« Back
Generated:
Post last updated:
[Create New World]
The Pirates wake up in the sky
Permalink Mark Unread

They wake up lying on the ground.

Outdoors.

It's a bright, clear day.

Their body feels different.

Who's in front?

Warm, eager curiosity, with a side of playful smirk? Okay feels like it's Sable.

Permalink Mark Unread

She wakes up.

She's laying on grass, face up to the sky - the sun is at the wrong angle for Japan, almost directly overhead - She is a clone of the original Yaoyorozu Momo.  She belongs to the Pirates (- Sable Maya Ruby Neo Hailey -) now.

Her support gear is...  All still there and functional.

There is one other human body laying on the tiny chunk of Skyblock.  (...That was strange.  She's never heard of that before, but she knows what it is.)

This other human probably needs her help.

A Hero's work is never done.  Up.

Permalink Mark Unread

She pushes herself upright and looks around. She's on a grassy island, and all around her can be seen clear blue sky. There's a tree nearby, with five fruits hanging from its branches. Each one is shaped like a peach, sized like a grapefruit, and inexplicably a vibrant blue, shading toward purple where a mundane peach would be reddish.

Huh, that's definitely not an Earth fruit.

And then her eyes land on the black-haired girl across the island from her.

Oh. That's Momo. She's... prettier in person, but that's not the point right now. No liberties, no assumptions, not until they have a talk and Momo makes decisions about this stuff for herself.

She kips up the rest of the way — wow this new body is agile — and waves curiously. "Hi."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Hello."

There is still, despite everything that the Company did, a wariness in her.  You can't take that sort of wariness out of a professional Hero and still have them be one.

"You are...  The Pirates, then?  The Company has... informed me that I am at your service, if so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, we are. Didn't expect them to explain anything about the plurality stuff. And well... 'at our service' may be the official description, but we're not going to do this the normal way."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable frowns slightly, looking down at her hands. Not the same hands she's had for her life up 'til now. Better ones, that suit her more. Different, though.

"The usual thing here," her tone reveals just how disappointing she finds typical behavior for people in this situation, "would be to lean on the imposed bond and take liberties and make assumptions and take advantage of this whole... fucked up slavery mess. We're not doing that. I won't lie; all five of us are absolutely interested in you in all sorts of ways. You're clever, impressive, thoughtful, hard-working, heroic, and gorgeous to boot. But we're not doing anything unless you independently decide you're interested in such, because very nearly everything about this situation is fucked up.

"We don't like the Company. They," her breath hitches a bit, "killed us to coerce our posthumous recruitment. They're multiversal slavers, they're a pox upon the multiverse, and we're going to do what we can to bring them down. That'll be a long quest, though. In the meantime, we're just focused on making this new life on this island a good one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I appreciate both your goals, and your candor.  And your compliments, for that matter, as much as I do agree that it would be a bad idea to do anything with this information at this moment, given what you have told me.  As far as ensuring we have a pleasant experience - as best we can, given...  Everything that has happened to the both of us...

"Well.  I have found myself doing a lot of disaster recovery, lately, and while this isn't quite the same, the skills such work needs do seem quite transferable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, I think you're right, that'll be very applicable," Sable replies, smiling slightly. "Probably the first things to do are unbox our survival kit, set up the tent, and see what else we need."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Yes, let's.  We will also, I think, want to begin propagating that tree.  I'll need the calories if I want to do anything truly impressive."

"...We should prioritize water reclamation, I think.  Both in making sure our existing supply doesn't evaporate, and in making sure we can reuse it.  Food's handled.  Water is not guaranteed to us, especially with the weather being 'random', and while I can make more, I'd rather not make myself so immediately critical to our day-to-day survival.  Certainly I could handle that, it's not all that much mass, but...  Accidents happen."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Propagation shouldn't be too hard, we just plant a seed from each of those blue peaches we eat. Space 'em out far enough to prevent crowding," Sable replies, nodding and humming. "Probably we want a mix of filtration and distillation, at a guess? I don't have a lot of experience with water reclamation, unfortunately. My only other idea for water is maybe we can build some kind of moisture condenser?"

As she talks, she walks over to the wooden crate, prying the lid off with ease to reveal a packaged tent, sleeping bags, axe, pickaxe, shovel, knife, flint & steel, MREs, and canteens. "Probably we save the MREs for emergencies, too. They're not renewable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Yes, a moisture condenser would be a good idea.  I have blueprints for that.  For most everything, really; my agency's support staff got somewhat competitive about preparing me for even absurd hypotheticals.   I had been more focused on preserving our supply, but since we can add to it, that would be better.  And yes, save the MREs for energencies."

"...The other medium-term concern we should have is probably erosion."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh, good point. Hadn't thought of that. And while we can buy more soil in worlds we visit periodically, I don't know if the rule about the soil having enough nutrients to grow crops is fiat-backed and tied to this particular soil, or just the starting state. If it's the former, then skyblock soil is a valuable resource we don't want to lose track of."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Hm, we'll have to test that."

"Maybe if we pot the trees, we might be able to see if they stop germinating in unchanged soil..."

"...but then, the trees have their own rules as well, don't they?"

"Either way, while I probably have blueprints for any number of things that could be used to test this more directly, I don't have the training to use most of them properly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably need to buy textbooks in the first world likely to have them. Keep 'em in a watertight box to start with, digitize 'em when we have the software for it," she muses with a smile. "As for testing, we could pick up seeds for a fast-growing plant of some sort, and I think farm supply stores will have soil testing kits?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably.  Although I actually can provide quite a bit of software.  The support techs took it rather personally that if my tech ever got broken in the field that I then wouldn't be able to repair it myself, because I couldn't replicate the software, and therefore equipped me with more software than I ever expected to need."  Her hand drifts to one of the additions to her 'canon' costume - USB sticks, discreetly tucked away in little pockets where parts of her costume have been (quite flatteringly, to be honest) padded a bit more than they were.  "One of them had been talking about some sort of hardware memory that I could just make, something about hoops and wires - but I don't think that had gone past wild speculation about how small they could make the physical footprint while still having it be useful, yet."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Honestly, working with them like that...  I have to know a lot of engineering to make my Quirk work for heroics, but it's made it quite obvious to me that I am not a support engineer, because I'm a very different kind of absolutely insane than they are."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sort of cleverness is really quite impressive. It's requires so much thinking outside the box, looking at things the hero hasn't thought of, ways their Quirk isn't being used. It takes a mix of engineering skills and training skills and a good helping of 'hey what if' madness." Sable smiles fondly at the thought. "Honestly I wonder what you'd make of our powers, or Quirk, I guess. It's... not originally ours, came with this body, which we switched to both to be less useless and also to get an instant transition, but it's decently versatile. Modest super-strength and durability and regeneration, substantially enhanced agility, the ability to stick to arbitrary surfaces (useful for climbing), the ability to shoot webs from our wrists and swing from them, and short-term danger sense."

Permalink Mark Unread

She pulls the tent out of the crate while she talks, and then gradually everything else, laying it all out in rows to inventory it.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hm.

(She busies herself with the tent while she thinks.)

"A wingsuit.  If you are less reliant on anchor points to turn direction, it can only be for the better, even if you will still have problems getting started in flat environments.  Additionally, exploiting your strength as a power source."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...There has to be something Quirk-enhanced adhesion could be useful for beyond just sticking to things, I'm sure, but I'm not our class's quirk analyst."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, a wingsuit is a great idea," Sable exclaims as she helps with the tent (which wound up a few meters west of the pond). "I wonder if we could work it into the costume in a storable way. And your mention of the adhesion actually gives me an idea: sure I can use webs to disarm, but also when I'm in melee I can get a better grip on an enemy's weapon with a single touch then they've got with their whole hand."

Permalink Mark Unread

Then she laughs cheerfully at the thought of Izuku's analysis. "Yeah, if Izuku were here we'd probably be treated to an adorable mutter-fest and a bunch of ideas neither of us even considered."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I am assuming that the Midoriya you're used to is a boy, because I cannot imagine that someone who has, herself, seized an opportunity to transition, would willingly deadname Kiyuko-chan."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable whirls up to look at Momo in shock, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Oh shit fuck I wish I could apologize to her!" She shakes her head. "Yeah, in my old world the supposedly 'official' depiction didn't depict her as trans, only a minority of fanworks did. Always liked those ones better, but I didn't expect you'd be from one of the timelines where she transitioned. My bad."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...As you have done no harm to her, you should owe no apology, I should think.  It's okay.  You neither knew nor had much reason to suspect, as far as I understand what you've said.  Do I have it right, then, that...  You read stories about us?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods, smiling a bit now. "Yeah, our old world was one without any noticeable magic or quirks or superpowers or fancy technology at all. We came from the 2020s, so it was well into what you'd think of as the past, too. And lots of worlds that I now know for sure are real had fictional depictions, including a version of yours. There was a manga, and then an anime adaptation, along with a bunch of fanworks. We had theories that maybe the multiverse was big enough that all these worlds we wrote and read about had matching universes somewhere out there, but no way to check."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...What a way to find out they were right."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, 'all those cool theories you had about the multiverse were right, but surprise, there's also an organization of slavers and they just murdered you to force you into a job interview.' Kind of a shitty way to discover the multiverse. At least we've got the Opposition too."

Permalink Mark Unread

...She doesn't think the way the Company fucked with her head is behind her desire to reassuringly engage in human contact (read: gently lay a hand on the Pirates' shoulder).

(She doesn't do it.  But she does want to.)

"We do?  Who is this Opposition?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Eheh, oops?" She grins sheepishly. "Should've mentioned them earlier. So, when we were being recruited, the tablet showing the options glitched and a chat box appeared, with a message claiming to be from a group opposing the Company. Said they could fuck with our integration into Company systems if we took the Skyblock, make sure we couldn't be observed here in the Skyblock world, and then they tweaked the system to discount this body for us. This was one of our ideal options, but would've been out of budget. No way to know for sure, but the Company had us over a barrel after the whole murder thing. Taking whatever option was available to come back to life was already the only choice we could stand making, given our desire to find a way to fight them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Hm.  Well.  We can't do anything with that information right now.  It's odd that you're that desirable to them, though.  Unless they're doing some sort of prophecy thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods. "Yeah, I'm not sure what it is they saw in us. They definitely saw something, said we 'have the potential to be quite useful in taking action against the Company', but didn't get into how. Presumably it's something we'll grow into."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I certainly hope so, because as it is, I'm not sure what we could hope to do against multiversal slavers with the kind of abilities they've already demonstrated."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Same. It's quite the mountain we're hoping to scale."

And as she says that, Sable snaps the last hook of the tent into place. It looks reasonably spacious for a two-person tent, big enough that they won't be forced to cuddle at least.

Permalink Mark Unread

...She's not going to think about whether her maybe wanting the tent to be smaller was the Company's fault or just her own honest lesbianism.  She's just going to bask in the successful tent setup.

(She would have made a second tent if this one had really been too small.  But she is not above noticing when girls are pretty.)

Permalink Mark Unread

"Tent: assembled," she states with a pleased grin. "I think we'll probably want a camp shower, and maybe some kind of latrine we can pipe off the side for easier disposal, given that we're planning to solve water acquisition with a condenser. Definitely some kind of little divider to put up around it.."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And probably things to wear that aren't our costumes, though I'll leave the question of that and a shower curtain up to you," she adds with a faint blush.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh.  Oh, no.  Clothes.

She doesn't kink on clothing.  But to be so personally responsible for a specific someone's clothes, carries a great and terrible intimacy to it, for her.  (Making a box of spare clothes for disaster relief reasons is an entirely different matter, but for some reason she doesn't want to think about it like that.)

"I.  Yes.  I can.  Make.  Some clothes.  And all the other things let me just do that.  And I'll need to know what size to make them!"

Permalink Mark Unread

(Focus, Momo, you're in the middle of a disaster, there's no time for flirting yet!)

Making things!  Making things is a good distraction from not being able to think straight!

...This isn't really a lot of things to make before she has to return to the thing she's putting off, is it.  Even if adapting to the challenge of building things that reach over the edge of the skyblock into a terrible and empty void is...  Almost uniquely distracting.

She makes a lead (well, actually, not lead, but denser-than-standard-Earth-surface-pressure-allows) balloon, to see if there is a point at which it floats.

Permalink Mark Unread

The balloon falls. If the pressure gradient ever reaches a point sufficient to support the balloon, it's sometime after it's too small to be visible.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable looks over the side after it. "Ooh. Checking the air pressure?"

She notices the blush, for sure, but she's not going to comment.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mmhmm."

She makes a lighter than air balloon next.  Just for thoroughness's sake.

"Probably should have stuck a tracker on it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyway.  I probably shouldn't put off the clothes any longer.  Ah...  I am going to need to know what size I should make yours.  Here.  Um.  Have a measuring tape.  And I can make up a piece of paper with the measurements I'd like to have.  And do you have any preferences for - style, I suppose?  I'm not a fashion expert, but I do know how to make more than one outfit."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable starts measuring her lovely new body — fuck this body is great — and noting the measurements. "Our styles run a bit goth and punk? Well, Maya somehow adds a bunch of elegance to that, and a note of... I guess you could call it sex-positive sluttiness? Hailey leans more punk, Ruby more goth, Neo more sharply-stylish, and me a bit witchy? But honestly, if you start with things Kyoka would like you'll be in the right neighborhood. All of us will either love that or find it enjoyable-enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

...Oh no.

"Yes... I can do clothes that Kyoka would like..."

Now, if she can do them without spontaneously combusting, she does not know.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Would you like some sort of - thing you could use, to indicate who's in front?  I...  I wasn't planning on making more than one change of clothes, though - and sleepwear, if you'd like.  ...We don't have very much slack until we start getting more of those trees.  Both of us need food to do things."

Permalink Mark Unread

Blush. "Oh, heh, yeah, I didn't mean to imply you need to make multiple outfits. Although, yeah, Ruby at least would be comfier with some kind of sleepwear, maybe a cami and PJ pants, and... yeah, something to indicate who's fronting would be really nice if you don't mind. Maybe a bracelet or something? Two-sided beads, one a signature color and the other a neutral?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I could do something like that - what colors would you like?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Purple for me, orange for Maya, green for Hailey, pink for Neo, red for Ruby?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can do that!  Is there anything you'd like on the back?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh hm. If the backs were different that would make it easier to tell which one we're looking for when switching. Maybe make the back of mine black, and Hailey's silver, and Neo's brown, and... hm. The other color or material element for Maya is steel but that's hard to distinguish from silver, or alternatively bronze, but that's hard to distinguish from orange depending on the orange. Hm. And Ruby's other color is black like me, although she occasionally adds some cream accents? So the back of hers could maybe be white or cream or something."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Would gold be an acceptable substitute?  Or I could do a patterned steel, or blue it.  And, hm...  I think I could do something like that for Ruby's bead, yes.  ...Or, hm.  Gemstones, speaking of.  That would make the side that's facing up more distinct even if it's similarly colored."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh!" She grins at Momo. "Patterned steel, maybe with a hint of blue, would be great for Maya. And yeah, gemstones would absolutely help distinguish sides even when the colors are similar, I agree." She bounces excitedly.

Permalink Mark Unread

...Oh no, she really is as cute as the Company wants her to think she is.

Anyway!  Beads!  And then clothes!

