Day 10, Friday January 14, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Crafting: Artisan unlocked. Cost 300CP/150CP. Insufficient CP. 150 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Skills: Magic unlocked. Cost 600CP/250CP. Insufficient CP. 250CP banked
+100CP Perk rolled, field Knowledge: Abilities and Skills unlocked. Cost 200CP/350CP. Perk With Me Always purchased. 150CP bankedClick to shrink...
Spoiler: With Me Always (200CP)With Me Always (200CP): The A.I. chip of Leylin wasn't originally part of Leylin's being. Originally, it was an item created in another world and when he was killed, the chip merged with his soul becoming one with him, less of an item and more of a power. Whether through research, experimentation or just good luck, you have found a way to accomplish this act. Whenever you desire, you can destroy any item and merge it with your soul, becoming one and the same. Allowing you to possess all the abilities the item once possessed. Remember as Leylin grew stronger so did the chip, now so do any items that you merge with your soul. In addition you can reverse the merger of any such item at will. Still, it might be nice to have something in case of emergency.
Well, that's neat. I actually had a pretty good day on powers yesterday. Today I only hit one out of three powers, but that's about average. The power I got seems interesting. It lets me store an item in my soul. From the outside, it seems like a pocket dimension storage area, which is a cool power. But on the inside, it's a very intimate bond with an item. I'm not sure I can use that to simply stash a couple stun grenades away. I'm not sure I want to bond that deeply with any of the items I have. The most precious thing I own is that chemical synthesizer, and even that is not something I want to hide away in my soul.
I get dressed and go out on my morning run. I make sure to get out extra early since I want to make my run tougher before I get to my tai chi class. I check messages on the run, and find a message from my lawyer saying that Uber and Leet want to meet me. Looks like materializing a rocket hammer drew attention. Damn. I tell him I'm not interested any more. In my frustration, I end up pushing my speed a bit, and I'm still not especially tired by the time I get to the park for the tai chi. I'm early since I went faster, so I circle the park once. I'm a lot less tense when it comes to the tai chi itself, I can really feel my body moving and the power inherent in the movements. I think I might actually be feeling that qi that I'm supposed to be developing. With that feeling buoying my feelings I run home.
Breakfast and qi pill and morning greetings to my father pass, and I take a shower. I make myself a sack lunch for later, pack up my Nicole outfit and I take off for my garage. I've got a whole day of crafting ahead of me. I queue up some more parts to fabricate and spend a little time driving around. I set up another round of fabrication and put together the torso and both arms (less blaster and shield) in the morning. I eat my lunch early, grab a box of gold, and get on a bus and head to my lawyer's office. It's not far from the new store opening.
I pop into the lawyers as Nicole, drop off the box of nearly two hundred thousand dollars worth of precious metals, and pick up a receipt. Mr. Gursky asks if everything is okay and I say it is. Palladium fixed the car, and will probably want a license appointment next week. I asked if it might be possible to get an internet connection at the garage.
I consider taking the bus to the store opening that Parian will be attending, but in the end decide to walk it. They would average out to about the same time when you count waiting for the bus to arrive, and it leaves me with the option to run if I feel I'm going to be late.
It's a festive little crowd that the upper class tea room has gathered for their opening. They have banners and balloons and coupon fliers being handed out. Parian is already there, and she is flanked by a patchwork elephant and a seven foot tall teddy bear. I move over toward her and take a closer look at her. She's dressed like an old-timey doll with a blushing porcelain mask, and curly blonde hair. She's wearing a petticoat with a ruff around her neck and a big fluffy long dress. I'm really not into fashion enough to know exactly what era the dress represented. I'm sure it's Victorian or gothic or some established style like that. It's very well put together, even if I don't know the name of the style. She even chose a color for her ensemble that matches the signage of the store.
Spoiler: Talented: Tailoring (100CP)Talented: Tailoring (100CP): You are an expert at any non-combat related skill. Cooking? You can make a five star meal with low rate ingredients.
The field is Skills: Clothing, which makes sense. And it makes me an expert tailor. Which makes sense. I would wonder if my power is trying to be funny with my name being Taylor, and now I'm an expert tailor, but I don't think so. It's just obvious and direct enough that it makes sense.
I might have creeped Parian out by staring at her. It's hard to tell with the mask, but she's eying me. I grab one of the coupon flyers and take off. Maybe I'll come enjoy a tea with scones at teatime some day when I can afford to. I got what I came for, and it didn't expose me as a parahuman, so I'm calling that a win.
The bus ride back to the garage is uneventful. Back at the garage, I spend some time wiring sensors into the robot head. The CPU is actually in the torso, but sensors are important. When I finish that up, I can install the head and actually boot Joe up for the first time. I call him Joe instead of Sniper Joe because he isn't just a sniper. The default configuration would have left him with no hands, just a blaster and a shield. Instead, I use a pretty much default cybernetic hand for him and I'm going to create the blaster as something to go over that. Same basic idea for the shield. That way he can actually manipulate things instead of just shooting things. The diagnostics all check out, so I flip him on.
Spoiler: Je'Lu Pih'ar' the Pilgrim (100CP)Je'Lu Pih'ar' the Pilgrim (100CP): Space... The final frontier. This old man of indeterminate race wants nothing more than to see each and every planet, star, and cosmic anomaly in the cosmos. He wants to see the entire life cycle of a star first handed, from birth to death, even if he must see a million different stars to see the full cycle. He is a very spiritual man, and often spends days meditating on the glory of the cosmos
+Deep spirituality helps lift morale
+Extensive knowledge on galactic anomalies
+/- Spiritual views sometimes cloud his judgment, but can sometimes explain the unexplainable
-Have you heard about our lord and savior, the Endless Space?
Spoiler: No Fly Bys! (0CP)No Fly Bys! (0CP): Because you need a good sound track to explore the cosmos. Toggleable.
Spoiler: Attendants (0CP)Attendants (0CP): Choose: A dozen servoskulls, a five-servitor workforce, or a trio of personalized cherubs. All are dull but reliable servants, coming equipped for a variety of tasks. The patterns of each are easy to re-fit for more specialized work.
"Greetings to you."
"Ahh!" I scream. "Dammit power, do you have to summon people out of nowhere? And floaty skulls? Why do I need floaty skulls? With overly dramatic industrial music?"
I just unlocked the field of Assistants by making a friend. Not by becoming friends with someone, but by assembling something that I can consider a friend. I know that Joe won't ever betray me. Stupid literal power. But now my power has summoned up a human being out of... wherever it summons my junk from. And I am just not ready to deal with the ethical implications of that. And floaty skulls! The very idea is horrific, saved only by the fact that the other options were creepy embalmed meat puppets or creepy embalmed baby meat puppets to make things even worse.
I take a moment to calm myself. I toggle off the soundtrack mentally. I find it weird for a moment that it came with the old guy instead of the floaty skulls. A deep breath in and out like in the tai chi class. "I'm sorry. You startled me. Hello."
The old man smiles at me pleasantly, "It's quite understandable. I'm quite surprised to be here too. Might I inquire as to where here is?"
"Oh, uh, Brockton Bay."
