polymetis-23

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Dec. 19, 2021

Hi all. This is going to be my last post of the semester and I have decided to scrap my usual style in place of a more descriptive mode of storytelling. I realize that some of you may not like this change, however the topic this week is more serious and I have come to realize that detailing my life and relationships online is going to lead to difficulties with keeping my identity hidden. I do appreciate all you readers and hope to include some more humorous moments, but for now this change will stay. On to the story of this week.

- Polymetis

    If you remember from last week, I saw Alexandrite kill someone. Well I didn't see the actual kill but she was hovering over the body and that blood is definitely on her hands. At the time I was too stunned to follow after her. I was sure I had misunderstood what she had been doing previously and that she wasn't actually that bad of a person. I mean she helped me find my friend and helped point out where I could improve in my fighting. That night I had intended to approach her and ask if she wanted to be partners and work together to take down the criminals in our city. I will admit that I have been naive this past semester. This isn't something I am proud to say but I really wanted to believe that she was good like me. I don't know where the connection came from but I kept telling myself excuses that her actions couldn't be that bad. Even with this murder I looked into who the victim was, hoping to find something that justified the situation, but there was nothing. He had done nothing.

    After I acknowledged that she was in the wrong and needed to be stopped, I took a moment and reflected back on what I knew of her story, and realized that I had been betrayed. She only showed me part of her and pretended like everything else she did, didn't matter. But it does. We aren't the face we show to the world. We are everything hidden behind that face and we are more of what we do when we are alone and not influenced by others than we are the facade the world sees. So, I decided that I needed to bring her down because the local law enforcement clearly couldn't. I turned to my computer man and we started the hunt for her.

    I knew where she lived, but I didn't want to fight there, because I was sure there would be a fight and she had already proven that she was capable and willing to kill. None of the other students needed to be casualties. Through some computer analysis of the data collected by the microphones and cameras C (as I will refer to computer man for now) put in place ages ago, we found a consistent pattern of footsteps across the roof. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday someone would run along the main campus corridor but on the roofs. I was surprised by how easy it was to track the sound across the different roofs and piece together the path. Unfortunately we didn't have much video as those files are larger and only the previous 24hrs are saved. We weren't 100% confident that those footsteps were from Alexandrite's patrol route or some undergrads hanging out where they weren't supposed to be. But the regularity suggested something organized, so I hung out Monday night and waited. 

    Sure enough I saw her familiar shadow appear on the roof right when the footsteps were predicted. She looked around, for what, I don't know anymore. If you had asked me a few days ago, I would have said she was looking to make sure the area was safe, now it looked more like she was hunting for someone. I caught my breath when I had that thought as I realized: she may be hunting for me. I saw her last crime and being a witness against a villain is dangerous. As much as I hated it, I knew I had to wait that night. That night was simply supposed to be a reconnaissance mission and I had left most of my gear at HQ so I could hide better. Still holding my breath, I waited for her to leave. The audio prediction said she only stayed on this roof for 30-45seconds before leaving and it had already been 20. 

Time froze as her gaze swept over my hiding spot. The moon reflected off her eyes while the rest of her face was shadowed by her hood, giving an eerie appearance of white glowing eyes, a dark hood/cape and a faint red glow around her hands. I would have sworn she saw me but her head continued to turn and at last she took off running to her next stop on patrol, or whatever she was doing, and my breath released. I stayed on the roof for another few minutes before heading down to report to C and we made a plan. Alexandrite very rarely strayed from her pattern of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so we had two more chances to take her down before the semester ended. I had a final on Thursday as did C so we planned to make our move on Friday. Between Monday and Friday we worked on refining my technique, particularly in removing the gloves that gave Alexandrite her power, and making sure that we had a way of restraining her. C wanted to come with me but we both knew he had no fighting experience and although I may not have the same skills as Iron Man, I was still more qualified than C.

Friday rolled around and I was in position on top of the roof. There was a cutting wind and an almost full moon that was periodically covered by the clouds in the sky. Like clockwork Alexandrite climbed onto the roof. She stood in the middle, similar to Monday, as she looked around. This time I didn't remain hidden, but stepped out to face her. 

"Alexandrite" I said, as she whipped around to face me, the wind blew her hood off revealing a mess of dark hair that blew around like crazy. This was a good sign for me because although I knew some of her weaknesses in fighting, she had been active for more than a year before I started and I would need every advantage I could get.

"M-" She continued to talk, but it was drowned out by the ringing in my ears. She used my name, my real name. She dared to make it sound like we could be friends after she betrayed my trust.

"Stop talking. I am bringing you into the police, you've done enough harm and I've looked away for too long." Something passed across her face as I said those words. Something I couldn't quite place, guilt? regret? acceptance maybe? It didn't matter, she opened her mouth but before she could speak more lies, I attacked. My first punch landed squarely on her jaw but my second hit only air. Her body had stumbled back after the first blow, something I was not prepared for and, missing my target, the follow through caused me to go off balance. 

I fell to the ground and rolled up on one knee with my hand on the ground in front of me. I looked to see Alexandrite on the opposite side of the roof staring. I stood and charged. Unfortunately her surprise had worn off and she was able to react. She grabbed my fist as I tried to punch again and dodged the kick I sent her way causing me to once again end up off balance. With my fist still locked in her hand I ended up with my back pressed against her, struggling as she tried to get me in a choke hold. Throwing up my elbow I distracted her enough to loosen her grip and grabbed her glove as I darted away.

"No!" She yelled as I moved, reaching out with her now gloveless hand. Although the glove was gone, I still saw a burst of red light through my goggles. Her powers weren't dependent on the gloves apparently, another lie.

"I didn't know you could do that." The statement left my mouth before I could stop it.

"Neither did I," she replied, apparently surprised. 

"You expect me to believe that? After you betrayed me?!" I shouted, she at least could have pretended to care.

"Betray you? I barely even knew you!" And that was the final straw. I loaded my crossbow, aimed and fired. I used one of my blunts as I wouldn't stoop to her level and kill, but I knew they had one heck of an impact. It landed where I aimed, her left hand, the one without the glove. I heard a sharp cry but was already moving. When I looked up there were scorch marks from her powers scattered across the roof and her right hand was still raised. 

Her attention was still focused on her left hand so I took that as the opportunity to remove my bo staff from its hold. I was too far away to use it in a traditional fashion and any approach would break her confusion so I did what I do best and ignored how things are supposed to be done. I threw the compacted staff aiming to knock her out. Unfortunately my aim wasn't the best and it whistled past her ear. She turned to look at me before we heard a clang as the staff hit the radiator on the roof. Her instincts caused her to turn right as the staff rebounded and hit her in the center of the forehead. She wasn't unconscious, but definitely dazed. I ran forward and applied the hand-cuffs C and I built. Different from traditional police as I suspected she would know how to get out of those. I removed her other glove, although I wasn't sure what good it would do any more and hit the button on the side of my mask to let C know we were all good. Apparently he had someone on the police force who owed him a favor and would come to take Alexandrite off to prison.

I was able to drag Alexandrite down the stairs and we waited in the alley to the side of one of the buildings. We didn't need spectators to give her more fame. Alexandrite was just beginning to come back to normal when a shiny black car pulled up with men in black suits, not what I was expecting, but when they showed government ID I knew they would do what was right. She was on her knees, head hung down as the government men made sure she couldn't escape.

"What is that phrase you say? An eye for an eye?" I looked directly at her when I said this. She needed to know that whatever fake friendship she had tried to create, there was none of it left.

"Yes." She replied, one word that is all I got.

"Yeah, that makes the whole world go blind." She needed to know there is no hope if we just retaliate against everything. Instead of understanding, she scoffed at me, refusing to look up.

"What?" I asked. And then she did look up from the ground, staring straight at me.

"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." And with those words she was loaded into the back of the car and driven away. I stood there, not knowing what to say as I watched them drive away.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Dec. 13th, 2021

Day 1 - Back on the streets

    First off in case any one has been confused, Shawn is not Shadow Man's real name, he just refuses to tell it to me so I have to guess. He did give me a clue however that it starts with a 'C' so I will have to change my temporary name to 'Charlie'. He says that's not it either, but he will tell me if I guess correctly so I will just have to keep trying. Only one confirmation a week though. Next, he was able to get the system back together so I went out tonight to run some tests to make sure everything was working as before. He didn't give me back my weapons yet, so no crime fighting. In addition it was very cold today and I discovered that, while my costume looks awesome, it was not designed for the cold, something I will have to update. Thankfully the forecast seems to be warming up so I can fix this over the break.

    On that topic, we are only two weeks away from the end of the semester! I never thought I would be this excited to see the end of classes, but I am ready to go home. Sure there are some things that I will miss about this place, but they'll still be here when I get back and I hope that the cold will keep the bad guys indoors at least for the three weeks that I will be gone.

Day 2 - The final assignments

    I spent most of today finishing the remaining little assignments my classes have decided to assign. I have to give a presentation in bio tomorrow, we're supposed to be doing group reviews where we each review a different topic and reteach it to the group. A method that is supposed to help us since the best way to learn something is to teach it, but in reality I think the professors are just as ready for the end of the semester as the rest of us. Regardless of the underlying reason as to why, it is something that is happening but I am done with it and done with all my other pSets and papers. All that I have left is to give the presentation, sit through a couple reviews and take the actual finals. At this point I am very glad for my school's pass/no-record policy for first semester freshman year because I am not doing as well as I would like to be, but I am passing.

Day 3 - Practice

    Charlie gave me back my weapons today and I found that they had some upgrades. Not many as he is more software than hardware, but there is now a small pack that I can wear on my hip which interfaces with my goggles so I can change the filter from IR to heat tracking to motion detection, etc. plus it can activate an electromagnet that pulls my bo staff back to me if I ever drop it. With the new additions, I spent most of today practicing switching between views and figuring out when each would be useful. Charlie also made me practice retrieving the staff as I "don't have the best hand to eye coordination" apparently. And that, uh… was probably a good idea as there are now several dents in the walls around our underground base, but I can reliably catch it now!

Day 4 - Study groups

    The one unfortunate side to becoming friendly with your roommates is that they now ask you where you've been instead of just leaving you to your own devices. As a result I was dragged into a study session today to keep Liv and Becca from asking too many questions. Charlie has already been taken once and I don't need to risk it again by drawing more attention to that side of my life. He seems to be struggling enough as it is, although he thankfully did agree to staying on as my computer man for a long time cause coding still sucks. Another reason I would have loved to skip this review session, it was for my coding class.

Day 5 - Beginning of the end

    Today was the last day of classes and I finally got to go out on the street again, yay! There wasn't a ton of activity, but it was really cool to see the city through my new filters. I spent most of the night sitting on one of our campus buildings until I saw the lights from Alexandrite's gauntlets. I decided to go and check it out to see if she wanted to spar as the night was boring and it would be great to understand her fighting style better, but she was gone by the time I got there and I decided to turn in for the night.

Day 6 - A celebration?

    Everyone decided that today was the day to celebrate the end of the semester, which I think is a little premature but oh well. I was dragged around by Liv to a few different hang outs and then we met Becca and went out to dinner. It was nice to spend the day not thinking about academics or fighting people, but I don't think I can make a habit of this.

Day 7 - Ignorance was bliss

    The day started out fairly normal. I slept in, studied a bit, met up with not Charlie (still won't give me another hint) and did a bit of tweaking with my wrist crossbow and the release of my bo staff from it's holder before deciding to head out, which was a mistake.

    I patrolled along the rooftops looking for anyone who may be in trouble or need a helping hand when I once again saw the red lights through my goggles that indicated the presence of Alexandrite somewhere on the other side of campus. I figured I might actually make it to her this time before she left so I changed direction and ran that way. Second mistake of the night. I arrived where the lights were coming from and saw a dark shape moving on the ground. Alexandrite always dressed dark when she helped me with finding Caspar and even before when she was there at the mugging. She was drawing something, presumably her signature eye, on a wall. "Alexandrite!" I called, it is never wise to sneak up on someone with superpowers after all. Her head jumped right to where I was and we made eye contact for five seconds before she turned and ran. I sat there confused because although I was still unsure how I felt about her, I was starting to consider it possible that we could become a team for larger threats.

