"..That was kind of adorable and creepy both."

Taking a breath, she faces the trailer and makes her way inside.

"Hey, Hound."

She slides to a seat, smoothing her skirts. Trust Hound to put her at ease by putting down her interrogators.

"Agents," she greets them, calm after getting her nerves worked out by R&D, the shark kid, and Hound.

Revealing that she has built-in recording equipment would force her to comply with federal standards around the use of such devices, and fuck that noise. Instead, she relies on her excellent memory, relaying the encounter with deep attention to even minor details.

Once she's done, she stretches with a little pop.

"So. Yeah. Got a recruitment offer from the most dangerous man in the world. I'm simultaneously flattered and terrified."

"It's been three days since I emerged. No one knew about me beforehand, otherwise they would have come then, but these are the sorts of people who watch for debuts and use enhanced thinkers to process information quickly, so that gives them a full day at least to plan and execute an approach. Now, it doesn't take a genius to guess that a young, new cape would approach Silverblade, and indeed that's when I intended on going public in the first place, so if someone wants to guess at where I'll be, that would be it, barring a precognitive, which, as we all know, is currently thought to be impossible beyond a few minutes, though there may be someone with a secret power who hasn't come forward."

She leaves out the part where La Lame made her own offer. No idea who to trust here.

"Well, I wish I could say that I'm surprised that you asked me if I'd like to join up with a dangerous terrorist, but I guess I'm surprisingly cynical. I'm sixteen and I can't read minds. I don't know half the context of the things he told me, and I certainly couldn't tell if he was putting me on. I'm certainly not going to run off and commit treason."

She folds her arms. "Can I go now?"

Seshat let out a small sigh.

"You know, Hound, I realized on the way over that there was no way I was going to be able to stay neutral. Cedilla would have come to talk to me regardless, but with the YPA he had to tiptoe. I thought I'd planned everything out, but I never stopped to consider how people can't really leave someone like me alone once I enter the board."

She looked outside, her frown deepening. There is a board, and she just met two of the players. She's not even a player herself, but a piece.

Somehow, she doesn't think Hound would say that if she actually joined Cedilla. Maybe, though, she isn't the only one La Lame has spoken to. "Thanks." She nods, and makes her way out. She finds somewhere to change before going to retrieve her electric bike, letting it boost her on her way back home, exhausted.

I'm okay, she texts her brother once she gets back home, putting her bike in the garage and slumping back inside.

"Hey Mom," she calls, shedding her jacket and pants. She sighs, flopping down onto the couch and hugging Mystery when she comes to investigate. So much to do, so much to worry about. The cartoons make being a superhero seem much less... trying.

Then again, the new ones get into that, too.

The fuck.

She gets up, holding Mystery in one arm while she examines the light. She turns to look at the couch, to see if she's still there, like in Hound-8's power.

Oh right, she never disabled the sign on Mystery. Holy shit. It actually worked.

The symbols aren't arbitrary. She's actually seen something, and it's connected to the shards!

And if anyone finds out, they will kidnap her or kill her to keep others from doing so. Until she can adequately protect herself, she'll have to be careful.

Excitement undamped by the thought, she calls to Mystery. "Power off."

Sam takes a minute to calm her roiling stomach, looking down at Mystery.
"Well, how about that. You naughty kitty~" She gets her tablet out and checks on her programming, getting a look to see how she activated it.

How many times has her mother been suckered into spending a lot longer than intended on this without noticing? Probably not many since it's kind of resource intensive.

She is honestly tempted into turning it into a defensive routine to protect her mother in case something happens, but it's just too inefficient. It shows that she was using it wrong. She should have assumed that it would require a valid activation condition, and it's not like she doesn't have ready access to neuromorphic computing resources.

"Thanks for the lesson, Mystery~ Turn on."

She dismantles Mystery's new superpower after taking a dump of the state to study at her leisure, then goes to set the table.

"Hey Mom," she greets, no longer put off as much by earlier. "Question - if you encounter a stretch of code that you can't read, and there's no documentation, what would you do to try and understand it, if you have to? This is a situation where I only know part of the language, and the language already exists."

She taps her tablet, projecting a view, before going to start eating.

"This is basically what I'm working with. These intimidating interconnected squiggles are a piece of foreign code. I know approximately what it does based on witnessing its effects - kind of - and that it's activated with a mental call function that the brain uses to learn. I suspect it consists of an evolutionary learning algorithm because what you're looking at is a seeded tattoo. Every seeded has one, and it's pretty definitive proof that what I do is in some sense objective, rather than just an arbitrary personal code."

She taps it again, bringing up another view, of more orderly squiggles and angular lines. "This is an example of one of my codes. You can see The constructed elements clearly because I delineate them, though sometimes they're more art than anything."

She frowns, poking at her food. "I don't know what it all means, but I think I've in some way discovered an inner language to shards. I've been thinking about things, too. Like, what if that shard hit you instead of Dad? Would you have laser powers and the ability to fly? I don't think so - in some sense shards tailor themselves to the individual, either before - it's possible, with the right kind of dimensional stuff - or after, when they hit. Shards respond to mental activity, too; anyone can see that. The probability of 4th dimensional objects randomly finding people in the vastness of the Earth's surface, let alone empty space is so improbable as to demand a cause."

She finishes her plate, fork scraping on clay, staring up at the figures. "The thing is, I only understand a tiny fraction of the real thing. Gods, Mother... could you imagine the possibilities?"

"Yes, I think you're right. I could learn to pack in things quite a bit more by studying this, I think, and others if I can get my hands on them. As for SRI..."

She leans back. "Something happened today, Mom." Then she tells her about the twin offers.

"I haven't told anyone about La Lame," she admits. "I know I should by law, but I think her warning about trust is credible. Not everything is adding up. The most wanted man in the world was willing to come chat with me after one day of studying what I can do - what happens if it gets out that I can flat-out replicate the powers of other heroes?" She looks at her hand. Could she give herself powers? Create a neural interface? She might be able to do it with a power suit.

"Right now, ironically, I think I'm okay because of the Synapse problem I told you about. I can't just make an army in my spare time, but what if I find a way around that? What if I, or someone else, devise an overwhelming power that they just need copies of?"

She sighs. "I don't know what to do. I'm not even 17 yet."