Day 4, Saturday January 8th 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Skills: Alchemy unlocked. Cost 200CP/200CP, Perk Dao of Alchemy purchased for 200 CP. 0 CP banked.
Dao of Alchemy (200 CP): Alchemy is the art and science of using spiritual materials and reagents to create miraculous pills and concoctions with an incredible range of effects. From pills that can heal grievous wounds or cure horrific diseases to poisons so terrifyingly potent that just a single breath can melt the flesh from your bones. Elixirs that induce states of enlightenment or restoratives that can drastically improve your cultivation, help you break through bottlenecks or just simply refill your reserves of spiritual energy when you are low.
For the less talented, alchemical creations can represent their only hopes to break through to the higher stages of cultivation, be it the Foundation Establishing Pill, the miraculous medicines that can allow for the creation of nascent souls or even stranger things.
You are an incredibly talented alchemist with an intuitive grasp of the process of pill-making as well as the way ingredients may interact, allowing you to make leaps in the process of refinement, or even creation of new recipes, that would require years of hard study for others.
This kind of talent allows you to easily analyse and recreate pills with a short period of examination.
Talent isn't everything though. A senior with decades of experience will always do better than a pill genius on their first time. You have the equivalent of a good decade or two of practical experience with alchemy under your belt as well as a wealth of theoretical knowledge. If a reagent or pill has existed in Suzaku or in myth, then it's likely you know of it and the ways that it can be used or otherwise nurtured if it is not yet ready. This knowledge will update itself to include similar disciplines in future jumps.
+100CP Perk rolled, field not yet unlocked. Insufficient CP. 100CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field Facilities: Mundane unlocked. Cost 400CP/200CP. Insufficient CP. 200CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field not yet unlocked. Cost 300CP/300CP, lock in ability? Y/NClick to shrink...
Last time I tried yes and it saved the power for when I unlock the field. But I think it would be more useful to save CP for perks I can actually pick up right now. So this time I think NO.
Perk refused. 300CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field not yet unlocked. Cost 0CP/400CP, lock in ability? Y/N
Okay, so that one is free once it's unlocked. I see no reason not to lock that in so I say YES.
Attendants perk locked in. Will be purchased upon unlock of Assistants. 400CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field Skills: Alchemy unlocked. Cost 200CP/500CP, Perk Alchemist purchased for 200 CP. 300 CP banked.Click to shrink...
Spoiler: Innate Talent: Alchemist (200 CP)Innate Talent: Alchemist (200 CP): You are capable of brewing potions with magical effects. You can easily create 'true' healing potions that provide instantaneous healing rather than healing-over-time, and can make potions for any 'buffing' spells you know that are in the ranked magic system such as flight, invisibility, increased magic resistance, physical boosts, and so on. Obviously you must actually know a spell in order to make a potion with that spell's effect. Additionally to make use of this talent you must actually have the means to make the potions in the first place such as an alchemist's lab.
Wow. That's a lot of perk rolls. What happened to cause all that? And apparently my random power has decided to triple down on the alchemy angle. The one ability seems to unlock an eastern chi-style training method with pills. The other adds healing potions. Unfortunately, I didn't get the magic system whose effects I could apply to that style of alchemy. Still, it was tempting to make a bunch of healing potions.
I go out to run and take my new cellphone and pepper spray with me. I run away from the house for four blocks before I turn on the phone and receive a message asking if Palladium wanted to register with the PRT this afternoon. Dad had said he needs to go to work to make up for his time at the hospital earlier this week, so I figure I will be free. I agree and catch my breath while waiting for the reply. They confirm the appointment for one pm and I power down the phone and run home.
I'm at a frustrating point. I have my awesome spell, which is nice. I also have my synthesizer and sack of metals and scavenging ability, so I have plenty of mundane materials. The R&D center would even be pretty good at using them, but I don't have any good designs for it, just the bulky armor. I know enough metalworking to make things and I suppose I could just embody a forge and anvil, but I don't have a space to do it in. There is too much flammable stuff in the garage and the basement. And I have a couple abilities that can modify armor, but none that will make it.
I have some considerable skills in electronics, but I don't have any of the major equipment needed to make my own. And that would be too complicated to embody. I've got several alchemy abilities, but no good sources of magical components or appropriate magical abilities to pair with them, leaving those limited to very basic applications.
I also have some medical skills, but I definitely don't want to present myself as a medical tinker. Bonesaw has ruined that. It feels like for each direction I could take my tinkering, I'm still missing one key ability. It seems like I either need to build tools to build tools or I need to be able to translate designs into something a fabricator can create.
Of course, that's not the only path to advancement. I'm trying to get fit by running. But I have a new qi cultivation related ability. Or at least the ability to make things to help with qi cultivation. Which at its core is physical fitness turned up to eleven. I should try to unlock at least a basic level of ability there, and it should give me a leg up in my efforts. The pills themselves seem to consist of a few rare minerals, a binding agent, and distilled beast essences. The first two seem simple enough to synthesize, although my medical knowledge is wary of putting that much mercury into my body. The last is the problem, but I think about it, and bulls are symbolic of strength. I should be able to distill some essence out of some ground beef we have in the freezer. That won't amount to much, but it should get me a dose or two to start the process.
I get home from my run and set my synthesizer to make batches of the things I need for some qi pills while my dad is in the shower. Then I eat breakfast and take a shower since I need to give my dad time to get out to work like he intended. Once he's gone I can tinker in peace, so I check on my R&D center. It has refined the power armor a little bit so it still looks bulky, but not like it would restrict movement to such a degree that it wouldn't be worth it. So I set the R&D center to fabricate that after it makes a tiny part for my phone.
The tiny part only takes a few seconds to appear so I take apart my phone to install it. It should prevent other people from using it as well as reduce its power consumption. I'd love to make it untraceable, but that's not yet within my abilities.
