"Ooooh, neat! Could you always eyeball it, or was it something you learned by using the tool? And - I'm not sure yet, honestly! I just got my powers, I think I need to do some testing on how many distinct inputs my brain can handle having access to and then go from there, probably with some kind of... multi-keyboard setup designed to test the limits of what I could use? Of course, anything above 1 keyboard is going to be diminishing returns and require some custom software, because my attentional capacity doesn't seem to be meaningfully changed and I'm not, like, multithreaded..."

"I think I got some of the instincts when I got my powers, but practicing and using related tools helps sharpen them? I can setup multiple keyboards really easy if you'd like! And I have a bunch of software written for custom settings already and can use it as needed - how much does let placement matter to you?"

"Oh, that would be amazing, especially help with the software - I've done simple stuff for myself and some modifying existing code but I've never built anything that comprehensive, I was kind of dreading it - placement is just about reach and access, really, they need to be in my line of sight and close enough to reach but there aren't really ergonomic concerns beyond 'can I reach all the buttons with my head in a comfy place'..."

"I have a really neat domain specific programming language for keymappings I could show you how to use! How would you like a spherical keyboard I've always wanted to do one of those - do you need 'line of sight' line of sight or just to be able to reach with your hair? Because not all the keys on the keyboard will be in your line of sight unless it's transparent I guess I could do that."

"That sounds awesome - I've used a really good macro language before but it just couldn't handle multiple keyboards, it thought 'B' is just 'B' no matter which keyboard you pressed 'B' on, I think because of how it was grabbing inputs - I really don't know if a spherical keyboard would work, actually, I don't have a complete understanding of the sensory feedback I get from my hair, it might depend a lot on the shape and how well i knew the button layout - wait, when you say 'spherical keyboard' do you mean, like, a keyboard that has the keys on the exterior of a sphere, or a sphere the user stands inside and has keys facing inward?"

"Yeah my keyboards can be slotted together and the keymapping is easy to do for whatever combination of things - though you'll start need a Tinker to do maintenance if it gets too complicated. Can you do braille with your hair? I can do either or both of those keyboards, I was thinking of the first but the second also sounds cool but also if that's not the optimal configurating for you I can do something different and keep searching for a use for spherical keyboards."

"Oh, you're a genius! I could totally do braille with my hair!!" 

Magini is vibrating excitedly!

"Oh neat that's really cool I can do thee spherical keyboard also how big do they keys need to be also do you think a tactile screen would work for you."

"I don't think the keys need to be that big, as long as the markings are distinct and they don't take that much force to actuate? I have a lot of precision! And spherical sounds great, yeah. Ummm..."

She pulls out her phone and attempts to poke at it with her hair. Nothing happens.

"Capacitive touchscreen is a no-go, which doesn't rule out other ways of making touchscreens but iirc those mostly suck, right?"

She pauses. "Wait, do you have secret superpower ways of making non-capacitive touchscreens that don't suck?"

"Oh by tactile screen I meant a screen that you can feel instead of see but I bet I can also make a capacitive screen that works with hair, but also the screen on at least one my monitors is light interruption based. Though uh, anything this complicated is going to require tinker maintenance - I'm confused about whether you are one?"

Oh, hmm. How to put this... "So - I don't have a Tinker power, but I have a... ?Thinker? power that I haven't really tested, but - should make it possible for you to teach me a little bit of what you do, if you want. I don't really know the specifics of how it'd work for this, but - if you'd be up for showing me what you're working on right now, I might be able to help?"

She grins and spreads out her hair expressively, passing her action figures from one strandgroup to another.

"And even if I don't pick anything up, I bet I'll be an extremely handy assistant!" 

"Oh neat! Yeah we can go to my lab and I can show you my projects - uh, I don't have just one I am working there are.... eight. and three quarters. That I want to work on in various stages and also some other stuff in other stages."

"Eight? Oh, that's so cool! Tell me about them while we head there?"

Sure!

