"Who knows, though, Armsmaster even complimented you last week with Lung, maybe they'll want to make you a real hero quickly to use your skills more freely."

"Won't they be surprised."

"Honestly, you and I barely even go on the field anymore, you could keep helping the heroes remotely from your penthouse. I'm going to remain a hero, I could even conjure you-copies for public image purposes when we engage villains."

"I don't mind helping. If they let me I will happily maintain Dad's and Rewind's suits, have my bot coordinate copies and send real bots to check things out on an as-needed basis, and provide strategic advice. I will still show up to Endbringer fights. I just mind the command structure and the obligatory extracurriculars and not being in control of my budget and having to account for what I make."

"Tinkers do have it pretty bad, there."

"Ayep."

"Will you have to modify something about your bot to own its patent or something?"

"Protectorate doesn't own it, not the software. I'd have to redesign my suit and the drones if I wanted to go out without you as a proxy and they made a fuss, though. I've got that in the works in the background but I can't do enough work on it for them to claim anything while they've still got me."

"Awww but I like my shoulderbot, it's adorable."

"You'd have to take it up with the Protectorate if you want to keep the exact design and not a new model. Might slide because you're planning to stay."

"Yeah. Although you'd probably be able to make something likewise cute under the new design constraints."

"Yep."

"Will there be any functional changes?"

"Maybe. I can't work on this very much in advance, remember?"

"Well, you could have come up with advance ideas and stuff before you actually worked on it."

"It's a little like the microwave, if I have an idea it's weird not to at least fully design it."

"Oh. Hmm, does designing include actually implementing it?"

"No, drawing it up will do, but there's some ambiguity about ownership of things like that."

"But in that case the PRT doesn't need to actually know about it, do they?"

"I'm not sure what the advantage would be to advance design of things I shouldn't build yet, even if we assume it's a great idea to conceal designs from them."

"Well, if you design things now you'll be able to expand on it or scrap it if you decide it's no good and in general have the idea-having part done by the time you graduate. Saves time."

"I usually don't revise designs until I've tried them in practice."

"Okay, so not as timesaving as possible, but still saves some."

"Only in the long run, and I have more on my plate right now than I expect to as an independent tycoon who can finally let her software do all the work."

"Tycoon?"