Miko Taylor

December 26th, 2010

The clock struck 1 PM, and right on time, Swordsman cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone, batteries out. We're starting."

Was it sorta paranoid to disable all the electronics we had on us? Maybe. It was also a matter of infosec, and such paranoid routines were what kept all this Miko business out of my civilian life - so I turned my phone off, and pulled its battery out for the duration of the meeting.

If something important happened in the meantime, either my network or one of the secretary mikos would notify us. All the other matters could wait.

I eyed the rest of the attendees. Ordinary Witch was taking her time, busy with finishing playing a game on her phone. Brightbug General looked a bit under the weather, but supposedly they just did not sleep very well last night. Panacea looked bored and a bit fidgety - she clearly wanted to finish this meeting as soon as possible, and go to her hospital shift. I could not read Parian that well, but she LOOKED a bit uncomfortable, this being her second meeting. Faultline (as always, rocking her naval uniform) seemed collected and professional, while the duo of Uber and Leet (who kinda-sorta asked for a similar pseudo-franchising deal to what I had with Faultline, and who were currently dressed in sorta-matching leather trench coats and sporting the holographic faces of some white-haired video game prettyboys) looked excited.

Once the last device in the room had been disabled (as Panacea yanked the phone out of Witch's hands and pulled out its battery), Swordsman began the meeting.

"Very well. We'll begin with the elephant in the room." She nodded. "Land of Fantasy Ltd is still operating at a loss. Between our operational costs, the purchase of plots of land across Brockton Bay and our foray into the sphere of education," she looked a bit annoyed at that (probably because that 'foray' proved to be more costly than we expected), "we are still losing money. While the royalties from the FEV Palanquin and Parian's Fantasy clothing line, our percentage of Shrine donations and various bounties, rewards, donations and presents we received for Leviathan should be enough to keep us in the green for now, we need to start making money as soon as possible."

"The potions business was supposed to do that," I noted.

"It was, but there's bureaucracy in the way," Swordsman stated plainly. "The FDA's standard schedule for evaluation of non-tinkertech drugs is 6 months on average. With our potions technically counting as tinkertech, it becomes a cross-divisional mess with the PRT. Generally, that would mean we'd be dependent on whichever agency is slower to approve the potions - but this time around, the PRT seems to be pushing for the potions to be approved as soon as possible. In our case, the problem lies with the FDA."

"Ooooh, are they trying to spite the PRT by slowing the approval?" Witch snickered.

"No. They are completely swamped, and their ACTUAL backlog is two years, rather than six months."

"Meaning, we'll likely have to wait for that long before the potions can be sold at pharmacies, or at least specialised distribution stores." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "We can still sell the potions to the PRT though, right?"

"We can, the potions technically counting as tinkertech gives them the leeway to sidestep FDA approval for their own purposes. It would still be a fraction of the money we could be bringing in, but it would work for now," Swordsman nodded.

"Guys, have you forgotten?" The gaming guy in red - Leet, judging by the nasal voice - raised his hand, like he was in a class. "You've also got royalties for our video of the Leviathan fight! And that baby's been doing numbers!"

"True," Swordsman agreed, "and those numbers would've been enough to set a person for life. For an organisation set on revitalising a city like Brockton Bay, though, it's a drop in the bucket."

The guy visibly deflated, his blue-clothed gaming friend patting him on the back.

"I've actually been thinking." I looked at Parian. "How do you feel about making premium versions of our plushies?"

"Um… What would that entail?" she asked carefully.

"Same types of plushies, maybe with slightly different designs," I explained, "and also, my circuitry running on the inside of the cloth. Something simple - like giving just enough lift for the plushie to act as if it's in low gravity conditions. I would need to come up with something that would work for an indefinite amount of time though… And also, find a way to put a condition such that the plushies can't work if they're too close to each other."

"Why that condition…?" Parian turned her head a bit.

"Ah. You want to avoid having someone weaponise them," Swordsman concluded.

"Yep."

"I… think they could be sold for quite a sum, yes," the doll maker nodded. "And the production costs should probably be nearly the same as with the regular plushies, aside from your tinkertech. I'll have to think on changes to the design, like using the winter clothes - or maybe a parade version of your uniforms? And we could also make actual parade uniforms, so that they're based on something."