(1) He has an idea for how to phase villains out of line with reality to hold them there like an even better form of containment foam, whih was actually inspired by the question you asked last night. (2) There is a spark gun he made a bit ago for knocking out villains and there's no reason at all he shouldn't be able to hook it up directly to a more powerful generator and have it fire continuously and also around corners once he gets the frequencies right but he is having so much trouble with that! (3) There's an idea he had for a HUD display which would allow his team to be share information live but he can't get more than two to work at once. (4) There's a robot that is supposed to look around places but he hasn't gotten past the propulsion and guidance stage with, (5) there's a sword based on Clockblocker's power which sort of works to make an impossible sharp blade except for how the manifold keeps collapsing and eating the whole sword and some of his gloves and one time his finger which Panacea and his boss was mad about but the idea is just so cool. (6) He wants to build a cannon for serious fights but he can't decide which of a dozen different armaments to go with, (7) and similarly there's an upgrade to his suit that should let it turn into a sort of rocket type thing as needed but he has five different ideas for details and none of them seem just right. (8) He also has a type of arrow almost designed that should generate a taser effect when it moves through Vista-altered space in an ambient way that doesn't require a power source so he'd be able to print them by the dozen, and (9) lastly he can almost see how to finally get Gallants suit to detect what sort of emotional blasts he is sending out - uh don't tell people the suit is from Kid Win - which would be useful for a bunch of other things. A keyboard upgrade, fixing his hoverboard so it doesn't overheat so much, and another variant of the cannon idea which maybe could be even smaller, round out another three fourths. Oh whoops that's one more than he thought.

Here's his lab now!

Woah.

She has a bunch of questions! (If he looks at her arms, he'll see text appearing and then going through editing and formatting cycles as she refines (some of) her thoughts before saying them out loud)

1. What does "being knocked out of phase with reality" look like? Are they in some alternate dimension? Does time pass normally for them? Would it wear off on its own? Could you use it on inanimate objects?

2. Can he automate the frequency search somehow? Or is it one of those annoyingly-fiddly things that you have to figure out before doing any testing, she hates those...

3. Could he maybe make a bunch of pairs and then build something else to manually sync 1 out of each pair together?

4. Oh, that's so cool! ...could he, like, deploy a shitty version for now just by taping a smartphone to it and starting a video call so he doesn't have to worry about doing the rest? (Any% MVPs! If he lets her, she'll launch into an anecdote about how she added multiplayer to a game in a weekend because someone told her they didn't think she could do it, and what a silly (but fun and cool and rewarding) project that turned out to be)

5. She didn't know Clockblocker's power could cut th- (and then she says Clockblocker out loud for the first time and her train of thought is derailed totally because she can't stop laughing. How did he get away with that????)

6&7. Oooh, what are the options? ...and could he make something that swaps between them as needed?

5&8&9. When he makes stuff that interfaces with other people's powers, what's that process like? Presumably he needs their help to test things, but how does getting the initial inspiration work? 

1. It looks like disappearing, yes to all those questions, how long it takes to wear off, and how well the effect to prevent someone from moving works, both depend on the size of the object.

2. Oooooh yeah that could work, he has another project that might be relevant!

3. Hm.... that seems harder but maybe making it so each one can sync to two others and then linking them up in a chain would work!!

4. He will definitely let her jump into an anecdote though is it okay if he then ties her anecodote into a bunch of different tinkertech ideas cause he's going to want to do that! 

5. The PR people hated it but yes it is sort of great. Don't tell Clockblocker he said that.

6&7.  Here are the eight optio-oh wow that concept is sparkly yes he coullllld!!!!

5&8&9: He builds scanning equipment to scan their powers, basically! Some stuff he can use for multiple powers, some stuff he can eyeball, ect.

It is definitely okay if he moves on from her anecdote to a bunch of different tinkertech ideas! She loves tinkertech ideas!! She feels like she's vaguely starting to understand a few of the things he's saying, which is awesome!

Does he want to work on the swappable cannon together, now that they're at the lab and the idea is so sparkly? :D

Yes!! And also maybe like, two of the other projects, but mostly the swappable canon.

Okay! Magini helps out, taking notes on her arms and referencing them when Kid Win loses his train of thought or one of them puts something down that they'll need later. (It turns out that if you can instantly write down the location of every object you put down on your skin that you can read, it's a lot harder to lose things!) She can also a lot of things at once with her hair, and manipulate things with a ton of precision!

And then, about an hour and a half in, she pauses, and says - "hmm, wait - what if for this module, you routed in the waste heat from the hover assembly to the beam focuser? Wouldn't it have better throughput at higher temperatures?"