The lab settles into a late-night hush. Red security bands wash the benches and sealed archive panes, while the locked equipment gives off a low, steady hum.
Arthur Blues drags a stool close to the workstation and opens his digital pad, posture loosening as he starts a fresh sketch of Abby Stone’s towering frame.
Abby Stone eases against the workstation, all heavy shoulders and carved muscle, letting the room hold her weight for a moment.
Arthur Blues
You know, I keep trying to get the proportions wrong on purpose, and you still look impossible.
Arthur Blues
The lighting makes every line sharper. He wants to catch that calm look before it shifts.
His stylus moves fast, tracing the curve of her arm, the breadth of her back, the careful stillness that sits under all that power.
Arthur Blues
If you want, I can show you the draft before I clean it up.
“I give Arthur a playful fkex as i look diwn at him from my towering hight, saying I'll always look impossibly perfect”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +0)
Abby answers with a slow flex, one arm rising just enough to make the workstation shadow shrink under her bicep. The red review light catches the curve of muscle and chrome-bright lab glass alike.
Abby Stone
I will always look impossibly perfect.
Arthur Blues
Yeah, you really commit to the premise.
Arthur lowers the pad for a second, looking up at her with a crooked smile that softens the tension in his shoulders.
Arthur Blues
Three badge hashes still sit in the node trace, but right now he is more interested in keeping this moment steady.
He tilts the screen toward her, the sketch on display, rough lines already catching Abby’s size and poise with unsettling accuracy.
Arthur Blues
Tell me where the line between strong and unreal actually is, because I keep drawing over it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Maintain the partnership's stability
“"Unreal is uncontrolled, Strong is controlled. For example, when a powerhouse takes a step and accidentally demolishes a city, thats unreal. But when you have the power to cause such destruction yet can be gentle enough to properly interact with the world, that's true strength" she says as she carefully picks him up and gently cradles him in a massive arm thats as big as he is.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled -1)
Arthur Blues
Then controlled is the hand that stays steady while it could break everything.
Abby lifts him with careful ease, and Arthur’s stool scrapes back as he settles into the curve of her arm instead of the floor. The sketch pad tilts against her forearm, his stylus still pinched between two fingers, forgotten for a second.
Arthur Blues
She makes gentleness look deliberate. That is the part I trust most.
Red review light washes over his face as he looks up at her from the cradle of her arm, then down at the sketch, then back again, measuring the distance like it matters.
Arthur Blues
I draw the line where intention stays human. The size is the spectacle, but the restraint is the proof.
The sealed archive panes stay gray and silent behind them. Three badge hashes still glow faintly in the node trace on the side monitor, background details in a room that has stopped feeling cold.
Arthur Blues
Hold still a second. I want this version, the one where you look like you know exactly how to be careful.
Quest Complete
Maintain the partnership's stability
“I continue carefully holding the small man as he draws me”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Abby keeps Arthur balanced in the crook of her arm while the sketch pad settles flat again. The red review light hums across the lab, but her hold stays exact, neither tighter nor looser.
Arthur Blues
This is the part that matters, not the scale of it, the steadiness.
His stylus moves in short, confident strokes. Abby’s other hand hovers near the page, ready to support the pad if he shifts, and does.
Arthur Blues
There. That posture. It says you are carrying more than weight, and still choosing care.
The sketch gains sharper lines under his hand, her giant forearm, his small seated shape, the careful angle of her shoulders. The gray archive panes stay dead behind them, and the three badge hashes remain faint on the side monitor.
Arthur Blues
I used to think strength was what filled a room. Now I think it is what keeps one from breaking.
Arthur pauses, chin lifting from the page. He looks up at Abby from within the shelter of her arm, stylus held still, as if waiting to hear whether she wants the drawing changed or kept exactly as it is.
✓ Quest Accepted
Clear the security flag
“I lift Arthur up and let him sit on my shoulder”
SUCCESS (Legendary Athletics, rolled +2)
Abby shifts her grip and rises her arm in one smooth lift, guiding Arthur upward until he settles above her shoulder. He catches himself with one hand against her collar and the other still protecting the sketch pad.
Arthur Blues
Better view from up here. Less likely to cramp, too.
He adjusts his balance, then looks down at the page, the stylus poised again. The red lab glow catches the fresh lines of the drawing, and the side monitor still holds those three faint badge hashes like a quiet stain on the edge of the room.
Arthur Blues
You know what I keep noticing? You never rush the hard part. You just make room for it.
Arthur gives a small, thoughtful nod and adds a careful stroke to the sketch. From this height, he can see over the pad toward the locked archive panes, but he does not turn away from Abby.
Arthur Blues
If the system clears on its own, I want the first thing it sees to be us still standing here.
“I keep Arthur steady and watch the archive panes”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Abby keeps Arthur balanced against her shoulder while her gaze locks on the archive panes. The gray seals hold for a breath, then the side monitor flickers and the three badge hashes sharpen into a clean maintenance handshake.
A thin status line blooms across the locked panes, then blanks out. The review latch drops with a hard electronic click, and the archive overlays shift from gray to active blue.
Arthur Blues
That just cleared it.
Arthur stills his stylus over the sketch pad, eyes flicking from the newly live archive panes back to Abby’s face.
Arthur Blues
Looks like the system finally let go.
A fresh access prompt unfurls on the monitor, waiting for the next command while the red security light keeps pulsing over both of them.
Arthur Blues
Do you want me to open the archive, or leave it parked for a second?
Quest Complete
Clear the security flag
New Gift: Security Bypass Optimization