"Very good. That is the name of this township, perhaps? What planet is this?"
"Earth... Earth Bet?"
"Hmm. I've heard of Earth, but never Earth Bet. Did you give a second Earth the same name as the first?"
"Uh, no. Earth Aleph is the same Earth, but in another dimension. I think there's a few others, too."
"Fascinating. Smallish yellow star for Earth, much like where I'm from."
"Yeah. I'm sure. So you're Jelloo Pie-har?"
"Je'Lu Pi'har the Pilgrim, at your service. And you are?"
"Uh. I don't quite know how to answer that. It depends how I'm dressed. Like this I'm ..." I trail off.
"It's okay, you don't have to tell me. I would like a way to refer to you, though. Would it be alright if I called you Alfaar?"
"I guess. I already have three identities, how much worse could a fourth be?"
My new robot moves its arm. "This is Joe. I just built him."
"Impressive work. What is his intended purpose?"
"Um, to defend this place. To keep me company and help me build things. I guess."
"Fascinating. Might I ask about local customs?"
"Uh, sure."
"Is it customary to use skulls in your robotics?" Joe graduated to moving its other arm.
"Not even a little bit. Those things are super creepy. I would not want anything like that. But they showed up at the same time you did. I think they're supposed to help me make stuff, but I certainly don't want anyone on this world thinking I'm the type of person that would turn human skulls into floating robot helpers. My powers are eclectic and weird."
"Your powers?"
"Oh. Yeah. I have powers. A small percentage of the people of this world get powers. Many use them to prevent crime or cause crimes. They're called capes or parahumans. Usually they go out in costume to disguise their identity." Joe moved its head briefly, but immediately stopped.
"Ah, so the term cape is a reference to this disguise, and the alternate identity conceals the personal connections that may be leveraged against the person."
"Sure. I guess. I'm a tinker. A kind of parahuman that makes things. Only it's not just making things on a theme like other tinkers, it's limited sets of abilities that I have to try to leverage with each other. It's complicated." Joe tried moving its head, more slowly and steadily this time.
"I do love complicated things. Tell me all about it."
"I've got a journal at home. All the perks I've gotten with my power. I'll go get that. Can you stay here for a while? Watch Joe?"
"If you wish."
I leave, only briefly delayed by the servoskulls trying to follow me. I tell them to stay and jog home and grab my backpack. I throw my World Issues book (the only one to survive the incident ironically because it was in my locker on the top shelf) in there with my Power notes. Then I jog back to the garage.
I come back to find Je'Lu slowly touching his finger to his nose and Joe trying to mirror him. I chuckle at the sight. I plop my backpack down. Je'Lu quickly retires from playing with my robot, and I hand him the notebook. I sit down to work on Joe's blaster and Je'Lu quickly reads the journal. Then for a while he rushes around the garage, looking for the various items I've gotten from my power.
"And this is everything you have?" I keep working on the blaster, but I can talk and work at the same time.
"It doesn't include the things I got today. I haven't had a chance to write those in yet."
"What did you get today?"
"Well, when I woke up, I got a power called With Me Always, which lets me merge an item into my soul and unmerge it later. Then I got Talented: Tailoring, which does exactly what it sounds like. And then when I completed Joe, I got you and those servoskulls."
"Interesting. I wasn't able to find the rocket hammer that was supposed to come with the Cybernetics skill."
"I left that at home with the plasma rifle."
"This is not your home?"
"No. This was supposed to be a private place for me to do my tinkering."
"Hmm." He didn't sound judgemental. He sounded accepting. "I don't suppose this planet has open travel routes to other star systems?"
"Uh, no. We're not that advanced. We sent some people to the moon maybe forty years ago, then kinda stopped trying. Never been any further. Even tinkers haven't gotten us to space. Although Sphere was trying to make a moon base."
"A pity that. I suppose I am stuck on this world for now. I'll just have to make the best of it. I am eager to see the world."
"Uh, you really need to work on blending in."
"Of course, of course."
"And I can't stress enough how important it is that nobody finds out what I can do. Unaffiliated parahumans tend to be forcibly recruited into gangs, and I'm not eager to do that."
"You've been hurt in the past haven't you? Your trust used against you?"
I drop what I was working on. Tears fill my eyes. I try to come up with a denial, but quickly realize it's useless.
He puts his hand on my shoulder. "Thank you for trusting me enough to share your powers with me. I think it's only fair for me to share my most intimate secrets with you. Where I'm from, humanity has reached the stars. A community of scientists and independent thinkers found some alien artifacts and then made peaceful contact with another alien race called the Sophons. The community developed into the Pilgrims. We're seekers of understanding. We value science and exploration. We want to find the homeworld of the aliens whose artifacts we found in hopes it will lead to greater understanding of the cosmos. We are rebels and free thinkers, but we understand the value of consensus in our government. We are peaceful. We prefer to run away rather than fight, engage in diplomacy rather than posturing, research rather than industrialize."
I pull myself together. "That's all about the Pilgrims. What about you?"
"I... am just another Pilgrim. Largely unexceptional. Like the others I want to find Tor. But my own quest is to see the life cycle of a star in its entirety. To visit as many planets as I can. But for now, I'm stuck here. And I know, somewhere deep inside me, that my fate is tied to your own. Should you perish, I may fall over dead or just wink out of existence. I don't know, but I doubt I will be able to watch more stars. So you can rest assured, I wish to pursue your best interest."
"That's not very assuring. I already felt enough responsibility bringing you into this world. Now you say you'll die if I do."
"Never fear your part in bringing me here. You did not know what your power would give you, or that building that robot would count as a friend. You certainly would not have imagined me. And I am happy to be alive, even if there is no travel off this planet. Because where there is life, there is hope. Hope that someone will develop interstellar travel. From what I understand about your powers, several of them include aliens or space age technology. Perhaps you will be the one to blaze a path to the stars."
"Maybe. I'm still stuck on problems closer to home right now."
"Oh? What problems do you have?"
"When I was a little girl, I had a best friend, Emma. We were like sisters. Then my mom died in a car accident. My dad and I took it hard. I was still recovering from that when Emma said she didn't want to be my friend any more. When we started high school, she made new friends and started bullying me. Sending me hateful emails, shoving, spitballs, tacks in my chair, pencil shavings in my hair. They ruined my mom's flute. And in January they..."
"I see."
"Anyway, I'm quitting school and starting homeschooling. There's a sense of disappointment there. It feels like quitting school is letting them win."
"Not at all. Quitting school is letting them think they're winning. There's an important distinction. It may not curb their bad behavior, but it does help you not to have to deal with their senseless harassment. The Pilgrims have been known to pack up entire colonies and leave a world when an invasion fleet is incoming. Because the land we give up is not as important as the people living on it."
"I'm also trying to establish myself as a hero in this city. And unlock all my power, but that's getting harder."
"Yes, you have made much progress on that, haven't you. You still have a few tasks remaining, though."
"Yep. I examined Parian's fashions earlier today, and 'made a friend' just before you showed up. That leaves six tasks: Get a License, Pick Up an Implement, Slay a Dragon, Read a M Book, Examine Trainwreck's Tinkertech, Make Something Big. I think the license refers to a driver's license, so I'm learning to drive that car."