    Once she had moved away I noticed another dark shape on the ground. This one wasn't moving. A flash of red drew my attention and I thought Alexandrite had come back only to see a reflection of moonlight on the eye on the wall. The reflection lasted only a second before the breeze blew another cloud in front of the moon, but I had seen enough. I called for an ambulance and leapt from the roof and followed the path set by Alexandrite to no avail. I ran around the area hoping to find a clue, I even went back to her dorm, but couldn't get a good look inside as it was on the fourth floor and the streets were full of people. With all leads gone for the night, I returned to the scene of the crime to find an area lit by police and sectioned off with yellow tape. The dark shape was now illuminated and I had to look away. It wasn't long before my earpiece crackled:

 "Come on Polymetis, it's time to turn in for the night. She's gone and you won't do any good if you pass out from exhaustion. Sleep and we can discuss what happened and next steps tomorrow." 

I sighed, I knew he was right, but that didn't mean I had to like it. I'm writing this trying to decompress on everything that has happened and stabilize the world view that has gone spinning from beneath me. This is where I will leave you for now dear readers, I will update you on the hunt next week and hope to have some revelations. As it stands Alexandrite, aka The Eye, is once again my main priority and enemy number one.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Dec 5th, 2021

Day 1 - Re-population of campus

    So I got back yesterday with the idea of using today to regroup and prepare myself for my upcoming classes, apparently other people didn't have the same idea. They all came back today which means the student side of campus has been full of people lugging suitcases everywhere so I have stayed in my room most of the time. There isn't anything interesting to do with travel zombies everywhere. Liv returned mid morning and decided to take a nap. Becca returned just before dinner, right as Liv woke up so we all got dinner together before turning in for the night. Well they turned in. I went to catch up with some friends, aka Shawn.

    I went to our HQ to get hooked up to the monitoring system so we could stop some post Thanksgiving crime, but he wasn't there. Thankfully I have connected often enough and there is a somewhat decent transcript in the bottom left of my goggles that I was able to go out without him. There wasn't much on the streets. Just a mugger and petty thief trying to steal an ATM. He wasn't trying to open it and take the money. No, he was trying to lug the whole thing with him. Like what did he think he was going to do? Anyway I guess Sundays aren't high crime days.

Day 2 - Onslaught of work

    Apparently, even though I have multiple finals, my classes are all deciding that I need to have final projects or pSets too and the last due date for those is this Friday as we need a week to 'study'. Honestly I would rather have the time to finish this accursed coding problem set. What a load of bologna in my mind. Regardless, I have been in and out of libraries all day today, nothing of interest there.

Day 3 - Bang Bang

    I decided to go out again today and my goggles were still hooked up, meaning no upgrades from Shawn, weird but not too strange since I did use them only two days ago. I had been sitting on a rooftop watching the city and the mundane feed of the police scanner when I heard a bang and the police scanner quickly populated with reports of "gum fired at XXXX" which I assume meant 'gun' fired. Like I said, not the best transcription, but it worked well enough. I took off running to the address and found the shooter in confrontation with the police, back to his victim on the ground. The paramedics couldn't get to her due to the fact that the scene was not safe for them and she was bleeding from what looked like a graze across her left arm. Thankfully they were in an alley with a small access door off to one side. Something not obvious to most people, but I have been studying all the alleys in the city during my nighttime wanderings, afterall you should never turn down a dead end, all super heros know that. 

    I climbed down the fire escape one block away and looped around. Entered through the door, grabbed the woman and pulled her away. She hadn't lost much blood so she was able to walk, thankfully. I guided her until she could see the ambulance and then let her continue on her own. I may be a hero, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to reveal myself just yet in front of 10+ police and an armed man. I just had a gut feeling this wasn't the time. I did, however, stay and watch as the gunman saw that the woman was gone and was taken down by the police. All in a good day's work. 

Day 4 - Finished work

    So as it turns out Becca is really good at coding, I think she is faking being bad to get help from her crush. And by working with her we finished today rather than taking all the way up until Friday. I was also able to finish a paper for my humanities class and my biology pSet. I don't know what happened but I was feeling very productive today. Anyway I am also exhausted so I am going to bed.

Day 5 - An update to the system?

    I was debating going out again tonight but turned on my goggles to find them disconnected. This usually happens when Shawn has made an update as the whole system reboots and I would have to go in person to reconnect them, which I honestly didn't feel like doing today. So I decided I would do some training. I remembered how a few weeks ago I practiced that one punch move over and over and then I just knocked out that guard without even thinking about it. Although I think a lot of this basic stuff is really annoying and unnecessary I figured I would try it for my bo staff as I have never really used it before and thought it might be helpful. Unfortunately the practice was lame. I did the same motions over and over but kept spinning around and falling or not hitting well and I just didn't know why. 

    Looking back I realized that Alexandrite would slide in suggestions on how to improve the punch. 'Use your whole weight', 'twist as you punch', 'counter balance', etc. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now? Well maybe having someone else trained in fighting is helpful? I still don't know if I can trust her, but maybe we can work something out?

Day 6 - Overprotective

    I turned in all of my pSets today and now have a full week to study before classes so I decided I would go out again before the study stress set in. As I already mentioned Shawn had restarted the system at some point so I needed to go and reconnect my goggles but when I got there I found something I was not expecting. Shawn was there but 'the update' was him shutting down the computers and starting to disassemble everything. I will say we did not have the best conversation, but we have at least come to a temporary arrangement. The discussion went as follows:

Me: "What are you doing?" Shawn: "What does it look like? I'm taking apart the system."

He continued to do just that during the entire conversation Me: "Why? It has been working so well."

Shawn: "I should have never built it." Me: "What do you mean?" Shawn: "All it does is encourage more and more risks." At this point I could tell he was avoiding something

Me: "Shawn just say what's wrong!"

He stopped moving

Shawn: "Shawn? Who's Shawn?" Me: "Uh, you are. You wouldn't tell me your name and I got tired of referring to you as 'Shadow Man' so now you're Shawn." 

I shrugged and he just stared at me

Me: "So, uh, what's wrong?"

Shawn: "Oh, well I can't let you go out any more." Me: "And why is that?"

Shawn: "It is too dangerous." Me: "I'm fine." Shawn: "No you're not, you ran into a situation the other day where there was an active shooter and you didn't even think of calling for backup…"

Me: "but…"  I was not allowed to finish as he continued his tirade now that he had started

Shawn: "No, let me finish. You didn't call for backup and there was no way for me to know what happened to you if you didn't come back. That is not something I can allow to be a possibility. I know what happens when someone disappears and I can't let that happen to you, I'm sorry."

We stared at each other for a couple of minutes before he turned away and continued to unplug wires.

Me: "Stop, just stop. I appreciate the concern, but I can handle myself." He raised an eyebrow. "I can! Can we talk about this?"

Shawn: "No, no I cannot, the decision is made." Me: "Shawn, stop. How about this? I agree to not go out without you behind the camera and we can add a location tracker to my costume in case something happens. Happy?"

Shawn: "No, but you're not going to let this go are you?" Me: "Nope." Shawn: "Fine, but no heroing for the next few days as I get this" -he gestured to the computer system - "back up and running and we add that tracker." Me: "Agreed."

Day 7 - City outing

    As I wasn't allowed to do any 'heroing' as Shawn put it, I spent the day with Liv and Becca. The weather was actually pretty decent so we went walking around the river and explored some areas of the city. I was surprised how expensive most of the restaurants were and that I saw none of the fast-food chains that I was used to. Overall it was a pretty chill day, but I was still itching to go back out and stop some bad people. Or at least train to be able to stop them, but Shawn had confiscated all my weapons to ensure I didn't go out. The lack of trust!

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Nov. 27th, 2021

Day 1 - Monotony

    I cannot remember the last day I just sat around and did nothing. Unfortunately today ends that streak. I had my exam last week and as I wasn't allowed to go patrolling, I actually finished all my homework early. As we are in the weekend before Thanksgiving most professors aren't assigning anything before the break, all the usual deadlines have been pushed back. So here I am sitting around. Why am I not patrolling you might ask? Well it is the middle of the day for one and for the other my computer man apparently has a lot of projects to finish. Apparently that's what happens when you aren't a freshman and your classes don't have finals. You get out of school a week early but you get a ton of projects at once. I don't see why he is complaining, he gets to go home a whole week before I do. I'm gonna be stuck taking stupid exams in the smelly gym. Oh yeah, did I mention our exams take place on the third floor of the athletic center. It is just going to smell terrible. 

    So long story short, I had no one to watch my back and with the increase in crime during my absence, I uh, didn't want to risk it. And I couldn't go to Alexandrite because she would say I need to be the one to watch the cameras, although she was also probably busy with projects, being in the same year as Shadow Man. Although now that I think about it, I never once saw her do class work while she was helping me? How does she keep the academic department from hounding her about her grades?

    I also couldn't go into the workshop because apparently all the supervisors were taking the full week off so it would be closed for the foreseeable future.

Day 2 - Friends?

    No, I don't miss hanging out everyday with Alexandrite and no I haven't considered asking her for 'training' so I'm not just sitting on my butt all day. We were only together out of necessity and nothing else, we're not friends, she's still a villain after all... Also she is almost definitely busy with projects. I was sitting in bed staring at the ceiling and contemplating whether I should sneak in and work on my crossbow or barge in on someone's work session when I heard:

    "You okay?" As I was the only other person in the room, I assumed they were talking to me.

    "Huh?" I sat up and looked at … my roommate. It's bad that I don't actually know her name isn't it?

    "You are never in this room except to sleep. You were in your bed most of yesterday staring at the ceiling, awake. And now you're doing the same thing today. I repeat: are you okay?" Apparently my roommates aren't as inobservant as I thought.

    "Uh yeah, I'm fine." She scoffed. Apparently she didn't believe me.

    "Come on M-, you're not fine. You may not take the time to get to know Liv or I -" Apparently the confusion on my face from the name was evident.

    "Olivia, the girl who sleeps above me and has been sharing a room with us for the past three months?"

    "Oh-"

    "Yeah oh. Anyway you might not care to know us, but don't think we don't care about you. I see you every week in coding class and then again in intro calculus. You've been off recently with your mind more in the clouds than normal. Now I'm not saying we're friends. You don't have to tell me everything but - it wouldn't hurt to have someone to talk to."

    "I have people to talk to." Maybe that was a little defensive, but I talked to other people right? I talked to Shadow Man about the next mission and Alexandrite about saving Shadow Man and I talk to you guys… Okay maybe I don't actually talk to people.

    All she did was raise her eyebrow. When it became clear that I wasn't going to say anything more, she finally said: 

    "Do you have any plans today before coding?" The sudden change in subject completely shattered my internal dialog of how the heck she read me so well.

    "Uh no, not today."

    "Join Liv and me. We're going to Little Italy for some cannoli and a nice walk before the weather turns."

    "Sure." It beats another day waiting for something to happen I guess.

        As it turns out Liv and Becca - my other roommate's name, short for Rebecca - are actually nice people. I mostly just listened to their conversation. Liv has an older brother who just started a new job. Becca has a crush on some boy in the year above us who has been helping her with her code. Other small stuff like that. I didn't share much, but it was nice to be around other active people again and the cannoli was pretty good. Coding class was uneventful and I spent the evening working on the class' problem set that was due after the break with Becca. It made coding a lot less annoying. Why have I been avoiding my roommates and others so completely? What else have I missed?

    Day 3 - Final day of classes

    Coding sent out an email that they are cancelling class tomorrow so today is my last day of classes before the break. Nothing crazy happened in classes. Just another day of lectures. I returned to my room to find Liv and Becca packing their suitcases. Apparently they were both flying home tonight. I wonder what would have happened if Becca didn't step in yesterday and make me aware of them as people. Would I have even noticed that they were gone before I left? Would I have been worried about them? Unfortunately I think the answer would have been no for both, even if I was here all of break.

    Anyway I packed as well knowing that I had an early flight tomorrow, then we all grabbed dinner in the dining hall before they left for the airport and I returned to my - our room. For once I actually noticed that it was empty … being aware of people is going to be a pain isn't it? And I don't even care about them … yet.

Day 4 - Returning home

    I haven't thought about home in a long time, and until I stepped on that plane I didn't realize just how homesick I was. I guess y'all don't really know much about my family huh? Well I'm the oldest, then there is my oldest little brother (Dave), my twin little sisters (Jane and Rose) and the runt of the litter: my youngest little brother (Johnny), sorry not their real names. I'm in college now, Dave is just entering high school, the twins are in fifth grade and little Johnny is in first grade. I guess everyone missed me because they were all at the airport to pick me up when I landed. 

