Day 14, Tuesday January 18, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Skills: Alchemy unlocked. Cost 300CP/150CP. 150 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Quality: Appearance unlocked. Perk Artistic License already purchased. 250 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Quality: Appearance unlocked. Cost 800CP/350CP. 350 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Knowledge: Mundane unlocked. Cost 400CP/450CP. Perk Xenotechnology purchased for 400CP. 150 CP banked.Click to shrink...
Spoiler: Xenotechnology (400CP)Xenotechnology (400CP): You have a very technical mind and you've been able to apply your theoretical degree in physics to good use. You're able to incorporate artifacts and pieces of artifacts into any technological devices you may know how to build with a lot less spontaneous death and irradiation than you normally would. This allows you to build things like featherlight power armor, accelerated gauss rifles and other technological marvels.
I sit bolt upright in bed. That is exactly what I needed. I only really have two xenotechnological powers. My knowledge of plasma physics, which is already an understanding. But also my Ceph database. I understand the information in it now, and I can do so much better than the clunky piece of garbage I had been using as power armor. Fitting into the car would not be a problem with what I can now design. There is one other aspect of the power that is potentially important. I can fit artifacts into my technological devices. I think I should be able to fit Glyphs into my artifacts, if, you know, I could actually make any runes to assemble one.
So with a spring in my step, I go out for my morning run. I check messages, and get one from my lawyer telling me they have an appointment for broadband internet to be installed at the garage tomorrow during my driving appointment. That's good, but I'll have to make sure my stuff is hidden away. Then back home for a qi pill and some breakfast.
I head to the garage as usual. When I get there I run into Joe. He says "Greetings."
"Joe! You're talking now. That's great. How have you been developing?"
He doesn't answer. Must not have developed quite far enough yet. "That's okay. We'll work on it. Actually, why don't we try this?"
I walk Joe over to the car we still have borrowed from the lawyer's secretary's something-or-other. I have him get into the passenger seat and turn on the radio to a talk radio channel. That should help him process speech and vocabulary a bit.
It looks like Je'Lu is still asleep, but instead of continuing to fill my second composition book with trigram formulas, I go to the R&D center and start putting in refinements of the Ceph technology. I trim down the armor first. There are so many components that can be made more efficiently. Many others are simply unnecessary when one uses the intended materials. And with those refinements, I can actually get the different modes out of the armor that were intended. There's a stealth mode that isn't completely invisible, but has a pretty good cloak. There's a boost mode that makes it stronger and faster. Then I go to the other technologies there. The anti-ballistic energy shield makes sense to me now. My knowledge of high energy physics has already improved the energy gun beyond Ceph technology, but I manage to put the pieces together for a freeze ray (aka molecular arrester). That will make a good non-lethal ranged weapon. Thinking about yesterday's meeting with Uber and Leet, I lean on my Artistic License perk to trim down the unnecessary aesthetics into something sleeker and tinkerier and not recognizable as being from a specific video game.
I set the R&D center to run some simulations and propose some refinements to the design and plug in a few more principles I now understand from the Ceph technology. With that done, I go outside and sit down in the courtyard of the garage to enjoy the sun and write trigram arrays. Soon, Je'Lu wakes up and greets me.
"Endless Space bless your enlightenment. Any news this fine morning?"
"Oh, hey Je'Lu. Yeah. New power that helps me understand Xenotechnology. I've already put a ton of refinements into the R&D center. It should more than solve the bulkiness issue."
"Excellent news indeed. I shall investigate that shortly. I see you are working on your second book of trigram arrays. May I see it?"
"Sure." I hand him the book. He shuts it and hands me my first book.
"You read. I'll go look at the new armor."
I stared at him dumbfounded. Then I realized what he was talking about. I had started this tunnel project to fill up a book with magical formulas so I would have a magic book to read. Now that I have one, I should read it.
I try just skimming through the titles I gave the spells, but that doesn't work. I actually have to go through the spells and read the trigrams. Looking back, my first attempts were very primitive. I've reworked and streamlined the process since then. There aren't really any surprises since I wrote the entire thing, but I suppose it does me some good to refamiliarize myself with them. And since it takes so long to read through the trigrams, Je'Lu is back by the time I finish, and he's pulled Joe out of the car to join our conversation.
Spoiler: Shadow Clones (100CP)Shadow Clones (100CP): Ah, shadow clone no jutsu. The signature jutsu of the Naruto franchise. And now you can join in on the fun.