Then I think about things I can do, and I end up deciding to go to school. My tasks tend to be very literal. So when it says go to school, it probably literally means to go to the place, rather than telling me to attend any classes. And today is Saturday, so there shouldn't be any students there to cause problems for me. It will take a couple hours for the things I set to fabricate to be made anyway.
On the bus to school, I read the Silmarillion. It's pretty dense, and it doesn't actually describe the armor or weapons physically. It's more about the names and histories of the items. So I give up on that for inspiration and go back to my element flash cards. Maybe if I can get the last few straight I can earn that unlock too.
I get to school before I can get Thulium and Thallium straight, but I do manage to figure out Magnesium versus Manganese. Very few people are there. Looks like there are some cars. Probably some delinquents serving detention. Steel my nerves and walk up to the front doors.
Spoiler: Basic Robotics (100CP)Basic Robotics (100CP): With your understanding of robotics, you can easily produce minor worker robots. You could produce Metools, Joes, and the like in a cave with a box of scraps. These do not yet have sapience, but who knows what might happen with time. And besides, they don't need sapience to have combat applications. After all, you don't need to be aware of your own existence to shoot someone.
That is a useful ability. I can make robots without any tools at all. All I need is some scraps. And I do have a bag of metal scraps that gets refilled every day. It's in the Knowledge: Mundane field, but it seems like it really should be in the Crafting: Technological field or some such. Oh well. At least this gives me something to work on. I turn around and take the bus back home, studying the flash cards on the way.
Spoiler: Savant's Understanding (100CP)Savant's Understanding (100CP): A good scholar is one that understands quickly, and remembers their lessons well. Gaining a sharpened mind, you will make connections and associations extremely quickly, your burgeoning mind filling with ideas and potential solutions. But remembrance is just as important, so you will find that your memory clear and enjoy near-perfect recall. Indeed, the memories of life and technology in the First Age, which your Exaltation retains from its past life as a scholar of note, are likewise quite clear. Even better, you will find it easy to retain absurd amounts of newly acquired information. For some reason, this also makes it easier for you to construct elaborate monologues to reveal the full genius of your grand schemes.
And suddenly I'm just smarter. The field is called Knowledge: Intelligence and it fits the bill. It feels good to be smarter. It feels like the world makes a little more sense, and that makes me feel a little more in control of my place in it. I hadn't realized I was feeling such desperation. Of course, my flash cards seem useless now. I remember the entire periodic table perfectly, even the atomic masses that I hadn't been memorizing.
I mentally organize my to-do list. I need to try out my power armor. I need to brew up a qi pill. I need to register at the PRT. And I need to start building a Sniper Joe. The power armor isn't ready when I get back, so I start with the brewing. I need to distill some strength of the bull out of this ground beef. It takes several pans and more than an hour, but I manage to boil down the beef to its essence. While I'm doing that I brew up a couple batches of true healing potions. They're the blue kind that will spoil eventually, but that's better than nothing. By then the other components have been synthesized, and my alchemy wagon has the tools to make up a pair of qi pills.
I swallow down one of the qi pills and I feel pretty good. I try to do a push-up, but I still can't. I do manage a couple sit-ups. Cultivation isn't going to happen overnight. This is just taking the first step on a very long journey.
When I finish with that, I check out my new power armor. It's big and heavy, but it's very strong. I do reinforce the basement stairs before I move it upstairs and into the garage. The trip to the garage is tricky, but I'm going to have to find a way to move my stuff eventually. I know Arc of Embodiment can create an image, so I imagine a facade of the front of my house, and apply the portion of that image that is being obscured by my armor in front of it. It only really works from one angle, so I try adding in more angles of my house. That starts working better. When I continue that pattern to a near infinite amount of images in a near infinite number of directions, it turns into pretty good invisibility. I use that to move the power armor to the garage. I try to remember the trick for when I leave the house to visit the PRT.
The power armor makes me ridiculously strong. I'm pretty sure I'm into moderate brute territory. I'm certainly way outside of human strength range. I don't think I'm anywhere near Alexandria, though. Not even Glory Girl. I play around with applying more images to my armor to recolor it. I'm not thrilled with the flat steel color it comes in by default. I eventually get to a cobalt blue and gold color scheme, both with a metallic sheen that I'm pretty happy with.
I grab some quick lunch before I get ready to go. I put the medic jumpsuit on as an under layer, then the power armor over it. I load up with my healing potions and take along my toast cannon since it's the only weapon I've made. I use the invisibility trick to head eight blocks away from my house. Then I switch the invisibility to my recoloring trick and walk toward the PRT building. People start staring at me and taking pictures. Glory Girl hovers over me for a while, but doesn't do anything.
I show up outside the PRT building and a woman in a suit with an attaché case approaches me and hands me a business card. "Hello, I'm Kathy Ortiz. I presume you're the parahuman I'm here to meet? Titanium, is it?"
"Uh, it was Palladium. But maybe that would be a better idea."
"Actually, the name Titanium is already taken."
"Oh, you wanted to verify my identity. Makes sense." I read her business card. It was for the correct law firm. So it was unlikely to be someone intercepting us. "What did you have for lunch yesterday?"
"A pita roll." She only has to think about it for a moment and doesn't question why I ask.
"Okay. Should we enter?"
"Yes. They should be expecting us. Please, while we're in there, don't say anything. I should be able to handle all the talking for this. If you have a concern, just signal me, and we'll have a private conference about it."
"Um, okay."
Ms. Ortiz greets the receptionist, and a PRT agent comes out to escort us through the building. He takes us up a tinkertech elevator, so I take the opportunity to examine it. I don't see why the elevator needs to be tinkertech. It seems like it just adds a burden to a local tinker to maintain it. A normal elevator should be able to work well enough. I don't manage to figure that out, but it does count as another piece of tinkertech examined.