"So that is a local transportation device? Interesting. I have used wheeled vehicles in the past. It looks simple enough to figure out."
"I haven't figured out what counts as an implement yet. I can only think of two dragons in this world, and they're both really powerful. I think the M is magic, and I don't have any magic books."
"Perhaps it's supposed to be a magical implement. A wand or staff or amulet or whatnot."
"I don't have any of those."
"Can you make one?
"Er, no. I mostly do enchanting and alchemy right now."
"Hmm. I trust you have already learned about these dragons?"
"Yeah. One is Dragon, who is a world famous tinker in Canada. She's a pretty big hero, so I don't want to slay her. The other is Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu. He's the head of one of the local gangs. But his power is to just get stronger and stronger and bigger and bigger and turn into a giant fiery flying dragon."
"That does sound scary. But perhaps with the appropriate devices... Hmm. You mentioned magic books. Can you write one?"
"I don't think so. I only know one spell."
"What about that Trigram ability you have? It sounds a lot like computer coding. Could you write out a hundred pages of alchemical manipulation and bind it as a book?"
"I also need to examine Trainwreck's tinkertech, but nobody has heard of Trainwreck yet. And now that I have a garage, I could probably make something big, but I don't have any good ideas yet or any powers that would really work well for that." But his previous comment did inspire me. I might be able to write a Trigram array complicated enough to be a book. Or enough Trigram arrays to make a book. It's worth a try.
"Hmm. I would suspect that Trainwreck must exist. But perhaps he or she has not yet gone public with that identity yet. I trust you are continuing your efforts to surveil the parahuman community for the Trainwreck."
"Is it alright if I call you Lu? It's close enough to a common name around here that nobody would find it odd."
"That would be quite acceptable."
"My name is Taylor."
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Taylor."
I finish the piece of the blaster I was working on. "Okay, come on, let's get you some clothes and food."
I went into the bedroom and searched the dresser, but all the clothes were intended for me. I take off my hoodie and put on a brown jacket from the dresser with the idea that the hoodie should fit Je'Lu. Then I just need to do something about his pants. So I embody a pair of pants for him. Then I realize he didn't need my hoodie if he had embodied clothes, so I embody a full set of clothes for him. It was remarkably easy with my new tailoring power.
I have him change into the new clothes (in the bedroom area) and take him out onto the main street. We have to walk maybe eight blocks to get to the thrift store. We browse the racks for a while, until he finds two full sets of clothes. He favors loose clothing, but isn't averse to tighter clothes. Then we go to the grocery store next to it to stock the mini fridge for him. He likes vegetables, doesn't ask for any meat. I manage to get him a couple bags of food. The shopping trip wipes out most of the money my power gave me this last time. I text Gursky that I might like some spending cash the next time we meet up. We take the stuff back to the garage and pack it away. He snacks on celery and hummus after he changes into his new clothes.
I set him up with access to my R&D center and diagnostic computer, then I go back to working on Joe's blaster. Joe is teaching himself how to walk. The servoskulls try to assist my construction. They keep bringing me pieces that I need. I finish the blaster without further interruption, and fit it to Joe's arm. He doesn't make an expression, but I sense he feels more complete while wearing it. I start work on his shield. I start out trying to use one of the strange metals I've gotten from my sack, but it quickly becomes clear that I don't know how to work it. So I give up on that for the time being and start making one out of steel.
Je'Lu comes back a while later, and he is absolutely thrilled with the R&D center. He is entering as much as he can remember about stellar dynamics and xenobotany and jumpdrives. It's not enough to make a starship, but perhaps if we got some more data on it it would help. I show him the fold-out bed, and tell him he can sleep there.
I consider taking Joe's blaster home so I can enchant it in my room that night. But I'm pretty happy with how it turned out already. Despite being an energy weapon, it shoots pretty much a concussive force. It will hit about as hard as a shotgun with a beanbag round, so it should usually be nonlethal. If I enchant it, it might end up deadlier, which would be counterproductive.
I decide to call it a day there and head home. I pick up a few rocks on the way home and try to juggle them as best I can. I can sometimes get into the rhythm of juggling, but I haven't mastered it to the point that I can walk at the same time, so I give up on it. At home, I make a tomato casserole for dinner. Dad shows up and we eat together. Then I head up to my room and start writing Trigram transformations in a spare notebook until bedtime.
Day 11, Saturday January 15, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Skills: Magitech unlocked. Cost 600CP/250CP. Insufficient CP. 250 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Databases: Mundane unlocked. Cost 200CP/350CP. Perk Extremis Formula purchased for 200CP. 150CP bankedClick to shrink...
Spoiler: Extremis Formula (200CP)Extremis Formula (200CP): Another attempt at creating super soldiers, this formula creates a virus that can enhance a person to superhuman strength, reflexes, and endurance. Additionally, normal Extremis users gain the ability to generate extreme amounts of heat through a complex metabolic process, generating heat from their bodies up to several thousand degrees Celsius on any part of the body they desire. When regenerating body parts, the wounds take on the appearance of burning ashes while growing back the lost body part, in a matter of minutes, and cooling into regular skin, flesh, and bone. Be wary however, as this makes you light up on thermal sensors, and should your body heat up too much, you may end up exploding. Keep this in mind.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Quality: Efficiency unlocked. Cost 300CP/250CP. Insufficient CP. 250 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Toolkits: Mundane unlocked. Cost 100CP/350CP. Perk The Toolkit purchased. 250CP bankedClick to shrink...
Spoiler: The Toolkit (100CP)The Toolkit (100CP): When wielding this toolkit, you can repair devices most would think broken beyond salvation. You could find two twisted armor plates and a couple of treads and before you know it, you have a tank that's as good as new.
Two successful perks today. That's pretty good. The first one is totally awesome, but almost completely useless. It gives people superpowers! They become pretty serious brutes with a significant striker ability. They can regenerate lost limbs. But they sometimes explode, killing not only the serum recipient, but also everyone near them. It's just not stable enough to be usable.
The toolkit, on the other hand, is immensely useful. And it gives me an idea. Squealer makes monster vehicles. They're ugly and inefficient, but they have stealth systems. If I can take one out, then I can salvage some major pieces, then reconstruct the whole thing. Then I'll have a stealth vehicle of my own to help me appear from nowhere and disappear once I'm done. It also means that I could fix those broken devices by Leet, so bonus. And on that topic, that would be a good test of the idea, so I should give that a try. Which means I need to contact my attorney.
I take off on my morning run and run farther and faster than I have before. The health boost from Ageless is probably helping. The qi development might be helping too. Once I'm out on my run, I check my phone. There's a message saying the PRT tested my healing potions yesterday. I text Gursky a message saying that Palladium wants to take the driving test and would be interested in buying and attempting to fix some broken tinkertech. Then I ask what it would take to get someone an identity. Then I shut off the phone and run home.