Sable's is black and set with an amethyst, Maya's a rippling patterned steel set with a citrine, Neo's the only nonmetallic bead - wood, set with a pink diamond - Hailey's silver and emerald, and Ruby's the same metal as Sable's, but ringed with a soft white gold accent.  (And, of course, set with her namesake gemstone.)

"If you want to arrange these however you want them arranged, I can make the rest of the bracelet.

"I was thinking, though, that you might also want something like Kiyuko's brooch, for your heroics outfit.  Bracelets can be a bit of a hazard, when you're fighting.  They get caught on things."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooh these are gorgeous! Thank you, Momo!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Then a confused headtilt. "Kiyuko's... brooch? D'you mean as a heroic emblem? Or..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Was she like us?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I can't say, one way or the other, because - well, her Quirk's haunted, I assume you know that already - and she's not sure how that works, especially given that one of the people the Quirk is haunted by is still alive.  But in practical terms...  It does work similarly."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable grins and clenches her fists and shakes her hands a bit. "Oh wow! I never thought of it like that! I forgot about the vestiges, and we'd never really considered that that could manifest like plurality! Oh that's cool. So she had a brooch for showing if one of the past bearers was fronting?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"She does!  It wouldn't be hard to rework the design for the five of you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh that'd be awesome! You're so sweet to make this custom stuff for us!" Sable blushes a bit as she grins at Momo's kindness.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Well, one, it's just the right thing to do, you know?  And two...

"...So far, I'm pretty sure the Company should have just stayed out of the way, if they wanted me to uncomplicatedly like you.  Maybe they did, I can't tell."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, if 'no bindings' was available I would've taken it. But they're hell-bent on complicating things. I wish that'd been an option."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Especially if..."

Wait... 

Permalink Mark Unread

They should've "stayed out of the way"?

She blushes brighter, eyes suddenly meeting Momo's for a moment.

Permalink Mark Unread

Why yes, she did just say that.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...We'll find a way to make this better.  We're heroes, it's what we do - and even if you haven't trained for it, I think you very much have the heart of one."

Permalink Mark Unread

Still blushing, Sable smiles warmly at Momo. "That's quite possibly the best compliment I've ever been given. Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

And then it shifts to a confident grin. "And yes, we will."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I'm glad you liked it," she murmurs in reply.

(Sable is very much not the only one blushing.  Especially once she deploys that confident grin.)

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, we're gonna make this work. They don't get to ruin anything for us. Not allowed."

Permalink Mark Unread

Her expression firms.  "No, they don't."

Permalink Mark Unread

Anyway.  She has clothes (and a brooch) to make.  She's going to do that.

...And not think too hard about why she knows how to make so many of Kyoka's outfits.  Now is decidedly not the time for dedicated introspection.

Permalink Mark Unread

She's aiming for casual and practical wear, so what the Pirates get isn't hugely stylish - but it is, to the extent of her ability, still aesthetic.  Black denim cargo jeans, with silver fastenings.  A couple t-shirts; one of them has a decorative pattern that she added almost accidentally.  Some good walking boots.  A sports bra.  A winter coat that she made just in case it starts snowing.  A rain jacket.  Pajamas.  Three pairs of underwear and socks.  Period products, just in case.

(And, of course, the brooch, which by clever mechanisms too complex to fit in this parenthetical allows one to press one of the five buttons on the sides to switch which of the five triangular wedges - made of same materials as the bracelet's beads - is unobscured.)

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable gasps. "Momo! This is so much! I expected like... one outfit, not all this. And it's all so good! It's perfect!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She carefully sets everything down and pulls Momo into a tight hug, lifting her off the ground with supernatural ease and twirling her about, laughing delightedly.

"You're amazing," she exclaims when she sets Momo back down.

Permalink Mark Unread

And then what she just did hits her and she looks down, blushing.

"Um, sorry if that was too forward."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...The hug was quite nice."

"And, um, I mean, it really wasn't all that much?  I - you'll probably need most of these at some point, you know?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mean, yeah," she replies, smiling and still blushing lightly, "but not necessarily all of it immediately, you could've spaced it out, or waited until it was more pressing. Just... You're really good."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I...  Well, I do try to be.  And if I don't have to wait to do something good, something useful - which I didn't - then why should I?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable frowns, looking down. "Because I don't feel like I deserve it," she whispers.

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

...It is now Momo's turn to initiate a hug.

"But you do.  You do, a thousand times over."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable lets herself be folded into the hug, and wraps her arms softly around Momo. "Why though? I'm sitting on a pile of unearned, relationship-imbalancing power. Trying not to abuse it should be the bare minimum. I should have better ideas, better ways to fight back, some way to pry the binding off so everything can be your own choice. Any of your classmates would've trained harder before even ending up here. Kiyuko would have a million better ideas. I'm just some fool of a girl who couldn't cope with a tamer world than yours and shattered into two when I was twelve over it not being loving enough."

Permalink Mark Unread

"To correctly understand that the world we live in is not kind, and try to make it so, especially when it looks hopeless, is already moral conviction that so many lack.

"But," and she draws on all the elocution lessons she has ever had in order to convey just how seriously she means what she says now, "and much more importantly, you don't need to save the world to justify your own existence in it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...And one more thing: Kiyuko would tell you herself, nobody can save the world alone - and I think you were trying.  That you're all still here in the face of a burden that no-one can carry, that you're still trying even when the stakes have escalated so far beyond everything either of us have ever faced, means that you have so much more strength than you think you have."

Permalink Mark Unread

Someone she's looked up to, a girl whose power required study and skill to use, a hardworking, generous hero who'd put the work in and knew what she was talking about, turning the standards she applies to the care of others back around on her? It's enough to knock down the wall and cut through to her old hurts.

That just about does Sable in. She lets her face sink into Momo's shoulder, tears rolling down her cheeks, squeezing tightly to her as she sobs.

Because yeah, she had been trying. With nothing but love and stubbornness, one soul at a time.

Permalink Mark Unread

"There you go, it's okay, just let it all out..."

To be honest, she's trying to hold back tears herself.

Permalink Mark Unread

She diverts her focus from needing to be on not-having her own breakdown by getting Sable a nice soft blanket to be wrapped up in, as a supplement to the hug (and also perhaps the gentle petting of her hair).  "You don't have to do this alone anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

The blanket and hair-petting help a lot.

Eventually the sobbing slows to gentle tears and sniffles, and Sable squeezes Momo tightly.

"Thank you," she murmurs. "I think I'd been holding that in for a good few years too long."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Any number of years of pain remotely like that pain, is too many years.  I'm...  Glad I could help relieve it, in some small part."

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles sheepishly. "It's probably not going to stop hurting, on some level, until we accumulate enough power to start making worlds actually kind. But having people close to care about keeps me going. Fills back up what the cruelty drains down. So your care and support helps a lot."

She presses her forehead against Momo's gently, looking the black-haired girl in the eye. "Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

She just smiles softly, even fondly.  "I repeat myself, but...  I'm glad I can help."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, it's mutual," she replies, taking Momo's hands in her own and squeezing them, "so if there's anything I can do to make this mad life we've got better, or any messy emotions I can hear out, I'm here for you, no matter what."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, um, thank you...!"

Send help she's so gay.

Permalink Mark Unread

"There might actually be a project I could use your help with, come to think of it.  I'm still worried about erosion, so I want to put something down the sides of the island to keep the dirt from falling off, but obviously I can't really get down to the rocky bits with a drill and some bolts without more infrastructure than we can really afford to have me make, right now.  And you can.  So - once you're confident in your sticking to things, I was hoping you could help."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooh. That we can do. Wanted to practice swinging, climbing, and rappelling, anyway. We've got instincts, but that's no substitute for practice, y'know?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods.  "Practice is very important.  You're not allowed to go flinging yourself into the void until you have good enough aim to hit a small target at range, though!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Spoken like a girl who's got lots of experience with both heroics training and reckless dorks," Sable replies with a wry grin. Then she kisses Momo's forehead and whirls out of the embrace to whip a hand at the tree, fingers easily flexing into the classic gesture used by Spider-Men and -Women everywhere.

Thwip

A strand of webbing shoots across the grass and just barely misses the trunk of the tree.

Permalink Mark Unread

And then Sable freezes, mouth hanging open, staring down at her outstretched left hand.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So, are you stunned because you actually just did that, or stunned because you missed?"

Permalink Mark Unread

And Momo's voice is the interrupt they need to jar them out of the freeze.

Hailey steals front, bursting into mad cackling. "Ahahahaha fucking suck it, Sable! This is justice! We're a fucking lefty now, justice for all my years dealing with you dorks getting to have a body that grew up right-handed!"

She twirls about, laughing and grinning. Her voice is ever so slightly higher and a bunch sharper, vowels held a bit tighter and tone losing some of Sable's almost-musical bounce and warmth.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, hello.  A pleasure to meet you - and Sable, I should have said long before now."  She doesn't seem all that surprised to see a switch like this.

She hums, considering something, and then speaks.

"...Ambidexterity is a good skill to have in our line of work."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey looks up at Momo, smirking sharply. "Hiya. I'm Hailey. You've obviously deduced the last dork was Sable. Probably-important fact about me is that I'm fuckin' weird about touch, it hurts, makes my hands and arms cramp up. Weird exomemory reasons. Anyway, good t'meet ya. And yes, ambidexterity will be great. We'll need to train it a bit, but we've got a headstart from all those years of being a righty transplaanted into this lefty body now."

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh, that must be deeply unpleasant.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I don't know if there's any way I could help with - whatever is going on with your reaction to touch - but if there is, I would most likely like to do so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sweet of you." She tuts for a moment, looking away. "What I've seen so far is I gotta work through it for each person separately, and it comes from restraining the fight-or-flight instincts. It doesn't happen in fights, because I don't need to resist the urge to desk whoever's touching me, I can just swing, no cramps. Dunno if explaining the exotrauma it's about would help with ideas, but can if y'want."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...If you were willing, it might help to have some idea of what seems to have conditioned the response.  But I think I might have an idea of that already, because you mentioned that it's your fight-or-flight response that's - hypersensitive.  So the idea, then, would be to render the person you're seeking to desensitize yourself to, unable to pose whatever threat that response sees."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey gapes at Momo for a moment. "That... just might work. The thing I'm reacting to is memories of my uncle — mine, not Sable's — suddenly grabbing me and dragging me off to whip my back bloody. So if you couldn't move your arms, if you couldn't grab me, that might make the instincts shut up long enough for my hindbrain to learn you're safe."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Would sitting on my hands suffice, do you think, or would we need something more - elaborate?"  ...She's fairly sure that there are people who do such things, even if she's been far too busy with everything to find out if she would like to be one of them.  She hopes that the Pirates do have practical experience...

Well, at least she knows her way around handcuffs for other reasons, if it comes to needing them.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Think you'd need an actual restraint of some kind." Her cheeks flush faintly at the thought. "Technically I've always got some handy, now, though we don't know how comfy they are yet."

Her eyes land on the line of webbing lying on the ground, and then on her wrists.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...So you do; I had been thinking I could make handcuffs, as another option - I have to make them for heroics reasons often enough.  But if you know how to tie someone up, and you'd prefer that...  Well, I've an open mind on the subject."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Keys can get dropped, and while I can probably rip the metal of a pair of handcuffs, I can't imagine your wrists would have a fun time there. And we know the basics: a few knots, to check circulation, to fit two fingers under the ropes, to have a safeword."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can just make new keys if we drop them.  I've become quite good at picking locks, for that matter.  But if you know how to handle things with ropes, then let's do it that way, since we already have one available."

"...A safeword - like tapping out of a fight?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, like the standard check-in system is red, yellow, green, for stop, slow or caution, and ooh harder. Gets used for both domme checking in with the sub and asking, or just either party interrupting with a color."

While she explains, she gathers up the existing webline and examines it: it's textured and a little grippy on its own, but not rough or uncomfortable against the skin. Doesn't have much give to it.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I, ah, I see.  I've never..."

"Well, I've been very busy."

"...Might I also propose that 'safeword' itself also be, well, a safeword?  Out of an abundance of caution, more than any real expectation, but I'm not sure the red-yellow-green will stick in my head in the moment."

...Might she touch the web, actually?  She just carefully reaches a hand out to wordlessly ask, not getting in Hailey's space.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, that's also pretty common, as is using both."

She spreads her hands apart and holds it out, leaving plenty of room to get a good grip without touching hands.

"Might be able to vary the texture some, I think. This is a swing-line, sticky at one end and not the rest. Haven't tried for smoothness or comfort before, but who knows?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She touches the line, and hums, considering.

"If you do just, a line of this, it should be fine - does it cut?  Or rather, what would we need to cut it?  In case that comes up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Swing-lines are mostly tensile strength, not shear, just enough shear strength to keep from failing against sharp objects in our path."

She moves her grip to a section near the end, hands about a foot apart. "Probably good steel shears would do it, but even if not, we're fine, 'cause while this shite has the tensile strength of high-grade steel cable," she starts pulling as she speaks, muscles in her arms and back tensing under the skin-tight material of her costume, tension increasing, putting more and more strain on it.

Until it snaps, a sharp pop sounding as the webbing fails, ends whipping outward for the barest moment before Hailey sharply pulls her arms down and away, keeping the ends from coming anywhere near Momo.

Permalink Mark Unread

"We're stronger," she finishes with a grin.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh my.  Yes you are."

Permalink Mark Unread

The grin shifts to a sharp, almost dangerous smirk. "Wrists or torso, Momo?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Just, um, only my arms, please, to start with - I'm trying to not move faster than I would have, um, before all this happened, and - you're very pretty but I do barely know you yet.  Even though I do... Rather find myself thinking about things, after that display."

(...She was never going to get between Kiyuko and Ochako, unless they both wanted her between them, that happens sometimes, right?  There was whatever was going on with Kayama-chan from 1B where she was flirting with both of them all the time and they didn't seem to mind... but...  This isn't the first time she's had thoughts about strong ladies.)

Permalink Mark Unread

There is a significant extent to which Hailey is taking refuge in audacity. It has been two years since they had a girlfriend and five since they tied her up and Momo is a lot more stuck with them she cannot screw this up.

So audacity.

"Probably," she starts, tying a bowline at the end of the rope, "if I get the rope on one of your hands before touching, the cramps while I finish the tie won't be as bad. And that'll shorten the time 'til they stop by giving me a headstart."

She steps closer.

"We don't have to do this today. Either way, this doesn't mean anything about what you're deciding."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I...  No, I think I have decided.  We don't have to do this today, but I want to, and you do too."

She offers up her hands.

Permalink Mark Unread

"This is...  This is green, Hailey, as much as our entire situation is inherently yellow or even orange."

"I'm just trying to balance my raging crush with the knowledge that everything's fucked up and we need to be careful that you're not going to end up feeling like you pushed me into something I didn't want, whether or not I do want the thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think...  There's no way we weren't going to end up in some kind of relationship, even if we had just both been dumped here without all the rest of the Company's...  Everything.  There's just...  Too much, that fits together too well.  And I'm glad of that, that I'm stranded on an island with some people that I'm definitely going to like, but I'm also incredibly pissed off at the Company for making me have to stand on my reservations, because we're both resolved that we won't let them win."

Permalink Mark Unread

"So...  Tie me up, so we can prove to eachother that we'll do whatever it is we're doing on our terms, and not theirs."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey's cheek flush, and her smile softens. "Bloody hell, Momo. Warn a girl 'fore you kick her right in the gay, yeah?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"I, well..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I hadn't thought that I was going to?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I probably should have; it would have worked on me."

