“It’s not that complicated.  Everything’s like wet clay, and I’m smudging it around.”

Huh. I like that metaphor.

Vista deemed her work done, started walking forward.  Flechette followed, eyeing the distorted sidewalk at the edges of the effect.

Sounds like a good thing to pay attention to, especially if the edge of the sidewalk is made of bricks with dividing lines

every foot or so, perpendicular to the road.

“You’re powerful, kiddo,” Flechette said.

“Kinda.”

Heh, yeah.

I remember when Vista was first brought up back in Agitation, it was mentioned that getting ones powers early tended to make them stronger. I wonder when Vista got hers, and how.

“You could be one of the top dogs in the Protectorate, in five or six more years.”

Vista frowned, “They said the same thing about Dauntless.”

Dauntless died to Leviathan, didn’t he?

*search*

Yep, in 8.3.

So does that mean Vista isn’t sure she’ll survive that long?

“One of the Protectorate members who got killed, if I remember right?”

Vista nodded.

Flechette frowned, “That’s… unexpectedly dark, coming from you.  Where did that come from?”

The depths of her mind, I suppose. Vista is not one to judge by her cover.

Vista stepped out into the middle of the road at the edge of the fissure, then concentrated.  She felt her power extend to every solid object in front of her, formed a map in her head.  There was nobody out there, which made it easier.

I suppose to do this in one step, they need a straight line, preferably without anything blocking the way.

Unless her power happens to be able to create straight-up wormholes, but then why would it require them to go over here and be easier to do when the area between the locations doesn’t have many people?

Slowly, carefully, she began adjusting.  She truncated the length of Lord street, then did it again, repeating the process to make the four lane road shorter and shorter.  The fissure down the center of the road squeezed against itself like a compressed spring.

I wonder how it would look from the side. Like, coming in towards the truncated section of Lord Street from a perpendicular street.

“This is disorienting,” Flechette spoke, as she gazed at the scene.  “My power gives me a grasp of angles… and I’m worried I might have a seizure if I try to use it to get a sense of what’s happening here.”

Heh, yeah, good point. Things seem to get sort of non-euclidean once Vista’s power gets involved.

She suppressed her annoyance at the child’s gift and offered a smile instead, “Thank you, Parian.”

It’s interesting that despite Parian being significantly older than her, Vista still thinks of her as a “child”. It fits with the fact that the same sentence continues to indicate irritation with being patronized, too.

“Let’s go,” Flechette spoke, “Back to headquarters?”

“Back to headquarters.  Come on, we’ll take my shortcut.”

Must be handy to be able to create shortcuts on the go, wherever you want.

They walked two blocks east to reach Lord street.  Beneath the water’s surface, they could see a fissure that ran down the center of the road, zig-zagging from one lane to the other.

Lord Street sounds familiar. Wasn’t this one of the locations we saw during the Leviathan fight?

*blog search*

Doesn’t seem like it, unless it wasn’t mentioned by name or blog search is missing it. It was mentioned before in Interlude 5 (Faultline’s club, Palanquin, is two blocks from Lord Street) and 6.7 (most people out and about downtown would be near Lord Street, celebrating the end of the curfew). It sounds like it’s one of the main streets downtown.

That said, it’s two blocks east of a neighborhood that’s north of Lake Heroic and was just barely missed by Levvy. It’s entirely possible that parts of the battle did happen on Lord Street.

I’m imagining Parian making the bunny do something in Vista’s hand before they leave, just as a little funny prank or gesture. 😛

“I’ll look forward to it,” Parian replied. She turned to Vista, “Here.”

Vista accepted her gift.  A stuffed rabbit, made in the last-minute or so.

Ooh, nice!

It was finely detailed, wearing a fancy dress with lace trim.  The fur had a softness that indicated high quality material, despite being wet.  She would have been delighted with the gift, were she four years younger.

Hehe. Yeah, I suppose it could come across as a bit patronizing.