    Johnny ran up shouting "M- M-, look! I lost a tooth!" Although it sounded more like 'losth a thooth' as he had a big gap where one of his front teeth was supposed to be. The twins were fighting over who was wearing whose shoes. I'll let you know, they were identical so you could never tell. The shoes were identical I mean. Well Jane and Rose are also identical but Rose has this freckle constellation in the corner of her left eye by her nose that looks like a flower so I know who is who. Although they claim it's a lie. And Dave stood off to the side being his 'too cool for school' teenage self, but I knew he cared shown by our interaction that day:

    M: "Look who's the tallest now?" (I'm not tall, but until I left I was the tallest of the kids, largely due to the age gap)

    D: "Like we didn't see this one coming, shorty."

    M: "Hey!"

    D: "Well you are, even Jane and Rose are catching up."

    *significant pause as the rest of the family walks out of the airport 

    D: "Missed you" (He did the awkward one arm hug thing before running to catch up with the family to pretend it never happened.)

    M: "Yeah, missed you too." (I say to a retreating back)

Day 5 - Thanksgiving

    Returning to the family dynamic was simpler than I had expected. Aside from everyone meeting me at the airport it was like nothing had changed, which was … almost disappointing. I woke up early and went to the kitchen to start baking the pies and preparing the food. (That was always my job on holidays.) About an hour later my mom came into the kitchen to help out. There was a simple exchange of "oh, I thought you might want to take the day off as this is your break" to which I replied "no worries, I want to help" and that was that. No more trying to get me to take a break. The twins woke up and ran outside to rake up all the leaves and jump in them all day. Johnny tried to help us bake but ended up making more art with the flour than pie and I didn't see Dave until dinner. Apparently he is working on some big science project for the annual science fair. 

    There was nothing new about Thanksgiving dinner. A lot of questions about college and my classes. Did I make any friends. And then I was extremely thankful for Becca. Imagine coming home and telling your parents the only significant person to person interactions you've had are with people you don't know the names of? I did tell them about Alex (Alexandrite) and Shawn (Shadow Man - no I'm not calling them their aliases to my parents' faces), but just that they were upperclassmen who were helping me with my coursework and fine tuning some of my inventions. Which is … true. Talk then moved on to what had been going on at home for the past three months. 

    As already noted, Johnny had lost his first tooth and apparently gotten in a fight at school. The twins had received in school suspension because they had switched places in class on exam day. And Dave "was following in my footsteps" by pursuing technology and making crazy inventions for the science fair. A statement that made him look down at his food. After dinner, we ate pie, played a board game and … went to sleep.

Day 6 - A chill day at home

    Nothing much to say here, we did a little bit of shopping. Ate leftovers and in general spent some quality time together. 

Day 7 - Traveling

    So I don't live on the east coast meaning I lose some time flying back to school. Meaning I had to wake up early and spend most of the day flying. I didn't get back to my dorm until just before dining closed. And surprisingly for just sitting around, traveling takes it out of you. I ate, went up to my room, and crashed. At least I have tomorrow to recover before classes start.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Nov. 21, 2021

Day 1 - The Rescue

    This could not have gone any better. We were able to sneak in through a side door without setting off any alarms and make it straight to where they were holding Shadow Man. Alexandrite had made me leave all of my tools and costume behind because she said it would be too conspicuous and stealth would be better. There were only one or two other people in the halls as we looked for the room. I don't know who they thought we were but I guess the old saying "look like you're supposed to be there and no one will question it is true." We finally made it to Shadow Man's cell and man the past two weeks must have sucked, everything was bland and gray scale, there was no color anywhere, but at least he appeared unharmed. (As I am writing this I realize how long two weeks actually is and that maybe I should have sped up the rescue. I just hope he didn't suffer too much.) 

    Thanks to the fact that I didn't have any of my tools the cell door presented a bit of a challenge, although Alexandrite did eventually get it open, cursing under her breath the whole. Like seriously what did she think was going to happen when she made me leave my stuff at home? Unfortunately opening the cell did set off an alarm, again did Alexandrite not prepare for that? No apparently not so I came up with the wonderful idea to crawl through the vents, that's how they always do it in superhero movies right? Anyway, we get the grate open and Alexandrite decides that she is going to lead us while Shadow Man will take up the rear. I thought that the person we were rescuing should be in the middle so he could be protected from either side but we heard feet running and didn't have time to debate it. 

    The vent system was surprisingly clean, there were no mice or dust even, although it was darker than I was led to believe from shows. After what felt like two hours, Alexandrite finally stopped and loosened a vent cover. Unfortunately this was a ceiling vent and we all tumbled to the floor. I was temporarily blinded as my eyes adjusted to the steril white corridor but when things came into focus I realized I was less than two feet from a security guard who I very heroically knocked out before they could tell everyone where we were. Okay maybe I was startled and reflexively hit him, but he was unconscious either way so I am going to take that as a win. The exit was right behind the guard so we stepped over him and ran for our great escape. We all made it back to campus and I made sure that Shadow Man would be in a safe place before heading off to bed to start the coming week.

Day 2 - Coding is not bad?

    Okay so the heading may be misleading. Coding still sucks and the class shouldn't exist but I did have an exam today and I think I actually understood what was happening. At least the code ran without errors before I turned it in, which is the first time that has happened so I have to say I am very pleased with myself. I am able to succeed in things that are pointless (coding) as well as the amazing improvements I have in useful skills (like fighting bad guys and knocking them out). 

    I stopped by the room in which Shadow Man and I work to check up on him. We all agreed to keep a low profile after the escape. Well … maybe I didn't agree with their logic and thought we should go back with all my gear and just take them out but Shadow Man seemed to need a rest and he was my first priority. He was busy fixing and repairing everything that the men had broken when they took him but all was well so I decided to get some ice cream after the wonderful two days I have had.

Day 3 - Return to the crossbow

    I realized that I haven't really been working on any of my tools recently and still need a good way to hold and load multiple bolts for the crossbow on my wrist. Currently they keep poking my wrist while running, so if I am going to be forced to take a break I might as well be productive on something. I guess the first thing I needed to work on was the aim of the bow because reloading wouldn't be useful until it actually hits the target where it is aimed, right?

    Quickly I learned that it was, in fact, not the crossbow that had poor aim, but apparently me because when I attached the crossbow to a mannequin the bolts nearly skewered themselves so I guess I need to practice with it. :-(. But last time I decided to practice technique and repeat the same boring motions over and over again I ended up knocking someone out without even trying so that's a really good sign that this is the right thing to do! I'll be able to hit my target in no time!

Day 4 - Grade results

I got the results from my exam on Monday and I was right in feeling confident. I got an A by a large margin so I'm no longer in danger of failing! More ice cream for me :-)/

Day 5 - Shadow Man is good, We're all good

This week has just been the best, I knocked someone out, reduced my friend, passed a coding exam and got to work on my gadgets again! I couldn't imagine anything better.

Day 6 - Some minor patrolling

Shadow Man finally has everything in order again so I can go out patrolling again and he can tell me where the crime is. He still wants me to keep a low profile because we don't know exactly what is going on with the organization that took him, but after all I rescued him in a way they couldn't connect to my hero persona so I think it will be fine to do some routine patrolling work. There was more activity than I remember on the streets, maybe it is because we spent so long looking for Shadow Man instead. Another reason I feel bad for taking so long, but I was able to clean it all up so in the end it wasn't a big deal. 

Day 7 - EME reunion

    So apparently all of the programs from before the start of the semester try to get everyone to come back together at some point so we can all catch up and see how the semester is going, and they provide free food. About three quarters of the group showed up including all of the councilors. Nothing crazy happened but it was a good end to a great week, I got to talk to other people than some sulky ex-vigilante and a computer nerd. Maybe I should make some other friends if  I have time between saving people and classes?

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Nov. 14, 2021

Day 1 - Learning curve

    Have you ever had a moment where you realized just how much you didn't know? Yeah, well I thought that was impossible for me but it turns out it was very possible. The E- I mean Alexandrite has apparently noticed that I have been miming her moves and decided that I could accompany her (more like her accompanying me, but just semantics) on the rescue mission for Shadow Man under one condition: I let her teach me to fight (as if I didn't already know how, but she did seem to know some moves that I didn't so what I didn't see the harm?) Turns out I knew next to nothing about fighting. And yes I'll admit that, I am proud and competent but I am also honest (or I like to think so). Basically today's events went as follows: we met in the morning, punched a target that reported the force we punched with (don't ask) and then moved on to technique (boring). And any time I said that we should just practice sparing. That drills were annoying and unnecessary. We would spar and I would end up on my butt. The agreement became "If I beat her I can choose how the training goes." By the end of the day all I had learned was, I knew nothing about how to prevent myself from landing on my butt in a fight.

Day 2 - Insult to injury

    I woke up this morning and didn't want to get out of bed, because man was I sore. Also the magnitude of my failures in fighting yesterday decided to manifest in my dreams and I couldn't forget them. Eventually I did pull myself up and get on with the day. Thankfully my roommates didn't question my sudden lethargy. I wonder if they know as little about me as I do about them? Not that it matters. 

    The day turned for the worst when, between some of my classes, I checked my email and saw a notice that I was on the border of failing two of them: coding (big surprise there) and my humanities class (of all things! … okay maybe I haven't done the readings in over a month and been daydreaming about saving the city during the class, but that shouldn't matter with a humanities class. And I don't have the time to worry about or fix these things as I am currently trying to save a friend, save the city and capture someone who has been helping me … (gonna need to think about that last one)).

Day 3 - Study cave

    I don't know if Alexandrite can read minds in addition to having her little laser gauntlets, but she seemed to know that something was up when we met today.  I pulled out my laptop and started studying code (there is a crucial exam next week which apparently will decide if I fail or not) instead of making any indication of moving towards the fighting area (which was what we had agreed upon). Regardless I was grateful for this space cause, although I couldn't care less about coding, I do need to graduate and eventually get a day job because being a superhero doesn't pay (unless there is something I don't know about?). 

    So my mind reading theory seems to be more and more likely as she keeps casually mentioning something that helps me get through wherever I was stuck, and sometimes I actually understood why the change was made, although if I will remember on the exam or not is still up in the air.

Day 4 - Training

    And we are back at training, more bruises, more aches and general exhaustion (nothing exciting so I'm just gonna go to bed for tonight. See ya.)

Day 5- More training …

    Exactly what the title says. Okay but this time I did actually get her onto the ground. (Did she immediately swipe my legs out from under me? Possibly, but it is still progress).

Day 6 - Confusion

    Why is Alexandrite helping me? Don't get me wrong I am glad for the help (between both coding and 'proper' fighting) but it doesn't make sense with all of her recent actions. Mayber Shadow Man's theory about her originally starting as a vigilante is correct? But why did she turn bad and how do I stop her/turn her back? The two sides I have seen of her just don't overlap. I wonder what she is like without a mask at all? … Not important.

    Sorry for the tangent all. Today we did a small amount of training, but Alexandrite had an exam she had to take so I had a few hours to kill and decided to see if we could locate the men who had taken Shadow Man. Using some of my new ability to understand code I was able to finish the program to find their most likely residence. (Okay maybe it was only adding a few random characters that were causing errors, but at least I understand how to fix those errors now.)

Day 7 - Reconnaissance 

    Finally we are actually doing something to find Shadow Man. We knew who took him but didn't know where they were in the city, but now we do so we're going on a stake out! I brought snacks cause I knew it was going to be a long time of sitting on rooftops and watching somewhere (I also brought binoculars). What I didn't know was just how silent it was on the rooftops so of course I tried to start some simple conversations but Alexandrite didn't seem to want to participate. She kept her answers as short as possible, and that just isn't how you have a conversation so I had to come up with a question that would actually get her talking (and maybe I could get some information for later if I turned her into the police). 