As my habit, I have my breakfast and a qi pill, followed by a shower. Dad is going in to work to make up for more lost time, so I head to the garage. Je'Lu isn't up yet, so I scan the Extremis formula into the R&D center. It's able to produce some immediately, but I hold off on using it due to how dangerous it is. I need a safe place to keep that stuff, so I fuse it with my soul. I'm fairly sure nobody else can get to it there. I tell the computer to work on making it safer, and it immediately compares it to some of the Xenobiology that Je'Lu inputted yesterday. I try to solve the stability problem myself, but my normal intelligence isn't up to the task. Only parts of me that even seem to understand it is my knowledge of high energy physics, and the little gibbering voice that represents the genius inspiration inside me. My knowledge of high energy physics puts in everything it can about the reaction that powers Extremis and the runaway chain reaction, but it has no clue how a virus triggers it. The genius inspiration has enough breadth to take a crack at the biotinkering side, but I can tell I'm not connected to it well enough to get the answer there.
Then I work on my book of Trigram formulas until Je'Lu gets up. I tell him about my morning gains. He's even more excited than I am. I tell him about my plans to try fixing Leet's tech and how I want to take down one of Squealer's road monstrosities to use as a mobile insertion and extraction point. He sees the merit in the plan, but doesn't really understand the context. He still doesn't understand the situation, even though he read most of the World Issues textbook last night.
As such, we take a field trip. We take the bus to the Library. I return the books I got last week. I figure the library is a pretty good place for Je'Lu to familiarize himself with Earth Bet's cultural context. He sits down to read the newspaper, and I check out PHO again. This time there's some news. A new tinker has been spotted with the Merchants. No official name yet, but given the degrading names that Merchants take, Trainwreck seems possible.
While it's good to have a possible lead on Trainwreck, it means I need to focus my efforts on the Merchants. I don't have a good notion of where to find Merchants, except a vague notion of a part of town they call their territory. And that only because they're called the Archer's Bridge Merchants, and I can read the map well enough to know where Archer's Bridge is. I'll need to come up with some way to get information about the Merchants. I don't have enough skill to make my own tinkertech surveillance network, but I suppose I do have enough money to buy some mundane-tech cameras. I'd need to know where to place them, and I'm not sure that I do. I also mull on the notion of making some sort of truth serum with Dao of Alchemy, but I run into a similar problem, I'd need to know who to feed it to, but I don't.
I call Je'Lu over to discuss in a reading room. "Good news. The Merchants have a new tinker. It might be Trainwreck. We should wait for confirmation first, but if it works out, we should start targeting the Merchants. Seeing as they have both Squealer and Trainwreck. I could probably brew up a truth serum or buy some cameras to hone in. The problem is, I know they claim one particular neighborhood, but I don't know anything more specific."
"Can you ask someone who does know?"
"Like who? The Police? Or the PRT?"
"If they would know, then why not? The worst that could happen is they decide not to tell you."
"The worst that could happen is they arrest me for no reason. But that... doesn't seem likely."
"Well, I suppose I could give it a try. Thanks."
"Taylor, if I may pose a question of my own?"
"Of course."
"What is my role in all of this?"
"I don't know. I'm just a teenager. I'm still trying to figure out my own role in the world. I shouldn't be responsible for other peoples' roles as well. But what we just did was nice. I came to you with a problem, and you gave me an obvious answer I was overlooking. And when I do take on the Merchants, you could be there."
"I'm not a fighter, Taylor."
"I know, but, do you want to be?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I could make you power armor. I could make you the qi pills I'm taking, help you learn tai chi. I mean, two weeks ago, I didn't know how to fight either. I still don't really. Maybe I ought to learn. But I've already been in one fight, as sad and pathetic as it may have been, and I'll probably get into more before I'm done. Heck, if nothing else, it's smart to get some experience in a fight before attempting to slay a dragon. But... I'll take any assistance you can provide. If you want to be uninvolved, that's fine. If you want to assist over communications, that could work. Heck, if you can guide the R&D Center's research, that would be helpful."
"I am not sure power armor is for me. I am a man of contemplation though. Perhaps the tai chi would be an appropriate way to meditate upon the Endless Space."
We go back, and I show him a tai chi video. He agrees it seems like a worthwhile discipline to pursue, but suggests that if I actually want to go out and get into fights that I learn how. I've got to admit, he does have a point. So I start looking at my options.
I quickly can tell if I go to a gun range as Taylor that I'd need dad along to show his ID. I'm not entirely opposed to the idea, but I also see how quickly recreational shooting can get expensive, so I doubt I could convince him to take me. I spend some time surfing to find out if I can go to a gun range as a parahuman, but I can't find the answer. I make a note to ask Mr. Gursky about that topic. I also make a note to ask him about funneling money to my dad.
The other topic I have to think about is martial arts. This one is harder. There are a LOT of martial arts. I spend a significant amount of time browsing through lists of martial arts, trying to pick the perfect one for me when I realized it didn't matter what the perfect one is because Brockton Bay isn't big enough to have studios for all of them. And what's left is mostly split between eastern martial arts that are probably under the "protection" of the ABB or western martial arts that are probably coded E88 hangouts. So I look for one that isn't either.
I find a gym that offers lessons in boxing, wrestling and karate. It's owned by an African American guy, if the web page isn't lying. The only problem is it's in Merchant territory. I decide to look at that as a perk, rather than a disadvantage. An opportunity to spot real Merchants to home in on. I ask Je'Lu about the choice of gym, and he thinks I'm overthinking things, but it should probably work as well as any other.
Je'Lu ends up finding several books he thinks will give him a better understanding of this world, so I check them out for him. We head back to the garage, and on the way I send a text to my lawyer. While my phone is on, I see replies about my text messages from that morning. Uber and Leet are eager to meet, so he set something up for Monday afternoon. Also, I have a driving test appointment on Wednesday, but I'll have to pick up my parahuman ID from the PRT before then.
We get back to the garage and have lunch at the Mexican restaurant across the street. Then we go back to work. I teach Je'Lu what little I know about tai chi. I offer him some qi pills, but he wants to try something different, and see if he can learn the tai chi first and then start building his qi. I worry that will put his qi development behind mine, but he doesn't worry about that. It's a question of good scientific exploration to him.
We take turns driving the car around the garage's courtyard. We practice parallel parking and three point turns. It's hard to do anything to practice merging or obeying traffic signals. But even the basic lesson I learned Thursday of not riding the brake improved my skill drastically.
I want to go to the gym that afternoon to start training, but practicality slows me down. I don't have enough money to sign up for a class. So I sit down to write some trigram spells. I only get through about three before I run out of inspiration.
"I can't think of any more trigram programs to write."
"Hmm. What do you need?"
"More spells to write."
"No. What else?"
"I don't know. Why do you ask?"
"Need drives ingenuity. So figure out something you want, and work toward it."
"Is that like Necessity is the mother of Invention?"
"I suppose it could be. That both our cultures have a phrase for it only speaks to how deeply its truth applies to the human condition. So what do you need?"
"I don't know. Information on the Merchants? Tech that can help me slay a dragon?"
"Too vague. You need a specific goal. What do you want to do?"
"I don't know, now that I have this place, I want to keep it safe. Every time we make noise in here, there's a chance someone hears us. Every time someone enters or leaves there's a chance someone thinks this place is in business and comes to check it out. Even if we maintain this place as a perfectly undisturbed abandoned garage, there will still be homeless people looking for shelter eventually."