You have a copy of a technique scroll for the shadow clone jutsu, of such quality that an idiot could teach himself from this thing in virtually no time at all. It even has safeguards built-in that eliminate any possibility of killing yourself by putting too much chakra into it, or getting a headache from too many clones dispelling at once or anything like that. The worst that can possibly happen is that it fails to work.
You still can only make as many shadow clones as your chakra can support but outside of that you can feel free to abuse this handy jutsu for training, decoys, diversions, paperwork, chores, or whatever else you can imagine. In the event that this technique is supposed to have some additional features in the particular fanfiction you go to, or even a better version, this scroll will contain both versions.
Spoiler: Chakra Coils (0CP)Chakra Coils (0CP): The basic ability to use chakra, as represented by "chakra coils" that are a nebulous part of your body and/or soul now. You have top-quality chakra coils which would place you in the top 5% in this world in terms of both capacity and control.
After this jump your chakra system and body continue to function just as they do in this world, retaining any improvements or additions made along the way. You may also, if you choose to, induce the development of chakra coils in other people simply by pushing some of your chakra into them.
Spoiler: Elemental Affinity: Lightning (0CP)Elemental Affinity: Lightning (0CP): Not much to see here. You have an extremely strong elemental affinity in one of the five primary elements of this world, those being Fire, Wind, Water, Earth and Lightning. The first purchase of this perk is free, second and onwards cost 100 CP though you must purchase a different primary element each time.
The field is called Databases: Magical, which makes sense because the task was ordered between the one for Databases: Mundane and Databases: Magitech. The power itself seems to simply be a single sorta magical technique. But a useful one. I open up the scroll and make the hand signs that it indicates and there's a second one of me standing there.
"Well, this is interesting."
"Very interesting. And useful, I suspect."
"Is there some reason you pulled Joe out of the car?"
"Learning language by listening is good. But context will help him learn more easily."
"Learn."
"Yes, Joe. You are learning. And fast."
"He is, but even then, he is not advancing as fast as you are."
"Thanks. Speaking of learning, I'm pretty sure you can learn this one too." I hand him the scroll and push some chakra into him.
"Thank you, oh sprinter on the path of understanding."
He also does the hand signs and also gets a copy of himself. He tries to do it again, but nothing happens. I try and also nothing happens. It looks like we're both limited to one clone each. But that should be something we can improve with time. We go through a quick round of experimentation, and it looks like a person and her clone share the same magic pool. Any significant hit is enough to dispel the clone, and when it goes away, its experiences get transferred to its original. We further learn that it takes a about an hour to build up 'chakra' to cast another shadow clone after one is dispelled, even if it has been in existence for a while. Clothing and basic weapons on your person are duplicated when you clone, but my bulky power armor isn't. I'll have to complete the trimmed down version to determine if that will duplicate.
"With that at least basically understood, I have a question about the armor. Namely, the previous armor concealed your shape. And yesterday you used a voice modulator. It seems that you, me, and Mrs. Ortiz are the only ones that know your gender. Would you prefer to keep Palladium's gender a secret? If so, the armor will need to be less ... form fitting."
That is an idea. I go back to the R&D center and make a few adjustments to make the shoulders look broader, and de-accentuate the hips and waist. I don't need to go back and reduce the chest because I don't have a chest to begin with and boob armor is only a thing in perverted fantasy armor. It adds a few pounds (basically doubles its weight at this point), but it makes me look generally male. And that extra space lets me conceal a few modifications. I decide I like it, and start it fabricating.
I take a few hours to forge out Metool helmets and feet. I use my jade anvil and hammer. I plan on never using it for forging souls, but it's still a good tool for normal forging. I stop when I'm done and take a quick lunch with Je'Lu. While I'm forging, my shadow clone is assembling little pea shooters and actuators for the Metools.
I'm glad I'm done with the forging after lunch because my arm gets really sore from all that hammering, even assisted by power armor. I may be running each morning, but that hasn't helped my upper body strength. After lunch, I double team the Metool electronics with my clone for a while. Then we assemble six of the little hard hat robots and we have one set of hard hat and goggles left (to help Joe turn into Pickelman).
My clone and I take a break for a few minutes for a snack and a celebration of completing the first part of the Uber and Leet special order. We sit with Joe who is reading a hardcover book I hadn't seen before in the kitchen/break room area. Then Je'Lu and his clone come in and sit down with us.
