“Sure,” Clockblocker agreed.  Was there a note of irritation in his voice?  Kid Win couldn’t tell.  Dennis was playing along, at least.

I guess he’d still rather be patrolling, but as Kid put it, he’s playing along.

There’s also the way this is partially a reaction to his own highly justified exit from the lecture.

“Now, about the paperwork you guys have been submitting, there’s been a few recurring problems…”

Kid Win sighed and settled into his seat.  This was going to be a little while.

Yeah, here comes the boring part.

■

The building was ugly, had trash piled up on either side of the front door, a sour smell wafting out from it.

Fortunately, we’re reading a narrative. Provided the author knows what he’s doing, we get to skip the boring parts.

I think we’re about to meet Chariot.

The water level wasn’t so bad here, and the building was almost entirely intact.  The only sign of damage was the boarded up windows on the first and second floors where the glass had been knocked out of the window frames.  Red brick, it seemed like the usual sort of tenement building one would find in the Docks.

Sounds like a relatively alright place these days.

Pausing, Weld glanced at Clockblocker, as if expecting a response.  When Clockblocker only nodded assent, Weld’s eyebrows rose a fraction in surprise.

I think this is a mixture of what I just said and the resolve to go easier on Weld.

He continued, “Gives us a chance to talk about our recent patrols, fears, concerns, ideas.  Or hell, just talk, because I’m seeing this trend where we only see each other in passing, while patrolling or in class, and some of you are going out of your way to spend time together and hash stuff out, even at the detriment of stuff like school.”

Socialization is important when you want the team to work well together.

“You’re talking about class, earlier,” Clockblocker said.

Ah, right… I’m not sure that’s quite exemplary, but to my knowledge, Weld doesn’t have the full picture.

“More or less.  Not saying it’s a bad thing, but we can restructure our schedules, make time for it, instead of detracting from an area we need to pay attention to.”

Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.

“Sorry,” Vista muttered.

“It turned out okay,” Flechette smiled a little.

It’s not Vista’s fault that she was asleep when the information was needed, but I suppose she should have reported it in so that Kid Win could’ve given it to Flechette without having to have Vista available.

But hey, it turned out “okay”.

> :]   >:]   > :]   >:]

“Right.  It’s okay, it’s understandable, given all we’re trying to handle,” Weld reassured her, “But we can’t miss out on details and updates on the overall situation.  The Protectorate have their hands full with the gang wars between Fenrir’s Chosen, Purity’s group and Coil,

Oh right, Coil is up against both of them, as established in his Interlude.

they’re now dealing with this serial killer or serial killers, and they’re still updating the records.  So here’s what we’re going to do, I’ve checked it with Piggot, she agrees.  I’m picking up an extra patrol shift, and I’ll be adjusting your patrol shifts down by twenty minutes each, moving them around slightly.

To make room for communication training?

With the downtime that creates, we’re going to have meetings like this, every day.”

Ah, nice. Sounds reasonable enough. Not sure Clocky’s going to like it, but at least it’s actively supposed to help them deal with the situation better.

Right.  Great.  Pressure.

…yeah.

“Now, onto a more serious topic.  I’m seeing that this team is really disorganized, these days.

That wasn’t a serious topic?

…

Okay yeah, recruitment is kinda trivial compared to stuff like Slaughterhouse Nine and Endbringers and the state of the city and so on.

I have no problem handling the brunt of the paperwork, it gives me a degree of insight into what’s going on that the files don’t.  I don’t even mind cleaning up the kitchen and showers here when the janitors are off duty.  But we really need to communicate.

Hm, yeah, he’s right. Both in and out of combat. There was almost no communication between the Wards while fighting the Travelers.

That said, that’s kind of the norm in this story, to some extent. This isn’t typically a story with a lot of combat banter.

Last night Flechette went on patrol and ran into a situation with Parian she should have been briefed on.  It could have turned hostile.”

I wonder exactly how much she told them about what happened that night. Evidently she told them about Parian’s role as bouncer of the neighborhood, at least.

“There’s a kid calling himself Chariot.  Been racing around the city with a powered suit that lets him move a hundred miles an hour.  

Chariot, good name.

Speaking of people named Chariot, I finished watching the Little Witch Academia anime series the other night. It was epic, highly recommended.

Assault finally caught up with him last night, brought him into custody.  Wound up calling the kid’s mom, got him to agree to talk to our recruiter.  You.  You’ll be meeting the kid in his home.”

Oh, okay. No ridiculous Roadrunner sequence with Kid Wile E. Fair enough.

“Why me?”

“Shared interests.  You’re both tinkers.  You have the best idea of how he thinks.”

On one hand, that makes sense. On another hand, we just had a whole bit about how Kid Win feels like an inadequate tinker.

This might be an uncomfortable experience for Kid.

Kid Win nodded.  He couldn’t quite put his finger on what he was feeling.  A measure of excitement at the idea of getting to talk to another tinker that wasn’t Armsmaster?  Sure.  Fear?  Would he be replaced by a new tinker?  It was an immature thing to be spooked about, he knew that, but that didn’t make it any less real.

I mean, it’s not really how this team works, is it? But yeah, I get it. Fears aren’t always rational, I know that well.

“Cool,” he spoke, by way of agreement.

“You convince him, it’ll look good to the guys upstairs,” Weld informed him.

Hey, that’s a neat bonus, at least. And also a bit of additional pressure.

“Clockblocker, you and I will handle the night’s shifts after that.  Your call if you want to patrol with me or not, we can cover different routes and go for a wider area if you’d rather.”

Hey, nice. Weld is practically reaching out a hand to Clockblocker and saying “Work with me, but you decide how much you’re willing to give me for now.” I’m not sure how deliberate it is, but it’s a nice gesture nonetheless.

Maybe Clocky will decide to work with him directly as part of his decision to go easier on Weld. 🙂

“Alright.  We’ll figure it out.”

Fair enough.

“Leaving Shadow Stalker.  You okay with the late-night, Sophia?”

“Yeah, fine,” Sophia didn’t look up from her laptop.

Seems like her time of day, honestly.

“And me?” Kid Win asked.

“Special duty, tonight,” Weld smiled, “You’re recruiting.”

“Recruiting?”

Oh shit please tell me (don’t tell me) we get to watch Kid Win try to catch the mecha speedster without a hoverboard