    My question ("what is with the eyes?") simultaneously succeeded and failed. She gave a multi sentence response though she bolted away right after. Something about "getting into position". What position? Tonight was just supposed to be reconnaissance right? I mean I guess a view of the other side of the building could be helpful but it was the abruptness that caught me by surprise. As well as the one phrase from her response that stuck with me: "An eye for an eye." The symbol now made sense, but it seems to be a pretty pessimistic outlook on the world. Can't we just do good things cause it is the right thing to do? Anyway, that outlook definitely confirms that she is dangerous. I mean what if she sees someone murder someone else? Will she take the knife herself and become a murderer? While they are valid concerns I had to push them to the side, there was finally movement in the building, our timer has started. In theory Shadow Man will be under minimal security in 2 hours and that is when we will strike.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Nov 7th, 2021

Day 1: Waiting

    So apparently I messed something up for The Eye when I found them yesterday and as such she can't start helping today because she is "fixing my mistake" as if any mistake was made. We're just wasting time while she's off doing who knows what, I can't believe she is being so selfish while Shadow Man is in trouble. I have actually resorted to willingly doing my homework as a way to distract myself from the situation that Shadow Man has found himself in. The people who took him did not look friendly by any definition of the word. 

Day 2: In the belly of The Beast

    I met with The Eye today and it was … weird. We're enemies and I've been trying to capture her for weeks now but she just led me straight to her base of operations. Granted she still wore her mask so I didn't know what she looked like, but I saw all her set up. Her computer with the tracking software, a tech repair station that had some sort of glove on it, her training dummies that looked worse for wear, but most surprisingly she would just leave me in there when she went to the bathroom or to grab something from around the dorm. It is like she didn't see me as a threat which is a little insulting. Obviously I'm not going to do anything during this time that we are partnered because that would be immoral to trick her that way, but if it was someone less moral than myself you can bet that all her gear would have trackers on it or not function and her software would be scrapped … I definitely only didn't do these things because of morals, yup.

    Anyway we spent most of the day in her room where she was busy doing something on the computer that apparently was helping to find Shadow Man. I offered to help multiple times, but you know what she told me to do? She told me to just sit still and stop touching stuff?! Can you believe that? I wasn't gonna break anything, I'm too careful for that. I just wanted to see what was what and how it worked. I mean she has these crazy black gauntlets with some kind of hollow wiring or tubing spreading across the palmside like veins with a big open space in the middle. They looked similar to what she was wearing when she beat up that mugger and when I found her last week but I had never noticed the details on them. I wonder how she can punch without breaking them? Oh, also she wouldn't let me leave either to hunt around for information. Apparently I am too conspicuous (whatever that means), especially during the day. I can only hope that tomorrow goes better.

Day 3: The story of The Eye (or what I can get out of her)

    Went to classes for a bit today and met up with The Eye (still won't tell me her name, which I guess is fair given what happened to Shadow Man, but she doesn't seem to like me calling her "The Eye"). The evening proceeded almost identically to yesterday, I was told to sit and not touch anything, could work on homework if I wanted to, which was boring so I finally decided enough was enough. I was at least going to know something about her capabilities if we had to fight together to which she was surprisingly resistant. I mean I did bring us together so I should at least know what I am working with right? 

    Suffice it to say not my information was gained. All I got was that she can shoot infrared light using the gauntlets I saw yesterday with some type of stone placed in the middle (apparently the ones on display were an old prototype) and that she has been working in the field for just over a year. That apparently qualified her to tell me to shut up and sit down because she is more senior. I took that as my cue to leave and do some searching on my own, maybe she was just having a bad day and we would be able to make some actual progress tomorrow.

Day 4: … 

    Today was the day I found out that The Eye expected me to sit back and be her computer person while she was gonna go out and save Shadow Man. I told her that wasn't gonna happen and, long story short, I ended up realizing that I might actually need a better understanding of fighting than what you see on TV. I thought I had been doing a good job of teaching myself but uh … I'll just give you guys the transcript of what happened, it will show you everything.

    To set the scene The Eye was clicking through camera views on her computer while I did some research on people who might have motivation to take Shadow Man (I had no idea what I was looking for but I did see that the police busted a drug lab early this week). The Eye the apparently decided then that it is time to initiate a conversation which goes as follows: 

Eye: "If we are going to actually do this, I’m going to breach their defenses and grab your friend. You’ll stay here and monitor the cameras to make sure no one can get the drop on me."

 Me: "What? No, I'm helping you fight them! He's my friend, I am going to save him."

Eye: "You really think you are capable of beating someone in a fight?"

Me: "I do."

 Eye: "Okay. Let's fight, then."

We spar for a few minutes but I can quickly tell that she isn't actually trying so … 

Me: "You're not actually trying!"

 Eye: "You're right." 

She proceeds to push my kick out of the way like it was nothing more than an overgrown vine above a hiking path.

Me: "Well, actually fight me then!" 

Eye: "No."

Me: "What do you mean no? I can take you." 

Eye: "I said no." 

Me: "And I said yes."

And here was my mistake. I can be very stubborn and crossed my arms, determined to show her that I could, in fact, beat her and would be saving Shadow Man with her as well as warn her that I would be taking her down once this was done. The last thing I heard was a sigh and The Eye muttering "fine" before I felt a contact on my left temple and everything went black.

Day 5: Time for a reevaluation

    So yeah, yesterday was not my ideal day. I woke up this morning with an annoying headache and realized that I may not actually be that good at fighting - as hard as that is to admit. I had woken up really early, ~5am, and left The Eye's room before she got up to get ready for classes and such, but it would have just been better for me to sleep. I couldn't stop thinking about how when she actually tried, it took one punch, just one! for her to knock me out. Those last five or so seconds replaying over and over in my mind in slow motion. I saw her elbow pull back and her fist start to move forward as she twisted her entire torso before the memory faded to black. 

    When I showed up The Eye continued to ignore me but she didn't mention the events of the previous day and I didn't know how long it would take her to try and make me stay behind again but I was determined that I wouldn't give her the chance so I dropped my stuff in her room and went up to the roof to practice the motions that were burned into my brain. I will say that I feel a couple times but but sunset I was finally getting the hang of it. I think. The Eye showed up at some point, I don't exactly know when, and just looked at me before stating that she was going to do some reconnaissance of something unrelated (wasting more time that Shadow Man was gone) and disappeared.

    I realized then that I had been so distracted by getting to see inside The Eye's operation that my focus wasn't as targeted on my friend as it should have been and realized I would need to push things faster moving forwards.

Day 6: Counter balance

Classes are meh, I'm not doing great but I'm not failing and I don't really have the mental capacity to think about that and save my computer geek at the same time, so they will have to be good enough. It has been almost a week since The Eye and I have started to work together and I don't feel like we have gotten anywhere. I want to pressure her but as soon as we enter her room some random person comes and takes her away for 'an emergency.' I try to log into her computer to track people and search around the room for any hint on the path we're taking and realize I actually have no idea what she has found so far. I know I haven't found much, but she has been at this a year, clearly she has more resources and would have found something. My idea of being a hero came crashing down as the combination of being knocked out in one hit and having zero information finally settled into my being. Looking back I had yet to actually save anyone on my own and am likely the reason that Shadow Man is in trouble. 

I had no idea how to process this so I decided to test the one thing I had been trying to improve. Maybe if I could get the punch right I would be able to grow in the other areas as well. The dummies were still set up in the room so I faced one, drew my arm back and punched. And missed. I stumbled forwards from the power behind the punch. Tried again, and ow! Hitting something actually hurts. There was about a 50% success rate with which I was hitting the dummy but I like to think I was getting better. From somewhere behind me I heard: "Keep your eyes open and use your left arm for counter motion." Turning around I met The Eye just standing there, watching for who knows how long. As soon as we made eye contact she turned and moved towards the computer once again ignoring me. I tried what she said and my success rate went to 90% while stumbling occurrences were down to nearly never. At this point it was getting harder to remind myself that she was still the enemy.

Day 7: Alexandrite

    Finally there was progress today. I showed up ready to pressure The Eye (as I had forgotten again yesterday … oops) into getting stuff done. But on my arrival she had more information than I expected. Basically she had searched through everyone in her area of work and confirmed none of them had taken him so that left only one group. Sorry but I am not going to name them here and I don't want to inform them we have discovered who they are if they are reading this or have some bot trolling through the interwebs to find mentions of their name (do I know what I just said? No but it was something I recall Shadow Man saying when he was talking about internet security). 

    Regardless, The Eye and I started to make a plan of what we would do now that we knew who had him, although the where was still unknown. Once again I won't be sharing details but I'll give you all a rundown of what happens once all events come to a close. The day, however, ended with a surprising exchange:

The Eye: "Alexandrite."

Me: "What?"

The Eye: "My alias: Alexandrite. You can stop calling me 'The Eye'."

Me: "Oh." That was a lot of trust to be giving the enemy even though every day it felt more and more like we were friends rather than archnemeses. She’s still in the wrong, though, so once Shadow Man is back, I will have to take her out, right?

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry, Oct. 31st, 2021

Pre-reading brief:

Hi all, 

First I want to say thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with my adventures these past weeks. It has been a lot of fun getting to live my dream. Everything has been going to plan, I even got myself a man in the chair!

But I uh … I uh … seem to have lost him already. It was definitely not my fault he was there one day and then the next I went to see him and he was gone. And there was paper everywhere and the chair knocked over. And I just don't know what happened to him. In the name of authenticity I left my first few days as I had written them at the end of those days but I wanted to take some time to properly depict the situation with Shadow Man so I am sorry this is going up late. I am just really worried about him and didn't know what to do so please if you have any information on what might have happened let me know. I can't believe this happened, I haven't even made the news yet, there shouldn't be anyone targeting my team.

- Polymetis

Day 1: Guess who's back, back again

    Hey guys! If you're seeing this it means Shadow Man is no longer looking over my shoulder while I post. It's as if he doesn't trust me or something. Like seriously, I can keep a secret. None of you know my name or who I am, right? So what's the problem? Will I use this day title in the future if I don't get to post in my style this week? Almost definitely. It is too good to waste.

    Anyway, onto the fun part of these posts: my life! Well today wasn't that fun. Sundays are kinda boring with everyone sleeping in or doing the homework they have procrastinated all weekend long. That last bit definitely doesn't apply to me. I am a top tier student only capable of getting perfect grades. No procrastination here. Homework aside, we were able to run a few trial runs of the new set up and oh my goodness, it is amazing! Well Shadow Man could've expanded the range so things don't get choppy across the river, but I will just have to have him improve it later this week.

    Also it is the week of Halloween! I don't know about you guys but I think this is a great holiday. The myths behind the origin and the amazing costumes everywhere? It is great, plus I won't get strange looks if I have to go out in my gear, people will just think it is a costume. I do hope I don't have to go out though, I have an awesome costume idea so stay tuned for more information on that!

Day 2: Training  >:(

Remember how I said the online videos weren't helpful for learning how to fight with my bo-staff? And how I was going to join the spinning arts group cause I'd actually get to do stuff? Well guess what - they're making me start with the basics too. I went up and showed them my fabulous skills and they said I didn't qualify to skip drills. As a matter of fact, they make everyone do drills, even those who have been a part of the club for multiple years. It was such a waste of time. On the brighter side, I did get to watch the 'experts' practice so I think I have picked up a thing or two from observation.

Day 3: The hunt resumes

    Now that my system is set up and I've discovered that the only way I can actually learn something is to figure it out myself (drills are stupid) I can resume the hunt for The Eye. I realize that I may have neglected that part of my job for a while, but come on, I was preparing myself and setting up such that I would be able to take her down. Plus it doesn't seem like she has been up to much so we're all good there right?

    Shadow Man has been working on a profile for The Eye and has an idea about who she might be. He hasn't shared this with me which I find really hurtful. I only know about it because I saw him processing reports on his computer. When he saw me looking he told me to stop snooping, like I was actively going behind his back. For one so paranoid he should understand the innate curiosity of humans to look around and see what is going on.

Day 4: Can I get some action please?

    I'm bored. Classes are slow. The weather sucks, it is just raining constantly. And not a good thunderstorm rain that sets up a fun environment with thunder and lightning. It is the miserable kind that just mists around and makes everything cold and damp. Any self respecting bad guy is just sitting at home on these nights and it appears The Eye is among them. We haven't seen any sign of her, red paint or otherwise, in nearly two weeks. What am I supposed to do when there is no hero action? Get an early start on my homework?