He takes us to a small conference room. Then he explains that he'll be right back with a reinforced chair. Which makes a lot of sense. I hadn't thought about it because I hadn't actually tried sitting in this armor yet. I stand until he returns with a chair for me. Then I sit and two men enter and sit across from us. One of them is wearing the business suit that marks him as a career office worker. The other one is wearing red spandex.
"Hello. I'm Deputy Director Renick of the PRT East Northeast. And I hope you already know the Protectorate hero, Velocity."
"Pleased to meet you, Palladium." He offers his hand and I tentatively shake it with my giant gauntlet hand.
"Hello, I'm Kathy Ortiz, and I'll be representing Palladium. Palladium is interested in registering as an affiliate to take advantage of recognized parahuman legal status."
"Yes. That is what was mentioned on the phone. So, I see you have the registration form started. That's good." He starts looking over Kathy's paperwork, but continues talking as he does. "Sorry we weren't told you were a tinker or we would have had the reinforced chair ready. Usually tinkers request to meet with Armsmaster while setting up these meetings."
"I requested this meeting having never met Palladium. Just met outside the building earlier. This was instigated through my firm. I'm a fan of Velocity."
While that was nice of her to say, and might even be true, I suspect the real reason he's here is because my lawyer paid attention when I said I wanted to meet Velocity. But I'd be a fool to pass up an opportunity like this, so I zoned out on the paperwork part and just paid attention to the hero sitting across from me.
"Okay, now we need proof of parahuman status. For tinkers, that could be presenting three themed tinkertech devices or creating one device under PRT scrutiny."
"Well, your power armor will obviously count as one tinkertech device."
I sigh internally and unbuckle my toast cannon from my belt and place it on the table.
"That is a toaster." Velocity tries to rebrand as Captain Obvious. I stare him down.
I pull out a healing vial from my belt and place it on the table.
"And that could just be a vial of blue liquid."
"There you go. Will that be sufficient?"
"I'm not qualified to determine..."
"But you are authorized to do so. And I will require a statement that this proof is sufficient or a signed explanation of why it is not."
Basically, Renick tries to weasel out of giving me my affiliate status, and Ortiz tries to hold his feet to the fire until he did. I keep looking at Velocity. It doesn't get me much until he gets as bored with the conversation as I am. Then he starts rapping his fingers on the table. Then he starts rapping his fingers on the table with superspeed.
Spoiler: Accidentally Dropped My Gravitas (100CP)
That was an interesting perk. It was like it was designed to give you a little extra time to have fun. And it was part of the field called Time. So I'd guess the whole field is meant to speed things up. I suppose it made sense with being linked to Velocity.
They end up resolving the situation by calling in Kid Win. He is able to verify that the toaster is tinkertech. Says something about being WAY overspecced for toasting bread and some components he couldn't identify. He isn't able to verify the vial, though. I do take the opportunity to examine Kid Win's armor. It's pretty nice. Certainly much less bulky than mine. But I suspect it provides as much protection, my own focuses mainly on strength boosting. But that gets me my third piece of examined tinkertech.
Since they can't verify the vial as tinkertech, that leaves us at an impasse, so Kathy calls for a conference with her client (me). Once the others leave the room, she turns to speak with me.
"So, what do those things do?"
"Well, the toast cannon probably shoots toast. I've never actually tried it. It's kinda embarrassing. I haven't made a weapon that's any good yet, but I wanted a weapon on hand just in case I got involved in a cape fight. I didn't come expecting to have to show off my work."
"Sorry, usually tinkers will just make something while the PRT is watching. Less chance of them weaseling out of it that way. I should have warned you of that. What does the vial do?"
"Heals the drinker."
"That's quite impressive. Are you willing to divulge information about it to the PRT?"
"Um. I was hoping not to."
"I am going to recommend telling them about the healing vial and leaving it with them. The reason I suggest this is because if it works, they will be desperate for it. To the extent that they will push it through testing and certify it. And it should qualify as a NEPEA exclusion, so you should be able to sell them."
"Huh." I think about it. I don't really need a huge new source of money. The gold I am selling was already more money than I had dreamed. But the prospect still appealed because it would get my healing vials out there healing people. And that would be doing good in the world, even just for a few people. "I guess we could put it out there. But I should warn you, these do go bad. There's maybe a week or two at most before these are worthless."
"That shouldn't matter much to them. In fact, it might help expedite the process. Would you be willing to make something for them?"
"I guess. Won't be very sophisticated, but I could."
Kathy calls them back in and explains what the vial does. I put two more vials on the table for them. I keep one for myself, just in case. They try to sell me on joining the Protectorate, but Kathy insists that I'm just interested in registering as an affiliate at this time, so I get away with just a packet of info.
Turns out that it's easier to get the product of a known tinker approved than tinkertech of an unknown tinker, so I have to do the whole tinkering thing in front of an audience. The room they have for that is nicely stocked. I just pick up an alarm clock/radio and plug it into an ammeter. Then I unplug it, tear it apart, fiddle with a component, then put it back together. I plug it back into the ammeter and it's drawing half the power as before. It's a subtle effect but measurable, so it's good enough for proof. And that means they can start work on approving my healing potions and I can get my driver's license.
I part ways with Kathy at the exit of the PRT. I walk back to the intersection where I had appeared before and turn my reskin back into invisibility. I run home, and hardly have to work at it at all. I wouldn't be in shape for it if I didn't have a power suit on. Once I get the suit in the garage I drop the illusion and power down.
I also need to look into modding my armor. The R&D center has the potential to modify armor on its own, but they seem to all make it stronger in one aspect at the cost of another, and also have a pretty significant research cost.