"Excellent, I have caught you during a break. This is a good time to encourage you to take some downtime with us. I bought the sourcebooks for this role playing game last night, and I would like to start playing it with you."
"Really? I didn't think your universe had D&D."
"It doesn't, but it's mostly just a form of communal storytelling, and I do enjoy storytelling."
"So how does it work?"
"Well, first you and all the other players create characters. Then I describe a world for those characters and together we take the characters on an adventure. There are all sorts of rules and things to roll, but we can learn those as we go."
"Okay. We can give it a try."
"The first step is to create a character. I purchased a set of dice for us. Joe, have you decided which class you want to play?"
Joe looked up from his book and points at the open page. "Source"
"Sorcerer? Are you sure? Can you say Sorcerer?"
"Source. Er. Er."
"Very good. Now please roll the dice."
Joe rolls 10, 13, 13, 11, 12, and 18. He puts the 18 in charisma and 13s in dexterity and constitution. Then he chooses the Halfling race which increases his dexterity at the cost of his strength. I roll the dice and come up with a set of stats 8, 14, 13, 9, 12, 7. I'm a little disappointed, but I look through the classes. I'm drawn to the Paladin class, so I choose that. Then while we're reading through the character creation rules I find out that my stats are low enough I can re-roll them. I do so and get a stat array of 7, 9, 10, 9, 14, and 10, which is even worse.
"Most adventures seem to be geared to parties of four or five characters. So perhaps our clones should play too. The standard group is Fighter, Thief, Mage and Cleric. The Paladin would be a fighter type. And the Sorcerer is a mage type. Until we become a bit more advanced, perhaps we should aim to complete the standard group. Clone Taylor, what do you want to play?"
"That's going to become confusing, having both myself and my clone playing. We both have the same name."
"I think once we get going it will be less confusing since we can simply refer to the characters' names.
After some confusion on the part of my shadow clone about what a thief is (since there was no class named thief), she ended up choosing to make a Rogue. She rolled some spectacularly high stats: 11, 18, 16, 6, 14, and 16. Je'Lu's clone claimed the Cleric role and said that it suited him. He rolled pretty mediocre stats of 11, 10, 10, 13, 13, 15. Then I took yet another reroll because my stats were so low and got 13, 12, 14, 11, 8, 11. I wasn't exactly happy with those stats, but they weren't as abysmal as the first two sets I had rolled.
I allot a 13 in Strength and a 14 in Charisma since that was supposed to be an important stat for paladins. My 12 goes to Constitution. I put the 11s in Dexterity and Wisdom, and that leaves me with an Intelligence of 8 for my human paladin of Heironius, Yvonne Dawnbringer. My clone made Arfean the Elven Rogue. Joe makes Bott the Halfling Sorcerer. And Je'Lu's clone makes a cleric of Pelor named Solmadler Dai.
We write down our class features. Joe doesn't know how to write yet, but we take turns helping him with that. We pick skills and feats and write those down too. We buy equipment with starting gold and calculate our armor class and saving throws. By that point it has gotten on in the afternoon, so we decide to pick up the game the next day.
I fret about cleaning the place up for the network connection installer the next day, but Je'Lu says my clone can take care of that. I do take a few minutes to practice with the new svelte power armor. It feels good, light. I try stealth mode and it's pretty hard to see. I put it in boost mode and can't really do anything that will really show off the power because that would attract too much attention.
I head home. The plan is for my shadow clone to stay at the garage and practice with the car, tinker, and clean the place up for tomorrow. I'll keep working on that tunnel idea I've been trying for.
There's a surprise in the mail when I get home. There's an official letter from the distance learning academy that says I've been admitted and granted a need based scholarship. They'll be sending a package of materials soon.
It makes me pretty happy. It makes my dad pretty happy too. We decide to celebrate and eat out at a Greek food place we both like. He has the lamb steaks and hummus potatoes. I have the stuffed grape leaves. It bothers me a little that dad empties out his wallet to pay for it when I have a thousand dollars in my back pocket. I just wish I had a good way to give it to him. Maybe I can "get a part time job" or something. Or maybe I can find another way to funnel money to my dad.