"Good idea," I nodded.

"I wouldn't expect that to cover all of our costs, but as long as we get a favourable enough potions deal with the PRT, it should be good enough for now," Swordsman sighed. "Next. Faultline, could you tell us about how the special features on FEV Palanquin have been performing?"

"The dance club had been fairly popular. Probably more than our old club," the ex-mercenary stated. "The coloured auras probably matter even more than ship's flight, and we've been raising a lot of extra cash selling premium visual effects."

"What, like actual skins in videogames?" Leet perked up.

"Something like that," she didn't turn to him as she explained. "The attendees are given a choice of red, yellow or blue wristbands, and their aura on the dance floor is of that exact colour. For an extra price, they can choose another colour, like purple, pink or green. For even more, they can get a wristband that slowly changes colours-"

"And a full rainbow RGB experience for a bit more?"

"Correct."

"Any side effects?" I looked at her questioningly.

"A couple of cases of eyestrain or headaches from wearing the colour changing wristbands."

"I see," I sighed. Seemed like I had to restrict full-on rainbow effects. "And any issues with the Sparklers?"

"Aside from drunk attendees trying to hit each other with them? Not really. And on the other hand, having passengers operate safe fireworks is also one of the cruises' draws."

"Good."

Once again, I was glad that I spent enough time on wavelength research - giving those drunkards actual Karmic weaponry, even if it was really low-powered, was a recipe for disaster. But strobes and sparks of heatless light tied to the colour of one's wristband? It was simple, effective and FUN.

"There's one more point I'd like to raise before we proceed to Miko's project," Swordsman noted matter-of-factly, "Dragon has informed me that the third container with gifts, donations and correspondence will soon be on its way. There likely won't be a fourth, maybe just small deliveries here and there."

Ah, that.

"Same deal as last time. If there are any perishables, I'm sharing," I nodded.

This was a third container full of goodies and letters from around the globe, sent to me specifically for killing Leviathan. The issue was, I could not possibly eat all the chocolate and delicacies scattered among more sensible and sentimental gifts - money, deeds to plots of land, consumer electronics, jewellery, knit sweaters and macaroni art. I already ate more expensive chocolate last month than all the sweets I ate in two or three years prior combined, I had a literal man-sized wheel of absurdly delectable cheese at home (sent by a survivor of Leviathan's attack on Naples) that I just could not pass on, and I'd tried at least three different kinds of caviar before stashing the rest for celebrations and rainy days.

The rest of our extended team and staff were kind of in similar positions - judging by their groans, nobody wanted to battle yet another box of chocolaty goodness.

"We'll take what electronics you can share," Uber noted in his silky smooth voice.

"I'll take a few boxes of chocolate," Faultline nodded. "For gifting purposes."

"I, um, also won't say 'no' to some good chocolates I could use for functions," Parian added.

"I'll eat whatever's not made of chocolate," Panacea mumbled, and given how she must've had months of experience with confectionary donations? I couldn't blame her.

Though personally, I was looking forward to the letters, albeit with some trepidation.

Letters penned by hundreds, thousands of real people across the world. Some were sharing their harrowing stories of encountering - or losing someone to - the Endbringer, some were simply thankful for killing him - but all had something to say. They were just as valuable as any present, and I absolutely refused to just stash them in some dingy, dark warehouse without a single look, let alone to torch them.

No, if someone was willing to write and send me a letter, I was not going to disrespect their effort.

At first, I was reading them as something to do while I was down with the cold - but once I was back on my feet, I began sneaking in reading a letter or five whenever I had time, be it on the way to school, whenever I had to take a minute to unwind from tinkering or the endless meetings, or just before going to sleep.

Though that added an extra issue in that I felt compelled to write a response to five, or sometimes ten letters out of a hundred. This, of course, slowed the process down even more - especially since I refused to have anyone help me with this. Some of these stories felt… deeply personal. Like they were only meant for me to read, and that having someone - even my friends - read them instead was a callous breach of these people's trust.

Still, after weeks of me trying to soldier on like so, Brightbug came up with an unexpected solution.

"…um, Miko…? …Don't you use your Orbs to monitor all the shrine grounds pretty much 24/7…?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"…Are you, like, switching your attention between them, or…?"

