[Tanya Dawson]

Tanya is surprised to find herself outside the lecture hall. Seeing this person speak is foolish she tells herself, people might question why she's curious about the story of a metahuman working for some of the most lucrative companies in San Francisco. On the other hand, if she avoided it out of hand then she might draw just as much suspicion. She's always expressed an interest in advocacy which is why her professor suggested she attended the talk by the visitor.

There are a few other people here, and though Tanya keeps herself apart from them, she recognises a few other people from her advocacy class. One waves, and she smiles and waves back before bending her head to her phone as though suddenly distracted. At least she's not the only one from her group to come here. She begins to feel more confident about her situation as she glances sidelong down the corridor. A larger group of students is moving her way, clearly there are people here interested in the topic. Most likely because it is clear there will be a lot of money in metahuman law in the near future. Others perhaps because they are metahumans themselves.

She wonders just how many there are in the group. It's common knowledge that there are metahumans attending Stanford, though only one or two have come out publicly it would seem. They both have relatively harmless powers, one can generate bubbles at will, and has become something of a staple at any and all fraternity and sorority parties around campus. Her ability to be a one woman foam party was clearly much in demand. The other could levitate. Not fly, just hover a few inches above the ground. His is more of a gimmick than anything else.

Strangely though, Tanya cannot see either of them, she simply tags onto the back of the larger group as they enter the theatre, laughing and chatting. She's not stupid enough to choose a seat at the back, this is a big lecture hall, and the number of students that have shown up don't even fill it a quarter of the way. Instead Tanya chooses a seat about a third of the way up. She's nearby some people that she knows, not friends exactly, but not so much strangers that she can politely sit far away from them.

Producing a notebook and pen, she looks about the lecture hall once again. She's not sure what she's expecting. A Hero, someone lurking at the back with a hoodie pulled low over their face. It's not like this is a spy movie or anything, just a bunch of kids here to listen to a guest lecturer. Already she can see a dozen people on their phones, scrolling through Instagram, snapchatting each other, and generally looking like they've been dragged along purely through social pressure rather than because they are actually interested in the topic.

The lights dim a little as one of the professor's walks onto the stage. This is to be a talk, yes, but usually the professor's will ask a few pointed questions in order to ensure that their students get the best experience possible. She knows this one, professor Munoz, a short pot-bellied man with greying hair, teaches her advocacy class. He's a good instructor, if a little prone to tangents. His tall stories are humoured by the class because of the humour and energy with which he tells them, energy which is not lacking as he introduces their guest lecturer today. Amelia Herrera. Tanya sits up a little and does her best to look interested, but not too interested, readying her pen as the woman begins to speak. She's prepared to take notes as well, not that she'd need them, but it would be too obvious if she'd suddenly stopped making use of her ubiquitous notepad and pen.


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia hadn’t remotely expected this would ever happen. Sure, the fact she was a metahuman was in her employment records and would be considered ‘public knowledge’ in so far as the term can be applied to a person without much of a public presence, but it caught her off guard when a message came from a major university asking her to speak about her experiences. Seraph was certainly a big-name company locally, but she didn’t think of herself as especially noteworthy. Still, it seemed harmless enough, might even be fun.

She’s dressed a bit nicer than usual, in a dark blue polo shirt and what might reasonably pass for dress pants. It had been so long since she had actually had a need for such things that she had a limited selection. Like Amelia expected she could feel a couple metahumans on campus when she was going through it, though only two in the audience currently, she couldn’t really be sure who- she could only tell direction, not exact location, and it didn’t really matter right now either way. “So before we start I just want to warn all of you that I’m not especially familiar with speaking events, I’m an engineer, we don’t really do a lot of those. I’m just going to say what I can and it might be terrible, but here’s hoping it won’t be.”

