"... I think that actually went decently considering the circumstances. Which says a lot about the circumstances."

"Do we need to follow up with those people he may have strongarmed into appearing here?"

"I'm not sure... keeping the offer quiet for a long time isn't really possible, but maybe I could sell them on keeping it quiet for the near term to keep Wendigo away in the hope he loses interest."

"I don't think I want to make it that salient - I didn't recognize any of them so they might not know me and Eefa - but if he extorted them outright we might want to know about that."

"My guess is any extortion attempt would have been in the form of vague threats - they didn't look scared enough for it to have been something concrete we could actually help with."

"Okay." Sigh. "...I should go get her from your parents' place."

Nod.

"Uh, just checking - I am getting the impression you do not actually want more context on what sort of thing makes people terrified of Salazar Wendigo?"

"- is it more complicated than him being a rich asshole inventor-or-possibly-fraud?"

"... very much so, yes. He experiments on people and turns them into horrifying monsters. Which I'm confident are real."

"Well, there's a great non-Eefa-specific reason to want him in particular not to be committing conspiracy to trade in slaves in Kenton."

"Yeah. Though I am not entirely certain how things will go if he tries sending monsters to attack Kenton, and am nervous about people demanding we hand Eefa over if that happens."

"I need to get around to doing more powers testing, don't I. I would have gotten on that a lot sooner except I've been distracted between the new universe and the kid and spring and work."

"It can do more than cleaning?"

"I think I'm bulletproof, though I have not tested that directly, I disabled that one asshole's gun naively and wasn't hurt by shrapnel. I also broke all the bones in his hand when he was grabbing me. I'm using it to not trip and fall, all the time, I have a balance problem it's compensating for. It only works on things I'm touching, but I think it can do a lot within that constraint."

"How does it prevent you from tripping?"

"I'm always touching myself, so I can push myself back into place when I start to overbalance."

"Oh that's useful... do you have a sense of how strong the power is?"

"Should I? - do you want to walk with me to get Eefa, I'm a little anxious about her -"

"Yes, of course."

On they go. "Is there a specific axis of power strength you have in mind? In terms of force exerted I think the limit is how much stuff is close enough to me to count as touching."

"I was thinking of force - in particular I'm wondering if you could rip things apart when you're touching them."

"Probably, yeah, I broke a lot of bones in the one guy's hand."

"Did it take you time to do that?"

"No."

"That certainly sounds like it could have combat applications."