"Okay. Safety. Can you dampen sounds with Trigrams?"
"Er. No. Not that I can think of."
"Can you keep us from being seen entering or leaving?"
"Invisibility is very hard. Much easier to do it with Arc of Embodiment."
"Invisibility is not the only way not to be seen. You could just dig a tunnel out."
"But where would it go?"
"A convenient nearby niche?"
"Or my own basement. A tunneling spell could be handy. And if I get it working well, it could have other uses. We could escape from being locked in a warehouse. Or make our way into a gang safe house undetected to steal their money and destroy their drugs. I like this idea."
"This idea is already inspiring you. How will you begin?"
"With an earth to wind conversion attached to the concept of penetration. It starts like this." I started drawing lines.
"Very good. Now experiment. Find out what happens when you actually try it and refine your methodology to make it work better."
I take a spare cinder block and try to bore a hole through it with a Trigram array. It doesn't work very well because it doesn't match Ground very well. It was an even worse match to Mountain. But it turns out that if I mix in a little Water, it works much better. Then I try the same array on a cinder block with dirt packed inside it and it's back to not working very well. I have to make the array four times as complicated to allow it to work through both. But at this point, I'm off to the races. Thinking about new ways to target the entrance and exit points. New materials to bore through. Features I want to add, like lighting, and a light breeze through to maintain breathable air in long tunnels. It will take a good while to work through all this.
I pass the afternoon with occasional advice on tunnels from Je'Lu. Then I bid him adieu, and tell him I might not be around tomorrow. I don't know if my Dad is going to work tomorrow. I head home before my Dad is set to get there. I fix up dinner for us. Spaghetti with marinara. Not exactly exciting, but hard to go wrong with it. Dad gets home on time. We don't talk much.
I spend the evening making up variations in my boring array. I come up with one meant to bore through metal. I intend it to be used to open a safe, but I have no way to test it. I go to sleep and dream of sets of lines.
Day 12, Sunday January 16, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Databases: Mundane unlocked. Cost 400CP/350CP. Insufficient CP. 350 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field not yet unlocked. Cost 400CP/450CP, lock in ability? Y/N
This is getting annoying. I'm getting more perks that are locked now that I only have six fields left to unlock than I did when I had twenty. But my strategy hasn't changed. I answer NO.
Perk refused. 450 CP banked.
Two rolls and no new perks. Not a great start to the day. Still, I hop out of bed and go for my run. I'm not going to get in shape to be a hero by sleeping in. There are two messages from the lawyer both from yesterday afternoon. They probably take Sundays off when they can. One tells me that gun ranges should accept the same identity card the PRT will issue so I can get a driver's license. The other says that the lawyer will bring some cash for me to the meeting on Monday and asks how much I want. I fix breakfast for Dad and myself, and have my qi pill for the day. Then I go up for my shower.
As I suspected, Dad is staying home today. He asks if I want to do anything so I ask him to teach me how to drive. He agrees and drives us a few miles from home out to where the country roads begin. He gives me some instructions, and it becomes clear to me this will be a challenge. The Dodge coupe I had been practicing with had an automatic transmission, but dad's pickup is manual. I manage to do pretty well in first gear, but run into a lot of trouble changing gear to go faster. But it's just a matter of applying a certain set of moves with a certain timing relative to each other. After many attempts, I'm able to pull it off pretty consistently. Then I can start driving at higher speeds. Dad isn't willing to have me drive in traffic yet, but I can get up to speed, slow down to take a corner, then speed up again, which is an impressive feat on my first day on a manual transmission vehicle. Dad is also very good at teaching me awareness while I'm driving. Look before you lane change, look before you turn, look at the rear-view mirror occasionally while driving. Basically stay aware of your surroundings at all times. He even mentions that that is one of the things that driving testers pay the most attention to, whether you are staying aware and therefore safe while you are driving. He also goes over some of the rules of the road with me. I really need to review those.
That's a good use of pretty much the entire morning. We grab burgers on the way home. We settle down for a lazy afternoon of watching the weekly news recap shows. Then there's a knock on the door. Dad answers and is polite, but doesn't let the visitor in. I look outside from the front room window and there's a police car parked outside, so I try to listen in. Not that it's hard in a house this small.
The cop is a big strong white guy with a bald head and a neatly pressed black uniform. He is following up on my visit to the hospital. I'm grateful that my dad is handling it. I don't want to have to show the cop that the bruising and broken bone that I no longer have. But something strikes me as off about this situation. Didn't the cop at the hospital take everything down? Why do they need to bug me again? It takes a while studying the guy before I notice it. The cop has a tattoo on the back of his neck just peeking out from under his collar. Not enough is visible to be able to read it, but muscular bald white guy with tattoos? It would be pretty on-brand for him to be with the E88. But then again, why would he care about my case? Was the truant officer a minority of some kind? Maybe. I didn't get a really clear impression, but he could have had slightly dusky skin or have been a really tanned white guy. Maybe he was Hispanic or middle eastern or something?
Which leaves me in the middle of a moral dilemma. Racism is bad. Neo-nazis are bad. But getting assaulted by a truant officer because a school didn't want to obey its legal obligation to let a student go is also bad. Letting the justice system pursue someone who committed an illegal act would seem to be the moral thing to do. But if nazis are pushing for it, then it makes me second guess that decision. But on the other hand, I don't have any proof that the cop is also a nazi. Maybe he has a tattoo to proclaim that he loves his mom.
Dad's conversation proceeds apace. The cop is trying to get dad to press a full range of charges against the guy. Attempted kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, assault and battery, illegal detention, attempted rape, more that are even more ridiculous. He never attempted to rape me, and I don't think I was illegally detained, just grabbed briefly. If I had actually been locked in the car it might have been illegal detention, but what do I know? I'm not a lawyer. Still, the overzealous charges were enough to make me think something was up and that my guess about the cop was correct.
So after some conversation with the cop, Dad asks him to wait for a few minutes and talks to me.
"Taylor, I assume you heard most of that."
I nodded.
"So... do you want to press additional charges against the truant officer?"
I started out by whispering, "Dad, is that cop an E eighty eight member?"
Dad sighed. "I don't know. He may possibly have those leanings, but just shaving his head isn't a good indication."
"He has a neck tattoo under his collar."
"That's still not proof."
"I know. But it might make sense. I think the truant officer might have been Hispanic or something. I just don't want to be the pawn of a nazi."
"That's something to think about. But does it really change anything? You aren't joining a gang. To some extent you've got to be able to trust in the justice system to actually produce justice. Ignoring the possibility of the Empire, what is justice in this case?"
I had to think about that. What did I really care about here? That the guy attacked me with his nightstick? Yes. That he grabbed me. Also yes. He used too much force. But bones and bruises heal. In fact, they had already healed. If he came to me and said he was sorry, I think I would be able to forgive him. But what worried me was why he had done that in the first place. He should not have thought it would have been okay to do that for one. And even if he had thought that sort of attack was acceptable, why target me when I'm trying to get out of the school system and no longer be his problem. It hints that someone with a vested interest in students staying in a shithole like Winslow is trying to keep people there.
