Interesting.  And explanatory of much - she's a lot more confident in her read of red, black, and blue, knowing that - as well as white, obviously.  From the fact that these are arrows, that these are weaponry in general --

That is what has her suspecting that the white is a physical sort of restraint, from the principles established by pink acting as executive restraint.

...Mm.  She could be incredibly force-multiplied by Chronos.

Anywho, she never really did finish that deep dive into Capes Lore Tee Emm - has anybody been talking about their trigger events?

And she should proooobably update Ms. Sky on the actual effects of Pink Arrow.

After what I am going to call an 'oops' moment, I would like to inform you that I now have some idea of what the arrows that came with this bow actually do do, if that is of interest.

Hey this is Stella, not my bot. You managed to say enough concerning things to bounce up to the top of the list, congrats.

That's definitely either a superpower-weapon of some kind or someone went to a LOT of video editing effort to fool me about it. 

When you say you 'came into possession of' this thing, it's actually important whether you found it somewhere, or you took it from somewhere. If it appeared for you, for example in your room or in your hands, it's likely that you've gained superpowers, and the bow is part of them. In this case it's probably safe for you to handle them. Almost all powers seem to come with built in safeties for their users. If you found it on the street or in storage somewhere or anywhere else, it's probably someone else's tinkertech and there will be no such protections and your little 'oops' could mean you need to run to the hospital now in case something subtle is wrong. If that's an actual risk, I'd advise you to get it checked out. Secrecy is not worth your life in my opinion.

Also, good on you for taking basic cyber-sanitation. All I found in thirty seconds was your VPN. I won't say it's definitely necessary, but better to have and not need than need and not have.

-SSky

On the one hand wow it's really cool to be talking to you, on the other hand ouch I wish it was for a less That sort of reason!

I did not find the magical artifact on the side of the road, no.  It's mine.  Or it was at least given to me as part of the same coherent powerset, with the arrows.  Goodness knows that I've not the slightest clue if someone made it, as a separate invention, prior to it ending up in my hands, which is honestly one of the things that has bemused me the most about the contrast in what I instinctively expect our respective situations to be.  Like.  You're a Tinker, not a thaumaturgical engineer (Right?).  And then over here I'm getting a magical bow handed to me in my dreams because of reasons.  Which said reasons seem to have mostly been 'for shits and giggles' as best as my limited ability to analyze whatever the fuck that was, suggest.  ...Really, though, there's a lot of things about this that have me scratching my head.

You had a power dream? That's uncommon.

It's sounding like we should maybe talk in person. I'd be up for a few hours of advising and helping you figure your powers out in exchange for scans of it in use.

Yeah, and I still remember it while I'm awake and thinking, which is even weirder than usual for my dreams.  They usually drop out of cache rather quickly, though there's clearly some underlying memory of them given that I have on occasion remembered the future events of a past dream that's being repeated in the now, while I was dreaming - utterly trippy and mostly useless because they never do like attempts to throw them off the rails, but still, an interesting bit of neurology or something.

I'd be quite glad to let you take a look at some of this stuff - if it's possible to crack the thing that I'm pretty sure is straight-up healing into something someone could automate production and perhaps even distribution of, then I have already accomplished a lot of what I hope to achieve with my life.  Bonus points for creating some sort of photo negative of the executive dysfunction arrow, while I'm at it, because dear gods executive dysfunction is absolutely the most awful thing ever.  (This being the one that got 'oops'ed.)

...Though I will admit to some amount of hubristic desire to attempt to crack open the underlying mechanisms of powers qua powers.  There's some things I've already found digging around in the backend that already suggest rather a few interesting implications of future possibilities.

...I wouldn't want to say more on an unsecured line, so, yeah, uh, we probably should meet.  I don't know if I'd know where you work from, these days?  Like obviously the space shuttle in your garage mentioned your garage but if I were you I would have absolutely moved so people stopped trampling down my door about it.

