Comic 1149 - Let Edison out
Posted on 18th Dec 2018, 7:36 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (2 votes) /
Rate this comic
Author Notes:
"I just..." She closes her eyes. "I just want to be with my sisters again."
You send a mental message to the group--that Edison's calmed down... and you're going to release her, at least for a little while.
Minutes pass, and Caius enters the containment hall. Michelle and Fuse wait around the corner, both ready in case something goes wrong.
Edison climbs into the canister, and Caius helps unload it.
Edison, Faraday, and Tesla hug each other tightly, Tesla finally breaking down and crying, as well.
You thank Edison for apologizing, since... you know that takes a lot. You tell her you forgive her--you understand being angry in that situation, though you would... uh... like to see her learn to express herself without hurting people, moving forward. You and the girls can help her, and if she ever needs to talk, you'll be there for her. You just... want her to find healthier ways to deal with her anger.
Until then, when you're not able to supervise her, you think it may be best if she stays in the containment chamber. It's not punishment--you're just concerned about everyone's safety, at least until Edison can get a handle on things.
Edison turns, casting you a bit of a glare... but her expression softens as Faraday hugs her again. "It's okay! We'll still be here with you."
"Yeah!," Tesla concurs, wiping one of her eyes, "And we have a lot of stuff now. Mine can, can give you things to do in there!"
"We'll figure this out," Faraday says. "We don't have to be apart ever again."
It's... slow, shaky, as though she's out of practice, but steadily a smile forms across Edison's face. A genuine one, soft, not the malicious grin you'd grown accustomed to from her. "...Alright."
Now can give Edison some of the stuff we got for her earlier, like the kid-safe sewing kit (with assurances that we'll try to get her more advanced stuff later, we're just not good at shopping for crafting supplies :P). We can also send a blood bug in with her when she goes back into the unit so we can portal things in there more easily, too, and don't have to use the tube every time. Maybe have it take the form of a mini-Blobbert or a little piggy bank when it gets in there. We should make sure to demonstrate how we'll use it to portal objects so she doesn't think we're using it to spy on her. Maybe we could also provide a trigger that she can use to get our attention if she *wants* our attention for some reason-- so she knows we won't just be watching all the time, we'll be using it more like a phone.
And after that we should probably bid everyone goodnight and go to bed (after another round of hugs, of course). We've had a long day XD
Then, yeah wrap up for the day as it is late and adrenalin is likely wearing down.
Major Sidequest Complete!
Good job.
While I'm thinking about it, a few things I think we should do at some point:
1) Ask the Tradesmen why they want to work with people? Partially out of lingering concern, but also partially out of curiosity. We still know almost nothing about anything non-terrestrial, (even though we are half alien ourselves, and have the capability to explore out there when this is all over if we felt like it.) and this seems like a good way to get some insight.
2) Practice with portaling more blood-portal (and other stuff from that,) from a drop of blood quickly, so it becomes more natural. Being able to swiftly fill a room with meat, without ever sending anybody anywhere near it, just infiltrating with a blood-bug, would be super useful moving forward.
2a) Get fancy with it too. Shoot a stream, or an arc of blood from the wand, or just blood on the ground, and then portal stuff out of it mid-flight. If they start having whole floors electrified, so we can't start a blood portal in the first place, or even just grates made of some hydrophobic material, it would help to be able to portal from the air.
2b) We don't want to be making towers of meat in the middle of a crowded part of town, out in the open, for fear of causing panic, sure. On the other hand, when we're in one of the Bid Baddie's hideout's? We shouldn't be afraid to think big. Having access to infinite mass is a huge advantage that we should find ways of using well. It doesn't even have to be elegant, or smart, because we have as much stuff as we'll ever need, ever, even if we decided to, say, create a bunch of stars somewhere just for fun. Infinite mass. It's a concept that's hard for humans to wrap their heads around, so we need to actively remember it until we get used to it.
3) Portaling stuff and or people into the Red. We could probably swallow whole buildings if we wanted to. The enemy has a heavily defended bunker that they're planning an attack out of? Just give one of the ravens a vial of blood, fly it high above said bunker, and drop it. Then just portal a sheet of blood out to cover the whole base, and *shlorp* it away. (Preferably dropping the vial from high enough that by the time anyone notices the deluge of blood, the raven is already out of sight.) However, I am a bit worried that if we let something like Nil into it, we could be in trouble.
As for portaling friends through it, we should wait until we've practiced controlling 'time' inside of it better, and then perhaps disabling their senses while they're inside, but I think we should be able to manage it soon.
I feel like Mine really is at the point where what's holding her back most, in regard to what she can do with her powers, is a lack of experience and/or imagination (or at least time to use it so come up with new stuff), coupled with more self-imposed limits, like the not wanting to cause panic via giant, sudden walls of meat. Of those three(ish, depending on how you group them,) things, the experience is the one we can work one easiest.
So, I guess practice with the timing of the portal exiting the Red as soon as we can, because if we can go into the Red, get in a day's worth of practice, then, return seconds after we started, it would mean Mine could be more attentive to the away teams more often. When she has something she wants to practice, and there's something to take care of, (like what happened when we decided to scout the power plant just now,) she could just pop into the Red, do all the practicing she wants, and still be able to come back and do things on everybody else's schedule.
Heck, she could start sleeping in there too. Even if we decide against having her stay alert in the bunker all night, since she can get a full 8 hours in the blink of an eye, (meaning we'd be less likely to be caught of guard if something does happen, but also probably making it more likely for her to go insane) it would still be a way to let her get a full 8 hours in the first place. I know she 'sleeps in' most of the time these days, but that's probably still with her getting woken up by the noise of everybody else getting up and making breakfast and such. I know that with the kind of things they're all doing, and all that stress, I'd be wanting more like 12 hours every time I got to sleep.
There was probably some other various things I wanted to say at some point, but that's the main bits, I think.
RE:Wand Jet-Spraying;do you believe Mine is now able to pretend to be Frozone at this point, dashing around in the air on a magically created slip-and-slide of frozen-clotting blood-plasma that falls apart behind her?
RE: Stars from infinite mass; considering that blood is quite high in iron content and remarkably low in hydrogen (unless the lipid layers of blood cell membranes are hiding a lot of hydrogen in their molecular composition) how shortened would the resulting star's fusion lifecycle be?