-all you've already read."
"I thiiiiink my bot's got an up-to-date list of my collection -" The projector produces it. "Yeah, these are ones I own, but it won't have things I got out of the library..."
They look at it. "Hmm, that's a good starting point, though. I'll use that as a filter and then ask you about possibilities to see if you've library'd them, how about that?"
"Sure."
"Cool!" They beam. "So, find any Blasto minions?"
"Not yet," says the bot.
"I'm not sure if that's reassuring or worrying."
"Me either," says Lorica.
Sigh. "Anyway, I'm gonna go grab my laptop and see if I can't figure out what to give you."
"Is the birthday they have on record for you correct?"
"Yeah. I didn't lie about anything."
"What will you want when that rolls around?"
"I have nnnno clue."
"Well, think on it."
And off they go for a session of thinking-about-birthday-gifts.
Bella's birthday is a Monday shortly after school starts up again.
And after school, Sadde knocks on Lorica's workshop's door.
And Lorica opens it. "Hey you."
"Hi, love!" And he reveals a little box with a bow on top. Not book-sized, because they despaired of finding one. "Happy birthday!"
"Thank you! Should I open it now or wait?"
"Uuuup to you, I think! It's pretty, though!"
"Ooh, a pretty thing." She unwraps it.
a bracelet!
"Ooh," she repeats, picking up the string of sodalite cushions with dangling silvery tubes between them. "This is gorgeous!"
"Ee! I'm glad you like it."
She takes her left glove off to put the bracelet on, although it is immediately hidden by the reinstatement of the glove.
He giggles. "Aww, so you won't show it off to everyone else?"
"I might wear it at school and not say where I got it," she suggests. "I don't want to wear it outside my armor, occasionally it turns out to be relevant that I'm wearing armor."
"I know, I'm joking. I'm happy you're wearing it."
"Good. Thank you."
"I love you. And by the way, your dad invited me to cake."
"Good."
Well. Kisses is not exactly what's on his mind, but.
"Birthday kisses, huh. Those don't require a closed door or anything! I am sure you will receive kisses."
"...you're making that face, aren't you."
"Yes. Yes I am."
"Ngh! Well, maybe I didn't exactly mean kisses."
"Maybe?"
"I definitely didn't exactly mean kisses!"
"We will also have plenty of opportunities to snuggle. And play board games."
"I didn't mean those things either."
"Well, gosh, I'm at a complete loss."
"You're evil, is what you are."
"How dare you, I'm a registered superhero and that means I am good through and through, not to mention appealing to the public and highly marketable."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire!"
Raspberry noise.
"Sssooooo, then you don't want birthday kisses and birthday kiss-related activities?"
"I don't see how you could possibly have concluded such a thing. I just also want to be evil."
"A-ha!"
"You caught me. In your cunning trap."
"What's my reward?"
"We could go to your room and find out."
"I think that's a very good idea."
And such discoveries there are to be made.
Sadde may want to try something new today.
"Sadde. That object has four settings and a battery and no form of ability to make decisions based on its circumstances. Put it somewhere I can't see unless you want me to spend five hours voiding its warranty instead of doing lewd things to your person."
"Oh." He puts it away and hmms thoughtfully. "After you're done with the lewd things, though, that could be an interesting project for future occasions..."
"You know who I have to account for my parts to if it looks weird on my expenditures? Armsmaster."
"I don't actually care if Armsmaster knows what I get up to, but I suppose that's not the whole of the problem. Oh well. I guess we should get back to lewdness."
Pounce.
Ee! Appreciation! And other things.
Mm-hm.
Best girlfriend. Best birthday.
And eventually teleporting to Bella's house.
And making the costume appear before leaving and then disappear once arriving.
And Bella shimmies out of her armor and is wearing the bracelet, which Renée thinks is beautiful; and there is chili and cornbread and chocolate raspberry cake with candles on it.
And Sadde is happy more people think it's beautiful! And chili and cornbread are tasty and cake is great and they sing 'Happy Birthday.'
And then cake is eaten! And Bella receives books from her dad and one book and some clothes from her mom.
And Sadde looks at the books to see if they can give him ideas for the next gift-giving occasion (i.e. Christmas).
Bella has received a kind of eclectic selection: a book on Eastern religions, something by Malcolm Gladwell, a Gilgamesh translation, and a sci-fi series four books long.
What happens after cake?
