“The second half of this phase is getting the public more comfortable with the outliers.  The people with stranger powers, and stranger appearances.  You’re likable, Weld.  You have a clearly unnatural appearance, if you’ll forgive me saying so-”

Yes, a clearly “unnatural” appearance, but not a “monstrous” one like Gregor’s. Weld is more on Newter’s end of the axis.

Weld shrugged.  He stood out.  There were a hundred things that bothered him more than stares and comments on the subject.

“-but you have fans, and people are interested in you.  You get higher ratings for your interviews than even the average handsome hero gets.

Nice!

I like Weld so far, and this only helps reinforce that.

You’re second most popular for team leaders for number of youtube videos, possibly helped by a briefly lived internet meme featuring your face, 

Ahaha!

I wonder what exactly that meme was. 😛

…I also wonder if Wildbow took inspiration from the Worm fandom actually making a meme about Weld before this chapter.

and you have a blemish-free record, both academically and in your two years serving as a part of the Wards.”

In other words, an excellent good guy.

“This is a sensitive subject, slow to advance, as major corporations are particularly litigious when parahumans get involved.

I suppose there are a lot of things that need to go in the contracts to cover the companies’ asses, and when they don’t and it blows up, it’s time for a lawsuit.

In simple terms, the big businesses do not want people with powers affecting the status quo, and it is very easy for them to derail years of work with one bad media campaign targeting parahumans.”

Damn. It’s a wonder the government still seems to in favor of parahumans, then, enough to continue supporting the PRT. Although there’s still the issue of that anti-rogue judge Paige had to deal with.

(Yes, I’m absolutely implying corporations

in the U.S.

have way more power over the government than is healthy. At least that’s how it looks from over here.)

“I see,” Weld commented.  He didn’t like that in simple terms bit of what she’d said.  Too many people implied he was stupid because he was strong.

One of his reasons to dislike the term “Brute”, I’d imagine.

But could he really speak up about it, when he couldn’t be sure if her choice of words came from an offensive or judgemental perspective?  Or was he being overly sensitive?

Honestly, I think Piggot might just be trying to make sure she doesn’t talk over the head of a boy she doesn’t know all that well. Not so much assuming he’s stupid as not assuming the opposite.

“As the number of parahumans first became clear, a long-term plan was established.  In the early phases of the plan, much effort was dedicated to setting up the Protectorate and Wards, ensuring the public had heroes they could look up to, likable faces, likable personalities.  Merchandising, interviews, tv shows, music, movies and more were all encouraged and supported with the idea of building up this image.

“likable personalities”

*sideeyes Sophia*

Law, policy and rules for the official groups were all shaped with the idea of gradually building confidence in heroes.”

Weld nodded.

Makes sense. The PR-otectorate seems to be doing a good job on that front, for the most part.

“As we enter the next phase, our objective is to push the public a margin beyond their comfort zone.  We are encouraging and promoting the existence of rogues, which is an unfortunate term that heralds back to the early days.”

I’ve mentioned this before, but I love the idea of rogues finding their unique places in society, like Parian and Canary did.

“Right,” Weld responded.  The term ‘rogue’ applied to anyone with powers who wasn’t hero or villain, the negative connotations of the term tying back to an era when expectations had been rather different, much the same way the brute classification had been coined.

Back when you were either a hero or not a hero, I suppose.

“I see,” tiny frown lines appeared between her eyebrows.

“Sorry.”

Well, at least you’ve got that out in the open now.

A fire on a street below caught his attention.  A car had been set on fire, and people were crowding around it.

Hm? Villains afoot?

Or are these people using the car as a campfire of sorts?

Not noticing, Piggot pursed her lips, “Fine.  My apologies for putting you in that situation.  I won’t say anything further about Director Armstrong for the time being.  I was speaking of the need for public relations?”

“Yes ma’am,” he spoke, feeling somewhat relieved at her composure.

Composure is what she does best, I suppose, besides maybe PR.

He wouldn’t feel a hundred percent okay about it until he verified her as someone who wouldn’t find some other way to get back at him.

I don’t think she’s the type for that, though relations between the two of you may be a little strained.

But I mean, Piggot’s the kind of person whose relationships with the people she works with are strained by default, isn’t she.

Weld nodded.

“What Armstrong continually fails to grasp is that if we do not integrate parahumans into society, help society bend to accommodate your kind, there is no point in lab experiments or classifications.

She has a point.

As bad as things might be with the periodic arrival of Endbringers and parahuman criminals, matters could be ten times worse if panic or prejudice takes hold from the public.  You understand?”

Absolutely! Both of those things are bringers of chaos, maybe even more so than the Endbringers.

“One thing, ma’am,” Weld spoke.

“Yes?”

He took a deep breath.  Not that he really needed it, but he did anyways.  “Forgive me for saying so, but I get the impression you don’t like or respect Director Armstrong?”

It does sound like they have their differences, at least.

“Your point?”

“I just thought you should know he’s something like a father figure to me.  He’s the one who recruited me to the Wards, got me up to speed.  I’ve already made plans to go to his house for a bit this summer.  Maybe I’m putting myself on your sh… in your bad books by saying so, but I just thought I should let you know I’ll step up to defend him if you start putting him down.”