"But let's not get distracted, hm?  We have the desensitization to start doing before all our gay can go anywhere."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Too true." She laughs and grins, cheeks still flushed, and loops the rope around Momo's right wrist, cinching it a little tighter before stepping in closer and taking her arm.

Permalink Mark Unread

Her hand twitches and tenses, and she grits her teeth ever so slightly, but there's no other observable sign of the pain as she loops the webbing around Momo's wrist, forming a rope cuff as the base of a forearm bind. Two fingers slip under, and she nods, then looks to Momo. "Check-in? Anything pinch or tingle or too tight?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Seems good so far?  If anything feels off, I'll let you know."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good," she replies with a smirk — the expression maybe faintly stiffer than usual.

She loops the rope around the other wrist and ties a matching cuff, again checking for tightness, before something in her starts to subtly loosen, ever so slowly. The tension in her wrists doesn't build any further as she works her way up Momo's forearms, looping figure-eights around them, just tight enough to keep her arms pressed together without biting in at all, before running the end through the loop alongside Momo's left arm and tying the end around the spot where the two cuffs meet.

"Still good?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She gently tests the binding.  It feels...  Nice.  "Still good."

Permalink Mark Unread

She runs a hand from the binding up to Momo's bare upper arm, checking to see if she cramps again when she hits bare skin.

Nothing. Just the gradual loosening of the previous one.

Her cheeks flush brighter again, expression complicated as she processes this.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then her mouth drops open for a moment. "It... worked," she murmurs, before continuing a bit louder. "It bloody worked!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She just...  smiles.

 

"That's good.  That's great, even.  I'm glad.  How... How are you feeling?  If you want to talk about it, which, you know, you don't have to - but that looked like a lot."

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles, softly, a bit shyly even, running both hands along Momo's arms with a bit of wonder. "Started cramping the second I started tying, but pain's an old friend, so I could bloody well cope, especially for this. Once I got a basic cuff tied on your other wrist, it started easing up a bit, gradually slowing further as I looped your arms and you kept not doing anything."

More and more tension is dropping out of her muscles, her whole posture looser and looser.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I more meant emotionally speaking, but that's good to hear too."

She adjusts the rest of herself a bit, for comfort; she might be here for a while, and it is going to be worth every second if it means that Hailey won't get hurt from touching her.

...Oh.  Oh Hailey is relaxing.  Oh, wow.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It... was a shock. This's been constant for me, for as long as we knew Sable and I were separate, as long as we knew what my memories were. To touch was to fight, or to hurt for not."

She steps a little closer, her hands wrapping around to Momo's back, running over her shoulder blades, then down her sides.

"And here you were, going out on this absurd limb for me, letting me tie you up just for a chance at fixing that. Unbelievable..."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey fixes Momo with a look, frowning, cheeks still flushed. "You're bloody mad, you know that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"A certain degree of insanity is necessary to look at all the violence of the world you live in and decide that you are going to hold the line against pain and fear and suffering with yourself.  Besides, this really isn't all that much of an imposition, especially compared to the relief it's given you."

Permalink Mark Unread

She laughs and steps closer, tentatively turning the caress into a hug, pressing her body to Momo's and squeezing close. "Fair. Never said I'm not mad myself, did I? We're quite the set, aren't we?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"A well-matched one, I daresay."

...yeah, she's leaning into the hug too.

Permalink Mark Unread

She holds Momo tightly, resting her head on the other girl's shoulder, siiiighing out with relief. "Fuck. I get to have this."

She's not quite leaning on Momo, and actually making sure to provide some support in case she loses her balance or something, restrained as she is, but she's damned near limp apart from that.

She tries to burn this experience into her memory, burn everything about it into her heart, make sure that her hindbrain learns Momo from this experience.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mhm!  You do!"

(She'd probably be fine even if she did lose her balance, even without her bag of tricks, but the thoughtfulness is appreciated.)

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey spends another minute or so like this, soaking in the closeness—

Permalink Mark Unread

Before a thought suddenly occurs to her.

"Why are we still standing?"

She crouches down slightly, twists a bit, and slips an arm under Momo's legs, the other supporting her back, and lifts her off the ground with no visible effort at all, then sinks smoothly to the ground, setting her into her lap and squeezing her close, burying her face in Momo's dark hair.

Permalink Mark Unread

Why are they?  More like why were they!

She's very glad she's not standing, because if Hailey had put her down still upright she would have fallen over from swooning.

That said, as much as this is much, much nicer, "...Maybe give me more than a moment's warning if you're going to be scooping me up like that, hm?  You rather surprised me.  Not that I mind what you did," she murmurs, "but you're not the only one who has reflexes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Eheh. Fair point. Sorry, Momo."

She gives her an apologetic squeeze and keeps cuddling there, sighing and letting herself keep relaxing into the experience.

Permalink Mark Unread

"No hard feelings."  She would do much the same as Hailey did, but it's hard to hug someone with your arms tied up, so she just...  Leans into Hailey a bit more firmly, or so.

(...Honestly, she's finding this rather relaxing too.)

Permalink Mark Unread

She sighs more and actually nuzzles her face into Momo's shoulder, just drinking up the contact now that her literal decade-plus of touch-starvation was over.

"Thank you," she murmurs, not lifting her head at all.

Permalink Mark Unread

...Hailey really needed this, didn't she?  "Just glad I could help."

Permalink Mark Unread

"If I could've touched any of the others, wouldn't've been this long wi'out friendly touch, 'cause the other Pirates are safe, but we can't, not for real. It's been a long time."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"Then I'm even more glad that we figured this out."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Me too," she murmurs. "Y'r really great, y'know?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I just...  Try to do the right thing.  What compassion demands.  With consideration, but without hesitation."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sable's like that too. Always tries to do the loving thing, whenever she can, whoever it is." She sighs fondly. "I'm... the harshness she couldn't bear. I get angry where the world makes her sad. For all that I've got my separate history, that's the need that carved me out separate."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...If my arms were untied and it was actually a good idea, I think I would be hugging you now."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey chuckles softly, smirking. "I appreciate the thought. I like being me, though. Sable keeps me from burning myself up on the anger, and I keep her from wringing herself dry for people who're too hell-bent on harm to save yet."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Huh.  I've never known myself to have known anybody - besides, well, Kiyuko and the vestiges - who was like you, but that's...  That you work together that way is really - interesting?  I don't want to say it that way, you're not some science experiment, but...  Huh.  It's definitely...  Something that seems worth thinking about, for some reason."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Plurality has its advantages, for sure. It's bloody weird, and it makes life complicated, but we wouldn't give it up. All five of us are made of stories as much anything else, and we all love each other, and fill gaps for each other, Sable just came to her stories after the fact, rather than having the narrative inform the reality from the start like the rest of us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...You know, considering that we're in a multiverse where the stories that you came from are probably all also real - where I, for you, came from a story -

"...I do have to wonder if that's ever going to become relevant."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh good question. Predicting would depend on knowing whether there are any like... attractors guiding the portal picks, but that's not sommat we can see from here, not with the powers we got for now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's not precisely what I was thinking about, but it does seem rather unlikely that this will become any clearer until we start doing things."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, and we do have shite to do to get this island set up — hygiene tech and practicing and so on."

She leans up and shyly presses a little kiss to Momo's cheek.

"Should probably untie you."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably, yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Scooping again," she warns, before scooping Momo into her arms and standing up, then setting her on her feet and waiting for her to be steady. "Don't wanna risk having you on top of me when I untie you just in case this didn't nail everything."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's probably a good idea, yeah."

...Is it odd that she almost doesn't want to be untied yet?  Probably not, considering that she's seen the amount of stress that not-that caused Hailey originally - but Hailey knows herself much better than she could possibly, and she's not showing any signs of impending regret.  And it will be useful to have her hands available for assembling.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey's expression is thoughtful as she carefully unties Momo. When she gets to the wrist cuffs, she pauses for a moment, taking a breath, and then unties those too. 

She tenses at the contact... then relaxes.

"No cramp," she breathes. "Probably surprises aren't safe yet, but this... worked."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yay!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"As much as I feel like this ought to be cause for celebration, we do probably want to get everything we'll need set up sooner rather than later."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yep. And probably change out of our costumes, now that you've made all this excellent casualwear. Oh, and we never answered your question about ordering the beads."

She quickly sorts them into Hailey-Maya-Sable-Neo-Ruby order. "There."

Permalink Mark Unread

And she produces the rest of the bracelet!  The identity beads are carefully fitted onto an elastic band, with little spacer beads in between; once that's set, she makes a silver bracelet that could probably stand on its own if it weren't for the way the aglets she's set on the end of the elastic are clearly meant to hook on to it.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think that should do it!  Try it on...?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey takes the bracelet, grinning at how she doesn't have to be careful of accidental touches, and looks it over. "Fuckin' gorgeous, Momo. You spoil us." Then she slips it onto her wrist. It fits perfectly, and she flips her bead emerald up. "Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anytime!"

"...Let's see, what do we still need to set up..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Camp shower, maybe hang it from the tree. Some kinda camp toilet that can dump off the edge. Shower curtain and changing area are up to you, damned near all our body modesty was dysphoria, though Ruby does have some. Toilet should probably have a stall. If you figure out some kinda minifridge we can run off solar, or some other way to keep things cool, we can preserve extra fruits for the portal days, give you a bigger calorie buffer for that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Some training tools for you to practice your web-shooting with.  Pots, if we want to see if we can make a bonsai of our magic fruit trees."

Permalink Mark Unread

She sets herself to making things, checking off the items on Hailey's list - including the changing area and shower curtain - before she contemplates achieving her own stretch goals.  She has a limited calorie budget!

"I can definitely make us solar panels, though if I do it like I'm thinking might be better and floating them off the sides so we have more ground space, it might be trouble for your swinging around.  And I have plans for a good chest freezer."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh huh."

Hailey's been setting things up as Momo makes them, and once she got the changing area up she changed out of her costume into some casual clothes: a midriff-bearing black t-shirt with an abstract, pointy pattern on the chest, the low-rise, hip-hugging pants, and the chunky but comfy black boots. The costume and the other clothes get folded up by the tree.

"I think... as long as you put some drainage, you could float a panel or two in the pond? You're right that panels off the edge would obstruct web-swinging practice, but obstructions might be good training."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I could also float them upwards, come to think..."

"...I'm less concerned about you smacking into the panels, as much as I am you missing a recovery by hitting one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Spider-sense is meant to cover that, but prevention's worth a pound of cure. How're you figuring on maintaining the buoyancy? Topping up the helium if it gets low, or d'you have a plan for preventing leaks?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, I don't need helium; I can make hollow shapes, which means I can make solid - most likely metallic - objects full of hard vacuum.  The rest is just buoyancy math."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh fuckin' brill. That's clever. How big a metal balloon d'you need to hold up a whole solar panel?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"More than I'd like, but less than you'd think, because I can integrate a lot of the structure into the 'balloon' if I'm being clever enough.  The question is whether I have enough surface area to do it all in one extrusion or if I'm going to need to stick things together after I make them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well.  It ought to be feasible, so long as I use more of my overall surface area than my costume's having pants permits me.  If you have body modesty over other people, you're probably going to want to turn around for this."

Permalink Mark Unread

She blushes and grins. "Body modesty, no. Thirsty gay heart that's developing a bloody huge crush on you, yes. Up to you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Maybe we should flip a coin?  I'm not sure what I want my answer to be."  Or, for that matter, if the Company meddled with it.  This hasn't exactly come up before!

Permalink Mark Unread

"If you're unsure, better I be cautious. My gay heart will cope somehow. Maybe I'll do some target practice."

She turns to face the tree.

Permalink Mark Unread

And she makes the panel.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey spends the time snapping lines of webbing off at the tree rapid-fire, accuracy rapidly improving as she figures out how to listen to their body's instincts and refines her skill. She gives it a moment or so after the distinctive sound of Momo's quirk stops, long enough to straighten her clothes back out, and then turns around when she hears that stop too.

Permalink Mark Unread

There is now a rectangular prism about 4/5ths of a Momo tall and half of a Momo wide, but longer than the island, with most of one of the flat sides covered in solar cells.  It's floating in midair.  It has been augmented with a set of propellers, to allow it to rotate towards the sun.

Momo has eaten another fruit, and is now extruding an insulated cable to connect the panel to a battery bank.

"I'm pretty sure this is more power than we're going to need for the island - but since we're probably going to need lots of power for whatever our missions are, better to over-provision than under-deliver."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey grins. "Impressive and sensible. I'd offer webbing to help with anchoring it to the island, but they decay after a few hours. I can stretch that to a day, or maybe a week, but not permanent, I don't think."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It should be fine, and the cable's pretty strong; if it isn't fine I can always make another one anyway."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, that'll work. And I can certainly help with hauling it down if it tries to escape."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Honestly I'm more worried about it bowling over the island than about it blowing away from the island.  It might not be all that heavy, but neither is all of our stuff.  ...If you can get down to the sandstone, and handle tools while you're down there, I could make some posts to fence it off."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Y'thinking we anchor it to the end of the posts, a decent ways off from the edge, that way it can't swing close enough to knock over our stuff?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm thinking we run the cable to the panel between the posts, so the posts stop it from blowing over the island.  And if there's enough raw force being flung around that they're insufficient, then we have bigger problems - probably problems like needing typhoon-rated shelter."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ohhh. Yeah, that'll work. We've got six months 'fore we'll need that kind of durability. Sandstone's pretty soft, so maybe long anchor-bolts that stick a long way in and then expand at the end? A few of them up the length?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That will likely suffice, yes."

Permalink Mark Unread

And with that decided upon, and the plan clear, she starts making everything that whoever's doing the work will need.

Permalink Mark Unread

While Momo makes parts, Hailey sticks a web-line to the tree. "Probably can't trust the dirt wall to support my weight, so I'll rappel to the sandstone. Oh huh, I wonder if these'll be able to support my weight. Could be good acrobatics practice, jumping from post to post."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think they ought to hold up, though you should be careful to not use too much force when you're jumping."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, I can do that." She picks up the first few posts and hits them with a burst of sticky webbing to hold them together, and then a loop of web-line to hang them from her shoulder. The bolts and tools go into the cargo pockets on her jeans. Then she unties and steps out of her boots. "How far apart d'you want 'em?" she asks as she walks to the edge, anchor-line in hand.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm making eight posts, so every three meters?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey nods, and then drops backwards off the side of the Skyblock with a grin.

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

She laughs wildly, and the line abruptly goes taut.

Then she sticks her hands and feet to the sandstone surface and starts crawling sideways along it. Once she reaches the edge, she moves back two meters in, and then lets go with her hands, swinging "upright" relative to the wall — horizontal relative to the empty sky below — with her bare feet flat on the sandstone.

"Oh this is fun," she laughs, peeling one post off the set and holding it up one-handed, leaving the rest to hang down from her neck and shoulders. "Come see!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh, wow.  That's impressively athletic.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey smirks up at Momo and blows a kiss, then crouches "down" to the sandstone to hold the pole to the rock face one-handed. Her other hand pulls out the first anchor-bolt and runs it through the matching hole in the post, and then she switches to holding both post and bolt in place with that hand, while her left grabs the hammer, driving the bolt ten centimeters deep into the stone with just three heavy swings, before triggering the anchor mechanism and driving those parts sideways with another hit.