"I think that I want to see the conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge explored."
"That's all?"
"The guy used too much force. He shouldn't have done that. But as long as he learns that lesson and doesn't do it again, my conscience is clear. But why did he do it in the first place? I'd bet the secretary in the district office tipped him off. But why would she do that when the school system is obligated to let me homeschool? The fact that the motivation not to let students leave exists is a problem. So yes. The conspiracy."
"That is very well thought out. But let me propose a counterpoint. Leaning on one member of a conspiracy can cause them to roll on the others. So a solid case on another charge might force him to assist the police in charging others."
"So you think I should press all those charges?"
"Maybe not all. But the officer said that assault and battery charge is very solid with the medical evidence."
"Would I have to testify?"
"They do hope you will be available to testify. But if they can present a good case, most criminal charges result in plea deals."
"Okay. So what if I pressed the assault and conspiracy charges, and then told the DA I would not testify for the assault? Then they could pressure him to turn on the others and take a plea deal."
"I'll tell the officer. I'm proud of you, little owl."
The rest of the afternoon is less stressful than that. I spend most of it writing trigram arrays in my composition book. I make my best breakthrough yet. I figure out how to make the hole temporary. That will be super useful. Most of the time is spent writing new versions of the arrays I already have that are temporary holes.
Dad makes pancakes and sausages for dinner. That is a nice treat. I tell him I'm thinking about taking some self-defense classes. He asks where and I tell him which gym I was thinking about. He says he'll ask his friends about that gym and make sure it's good.
I go to bed early, but can't sleep. I am worried about whether I had done the right thing.
Day 13, Monday January 17, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Supplies: Magical Small Scale unlocked. Cost 400CP/550CP. Perk Gemavic purchased for 400CP. 150 CP banked.
Spoiler: Gemavic (400CP)Gemavic (400CP): This perk allows you to summon gems made of different materials using GemCraft, including materials from other jumps. Only works if the material is a transparent or translucent crystal, unfortunately. Most materials are much worse for conducting magic than crystalized mana, but perhaps you can find a use for a diamond the size of a living room.
Spoiler: Even More Gratuitously Large Book of Achievements (0CP)Even More Gratuitously Large Book of Achievements (0CP): A book of more than 600 achievements for things that you can do in your current jump. Keeps a record of all your previous jumps as well. Completing achievements will increase your skill in magic over time. For every 100 achievements that you complete in a single world, gain a mid-tier talisman fragment. If you ever manage to complete every achievement in a single jump, you will be rewarded with a single talisman fragment of godlike quality. Literally. You would need to kill a god in order to get a comparable fragment.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Toolkits: Mundane unlocked. Cost 200CP/250CP. Perk Monkey Tool | Diagnostic Upgrade | Fabrication Upgrade purchased for 200CP. 50 CP banked.
Spoiler: Monkey Tool (200CP)Monkey Tool (200CP): A powerful multi tool, with unfoldable attachments to manipulate any screw or sprocket. Has a hefty hammer head on one end as well.
Diagnostic Upgrade - New attachments allow you to scan items, learning what they are made of, how damaged they are, and other information.
Fabrication Upgrade - New attachments are designed for shaping materials into new shapes, bending, cutting, welding, and more.
Gemavic is a nice power, except that it's completely useless. I don't know GemCraft, so I can't actually make crystallized mana appear. The power says it can make a diamond the size of a living room, but I already have the largest diamond (a 1.8 inch cube) in the world and I can't sell it because nobody could afford to buy it. Having a larger diamond would just devalue diamonds more. All that said, it feels like I can use that power. I try, and end up making a ruby the size of my fingernail. It drains my magical reserves to do so, though.
The Monkey Tool, for how silly it sounds, seems really useful. It can scan things. I have a bunch of powers, but none of them yet could scan things. It's also a pretty handy tool for assembling or disassembling or apparently shaping. Not that I have much trouble with that when I can just Embody whatever tool I need, but pulling out a tool to make something makes more sense than making a hammer, anvil, and forge magically appear.
I go out on my morning run and stop by the Garage. I wake up Je'Lu, and we run to the park for tai chi. I can definitely feel some sort of energy moving around inside myself as I go through the movements. That's progress on growing and controlling my qi.
I text the lawyer the amount of money I want (which is honestly more than I ever expected to have at one time, yet still a tiny fraction of my current balance). Je'Lu and I head back to the garage and then I take another half hour to run around before returning to my house. Breakfast and a qi pill, followed by a shower.
Dad is off to work by the time I get out of the shower. I head to the garage. Je'Lu went back to sleep after tai chi, so I let him sleep in. I review my plans for my stun rapier that I wanted to start on Friday, but never got around to finishing. I set one more component to fabricate for it, and a voice modulator for my power armor, then sit down to work on trigrams. I'm still working on building tunnels to enter and leave the garage without attracting attention. To do that, I'll need the tunnels to go much further than the one foot I've tried so far. I also need some way to do precise surveying underground so the tunnel can link up to the right spot.
I don't manage to solve those problems by the time that Je'Lu wakes up again.
"Good morning, Je'Lu."
"Good morning, Taylor. How was your Sunday?"
"It was good. Got some practice driving in with my dad. Then there was an ethical dilemma about a previous incident. But I got a lot of work done on tunneling spells. I made them temporary by introducing bridge and cyclic image concepts. Look." I put a paper on a cinder block and it formed a hole through the block. Then I took it away and the hole disappeared.
"Impressive."
"Thanks. How was your Sunday?"
"It was productive. I returned to the library for more reading and research. I have improved my understanding of the current events in this city by reading the newspapers. And I have an avenue of progress I wish to pursue. And I believe you need more recreation in your life. However, to pursue both of those, I would need some money. Was your councilor able to get you some?"
"I should be meeting him this afternoon. He'll have it for me then. Oh! I got new powers this morning."
"Why didn't you tell me during the exercise?"
"You didn't seem awake."
"You may have been right about that. So, what are they?"
"Well, I can sorta make gems. It seems to be based on a kind of gem magic I don't have access to yet, but the power can create gems. It just drains my magic reserves to do so. If I had it, I'd be able to make diamonds the size of a living room. But I don't."
"Hmm. What is a gem, exactly?"
"According to the power, it's a transparent or translucent crystal."
"So ice is a gem?"
"Huh. I guess it is." I try making a sliver of ice. I make one, but it's barely a chip. It melts in my hand almost immediately.
"That could be useful. Almost all liquids freeze into a crystal. And transparent liquids tend to freeze into transparent crystals. So you could just as easily make frozen butane or dry ice."
"That's neat. But my synthesizer can do almost everything that can only without wiping my magic out."
"Good point, but it's something to keep in mind. Now, you said you got new powers, plural?"
"Yeah. The other one is this tool. It can torque, hammer, scan, and shape most anything."
"That sounds useful as well."
"That reminds me, I wanted to scan all my stuff. I'm hoping it will help me turn it into schematics for the R&D center or minifacturer." I take a while going through my stuff, scanning it. I spend some time trying to connect the tool's output to the R&D center's input, but I give up on doing that directly. The connectors and data protocols don't seem to match at all.
