“If it’s okay,” Ashley said, with more force than necessary, aiming the statement at nobody in particular. “I’d rather not talk or think about the tribunal right now.”

“Sure, sorry,” Sveta said.

“We can talk about anything you want,” Victoria said.

“Talk about anything,” Ashley said. “The noise of talking would be nice, so long as it isn’t about this.”

“I’m making a camera that takes pictures and video of the past,” Kenzie said. “It’s only twenty-five pounds, and I’m slimming it down.”

There were overlapping responses. People sounded impressed, enthused.

“That actually sounds awesome,” Chris said.

“Kenzie is awesome,” Ashley said. “It’s about time you caught up with the rest of us, Chris.”

Kenzie looked up to her, then tipped over, head smacking into Ashley’s shoulder. She put her arm behind Ashley’s back in a one-armed hug.

“There are catches,” Kenzie said.

“Of course,” Chris responded. He made no mention of the hug.

“It takes a while to spin up. I’m still working on that. And it reads particles that don’t move in straight lines, so it gets fuzzy fast.”

“Fuzzy can be workable,” Victoria said. “In forensics alone, that kind of camera could be a lifesaver.”

“I’m still figuring out balances. Time is something I usually work around if I can,” Kenzie said. Her legs kicked below the bench. “I stole some tech.”

“Stole?” Chris asked.

“Tinkers can read powers and people and get data that they can then use for their tinkering stuff. A tinker who makes flamethrowers can use my blueprints and figure out how to do some targeting tech. Or, like, even if it’s not powers, I could do deep scans of a thinker and I could get power data I could use for my cameras. Which is where right now I wish I could talk to a really good precog or postcog, and see how their power works.”

“Don’t we all,” Victoria said.

“Anyway,” Kenzie said. “We saw some of this with Snag and the others, remember?”

“The Speedrunners,” Tristan said. “Yeah.”

“Yeah. Every tinker is different so it’s not every tinker that does it, but it’s most, I think. We all want our data and inspiration. When I went to pick up my big projector box, I sent some flying cameras in. Which was safe to do since Mama Mathers was gone, right?”

Ashley imagined that was the same time Kenzie had collected the image of the landscape where she’d killed Beast of Burden, for the falsified video.

“So I searched around to see if there was anything interesting. Some of the tinker throwing stars and junk were lying around. I had my camera grab that. Now I’m reverse engineering it.”

“That’s great,” Ashley said.

“Except the team’s falling apart, and I don’t have anyone to do this with. You might not be there to see it.”