    In reality I have decided to work on my Halloween costume. It is an interesting holiday but it is fun to get to dress up as someone you aren't and run around and get candy. Everyone can be so creative in their costume ideas so I am excited to see what everyone goes as. You'll have to keep reading to see what I am making, I'll attach a picture (mask on of course). But I can promise you it will be super cool, this is one of my favorite holidays after all. 

Day 5: Solo work

    Shadow Man decided to spend today working on the computer system to improve the range and add some features that he thought would be useful. Unfortunately this meant that the system (he called it a server but I don't know what serving something has to do with computers) will be down for the night so I'm on my own. I was advised to get some sleep and get ahead on my work, but as crime doesn't stop neither can I. It may still be drizzling but that's perfect because it will hopefully keep the smaller criminals at home and I can work on clearing out the bigger fish. Sadly the weather seemed to keep everyone inside, even the big fish. What is the fun of being a hero, I ask you, if you don't have anyone to actually take down? 

    I decided to check in with Shadow Man before turning in for the night, but it seems like the communication is still down so I guess I will just see him tomorrow for the new test run.

Day 6: The Abduction

    I don't think today could have been any worse. To set the scene: the sky had finally committed to whether it wanted to rain or not and the answer was it wanted to rain, a lot. All afternoon thunder and lighting broke open the gray slab that was the sky. Students were coming into class soaked and the hallway was filled with 'squeak squeak squeaks.' Worst yet a bolt of lightning struck the power station that serviced the city and some defect caused a city wide black out, both on our side of the river and on the other side. This happened right as classes ended so I didn't even get to skip anything academic.

    Now we all know I am not a huge fan of computers and don't know much about how they work, but I do know they need power and bad things can happen when lightning strikes. So I decided to check on the computer set up. It would be a shame if Shadow Man put in all that work for a stupid lighning bolt to destroy it all. I can say it was not destroyed by the lightning at least. As soon as I entered our underground HQ ( I know, super official!) I knew something was wrong. For one the door was unlocked and cracked which is never the case, even when Shadow Man is actively working. And second his chair was knocked over and some papers strewn around the room, although they just looked like problem sets.

    This was not supposed to happen, the man in the chair was supposed to have eyes on me in the field to prevent bad things from sneaking up. I could only assume that whoever destroyed the place was looking for me, though I don't know why they would be, I've only helped this city. Unless it was The Eye? I'm pretty sure they don't like the idea of me being out and about as a hero. These were my thoughts until I went to boot up the communications system to let Shadow Man know about the breach (yes, I can start the program, it is only one button after all. I am not incompetent with all technology only programming). And that is when I saw the video. 

    Apparently there were surveillance cameras in our HQ, I guess it was part of the upgrade. Either way they must have been running when this happened before getting cut off cause the last 30 minutes were looping on the screen. I ran the video at 4x speed and saw the reason I couldn't contact Shadow Man last night. It wasn't because the system was still down, it's because he was. He was working at his computer when the door swung open. He spun around in his chair (a little quickly and fell to the ground) to be faced by a group of four with two guns pointed at his face.

    Unfortunately the cameras didn't have audio or it wasn't set up because I couldn't hear what was happening but some words were exchanged causing Shadow Man to slowly raise his hands in the air. He was clearly unhappy with the situation which escalated to where the two men without guns moved forward, grabbed him under the arms and forced his hands behind his back. He was marched out of the room and all was still for a moment. I couldn't bring myself to take my eyes off the screen during this whole time. Shortly after he was removed a man returned and shuffled through the papers on Shadow Man's desk, leaving most in a mess but taking what looked like three folders with him. How dare he come in here and just steal our stuff. I jumped, he had seen the camera as he was leaving and it felt like he was looking into my soul before his gun appeared and the screen went to static. Then the look started again. 

    I fell to the ground because that was supposed to be me not him. I wasn't supposed to endanger my helpers in the hero mission. Do I know how long I was on the ground unable to focus on anything? No. Do I know who took my friend? No. Do I know what to do next? Also no. I was stuck and I had no idea where to start. These men clearly weren't The Eye as there was no mark left behind and none were feminine. And that conclusion, dear readers, led to my next step: contact The Eye. She was the only person I knew of who was involved in this part of society without being the one to take Shadow Man. Maybe she'll be the enemy of my enemy and we can be friends, for a bit (she is still evil and will need to be taken down, but that can wait until I have saved my civilian computer man).

Day 7: Working with the Enemy

    I stayed up all night planning on where to find The Eye, mostly going off of the notes Shadow Man had on his computer. (I will say reading what he found on her has made me realize that you really do have to be careful with what information is on the internet, smart people can draw conclusions from something I thought was nothing.) There was a 90% chance that she would be at a warehouse across the river so that is where I staged myself. Unfortunately the lights were still out around the city so it was pretty dark. Only the moon lit the buildings and roads. I didn't know if she would show up and I didn't know if she would help me so I'll admit that I did work myself close to a panic, but I was fine. I promise.

    Thankfully she showed up around 12:20 am and took out some people, who I will have to investigate if they deserved it or not later. Also her powers apparently aren't just light? Like she just melted the gun of one of the guards with the lasers from her gauntlets. I will need to remember to remove/disable those when I do end up fighting her. But I digress. I ran out from my observation point and she just threw me against a wall. I wasn't even appearing threatening or anything. Anyway she finally seemed to realize I wasn't trying to hurt her, or she wanted to dispose of me somewhere away from whatever she was doing because she dragged me outside and down a few alleys before I got to speak.

    I was able to explain everything to her and asked her for her help and she said "No." Can you believe that? I knew she was a bad person, but I couldn't stop there. Shadow Man needed me and as much as I wish it weren't true I would need the help of someone more familiar with the players in the game to get him back. So I started a conversation that is transcribed below:

Me: "What do you mean 'No.'? He is innocent and has done nothing wrong."

Eye: "That doesn't mean it’s my problem."

Me: "Maybe not directly, but it is the nice thing to do."

Eye: "The 'nice' thing? Ha. The world is never nice. It’s an eye for an eye out there."

This cynicism even from a villain was surprising to me.

Me: "Well why did you help me then when I was stopping the mugger all those weeks ago?"

Eye: "Because you were out cold on the ground and I couldn't let him get away."

Me: "I would've taken care of it."

She made a sound vaguely like 'uh huh' which I found very hurtful.

Me: "I would've. Anyway you have to help. You said an eye for an eye right? Can't that also be a good thing? Like you help me and then I don't arrest you now?"

She laughed, she actually laughed at that and I was just about ready to arrest her any way when:

Eye: "Fine. I'll help you find your friend on one condition: you follow my instructions and don't go running off on your own."

And that was pretty much the end of it. She gave me a location at which to meet her later this week to show her the video and so we can start looking for Shadow Man. I hope we find him soon so I don't have to work with the enemy for long.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Oct. 24th, 2021

    *Rocky theme music plays* Y'all, it has been my training/upgrade week. Get ready for a new and improved (although hard to improve perfection) Polymetis! I finished my bo-staff early this week, with enough time to anodize it pink as well! It isn't as small as the disappointment from the internet but it does fit into the sheath on my left forearm where I can pull it out and extend it in just a few seconds. On top of the quick draw time, this version is much more robust and actually a bit longer than the old one so both of those are pluses. 

Although I am already great with my fighting, I have never actually used a bo-staff so I looked up some online videos. They were about as helpful as the first bo-staff. Everyone was just saying 'slow is fast' like what does that even mean. And then they were showing us a bunch of defensive moves and moves that you don't even use when fighting. Like what is the point in that?! So I gave up on the vidoes for the time being and looked around campus to find something that might help and lo and behold this school has a spinning arts club. There is literally everything here! I also heard rumors about a lightsaber club or something. I'll have to join them later to improve (learn) my sword fighting skills.

Unfortunately this whole process with the bo-staff along with it being midterm season resulted in not much time to go out and stop bad guys, but I haven't seen too much happening in the news so I guess they are already starting to fear my presence. While I was working on my skills, Shadow Man has been upgrading my computer system. Who knew there was so much you could do with a screen and a keyboard? He did make a mistake at some point though and our new HQ - oh, did I mention we finally moved out of my room and into a hidden space on campus? I heard it was where a student studied once for their finals though no one ever saw them there. Anyway, he made a mistake and there was an alarm blaring on my computer for most of the day so I couldn't work then even if I wanted to. Thankfully it is fixed now and the system is up and running. Time to test next week!

- Polymetis

P.S. Yes, Shadow Man is still reviewing these >:( I do have my daily logs still so maybe they will come back at some point.

[polymetis-23]

shadow man made you change your writing style???????? >:( blink twice if u need help

Aww you care! and yeah it sucks that he made me change styles But you think I could ever be in danger?! I am doing just fine thank you very much, it worked well last week anyway cause my days were pretty similar. This week is also in the same style (shhh, spoilers) but I am still keeping my logs, they will return. I just need to convince Shadow Man I am right, as always.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Oct. 17th, 2021

    Hello all! I had been writing my diary as I have done in the past and then looked back and realized I couldn't post like that. In short, almost everyday said the same thing: School work, secret work, I'm tired - goodnight. So I'm trying out a new format for this week, hopefully y'all are okay with this. I will be back to the regular updates soon. Exact time to be determined, hopefully this post explains why. 

    So remember that cryptic text I sent? Shadow Man responded surprisingly quickly, I had thought I would get at least another week. Though according to him, my message wasn't exactly cryptic, I don't know what he's talking about. It was perfect. Anyway he agreed and has been helping me with the coding of my goggles, now they have a lot more cool features! They can track objects in the field of view and I can toggle through different filters: IR radiation shown red, thermal data and more. I'm sure this will really help me in my future confrontations. On that note, my new bo staff came in and the same thing happened- it just broke apart. I guess there is truth behind that old saying: "If you want something done right, then you've got to do it yourself." or at least with your super handy computer man. 

    Shadow Man has been great in helping get everything set up how I imagined - I can't tell you guys all of the details as that will *apparently*, I’m told, give away too much information about who I am. But you guys wouldn't snitch on me, right? At the same time I have been working on designing a proper retractable bo staff. Shadow Man says I should focus on my cross bow because ranged combat is easier and he doesn't know how to teach me how to fight. That's all fine though cause I already know how to fight so no worries there. 

    That is about all I have for you guys, in summary: Shadow Man (yes, he won't give me his real name, how rude) and I have been working on refining my hero system so it will be perfect for the showdown with The Eye, although we still have more work to do. 

- Polymetis

P.S. I did have a super cool week written out where I showed you guys everything we had done and how much more awesome I was about to become but Shadow Man saw me writing it and told me I couldn't post it because it would somehow lead people back to us. *pouts* I'll find some way to give you guys more detail.

P.P.S. I'm not sure how great of a computer man Shadow Man will make, he keeps seeming to doubt my abilities which is just not cool in a partnership. We'll have to work on that soon because I know that team dysfunction in the last thing you want when fighting a supervillain.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry, Oct. 10th, 2021

Day 1 - Roommates? Forgot about those.

    So remember how I said I would have to make sure that my roommates didn't notice my superhero activities? No? Me neither, I kinda forgot they existed as we have such different schedules. I stop by the room after classes to grab my gear and then don't return until late when they are both usually asleep. I also have earlyish classes so I wake up and go straight to the dinning hall, grab my bag as they start to wake up and then don't return until the evening again, unless I need to work on my surveillance system. Anyway, I decided to go out on a short patrol last night after homework, cause I needed the break you know? I was stuck on another coding problem.

    Well I returned a little earlier than I usually do and unfortunately my roommates were still awake. (Don't worry, I had already changed out of my super gear, I know how silly it would be to walk into where I live wearing it). Actually, they weren't just awake, they were awake and waiting for me … they called it an intervention.

    After nearly six weeks of minimal communication, they decided it was time to sit me down and explain how returning at all hours of the night wasn't healthy. Thankfully they didn't try to discover what I was doing, apparently they only noticed because they would hear me come back and it would wake them up. (they must have super hearing or something) I guess I will just have to be even more careful moving forward to not be discovered.

Day 2 - Curse words?

    Am I a bad person for wishing that there were cursed words for saving people? Like in TV shows and on the internet people always get mad when someone says "it's been a quiet day" in the hospital or police dispatch, then the rest of the episode proceeds to have them inundated with calls/patients and no one gets a break. At the end everyone is mad at the individual who said the q-word and they learn their lesson. If I say it's quiet (which it is, there is literally no crime anywhere) and then I get to dispense justice to the people who start committing crimes as part of the q-word curse is that bad? Like I need to keep my skills sharp so when I find the Eye again I can take her down.