House Rules Risk. Apparently this is a family tradition. Considerable addenda have been made to standard Risk to account for management methods of held territories and the effects on your war effort. Bella explains this to Sadde while Charlie addresses dishes and Renée sets up the game.
Ooh! That sounds fun. Sadde has not actually ever played non-House Rules Risk before, so the whole thing will need to be explained, really.
Bella can do that too!
Cool! So Sadde will learn and they'll play and it's terribly unlikely Sadde will win but he'll have fun anyway.
Bella wins. Bella apparently always wins at House Rules Risk.
(A chaste kiss. On the cheek.)
("Aww," says Renée.)
"You're the best at taking over the world."
"Only if I actually get to run it. I'm not nearly as good at regular Risk."
"Well, I'm sure I'd be terrible at regular Risk, too. Haven't had a whole lot of boardgame-playing in my life."
"Some people are really into board games, we're pretty low key, but House Rules Risk has been a my birthday thing for a few years now." She flops back in her chair. "Woo, only a year and a half till I'm an ex-Ward."
"At most! They might release you in a year to let someone else be Captain, you'll have been Captain for almost that long by then, it's a long time."
"Yeah, maybe. Echo can do it for a bit or something."
"Mmhm. I get the impression they want most Wards to get a taste of that so they can have something to aspire to when they're not Wards anymore."
"I'm a good fit for a coordinator/decisionmaking role but I resent the manipulation."
"...did you resent me for presenting boy or enby more often than girl around you when I was trying to win you over?"
"No." Kiss. On the cheek.
"I mean, it may not have been the subtlest of manipulations, but," he laughs.
"I was always free to tell you to shoo. I am not, meaningfully, free to quit the Wards till I graduate; they take a very dim view of that and I couldn't get a budget without going villain or at least Toybox until I was eighteen anyway."
"That's fair. But well, what's a year? Especially with such delightful company as myself. I'm pretty sure me they're going to hold for the full extra six months."
"Yeah, me they're not expecting to split, they might actually let me go when I have my birthday on the assumption that I'll just join right up like Dad... It's not intolerable or anything. Just chafes sometimes."
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I might just stay around anyway, for a while at least, to be around you and because Branding is actually good at its job."
"I'm hoping when I'm out they'll still let me work on Dad's suit."
"...well, a terrifying hypothesis just occurred to me."
"What?"
"I'm pretty sure they won't let me go just like that. Even if officially I've left, they'll probably keep tabs on me. And increased surveillance is something I, in particular, would not like to be the target of."
"You think this because you're probationary...?"
"In part, yes. But also because, well, I've seen other heroes' faces, so have you, they're not exactly known to be super reasonable and nice to us while we're on the team, it would be totally in character for them to do that kind of thing even to you."
"I'm hoping that Dad and the obvious conflict of interest it would be for me to work against the Protectorate will help me there, but you don't have such a direct connection..."
"Well. I have you."
"Yeah, but I'm gonna be out. I guess you'll be out first."
"Maybe. It depends on whether I'll actually decide to leave, it's not horrible and having contact to people to whom I can mention the Siberian is a definite plus for the saving-the-world plan."
"Mm." Glance at Charlie, who is in the next room addressing remaining dishes in the aftermath of the board game.
Sadde has totally been taking the parents into account and has been pretty silent in the relevant parts, but: "Maybe we should go to your room?"
Up she trots.
Up he trots after her. When in her room: "Anyway, yeah, I've actually been thinking about staying in the Protectorate because of. Those reasons."
"They're not bad reasons."
"What do you think?"
"I don't really have a strong opinion. Although if the Protectorate decides they don't want me freelancing with them your field effectiveness is going to be way down sans bots."
"That's true, but I don't really care much about my field effectiveness. It's small potatoes, compared to what my actual objective here is."
"They might not want you to have your shoulderbot."
"...yeah. Um. I'll need to plan out my decision contingent on stuff like that."
Hug.
"So, what-all can they take if you're not around? Bots, comms—if they take the comms they're really stupid, those things are awesome."
"They probably won't take the comms. They're the same model used in the Endbringer fights and there's no good reason not to use them between Endbringings."
"Yeah. Well, they might think you're spying on them or something."
"It depends on how paranoid they get about it, ranging from 'I guess Lorica just really wants to be a trillionaire but still supports heroism and loves her dad' to 'oh no the Simurgh got her after all'."
"Do you? Support heroism?"