She continued in this manner, talking about herself and her work, about what it had been like to suddenly have powers one day, and generally trying to give the non-metahuman listeners an idea of how crazy her life had gotten (she mentioned that she was a gadget type, but the specifics weren’t really important). She kept the same casual, informal, and personable manner as her initial warning. Amelia wasn’t a speech writer, she lectured similarly to how she talked the rest of the time, perhaps somewhat technical and analytic at times but still conversational even though she was the only one talking. It hadn’t really been a conscious decision. After a while of this she bit her lip and said “I won’t deny that I have it easier than some, my powers have ended up taking up… like almost all my free time but that’s my choice, and they don’t really interfere with my day-to-day life. Not to mention that while it’s important to acknowledge that just because prejudice against metahumans is less common on this coast doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or isn’t a problem, I still have the advantage of living in a friendlier part of the country. Either way the world's certainly gotten a bit more complicated over the last few years, but it’s done that before many times. It was never really simple to begin with anyway.”

She spent a while longer discussing the whole topic of herself in particular and metahumans in industry in general, concluding with “Alright, I think that’s everything. I should still be around for a while if anyone has questions, and have a fantastic day everybody.”

Tag: Tanya Dawson

[Tanya Dawson]

The talk had actually been more interesting than Tanya had expected, and she's found that her notes actually reflect that, rather than being a collection of half-finished doodles. Perhaps it was because Amelia felt legitimate, like someone who had been called upon because she had actually gone through this. She'd seemed honest, and certainly not polished like many other speakers often do.

Tanya could empathise with a lot of what Amelia had said. Developing powers, suddenly having the way you think, interact, live change massively. Clearly Amelia's employers had been more than understanding, eager to take advantage of her powers it seemed. Even so, it was clear that it had been nothing if not complicated.

Once Amelia bids them farewell the room starts to empty quickly. Most students beeline for the door as conversation once more starts to fill the room. A few students stop by the lectern to ask questions, while one or two wait for their friends. Watching, Tanya starts packing things away slowly.

She pauses, looking up as a shadow blocks out the light. It's Roger from her advocacy class. He's tall, with the kind of lanky physique one normally associates with high school basketball. She's seen him play though, he doesn't have what it takes. He's also more than expressed his interest in her multiple times.

"Oh... Hey Roger..."

Tanya has had to turn him down several times as well, expressing the fact that she's not interested in him or his money. She's also not a fan of his attitude towards her. He seems to think they would make a perfect couple as they are both African American. She almost threw up when he said that.

It takes a little bit to shake him off this time, but eventually he acquiesces, though she's pretty sure it's because the rest of the group that he had come with have made their way down to the front of the lecture hall. One of them calls back up to Roger, who gives Tanya what she supposes he thinks is a smouldering look, before he turns and jogs down the stairs. "Catch ya later."

She's relived to see the back of him, and even more relieved to see that in the brief time he has occupied her the students talking to Amelia Herrera seem to have found out what they were looking for.

Now it's just her, Amelia, and the professor in the lecture hall. Munoz is engrossed in his phone, clearly tapping out an email response as Tanya descends the stairs. He glances up at her and smiles warmly, then drops his attention back to his phone as Tanya walks over to Amelia.

"Hi Miss Herrera, do you mind if I ask you a few questions? What was it like for you at work when they first found out you were a metahuman?"


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

That hadn't seemed to go so badly, Amelia reflected. It seemed at least like a good portion of the audience had payed attention anyway, though there were only a handful who asked anything after the talk. She wasn't really used to this sort of thing but it was important to her, none of the things she had discussed were anything unusual, but for some reason people outside a group tended to have no trouble seeing the large-scale benefits that group had, but not their everyday problems. Everybody seemed to be going and Amelia moved to walk out when one of the students walked back. Now that the young woman had separated from the crowd it was clear to Amelia's senses that she was a metahuman. It seemed there would be a slight distraction for her to try to ignore while answering the girl's questions.

As she got to the bottom of the stairs it was like a hose of raw data had been attached to the back of Amelia's skull, not words but clusters of concepts threaded together by mathematical equations. Her power could use the data to make things but generally Amelia herself could only catch glimpses of what the information even was, in this case all she could really say was that it was biological (not her area of expertise by any means so getting more specific than that from such raw data was beyond her) and that small-scale electrical conduction was also part of it. All of this took place as a secondary train of thought in just a few seconds, Amelia still focused mainly on the girl herself, even as a part of her mind started automatically creating the first outlines of a mechanism.