Figuring out powers hasn't really worked so far but I think it's early days yet. It would certainly be the most important modern discovery. I can at the very least help quantify your healing. If it really is healing. I hope you haven't tested it on anyone, least of all yourself.

I'm pretty private and cagy about my actual powers and operations, for bigger fish reasons. I can send you a VTOL jet tho. Same tech as the shuttle believe it or not! I do also realize you don't have THAT much reason to trust me, positive reputation or not. So feel free to suggest precautions.

Goodness, no, I am not that reckless, to test healing I don't know what it even does, on anybody, least of all myself, outside of direly exigent circumstances.  I actually also asked a certain local internationally renowned hospital if they had their own two cents to chip in about the appropriate procedures there, though they clearly don't have your autoresponder, and do have much more bureaucracy, so I haven't heard back from them yet.

Incidentally, by the time we we meet, I'm probably going to have completely forgotten this thought I just had, so I hope you don't mind if I mention that the thought crossed my mind that given certain aspects of the framework under which I believe these arrows may be constructed, there may be multiple pure-isj sources of something that would not otherwise be readily apparent - though, it's equally possible that the visual effects of production choices are purely cosmetic, or that the almost synesthetic pinkness that's part of the 'baseline' is just its own thing...But I do wonder if it could hold true on a wider scale.  ...I suppose I should see if I can make an arrow that comes in 'translucent' the same way the default is pink...

...Okay, I really hope you don't mind me rambling a bit, that sounds kind of absolutely fuckin' nuts when I read it back, especially with the layer of indirection I slapped on, but it does, like, actually contain a thought or two that I want to poke at with, like, bettor sensors and all that jazz.

...The dramatic irony of your choice of idiom with which to reference opsec sure is dramatic, especially since from my perspective you're the biggest fish in the whole dang pond.  But I do get that you would rather not get caught up in any Grand Games that may be afoot - and neither would I, really, despite my suspicions that this whole thing is one.  So I'd rather follow your lead on actual precautions, because it's not like I understand the threat surface better than you.

Though I suppose there are some modest subterfuges it could be useful to pull, with the local geography and points of interest known to me - like, if you already hang around at JPL I could probably show up - and it's not like I actually have room for a wholeass VTOL in my back yard at the moment!  Or ever, considering that it's a pretty steep hill right into a cul-de-sac.

My VTOLs fit in a driveway and can land on 30 degree slopes. Kind of have to if I want them to replace cars for me! And I suppose I am a pretty big fish in the super pond, but I'm also one of the most visible. There are certainly some who are hiding their existence or ill intentions well, and some of those might be dangerous.

I'm not at all sure what your musings on color have to do with anything. Anything sensitive about your power should wait for a lab visit. 

I wouldn't expect an American hospital to respond quickly, no. By the way, I hope you don't mind the use of lab rats. (For what it's worth, I think 'induced executive dysfunction' is actually a very interesting concept for nonlethal takedowns. Drugs and restraints can both be very dangerous.)

> Drugs and restraints can both be very dangerous

Don't I fucking know it; I've read the literature on that one - thank goodness I've never been on the receiving end of it myself - and it is not pretty.  And yeah, sensitive information is sensitive, I just want to make sure I can pick up my train of thought, so it's good to know the layer of obfuscation worked!  ;P

But anyway, the thing I was hoping to elide over is that your VTOL landing at my house would be, uh, the death of any privacy I could possibly hope to have.  So I figure maybe I could meet it at the airport or something. (Which airport, I'll tell you when we're down to the brass tacks phase, but right now it's a bit premature.)  It's not that much additional travel for me, and I say that as a horrible NEET.

Something came up. Villain.

Negotiate with the bot plz

Bye

Best of luck.  Stay safe out there.

And she can hammer out the details with the Autoresponder, presumably.  Belying its so-called simple responses, if she says so herself, but she supposes she's no way of proving one way or the other short of seeing if her magic affects the computer.  And even then, it could be her own subconscious pressuring her powers, so who knows?