"On the whole. I think there should be a lot, a lot, more parahuman focus on non-combat applications like Rewind's paramedical thing, but as long as some people are going to commit fly-by shootings and turn cities into monster pits it's important to have a significant number of opposing field-experienced capes on it. The Protectorate has many terrible flaws as an institution but does surprisingly well all things considered."
"That's a good description of how I feel about it, too."
Kiss.
Eeee kiss!
"Honestly the Protectorate is welcome to most of my actual usefulness, because most of my actual usefulness can be offloaded entirely onto a heavily parallelized bot. It could probably run a fight as well as I could now while I was programming in some expensive penthouse office. I do still want to maintain Dad's suit, and Rewind's since she'll have one soon. I just don't want to account for my time or my money to them."
"Maybe they'll be reasonable around you due to just how useful you are. They do keep pretty good relations with New Wave and the Guild and such."
"Yeah, that's the best case."
"Also who knows what other useful things you'll invent in the next year."
"Any suggestions?"
"Well, I had one but you did say Armsmaster was likely to disapprove..."
Snort. "I don't think the Protectorate is going to lease an automatic edging machine or whatever else I'd wind up with if I stared at an electronic sex toy long enough, Sadde."
He laughs. "Well, I guess that can wait until you're independent."
"I might be able to do it on a shoestring budget, I made my first Tinker thing out of a cellphone and random things I found on the ground, but it'd involve cutting corners, so I don't know that you want to put the result near any form of genital."
"After you're rich, then. I'm sure we can keep coming up with more things to do that don't involve electronics."
"We're very creative people."
He laughs again. "That we are. Best girlfriend," he says, and kisses her.
Eeee.
Not getting too carried away, though, because the door's open.
Of course not.
"Which of your patents does the PRT have?"
"I've held onto every line of my software. They've got some bot hardware, mostly earlier versions, and most of the suit hardware."
"I wonder if they'll do anything about that when you tell them you're leaving."
Shrug. "If they do, I redesign all the hardware and get you to conjure me tools until I have investors."
"That's fair, I guess. What about the software, though? Could they say it should be theirs too since it's needed to operate the bots or something? I mean, it's tinker software so I'm pretty sure you're the only person on Earth who can deal with it but."
"They don't need that exact software to operate the pieces of hardware they have the rights to. Armsmaster could write alternative programs for it. They only need my software if they want it operating autonomously and they only want it operating autonomously if I don't currently hate them."
"I'm not sure they'll take very kindly to that argument."
"Yeah, I'm hoping to avoid it."
"Seems sensible overall."
"Yeah. I've been very careful with my software legal rights even though I could have gotten more budget when I was starting out if I'd sold. It might wake up."
"Yeah, there's a terrifying prospect. I don't know about you but I'd definitely not be ready to be a parent, I don't think."
"Yeah, but I am less ready to be a parent to a child forcibly adopted by the PRT."
"...yes, that's even more terrifying."
"Ah-huh. I don't want the bot to wake but I can live with it if I have to. I can't so much live with it waking up and being owned by someone other than me personally."
"How would you even find out if it did, though?"
"I ask it on a regular basis. If it feels the need to hide whether or not it has woken up from me I'm not going to argue with it as long as it's not doing weird shit behind my back, and I do keep an eye on what it's concretely doing."
"But I mean, would it actually know? What if it's not a sudden switch or something? How would it even tell?"
"Warning signs I also ask about are having preferences about things, fearing ego death, and unusual quality of sensory awareness."
"Hm, yeah, I suppose those are as good indicators as any."
"I thought so."
"But on the other hand we did evolve those in response to stimuli the bot doesn't necessarily have."
"We evolved personhood in response to stimuli the bot doesn't have."
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying."
"So maybe my concern's unfounded, but it can sure pass a Turing test."
"Which can mean pretty much anything."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the Turing test was supposed to identify that an AI woke up, so yours could in fact be awake and we just don't really know it. Maybe it's more continuous than that, maybe self-awareness isn't all it's cracked up to be, et cetera. On the other hand the Turing test may just not be as good as all that at identifying personhood."
"No, the test was supposed to be a more testable question than 'is it awake'."
"Huh. Really? I'd thought it was something like being as intelligent as a human or something."
"I mean, it gets summarized sort of like that. But it's actually a pretty narrow-domain skill test. The original formulation calls for a text channel only, even."