"No, I can monitor all of my network simultaneously, why-"

I blinked.

"…Can't you just use a few Orbs to read several letters at once then…?"

"I… … …huh."

I grabbed a handful of letters and unfolded them onto the table, before guiding a couple of Camera Orbs to them, and…

Holy crud, I could actually read multiple letters at once!

"HolycrudthankyouBrightbug!" I couldn't help but hug Brightbug - only for them to suddenly freeze at the gesture. I promptly let go. "Oh, I'm sorry-"

"…It's fine," they quickly answered, turning away.

Reading several letters at once felt weird - as if I suddenly developed the ability to process multiple strings of thought in parallel. Like I could dedicate 100% of my attention to a dozen things at once. My best guess was that it was some hidden feature of either the Orbs themselves, or the network they were operating in - and I certainly was not going to complain about it.

After all, I hadn't even gone through one tenth of a container before making the switch - and now, I was mostly done with the first one. Considering what Swordsman said about the third container being on the way, I needed all the ability to cheat I could get.

Anyway.

"Ight," I nodded, "then that probably leaves my part of the meeting. First, an update on Leviathan's remains. They're still spewing water, but the output has significantly decreased since last week."

"Meaning, the water is basically leftovers," Faultline concluded.

"Got it in one. He likely tried to use water pressure to escape, and generated so much of it that it's gonna take another month for it to stop. After that? As long as his remains don't rot, I should be able to analyse them, and maybe use them for something."

"Like a 2.0 version of your Yin-Yang balls?" Leet perked up again.

"Orbs," I sighed. "Maybe. I'll need to see what I'll be working with, but the thing LOOKED crystalline, and I can work with crystalline."

The fact that Leviathan's remains turned into an omnidirectional sprinkler with the power of a water jet made me glad I opened the box in another dimension, and away from me on the W axis. Once I made a slightly-ajar 3D box made of 4D Barriers and caught the errant cracked sphere in it, it kept spewing water at an alarming rate - but after filming the output, and comparing it on a weekly basis, it became clear that the output was, thankfully, dwindling.

"Next, I've been working on providing Case 53s with support items. There's been some interest from out-of towners thanks to Faultline's and Dragon's connections," I acknowledged the ex-mercenary once more, "and I've been doing my best to help them. There's something I'm working on for Gentle Giant - I'll be testing the solution in the following week - but there are a couple of cases that are currently stumping me. Panacea, I'd like to consult you on them, maybe we could solve these issues with a joint effort."

"Uh…" She blinked. "Yeah, sure. I'll listen to what you have to say, at least."

"That's all I could ask for," I nodded. "Anyway, that leaves us with one major thing to discuss: what I like to call the Big One." I could not help my (probably mischievous) smile. "A lot of what we've been doing and testing ties into the preparations. The bought properties, the extra features on the FEV Palanquin, and some of the stuff I've been developing."

With that, I walked to the corner, picked up a rolled up piece of laminated paper, and unfolded it on the table to reveal a map. A very familiar map of Brockton Bay.

There were a lot of confused or unsure glances thrown around - among those present only Brightbug, Swordsman and Witch knew about this plan. And, well, considering I planned to start going over the bought properties with a can of paint in hand tomorrow, the rest had to be brought up to speed today.

December 29th, 2010

My new winter costume was amazing, in this stupid sort of way.

After I caught cold fighting Leviathan, I asked Parian to design winter versions of all of our costumes - and she very much delivered. Visually, mine was a slightly thicker spider silk suit, with fur on the inside of the red parts, and a double-layered union suit with long pants underneath. It almost looked like a Miko of Paradise version of a Santa costume, which - yeah, it was fairly festive, silly, and also WARM.

However, there was also a bit of a trick to it.

See, this was not a video game, and 'cold weather' could come in a myriad of flavours. It could be anything from 'just below water freezing' kind of cold, down to 'so cold even huskies want to stay inside' and, considering we lived on Earth Bet, could theoretically go as low as 'absolute zero'. And while there was little I could do about the latter (aside from escaping the lethal cold by moving along the W axis, of course), I now had a way to combat nearly any other kind of cold weather.