The Tool-King mods, however, look much more promising. Even its paint jobs affected the armor's properties. I didn't need radiation resistance or refreshing, and energy resistance includes fire, so it would probably be useful against Lung, Spitfire, Purity, or even Dauntless if I had a reason to fight him. So I start preparing to apply prism shielding to each body part. I have plenty of aluminum, and even some adhesive ready. I would need to synthesize some nuclear material, though. And that was something I would be careful with. But with some fiddling, I get my chemical synthesizer to create pure U-238 (so entirely depleted uranium).
I could also manage a helmet mod, a torso mod, an arms mod, and a legs mod. For the helmet I want to make a sensor array, but I also notice an internal database option. Since mods are swappable, I make up both. The torso gets a medic pump, but I load it with true healing potion rather than that unsanitary stimpack garbage. On the arms, I add Tesla bracers, which add a shock to my punches. For the legs, I optimize the servos to make it easier to run. Of course, all of that takes materials, and I don't have that much prepped for this type of crafting, so it's going to take some time to synthesize everything.
That reminds me of my stimpack. I don't think I'll ever be ready to inject that into myself, and I have some serious misgivings about injecting it into someone else, so I put it in the washroom sink and smash it with a hammer.
Spoiler: Whether There's Weather (100CP)Whether There's Weather (100CP): If you built or designed it, it's weatherproof. What kind of weather? Yes. Snow, scorching heat, pouring rain, vacuum, hail, all sorts of weather. If a human could survive without a spacesuit, you tech will keep working.
So my inventions are weatherproof. That's neat. The field is Quality: Durability, which makes sense.
I spend the rest of the afternoon working on building a Sniper Joe. It turns out that Basic Robotics says I can build it in a cave with just a box of scraps, but it makes no claim about how long it would take. I am using every tool I can because I want to get this done in less than a decade. It shouldn't be that long, but I'm still in for several days of building and several days of programming.
As it is, it looks like I might need to go scavenging. While I could synthesize most of the things I need for the armor modifications, it will take a long time. If I could scavenge some rubber, fiberglass, steel, or whatever it would speed that up immensely. Also, the "box of scraps" involved in making a robot does include scrap electronics, and I can't just synthesize those. I could just take apart random electronics around the house, but I'd rather not cannibalize my home.
Unfortunately, as much as I want to, going to a scrapyard would open me up to forcible recruitment by the gangs. I know they watch such places. Same as most good sources of materials. Even going to a computer store and buying computers could be a problem. Maybe that's something I could ask the lawyers to help with.
I make chicken Florentine for dinner, and dad and I enjoy it together. I want to build more of the Joe, but I end up just preparing a little of the programming for it on our computer since dad is around.
AN: I wanted to include some complications into Taylor's life. I had originally intended to have her show up on Coil's radar by having him have someone staking out the lawyer's office. But that seems like it would end up feeling like a betrayal by the lawyers and ruin what little I have planned for them. My next plan was to have her show up on Coil's rader when she went into the PRT and have him follow her home. But then I wondered how she was actually going to get her cape persona not to be immediately attached to her real identity, so Taylor had to develop a Stranger ability out of her single spell. She's still on Coil's radar since he's tapped into the PRT, but he doesn't have her address like I originally intended.Last edited: 8/1/2026 Award ReplyReport226Harper's Fairy8/1/2026Add bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Day 5, Sunday January 9th 2011 View contentHarper's Fairy9/1/2026Add bookmark#24Day 5, Sunday January 9th 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Time unlocked. Cost 200CP/400CP, Perk Insightful purchased for 200 CP. 200 CP banked
Spoiler: Insightful (200CP)Insightful (200CP): Science is, ultimately, the process by which the underlying rules of reality are determined, clarified, and understood. It should not be a surprise, then, that your people's talents at logic, analysis and experimentation provide a noticeable boon to the speed of your R&D efforts? Even better, your followers are highly adept at recognizing dead ends and false results - be they positive or negative. Consequently, your faction won't waste as much time and resources on scientific endeavors that eventually turn out to be 'duds', reducing overall costs of your research as well.
+100CP Perk rolled, field not yet unlocked. Insufficient CP 300 CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field Crafting: Magical Items unlocked. Cost 200CP/400CP, Perk Downsized purchased for 200 CP. 200 CP banked
Spoiler: Downsized (200CP)Downsized (200CP): While gems the size of a room are the most efficient and stable, this perk will give you the skills necessary to create gems that are smaller than that. The strength of a gem relative to its cost scales with its volume, so small gems might seem useless at first glance, but gems effectively do not have an upper bound for how high they can scale. Feel free to make an Orb of Presence fit for a backpack, and carry around a staff with a gem on the top for blasting foes, or launch gem bombs the size of grenades and leave behind gem-wasps the size of flies to distract your foes.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Facilities: Magical unlocked. Cost 200CP/300CP, Perk Deplorable Forge of Tormented Souls purchased for 200 CP. 100 CP banked
Spoiler: Deplorable Forge of Tormented Souls (200CP)Deplorable Forge of Tormented Souls (200CP): Proper soulforging is a highly specialized art that requires rarified equipment, access to other Labyrinthine materials and a willingness on the part of the soulsmith to condemn another ghost to eternal torment. While the willingness to do so must come from yourself, almost everything else can be bought right here, providing you with equipment and inexhaustible supplies of the raw materials one needs to forge a soul into steel.
Full usage of the craft requires artifacts to forge the metal, a hammer and anvil composed of soulsteel or jade (whichever you prefer) to hammer the molten ghost-alloys into shape, another artifact known as an Essence-forge to melt down the unfortunate ghost's corpus and other materials, soulfire crystals replete with essence to stoke the forge, and black ores taken from the Labyrinth to grant it the ghastly, magical strength of soulsteel.