"I wonder if I could tell a real-you from a bot-controlled copy if it were trying to fool me."
"...I don't know. It does a really good me and I don't think we've ever been alone somewhere it couldn't hear. The helmet mic can pick up conversations in the house from the closet."
"We should test that. It'd be fun."
"If you'd find it entertaining, sure, why not."
"I'm a weird person," he declares. "And yeah, testing my skills at people does sound entertaining."
"Do you want to say what tells you'll be looking for or keep them secret?"
He kisses her on the cheek. "I don't really know what tells I'll be looking for until I see them, I think. I mean, if I sit down for a while I could maybe come up with a list? But it wouldn't necessarily be complete or anything if there's something I didn't remember at the time."
"I mean like are there specific questions you expect us to answer differently."
"Right, and I mean that I don't know, I won't be interrogating both of you, I don't think interrogating you would work."
"Fair enough."
"It'd be more, like, talking and interacting and picking up on a number of subconscious clues that I could maybe make conscious once I noticed them but that's harder to do in advance."
"Gotcha."
"There's one test I'm pretty sure would work if it weren't for the squinting problem."
"...What?"
"This," he says, leaning forward to kiss her again.
Kiss. "I don't see how that's a squinting problem thing. Obviously the test has to be conducted when you can't see me."
"That's not obvious at all! Nonverbal cues are important! I am much less secure in my ability to tell you apart from your bots via text channel only or something like that." Pause. "Which does make for an interesting challenge, actually..."
"I was thinking your shoulderbot would relay a voice conversation. If you can see me then the options are that I help the bot spoof you by providing body language, or you provide the bot a me to pilot, either of which totally messes up the test."
"Why would providing the bot a you to pilot mess up the test? Isn't it completely under the bots' control when I do it?"
"Normally, yes, but you still have to provide it. And if you expected something of it..."
"Well I'd probably expect it to act like you, especially if I didn't know whether that copy was actually you or not. I don't get any feedback on whether a thing was conjured or not, so I could put it in a room with you, leave the room, return in five minutes and try to guess."
"I guess, but I still worry that the conjuration would make the results messy somehow."
"I don't expect it to, but if it does, that'll be a new thing we've found out about my power!"
"True..."
"It's a three-way date, then."
"If I have you talking to the bot, what am I supposed to do, hide in the parts closet?"
"Well, the two ideas in my mind are me talking to both of you at the same time, or whoever-it-is coming to my room so that if it turns out not to be you you can tinker or do stuff with your time that isn't boring."
"Won't be able to take my helmet off or anything, the bot only knows how to operate joints, not a face."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"Actually, do the copy suits you make even have anything in them? They'd just need the armor and enough weight to behave the way the bot expects."
"I have no idea if they have anything in them, and I'm pretty sure a thorough enough inspection would squint them away."
"Ha, okay."
"All they'd need to do would be generate the right output for your bot to notice, right? I mean, Occam's Razor would say it probably has at least some stuff inside, but my power pretty much runs on bullpoop."
"Dunno, it doesn't need to read gaze on an actual me inside the fake suits so they don't actually look. They do weigh the right amount, it would have noticed if they didn't."
"I did expect them to behave like pretty faithful copies."
"And they work beautifully."
"If a bit mysteriously."
"A bit, yes."
"Can your bots remove your suit?"
"Yeah? Why?"
"Well, then we could ask them to remove your copy's suit and see if there's a you there."
"I suppose. Might be kind of uncanny valley..."
"I wonder if it would be. Your bots can control the suit, but does that mean nothing's going on face-wise underneath?"
"I have no idea."
And lo, a Lorica copy!
It takes off its helmet.
She doesn't look particularly emotionless-robot or uncanny—just expressionless.
"Huh," says Bella. "So that answers that."
"Yup." Go away copy. It goes away.
"But helmets on for the test."
"Naturally. Although I think it's not unlikely that I could get a you-copy to have facial expressions like I expect you would but then it wouldn't be your bot controlling it anymore."
"Yup."
How about more birthday kisses?
Birthday kisses!
And eventually it's getting quite late.
Would Sadde like a ride back to HQ?
(Unless he's invited to sleep over by Bella, which would be nice but of course he's not going to actually suggest it also that might violate some rule or other.)
Transit armors up and waits for Glam to be glammed before hopping back to HQ.
Glam glams up.
And Transit drops them off, says, "See you," and goes home again.