Still, she can't help but think of Person of Interest, for some reason.

(Well.  Because Person of Interest is really fucking cool and also good commentary on the surveillance state and AI risk in practice instead of in Yudkowskian xrisk theory (Hello, Samaritan, yes, she does mean you.).  But also because it's vaguely relevant.  And the music's pretty awesome.)

(...She wonders if Stella's watched it at all.)

Anyway.  She's going to distract herself by seeing if she can a) hover and b) infuse arrows with powers that aren't the ones she natively started with - can she make a levitation arrow, since she can levitate?

AutoResponder will negotiate logistics all day.

She can hover and float slowly in any direction. She can't make any new kinds of arrows. She does get a sense that the colored ones will come back over time.

"...Well fuck you too, magic powers, I want to make cool and new magic arrows."  Can she make a magicless arrow?

This fails to work. 

God.  Dammit.  This should work.  But it doesn't.  Presumably for, fucking, balance reasons or some shit.  She bets she can't even change the ratio of arrows she gets despite the fact that there's no fucking way she's gonna go through nociception arrows as much as she goes through healing ones.  Right, magic?

Grumble grumble.

Anywho.  Other tests: are the arrows, like, sharp at all, or are they just arrow-shaped?

The tips are sharp. Mysterious insight informs her that if they pierce flesh, the effect goes into one person. If they shatter, it splashes. 

The power goes out.

"...Well, fuck.  That ain't good.  And I'm near a fucking trunk line so something's really fucked."

Cell phone?  Local news radio?  What've you got for her?  Fuck, is this Stella's villain nonsense?

EAS comes on, on her phone. Major power outage across the region. More details forthcoming. Please remain calm. 

Gre-aaaat.

Shit, is this power outage that just hit me and half the state your villain?  I'm not sure what I can do but if you need my help you have it.

AutoResponder

Stella Sky is currently coordinating a battle against a highly dangerous individual in downtown Baltimore. Do not approach, for your own safety.

If you wish to help with search and rescue related to the power outage, I am programmed to assist with that.

Bloody fuck, it is.  I'm like thirty minutes out of the way under normal travel conditions - near the airport - but obviously nothing about this situation is normal; can give her some arrows if she wants them, tentatively as follows -

Pink, "executive dysfunction", sort of tingly lassitude feeling, available in bulk - other stocks are like, two of them regenning slowly.

Green - healing, obviously still untested

Red - I think they're nociception

Blue - I think this one is sleep

White - I'm pretty sure this conjures something, and based on the general theme I bet it's, like, bindings of some sort.

Black - Lust, for some reason.  I'm like 90% sure of that.

Gold - My best hypothesis here is, like, the bit of my power that does the fuzzy pink feeling, turned up to eleven, and then you XOR the lust out of it.  Heavily emotion-affecting.

Piercing the skin will, according to power instincts, deliver the full effect to a single individual, but they can and will flashbang areas with their effects too.  And I think I might be able to remote detonate them but I have not tested this.

Otherwise I do have what I'm pretty sure is human-speed vector-thrust flight incl. hovering, and also probably some peak-human muscles, so that might be useful S&R-wise.

Right.  She's going to get a damn shirt on.  This is going to fucking suck but if she can help then she will help.

Sending drone. Red, blue, black (disrraction). Won't use unless we have to but options r God.

Pay u l8r

You're saving my ass, don't worry about debt.  I'm the one with the pink butterfly wings.

She's going to spend the rest of the time until the drone gets here either churning out pink arrows - and hopefully seeing if she can remote-detonate them, she has enough spare to waste one testing - or seeing if she can make even one extra of the good shit.

Focusing on 'the good shit' is HARD and drains some sort of vitality but it appears to be working. She can feel a new arrow slowly forming.

Ok things are stable

Guy is an electricity eater, I'm the one who tripped the grid

He's hiding rn and we let him so we can gather forces

I see you, drone coming 3 mins