Then I take some time to practice driving. And while I'm at it, I have Je'Lu get in the driver's seat and try to teach him everything my dad showed me yesterday. I realize he doesn't have any identification, which will make getting a driver's license difficult, but he may still need to drive some day. Plus it helps solidify my knowledge to explain it to others.
I spend some time assembling my stun rapier. That comes together, and I'm rather proud of it. It is the first item I've made that is of my own design, not just a recipe that got tossed into my head. Well, the first since the star hanger.
Then I think about how my kit is coming together. The rapier, the grenades, the plasma rifle, and my power armor. And I suddenly realize I've made a huge mistake. The stun rapier may go with my height and speed, but the power armor is too bulky to allow enough range of motion to allow the rapier to be used properly.
And then the problem gets even worse. I explain all that to Je'Lu, and he points out that I wanted my Palladium persona to take the driver's test, which would mean I would need to be dressed as Palladium, which means power armor in the car, which results in all sorts of problems. For one, I have to push the seat all the way back and the wheel all the way up just to fit in there, and once I have, the positioning is awkward. For another, the shocks bottom out just by me sitting in it, let alone going over bumps.
"This is a disaster. I've got two days to figure out how to replace this armor with another costume."
"Relax, you'll be fine. You are an expert tailor."
"But how do I do this? We only have two days?"
"My understanding is that clothing can be assembled in mere hours. This afternoon, you will get money. Then we will go out shopping to collect what you might need for a costume. Then tomorrow, you can assemble it and try it out."
I take a deep breath. He is right, I can assemble a costume in 48 hours. It will probably even look pretty good.
I spend the rest of the morning experimenting with trigram arrays. I make us sandwiches for lunch, which seems to delight Je'Lu. I also try making a few other types of gems. Actual gem gems, not weird frozen materials. After lunch, I still want to create tunnels, but I'm getting stymied. "Hey, Je'Lu, how much do you know about underground surveying?"
"Not much, I'm afraid. Why?"
"I'm trying to figure out how to make tunnels come out at a specific point."
"Hmm. So you need a targeting system for the tunneling spell."
"I never thought about it that way. There is a trigram concept of 'target'. I wonder if I could use that to specify a target."
"But you would need to come up with a trigram description of each place you want to reach, right?"
"Yeah. It would basically be a custom array for each target. But it's not that bad."
"Could you put something at the location that would be easy to specify? Maybe one of the set of eight artifacts? Or a specific material that you could create?"
"Yes. I could do that. Let me work it out." I spend two hours working on that with considerable success. Eventually, I get to the idea of paired arrays that are supposed to tunnel to each other. That actually simplifies things a bit, and I scribble more trigram arrays in my notebook.
Sadly, I need to take off to meet with Uber and Leet about some tinkertech. I get in my chunky armor and cloak myself. Then I run across the city to the prearranged warehouse to meet them. Mr. Gursky is the first one there. I drop my cloak and greet him.
"Palladium, thank you for your punctuality. Good news, our mutual friend now owns that company we discussed. Also, I have something for her that you can deliver." He hands me an envelope with what feels like a thick stack of bills in it. I tuck it away for now.
I get out a pouch and hand it to him. "New product from that friend. Might be good business. Sorry if it busts your insurance limits."
He takes a look at the variety of gems in the pouch and writes out a receipt for them. "It's not a major problem, but please realize we do not want to be held liable in case we are not able to keep valuables secured. We're lawyers, not a bank."
"Yeah. No worries."
We wait there a few minutes before three people enter the warehouse. One is the lawyer we saw before. Another is a thin guy with spiky yellow blond hair and glasses and an unrealistically tall face. He is obviously Leet. The other guy (obviously Uber) is bigger and stronger, his chin is very reminiscent of the bodyguard's from the previous meeting and he is wearing a costume that is trying to represent a full body cyborg of some kind. The designs almost make sense to me, if they weren't obviously fake.
"Hello. I want to buy some of your broken tech."
"What is your favorite game?"
"How much?"
"Well, start with your favorite game."
This is not how I planned this to go. Mr. Gursky steps in, "Really, Lawrence, this is not what we're here for. My client wants to buy tech, not stand around and chat."
"But it is. We're here to discuss selling absolutely unique tinkertech. It is literally priceless. Fortunately for your client, my clients are not primarily motivated by money."
"They're motivated by something that I am sure is very important to them. But my client is motivated by broken tinkertech right now. So what is the answer worth to you? My client's first desire is to attempt to repair a piece of broken tinkertech."
The other lawyer turns to his clients. They discuss briefly, and break to return to the bargaining table. "Your client attempting to repair my client's property is a small risk, but providing answers is next to free. Three honest answers to three questions."
He looks at me. I shrug. "Questions cannot attempt to elicit identifying information." Larry looks to his clients and they nod.
"First question, what is your favorite game?" Leet asks.
I need to come up with an answer. The only thing that comes to mind is playing Dance Party 2000 with my mom at an arcade years ago. But seeing as I can't name any other game I preferred, that will have to be it. "Dance Party Two Thousand."
Uber and Leet look at each other.
"No really, what is your favorite game?"
"Asked and answered. Please move on to your second question."
"Well, it's not our usual immersive game, but it was on the last ships out of Japan. That's a certain level of historicalness."
"Why is Dance Party Two Thousand ..." Leet seems annoyed to have to say the name of that game. "... your favorite game?"
I sigh. "I have a happy memory associated with it."
"That's not an answer! At least tell us what memory..."
"That seems like a perfectly valid reason to me, and demanding further details about that memory could be construed as seeking identifying information."
Leet turns away in frustration.. Uber takes over the questioning, "Final question. What is your favorite episode of ours?"
That was tough. I'm not a huge fan of Uber and Leet. "The only episode I've seen is Street Fighter, so it would have to be that."
Uber slumps at that pronouncement. It was one of their quickest failures. They caught Assault in their fight stage on the boardwalk, and Uber (dressed as Ken) started fighting him. Leet had programmed the fight stage to be invulnerable from the inside, but Armsmaster had been patrolling with Assault, and he managed to break the stage in about thirty seconds. We never even got to see what Leet was dressed up as. But even reminded of that humiliation, he has the good grace to wave me to the pre-arranged broken tech. It was the Grand Theft Auto wanted level meter. Which really just amounted to a stupid amount of processing connected to a police scanner. But I figured that was just an accessory, they could complete another GTA episode without it if they wanted. So it wouldn't enable further crime.
I take out my Toolkit and go to work on the scanner. I take out the power supply and buff off the char. I pull a component out and put something in to replace it. I'm not sure what since I didn't use up any materials. I grind down another piece and resolder a few things. Then reseat everything back in the casing and put it down. It needs to be plugged into a 12 volt car outlet. Leet picks it up and stares at it, then shrugs. He walks off with purpose, but he doesn't seem to be upset like he used to be. A minute later he puts a mundane power source down on the table. He hooks up the scanner and it turns on. No stars light up, but it does give the hum of an open frequency. Several minutes of listening later, a cop's voice reports in that nothing is happening.