Even the alchemical agents, wrought from the Labyrinth, which are needed to create the rarified void-coated plates of Oblivion's Panoply are in refilling supplies amongst these, should you have need of them. With this, the only thing you would still require for your dread craft is a supply of souls to feed your forge.
The result leaves me stunned with dread. The first perk is nice enough, it speeds up research. Then the second one is useless because it's a modification of a kind of magic I don't have. And the third one is just horrifying! If souls exist, it has to be a sin to mutilate them into weapons. I vow to keep well away from using that power. But, at the same time, it is a complete set of tools and materials for smithing. There's a chance that some of these materials I now have in infinite supply could be used for other types of crafting. I'll have to go through them in detail.
I wake up and go for my morning run. I check my messages, but the only one is from my lawyer asking to arrange a time to discuss properties in a phone call tomorrow. I set up a call for nine in the morning, then I turn off the phone and run home. I'm getting better at this.
I take my second qi pill with breakfast. I should make some more of those. But that would take more beef or whatnot, which means a trip to the store. Dad comes down and has breakfast after his shower, so I go up to shower after my run.
I'm surprised to see my dad still there when I come back down. I would have thought he would be off to work again. But he's worried about me. He wants to 'be here for me'. Which throws my plans for a loop. I figure he can help with groceries, so I tell him we need to go to the store.
We pile into his truck and go to the grocery. While we drive, I'm frantically trying to figure out how I'm going to get my alchemy component shopping done with my dad around. When we get there, I grab a cart and start browsing the isles. As I check off a list of groceries for our house, I put together a shopping list for my alchemy and crafting. Then as we are getting the last items, I conjure a creature outside. I make it look like the lawyer that helped me the previous day. She comes in and as we pass each other, I slip her the $200 I got from my power the other day. She's going to grab the things on my list, go through the checkout, and drop the groceries in our truck.
We put our own groceries in the truck, then I go to check out the art supply store that was next to the grocery. My dad bugs me to get back to the truck. Says the cold groceries were getting warm. He had a point. There isn't anything I need here anyway. I stall as long as I can and we make our way back to the truck. The creature is standing next to our truck doing nothing. I can only assume the groceries are loaded. I have the summons move away and once it's hidden dismiss it. When we get close to the truck, I make an image of the empty truck bed over the corner that was supposed to have my personal shopping in it. I check to make sure the shopping is there as my dad climbs in. Then we're off to home.
"I didn't realize we got so much ground beef. We should make up a pot of chili." Dad notices me with an extra bag of ground beef when we get home.
And just like that three pounds of ground beef and two hours of my time go to making chili. And the pasta sauce I had planned on making is out the window because I don't have the ingredients for it any more. But on the bright side, we have chili now. Yum.
And dad doesn't ever go to work, so I'm stuck not tinkering much for the day. I do as much prep work as I can on programming a Sniper Joe, but there's only so much I can do before I work out exactly what electronics will be controlling the robot. At least the synthesizer is making progress toward the armor mod materials. And when I manage to check on the R&D lab, it's making huge progress toward the energy shield.
After that, my dad and I spend the evening watching a movie with warm bowls of chili.
Interlude: Colin
Colin returned to his lab with his purchase in hand. He plugged the device into the power meter and checked the result. He compared it to the tinkered version of the same device. It was drawing twice as much power. This is what he had been told to expect. It is an admirable increase in efficiency that he wants to replicate.
He tests both radios, tunes them both to the same station. Then he opens each of them up. Removing the case is a simple task. He puts the electrodes of his voltmeter over each component of the two clock radios. There is no significant difference. He measures their operating temperatures. There is no difference. There should be. One should be using less power and therefore producing less waste heat.
He reviews the video of the other tinker at work. Palladium opened the device, unsoldered a single capacitor, soldered it back the other way, then put it back together. Capacitors are not directional. Such an act should have no impact on the electrical function of the device. But still, the altered one is consuming half the power. It makes no sense.
He measures the relative volumes of the clock radios. No difference. He measures the relative brightness of the LED displays. No difference. It's like it is producing more power than it is consuming.
It takes him most of the night, but he constructs a container for the clock radio. It has the most efficient photocells he can make. It also has a heat engine in it. Unfortunately, heat engine efficiency is based on temperature differentials. He needs to cool the system down. Way past liquid nitrogen to a liquid helium cooling system. At those temperatures the differential allows a heat engine efficiency over 60%.
He plugs in the standard clock inside the container. He cools it down with liquid helium and encloses it. He leaves it connected to external power for one minute and then disconnects the power. The heat engine and photocells recover most of the energy the clock puts out and puts it back into the clock, but not enough. Over the course of five minutes twelve seconds, the clock fades and stops. That is a good control measurement. Exactly the predicted result.
He plugs in the tinkered clock inside the container. He cools it the same way he did the first clock. He leaves it plugged in to external power for the same one minute. Then he disconnects the external power. Two minutes later, the clock is still running. Four minutes later the clock is still running. Six minutes later the clock is still running. Ten minutes later. An hour later the clock is still running. The readings indicate no decrease in the energy collected from the clock radio.
Either Palladium's power is somehow producing half the power needed to run the clock radio or the law of conservation of energy is not being followed and he just created a perpetual motion machine. He thinks the former is more likely. But where is the power coming from? How does it get distributed throughout the device? There is no good clue to the answers to those questions. It seems that the singular component that was handled is not behaving oddly.
Perhaps energy is being fed through some sort of interdimensional effect. Perhaps some of Haywire's tech would be able to detect it. He begins filling out a requisition form.