Then she scoots down the post and repeats the process, anchoring it at each point.

Only her hair and the remaining posts hanging from her shoulders betray that she's standing on a wall rather than a stone floor.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yaoyorozu_Momo.exe has encountered an error (code 0x0069 LESBIAN OVERFLOW) and needs to be rebooted.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey laughs happily.

Making your crush's brain reboot is great.

And then, with that post secured, she'll stand back "up" and walk cheerfully three meters over before crouching back to the sandstone surface and doing it again.

Permalink Mark Unread

She'll just be up here.  Watching.  She's got all the posts done, right?  She's pretty sure.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey grins confidently as she walks along and installs fencepost after fencepost. Fun fact: Ignoring gravity like this takes a lot of core strength, all through her abs and obliques — muscles shown off marvelously well by the midriff-bearing shirt Momo made her.

Permalink Mark Unread

She is aware!

Permalink Mark Unread

She gets halfway across the side of the Skyblock before she has to come back for more, walking up to the edge of the sandstone and then leaping up toward the top and pulling on her web-line to land gracefully next to Momo.

"Hi," she greets her with a smirk.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh.  Uh.  Hi there!  Ah.  There's the other poles?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey grins, nods, and collects the remaining fenceposts and anchor bolts, then steps cheerfully off the side of the island again.

One post at a time, she finishes the job. When she makes her way back up to the surface finally, they've got eight evenly-spaced and aligned poles to protect against wayward floating panels.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You, um, did.  Good!  At that!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you," Hailey replies, leaning in to kiss one blushing cheek. "Anything else I can help install? Waste pipe? Shower?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"They won't be anywhere nearly so dramatic, I think, but yes, let's get those handled too."

Permalink Mark Unread

It doesn't take long to make the toilet - if anything, making and installing the stall door is going to be the longest part of the process since someone has to screw that in once she's made it - and she's been making camp showers in job lots, lately.  She even adds a sink to the toilet, plumbed so that it feeds into the flush tank.

...Okay, actually, she's going to make some more poles, so that the bathroom stall isn't liable to get blown over, but beyond that and a shower curtain, there's nothing else left to do for essentials.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey handles all the heavy lifting and installing, especially of the additional set of poles.

Soon enough they're all done. Hailey flops back onto the grass with a grin.

"Lookit us go. Gettin' our island all improved."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah.  Whew."

She doesn't do anything so dramatic as flop into the grass, but she feels like sitting down too.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah, well, the only non-dramatic Pirate is Maya.

Really she's just elegant about it, but she's still kinda dramatic.

"A good day's work. Wha'cha wanna do with the rest of the afternoon? Tell stories, maybe?"

She lifts a hand up from the ground and webs one of the blue peaches, whipping it off the branch into her grasp.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Sure, that's something to do.  I can also make board games or a deck of cards.  ...We should probably plant the seeds from those - I don't know what to call those, actually.  They taste kind of peachy?  But we should plant them."

Permalink Mark Unread

She takes a bite from hers, humming. "S'like it's kinda... buttery. Peachy, but blue. Can't call 'em bleaches, that's awful. Peach-like... persine?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I don't really have any better ideas; is that from something?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not sure. Just sorta... makin' shite up. Sounds almost like it could be related to peaches, but it's some fungicidal shite in avocados. And these things have a consistency kind of like a peach had a baby with an avocado."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh.  I suppose they do, at that.  Sure, that works."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Board games are good, storytelling is good, card games are good, we're easy. I mighta been frontin' too long though, so if you've got any burning questions ask 'em now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose I'm curious about where you came from, but given how badly it treated you, I don't think I have any right to ask."

Permalink Mark Unread

She huffs out a bit and looks up at the sky.

"Hogwarts. Really only my relatives were bloody awful. My aunt and uncle. Cousin too. The war wasn't so bad."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Did you live in the same period of time as The Author Who Must Not Be Named?  You have my condolences!

"...Assuming that the details are the same.  And that what data yet remains after the Second Dark Age was at all accurate for me to connect the two dots.  Most of it was fanfiction."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hailey bursts out laughing. "All those years and the cunt still gets 'Must Not Be Named'? Oh that's beautiful. Yeah, when we came from she's busily being a rancid twat supporting every transphobic cause she can. Honestly some of the fanfiction's better than canon. I know my timeline was better than canon, and not just because it had the other Pirates there with me."

Permalink Mark Unread

She splutters out a laugh at the laugh, before she recovers the power of speech to say, "I think we legitimately don't know it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Love it. The bitch's version is just completely lost, only fanfiction survives. Probably a quarter of it trans, if I'm lucky, just to piss her off enough that you could get clean energy from her rolling in her grave."

Permalink Mark Unread

She just smiles softly.  "I hope so.  I barely knew the name of the castle."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Heh." She grins softly at Momo. "So the peak weird shite with us is that none of us is from 'canon', we're all from bloody alternate timelines that had all five of us present, and all five of us remember fragmentary snippets of our lives there. That's weird even by plural standards."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Huh, is it?  I don't know how that normally works to begin with."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well headmates being fictives — built out of some 'fictional' character — is common enough among systems, as is that source being an AU or sommat, but it's pretty rare to have multiple distinct sets of source memories, or everyone all have memories of all those places. Even the girl who's supposedly from the mundane world we were living in."

She shrugs, smiling. "So we're bloody weird."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Doesn't seem that weird to me; you were all there, even if that's by construction - why wouldn't you all remember it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"The weird is all of us being there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh.  Well.  Huh.  I guess?  I certainly don't know."

Permalink Mark Unread

She shrugs and smiles. "Yeah. We barely know, and we live it. But I like being me. I like knowing these four girls have had my back through wars and apocalypses and being street rats. I like the ways we've been sideways of human. I had wings in one life."

She stares up at the clouds.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wings do seem pretty neat!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Flying's amazing. Broom, wings, or jet, it's always brill."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll have to get you something for that, then!  You've got your webs, but that's not quite flight yet.  Actually, speaking of equipment - is there anything you'd like to have, that you don't have already?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't off-hand, but I know who does." Hailey smirks. "Wanna meet another Pirate?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"By all means!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles softly, blowing out a slow breath and leaning back away from the body into mindspace—

Permalink Mark Unread

Their head tilts quickly but very minutely to the side, mouth falls open, they take a deep breath in—

And then Ruby sits up sharply, grinning wide and open! She turns to face Momo, bouncing a bit. "Hi! I'm Ruby Rose! Nice to meet you, Momo!" she greets her, flipping the beads over.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hi!  Nice to meet you!"  ...Where has she heard that name before...?  What does Hatsume Mei have to do with it?

Permalink Mark Unread

"I have so many ideas. You don't know how mechashift works, do you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

...Oh that's -

"...I think Hatsume Mei definitely tried to figure it out, if I recall correctly - she was trying to make a 'Crescent Rose' all through third year, and I didn't hear anything about it exploding, so I'm guessing it didn't go horribly wrong.  But I think that was a group project, and that it needed to be, because - well, she asked me if I could make her some custom parts, and a lot of the blueprints I saw were talking about spatial folding, and we don't have a non-Quirk way to do that as far as I know?  So whatever I might have, I don't think we can do.  Yet."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mei tried to make Crescent Rose!? I mean if anyone could recreate my baby it'd probably be Mei but yeah folds are a core piece of mechashift you can't do it without folds and even if Mei derived the fold math that wouldn't be enough without either a set of precision fold manipulators and fresh Gravity Dust crystals in 'em or a Quirk that could replicate the effect so I'm not surprised she needed help 'cause y'all don't have Dust."

She takes a big breath.

"Wow."

Permalink Mark Unread

...Kami preserve her, Ruby's cute.

"Yeah, she did.  And I don't have the blueprints she was using - those are 'proprietary Hatsume Industries material, not for distribution' - but I do have the structural alloys recorded, at least."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You have Huntress-grade alloys oh gods you're amazing. I have to relearn all the stuff I knew from scratch so I can make use of it I've got so much to do yes!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mean, I don't want to get your hopes up erroneously - I don't know if the alloys are actually Huntress-grade - but they are heroics-grade."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's better than I've had until now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then I hope they serve you well!  ...If the universe disappoints you like this I will never forgive it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've already had a pair of gods I grew up looking up to turn out to be disappointments, so I'd cope. We've got access to the whole multiverse now, given time, so we'll find everything I need sooner or later."

She scoots closer. "Can I hug you?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Yes, you can, and yes, you may."  (...She just can't make Ruby sad.  She has known Ruby for five minutes and she can already tell that Sad Ruby is a horrible tragedy.)

Permalink Mark Unread

She blushes a bit and smiles and sits down next to Momo, pulling her into a tight, close hug. "We like you a lot," she whispers. "Hailey's the pickiest. Sable's the easiest. Maya follows them, Neo's playful and quick but takes time to really attach, and I guess I'm just... I get making things better than people, but I can tell I like you."

Permalink Mark Unread

"O-oh, gosh...!  I, well, I already said that if the Company wanted me to uncomplicatedly like you all, it should have just stayed out of the way of my doing that naturally - and everything I've seen of you so far has convinced me more and more that that's true; that I do like all of you that I've met, and will probably like those of you that I haven't met, and that that's not the Company's doing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's really good. I'm really glad we're getting to know you."

Permalink Mark Unread

She squeezes Momo again, then leans back bouncily. "I definitely have gear ideas, though: web grenades, if we can figure out how to shoot the raw fluid without spinning it first so we can study it and fill them, or a wingsuit like you said, attached to our costume such that it folds out of the way when we're not using it, or maybe a longer term goal of some kinda HUD glasses and a version that integrates into our mask, such that it forms a shared tacnet with yours, or what about tranquilizers for non-lethal takedowns in gloves or in darts we could throw, or do you have anything for stealth?"

She takes a few big breaths.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...A number of these ideas are viable; the shared tacnet is actually something my agency planned for.  Do you think your web-fluid is reactive with air?  And how do you spin it?  Is it an undifferentiated fluid that receives some kind of stimulus, or multiple precursors depending on the type?  As for tranquilizers...  Non-Quirk-dependent tranquilizers are very fiddly, because dose-dependent means dose-dependent, and overdoses kill people, which is, I assume, the exact opposite of why you would want to have tranquilizers - but I could make something.  You'd have to be very good with them before I think it would be a good idea to arm you with them in the field, though.  And I have quite a few things for stealth."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well it's multiple precursors, because that's how we can vary the properties for sticky versus not and all that. And I think it doesn't become reactive with the air until one precursor is mixed in? and the spinnerets in our wrists do some shaping and some mixing, so probably if we're really careful we can get the different precursors individually, but that'll require some practice. And yeah, mundane tranquilizers are really finicky, that'd be tricky. We do have options for just tying people up, which is pretty reliably nonlethal, so that one can wait. And stealth is because we can do things like stick to the ceiling, so if our costume could also do camo then we'd be safe even from the very few people who trained to look up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"There's some options I have that are powered, and some that are not power-dependent, but that are consequently much more fiddly."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby looks up at the enormous solar panel Momo made.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then back down at Momo. "Powered is fine, I bet."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Fair enough.  I'm used to not always having time to prepare things like that, and for that matter, I should note that you might not be the only person on the ceiling, so you'll need something for that too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Other than webbing their mouth shut, punching them, and webbing their arms to their sides?" Ruby asks with an innocent smile.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I meant if you were carrying a friendly!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ohhhhh." She nods. "Yeah friendlies are important. That's harder."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose I could just make another cloak."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. Not urgent, though."

She rests her head on Momo's shoulder while she thinks. "What if the wingsuit bits were on elastics to retract them into little storage slits along our arms and sides and legs, and they could be pulled down and then hooked to little hooks at our wrists and ankles to deploy 'em?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably, certainly in a mechanical sense - the question is, how quickly could you do that in a hurry?  I don't think it's quite field-viable."

Permalink Mark Unread

She frowns thoughtfully for a moment, then practices a motion of dragging both hands from her opposite armpits to her wrists a few times, then gets up. "I think pretty quick? But maybe not quick enough? Let's see."

She does a quick standing leap above Momo's head, tumbling in a front flip while she does. By the time she lands in a crouch, she's repeated the motion with her arms, and then a similar one from her crotch to her ankles.

"Decent with a bit of hang-time but not instant."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What if it was..."

She sketches out a different series of motions; brushing hands to ankles and ankles to themselves as she winds up for a jump, "and your strength can get over any of the potentially unfortunate aerodynamics anyway..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooooh. That'd work, for sure!"

She practices it a few times with leaps of different heights; the taller ones easily clear the top of the tree.

Permalink Mark Unread

Design success!

...Also, Ruby's acrobatics really grabbed her attention.  Goodness.

Permalink Mark Unread

Now what else was she thinking of...

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Goodness, I've quite lost my train of thought."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby sits back down and cuddles close. "Maybe about other costume upgrades? Or the tacnet? I know our current costume doesn't have any electronics in it, but the material's pretty good. Dunno if your world had better materials. Oh! I don't know if this is possible, but some heroes in cartoons have masks with oversized expressive eyes that try to mirror the wearer's expression?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"At this rate, I should probably consider the project 'make you all a new costume'.  I don't think retrofitting everything into the existing version makes sense."

"I think I recognize the material yours is made of, anyway, and if I'm right, it's one I do know how to make.  And...Hm.  I might be able to make something work, as far as the eyes; I do have eye-tracking software.  And it would help with image..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not opposed to upgrades, honestly. Gwen's costume is great, but it's not really us, y'know? Although maybe not showing her punk side in her costume was deliberate? Not sure."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I certainly don't know.  But it's not as if you have a secret identity to conceal hints of, I suppose."

Permalink Mark Unread

She laughs and nods. "Need to be in a world longer than a day for that to matter."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That you do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"What sorta interfaces d'you have for visor or mask computers?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Eye-tracking and subvocalization, and I can also include contacts somewhere - probably between the fourth and fifth finger, or maybe in the toes - as a backup."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooh. Definitely need to practice subvocalization then."

Permalink Mark Unread

She leans closer with a smile, putting her head back on Momo's shoulder. "Would you mind sparring with us sometime? This body came with a bunch of instincts but we don't have experience using 'em."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'd be glad to."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Got any fun stories from your world?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hmm..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's hard to find interesting stories that would actually be reliably new to you, assuming that Kiyuko was the main character of what you saw.  She's a bit of a trouble magnet.

"But did whatever you saw of that world that was - a little off and to the left of ours - ever mention the Hero Students' Union?  Kiyuko signed on, everyone in our class did, but it was Kyoka and Ochako who took the lead on it, after our first internships."

Permalink Mark Unread

She gasps. "You unionized? No! That didn't show up in the media on our old world at all!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"They, our alternate selves, however that works - didn't?  There were so many horrible internship experiences!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby shakes her head. "Nope, your alts didn't unionize. Woulda been smart, if stuff like what Uwabami did is common at all, but never came up."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Goodness, I can't imagine letting her get away with that.  Though I suppose I did need to be talked around to it, at first..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Honestly, though, with Ochako-chan and Kyoka deciding that this fight needed to be picked when Pony actually said our internship was, I quote, 'shit'...  It was inevitable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wait, Pony was on the internship with you? I thought Kendo was."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Kendo was also there."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh! I wonder what changed to make Pony accept an internship from Uwabami. We didn't get as good a look at her decision-making process about that, being in 1-B and all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Huh.  Our Pony was in class A."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that's different. I wonder who's missing."