Smiling to the student as she came up, Amelia responded "Of course, ask all the questions you want" she spent a few moments thinking about the first question "It was a bit odd, especially because I think I found out about it later than most people. I didn't fully explain because it wasn't important by my abilities don't get designs from nothing, but from effectively scanning everything around me, and it takes months for them to do anything unless I'm near another metahuman, then it does something almost right away" she realized this might something the student would not expect her to mention, but she felt it wouldn't be right to not disclose that she could tell the student had more than simple curiosity about metahuman affairs. Amelia didn't like keeping secrets about herself, no matter how innocuous they tended to make people feel like they had been tricked once they found out. "I think somebody else is going to be using this hall soon, how about we take this discussion outside?"

[Tanya Dawson]

"Oh."

So Amelia's power must have been working right now, and Tanya can only make the obvious connection. Amelia must now know that she is a metahuman. Waiting until everyone else had gone to ask questions must have made it obvious enough, but if her ability responded to the presence of other metahumans then it must have been obvious. After all, she'd been shown around campus by professor Munoz, Tanya was the addition to the equation.

Tanya shifts her bag on her shoulder, attempting, and clearly failing, to hide her discomfort. She hasn't anticipated that the woman's power makes her the equivalent of a metahuman detector. That is an even more chilling thought, but at least no one seems to have worked out a way to spot metas before they use their powers. At least not that Tanya has heard.

"Sure... We can go outside."

Her mind runs over the different reasons why Amelia might suggest they go outside, because the lecture hall actually is booked by someone else, for privacy, or to threaten her. The latter might be where she would have jumped to a few weeks ago, but Quinton had shown that maybe she shouldn't assume the worst of everyone. Despite that thought, she doesn't feel particularly reassured as she turns and heads out of the door.

"So... Uh..." Tanya isn't totally sure how to broach the obvious topic at hand. Instead, aware of the professor in the room behind them, she continues with the topic she'd started with. "I mean... I get that it maybe took a while and all that, but I was just wondering sort of how people took it? Were they hostile or...?"


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia started a walk out with the other girl, she wasn't really trying to be aggressive or anything, it's just that she felt it would be better to clear up her extra knowledge of the situation right away. She found her powers truly fascinating but this sometimes scared her, to know who had powers. Metahumans made a big deal of there identities and generally for good reasons, it made her very nature something of a threat to their safety even if she didn't really want to be one. 

She heard the question as they were leaving and said "Better than I'd been afraid of definitely, but there are definitely some people who weren't very friendly about it. Got a couple stupid comments on how I was 'taking jobs from engineers with real skill' and the like..." she had to pause to let out a chuckle at the sheer absurdity of the suggestion considering she already had a Master's Degree in mechanical engineering by the time of the Event "…but honestly I already knew what categorical discrimination was like, adding another category didn't change it's fundamental nature. Those sorts of people will find anything to hate others over and there's not a lot I can do about it." Stepping out into the cool air Amelia darted her eyes around, it seemed they were alone for the moment. 

Giving an apologetic smile to the student Amelia said "Sorry about that. I didn't feel quite... comfortable hiding what I knew about you already. That's not a lot" she assured "Just the one thing in fact, I just thought perhaps it would be better if you didn't have to pretend your interest was entirely academic" she said, smiling nervously, hands folded behind her back.

[Tanya Dawson]

Right. Sorry."

Tanya has the good grace to look embarrassed. "There's like, no one but my family who knows, I'm afraid that if they find out they might accuse me of cheating in exams or something. I mean, I got all of my grades for my scholarship well before the Event, and I swear I've never, like, intentionally used it to cheat or anything but I just can't y'know, turn it off."