… 

    I just wish something would happen! I'm so bored just sitting here working on problem sets. Do any of y'all have suggestions on how to stay entertained?

Day 3 - Stealth

    First, I forgot to mention that I ordered a new staff, hopefully this one actually works, otherwise I am going to have to take it up with the manufacturer. They've got to be providing better staffs. 

    Moving on, after the conversation with my roommates, I realize that I might need to move my base of operations. I can't have them getting curious and snooping through my stuff. Unfortunately I couldn't do that today as I have an exam tomorrow that I have to study for. A coding exam. Needless to say, studying was not fun, but I think I finally understand 'if statement' logic!

Day 4 - Today could not have been worse

    Ugggghhhhh. Pretty sure I failed the code exam, there were some nested for loops and concatenation whatever the heck that is. Nearly threw my laptop across the room by the end. And as bad as that sounds, it wasn't even the worst thing that happened.

    I was pretty stressed after the exam and decided to patrol around but there was nothing happening and I wasn't in the mood to go across the river. I don't think the Eye is very active on week nights anyway. So I went back to the roof of the main lobby and looked out over my city, the breeze blew off the river which was nice and refreshing. I took a moment to take everything in as I didn't have much time for that when I fought the Eye. The city spread so far and the light pollution was crazy, but the contrast was even larger today as there was a new moon, although the sky was cloudless. Seeing the city I was protecting started to lift my spirits and motivate me. When preparing to leap to the next roof, a shadow spoke:

    "What should I call you?"

    My confusion didn't last long as a vaguely humanoid shadow moved out from the staircase. How long had they been there?

    "What do you mean?"

    "I guess I could always call you [redacted]." Yes, he knew my name, no, I don't know how. "But this costume suggests you have an alter ego. What is it?"

    I considered for a few minutes before: "Polymetis."

    "A builder then-"

    "How did you find me?" I cut him off.

    "For being a villain-"

    "I'm not a villain."

    "Vigilante, then." 

I bristled. "I'm a hero." 

    "Yeah? And who have you saved?" He cocked his head at me. Who did he think he was? I stood there trying to come up with a response, but he was right, as I thought back I hadn't actually been the one to save anyone. Sure, I knocked out that one robber but no one was really in danger and the Eye had finished the confrontation with the mugger. I was getting there though, the city was just too crime free for me to show how awesome of a hero I am … right? The doubt must have shown on my face, or I took too long to answer.

    "I have a proposition." He held out a letter and tossed it at my feet. I looked down and picked it up, confused. By the time I looked up he was gone. The only thing on the note was:

Please join me for an interview in room 26-100

11:00pm October 8th, 2021

Two days from now.

Day 5 - Dang curse words

    So yeah, after last night, I guess the q-word does work for superheroes, or at least when you wish for something to happen it does. I've spent all day trying to figure out how he knew where I would be and who I was behind the mask but have gotten nowhere. I don't have a sign that I leave behind, I haven't talked to any media, I've only been around for a few weeks. How does he know me already? There was nothing to trace me by. Oh well I guess I can find out at the meeting tomorrow. He must be a fan if he wants an interview, what could go wrong. An odd feeling started to form as I got ready for bed.

Day 6 - The interview

    The day dawned bright and sunny, birds chirping, not a cloud in the sky and a cool breeze keeping the tree leaves rustling. I woke up nice and rested and got a healthy breakfast and, oh who am I kidding, I slept terribly last night. It was … well, terrible. That odd sensation didn't leave and I kept waking up in cold sweats. I blame the Shadow Man, he really startled me and I don't like the fact that he knows who I am. I guess this will all have to be sorted out tonight so I can start looking for the Eye again. Classes flew by in a blur and before I knew it I was returning to campus to enter my current least favorite room: 26-100, the location of my coding class, oh and also the interview, though I didn't think that it would be bad, what could Shadow Man even do on campus. So here is a short recap of what happened, the first part was pretty interesting but then it got kinda boring near the end so I just summarized it for y'all.

*dramatic music*

    At 11:00pm I walked in the door and the lecture stage below me was cast in shadow with a spotlight aimed at the turned around chair. The doors closed behind me and a voice echoed: 

    "I wasn't sure if you were going to come. Please join me down here." The chair slowly turned around and Shadow Man (who was still in shadow by the way) beckoned me forward with one hand. I took everything in and it did not look good. This seemed exactly like the set up for a super villain, everything was dark and mysterious. I already had my nemesis in the Eye, every hero only needs one so Shadow Man needs to pick up his stuff and leave. Before this I thought he was just some random fan, looking for the inside scoop on yours truly. At least with him being a villain it makes sense how he could discover who I am.

    "I already have a nemesis, you need to go find someone else to fight with."

    "A- wh-" Shadow Man stumbled over his words, not a good sign for his villain speech. "You- you think that I am a villain?" he finally choked out.

    "Well, yeah, this entire set up is a little over-the-top. Though, you could've refrained from the backlighting, I still wouldn't be able to see your face." I started walking down the stairs as menacingly as possible. And it was definitely working as he sat back in his chair as if trying to melt inside of it. "You need to leave and practice your villany elsewhere, we already have a villain in this city, though not for long if I have things my way." As I got closer to the table all I heard was quiet laughter. He was laughing at me, the nerve of some people.

    "What's so funny?" He didn't answer for the longest time, just content to sit there laughing. Eventually he stopped long enough to clarify that apparently he wasn't a villain but some random student who writes an illegal paper and had been following the story of me and the Eye. Apparently those computer methods that heroes use to find bad guys such as tracking purchases and such can also be used against us heroes and I haven't been hiding my digital footprints, but I mean come on, how was I supposed to know that? Any way he continued to go on about what holes in my past he found, blah blah, and how those were used to track me, blah blah blah (apparently the DMV keeps the thumbprint scans from when you get your license and I didn't pick up all the pieces of the bow staff so that was how I was found).

    At the end of the day he wasn't a villain, though he is a programming major so I guess that is evil, but not enough for me to turn him in. We exchanged contact information so he could ask for any details on the story, although I definitely won't tell him everything, a girl has to keep her secrets. He seemed to be angling for something more when I called an end to the meeting before something slipped out that shouldn't and returned to sleep. The roommates shot me suspicious looks when I returned, even though it was earlier than I would normally be back on a Friday night.

Day 7 - Sleep can be wonderful (for realizing you're stupid)

    So I slept and kept thinking about the interview and Shadow Man (he didn't have the decency to give me his name, stupid), and came to the realization that one: he just wanted to be involved in something as awesome as saving people and two: he knew how to program computers. Maybe I had finally found my man in the chair. I texted him with an offer, very cryptic you know, in case it is intercepted since that is something I have to worry about apparently. Still waiting on a reply though.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Oct. 3rd, 2021

Day 1 - Superhero preparation

    I finally had a bit of a break today from classes and I'm all caught up on work (impossible, I know) so I was able to take a step back and plan my next moves. As previously mentioned my skirt was a bit of an issue, one I haven't figured out yet, (but I will) so for now I removed the skirt attachment on the leggings and added some padding to the sides of said leggings (no I haven't been falling). Next I moved on to the tools I would need when tracking down the Eye. Right now all I had was the semi-functioning wristbow, my goggles with the default camera analysis program, and my radio. All of these items were great, minus the currently uncodable goggles, but I also needed some sort of weapon to use in close quarters and I think I know just what it is … a bo staff!

    Listen, some of my classes have mentioned mechanical advantage and I'm a little small so I figured the more advantage the better, let's get a long retractable staff that I can carry around with me. Luckily for me there are plenty of retractable options on the internet. I know, building one myself would be much cooler but come on I don't have the time. I have to start chasing down the Eye ASAP. Well not chasing down per say, it took so long last time to even get a glimpse of her while sitting on top of the roofs that I think I might need to set up a proper surveillance/alert system so I can still get my homework done until she shows her face again. The only question is how does one create such a system?

Day 2 - System Start

Gah, why can't coding be straightforward? Like I should be able to type "go hack the cameras" and the computer should know what to do. Isn't that what they say? Computers do exactly what you tell them to? Anyway I have a pretty rudimentary system set up, but it looks like I might have to take some more programming classes to actually create something efficient. Let me walk you through the set up:

I have my police radio scanning all frequencies and a computer audio to text program (from the internet) setup and auto transcribing what is said. I then collected those words and import them into my program (again from the internet) where I scan through looking for 'red lights' and 'eye' and if one of those phrases is said, a light in my goggles will flash (once again, thank you internet, you truly are a wonderful place to steal deal with stupid code. I will have to test run it tomorrow as it is already 11:59pm.

Day 3 - Homophones suck

    So I piloted my scanning system and for some reason the auto transcript program can't understand context so it keeps sending me alerts when someone says 'I' rather than 'eye'. Unfortunately this has caused me to have to remove that key phrase from the scanning list and I am therefore down to one phrase, ugh. I was listening to the context though as I was testing this and it seems that the police might have finally noticed that something is going on. They don't know who it is but I quote: "it is quite peculiar that there are so many of these red eyes popping up everywhere." Honestly, I can't believe they've let her get away with this for so long, they seem so incompetent.

    Sitting around listening to all this chatter has just been stressing me out. I need to get out and move, but I don't have a good way to bring the radio around cause it just bumps on my hip all the time. I think the best way to get one of those ear pieces that you always see superheroes have in the films. Just hold my hand to my ear all secretive and hear something no one around me knows. That would be so cool! Especially if I get my man in the chair, then I'll really be a superhero!!

Day 4 - Wireless earpiece

    Thankfully Wednesdays are a pretty chill day for me in terms of classes so I was able to wander around most of the city to find some components to add a wireless headset to the radio. I'm not quite sure how it works/what everything is but I'm just following an online tutorial (the internet really is amazing). Regardless it works great so I'm excited to try it out tomorrow! Unfortunately walking around town took most of my time today and I can't mess up my sleep schedule again so soon (I'm trying here, but it's really hard).

Day 5 - Visual Surveillance 

    I have my tools and my radio monitoring, now I just need to have a visual system set up. Well more of a visual system. I have the camera in my goggles, but I would like it to record what I see so I can turn the evidence of her wrong doing over to the police when I catch her. Once again I spent the whole day running around for electronic parts but I now have a little box attached to the side of my goggles to record my nightly activities. The Eye has no chance now!

Day 6 - System Boot (isn't that what it is called when you run a program or something?)

    Finally classes were over for the week so I could go out and test my new setup. I started everything up, the radio turned on, my recording light flashed in the corner of the goggle screen, and my bo staff extended and retracted with ease. The hunt was on!

    The radios were surprisingly silent for a Friday night, just police saying a bunch of numbers in relation to locations. Like seriously what is with the numbers? Can't they just use English, the number system for classes is confusing enough. I was running along the rooftops in the area where the radio people speculated was the base of operations for the Eye. Sure enough I saw plenty of red eyes painted everywhere with some rooms disturbed, some scenes with items broken and some where I had no idea what had happened. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Eye herself. I did however find a guy trying to break into a jewelry store. 

    I brought out my bo staff, spun it impressively a few times and whacked him on the head. And can you believe it? The bow staff just flew apart, like everywhere! Thankfully I had enough force to knock him out in the first hit but my staff was totally destroyed, the sections were just scattered all over the road. Guess I'm glad that I tested this before encountering the Eye but come on, I expected more of a 4.5 star rated item. Maybe this one was just a defect. Unfortunately it means I have to turn in for the night.

Day 7 - System pause

    Homework time. I hate it. Classes are so annoying when you're trying to save the city from an evil dark force.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Sept. 26th, 2021

Day 1 - The hunt begins

I spent most of today working on updates to my hero gear based off the trial runs these past few weeks. First I removed the giant skirt from my costume and replaced it with a utility belt. Sure those might not have been the most iconic thing about steampunk but they tinkered a lot so I'm sure they were around plenty. I hope to make more gadgets as time goes on so this will be a good place to store them. For now it is a simple belt with pockets as found at hardware stores. I know, it's ugly and doesn't really fit and I wish I had time to be proper about it, but with The Eye out there it seems somethings will sadly have to be function over form. 