Permalink Mark Unread

She rattles off a list of the students in 1A and 1B.  Notably absent from it is a certain grape-haired groper.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. Mineta. Had kind of a harassment problem about all the girls in the official version. Hopefully he got some therapy, wherever he wound up instead of 1A."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think I'm quite glad that I have no idea who you're talking about, if that's what he was like.  And I will join you in hoping."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, you're better off. He didn't add much."

She sighs and shakes her head. 

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anyway! So it was Kyoka and Ochaco who drove the unionization push?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, it was.  Ochako knew a lot about unions from her family's line of work, she was the one who brought it up, and Kyoka..."

She drifts off for a moment.

"She gave a speech."

"It wasn't only the speech, she helped get the word out to other schools as much as our teachers did - but the speech was where Ochako's 'maybe we should unionize' turned from an idle thought to a plan to take real action.  I think she's the one who convinced Shouto to use Endeavor's credit card for the website."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wow. Gosh, I wish I could've seen it. Kyoka always seemed so cool. Bet she gave a great speech."

Permalink Mark Unread

She was really cool!  And the speech was great!

"It, really was, yeah...  I wish you could have.  I remember all the words, but I couldn't do them justice if I tried to recount them now."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby blushes a bit and leans in conspiratorially, whispering, "D'you have a crush on her?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I!  Maybe!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She giggles warmly. "Cuuuute."

Permalink Mark Unread

And then talk of crushes reminds her of Yang. She sighs softly and nuzzles in closer. "We miss some people too. From our memories."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"...I don't think it had hit me until now, that I had people to miss."

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh no. She hugs Momo tightly. "Sorry. That sucks." Such hug.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's not you who should be apologizing.  Not for grieving those you miss.  The Company did this to me.  Tore us both from our homes without a say in the matter."  She reciprocates the hug, firmly.

Permalink Mark Unread

"And it's them who we're going to make regret it."

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles confidently and snuggles tightly. "Yeah. We will."

Permalink Mark Unread

"The people I miss, though... they're not from the world we just came from. Same with the other Pirates. We'll probably miss Sable's dad and step-mom and sisters at some point, once it sets in that rarely became never, but most of the people we miss were like... my sister. Yang."

She's not sure if she should say anything about just how deeply she misses Yang. That's... Not everyone responds well to that. And they're actually making things work with Momo.

Permalink Mark Unread

She nods, wordlessly.

"...Tell me about her?  The saying goes, that someone is never dead while their name is still spoken, and while that's not quite right...  I think the principle holds."

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles softly up at Momo. "Yeah, it does.

"Yang's... a protector. She got in trouble for punching kids who bullied me at our combat school, Signal. She practically raised me after Mom died, 'cause Uncle Qrow and Dad were both falling apart. She baked me cookies, she helped when I couldn't focus on my schoolwork, she could tell when I was sad and sit me down with cookies and ice cream. She made Dad sober up after Mom died so he could help raise us. She made Uncle Qrow ease off on the drink enough to train me to use a scythe. She was always cracking jokes, always cheering me up, and they were always so corny."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And every time she made me laugh with one," she continues, blushing a bit, "she'd always get this big happy grin on her stupid pretty face."

Permalink Mark Unread

"She seems like a good sister to have had."

Permalink Mark Unread

...It's interesting, that she just blushed while calling her sister pretty.  It could just be embarrassment, though.  She's not going to ask, either way.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I was an only child, but...  After all we've been through together, I think I consider all of class A as close as family ever could be."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby smiles at that. "Yeah, I really get that. It was the same way with teams RWBY, JSMN, and JNPR. Most everyone on the teams was all part of a big messy polycule, even."

Permalink Mark Unread

"JSMN, assuming that those are initials, being... Sable, Maya, Neo, and - Hailey under another name?  And if the team that literally spells Ruby with its name wasn't yours I'll make a hat and eat it."

"...I don't know if I've ever heard of a polycule before...  But from context it sounds like a type of relationship?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. She picked the name Jade on Remnant, 'cause Hailey isn't a color. And a polycule is a polyamorous relationship. Portmonteau of polyamory and molecule."

Permalink Mark Unread

Polyamory?

She deconstructs the Latin.

 

"Oh.  Oh, I see.  I...  Did not know that that was a thing that people did."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...It seems nice."

Permalink Mark Unread

She giggles nervously and blushes. "Technically it's a thing you're thinking about doing! Plurality's a trip!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I would be, wouldn't I!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think that only makes my opinion more clear, because I'm not going to only love one of you.  That would just be silly."

Permalink Mark Unread

...Oh, kami preserve.

"Ah, in the inevitable progression of time, I mean, um, not to say that you aren't all lovely people right now, um...  That was a prediction?  Right now it's far too soon to say either way, and all that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Cue more nervous blushy giggles from Ruby. "Yeah, I get wha'cha mean. No worries, Momo." More hug.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, um, thank you."

More hug is a good plan.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So... all of team RWBY was dating, all of team JSMN was dating, most of JSMN was dating most of RWBY, Pyrrha was dating me, Sable, Maya, and Weiss, Jaune was dating Pyrrha and Sable — and also trans, we were all happy for her when she figured that out — Penny was dating me, Sable, and maybe Weiss..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Goodness, that's a lot of relationships, and I don't know most of the people who were in them.

"...Though I do have to ask, because I know exactly one Y name from your universe, was your sister Yang, ah...  On your team?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby blushes and buries her face in her hands.

Permalink Mark Unread

She pats Ruby on the head gently.  "...You were doing a reasonably decent job of maintaining your plausible deniability about that until you brought up the specific relationships you were in.  And honestly, as long as nobody was getting hurt by what you were doing...  My ability to care about things that aren't hurting anybody, just because people think they're icky, is, honestly, minimal."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Eheh," she giggles sheepishly, leaning against Momo some more. "You're... taking that surprisingly well. 'm used to people being weirder about it. Yang definitely gave herself a lot of grief about it. But it really worked for us. And you'd be surprised how many people hear that and just assume me and Yang were each dating everyone else but not each other, when I list that off."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think it's partially that - well, I'm an only child, so the question isn't visceral - and partially that my scale of 'things that are actual problems' is calibrated to dealing with the sort of nonsense that crops up around Kiyuko.  You kissing your sister, when everyone involved wants that to happen, doesn't even make a blip."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh good point. S'like how everyone outside our three teams who found out got a lot chiller about it once they realized the stakes we were dealing with. Didn't rate compared to Grimm Tides and Salem."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I don't want to ask.  It already sounds bad enough.  But - I don't know.  Trying to figure out how we might try to deal with any of that is probably a useful theoretical exercise even if it doesn't come up.  Similarly to trying to figure out how we might try to deal with someone like All for One or Shigaraki relatively by ourselves, likewise."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh that's a good idea. My first guess for Shigaraki is to web his hands to his body. All I've got for All For One, though, is that our powers don't run on the same system as ones from your world, so there's a decent chance he can't take our powers. That obviously doesn't do a thing about the heaping pile of other powers he's got."

Permalink Mark Unread

"No, it doesn't.  All I can think of is 'try to walk him into a trap full of very big guns'.  What's Salem's thing?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Some of the best immortality we've seen in several universes, control of big monsters of darkness that're drawn to negative emotion and driven to destroy sapient life, ability to create more of them and design custom ones, and a devout goal to kill the gods — who, admittedly, suck even worse and actually originally created the Grimm and put her in the mess she's in. Also spent five minutes having an argument with each other by rezzing and killing her husband repeatedly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that's about as bad as All for One before you start factoring in the gods.  Probably worse, given that Noumu were pretty significant investments for All for One and there are enough Grimm to be described as a tide.  ...I hate to even think like this, but...  What if you don't kill her?  And instead aim to lastingly incapacitate?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, our theory is you have to do a mix of that and converting her. She doesn't actually want to destroy human- or faunus-kind, that's more wired directly into the Grimm themselves. And we know that because if she did we'd have lost already. She's got more than enough Grimm for it. A Grimm Tide is when you have continuous waves of Grimm hitting one spot for an extended period, like an hour or more."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That.  Is a lot of Grimm."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think I see why you think Salem doesn't want to destroy the world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah," she replies with a frown. "The gods, though... They created four Relics with fantastical powers, then said that if the four Relics were ever brought together, they'd return, and if humanity wasn't united when they did, they'd destroy the world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Why?!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She buries her head in her hands. "I have no idea. Something about thinking their creations weren't worth keeping around if we couldn't get united. Oh, and for extra horror, Salem's husband, the wizard who they kept killing and resurrecting after she talked one of them into doing it against their policy of Death being Important Somehow, after they made the Relics they resurrected him again, but in a terrible way where he bonds with the souls of like-minded people and then gradually merges with them until there's only one resulting person, and they told him to unite humanity and then unite the relics. And he still thinks they're the good guys. And his current incarnation is Headmaster Ozpin. I respect him a lot, he's really awesome in a lot of ways, but can he please get over believing in the gods being anything other than petty jerks?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's..."

She doesn't have words for this.  She barely has hugs enough for this.

"That's not just disappointing gods, that's betrayals from the gods."

Permalink Mark Unread

Such hug. All of the hug. "I think they just didn't understand why it was a crazy thing to ask for."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Did they, or did they not, fancy themselves responsible for the existence of the local humaniform sorts of life?  Because if they did..."

She shakes her head.

"They should have known better."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They did. They should've. They're useless jerks that made my world worse."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That they are, and all I have to offer as of yet is my condolences.  And a commitment to telling them off if ever we encounter them."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby sighs and smiles at Momo, hugging her tightly. "Thanks. That helps."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I'm glad it did."  Even as she hates that it needed to.  It's just not right that Ruby is sad.

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles and leans against Momo again. "So what were we talking about before all this?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Missing people, I believe."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh." More hug. "We can't get ours back, I don't think, but... would you want Kyoka here with us? Take a mission or three, but we could."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"...Maybe?  It's...  If they already have her, bringing her here can hardly harm her worse.  But I don't want to incentivize them to clone-nap her."

Permalink Mark Unread

She sighs and stares off at the tree. "They already hit your world. They probably have half the boys and all the girls from both classes, plus some of the teachers."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Then having at least one Kyoka not subject to the Company's favorite assets' depredations can only be good, I think."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then let's check."

She pulls out the Company Smart Device, taps open the shopping app, then the Companions tab. Filters by MHA, searches for Kyoka, and then holds the phone out.

Kyoka Jiro, T4, 10 Credits. There's a Match Worlds dropdown on the infocard, currently set to "none."

Ruby taps it.

Momo appears as an option.

"Yeah. I've got mixed feelings about this. I'm not surprised, and I'm glad you get to have each other, but there was a tiny shred of hope that we were wrong and they wouldn't have anyone else from your world."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Someday they won't have anybody anymore."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby blows out a slow, tight breath, then nods sharply and smiles intently up at Momo — for a moment, this isn't the little cinnamon roll who can be distracted by the mere mention of cookies, but rather the girl who stared down two ancient immortals.

"Yeah. They won't."

Permalink Mark Unread

...If finding that attractive is wrong, she doesn't want to be right.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, I guess I know what our first ten credits are going to. Better do a bunch of training tomorrow."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yes, we definitely should."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh! Unrelated question! Do you know any sign languages?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I know JSL - you have to learn that for heroics - and I've been working on learning more ASL than 'I'm sorry, I don't know ASL'."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We've always wanted to learn a sign language or two for Neo. Atlesian Sign Language didn't come through with the exomemories, so we don't have any, and it's so hard to learn one properly without a conversational partner. Speaking of, we really wanna learn Japanese too at some point. There are a few sets of exomemories where we spoke it and not knowing it feels weird."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then I'd be quite happy to help!  Something else to do while we're not otherwise occupied."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yay! Maybe we can fit some kind of short messaging thing into the tacnet and the mask interface, so she can text you even if you're handling different things in different parts of a mission world. I assume the subvocal inputs work just fine for comms for the rest of us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, yes, definitely.  That's already included, I think."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yay." She rests back against Momo some more. "Tell me about her, maybe?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Kyoka?  Yeah...  You're a lot like her, really?  She's a lot like you?  You're both very punk, I think.  And you and she both care a lot about caring.  She likes pre-Heroics music, so you might have that in common...  She plays pretty much anything with strings, and keyboard, and she has...  Such a good singing voice.  And she's been teaching Eri how to play guitar and bass, recently."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Awww yay! She sounds really cool, honestly. A little bit like if you took some of Sable and Hailey's best traits and glued 'em together with a whole bunch of music, and a bunch of sparkle that's all her own."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think she would be flattered, if she knew you!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Awww, thanks. We honestly feel the flattery's in the other direction, getting compared amazing pro heroes. We're really looking forward to meeting her."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And I'm looking forward to seeing the both of you meet!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby snuggles warmly. After a moment, she asks, "Do you have any ideas for target practice that don't need you to keep making supplies? Don't wanna take advantage of your Quirk."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, if I make neutrally buoyant targets, you can web them and pull them back in?  And, hm, drones would be useful to have anyway...  I could probably make a retrieval drone and stick some trackers in the targets, too, just in case.  No good if you're planning to go target shooting, but we'll get to that once we've actually made Crescent Rose."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby giggles happily at the confidence in Momo's voice. They will remake her baby eventually. Just a matter of time.

"Yeah, that would work. Probably a variety of sizes, too, apple on up. Only thing they couldn't easily do is moving targets, but maybe the drones can do that?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably, yeah.  And at different distances, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah! Gotta mix it up, really challenge us to sort these instincts out."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And different shapes, too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, and colors! Both because they might be harder or easier to see, and because there can be challenges like 'this time the green ones are enemies and the blue ones are friendlies' or stuff like that!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh, yes, that's good too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Though I probably shouldn't start on those today; we don't know how much you need in terms of calories."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Feels like one and a half to two, depending on how much I do that day? Today's been a one and a half day."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Whereas my Quirk needs are most significantly affected by mass and, to a smaller extent, surface occupied and time spent in-process."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well.  Two fruits for you, two for me, and one for Kyoka - or reserved until the end of the day - until we can get more trees grown."

Permalink Mark Unread

She whips down a second fruit, then splits it in half, holding one half out toward Momo. "Would you like the other half of my second?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I...  If you're certain you won't need it?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mhm! I'll be fine, and we can start trying to build a buffer that we cycle through an ice chest or freezer, that way we have spares for emergencies."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Right.  I'll make the freezer, then."

Permalink Mark Unread

It's not a very big freezer - and it's a chest freezer, which complicates deep storage somewhat - but it will certainly suffice for a good number of these persines.  She adds a tray to the bottom for them, and starts it off cooling with a bit of dry ice.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll put the last one in just before bed, that way we get the biggest head-start with it still on the branch."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That's a good plan.  ...We should also keep an eye on the tree to see if it produces its daily fruits all at once."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh, good question. Maybe stay up late to check."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can probably get to sleep early and take over watching the tree while you sleep, or vice versa, if we want to do something like that."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That'd work! I wonder if our early-rising sleep trouble followed us. Probably the habit of it did, but not the biology? I think we'll have an easier time with the morning shift than the night, in either case. Probably we should think about scheduling in light of the portal, too. It opens at midnight every week."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We do want to get every hour we can out of our time.  There is that one ...desynchronized sleep schedule where you wake for twenty hours and sleep for eight..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hm. I think we need to be really sure not to burn ourselves out doing things like that. The resource that's the hardest to replace or restock is our sanity, not even our time, because there are aging solutions out in the multiverse."

