The armored transport rolls beyond Almanac's broken ramp and onto the secured campus route. Mari sits in soft restraints beside two detained supervillains: a gaunt, middle-aged man in a gray suppression suit, and a wiry young woman whose black coat is threaded with metallic filaments.
Sentinel Vale, a human man with close-cropped dark hair and medium-brown skin occupies the center seat between them, a broad-shouldered adult man in blue-and-silver armor. His visor is raised, showing a square jaw and tired eyes; a dampening baton rests visibly against his thigh, lowered.
Sentinel Vale
Campus arrival is forty minutes out. Before then, every passenger gets an individual assessment. No performances, no baiting, and no pressure to confess anything.
Graveshift
You say that like the vehicle is a clinic.
Mothwire
It has restraints, cameras, and a hero with a stick. That makes it a clinic with branding.
Sentinel Vale
It is a first test, not a punishment. You can answer plainly, decline, or ask what a question is for. Mari, that applies to you too.
The transport hums steadily through morning traffic, sealed cameras tracking without blinking. A small console beside Mari lights up with her name and a single prompt: BEGIN INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT.
✓ Quest Accepted
Complete the individual assessment
“*I look over ready to take my assessment*”
Mari turns her attention to the illuminated console and sits as still as the soft restraints allow. Her pitch-black eyes track the prompt without hesitation while traffic slides in muted reflections across the transport windows.
Sentinel Vale notices her readiness and angles the console slightly toward her, keeping his hands away from the controls. The cameras continue recording, but nothing in the compartment changes except the assessment screen.
Sentinel Vale
All right. We will begin with what you already understand: your current needs, your limits, and what support helps you stay in control.
A soft chime sounds. The prompt expands into simple fields for medical requirements, known triggers, and communication preferences, with an option beside each to answer verbally instead.
Graveshift
That is a gentler opening than most places give people in restraints.
Mothwire
Do not mistake gentle for optional. They are still building a file.
Sentinel Vale
Correct. A useful file lets the staff respond before a crisis instead of after one. Mari, take your time. The assessment is ready when you are.
“*obviously I don't show the other villains what I put but I put all of my powers and how I feed which is anything sufficiently intact with a nervous system, and my parasitic need to infect and breed, like have a shitload of kids I am constantly horny, and hungry, tho I kept up both in check so far, I don't have a lot of limitations*”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled -3)
Mari angles her body away from the other detainees and uses the console's privacy filter. The screen narrows to her view, hiding each entry behind a shifting blur.
She records her shapeshifting, regeneration, strength, speed, telepathy, adaptive responses, controlled parasitic infection, and the absence of many known limitations. She adds the need to feed on sufficiently intact nervous systems.
The final fields receive the harder disclosures: propagation urges, reproductive impulses, persistent hunger, and sexual drive, all currently managed without a breach. The wording stays clinical, but the file does not soften it.
Sentinel Vale
You can submit sensitive material privately. The others do not need access to your medical or behavioral details.
A confirmation seal appears, and the console locks the completed answers behind staff authorization. The assessment succeeds, though several technical entries are flagged for later verification.
Mothwire
That was a lot of typing for someone who did not say a word.
Sentinel Vale
Her answers are recorded. The next assessment will clarify what the system cannot safely infer from a written disclosure.
Quest Complete
Complete the individual assessment