Because my costume could swap air from a few dozen different set points along the W axis with mine, ranging from 'Arctic' cold to 'Death Valley in the middle of a summer afternoon' hot, with a LOT of points in-between.

Basically - I had climate control in my winter clothes now!

Which made it all the more comfortable - I could make myself warmer whenever the temperature dropped or I got to a high altitude, and I could cool myself down if I entered a well-heated building. I was SO adding this enchantment to my other costumes. Maybe even to the civilian clothes, because screw freezing in the winter and boiling alive in the summer!

Anyway.

I was out in the crisp winter weather, feeling pleasantly comfortable despite the near-the-ocean humidity. I was humming a jaunty tune while applying the already familiar brushwork to the Land of Fantasy Ltd property near the Boardwalk. It was about… two thirds done at this point? The Camera Orb back at the warehouse that was monitoring the schematics told me that yeah, about that much.

I was distantly aware of the small crowd of people gathered outside the park-style fence, gawking at me and the disappearing act my paints were doing nearly instantly after touching the month-fresh concrete of the otherwise empty lot. Brockton Bay was ultimately a tourist destination, so me working in the most touristy part of the city was inevitably gonna attract tourist attention, after all.

I could not blame the tourists for standing around, gawking and even filming my work. I could, however, feel a bit irked out when they were joined by a couple of capes.

I paused my work to send a glance their way that I was certain told everything I thought about them looking over my shoulder. Vista actually took cautious a step back. Weld, on the other hand, just stood there, smiling like the personable oaf he was. Right, he was already wearing the second version of his 'imitation watch' - just like the first one, it was made of wood, and really stood out against his metallic skin. And judging by the open friendliness of his smile, he REALLY appreciated the features of the second version.

I sighed.

"Are you there just to watch?"

"No, Miko," Weld answered, "we were hoping you'd answer a couple of questions?"

"Can this wait-" I thought about it for a moment, "-ten more minutes?"

"Yeah, sure!"

Ten minutes were not enough for me to FINISH the entire lot, but enough to finish this one section. Meaning, I could pick it up after whatever THIS was without any issues.

The circuitry behind this was really complex - maybe even as complex as the one at the jinja. It had a 4D Barrier functionality - including arranging some of the Barriers into a large 3D box, making it nigh impenetrable. Then, there was the Sparkler functionality. I initially thought to tie it to pieces of gear, but then thought better of it - no, it was better to just allow certain hand movements to trigger Sparklers instead. Then, there was the Aura Shell Projection, almost like in the FEV Palanquin's dance club - it was the exact part I was currently trying to finish. After that, I just had to add a Barrier Shuffle Array, finish the Karmic Locks, and install the Safe Box.

And then, I had to do this entire thingamajig just one more time, at the Shantytown lot. Almost done.

I put the last brushstroke into the Aura Shell Projection array, and checked over my work by shunting myself for a moment on the W axis to the exact coordinates I was offloading the paint, and… yeah, it was almost perfect - just had to fix a line here, and a dot there - and NOW it was done. Good. Back at the warehouse, I had the mechanical pencil Floating Engine - OF COURSE I made one, if only to make notes at a distance - scribble down where I stopped.

I returned to the conventional planes to the sound of surprised murmurs, and the sight of Vista looking just a little bit green - well, MORE green than usual. Her costume was always lush green - but now, so was her face.

"You okay there?"

"Please don't do that around me again," the youngest Ward squeaked out.

A bad power interaction? Vista could stretch, shrink and twist space around her like nobody's business - which implied she could also see or sense said space somehow. But if I assumed she was only used to manipulating (and perceiving) the conventional three dimensions… Okay, now I knew why she was so on edge while I was working.

"So, what did you want to ask?" I sighed.

"We probably should talk somewhere less crowded," Weld noted. "How about over ice cream? My treat?"

Yeeeeah, his real intentions were way too obvious.

Well, I was not gonna turn down free food. Even with all the gifts to Miko of Paradise, my own personal funds out of costume were only good enough to ensure our family of three did not starve, and to have a little bit set aside in case of an emergency.

"Sure, lead the way," I sighed.

After a bit of a walk, we arrived to one of them fancy Boardwalk places - an overpriced cafe that served these huge, syrupy parfait monstrosities with wafers, cookies, chocolates and whatnot added in. The kind of food people probably only bought for two reasons: they either wanted to eat ALL the sugar, or they wanted to post something on their social media. Probably both.