Permalink Mark Unread

"True, though if it works like it's supposed to we shouldn't have that particular problem?  I'm not actually remotely sure of that; I've not done it before.  It's just come up once."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose we should see if they're going to be using the portal opening at midnight against us in some way before we start putting on contingencies."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, no way to know just yet. The simplest model is just to move toward waking up early in general, and then make portal days extra long, waking even earlier and staying up late, and recover the day after? But I dunno how sustainable or good for us that is. I know some worlds are gonna be time-sensitive, so we probably do wanna be up at midnight to see where and when the other side is, but depending on what we get we might be able to get a little more sleep."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can make a quartz clock, at least.  Hook that up to an alarm.  And, realistically, how often do we think we're going to need to work both morning and evening hours?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Not often unless it's really a mess in the mission world. And speaking of mission worlds, there's one thing that's guaranteed to work on All for One, but it's a method we really don't wanna use."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I think I'd like to know."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby takes a soft breath.

"If we stamp him, then in three days we can guaranteed sell him, and he vanishes from the mission world. No saving throws, no using a Quirk nobody knew he had to dodge it, guaranteed gone."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I'm not sure that's better for the rest of the multiverse.  ...I'm not sure it's worse, either, but I'm not sure it's better.  Can you see if he's already in the catalogue?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Tap, tap tap, search...

And there he is. "All for One, Tier Seven, one hundred credits."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...If there's someone like that, who's already in the catalogue, and who we don't have the means to render no longer a large-scale threat any other way...

"...We should figure out why the Company even wants duplicates, if we can.  But if we can't find out anything about that either way, and we don't have any other way to render someone unable or unwilling to continue being a nation-scale or larger threat, then...

"We wouldn't have any better options, right now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But we do not do that with anyone the Company doesn't already have in their...  Whatever it is that they have, nor do we do this to anyone that could present a significant power escalation - or other enticement - over their 'default' version."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I can't believe I'm considering doing that at all, if I'm honest, but...

"Short of somehow completely rewriting his personality, our All for One wasn't going to be turned aside from his...  Everything he was doing.  And that last fight..."

"Kiyuko could have lost it.

"I can't say that, given the same choice during the cat-and-mouse games we were playing against him - to let the timeline continue in uncertainty or to add another All for One to someone's collection - that the math adds up to not Stamping and selling him."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...But to contrast that case against Salem, who is...  Honestly a worse threat by the numbers... we absolutely mustn't Stamp her.  Because if the Grimm were left without her sitting on them I'm pretty sure things would only get worse."

Permalink Mark Unread

"They would, without her control. It would be so much worse. Well. What we absolutely can't do is sell her. Just Stamping her doesn't take her off the board, though, it just makes her loyal.

"The worst thing is that we'd even get paid for it. I wonder if we can get an answer out of the Opposition about why they want more copies."

She pokes at the Smart Device, looking for a chat or help desk system. Okay, that one is the Company help desk, is there one for the Opposition?

Permalink Mark Unread

"...What would loyalty even look like in that context?"

Permalink Mark Unread

...There's the same chat widget hidden on the new device as there was on the tablet.

Permalink Mark Unread

She taps the Opposition chat open.

"Dunno. If we're lucky, willingness to hear out our arguments more? And we could arrange something to be delivered in three days and obviously from us?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...I suppose that would certainly be something we could try."

Permalink Mark Unread

--==You are now chatting with: Handler #0137==--

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think there are binding options that work faster, or allow remote influence, too? Dunno. Not a fan of shopping for bindings."

She taps a message into the chat.

Hi. Do you know why the Company needs duplicate captures?

Permalink Mark Unread

They do not, strictly, *need* duplicate captures.  However, having multiple versions of a person available to them both increases their overall throughput for their bulk copying, and introduces both new personality vectors and potentially new powers into the process they use to make "custom orders".

Permalink Mark Unread

It is also a behavioral incentive.

Permalink Mark Unread

So unless a capture has a particularly unprecedented power expression or isn't in the catalog yet at all, it's not a significant advantage or change for them? I ask because there are rare cases — like All for One on MHA world variants — where there are not particularly better or safer or faster options than stamp-and-sell, because all the alternatives are going to get bunches of heroes killed or depopulate a city or something. And I really don't like the idea of participating in that, but it's sounding like the calculus might favor it in those rare cases.

Permalink Mark Unread

Using the Stamp as a vector for targeted removals of near-'canonical' (insofar as a 'canon' exists) alternates will not generally have a significant impact on the Company's operations, no. Not at the scale at which the Company operates.  Such removals *can,* however, have significant impact on the scale at which *you* operate.

We would, obviously, prefer a multiverse where this was not the case, but such strategies can end up producing positive utility.

However, we advise that you contact us to confirm that your targets do *not* have any novel abilities, or secret load-bearing functions, before you sell them.  We have a better ability to determine this than you do.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah I'm definitely not gonna pass up more eyes checking to make sure there aren't any secret traps or gotchas in a sale we're considering. Thanks.

And then she holds the phone over to Momo in case she wants to add anything or has comments on it.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...What about weird mirror universe stuff where All Might is evil?  ...Kiyuko can't be evil because then she wouldn't be Kiyuko."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mean, yeah, Kiyuko doesn't come in 'evil', that's just ridiculous. She's Kiyuko Midoriya, it's absurd to think of her being anything other than a cinnamon roll of determination on par with me. What's your worry about an evil All Might, though? That he might be hard to deal with, or that he might be unprecedented and change things for the Company somehow?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That - evil All Mights are much more likely to be prospective Company assets?  I think."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Fair. I'll ask."

Random hypothetical: evil mirror-universe All Mights?

Permalink Mark Unread

It is unlikely that an evil All Might will provide true novelty as far as the Company is concerned.  This *may* vary depending on who is roleswapped, and how that is expressed, but that is unlikely.

Permalink Mark Unread

Thanks. Good to know.

"Well. We learned a thing?"

Permalink Mark Unread

It is my duty, though the thanks are appreciated.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So we did."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Got any other questions while we've got a handler on the line?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"...It seems exceedingly unlikely.  And we have the soft evidence that the Company thinks my Kyoka exists.  But I need to ask if I'm - if I was made."

Permalink Mark Unread

Okay it is clearly Hugging Momo Hours now.

She'll type with her hands behind Momo's back while hugging her fiercely.

Can you confirm whether our Companion, Momo Yaoyorozu, corresponds to an actually-extant original Momo from an actually-extant MHAverse, or was reverse-constructed to match us?

Permalink Mark Unread

She's as real as anyone and anything can be. We did *nudge* the randomizer, but that's all we *could* do; the Company pays a *lot* of attention to custom work.

Permalink Mark Unread

So basically y'all weighted the selection of *which* Momo was selected to copy to make sure we'd match well on the quest to tear down the multiversal jerks, but otherwise she's a faithful-to-source copy of a Momo that actually happened in a particular universe?

Permalink Mark Unread

Yes.

Permalink Mark Unread

Thank you. She was having concerns.

Okay. Phone away, intensify the Momo hugging.

"Yeah, confirmed. Picking you rather than a different Momo was weighted, but you're an exact match for an original out there, no custom tweaks or built-to-match or anything."

Permalink Mark Unread

...Hugs are very nice.

"It was...  A silly thought, but one I couldn't stop thinking about once I had gone and thought it, even so."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Cheap to check and absolutely worth it for helping you. You're really important to us, and we wanna do everything we can to do right by you."

The hugging shall continue until...

Probably until they go to bed, honestly.

Permalink Mark Unread

...She's not sure that anyone has ever said that to her, before.  Not in so many words.  Or so few words?  Idioms can be confusing.  (...Not that all of class A - yes, including Bakugou, once he got his head screwed back on - wouldn't go to absurd lengths for eachother.  It had just snuck up on them, rather than being something they openly said.)

Permalink Mark Unread

And the hugging can absolutely just keep on going, as far as she's concerned.  At least until the sun starts to 'set' and she realizes that gardening at night would be kind of silly.  She does want to get those seeds planted.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah, the Pirates just kind of feel things loudly. They're just sort of Like This.

They'll keep hugging until it's gardening time, and then help with the planting.

Permalink Mark Unread

Two of these seeds are going to go into the ground, as a normal tree would - spaced out next to the parent tree.  She's also going to put a cutting from tree #1 into the ground, to see what happens.  But the other two seeds (and a cutting), she is going to try to make into trees that are as small as possible - and this requires pots, and soil, and most likely some rather specialized pruning shears.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby's going to look away as Momo makes the pots and shears, because no she is not going to ogle her maybe-eventually-girlfriend-if-she's-lucky. Also she's shy.

No, she's just going to work on the in-the-ground ones while Momo does that.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby continues to be utterly adorable.

"The question," she spontaneously declaims, "is whether these cuttings will count as new trees, as far as the rules about how they fruit are concerned - and, I suppose, whether they will take at all."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good question! Also how many fruits will the little ones grow if they grow any?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Hopefully, five!  It's not like the rules say that there is a size at which the trees are fully grown, after all, just a timeframe!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah! That'll probably tell us things about how the rules work!"

Okay planting these isn't hard. They're pretty much done.

"Do we wanna do the tree-watching shifts thing tonight?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll have the most time to recover from doing it, if we do it now."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby pouts a bit. "Not really tired. Today's been so exciting and it's still early."

She sits down though.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...When do you normally go to sleep?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Try to wind down around twenty-one hundred, try to get to sleep around twenty-two, usually slide a half-hour or more?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I could probably do the late watch, then, if you want to do the early one."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That works! Huh, I wonder if the Company scroll has an alarm. Or you could just wake me up when you get tired."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I meant the other way around, but we should have an alarm for us to change over, I think.  Or you should just wake me when the trees start doing their thing."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That works! 'when they start doing something' is an easy time to wake you up for. Would have a hard time remembering to wake you up just for a shift change though, so I'm setting an alarm for midnight, and we can turn it off if they start doing stuff before that."

Poke poke the scroll. Does it have an alarm?

Yes.

Okay, alarm at 00:00.

Great.

"Aaaand set."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thank you, Ruby.  I'm going to go change and then sleep.  It's been...  Quite a day."

And so she does.

Permalink Mark Unread

"G'night, Momo. It really has."

She will not watch Momo change, but if Momo is out of the tent at any point after changing into PJs she'll look over to see what she wears to sleep.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Goodnight."

Alas for Ruby's curiosity, Momo doesn't.

Permalink Mark Unread

Oh well!

She spends the remaining hours making notes about shopping lists for different types of worlds, and for powers or upgrades they should prioritize: crop/herb/spice seeds anywhere (for culinary variety), aquaculture books in a modern world, fish once they have aquaculture figured out and maybe space for it, extra skyblocks when they're ready to prioritize separating housing from farming and need more space, architecture books in a modern world, design plans for pieces that a house can be assembled out of, media libraries in a really modern world, big dump of all the fandom.com wikis, Kyoka for the very first ten points they've got, Communication Talent at some point to cover languages other than English and Japanese and JSL, probably some of the Defenses, and Talent Sharing, but they'll have to talk with Momo about those. Definitely want to pick up some kind of crop-boosting artifacts or magic in some world or another, so they can make other kinds of food keep up with persine production rates and have more food variety.

Eventually, one of the times she looks up (just after 23:00), Ruby notices some flower buds on the tree. She snaps a picture with the scroll phone Smart Device, then goes to the tent.

Permalink Mark Unread

She reaches down to shake Momo's shoulder. "Hey, Momo, we've got flower buds."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I know I asked for this and yet I somehow regret my choices," she gets out before slipping out of the sleeping bag, wearing a light silk robe.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Worth it to know, though.  And to make sure you get to sleep."

Permalink Mark Unread

Momo is pretty and wearing a light silk robe help her she's gay.

"Sleep? Whassat?"

When they step out onto the Skyblock, the flowerbuds have already started to open.

Permalink Mark Unread

"The thing you're going to be doing when these flowers are done blooming, Ruby."  Hmm.  To pat the Ruby, or not to pat the Ruby...

Permalink Mark Unread

Well the Ruby might be leaning a bit close as they walk, so she's certainly in easily pattable range.

"Oh fiiiine. But wake me up if they do something really interesting, okay? Also we made some notes about shopping lists and stuff, love your thoughts on 'em, don't have to be now though."

They walk out toward the tree and sit down together, and Ruby leans her head on Momo's shoulder.

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles, and gently pats the Ruby.  "Will do."

Permalink Mark Unread

Momo takes a cursory look at the list and checks off 'design plans for pieces that a house can be assembled out of', 'aquaculture manuals', and 'architecture books'.  And then she has to think about Kyoka.

...She feels like she'd be unbearably selfish to agree on that earmarking of those first ten points that way.

She doesn't know if that's going to stop her.

Permalink Mark Unread

When Ruby looks up and notices which item Momo's stopped on, she mumbles, "We're not budging on that. You miss her, we want you to be happy, and we don't have anything more urgent for those first points. If we had something really really urgent, we'd be open to maybe delaying, but prioritizing the happiness of people we care about is something important to all of us in different ways, and it is very deeply who Sable is, so convincing her not to give you Kyoka immediately would be hard."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's...

"I know how I felt about her.  I don't know how she felt about me.  And...  She's not someone that anyone can just be given.  Though I think you know that and you're just sleepyI'm sleepy too, honestly."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oops yeah you know what I mean. But like. Can I generalize from 'canon' and fandom for sec?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well of course you can..."

"Mm, sorry, the ghost of Present Mic's English class crawled up through my tonsils.  But...  Do."

Permalink Mark Unread

She giggles for a moment at the grammar joke.

Permalink Mark Unread

"So I vaguely remember 'canon' depicting her have one of those stereotypical anime nosebleeds when you busted your costume at the USJ, but I dunno if I'm remembering right. What I'm sure of, though, is that there's one clear thing missing in fanfic that talks about you two maybe having a relationship. There are fics where you mutually confess, fics where one of you confesses first and the other says yes, fics where she confesses and you say no until you process some stuff and later say yes, fics where you say no, but we've never seen one where Kyoka says no. Haven't ever seen it happen at all."

She shrugs sleepily. "Dunno how much we're allowed to generalize that as meaning anything about the spread of likely worlds in the multiverse, but. I really don't think that's a possibility you have to worry about."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I...

"Wasn't aware."

"I mean of course I wouldn't have been aware of the anime nosebleed or the distribution of multiversal Kyoka confession patterns, but...

"...well.  I'm more convinced that she might probably not regret it."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby hugs Momo some more.

"Can't guarantee anything, but it doesn't seem likely."

Permalink Mark Unread

 

 

 

 

Suddenly she has a thought. "Huh. D'you think our Opposition Handler might know?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Maybe, but I almost hope not.

"That's...

"Invasive, to know from a readout.

"But I imagine that the Company probably does track those sorts of things.  And that therefore the Opposition might have access to them."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wanna ask?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"...I think I do."

Permalink Mark Unread

She smiles softly and offers the smart device to Momo.

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

She pushes through what was probably some sort of Company conditioning to Not Touch That, or possibly just surprise, and takes it as she was offered.

Handler-san, do you have access to whatever information the Company has stored about people from my world?  There is...

I am trying to determine if the Jirou Kyoka of my world would prefer that a copy of her exist with the copy of me that I am.

-- Yaoyorozu Momo

Permalink Mark Unread

I cannot directly answer your question.

