It started as just another day designing and laying out mosaics of tiles for yet another rich customer. Just another set of fat pockets willing to pay more for a pretty floor that they'd likely only look at once a month at most than most families in the area made in a year. Tim was halfway through the job when he noticed a rather unique geometric pattern hidden in the floral designs he had been commissioned to lay in the entryway of a mansion.

It was unintentional as far as he could remember, but it also had a distinct feel of protection and warding off ill intentions. If asked what about the pattern evoked said feelings, Tim Horace would have been unable to pinpoint anything specific. He just felt like the pattern taking shape felt like it would defend against those who intended ill will towards those in the house.

Having built his tile art business from the ground up, Tim was intimately familiar with the process of designing these mosaics that he used. He was also quite thoroughly familiar with the shapes and patterns that were common among his designs. This pattern felt utterly unique among his mosaics, especially since he made an effort to guide the design process for this mosaic into creating more soft and soothing feeling pattern.

Being the professional that he was, Tim did not let these thoughts distract him from continuing to lay tiles. He even made sure each tile was exactly where it belonged, and kept them all at a consistent height so that when he was finished, it felt completely smooth.

As he wrapped up the job site for the day, and prepared to go home, he noticed that the incidental geometric pattern seemed incomplete, and had the distinct impression that it would have no effect until it was whole. Pausing to consider what the completed pattern would look like, and why it would have any effect whatsoever in the first place, Tim noticed a tool he had failed to secure, and went ahead and put it away where it belonged, forgetting the pattern in the process.

The rest of the job went by without incident, and Tim thought nothing of it until time to get paid came, and he brought the homeowner to the mosaic to see if they had any final requirements such as a clear-coat covering. The person in question had been hinting that there was something wrong without deigning to specify what, and looked like they were about to try for a discount, when Tim stepped into the center of the protective pattern.

Suddenly they stopped acting cagey and just paid the proper amount, and even added a small tip for a job well done. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when it came from a rich kid who never worked for any of the money they spent, Tim thanked them, and went to his office to plan out the next commission.

He worked alone, so nobody ever bothered him at his office unless they had a complaint about work he had already done, or a request for a job they wanted done. Tim enjoyed his solitude between jobs, and the quality of his work let him charge quite the premium for it, so he made enough to live quite a comfortable life. He had just finished reviewing the design for his next commission when he noticed another geometric design embedded in the placement and shapes of the tiles within it.

This pattern had more of an honest feeling to it, as though any shade of misdirection would be impossible to even consider in its presence. He called the customer to let them know the initial draft had been completed, and they drove to his office to verify if it would be good enough. This particular mosaic was intended to be placed as a walkway around a private investigator's office.

The owner of the business dropped by Tim's office and approved the design, and even praised how the ends of the pattern smoothly blended into each other, making it to look continuous. Tim went ahead and got started on this one the next day, and within an hour, he had completed the first section and started on the next. At lunchtime, he had already finished the entire walkway in front of the building, and took a break.

An angry looking fellow started marching up to him as he was just finishing his meal break, but once they got closer to the walkway, they suddenly looked conflicted, and just walked away. Feeling glad that he dodged an unfortunate encounter, Tim continued laying tiles of brickwork for the walkway in peace.

Tim finished the walkway by noon the following day, and applied the weather proofing and durability enhancing coatings before going back home for a rest. Upon arriving the next day to make sure it set properly and finalize the job, he found the owner of the business waiting for him. He seemed quite put out about something, but was also unwilling to specify what exactly was making him unhappy.

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On the second floor of the building was a lawyers' office, and the owner of that business also looked quite unhappy, but was similarly unwilling to specify why. Tim went through the closing procedures for the job, was paid properly, and went on with his day. He spent a few days just interacting with his family at home, and generally enjoyed his planned short vacation.

Upon arriving at his office at the end of his break, he found that the mansion from his previous job had made the news. Apparently someone had attempted to attack the people living there, but once they got to the entryway, were unable to leave or continue attacking. They were apprehended by the police soon afterwards, and upon being questioned, revealed that once they broke into the house, they were unable to even think of doing anything to harm the house or its occupants.