Day 6, Monday January 10, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Supplies: Magical Small Scale unlocked. Cost 300CP/200CP. Insufficient CP 200 CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field not yet unlocked. Cost 200CP/300CP, lock in ability? Y/N
I've generally decided that it's better to skip on abilities that might be unlocked later to save up CP (whatever that is) for abilities on the next roll. I decide NO.
Perk refused. 300 CP banked
And that's it. Two rolls that got me no perks. That's a bit of a let-down after the big hauls I had on Friday and Saturday. Maybe I need to get out and do something to earn more powers. Or it could just be as random as any other aspect of my power.
I follow my morning run routine and check my phone for messages. There's a confirmation/reminder message about our phone call appointment. That gets me thinking about that. I don't want to use my phone at home. Dad won't be around, but I know it's possible to locate cell phones, and I don't want it traced back to me. I realize there's probably nobody out to get me, but there might be once I establish myself as a tinker so it's best to get into good habits now. But that brings up another question. Where do I go to make a call? It needs privacy, yet at the same time it needs to be a public place. I settle on a church several blocks away from my house. It should be mostly deserted on a Monday morning.
I get back home and have breakfast and a shower. Dad has already taken off for work. I usually take a qi pill after my run, but I don't have another one ready. I'll have to brew up some more. But I don't know how long the call will take, so I can't start that now. I do manage to get an hour of work in on Sniper Joe's body.
I take off to walk to the church and find a secluded bit of patio with a bench. I call Mr. Gursky.
"Hello. This is Nicole. I have a phone appointment with Mr. Gursky."
"Yes. He is expecting you. One moment while I transfer your call."
"Hello, Miss Thomas. Thank you for calling. How have you been?"
"I'm fine."
"Great. Glad to hear it. I hope your friend was satisfied with Mrs. Ortiz's actions on Saturday."
"My friend appreciated it. Thank you."
"Good to hear. Good to hear. Now you had several other requests when you were in our office, and we've been working on those. So, to start with, there's the issue of school. Without getting involved in your legal identity, there's nothing we can do to get you a transfer. If we DO get involved in your legal identity, there's still some potential for school administrators to block a transfer. I'm sorry."
"And the principal has rejected my request to transfer out before. So that's not going to happen."
"Principals should not be able to block a transfer OUT of their school. Objections would come from the school you are transferring to. But the other option is homeschooling. Legal requirements there are fairly straightforward. There are three things you need to do. First is notification. You have to tell the school district that you will be getting home schooled. But, it's important to know that they do not have to approve it. You notify them and it's done. They should send something to you indicating they acknowledge you will be getting home-schooled, but they can't stop it. The second thing you need for homeschooling is to keep a portfolio. As you study, just keep a list of books that you read and study from, some of the worksheets you complete, and some of the things you write. Just keep that around in case someone investigates whether you are actually completing your homeschooling as proof. And the third thing is end of year evaluation. At the end of the year, take one of several standardized tests or be evaluated by a certified educator. That's it."
"That sounds ... achievable."
"It is a fairly easy set of regulations to comply with. If you are interested in doing so, there are several distance learning services that are considered homeschooling. You could sign up with one of them. They would include lesson plans, books, work assignments. Some have conference calls or video chat with teachers. You don't have to decide right now. I've got a packet of information about these legal requirements as well as information on distance learning options for you to pick up. Oh, also, if you're worried about us being involved in your legal identity there, one of the nicer options does have a way to endow a scholarship for another for which you could define a very limited set of criteria."
"So, Nicole endows a scholarship for a fifteen year old girl over five nine in height, and then I just happen to apply and take up that scholarship."
"Something like that. There are better ways to limit it that don't sound quite as suspicious, but yes. As an added advantage, the endowment donation is tax deductible. Ederer will appreciate that come next year."
"Okay. How much will that cost?"
"Good question. That option runs around a thousand dollars a month all in. In other words, you could easily afford it with the credit we currently have on your account. But we've included pricing information in the packet. You can look over all the details."
"Thanks."
"No problem. The topic of how much you can afford is an appropriate one, because we would also like you to drop off some more of your cubes for us to sell, if you can."
"You sold the ones you have already?"
"Well, no, but that is in progress. We upped our insurance limits, so we can responsibly hold a greater value in trust for you. The cost for that will come out of our end, rest assured."
"Okay. How many more do you want? What kinds?"
"Well, how about ten? Plus a platinum cube."
I only had seven made, but that seemed doable. I could queue up some more when I got home. "Sure."
"Great. On to the next topic. You were interested in purchasing a property. The idea we have there is instead of purchasing the property, you could purchase a company that owns a property. This may cause it to be a little more expensive, but nothing the cubes we just discussed won't cover."
"Okay. But why would they sell their whole company?"
"Most of the companies we are looking at are in bankruptcy. The cost would increase because you would cover some of the company's debt. It also has the advantage that no escrow period is needed to sell a company."
"Sounds good. No high pressure on the current owner, though. I don't want to bully someone out of their life's dream."
"No. Most likely you'd be offering them a way out from crushing debt. We'll be very considerate. Anyway, since you're open to that, I'd like to set up an appointment for you to see the properties. I can meet you with a real estate agent and drive you around to a few properties, if you're okay with that."
"How soon?"
"This afternoon would be good. One perhaps?"
Hmm. I'd have to interrupt the synthesizer queue to get those cubes done by one. Or get home earlier. I stand up and start walking toward home. I'm just a teenage girl walking down the street talking on her cell phone. Perfectly normal. Hopefully this call won't take much longer. "Okay. Er, how about one thirty? I want some time to prep."
"One thirty is fine. Where should we meet you?"
"How about on 15th street. The corner with the car wash and the convenience store?"
"Sounds good. See you there at one thirty. Now there are a couple things I'd like to bring in regards to your friend. Now that your friend is registered with the PRT, would they like us to help them apply for a driver's license?"