I can tell you that the database parameter 'EP_HEART_R', for reciprocated love, reads 'true', and the following column has your name in it.

I suspect you will be able to figure out the rest.

Permalink Mark Unread

She wordlessly turns the phone around.

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby accepts the phone, reads the screen, and grins. She taps out a "Thanks, that helped," blind and puts it away, pulling Momo into a tight hug.

"Called it."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

This may as well happen (positive)!

Permalink Mark Unread

"...There's no way you're going to be persuaded otherwise now, is there.  And considering that I had already been uncertain even before all this evidence..."

"I can't say I don't want her here with us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I guess that's me decided."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And reciprocated love sure sounds like a reason she'd want to be here with us. So no, we're not gonna be persuaded otherwise, I don't think. Honestly really excited to meet her."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think she'll like you too."

Permalink Mark Unread

How are the flowers doing?

Permalink Mark Unread

"Aww yay."

They're maybe a third of the way bloomed, or maybe closer to half.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Huh.  If the flowers keep going like that, I think the tree's going to have fruit on it precisely at midnight.

 

"...Wait, why did we stay up for this when we have a phone?  Does it have a camera?  ...I mean, I'm going to stay up with you now I'm here, this is honestly really nice, but I feel so silly for forgetting that we have at least one piece of functioning technology that I didn't have to make from scratch."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Because we're very silly and have had absolutely insane days heaped on us?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're not wrong about that, Ruby."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby hugs Momo close with one arm and snaps a picture of the partially-bloomed flowers with the other.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You know...  I am reliably informed that in circumstances like these, it is appropriate to take a 'selfie'."

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby grins nervously. "Well. We've never taken one before, but we can try, sure! Do you wanna take it or want me to?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

...Oh.  Right.  There was probably dysphoria in the way.

Permalink Mark Unread

"I think I could, if you'd rather!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Cue hesitant blushy smile and handing the phone back to Momo. "Thanks!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now, strike a pose," she wraps an arm around Ruby's shoulders, "look at the camera," she makes sure they're both in frame, "and smile!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Ruby grins cheerfully and leans close!

Permalink Mark Unread

And they have a selfie!

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooh we look good!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That we do."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Maybe we should get used to taking pictures, since we look good now."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I've no doubt that you looked better than you thought you did, but considering that you are absolutely stunning now, yes, you might want to!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She blushes. "Stunning?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Well, you certainly stun me!"

Permalink Mark Unread

More blushes. "Wow. Well you stun us too. A lot."

Permalink Mark Unread

...It really hits different, when you hear that from someone who you like and who you want to like you.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well!  ...Thank you!"

Permalink Mark Unread

How about a shy kiss to Momo's cheek?

Permalink Mark Unread

That seems entirely appropriate!

Permalink Mark Unread

Okay then she does that and rests her head on Momo's shoulder after.

Permalink Mark Unread

She can work with this!  She can pat the Ruby!  That doesn't require sorting through enough of her gay feelings to recover the ability to speak at all!

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah neither of them have recovered the ability to speak and that's okay. They can just cuddle and be gay.

Permalink Mark Unread

Yeah, that sounds lovely, actually.

They can do that and watch the tree blooming, even!

Permalink Mark Unread

This is cozy. It's really nice. 

The flowers have fully bloomed by a little before midnight, and exactly at midnight the petals start falling off and the buds start expanding into fruits.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Huh.  Midnight, on the dot.  I wonder if it's just going to take another hour before the fruits are ready."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It would fit! We'll have to see!"

Cozy snugs.

Permalink Mark Unread

Momo continues to have actually been quite touchstarved for various reasons for a long time in ways that she is kind of still recovering from enjoy the snuggling!

Permalink Mark Unread

Same, honestly. They've been pretty touch-starved for a good few years.

Permalink Mark Unread

The snuggling will continue until...

Okay, it is very likely that the snuggling is just going to continue until something external happens - probably the fruit finishing its growth.

Permalink Mark Unread

Which occurs promptly at 01:00.

"Two hour growth cycle straddling midnight. Neat."

Ruby yawns.

Permalink Mark Unread

"It is really neat.  I wonder if the flowers serve any function, or if they're entirely decorative?  Not something to mess with with no spare capacity, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Now, let's get us both to sleep -" she doesn't stifle a yawn at all, "or back to sleep, in my case.  We certainly need it."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, you're right." Ruby stretches and stands, and offers a hand to help Momo to her feet, then wanders off to the bathroom stall to quickly change into her PJs. "See you in the tent."

Permalink Mark Unread

She doesn't, strictly speaking, need the hand up.  She takes it anyway.

"See you there."

Permalink Mark Unread

And a minute or so later, Ruby steps into the tent wearing the loose PJ pants and black camisole Momo made her. They fit very well.

She smiles softly and crawls into her sleeping bag. "Y'know, despite all the horror it started out with, we really enjoyed today with you. You make our lives brighter."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...And I can quite firmly say that that is likewise true of yourselves and me.  I could have been so much worse off, but here we are, doing things because they're the right thing to do, or because they'll make us happier."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Thanks, Momo. That means a lot to us."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And it means a lot to me, that that means a lot to you.  But we'll be here all night if we keep complimenting eachother!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Tempting," she jokes with a giggle. "Goodnight, Momo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Goodnight, Ruby, and everyone."

Permalink Mark Unread

And they sleep. They were up late enough that by the mid sixes, they're actually still asleep for once.

Permalink Mark Unread

Whereas Momo is, by contrast, awake by that hour not by necessity but by merely the consequence of her earlier early night, and trying to figure out how to make something nice for breakfast out of solely persines.

It's not really going all that well, but she is trying.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sometime around the early to mid sevens, Sable steps out of the tent, stretching and yawning, amethyst showing on the bracelet.

"Mmmorning, Momo." Then her eyes land on Momo's project. "Awwwwww! You've been working on breakfast?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"More like trying to make breakfast; there's not all that much that you can do with a single fruit and no supporting infrastructure - but if you'd like yours sliced, that I can do.  Good morning, Sable."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Slices would be very sweet of you."

She sits down across from Momo, smiling tenderly.

"Any thoughts for what you'd like to do today?"

Permalink Mark Unread

She can definitely make sliced persine happen!

And completely lose her train of thought upon seeing that smile!

Permalink Mark Unread

"I...  Had had thoughts...  Except that now I cannot for the life of me really recall what they were besides the broadest strokes of 'training'."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I don't mind waiting for your train of thought to catch up with us," she teases with a gentle grin, "but I worry that the fond gazing I'll be doing in the meantime might further complicate the process of catching it."

She pops a persine slice into her mouth cheerfully. "Mmmm.~"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'll just have to avoid getting lost in your eyes, then!"

"But, no, I do think it's catching up to me...

"Making you your targets, first thing, and all their supporting infrastructure. Then, you do target practice for a bit while I work on your new costume - if you have specific elements you want me to work in, aesthetically speaking, let me know - and after I've made it, you and I should spar to make sure it's sufficient. We can also practice your disarming. And, hm... Rescue training. There's only so much we can do about that but we should do it. See if you can catch someone who's falling without going over internal-injury thresholds, perhaps."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable smiles warmly, a bit of a blush coloring her cheeks, and reaches out to take one of Momo's hands in her own.

"Those are very good ideas and I appreciate them so much. I also want us to fit things you want for yourself in to our days somewhere, though," she explains as she brings Momo's knuckles to her lips in a fit of reckless, daring whimsy, kissing the back of her hand.

Permalink Mark Unread

Help, she's very gay and that kiss was very sweet.  But!  She has counterpoints to raise!

"Well, the thing is, right now?  I want nothing more than to help you become the best hero you can be.  ...That's not entirely true, I am a relatively high-functioning lesbian but I am a lesbian, but...  Firstly, we have a mission in seven - six - days and you need to be ready for that much more than I want to do anything else.  We have five days to meld your heroic heart and your body's instincts into a coherent whole and I am not going to waste that timeAfter that we can revisit leisure activities.  Secondly, I am going to get so many things I want incidentally that I really already feel like I've a surfeit of life satisfaction right now.  Thirdly, training you also helps me."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Fuck, you're easy to love." Sable grins softly. "Given all that, I think we have a good plan that gets us both what we want, because the two biggest things I want are helping people, and living life surrounded by happily thriving people I love."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"And your other - ah, what was the word - the other people who share your body?  They also want this?  Not to imply that I would think they wouldn't, but, I can't not ask."

Permalink Mark Unread

"My headmates are on board. Neo thinks you seem interesting, and she's looking forward to JSL and sparring. Hailey's got a crush from how you handled her yesterday mixed with what we already knew of you. Maya attaches easily as long as the rest of us are in, and adores your protective streak and your dedication. And Ruby honestly admires you and thinks you're absolutely great." Sable smiles hesitantly, blushing. "Picking you was our choice before we even woke up on the Skyblock. You're the one we're worried about. Don't want you to feel pressured."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I hadn't meant to ask that, but I think your answer still answers my question."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable laughs sheepishly. "Aheh. Yeah, to be explicit about that question, Hailey and Maya's biggest priority is that us and ours be safe, and having the skills to handle whatever world we might face directly serves that. Neo wants us to get what we need to make all six of us comfortable, and to gradually pretty up the island eventually. Ruby and I want to help people."

Permalink Mark Unread

One two three four five...

Permalink Mark Unread

Six?

Permalink Mark Unread

Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be meant quite that way...

But maybe she wants it to, just a little.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Those are all very good goals."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Though to dodge us getting caught in a loop of gayly admiring eachother for an hour I regret that I think I shouldn't get to talking about mine in so many words - but I think you've a good enough idea of Kiyuko's example to figure out the kind of hero I want to be, and the rest should follow naturally from there.  Let me get started on your targets."

Permalink Mark Unread

And off she goes!

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable kisses Momo's cheek, pops the last slice of persine into her mouth (she'd been munching a bit while they talked), and starts practicing different types of webbing at the tree while Momo makes targets. It turns out she can vary the stickiness along the length and ends, increase the elasticity, and also make a variant that wants to spread out and stick to everything. This last type seems to be good for captures or disarmament, so she practices switching between swing-lines and differently-sized capture webs back and forth as quick as she can, trying to get it reflexive.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Do you think you can - hm, weave, different sorts of - what am I saying, yes you can, you've done that.  You should practice doing that with the sticks-to-everything stuff, and then...  The weblines you've been doing that are different elasticities?  You're going to need - or at least very much want - that sort of ability, to safely decelerate a falling human who isn't Quirk-reinforced.  There's a reason you wear a harness when you're attached to a climbing rope, it distributes the force - and gradually bringing the elasticity down would then allow you to spread out the decelerative force over time while still exerting maximal safe deceleration, I believe - though I haven't worked out the physics.  ...Sudden sharp stops are bad, I'm assuming you know that."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable hums and nods. "Yeah. I'm calling the sprawling sticky stuff capture webbing, or maybe spread-webs. When it's a big net meant to snag a whole person I think I'll call it a capture-web. But yeah, I think hit my falling target with a capture-web to get a good wide grip, spread it out over their whole body, with a really elastic web-line following right after, trying to maybe get them upright so that the deceleration forces are along the spine rather than across it, and gradually increase the number of support lines and decrease the elasticity?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"That sounds like it would work well, though I'd be hesitant about adding more chances to miss than I had to, in your position."

Permalink Mark Unread

Another nod. "Yeah, I think the initial capture-web should have a somewhat elastic support line attached so I've got a grip from the first impact, and then I can worry about trying to slow further."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You do have two hands, at least.  We should actually test the limits of your webbing's elasticity."

"What else was I thinking of..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Right.  I need to figure out how to make a reuseable training dummy for all this.  Probably more than one, because gravity is not going to be so considerate as to limit itself to making only one person plummet to the ground at a time.  And of different sizes and weights..."

At this rate, she is going to figure out how to do Support Engineering.  Kami preserve her.

"...Oh!  Samples of your webbing in its precursor state.  I have some thoughts on how to do that.  Though that's not actually relevant now.  I don't have the lab equipment to do anything with them quite yet, and making it is not high priority.  But once we do know how it's made - assuming it's not a Quirk-influenced material, or the non-Quirk equivalent of such a thing - that gives me a useful tool I wouldn't otherwise have."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Ooooh that's smart. Most Spideys make the stuff with tech, actually, and we went for built-in just to prevent ever being separated from our web shooters since we had the option. Reusable training dummies are really smart too."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It'll be smart if I can do it. I'm still not a support engineer, even if the need for it does seem to be bringing out latent tendencies."

Permalink Mark Unread

"And choosing to make sure you couldn't ever be separated from a key component of your strategies was a very good idea on your part."

Permalink Mark Unread

Now as for the design of things...

She actually does have some ideas, now that she's thinking about this.  Though a lot of the ideas she has have a lot of problems the moment someone starts webbing them up, at first pass.

Permalink Mark Unread

...maybe if she puts some sort of clearing mechanism somewhere webbing already should not be applied because of the forces being absolutely horrible...  The neck.  It will have to be the neck.  She wants to make at least semi-realistic arms and legs, but she can't quite figure how to weight them adjustably, and really, there's no time for her to make this a perfect simulation, so that gets thrown on the pile of 'things to noodle at when there's free time'.

That at least does simplify the design, somewhat.

"Are there things that you know would break your webbing?  Repeatedly and reliably, ideally without needing constant maintenance or a lot of raw power?  I'm trying to figure out how to make sure these dummies don't fall into the void and become inaccessible for being weighted, and that requires that I be able to secure an 'escape hatch' for those weights."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable frowns for a moment, tilting her head.

There's... something.

Did Gwen know something?

Permalink Mark Unread

Suddenly she reaches out and grabs the phone, flipping to the notepad and starting writing out a formula and treatment process.

"That's what the Green Goblin treated knives with to cut Gwen's webs. Got 'em through the adhesive webbing smoothly. Knowing that feels so weird."

Permalink Mark Unread

"But potentially very useful, especially if you have blueprints for things that I might not.  I had also figured that heat might pose problems..."

"...Does it pose problems?"

Permalink Mark Unread

While she muses, the vast majority of her attention is on both trying to create a small sample of the precursors, and what she suspects is the result, given what she knows about similar Heroics materials.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Mostly not? Can at temperatures most gear isn't rated for, though.."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Probably not worth it, then, but do be careful of fire Quirks."

"...Well.  I should hope you'd do that anyway."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah, every Quirk's worth being careful of. There's a girl from a different universe, different source of powers, and her power was bug control. She leveraged that to take over a city."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm less surprised by that than I think you thought I would be; we have someone who can speak to animals in our class, and he's quite competent as a hero.  The ability to directly control even something so seemingly harmless as bugs...  Well, leaving aside the venomous spiders!

"Depending on the details, it would be positively easy to take over a city."

Permalink Mark Unread

"That makes you wiser than most people who hear about Taylor's situation, before they read the book. Honestly the biggest threat was how she eventually learned to process their senses, and how she got flawless multitasking for every bug in her six-block range."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"I hope we don't run into her!  That's!  So much!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yeah. She's kind of terrifying to fight. The fun thing, though, is that she only took over the city to fix it after a kaiju wrecked it. Try to like... hedge out the gang of actual Neo-Nazis and stuff, and get basic services going again. She's actually trying to do right by her city, and she'll cooperate with people who don't fuck up her efforts to do so. Honestly, I'm not really worried about running into Taylor. This is the kind of 'villain' who, when she finds out her boss used a job she did as a distraction to kidnap a preteen precog and make himself even more untouchable by combining his power with hers, runs a successful months-long plot to get close enough to him to end him and free the girl."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Then I hope we don't run into her world, because it sounds like a disaster straight out of the Second Dark Age or worse."