She looks a little ashamed, almost as if she herself feels that she is cheating a little. Being able to recall a textbook page exactly from memory does make certain exams easier after all. She has spent pretty much the last two years looking over her shoulder, terrified that someone was going to catch her out. To be caught out by an ability like this, well, it's something of a relief. Although Tanya is very aware that she will still need to hide it from other students and her lecturers, even if she is tired of 'forgetting' things.

"I suppose it's harder for people to argue about you deserving your job since you already had the qualifications and everything before the Event right?"

The wind picks up a little, an icy gust blowing through the wide corridor formed between buildings. Tanya winces as daggers rush into her bare skin, pulling her hoodie about her and zipping it up in some pathetic attempt at protection. It doesn't offer much relief, so instead she glances about.

"Do you want to go get a coffee? There's a little place near here that's pretty private. And a lot warmer."

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia frowned slightly "No need to be sorry. I'm the one who automatically knows something you're trying to keep private after all" while listening, she checked up on the design being made in the back of her mind, and though once complete she'd automatically be able to tell what it did, the current half-finished state of incompleteness combined with just how complex it looked like this one was going to be made it impossible to determine the function of the mess of wiring, microchips, and magnetic coils her power was drafting up. 

"If it's harder to argue that I'm not be qualified at something I could do without powers, then how is it different if you already were a good student beforehand to say you're cheating at something beyond your control?" she shrugged "I don't actually know what you can do though, it's biology related I can tell, and that's not my expertise really, so for the next..." she checked her watch "5 minutes or so I'll have no clue. After that I'll have an educated guess." she chuckled to herself "I'm not really a great power detector, I can only guess based on what stuff I end up gaining the ability to create that works against a power what it even did in the first place"

Amelia wasn't used to there being so much space between buildings, and she tensed at the increased wind. It got pretty cold in the city itself too of course, but the wind at least only ever seemed to be coming in one direction at a time. "Definitely, warmth and coffee are always welcome. Pleased to meet you.. uh.. damn, this is awkward, but uh... what's your name?" 

[Tanya Dawson]

"Tanya."

While she says her name confidently, internally Tanya is cursing herself, so she could have cut this off earlier and the woman would have had next to no idea what her ability could do. She might not know exactly right now, but Tanya had definitely given her enough hints about her ability affecting her brain and ability to think that it could potentially cause her trouble.

It's too late now though, and Tanya turns to lead the woman out of the small, poorly sheltered corridor between buildings and towards one of the many small coffee shops on campus. The one she has chosen is a favourite of hers, staffed exclusively by students and populated by second hand arm chairs. It is almost annoyingly hipster, but since Tanya considers herself annoyingly hipster it works for her. It's busy at this time of day, but mostly with individuals or small groups sat at tables with laptops, piles of books, and headphones in their ears.

"So... You say that your ability works against whatever power it detects. Does that mean it could... Like... Control my power or something?"

She struggles, and fails, to keep the note of hope out of her voice as they enter the coffee shop. She see's the smiling cashier and accepts that she'll have to wait until after they have ordered a drink. "What do you want? Everything here is good pretty much."

Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

This hadn't been how she'd expected the day to go, but it was turning out quite interestingly so far. Tanya seemed rather frightened but she was being courteous enough considering the faux pass against metahuman identity etiquette Amelia committed without intending to. She follows Tanya to the coffee shop, which was small, charming, and very fundamentally 'student-y' in a way she hadn't seen since her own time at collage. 

Hearing Tanya's question she starts to say "Maybe? I mean it depends, sometimes..." she trailed off as they got inside, pondering her choice of drink a moment, smiling self-deprecatingly "Oh god, it's been a while since I've actually had good coffee, so I'm not sure. There's nothing in particular I dislike so I'll just take whatever you're having, how about I grab a seat?" she looked around the little building and managed to find a couple chairs that broadly speaking had some privacy, though it looked like this was just because they had been shoved into a corner away from the lights and forgotten about.