Ah, nice. Also, I like how Piggot’s just like “yeah, so what”. It… suits her.

Another thing I like is how Weld clearly caught himself almost saying “shitlist”.

“Do you understand why we have gone to this trouble for your sake, Weld?  Why we are testing your ability as a team leader in a crisis such as this?”

I guess so that he’ll be ready when he graduates to the Protectorate?

“You’re grooming me,” he replied.

“Yes, but do you understand what we’re grooming you for?” she pressed.

He knew, but he assumed she would prefer to explain.  Besides, how she explained would inform him a great deal about his new boss’s personality.  “Not really.”

I mean, fair.

I’m thinking they might be trying to prepare him for not only being a Protectorate member, but potentially a Protectorate team leader.

“You likely know Director Armstrong in Boston, how he tends to prioritize research and understanding parahumans.  I concern myself with more concrete affairs.  Public relations, parahumans as a part of America.”

Ah, yes, if I recall correctly, Piggot’s first appearance was characterized by her concerns over how the incident at the bank would look for the Wards.

In a more serious situation, such as when he was out on patrol, he could force parts of himself to melt and drop off, leaving a piece of himself behind, but it made him distinctly uncomfortable – pain wasn’t the right word – until he replaced the tissue he’d lost.

Yeah, that sounds quite… icky to experience.

More often, he preferred to just tear the offending piece of metal from whatever surface it rested on, whether it was a segment of chain link fence or a hubcap.  Whenever he did it, he’d have to spend as much as an hour dissolving the metal and absorbing it into his body.  Either way, they were only emergency measures.

Sounds annoying to deal with.

Which wasn’t to say he was weak.  Being made of materials and alloys as strong or stronger than steel from head to toe made him practically untouchable in a fight.  In addition, his biology fell into some optimal middle ground between organic and inorganic.  For those whose powers affected only living things, he counted as inorganic.  The opposite was also true.

Huh! That makes him immune to a lot of powers that could otherwise be used directly on his body. Most, in fact.

Although now we’re back to organic versus inorganic and the Manton effect being an objective thing, as opposed to my standing theory of the Manton effect being a subjective block based on what the wielder perceives as alive (the theory introduced in Interlude 5). In fact this sounds like pretty solid evidence against the latter interpretation. Hrm.

…I wonder if this also applies to Hookwolf.

“I appreciate the thought,” he told her.  His physiology had the unfortunate drawback that he couldn’t help but attach to and absorb metal he touched.  While it had been crippling when he’d first been found, dumped in a junkyard, he had learned ways around it.

…I was going to talk about the idea of Weld accidentally setting back some construction work by weeks or months by leaning on a metal framing, but then a much more important thing showed up here.

“found, dumped in a junkyard”? Have Upsilon been at it again?

He could rearrange the metals that formed his body, separate them into their composite elements, and he extended this particular trick to push all the impurities in the metals out to his ‘skin’.

So I guess if he really wanted to, he could have a silver tongue.

The impurities, unlike the metal that composed the rest of him, didn’t bond, giving him the ability to handle things with his hands and teeth if he needed to.

That’s nice.

It didn’t always work – at least once a week there was one embarrassing moments where he bonded with someone’s wedding ring during a handshake or bumped into a shelf display – but it helped.  Clothes helped as well.

How do you even break that to someone? “Hi, nice to meet you, and I think I just absorbed your wedding ring, sorry about that.”

“Good to hear that.  All that said, I have asked your teachers to make special arrangements, reducing expectations toward your homework, provided you are not struggling in any subjects.  The Wards program will also provide tutors should you need them.”

Sounds good.

“Okay, cool.”

“You’ll have time to get into the swing of things without worrying about school, as the high schools are all currently shut down for repairs and to allow time for thorough investigation of the premises.  When the schools are open, we’ll have you take three courses and attend first year classes on parahumans at the University, if that suits you?”

It’s clear they’ve got this all planned out.

“Perfect.”

“You’ll be living in a private room in the Wards headquarters, and you’ll have a monthly allowance of four hundred dollars in addition to the money put into your trust account by the program.

Not bad!

We expect you’ll spend this allowance on necessities, such as food and clothing.  You do still eat, yes?”

“Yes,” he answered her, bending the truth.  While he did eat, it was a negligible amount.  

I can’t help but think of the Iron Giant, which naturally makes me imagine Weld eating scrap metal.

As he saw it, there was no real harm done if he pocketed some of that extra money and said he spent it on food.  Given that his tongue was made of an alloy and the pleasures of food were a shadow of what they should be, it was only fair that he enjoy himself in some other way.

Yeah, that’s fair.

Man, imagine if Wildbow had decided to make Weld a skilled liar. He could’ve said his tongue was made of silver.

He knew that some staff back in Boston had caught on, but they hadn’t said anything.  Director Piggot here gave him the vibe that maybe she wouldn’t be so cool with it.  He’d be more careful until he knew for sure.

Yeeah, Piggot doesn’t stand for unregulatory bullshit.

“Your quarters have been checked and double checked, so there is no exposed metal, no screws, nails, frames or pegs.”

It really does sound like his power involves absorbing metal on touch.