"Uh, sure. What is involved in that?"
"A written test on the rules of the road, followed by a practical driving exam. Now, I do want to ask, do you know if Palladium is interested in direct legal representation with our firm? Mrs. Ortiz was very excited about the financial possibilities."
This is going to get confusing. I'm already Taylor, Nicole, and Palladium and now Nicole's lawyer is asking me if Palladium is interested in hiring him. Even knowing that Nicole is Palladium. But I have to play along with the pretense or he might not be able to sell my tinkered gold for the massive amounts of cash I need to solve my problems. "I can ask about it. Would you like me to set up a meeting with Palladium?"
"Yes please. Any time tomorrow would be great, if Palladium can be available? Just get in touch with Palladium and let me know this afternoon."
"Sure."
"Okay. With all the old business out of the way, is there anything else new you would like to bring up?"
"Probably, but I think it can wait until this afternoon."
"Sure. I understand. See you at one thirty."
"See you then." I hang up the phone and turn it off.
A few minutes later I get home. I manage to catch the synthesizer a minute before the end of its cycle, so I set it to produce three more gold cubes next. With that set, I move back to the kitchen. I have enough time to distill the steer essence before the meeting. That task is mostly simmering, so it doesn't take much attention, so I can manage some work on the Sniper Joe shell at the same time.
But as much as I feel like I'm being productive, this morning didn't get me much for random powers. I suppose it was the same amount of rolls as the first day, but when both rolls fail, it feels like I didn't get anything. And it occurs to me that part of the reason for that might be that I didn't actually unlock anything. Those are the tasks that my power wants me to do. So it would make sense if it was rewarding me for doing them.
I have fourteen tasks left. It still leads off with "Make a Friend". I'm not good at making friends. I've only done it once in my life. And then she betrayed me. It's hard to open myself up to another person. But if I'm going to complete the task, I'm going to need to. I take a moment to wonder if there is any way my lawyer can help me with that. Probably not directly. But maybe that distance learning thing could get me exposure to a peer that could be a friend. Or maybe he could get me invited to parties.
The next task is Get In A Fight. I could do that. But who would I pick a fight with? And am I ready to handle the backlash? I don't know. But I could look into it. Maybe I could learn to fight, and spar with someone. I don't know if it would count, but it might be a good idea to learn to handle myself anyway.
My lawyer is already arranging for my cape identity to Get a License. So that should happen soon. I will need to learn how to drive so I can pass the driving test. I have a talent that will make me learn to drive a motorcycle easily. But the test will probably be in a car at least at first. So I could ask to borrow a car. Or buy a motorcycle. Or just ask Dad to teach me in his truck.
The next task was Pick Up an Implement, but still nothing has counted as an implement, so I was stalled there. Claim a Garage was under way. I might even make progress toward it this very afternoon. Slay a Dragon seemed like a bad idea right now. I should definitely learn how to fight and get some experience and up my tinkering game before taking on Lung.
I didn't have a magic book to read, and I don't think I could write one, so I would have to rely on my power to provide one. I also didn't have a magitech design, but I did have my toast cannon, which was technology that was enhanced by magic. If I could draw up a design for it, it might count as a magitech design. I'm not sure I understand magic enough to do that, but it's worth a try.
The next task was Examine Five Pieces of Tinkertech. I have already examined three. I only need two more. I'll have to ask Mr. Gursky about that. It should be simple to finish that off.
I also need to Examine Parian's Fashions. She is supposed to put on a show at a store opening on Friday, so I should plan to attend. Examining Velocity was simple enough, Parian should be equally straightforward.
I had to Earn Three MAs. I already had one with Magic Style: Arc of Embodiment. And another with Cult of the Gun. So I needed one more. I suppose chi use might work if I ever got proficient at it, but right now I'm still a fairly weak human, so there's a long way to go before I get there. I'll just have to trust I'll get another magical ability eventually.
One task that I could complete is to Make Three MIs and Three TIs. Mainly because I had already made three TIs and one MI. All I need to do is make two more magic items. So I could enchant two more random objects to be absurd slapstick guns or I could mutilate some souls into instruments of death. But I'd prefer to enchant objects in a useful manner. So I resolve to enchant Sniper Joe's blaster with my gun magic once I finished him off. I still need to come up with either a third gun to enchant or some other way of making a magic item.
I also need to Examine Trainwreck's Tinkertech, but that's a problem because nobody seems to know who he is. There's not much I can do about that right now. I guess that's on my wait and see list.
The last task is to Make Something Big. I don't quite know how big it has to be. But it seems it has to be bigger than the bulky power armor I already made. Maybe a car or truck or something. In any case, it seems smart to move into the garage before I try to make something big like that.
I finish my introspection then fix myself lunch as I finish distilling the beast essence. I eat quickly, but don't have time to prepare a batch of qi pills before the meeting. I head out to the garage to collect the cubes the synthesizer has completed in the last few hours. I also take the opportunity to dump out the refilling bag of random metals and ores. There's a chunk of something interesting and different this time, but I'm not sure what it is and I don't have time to investigate.
I make my way to the meeting point and put up my hoodie and put on my sunglasses, scarf, and gloves. Before long a green SUV pulls up and Mr. Gursky leans out the rear window. I head over and climb in the back with him.
"Miss Thomas! Good to see you. This is Mrs. Myrtle Pitt. She does real estate law for a major firm. She is also a realtor. We have subcontracted her as a legal consultant on your case. As such she is covered by attorney client privilege. She also has access to the properties we are interested in viewing. We don't like going out-of-house, but our clients rarely have notions of buying real estate."
"Hello."
"Good afternoon, Miss Thomas." She begins driving.
