She puts it on. "- nothing -"

"Too bad, that one's super useful and I'm working on a thing that'll let me mass-produce." He takes it back. "You okay?"

"I just triggered and I think if I don't throw off every creepy mind power they throw at me they maybe kill me or as good as so not super okay."

"They're kind of horrible." He puts the necklaces back on. "I'm not sure why they're so horrible, actually."

"There's a reason, just they don't want to 'cause my dad's a hero and he'd flip."

"There's probably not a good enough reason, people here take really bad reasons as good enough. The world's gonna end, have you noticed -"

"Kinda obvious."

"So what are they doing patrolling for bank robbers!"

"...I haven't slept in thirty hours I would love to argue about that later probably."

"Sure." He leaves.

Hey I'm alive thanks for the test help. They said you're looking for software Tinkers for stuff? I seem to be softwarey.

I can make magic artifacts and I need an artifact that lets other people create magic artifacts or, really, that lets computers create magic artifacts. The project requirements (attached) are really really ridiculously complicated but some of the Tinkers have been able to do stuff that'd have taken me fifteen years in a matter of weeks. This'd take me a hundred years, so maybe you can have it by Christmas. Also attached are the artifact instructions for some stuff that's way simpler than that, to give you an idea. Project requirements are plausibly not good enough and you might get something that meets them and doesn't work but it'll fail interestingly, if so.

I think the PRT would be supervising me more carefully if they believed me about magic artifacts so I'm trying to hit the right balance of 'this is important please prioritize it' and 'I am that daft kid who thinks he's an Elf and not worth paying attention to' but I'm not good at that and it's such a waste of mental energy, just refrain from pointing out to your bosses that if this works I can conquer the world and I will refrain from conquering the world. 

I have to come at things from kind of a weird angle, so I don't think by Christmas, but I'll look it over. Might be good for making the computer that creates the magic artifacts, later.

That'd be useful. Why're you in the Wards?

Budget for runway and my dad's a hero. I vaguely remember you saying something about the Protectorate but I crashed pretty hard after they let me go home and don't remember what it was.

I think their priorities are nonsensical. I think the failure to notice that I am actually in fact an Elf from another world, and start figuring out how to replicate the Tinker accident that brought me here in order to evacuate this dimension to another one, reflects such colossal incompetence that I wouldn't put them in charge of street sweeping. Though to be fair Elves consider street sweeping significantly more important than humans do.

I don't think letting civilians have a reasonable expectation that they can keep their money in banks and are unlikely to be shot by random gang violence is stupid. Also all the Tinkers involved in the fight that preceded your appearance are dead, I read the PHO wiki entry.

It wouldn't be stupid if we weren't facing down the end of the world. Well, it'd be stupid as a thing for Tinkers to be doing even then. You could insure all the banks with some tiny fraction of the wealth created by actually productive use of powers. And it's wildly unlikely that the only way to travel between dimensions was that one Tinker's thing, but even if that turns out to be true, they are not checking. We probably have less than twenty years left and I don't think they have a better idea than evacuation.

They're doing some things wrong but I think they're more constrained than you're acknowledging by cape psychology.

Hmm?

Does your library not have anything on that or were you busy with Icelandic and fruitflies? Capes are conflict-prone and generally fucked up. There's something to be said for channeling that in a way that isn't worse than nothing.

I'm doing an AI thing and it should be able to make a lot of progress on your thing once it's up and running.

I saw that but wasn't sure what to make of it. All humans are conflict-prone and generally fucked up and mostly that's not a reason to have you get into more fights. Maybe there should be, like, cape sports. Or you could hunt animals. 

Capes are worse than baseline. I don't think sports and hunting would cut it, conflict-prone is not the same thing as high-energy or into guns or whatever.

Is it a psychological effect? Have you noticed it since you triggered?

Unclear if it's an effect from triggers themselves or something else. I'm watching myself but I don't think I see it; but maybe the opacity is doing something.