According to Vista, it was one of those places that also had a more private space available, in case any capes came along. We all ordered (I picked one of them parfaits with lots of fruit and berries, and ZERO chocolate), and then were led to a small-ish separated booth.

As we sat, Weld looked around, tapping a bit impatiently at the table.

"Let me guess: you haven't had a parfait yet?".

"Nope!" he smiled brightly. "Can't wait to find out how it tastes!"

"He's been a real menace to our communal fridge," Vista added, giving the metal boy a heatless glare.

I couldn't help but chuckle. Seemed like he was REALLY enjoying the second version of his 'imitation watch' for the past day and a half.

"Anything of note so far?"

"I don't like spicy. It makes it difficult to taste anything else," Weld noted. "Butter, on the other hand…"

"He ate a stick of butter this morning! An entire stick, like a candy bar!"

"Well, it's not like he'd get fat from eating it," I shrugged.

Aside from the initial 'dimensional cushion' effect that the first version had to allow Weld to touch metal without absorbing it (yeah, his power was that he was made of metal, could shape himself somewhat, and absorbed anything metallic he touched), the second version ALSO had what was officially called a 'prosthetic tastebud", but was more like a dimensionally-shifted blob of flesh carrying an isolated digestive system. It had a sense of taste, hunger and fullness, and a nigh-perfect rate of digestion that could work on anything organic at all (plastic and gas included). And thanks to the intricately made Karmic Lock I called Sympathetic Enchantment, it could send its senses to the wearer - allowing someone like Weld, who was unable to eat, drink or sleep, to at least recreationally experience two of those things. And if he ever wanted to ignore the pangs of hunger and thirst, he could just press the button on the side of the 'watch' to 'detach' his senses, and put the blob into a hibernation that could last for months (if not years).

And yeah, Panacea had really outdone herself with this one - and it wasn't even that hard to convince her to make it, given she was also frustrated with her inability to help Case 53s in any meaningful way - though she asked me not to mention her part in this kind of work beyond 'consultation', for some reason.

Our parfaits arrived, and - huh, mine was not OVERLY sweet. Just sweet and refreshing enough, which was great. Vista was trying to act dignified and measured as she ate her green tea parfait, while Weld-

"Holey moley, this is SO GOOD!" he beamed in-between wolfing down his double-sized chocolatey dessert, completely ignoring the fact that he had bits of it all over his shiny metal face.

I still had no 'cure' for Case 53s, but I figured solutions like these were the next best thing.

In just a few minutes, Weld's parfait was finished, and I was done with mine soon after. Vista was still eating hers, but judging by her constantly throwing glances at me and Weld while unenthusiastically moving her spoon, her heart was not in it.

I figured now was the time to get to business.

"So. What did you want to ask me about?"

"Right," Weld sat a bit straighter, the suddenly professional look on the metal boy's face betrayed by a few splotches of creme and bits of chocolate around his mouth, "Your mystery project… Could you tell us what it is? You did not notify the PRT or the City Council about its details, so some people up the chain are starting to freak out a little bit."

Ah.

"I planned to inform everyone after the New Year celebrations," I sighed. The last day of December and the first few days of January were gonna be really busy for the jinja, and I kinda wanted to postpone dealing with parahuman nonsense until after it.

"Well… Okay, got it," he nodded, "We also were told to pass you a message that Director Piggot would like a meeting as soon as possible."

A meeting?

Welp. This was the first time she called for a meeting, and not vice versa - meaning, it could be something big. And, I guess, I could also inform her about what the Big One entailed at the same time.

"Is this an 'as soon as possible' in the 'make an appointment' kind of way, or…?"

"She told us that if you were up to it, we could bring you to see her during this patrol," Vista interjected.

So… urgent enough to warrant a visit today, but not urgent enough not to stop for a parfait along the way? Curiouser and curiouser...

I made the Floating Engine pencil back at the warehouse write down a note that I was heading for a meeting with Director Piggot. No need to go back to being constantly babysat by my friends.

"Fine, I'll go. Lead the way," I shrugged.

Might as well get this over with, whatever it was.