"I take it that it's working now?"
"Yeah. Seems good."
"Excellent. Step one is complete. That is: find out if Palladium can repair Leet's tinkertech. Now shall we continue with negotiations?"
Uber and Leet have a pow-wow with their lawyer. They seem to come to an agreement and return to face us.
"My clients are interested in a relationship with Palladium. They would like two basic things. An opportunity to do an episode with Palladium and the use of Palladium's repair services for their own tinkertech."
Now it is time for me to confer with my council. We back away and I whisper to him. "I don't really want to do an episode with them. Even if it's not blatantly illegal, they usually endanger the public."
"Okay. The good news is that you have more than cash to offer them. My understanding is Leet's tech tends to blow up, so he's pretty desperate to salvage his old tech. We may have significant leverage, even if the ice breakers were a bit of a disaster. So, with that in mind, what if you agree to filming the episode at an uninhabited location and say you are trying to defeat them as the 'dastardly villains' that they are?"
"Eh, Uber and Leet still don't have enough cred to be reputation builders."
"What if they just borrow your tech for a show?"
"Eh? I don't know. Maybe?" We break to return to the negotiation table.
"My client is not interested in being seen as associated with Uber and Leet. This is due to a combination of your reputation of being neither serious nor heroic. However, we may be open to other negotiations regarding episodes of your show. My client is interested in purchasing broken tinkertech, and perhaps commissioning custom tinkertech, even if it would ordinarily break before it could function."
Leet goes off to confer with Lawrence. While they are away, Uber starts chatting with us. "Sorry. We imagined all this going a lot smoother. You kind of threw us for a loop."
"It's okay. Let's just keep this professional and we can both get something we want."
"That wasn't the third question we originally planned on. I'm sure Leet would like to know the answer to the question we were going to ask." I shrug at him. Larry and Leet are headed back here. "Between Leet and me, which of our costumes do you prefer?"
I'm not under any obligation to answer, but answering doesn't cost me anything, and could gain me goodwill, so I figure I'd give it a try. "Uh, Leet's distorted face just makes him look funny, so I guess I prefer Uber's cyborg costume."
"That's not the right question. It's Daisuke Ido versus Jashugan. Who would win in a fight?"
"Who?"
"You can't not know. That rocket hammer was the exact same design as Daisuke Ido's rocket hammer from GUNNM: Martian Memory. Now the power armor, that's a deep cut. We didn't recognize it at first. It's only a few years old on Aleph, not many people have systems that can even play it over here. And you chose a design that's not in the gameplay, just an easter egg. But that's a chunkier version of the CryNet Nanosuit 1.0 Prototype from Crysis. You wouldn't have the first clue what that looks like unless you were a hardcore gamer. I'm sure you've got other gear by now, but that's two of two that we know about inspired by video games. You're like us. A gamer. Just admit it."
"I wish I could say I am a gamer. That would make this easy. I imagine if I did you would decide you like me and sell me the tech. But it would be a lie. And you would see through it. I don't know much about video games, and you'd figure that out as soon as I didn't recognize the games any of your tech was based on. So... if you proceed under the assumption that I don't know anything about video games and don't like video games, and don't like you because you're criminals... are you still willing to sell me the tinkertech?"
At this point, both sides retreat for a moment. I take the opportunity to speak to Mr. Gursky, "There might be something else Uber and Leet can do for me. They might understand my powers better than I do myself. I may be able to make things from certain games, and I don't even know which games they are. But at the same time, I don't trust them with that information. I don't know what to do about that."
"That sounds like what they would consider to be the perfect power. Which could be useful leverage or could mean jealousy. Is there any chance you could make some robots or something that they could use in an episode?"
"Yeah, probably. You can tell them I've got a Sniper Joe and I could throw together a bunch of Metools. I could maybe loan them for an episode."
"What game are those from?"
"I don't know, but they probably do. If we do get trade going, I don't want to fix any weapons for them."
When they came back, I was doodling up images of Metool and Sniper Joe. The lawyers talked a bit, and their guy made a push for help producing an episode. Mr. Gursky expressed that we might be able to provide something like a Sniper Joe and a few Metools.
"You can do Mega Man, too? I always wanted to do Mega Man. I tried way back when, but there were too many different robots. Before I could build all the different robots, I had exhausted that specialty and they started malfunctioning. Ended up repurposing a few of them for other shows."
"But Sniper Joe is in Bomb Man's level and Metall is in Guts Man's level. They don't go together. Which ones do we still have?"
"Just the Big Eye. Damn waste of a specialty, never found a good use for that stompybot. But he's on all the levels but Bomb and Fire."
"But if we can put together a Guts Man level, then we have Big Eye and Metall. Just need Bunbi Heli and Pickelman." It bothers me for a moment that I know exactly what those robots are just from their silly names.
"And Guts man. Can't do this right without the boss fight."
"True dat."
It was time for me to speak up. "I made my Joe's blaster detachable, so remove that, give him a pick and a paint job, and it's basically the same thing as a Pickelman. And I think I could make a couple Bunby Helis too."
"Can you make Guts Man?"
"No."
"It doesn't matter, bro. I can play that role in the power armor. Guts man just throws heavy stuff around anyway."
"Huh. That could work."
They hash out details for a while, but the basic resolution is that I would make up four Bunby Helis and six Metools. I would loan those, plus the Sniper Joe complete with blaster (so they didn't have to make Mega Man's basic blaster) for about a week. They would use them in one specific building only to shoot their show. When they took possession of my tech, I would take possession of a bunch of Leet's broken tech. While they were filming, I would be fixing. When they finish filming, we would swap back, my Metools, Bunby Helis, and Sniper Joe for some of their fixed tech. The trade would happen a week from today in the same spot. Leet knew I wouldn't make any weapons for him, but I would be fixing three pieces of tech for him. And I would be getting three pieces for my own use. Leet would get a list of broken tech to my lawyer by Wednesday. I could pick my own pieces.
After the meeting, I go back to the garage, cloaked. I have more information about my power, a list of robots to build, and some tinkertech to dream about.
Je'Lu and I go shopping after I tell him about the meeting. We want different things, so we end up going to the mall. He gets more clothing. We consider getting a washer/dryer unit, but figure paying in cash would be suspicious, plus we don't think there were appropriate hookups at the garage. Je'Lu stops by a bookstore and I stop by a fabric store. We both go to an auto parts store so I can shop for spray paint and Bunby Heli and Metool parts.
By the time we get back to the garage, I have to be getting home. I have dinner with Dad. He makes Chicken a la King. I fill the rest of my composition book with trigram formulas designed to target each other, but can't find a way to turn that idea into walkie talkies because there's no good hook into the concept of sound. I give that up for the night and go to bed.
AN: This note is from today rather than from when I originally wrote all this. Originally I hadn't given Taylor most of the freebies. I had been trying to go back and insert them in where they wouldn't change the story too badly. Well, I had gone and included the freebie Talisman with Gemavic. But it occurred to me at posting that the talisman would be considered an implement, so I pulled it. Because that would change the story. It would have made sense for that complete to come today. But this way I'm making Taylor work for it just a little more.