In addition to adding the tool belt, I have been working on the wrist crossbows (told you I wouldn't forget about them). I've moved them down from the back of my hand to around my wrist and made the bow limbs out of a semi-bendable metal. They work like springs and shoot the dart out fairly fast … or at least that is the current theory, I've really only added the wrist strap, had to finish some homework.

As the sun started to set, it was finally time for me to find The Eye (seriously does anyone have a better name for this person?) I could've sworn I was in a movie. The sky was overcast but no rain and everything seemed eerily quiet. Without a better idea I started from where I last saw them, the eye was still on the wall and it didn't look like anyone had been home in a while, I hope she didn't kill him. Anyway, I wasn't about to break into someone's house because that is illegal so I sat on the roof and surveyed for any mysterious red lights. It may not have been the most efficient way to find them, but hey that red glow is the only thing I have to identify them at the moment, and well the eye. I saw a few flashes over the course of the night, and a few more eyes around the city. Some the crime was obvious, another breakin or general vandalism, but others a dark red eye was just on a wall, nothing around to denote why.

Day 2 - Uh yeah, exams are a thing

    How, might I ask, are we in the third week of classes and I already have a quiz. Like seriously what are we supposed to have learned at this point? Even if they had taught us something, this is the absolute worst time, now I have to spend all day studying and I can't go out tonight. I was getting so close last night to actually catching up to The Eye. Sure I hadn't actually seen them, but I was getting quicker at navigating the city so the time between red flashes and my arrival at a scene was getting less and less, it was only a matter of time until I caught them.

Day 3 - Crossbow work

    The forecast for today is rain, lots of rain all day and I don't really fancy going out and getting soaked or slipping and falling on my butt while hunting for Eye, so I guess today is a design day. It actually works out really well because now I will have the wrist bow ready for when I finally do encounter her. Next thing I need to work on is tranquilizer darts, I don't want to permanently hurt those I bring in, after all I'm not the judge, jury and executioner, I just bring people in to meet justice. 

    After today's tests the bow seems to be great … or at least manageable. I still need to improve the aiming, for some reason the bolts won't group together. And I need to make an automatic reloader attachment, I have plenty of darts held on the cuff, but it would be nice for the system to be semi automatic incase I miss a shot or more probably I am fighting more than one opponent and need to incapacitate them both in quick succession.

Day 4 - The Evil Eye

    Finally a semi-free day. I was able to make a few small adjustments to my weaponry between classes then waited until dark to roam the streets. The clouds from yesterday blew by leaving not a trace and letting the nearly full moon illuminate the streets, although that could also be from light pollution … I guess it is good that I can see and not trip, but I would've liked to be able to see the stars.

    The night started relatively calmly, I was finally getting used to the red haze that settled over the world when I used my goggles. If I ever learn how to actually code, I'll have to write a program to filter out the ambient light, but for now I would just have to let my eyes adjust. I got lucky in my positioning tonight, I hadn't seen any pattern in how The Eye chose their targets so I had decided to sit on a random tall roof top and was rewarded with a beam of red two blocks over. Although I had previously only seen an aura of red indicating The Eye's (this is gonna stick now isn't it?) presence, it wasn't hard to imagine that they had the ability to focus it. 

    I ran across the rooftops, which were thankfully connected, I'll have to figure something out for when they aren't. I guess I could run at street level but that is more crowded and less direct, plus heroes are known for leaping across roofs right? Regardless I soon arrived at where the beam had been and looked for the source. Below me on the street there was a fight going on and sure enough one of the combatants' hands were surrounded by an aura of red. Upon closer observation I was shocked to find out this wasn't a fight, it was a beating. The man The Eye was 'fighting' was just laying on the ground not even trying to defend themselves. It was clear to anyone watching that the fight was over and didn't need to be continued so why was The Eye still there? I called 911  and reported the situation so her victim could get some help. I doubted they would be moving by themselves any time soon. 

    After placing the call I turned my attention back to the street to apprehend The Eye myself, but they were already gone, an eye left on the ground above the injured man's head. I could already hear the sirens of the ambulance and knew he would be okay. I waited until the paramedics started treating him, then left. I spent the rest of the night searching for another sighting of The Eye to bring them in, but they seemed to have gone silent for the moment. I suppose I will have to try again tomorrow now that I had seen they were not only bad, they were straight up evil. Attacking someone for no reason at all.

Day 5 - The Conversation

    So classes were normal today and nothing special happened except well, I finally got to talk with the eye. I went out a little earlier than I usually did planning on scoping out some of the roofs on campus. Although I was currently preoccupied taking down The Eye who seemed to operate across the river, I knew I would be coming back to stop crime on campus eventually. There is a really nice iconic roof space above the main lobby of campus where I was planning to start. Up there you can see all around campus, sure it wasn't the tallest building, but it did have a great view.

    Anyway, I was up there planning to see what was what and keeping an eye out for any red flashes in the city when from behind I heard:

    "I thought they blocked off all entrances to the roof" they had, I have just been practicing picking locks. Yes I know that skill is rarely used for anything good, but sometimes it can come in handy, like tonight with the door

    I turned around expecting to see some other student, while it wasn't a common hang out spot, people definitely still came up here. Instead I was confronted with The Eye herself, what was she doing on this side of the river and at my school no less. Of course I immediately confronted her about her illegal activities and she scoffed at me. I mean she literally scoffed and called me naive, how am I naive when I saw her commit those crimes? Like seriously? It quickly became apparent that she wasn't remorseful at all and needed to be brought in. We had a brief altercation which I definitely nearly won if she hadn't taken a cheap shot and knocked me on my butt I would've had her. As it was I landed with a loud smack and was slightly dazed. The only sound I heard was "stay down, this isn't the world for you" When I got my bearings again, she was gone and I was alone on the roof. 

    I layed back down and stared at the sky. This is going to take more work than I thought, but I'm sure it can't be that much more.

Day 6 - A day to relax

    Not much happened today, I ended up sleeping through my alarm which I guess is a natural consequence of staying up into the early hours of the night every day for a week. I did my laundry, bought a few groceries and sloughed through some homework and … that was about it.

Day 7 - Coding is still the worst

    So I have a problem set due for my coding class and I swear this class should be worth twice the amount of credit listed on the syllabus based on how long it takes me to write a 'simple' program. I guess I am learning some things because I can follow the code examples given in class, but I definitely can't recreate them. I'm gonna need to find another way to code my goggles or get someone to do it for me. Superheroes have a man in the chair right?

    I eventually got the problem set turned in and started to draft ideas for the semi-automatic wristbow, still very rudimentary though.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Sept. 19th, 2021

Day 1 - Battery troubles

    Okay, so this may not be the most elegant solution, but for now I have hooked up a system which allows me to carry around one of the store bought battery packs connected to my goggles through a wire while the pack rests around my waist. Sure this may not be the best plan in the long run as the wire could be caught on things, but I need to get out soon and see what all the red lights were. 

    I also started working on my costume today. Every hero has to have one right? So anyway mine was inspired by the steampunk style. I just think those people have such cool looking ideas and they are always building and inventing, like me! Of course I have to have my hair out of my face so it'll be pulled back into a high ponytail. Staying simple I'm planning on using a bandana to hide the lower half of my face, can't be giving y'all my identity, it's a secret afterall ;-). I have one of those cream colored blouses with long sleeves that gather at the wrists, a brown leather corset and some leather wrist guards I'm hoping to use in conjunction with my crossbow (yes, I haven't forgotten about them, the goggles have just taken priority). I'll be rocking some light brown leggings with some dark combat boots and to top it all off one of those classic steampunk skirts that are longer in the back than in the front, and have ruffles!! 

    I have been dreaming of this costume for so long, and the goggles just complete the look. I can't wait until I go out on patrol.

Day 2 - Red laser source

    Batteries and goggles charged, roomates asleep, it was the perfect time for my excursion. Originally I had just wanted to test the range of my scanner and get used to moving around in my costume/learn the streets, I was in for a bit more of an eventful night however. All plans went out the window when over the police radio, I heard "focused red light beams at 5th and main." Immediately I knew that it must be the same source as the lights from Saturday, afterall 'focused red light beams' aren't all too common. Though I could only see them with my goggles, maybe the police had IR tech? That would make my goggles less special :-( .

    When the message went out, I was only a few blocks over, only taking four minutes to arrive at the intersection. Four minutes too long it seemed as no one but the police were there, oh and some guy tied up, but he didn't seem to be the source of the red light as the police were still looking around for someone. Although I'm sure I will be an amazing hero someday, I saw no point in revealing myself before my planned grand entrance so I turned around and headed back to Saheem. I still had classes the next morning and sadly couldn't spend the whole night hunting.

Day 3 - Uh Oh, I'm not alone

    Today was simultaneously the best and worst day of my life. The best because I found out that I'm not alone, there are other heroes/vigilantes running around the city, maybe one of them can help me program the connection between the radios and my computer! The worst because … well let me walk you through the night:

    I got back to my dorm after classes, finished some outside of class work and geared up. The sky was cloudless with a bright moon illuminating the streets and alleyways clearly, not that it was super needed with all the light pollution, the perfect night for a patrol. (maybe Red Light would be out)

    Static crackled to life next to my ear: "Purse snatching at the coffee shop on First."

    A purse snatching, that sounded like a great first crime to stop, I was already on First, a few blocks from the coffee shop. I arrived on the scene of a middle aged woman playing tug of war with a man in a mask. He was much bigger than her.

    "That's not your purse." Nothing, he pretended he didn't even hear me! (or was I quiet?…) Regardless I had to do something, so I charged in to apprehend him (brave I know). He heard my approach, turned and … stars danced across my vision. The next thing I remember was some woman dressed in black standing over me. A faint red glow surrounded her hand as she reached out to check on me. As soon as she saw I was moving she turned as if to leave.

    "Wait…" I croaked, but she was already gone, the purse snatcher knocked out on the ground and the purse owner nowhere in sight. 

    So yeah, that's what happened, I got my butt kicked (guess I gotta work on my ranged weapons) and some unknown individual brought the mugger to justice. 

Day 4 - I got nothing.

    Okay, it's the middle of the week, however I am tired and had a full day of classes and PE, plus the last minute classwork I forgot to do last night so there isn't a huge update for you guys today, sorry about that. Hope you're having a better time than me.

Day 5 - Wristbow

Second busy day of classes, the usual. Sketched some possible designs to improve my ranged weapons during class though, more to come on that soon. (I hope)

Day 6 - The Eye

    TGIF am I right? Classes finished today and I couldn't wait to get out again. An hour into patrol and I saw the red lights across the river again, this time I had to make it to the source. I ran across the bridge, eyes focused on the lights. I nearly collided with a couple people on the way, don't they know to move out of the way of someone on a mission? 

    Once across the bridge I climbed on top of one of the buildings, always a better view there. The lights disappeared and I redoubled my efforts to make it to where I last saw them, running from one roof to the next, all thankfully close enough that I would almost call them one building. I was making good time but my skirt kept getting caught on the apparatuses sticking up through the roofs. It may look cool, but I quickly realized it must go, the rest of my outfit was steampunk enough. What is the point of a hero who gets stuck on the roof because of a skirt? (okay the skirt does look amazing so I'll have to find a way to work it back into the design, but what I currently have isn't working)

There was a quick flash to my right and I stopped, through the window I could see a black figure moving about the room and putting stuff in a bag. They made a full circle around the room before pulling something (spray paint?) out of the bag. They walked with purpose to the picture wall, roughly discarded the photos and drew an eye. Although that wasn't what caught my attention; their hands were glowing red. The same red I saw when I regained consciousness after the mugging. This was the person who saved me and it turns out I am alone. They aren't a good guy, they're a low level thief who probably wanted to steal that purse themselves but ran once they saw I was waking up. I guess they didn't want to get caught cause that's definitely what would've happened if they stayed around.

 The eye on the wall confused me for a bit before I realized, that was their calling card. This wasn't going to be a one time thing. 