Tim thought the story quite interesting, but just continued on with his day without giving it all that much thought, leaving it as just a passing amusement. He completed the next few commissions with little to no problems, and got ready to take advantage of his kids' summer break from school to go on a short sightseeing vacation.

The morning they were scheduled to leave, he read in the paper about a lawyers' office in a rather familiar location that closed down. The reason they claimed to be the cause of the office's closure was the apparent inability of anyone on the premises to lie. As unlikely as that seemed to him, Tim was aware of how superpowers seemed to be appearing all over the place lately, so he just chuckled at the irony of the incident and went on with his vacation plans.

On the second day of his vacation, he was idly tracing fractal looking patterns on the sidewalk by the pool of the hotel they were staying at while watching his kids play in it. After he had been doing so for a while, he glanced at the patterns he made and got a distinct feeling of safety from it. The feeling of safety was so strong in fact, that he ended up dozing off, much to the irritation of his wife, who had a few choice words about his ability to watch over their kids when she returned from getting lunch.

Nothing happened to them while he was napping, and in fact, nobody on the entire premises of the hotel that whole day, which made the news later because one of the other guests that night were victims of a drive-by shooting, but not one person on the grounds of the hotel were so much as scratched. The Horace family talked about how scary gang activities were, and how glad they were that they weren't there when the scene went down, as they drove to the next town where they were going to go sightseeing.

Tim was idly tracing another pattern on the counter in the bathroom of their next hotel room while he was brushing his teeth when his wife walked in and then suddenly stopped. He had just finished brushing his teeth anyways, so he spat the paste out and rinsed his mouth before turning to her. It was only then that he noticed the expression she had on as she regarded the spot on the counter he had been tracing the pattern on.

Tim then looked at the counter, and saw it was glowing where he had been idly tracing, and the pattern left behind felt like safety and healing. He blinked, and it was still glowing, and still had that same aura around it, so he turned back to his wife, and asked her opinion of the pattern. She was entirely unnerved by the counter glowing where her husband had touched it, and definitely did not have any positive feelings towards it.

Seeing as how the happiest way to live life in a family setting is to keep the matriarch of the household happy, and Tim was well aware of that fact, he let his wife take him to a nearby emergency room to get checked out. He was given an even better clean bill of health than he had had at his last doctor's appointment, so they went back to their hotel room and continued their vacation. Tim's wife paid even closer attention to him than normal, but he rather enjoyed her attention, which was one of the reasons he married her, so he didn't mind too much.

It wasn't until the next morning after having finished their sightseeing while getting ready to leave, that they started noticing the scars that were missing now. One of their sons had always been a bit too active, and had a few scars on his face and hands which were hard to miss. Except, now they were missing entirely, and Tim had some scars on his hands from workplace accidents back before he got quite as good as he was now that were also missing.

Tim then recalled how the pattern the previous night had felt like safety and healing, and shared his insight with his family. His wife was wary and quite unconvinced of the cause of the change, but they had a schedule to keep, and they were both rather strict with keeping to schedules, so they continued on, and postponed discussing this further until they got to their next scheduled stop.

The next morning, as they were enjoying a complementary continental breakfast at the hotel they were staying at in that town, they noticed many other people staying at the same hotel they were at the previous night had been featured in the newspaper. Apparently anyone who stayed in that hotel that night ended up healing from anything ailing them at least a little. There was even someone who was suffering from cancer who had their cancer reduced in size a slight bit.

Tim then started trying to create patterns with effects he actually wanted to have occur, rather than happy little accidents. It took a fair bit of practice, but eventually he was able to determine what types of vertices and patterns lead to what types of effects, and his mosaics business took on a whole new life, as he was able to set wards for his customers, and would do so for a bit higher of a premium.

And as he started prospering further and enjoying his life further, the clandestine agencies, both official and private, marked him as a nonthreatening entity. One who would make a handy ally, but was not really all that dangerous of a potential enemy.