Once Tanya came back she continued "So, as I was saying, it doesn't always do quite the same thing" though it was unlikely anybody could hear them she purposely kept her own power the subject just in case "The common factor is that the devices can be seen as counters to the power I got the data for it from, it makes it less effective in some way. That could be a tool that bypasses it, something that undoes it's effects, a defense against it, or something that just negates it's usefulness. It's like... like this bit my mind is always assuming another meta might be a danger and creating an invention that reduces or removes the potential danger if they are, though of course nobody has been. It's automatic, a survival instinct really" she checked her watch "Though I'll be able to more satisfactorily answer that question in... about a minute and a half"

[Tanya Dawson]

Tanya is currently on a budget, her scholarship covers her fees, but not her rent or other living expenses. Coffee like this is a rare treat. She buys two black coffees, avoiding her usual order of an iced latte both because it is more expensive, and because she has no idea if it's the kind of coffee Amelia would enjoy or not. Adding cream and sugar to the tray, she carefully balances the mismatching cups across the room to the battered armchairs in the corner.

She sits down in the chair opposite Amelia, adding cream and sugar to her coffee before settling back into the soft embrace of the padded chair. It's somewhat comforting, especially after the brisk wind outdoors. The coffee is equally warming, and Tanya blows on it slightly before taking a sip. It's really good coffee.

"So it almost happens on auto-pilot? That's kindof what mine does." Tanya has had little luck in finding someone to experiment with since Quinton, and she's pretty sure she's already absorbed most of his memories, leaving no way of telling if she can control it now or simply if she's absorbed everything he has to give. It's beginning to have strange effects on her too. Certain things remind her experiences that aren't hers, she misses a home she's never actually visited. That Amelia's is just as automatic gives her no confidence that she might be able to control hers one day, but the thought that whatever the engineer creates might be able to stop or undo her power shows some light at the end of the tunnel.

"Really? Once you've got the full... Uh... Schematics in your head you can tell what it does? Is that still part of your power is it because of your experience as an engineer?"

She leans forwards a little in her interest, "Do you visualise it as a finished product? Or is it more of a series of technical drawings?"


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia gratefully took the coffee, adding a bit of sugar to it as she talked, and starting to slowly take sips of it once she had finished. he had to credit the choice of café- it was warm, had nice chairs, the coffee was good, and despite it's small size it was relatively private in the spot they had gotten. "The scanning and designing element yes, that seems to be always-on. I do get to pick if and when to make things, but not what's available to make, it's just as often that I get something useless under most conditions as something really stunning." she held her hands palms up in a 'nothing I can do about it' sort of gesture.

Tanya's question made her pause and consider it a moment, it was something she hadn't thought lot about. "I think it's part of my power since often I can tell what it is before it's finished, but once it's done it always seems like all the details set in. Just in this case the device is really far from anything I've worked on before so I just have to wait for the clarity I get once it's done. As for visualizing it... it's kind of complicated. The design itself as it exists in my head isn't visual, more like an instruction manual getting downloaded into my brain, but I tend to imagine it as a 3d diagram that I can look inside of at various angles and such" she held up a finger a few seconds as the swirling data in her head seemed to be put neatly to rest like it had been put onto a bookshelf, the exact details of the new design filling their place "...and got it"

No wonder she hadn't recognized the purpose earlier, it was a rather novel and intricate machine that lay further in biology than in physics or chemistry. "It's a... how to put it... sort of a memory hard drive slash tampering detector? The machine straps around a person's head and creates an impression of their memories, then either every couple minutes if you keep it on or next time you put it on if you don't, it checks for discrepancies between it's stored impression and what's currently in your head. It does that all automatically, but it can also manually re-insert the seemingly different memory it has stored. I think I can guess what you do now, since what I got is a machine to alert somebody if their memories have been changed or removed and undo that process." she bit her lip, hoping she hadn't said something she shouldn't have in her excitement.

[Tanya Dawson]

Tanya falls silent, trying to process what Amelia has just said. It's not exactly what she had expected. She's tried experimenting with her abilities, spent hours doing so with Quinton, she'd never once thought that she could actually mess with people's heads. "Shit..." The shock is evident in her voice as she puts the cup down on the table and sits back heavily.

"I can change people's memories? Edit them? Delete them?"