Day 7 - Preparing for the hunt

So yesterday was eventful in it's own way. I didn't get any action, but I have my first target. I have a few to-dos first:

Remove costume skirt

Add utility belt to costume

Earpiece for radio

Wristbow

    Unfortunately classes are actually a thing cause it's only week two and I'm already spending my entire Sunday working on classwork. Seriously, aren't classes supposed to teach us everything in class? Why am I learning more by doing my problem sets than when the lecturer is lecturing? Anyway, that's all that happened today unfortunately, I'm gonna have to find a better way to balance hunting down The Eye (does anyone have a better name?) and my classwork. I still need to pass, if only that, and I'm hoping some of my later classes will actually be helpful in designing my gadgets. Plus I'm still lost in code land, why can't my variables have spaces?! Seriously, it is so much easier to read 'start time' than 'startTime'. I don't even like camels.

    I'll be working on updating my wardrobe/weaponry this coming week so be on the lookout for that.

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Sept. 12th, 2021

Day 1: Sunday - Computers Galore!

   Everything is starting to settle down after the hectic week that was orientation. There are still some events happening for fraternities and sororities, but I don't think I would have the time to commit to them this semester, maybe I'll try recruitment next year. Either way, now that I am not running around like a chicken with their head cut off I can focus on getting properly set up my station.

   Wait… I'm not sure I ever explained to y'all what my goal is. Looking back through old posts the answer is no, sorry to keep you in the dark but basically I want to become a hero. I've always loved reading the comics and watching the movies growing up and now I'm somewhere that I can develop the technology to become one myself. Cool right!?

   So basically I brought a couple monitors and a desktop tower with me so I could surveille the city for anyone in need of help. I do need to figure out how to hack into the cameras around the city though … I have gotten some books and am taking a class this semester on coding so hopefully the hacking thing won't be too bad. I mean, everyone in movies has somebody who can do it right?

Day 2: Monday - Coding == spaghetti + alphabet soup; result = TRUE

  Okay, so I promise I read some of the coding books prior to coming to campus and thought I understood what was going on, but uh, I don't? I mean there are all these letters floating around and subsets of letters that are supposed to be abbreviations for long words but then multiple words start with the same first few letters sooo… yea idk. And even if you can figure out what variable they are talking about (or even the ones you create, because I'll be honest, I term a variable and then work on some code and about 20 lines later have forgotten what it means), you are then jumping all over the place because of functions and then there are classes above functions and objects which can jump between classes and each have their own set of functions so you can't use the same function on different objects if they have different classes unless one is a subclass or the function exists in multiple places but then you could have the same named function that acts differently depending on the class of the object and yeah. Are you confused yet, because I'm not (that is a lie, I am totally lost in this mess of coding and hope the intro class can help untangle it).

Day 3: Tuesday - Going old fashioned

  Okay so maybe I was a little over ambitious trying to hack into the city camera network without having taken a single programming class cause yesterday was a complete fail. So I think I'll go a bit more old fashioned and get a radio to scan all the police channels. I'm not giving up, that's not what this is, I'm just putting the coding on a back burner until I actually understand what is happening, plus the police scanner will be enough for the majority of crimes right?

  I went dumpster diving (I know gross) around campus to see if I could find any old police radios, cause correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think store bought radios can usually hear those frequencies? Thankfully it was worth my time cause I found an old radio hidden in-between the cushions of a couch. (those things are literally black holes). Anyway I returned to my room to take a shower and set up the radio.

    Upon searching the best ways to connect the radio to my computer, I discovered that yes, you can buy radios that can listen to police channels so I guess all that the dumpster diving did was save me some money/time (you can apparently build these things too? Maybe I should research more often). Anyway I got the radio hooked up to my computer so I can keep things centralized before going to sleep. Oh yeah, classes also start tomorrow.

Day 4: Wednesday - Classes, Yay!?

    So I had my first day of classes today and isn't college supposed to be less time consuming than highschool even if the material is more advanced? Classes only meet 2-3 times a week and I don't even have all my classes everyday. Like seriously, in highschool I had 7 classes every day 5 days a week. How on earth did my 3 classes today feel like more work? Maybe I'm just not used to it after summer break? I'm going to bed early tonight cause I have my remaining 2 classes tomorrow and I feel like I'm gonna need more energy than a single human can possess.

Day 5: Thursday - Classes aren't that bad.

  I guess I was just a little overwhelmed yesterday cause today was much better. Maybe it was partly because I attended a small highschool so, seeing that many people in the same long hallway was a very new experience. Maybe I'm just starting to get into the swing of things, I don't know. Reflecting on classes so far, I don't have much actual work yet seeing as most classes have just been reviewing the syllabi, though I'm sure I will actually have to start learning stuff tomorrow and next week.

   I did have some free time today in which I was able to create a prototype of the lenses that I want to use for my goggles. They're a bit flatter than I would like but I don't know how to curve the technology without breaking it yet so I guess that will be an advancement for later. Thankfully I was able to find some code online that already takes the signal from the camera I ordered and puts it on a screen so I might actually be able to use these soon.

Day 6: Friday - The camera hath arrived!

  I got a notification this morning that the camera I ordered had finally arrived and I could pick it up. Thankfully Friday is a pretty light day for me in terms of classes, otherwise I might have skipped some to get the goggles working and that would not have been a good start to my college career. Of course nothing can go smoothly when building stuff (why do shows have everything just working, can't they actually show me how to make it work and the errors I might encounter? It is so much more entertaining watching them than some old white dude drone on about vectors and integration… maybe the fact that they montage through the failures is what allows the shows to be interesting. Hmm something to chew on there I guess.)

   I'm writing this at midnight and should probably get some sleep, but I will most definitely be testing these goggles tomorrow.

Day 7: Saturday - The test!

   The goggles turned on without blowing up! (That's a start right, something I should be excited about and not something that is a given with these sorts of things?) And I could actually see what the camera was seeing, although it was a little disorientating cause the camera is a good inch above my eyes and the screen is translucent so I'm getting an overlap between what I can see in front of me an a shrunken off set view of what the camera can see. The weirdest thing is the fact that the IR camera (the code maybe?) shows things tinted red, I guess that is how the programmer decided to depict the IR waves since we can't normally see them. The camera had a couple different modes built in, the most interesting being the thermal detection where everything was displayed in a gradient across the rainbow (I'm sure that will come in handy later). But I think the default is all I can use for now with the contrasting position of the camera and my eyes, I'll have to sort the rest out later.

   I went outside once it got dark to test the goggles in a setting more similar to where I would be using them. Thankfully I went out late and there weren't a lot of people around. Everything was covered in a haze of red, I had no idea there was this much ambient IR radiation. Some of the building windows were slightly more intense, I assumed there was some poor grad student staying late to finish their research. I continued to look around exploring the new layer of information I could see before turning around to head back to my dorm. As I was walking to my dorm I could see across the river and stopped in my tracks. There were bright red beams shooting across my vision, quickly I took off my goggles to get a better view, but the lights vanished. Confused, I put the goggles back on and there they were again. Every few seconds a bright beam would shoot up off the ground and across the sky. The angle looked too steep to be coming from a window so there was definitely something happening on the ground, but what? That was the question. *low battery* flashed across my eyes. Great, I forgot how long I had been testing the goggles, I'll need to add a power pack to the next version of these. I guess my exploring is done for the night so I'll see you guys next week.

- Polymetis

[polymetis-23]

Diary Entry Sept. 5th, 2021

Day 1: Sunday - It begins 

    Pre-orientation is over so we have finally started orientation orientation. My fellow frosh moved in this weekend so the halls of Saheam Hall are filling up, there are so many new people here! Today was not the best of days for me because all students have to take a swim test to graduate. Seems weird, but I guess it makes sense. Anyways I can swim, it's just not my favorite thing to do so there was no way I was about to tread water for 10 min to be allowed on a boat (who enjoys being on a boat anyway?). I'm gonna keep my feet on solid land, thank you very much. Things did get better though, we got to meet our orientation groups and mine was the pink group, absolutely perfect in my mind. Oh and with these groups we get little food tickets for dinner so we don't have to get dining hall food yet. While I love my castle style dorm, I've been told it has the worst food on campus so I may have to explore other options.

Day 2: Monday - Math!

    Today we officially became freshmen, we had our welcoming by the president so it was official! Although it was a little long. I was glad to finally be a frosh and not a pre-frosh, but did they have to talk for so long? I wanted to get back into the labs. Unfortunately that wasn't the case today as all freshmen were required to sit through a preliminary math test to determine which level we should start at. I won't say I am a math genius, but I have always done well in the subject, even taking a college level course at the community college my senior year! Currently waiting for the results, but I'm not really worried. I am however starting to get anxious about when I will next be able to work on my crossbow. EME was great because it was right in the student workshops but there seems to be something scheduled for every second of the day during orientation so I just can't slip away.

Day 3: Tuesday - Mr. Advisor Sir

    I got to meet with my academic advisor today to figure out what classes I wanted to take. Unsurprisingly, I am able to skip the first level of math due to my score on the placement test (yay! Definitely wasn't worried). He suggested some other courses that freshmen usually take so it looks like I will be taking a Newtonian mechanics physics class, multivariable calculus, intro chemistry and some communication intensive humanities class. Guess I have to look at that list soon. I wanted to take a lab class so I could get access to all the machines and learn better design techniques (okay maybe my approach to the crossbow was not the best way, I wasn't wrong … just not advanced enough). Unfortunately all those classes required other classes to be taken first... which I haven't taken. Guess I'll start in the spring.

Day 4: Wednesday - Expos galore

    As I mentioned previously there always seems to be something going on orientation wise, I just can't get any free time to get to the labs. I don't even know if I would be able to get access at this point. My group, joined by a few others, spent most of the afternoon walking around the sports and academic expos to see what was offered. There were some cool booths and a lot of free stuff, but not much interested me. I already know how I will be spending my free time. One interesting thing I did learn at the expo was that there was a makerspace which only trained freshmen. Of course I signed up for the training as soon as I got back to my dorm room. On that note, I am supposed to have two roommates, but I haven't seen them except in passing. They are participating in the dorm exploration program which allows first-years to move between dorms if they start somewhere they don't like. These events can sometimes run real late, I know one of them got back to the room after 4am, no idea what was happening so late. Either they are out of the room or asleep so I assume they aren't planning on staying.

Day 5: Thursday - Rooming is a mess

    And I was right! Neither of my temporary roommates ended up staying, I think one moved to Modran Hall and I'm not sure where the other went. I could never imagine living in Modran. It is so run down and far from the main campus. And it seems to have parties or something going on on the rooftops, at least I kept seeing the occasional flash of red during dorm exploration. I need the peace and quiet to work on my projects so no thank you. Speaking of projects, I've decided to let the crossbow sit for a bit until I can come up with a better design, but I have had another great idea: IR Goggles! Looking at some of the superheroes on screen they have fancy displays in their helmets to show them where the bad guys are and where their help is needed … I guess cat's out of the bag now, but if you haven't guessed I want to be a real life hero! Or I guess a vigilante since it is self proclaimed, but I'll still be helping people.

    There has been some suspicious activity around the city in the last year that might be connected and I want to be the one to put a stop to it. That's why I ended up choosing this school, a great place to start my career. ;-)

Day 6: Friday - New roommates

    My two new roommates after the dorm switch moved in yesterday but were busy finishing up orientation activities so they didn't unpack until today. They seem pretty cool so far, one moved from Newest House- not sure if it had an official name ever and it isn't the newest dorm any more, that title goes to North Lot. Regardless I will just have to make sure they don't catch on to my superheroness cause what's the point of having a superhero identity if those around you know who you are, right? Anyway, not much else happened today, I just got to know the roommates and learn the rules of our floor now that all the permanent residents were there. Oh and orientation ended with a trip to see the fish (cause we're fish get it? … I didn't either, why is 'fish' another name for a freshman?)

Day 7: Saturday - A breath

    Finally a day where nothing was scheduled and I can breathe. I took some time to explore campus and find relatively secluded places to work on my designs. They just finished renovating a library which has some nice study spaces and people are generally quiet so I figure I'll be spending a lot of time there in the following weeks. There are also great tall windows that look out on the river so I feel like I'll be able to get a lot done there. I also got some time today to sit down and sketch out my goggles, with all the labs and such in the area, I wonder what sort of IR light will be visible, or is that not a thing and I'm just naive? Oh well, guess I'll find out when I eventually test them. First I need to order a camera that can pick up IR radiation, hopefully it comes soon. 

    Well, classes start next week so I hope to be able to keep updating y'all, whomever may be reading this, but we shall see. College is new and exciting, but I wonder how hard it will be.

Signing off for now

- Polymetis!!