Editing Flechette (section)

===Shards===
The three [[shard]]s in her [[Subway Cluster|cluster]] call themselves the three faces.<ref>But their Foil, who belongs to the three faces just as much as March does, is quiet, watching, stalking. She watches, because her eyes are good. Because the three faces needed her eyes to be good. - [[Heavens 12.all]]</ref> The [[Entities]] refer to Lily's primary shard as "Sting". It was originally used for fighting other Entities.<ref name="26.x e2">''Sting'', the entity thought. Once it had been a weapon for his kind, against his kind, back in the beginning, when they had dwelt in oceans of gray sludge. - [[Interlude 26]]</ref> 

Sting does not have much need to evolve: the [[Entities]] have not discovered a way to really improve or vary it. However, handing this power out to hosts can give the Entities the opportunity to figure things out at the end of the [[cycle]] by seeing how other powers interact with it.<ref name="SB16">Sting, for the record, is akin to the shark. Sharks haven't evolved for aeons, because you can't get much better than a motherfucking shark. What you can do is put the shark in a tank with other fish/animals and see the way things might play out. - [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15026750 Wildbow on Spacebattles]</ref><ref>
:And sending out the shard to improve it is desirable, in case they ever run into anything like themselves that turns out to be hostile and need to be able to kill it.
There is no real improvement of Sting, exactly. It's a 'shark' of shards. There's not much need for it to evolve. But having it out there and giving it to new species to play with gives them the opportunity to figure stuff out. And that figuring ends up in the download before the cycle moves on (detonation of the Earth multiverse, offshoot entities are distributed). - Wildbow on Reddit</ref><!--https://redd.it/t1azj8--><ref>S/he [March] did get Sting lite. Remember, Sting is a 'shark' of a shard. Can't really do much to improve or vary it. - Wildbow on Spacebattles</ref><!--https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/15081572--> Giving away this power is standard procedure for [[Scion]] and [[Eden]] as they have contingencies in place to automatically dodge charged projectiles.<ref>
:I doubt it's standard procedure
It is standard procedure, at least for Scion/Eden's line of entities. We see them as avatars in the theoretical universe.
:So typically, it's not a problem because whoever would be attached to that shard wouldn't have any way of getting to them to attack in the first place.
This basically answers OP's question. And it doesn't quite kill him. It just leaves him more vulnerable to more devastating follow-up. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref><!--https://redd.it/t1azj8--><ref>I was already moving the group to safety when Scion evaded the incoming projectile.<br><br>His future sight power wasn't like Contessa's. Narrower, lacking imagination, but he'd set up ''contingencies''. If X happened, then the power would automatically kick in.<br><br>Apparently the cost of being hit by Foil's power was worse than whatever it cost him to use that power.<br><br>Not a magic bullet, but it was a good fucking thing to know. Could I break it? Abuse it? - [[Speck 30.5]]</ref><ref>Why had ''this'' barrage worked when the others didn't?<br><br>Had to buy time, make space. I opened doorways, siccing capes on Scion, driving him out of the building.<br><br>What was different? I hadn't added anything to the group.<br><br>I ''had'' taken something away.<br><br>I looked at Foil. - [[Speck 30.5]]</ref>