She stares at the ground, she's absorbed memories from several people, her mother briefly, Quinton, even random strangers who have brushed against her accidentally. Has she already changed people's memories? Or is it just something that she has the potential for? If she can change people's memories, does that mean that she could put memories into their heads as well?

"This is fucking huge..."

She leans forward again, cradling the cup between both hands as if she derives some comfort from the warm object. Her voice is hushed as she speaks, despite the unlikelihood of anyone hearing her in the first place. "I've not used my powers much, I've tried not to use them at all really. Since the Event I've remembered everything, like, perfectly. I read a book, I know it, I see a face, I remember it for ever. I could probably have lived with that, but it's what comes with it that makes things hard. I absorb memories just by touching people, not everything all at once, but I guess I can absorb everything if I hold on for long enough. I didn't know I could change them too."

S searching her mind for any suggestion that she might have changed something in Quinton. She might have done it accidentally and never even realised, she'd certainly had the opportunity to do so. It wasn't even as if she could ask him, he'd never remember the change.

"Is there anyway that, like, this thing could work retroactively?"


Tag: Amelia Herrera

[Amelia Herrera]

Amelia's eyebrow quirked up, how could Tanya not know what her power was after all she had mentioned? Unless... well it seemed both of them had learned something about their own power, Amelia had assumed hers reacted to the entire power of the other metahuman but she hadn't actually known her previous idea donors and what exactly their powers were, so it seemed likely that if a power had multiple parts or many effects her invention might only be a reaction to a specific part of it. She had long ago pegged it as highly rooted in a sense of protection after all and considering that particular part of her semi-conscious mind seemed to prepare for the possibility of a fight with every meta it encountered, it made sense it would prioritize certain parts of an ability to work against. Having it be so automatic had always been a bit disconcerting, having a piece of her constantly scanning everything and reacting against the potential threats of every single metahuman was unnerving, especially because she knew she was the same way, if less paranoid.

She loved taking things apart (literally or metaphorically depending on the thing in question), seeing how it works, how to use it's principles in other things... and how it could break, become inefficient, or fall into uselessness. It might be an automatic process but there was a reason Amelia had never doubted it was a reconfigured part of her own mind, it was everything she was good at and fascinated by combined with everything about herself that frightened her sometimes. Looking concerned now, she told Tanya "I have to assume you can do that considering the overall function of the design is to find alterations or gaps" she took another sip of coffee as Tanya gave an explanation of her powers as she had known them, it made sense too considering the part she hadn't known- these were clearly all connected portions of an overarching control over memory.
  
Amelia wanted to say something reassuring, but she could barely begin to imagine what it must be like, to have memories that don't belong to you and even worse to suddenly realize you could change people and might have already without realizing. She grimaced at Tanya's question "It can't really tell if a memory is changed or not, just if it's different than it's scan. I could set up an alternate data input, but unless you happen to have a complete scan of the person's mind sitting around somewhere all it could do I prevent even more change".  

[Tanya Dawson]

Tanya sighs and wraps her hands more tightly around the thick ceramic mug, deriving some comfort from the warmth the fresh coffee is radiating through the material. "I never wanted to experiment with my power. Absorbing people's memories is just a bit... Weird... Y'know. It's part of who they are and it feels like I'm intruding. Now that I might be... I might be changing their memories I'm not even sure if I want to try again..."

She's absorbed flashes of memories from probably a dozen people, her sisters, a few acquaintances, her friends... Quinton. She's absorbed more than flashes from Quinton, almost his entire life in fact, and she wonders if somehow she has unconsciously changed his memories...

She tries not to look or sound too guilty as she turns her attention back to Amelia. "Could it extract the memories I have in my head? Or are they still stuck there?"

God knows her life would be easier without half-a-dozen different lives sloshing about in there. Already she has caught herself finding things familiar that have nothing to do with her. Sometimes it seems difficult to differentiate just who she is amongst the different memories vying for attention inside her head.

Letting out a heavy breath, she finally asks. "And can you make it for me? I'll pay! I have savings!"

Tag: Amelia Herrera