After dinner we go home and I end up working on more trigram arrays. I have some basic arrays that will tunnel to each other, but a functional tunnel will be more complicated. First it has to go down so it doesn't run into water or sewer lines or basements or below ground pools or whatnot. Then it has to traverse to a separate point. Then it has to go back up. So it seems to me I need two different trigram arrays. The first to penetrate down into the ground (probably at an angle), and the second to connect the lower ends of the tunnels together. I have the beginnings of the latter with my way of having trigram arrays target each other. But I still need to develop the former. The problem is the former is hard to try out while at home. I'd have to go down to the basement and if I screw it up, it could be a problem. Better for those experiments to happen at the garage. So instead I work on refinements to my tunnel. I want to set it up to have a gentle wind blowing to circulate air. I also want to reinforce the ceiling of the tunnel. It occurs to me after some thought that it might be a good idea to reinforce the bottom against water leaking in too. Fortunately, I should be able to handle both of those by transforming the earth around the tunnel into more of a mountain aspect. Winds are relatively simple to set up. I should be able to do this. After some thinking, I come up with modifications for both of those features. Then I work on putting lighting in my tunnel. I wouldn't want to get stuck in the darkness down there. I think it will be possible, but that's a harder challenge than reinforced walls or airflow. I work on it for a couple hours before going to bed.
Day 15, Wednesday January 19, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Toolkits: Mundane unlocked. Perk Monkey Tool | Diagnostic Upgrade | Fabrication Upgrade already purchased. 150 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Quality: Safety unlocked. Cost 500CP/250CP. Insufficient CP. 250 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Supplies: Mundane Large Scale unlocked. Cost 400CP/350CP. Insufficient CP. 350 CP banked.Click to shrink...
It's strange to wake up and remember two last nights. I remember my own of course. But I also remember getting some last minute driving practice in with the armor on. I remember moving most of the stuff to the far end garage and locking it. There shouldn't be any need for a cable modem installer to go there at all. But I also remember both sides of working with myself on the Metools. I remember rolling up awesome stats for that Rogue, and my thought processes for picking the name Arfean - it was a combination of Arwen and Feanor.
I don't get any powers today, but that was okay. Today I go in for my driving test, and if I can pass it, I'll unlock something. As usual, I get up early and go running. Since it's a Wednesday, it's a tai chi day. I go to the garage and get Je'Lu up. We run to the park together for the early morning exercise. When I get into the tai chi, I can really feel some energy moving around inside me. Usually what happens then is I start trying to focus on that and screw up the moves so the energy inside me stops moving and I return my focus to moving correctly. It's frustrating, but it's still progress.
I run back home for breakfast and a qi pill. It looks like this is my last one. I'll need to make another store run for more beef or something. I put that on my list of things to do. I grab a shower and take off for the garage.
At the garage, the first thing I do is put on my power armor and make a shadow clone. The clone does not come equipped with power armor. I guess there is some sort of weight or complexity limit. Probably complexity. My clone goes off to brew up some healing potions, and I grab the rest of my equipment. I have a stun rapier and a freeze gun. I make sure I have my Monkey Tool and Toolkit with me. I don't bring the rocket hammer or plasma rifle. The freeze gun is a good way to nonlethally defend myself. The plasma rifle is a good way to annihilate someone's torso (I'm pretty sure, I've never actually tested it).
Once my clone is done brewing up a batch, I turn on stealth mode and take off. I manage to make it a few blocks over to where I find Kathy Ortiz waiting for me in her car. It's a nice roomy sedan. Chrysler, I think. I knock on her window, then turn off stealth mode.
"Hello again. Just so you know..." I turn on my voice modulator. "I'm using a voice modulator now."
"That's a good precaution. Please get in."
"I've got more healing potions for the PRT."
"Okay. Good. Please don't hand them over until I tell you."
Our first stop is the PRT building. We only have to pick up my parahuman ID card, but I also want to hand off the healing potions. Kathy goes off to talk to Rennick about that. Meanwhile, since I've completely changed my power armor since the first time I came in, they make me pose for a new picture. I wait around for a few minutes for them to print my ID card. Eventually, Mrs. Ortiz and Mr. Rennick come in. Rennick hands me my parahuman ID and Kathy tells me to hand over the ten potions I have for them. Looks like they have managed to create some new paperwork without me. I try not to worry about it, I wasn't asked to sign anything.
Pretty soon we take off and go to the DMV. We have an appointment, but all that seems to mean is we have to wait in a shorter line. Kathy is there to do the actual waiting, so I wander off and grab one of those driving rules pamphlets that the DMV has. I start reading it as fast as I can. We do cause a bit of a stir. I don't imagine that tinkers in power armor wait in line here every day. But I'm behaving like everybody else, except encased in metal, so there isn't too much fuss. Some people do start snapping pictures of me, though.