Permalink Mark Unread

"You are absolutely correct about that. Worm is a DR7 deathtrap and I want a bunch more upgrades and defenses before we go anywhere remotely close."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"By way of comparison, what are we - my world - on this scale?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Four. And Gwen's neighborhood of worlds is five to eight, depending on which variant of the world and what time period. A couple really bad periods hit a nine."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good grief."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Yours before All Might hits a six, if that's additional context?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"It does, and it doesn't provide very pleasant context."

Permalink Mark Unread

"We'll just have to level up to meet it. We have a month with the maximum danger rating for portal destinations being three, then another month max four, and so on. We'll rise to this, Momo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"It's not that I'm particularly worried about keeping up, yet.  It's that there are worlds out there that are that badly off and that we're only two people in an indefinite-but-certainly-very-large multiverse."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh. Well yes, that's concerning. There are never enough people like us, and an awful lot of worlds in need."

How 'bout some hug?

Permalink Mark Unread

Hug is very appreciated.

Permalink Mark Unread

"...As much as there is a part of me that just wants to stay in this hug for the rest of forever - you give very good hugs - we can't afford that.  I have the targets done, and we need to test this knife, to see if I have the treatment right, before I can move onto the ones for catching."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Good point. Where would you like a testing sample of capture web?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Anywhere convenient, so," she proffers a volleyball-sized sphere, "this will probably do?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Thwip!

"There you go, sweetheart. I'll get to practicing."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

Right, does the knife work?

Permalink Mark Unread

No, not quite. it bites into the webbing but binds up in the adhesives.

Meanwhile, Sable is tossing buoyant targets out and webbing them. One at a time for now, just to get used to hitting further targets of various sizes.

It's meditative.

Permalink Mark Unread

Hmm.  If this wasn't the right way for it to be, there's only a few other ways that it could go, so...

Permalink Mark Unread

Once more she makes a knife!

Permalink Mark Unread

She does note down the 'failed' treatment, though.  It might be useful for something eventually.

Permalink Mark Unread

Is this way the right way for the knife to be?

Permalink Mark Unread

Yes. Yes, it is. It cuts capture-web like butter.

Sable is getting pretty solid at webbing targets, in the meantime. Thwip, thwip, thwip.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then she can get to making the falling dummies!

Honestly, half the trouble is adjusting for the bit where there doesn't seem to be a measurable decrease or increase of air pressure based on height.  Thankfully, she has software for triangulating from radio beacons.  ...That increases the amount of circuitry she has to bother with, but considering that she needs to record g-forces anyway, and that'll need to be electrified for reusability's sake...  Not to mention that she'll also need vector references to make animated target practice routines.

...It'll be fine.  As long as they have power enough to spare - and the recovery function oughtn't trigger too often, if the training is working whatsoever.  Still, she thinks they should test it before relying on it.

 

"I think I'm ready to test one of these, if you're ready to catch it if it tries to escape into the abyss, by which I mean, if it gets more than twenty meters from my lovely new reference points without activating its recovery mechanisms."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable has reached the point of tossing multiple out blind and timing how quickly she can snag them all back, by the time Momo is ready to test this.

"Practice has been going well, so sure. Sounds like fun."

Permalink Mark Unread

She can tell!

Permalink Mark Unread

"Alright, I'm loading this up with barely any weight, so even if it goes wrong we'll have plenty of time."

Permalink Mark Unread

And without further ado, she pushes one of her dummies over the edge, after double-checking that the batteries are charged and the settings are set.

Permalink Mark Unread

And, somehow to her own surprise, it works exactly as it should.  The blades slice, the weight is ejected, everything triggers at the set distance, and both the weight and the faux body are propelled back to the skyblock's surface.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable laughs and grins and pulls Momo into a twirling hug. "That's amazing, Momo! That's going to be such a big help!"

Permalink Mark Unread

She bounces happily and very readily reciprocates the hug!

...She may even, from sheer overflowing glee at her success, kiss Sable!  On the cheek, they're not at the point where more - aggressive - kissing seems right yet, but something about this situation just seems to demand celebration, and kisses are celebratory!  If Sable would like one!

Permalink Mark Unread

"I'm really glad it's working!"

Permalink Mark Unread

The cheek kiss gets a blushy smile from Sable, and a lingering fond gaze.

"Thank you for all this amazing training gear, Momo."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I probably shouldn't get all the credit for it, I stand on the shoulders of support engineers - but I'm glad you like it.  Do you want to try catching one of these, now?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Little nervous, almost wanna keep working on target practice first, but I'm doing well enough at that." She takes a breath. "Yeah, let's give it a try."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Alright, in 3, 2, 1," and off the edge goes one of the training dummies!

Permalink Mark Unread

The moment it's off the edge and tumbling, Sable lunges to the edge, bare feet and one hand sticking her to a stop just at the edge. Left hand hangs down, shoots a capture web directly at the falling dummy, a more-elastic swing-line trailing behind it. It hits the dummy solidly at center of mass, exploding outward in a spray of webbing that wraps the dummy's arms and legs, spilling high to support the head, almost a little too much covering the face but not quite.

In that moment Sable grabs the web-line tight, elastic stretching as the dummy decelerates to a stop.

Permalink Mark Unread

Then she blows out a breath and starts hauling back up, hand over hand.

Permalink Mark Unread

Momo smiles...  And pushes another dummy off the edge, without a word of warning.

Permalink Mark Unread

!!!

Slap the web-line she's currently holding to the ground with a simultaneous burst of webbing to hold it in place, then lunge down to catch that one too! Capture-webbing spills out across the dummy, cocooning it quickly, and she yanks hard on the support line, hauling up as it decelerates.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You're doing great!  Here comes another one -"

And this one is much smaller, half the size of the 'adult'-sized ones.

Permalink Mark Unread

Eep! Slap that webline to the ground and stick it! Shit shit shit and this one's smaller okay tighter on the capture-webbing she's got a smaller target here fuck.

She whips a capture-web down at the child-dummy, webbing snapping out to envelop it supportively, webline stretching out as it decelerates.

Fuck.

Hand over hand, haul the dummy up while checking to see if Momo has any more.

Permalink Mark Unread

She doesn't yet.

"You did very well with this, Sable.  I'm impressed."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable smiles at Momo over her shoulder while hauling the dummies upward. "How's the deceleration score? Smooth enough to keep 'em alive?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Let me just pull up the graphs..."

"Yeah, it looks like you did just fine.

"We'll keep practicing, three does not a sufficient sample make to judge you competent instead of lucky, and I have other surprises waiting - but I do think that if something like this comes up, you're most likely going to be able to handle it well."

Permalink Mark Unread

Hand over hand, hauling up the dummies.

"Well, it's a start. Nothing like having to react quickly to debug these reflexes, right?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Right!  Now, let me make you your new hero uniform..."

Permalink Mark Unread

"...Or, well, I might need some more measurements first, though, to know how much give it's going to need to have in some places, especially if you want it skintight...  Which I am assuming you do because you have superadhesion?  Is that, uh, localized?  Or all over?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable grins and blushes as she sets the last dummy on the ground. "Yeah, that's all-over. So I'm absolutely going to want skintight. Also for the sake of making you blush, and generally looking hot, but mostly for the strategic value. That's also why we're not wearing boots around the skyblock, mostly."

She steps away from the edge and spreads her arms wide. "This do, or shall I strip the shirt and pants off first?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"I mean, this is mostly about range of motion, so...  I'll leave that to your best judgement...  But I wouldn't want to be wearing jeans for flexibility testing?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable blushes brighter, but keeps grinning as she pulls her shirt off, then shimmies her pants down her hips, leaving her in a bra and panties. Once again, she spreads her arms wide, for easy measuring access.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Alright, I'm going to need you to do some things..."

And Momo, despite the radiant blush and the mind that clearly wants to wander somewhere else, starts leading Sable through flexibility exercises and other poses like the ones she'll need for the wingsuit, and taking measurements accordingly.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable gamely follows through every stretch and twist and pose, blushing and smiling all the while. It turns out that she is extremely flexible, on the level of a professional gymnast or better, and made of wiry muscle, with clear definition down every limb.

Permalink Mark Unread

She had rather thought so, but better safe than sorry!

...also she is very pretty, help.

Permalink Mark Unread

"You can get dressed again if you want; I have everything I need to have, and it's going to be a bit until we can test your new hero oufit."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable puts her clothes back on. "Well. I think there's something to be said for making the costume as punk and goth as we can while still keeping properly heroic vibes — don't wanna confuse people about whose side we're on, now — and then there's a question of color scheme. Each Pirate has our own favorite colors, though we do like each other's, too. So I'm honestly not very sure how to style it. We could use purple themes, 'cause I'm the host, but I don't feel like that's very fair to the others. Most Spideys have a big central spider emblem on the chest, usually pretty stylized, although every Spidey styles the emblem differently, and as you can see from our existing costume that Gwen doesn't have one at all, just the web trim. Could maybe do a bit of a drippy-ink look on ours? I dunno."

She shrugs helplessly, still grinning. "Suggestions welcome?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"...We're already working in the hardware you need for optical camouflage...  Wouldn't be that hard to let you key in different color palettes when you're not using that for its design purpose."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well that would be awesome," she replies with a surprised laugh. "In that case maybe add some ink theming to the spider emblem, and then adjust the colorful parts to match whoever's fronting?"

Permalink Mark Unread

"We can definitely do that!  And possibly adjust - if you want there to be emblems in the spider, that's pretty feasible.  If anything I'm having more trouble figuring out how to hybridize a spider and ink."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh? Okay, that's workable." She starts sketching on a pad Momo hands her: a heart dripping ink, a lightning bolt, a burning shield, a mask with the right third shattering like glass, and a burning rose. "These were our emblems on Remnant."

Permalink Mark Unread

"I can definitely make these work."

It will take a bit of doing to translate them through to the control program, but it's work well worth the doing.

Let her just sketch out a spider...

The design she ends up with evokes an almost calligraphic aesthetic; it is very much made of brushstrokes, sharp and sweeping, though she does add some details that would be more likened to dripping paint.  It looks as though she intends to center the spider's abdomen in the center of the chest, with its head facing downwards, to accent the dramatic swooshiness of the back legs further and equally give the dripping-ink forelegs she has devised a better (flatter) canvas.

Permalink Mark Unread

"If this is alright, I can load all these into the control unit once I've gotten the actual costume made."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh holy fuck that's gorgeous. That's amazing."

She tugs Momo into a fierce hug and tips up on tiptoes to press a kiss to her forehead, then drops back down to look her in the eyes.

"I love it. I can already tell the others do too. Thank you."

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

"I suppose I picked up more than I thought I would from Hero Art History."

Permalink Mark Unread

Once she's caught her breath from the hug, and her poor gay heart has stopped trying to pound its way out of her chest (for now), she can actually make the costume.  It's a very complex craft, lots of fiddly details, from the computers to the fabric itself, but she can do it, so long as she keeps her focus.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable will not distract her, despite how amazing she is and how much she wants to just be continuously gay.

Instead she'll do more target practice. She needs to be able to web anything at the drop of a hat.

Permalink Mark Unread

There's probably a good fifteen minutes of Creating and installing software and performing checks before she breaks free from her sole focus enough to say "It's ready!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oooh yay!" She bounds over rather than toss targets out again.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Here, try it on, make sure everything works right and fits right -"

Permalink Mark Unread

And then what they're about to do hits her.

Oh, goodness.

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable looks the costume over, awestruck, then examines deeper. "You included a built-in bra?" she asks, impressed.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well...  Yes?  I...  Wanted it to be self-contained."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Smart."

She pulls her shirt off, setting it aside, then shimmies out of her pants, and then with a blushy grin and a wink at Momo, she pulls her bra over her head and sets that aside too, perky tits bouncing free, just barely obscured by the angle of her body.

Carefully, she steps into the sleek, graphite-black fabric of the costume, pulling it up over her hips, slipping into the sleeves, and zipping it up. Then she pulls on the mask, and turns to face Momo.

The calligraphed spider spills across her chest in faintly iridescent silver, her purple-violet heart dripping black ink in the center of the spider's abdomen. The trim at the wrists and palms, and inside the hood, is purple with silver webbing. Purple outlines highlight the expressive silver eyes on her mask. And every inch of it hugs her figure like a glove.

"Well, how do I look?"

Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread
Permalink Mark Unread

...

...

...

...

...It takes a solid minute for Momo to regain even the slightest hint of the power of speech.  It takes two, before she can actually form words enough to say "Very good."

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable grins, wide and confident, and steps closer, her motions liquid and elegant. "You have outdone yourself, Momo. This looks amazing." She wraps her up in her arms and hugs her close.

Permalink Mark Unread

We're sorry, the Momo you're trying to reach is unavailable at this gay.  Please leave a message after the tone.  Eeeep!

Permalink Mark Unread

"I wonder if it'll get easier for you to bounce back from gay panic eventually," she muses. "Breaking your brain sure is fun, though."

Permalink Mark Unread

...

"...You can habituate to nearly anything survivable, with enough exposure.  ...But I'm fairly sure I will not be getting used to you anytime soon."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Oh good."

Permalink Mark Unread

Then she pulls away with a laugh. "Oh this is tempting me to practice swinging."

Permalink Mark Unread

"Make sure that you can web before you go swinging around, please?"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable grins, and though Momo can't see her face, it shows in her masked eyes, sharp and bright. "Planning on it."

She webs a nearby target twice, just to prove neither wrist is blocked, then walks to the edge. "Every Spider-Man and Spider-Woman has this moment, staring at a yawning void, simultaneously giddy and terrified. And every time, they don't know for sure if they'll get it right. They've practiced and tested, but that last step is a leap of faith. And it's not one we thought we'd get to take."

Permalink Mark Unread

Then she leaps into a backflip, blowing a kiss at Momo while she's upside down and facing the Skyblock, and disappears from view.

Permalink Mark Unread

Kami preserve her, she might be in love.

Permalink Mark Unread

Down Sable falls.

Down, down.

And then she twists, turning to face the underside of the Skyblock, and points a hand.

Thwip.

Permalink Mark Unread

Webbing soars.

It catches.

Pulls taut.

Permalink Mark Unread

The next thing Momo hears is a gleeful shout.

"Woooohooooooooo!!!"

Shortly, Sable soars into view on the other side of the Skyblock, shooting high into the air, twisting into a flip, then waving down at her.

Permalink Mark Unread

"Wooo!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable laughs delightedly as she twists in the air, falling back toward the void.

She disappears below the edge again.

Thwip.

And back up she swings again.

She calls out to Momo while she's above the surface this time. "Wonder about target practice like this!"

Permalink Mark Unread

"Well, give it a try!  You're getting the airtime for it up there!"

Permalink Mark Unread

Sable webs two targets into her grasp, then flings then hard. They sail off, well past the far esge of the Skyblock.

And then she vanishes again.

The moment she rises past the surface, she whips webs at three more in rapid sequence, dragging them even further into the sky than the previous two.

Then, as she soars higher, she webs the first two and yanks them across to the other side.

She twists in mid-air, upside-down, and blows a kiss at Momo.

And again she vanishes.