Mr Gursky hands me an envelope and two folders. I push a simple wooden jewelry box over to Mr. Gursky. He peeks inside, "As requested. Very good. The first folder is the information on the properties we are going to see. The second one is the information we discussed over the phone. The third one is an accounting of services rendered so far." He makes up a receipt for ten more cubes of gold and one cube of platinum and hands a copy of it to me.
The first place we look at is just a two-car garage on an abandoned property. It looks like there used to be a house too, but it got torn down. There isn't much there, and it looks like more trouble than it's worth.
The second place is MUCH better. It's a car repair shop that is in receivership. It's pretty enclosed. Tall cinder block wall on two sides. The other two sides are garages, built around a central parking lot type area. Some hydraulic lifts on one side. A couple office spaces in the corner between the garages. No windows to the outside. Not ideal for a friendly work environment, but good for a property I want to stay looking abandoned. It has driveway facing and signage on a main road, but backs against a residential area. And it's only three blocks from my house.
I have really high hopes for the third place. It's an old firehouse. But once I'm there it's not a good fit. The living area is too big, like a barracks. There's no fire pole. The garage is spacious, but there are windows everywhere. And it's miles away from home. While we are there, Mrs. Pitt takes a restroom break, so Mr. Gursky and I take the chance to talk.
"Good news. You had expressed interest in seeing some tinkertech. I reached out to a colleague, and it turns out that Leet would be willing to let you view some of his broken tech in exchange for some monetary recompense. We could arrange it for Wednesday, if that suits you."
"As long as it's Wednesday afternoon. And how much?"
"Not all that much in the scheme of things. The price requested is five hundred per piece."
A week ago, that would have been an enormous sum. Today, it sounds pretty reasonable. Of course, I was also spending money I didn't have yet. "Okay. Two pieces would be nice. Maybe four pm?"
"I'll make it happen. So, you wanted to bring up some topics?"
I consider asking him about getting a therapist or social coach or something. But that's just taking spending money I don't have yet too far. First step toward making a friend is having a peer. So I'm leaning toward the distance learning option with video-call classes.
"Most of what I have to say relates to my friend, Palladium."
"Yes. Do go on."
"Palladium would like an appointment to get a driver's license, but before that would need to learn to drive. So is there any way to borrow a car for a while? Or buy a cheap motorcycle?"
"Both may be possible. Can I assume that, as a tinker, Palladium would be able to fix such a vehicle if it were not currently in working order?"
"Probably."
"Then I think I can arrange some rather inexpensive options. So am I to understand that Palladium would be interested in our representation?"
"I don't think Palladium wants to deal with legal requirements or sales infrastructure any more than I do. So I think the interest is there. But really, Palladium seems to be more concerned with tinkering right now. Looking for usable scrap. Circuitry, motors and actuators, used rubber, aluminum, et cetera. I can provide raw metals, but at a relatively slow rate."
"Of course. Such is often the plight of new tinkers. So would we be able to arrange a meeting to formalize the agreement?"
"Sure. How about tomorrow? At ten? Might be hard to get power armor to your office. Maybe at the second place we saw today?"
"Is that the one you like?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. Let's check out one last place. See if you like it any better."
We visit a fourth place. A gas station/garage combo. It's close to home, but it's too exposed. Mrs. Pitt also explains that being an old gas station there are issues with residue in the underground tanks. I entertain notions of turning it into an underground lair, but that would just expose me to more toxic gas residue.
As such, I decide to go with place number two. Mr. Gursky promises to have the paperwork for me by Wednesday's appointment.
Spoiler: Energy Crystal Generator (100CP)Energy Crystal Generator (100CP): Energy crystals are the currency of the future, stonelike, hard crystals that are capable of holding gigantic amounts of energy of any and all kinds. They're used to fuel tanks, computers, power suits, everything. And now you have a machine for making them!
Simply by feeding this machine energy through any of the many input methods it has, you can create charged up crystals, holding that energy in convenient, packet-sized forms that are entirely safe to hold and use, no matter the kind of energy. You can generate these crystals through hooking the machine up to a power outlet, or you can use more...'exotic' means.
After all, in the Post Apocalypse full of mutants, the most plentiful source of energy are the mutants themselves. They're harvested for the energy crystals that develop on them, full of the radioactive energies that serve in various ways to fuel the industries of this world. Similarly, you can chuck basically anything into this device and if there's any kind of unique or exotic energy to be extracted from it, this machine will do it swiftly and easily.
Apparently just committing to buy it counted as claiming for my power. The field is called Supplies: Mundane Large Scale, which isn't a surprise since its existence is implied by the field called Supplies: Mundane Small Scale. The power itself is interesting. The ability to make something that can absorb any energy from anywhere is impressive. Then the power had to squick me out by implying that you should suck the energy out of mutated people. I will certainly not be using that part of the power. I almost certainly will be using the more basic functions.
I say goodbye to my lawyers as they drop me off where I got in. I scurry back home and assemble a new batch of qi pills from the essence I distilled earlier. There are ten pills in this batch. It would have been more like 15, but the rest of the beef went to delicious chili. I take one of the pills now and clean up the kitchen. Then I get back to some work on my robot.
Dad comes home and we have chili part 2: the revenge of chili for dinner. I tell him about homeschooling options, and ask if I can apply. He doesn't think we can afford the expensive service that includes video-chat, but I tell him we can try for a scholarship, and ask if I can apply anyway. He okays it. He is worried that I won't be able to spend time with Emma. I tell him not to worry, that Emma and I will be able to spend all the time we want with each other.
That evening I spend in my room, trying to draw diagrams of a semi-magical toaster. It's hard work since I don't really understand anything about flows of magic or anything. Instead my notations seem to have to do with the gun-ness of certain toaster parts. There are actually added parts inside the device, and I do not understand what they all are. They look supertech to me. I go to sleep, dreading dreams of ballistic bread.