In general, not just emotionally, Vista has shown herself to be quite mature. It’s not far-fetched to think that she’s a little tired of being patronized. See also Clocky’s attempts to avoid swearing in front of Vista despite her clearly being comfortable with Weld’s swearing (and with repeating what he said) in 9.1.

It was still a really nice gesture.

Yeah. I think I would’ve appreciated it if I were in Vista’s place. 🙂

She hurried back to Flechette’s side and waited a few seconds for a break in the conversation.  When none was forthcoming, she put a hand on Flechette’s arm.

They really got the flow going. Flechette doesn’t even seem to have noticed Weld in her ear at all.

❤

“What’s up?”

“Weld wants us back asap.”

A look of disappointment crossed Flechette’s face.

Aw.

Seriously, Flechette, if you’re trying to hide how you feel about Parian, you’re not doing a good job of it.

And given that Vista has proven herself to be quite emotionally mature over the course of this Arc, and good at understanding how others feel… I don’t think it’s gonna be much longer before she has this all figured out, if she doesn’t already. 😉

“I’ll see you later?” Parian asked.

“I’ll stop by later, unless I’m done with patrols for the night,” Flechette shrugged.

Especially when you go ahead and do this. 🙂

Every so often I feel like shortening Flechette’s name, then change my mind due to how I’d pronounce “Flechy” as “fleshy”.

“I suppose we’re lucky to have this haven, here.  So far.  I dunno how long before someone I can’t scare off comes through.”

Someone like Hookwolf and his Chosen, perhaps. Or, hell, the Slaughterhouse Nine, cod forbid.

…suddenly I’m scared for Vista’s life.

“You have my number.”

Vista turned away as a third voice sounded in her ear.  She stepped away from the conversation, shook her head a little to shake off the water that the steady rain was depositing on her.

Did we reach the meeting call?

Vista squeezed the earbud, “Sorry?  I didn’t catch that?”

“Weld here.  Kid Win has something to report, asked everyone to come in.  Can you make it back here quickly?”

“Okay.”

We did. Time to wrap this up, I suppose.

But yeah, I’m legitimately worried that the Slaughterhouse Nine might attack the neighborhood Parian is guarding by the end of this Arc.

Which we may want a name for, by the way. Plush Paradise? Needlehaven? Yellowline?

“It’s basic stuff,” Flechette said, “But it’ll hold you for a little while.”

“Thank you,” Parian spoke, reaching over the makeshift yellow line for the bag.  She held it behind her back with both hands.

🙂

Just over her right shoulder, cloth formed into a rough shape, a trio of needles with attached spools of thread weaving in and around it, a razor cutting at pieces of it.

Oh nice. Is she embedding the bag into a stuffed creature so she can have it walk on its own?

“How are you managing?”  Flechette asked.

“Some kids came through around noon, roughed up the mother of one of my friends.”

Ouch.

“I told you to call me if there was trouble!”

“I handled it.  Kind of.  They ran when they saw my rabbit.

A pirate boxer rabbit might not be all that scary in its own right, but when it’s nine feet tall and chasing you, pretty much anything can be scary.

According to my friend’s mom, they were trying to get someone to tell them where they could get food, and she was afraid they’d take everything if she told them where we have our stuff.  I think they were more hungry than dangerous.  Not enough food going around.”

Scavengers, I suppose you could call them.

The cloth took on a rough shape with arms and legs.  “Erm, that makes it sound like I’m blaming you guys-”

Ah, right, since the PRT is in charge of protecting incoming resources. I don’t think Flechette and Vista are taking it like that, though.

“You’re right,” Flechette interrupted.  “We’re not doing a good job of getting supplies to everyone.  We can’t.  Any time we try to distribute it, a group like Hookwolf’s gang or the Merchants try to seize it.

Huh. I wasn’t expecting her to agree. Fair enough!

Even if the heroes on duty fend them off, the citizens get scared away.”

Yeeah, it’s a risky waterhole to visit.

A metaphorical waterhole, that is. The entire city is a “risky waterhole" in a more literal sense, especially a little south of here.