Kathy gets to the head of the line, so I join her. But that person just tells us to wait in another line, so I get some more time to read. I should have read this booklet earlier, not tried to cram it in at the last minute. Oh well. Too late now. The second line moves slower, so I have time to read most of the booklet. When she gets to the head of the line, they call me over, but they just give a vision test and take my name, ID, and proof of insurance (which Mrs. Ortiz has). The next task is to take a written test, so I finish reading the booklet before I enter the testing area. A proctor hands me a piece of paper and I take a few minutes to take the test. It's pretty easy. Everything on it was in the booklet I just read, and Savant's Understanding has improved my memory, so I manage to get a passing score.
Then I'm off to the practical driving portion. There's a line here, but I get escorted to the head of it. I think that was the perk of having an appointment. Or maybe they just want me out of there as soon as possible. I get in the driver's seat of Kathy's car and a tester gets in the passenger's seat. He seems as nervous as I am. We both buckle up. He gives me instructions to start driving around the parking lot, and that part goes fairly well. Then there's a portion where we go out on actual roads. That part is a bit less comfortable for me, but nothing goes horribly wrong. I obey traffic laws (including ones I just learned). He has me make a three point turn, which I find easy from practice in a confined space, and head back to the DMV. Once we get there, he has me parallel park, which is something else I had plenty of time to practice in the garage. This car is a bit larger than my practice car, but I manage to muddle through.
My performance was deemed adequate, because now I have to wait in a short line to get my picture taken and receive my license. Right now it's just a printout that says I'm authorized to drive, but they say I'll receive my official license card in the mail. But as soon as the paper printout hits my hand.
Spoiler: This Looks Like Every Other Spaceship I Don't Know How To Fly (100CP)This Looks Like Every Other Spaceship I Don't Know How To Fly (100CP): Except it turns out, you can. You are able to work out at least basic controls for any vessel instantly, and can very quickly familiarize yourself to the point of being able to fly through a busy battlefield. This can extend to figuring out how to ride strange animals.
Spoiler: Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (0CP)Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries (0CP): A copy of the seminal work of one Link Weimar, with included annotations and commentary.
Spoiler: Cash (0CP)Cash (0CP): You gain a decent amount of credits, enough for a year of low-class living or for purchasing a new hover car. Each subsequent purchase quintuples the amount you gain. Used cash 'restocks' each year.
Spoiler: Handbrains (0CP)Handbrains (0CP): You gain a set of half-a-dozen handbrains. Handbrains are communicators and computers all in one, capable of talking to each other across planetary distances and out into space, and can reach even farther when hooked into proper communication networks.
I know how to drive and pilot everything, even under combat conditions. The field is called Vehicles, which makes sense. And I'm relieved that the only random items that appear near me are tiny little things. The cash appears in my wallet, the handbrains and book appear in the inventory space of the skinsuit I'm wearing under my armor. Thirty three down, four to go.
"How do I get a permit for commercial vehicles or motorcycles?"
"Well, the motorcycle requires completing a motorcycle training course, then you can get a motorcycle learner's permit which will let you ride during daylight hours. For commercial vehicles, there's class A, B, and C, and endorsements for hazmat, tanks, passengers, multiple trailers, and buses. The classes require an extensive knowledge test followed by a road skills test. The endorsements require a knowledge test."
I hadn't studied for any of those tests, but I had confidence I could pass any of the practical skills tests. Well, I could try. Safety wasn't exactly promised in my latest perk, just battlefield maneuvering. "I would be interested in all of those."
"Alright, we should be going." She starts walking me out of the DMV. "I'll organize the appropriate study materials and get them to you. Also, when she said your license will be mailed to you, it will be mailed to our offices and we'll get it to you."
A crowd of people leaves the DMV with us, mostly taking pictures of me. It's annoying. As we drive away, fewer people follow us in their cars. It seems I've caught the attention of the Cape-arazzi.
Mrs. Ortiz drops me off at our usual meeting spot several blocks from my garage. I consider going into stealth mode, but they might be able to track the small visual distortion that leaves behind. So instead, I head into an alley between two buildings and put an image of an empty alley up behind me. Then I activate boost mode and jump up to the roof and swap to stealth mode. Then I drop the image in the alley and jump to another roof. I don't head immediately in the direction of my garage, instead travel the wrong direction for a few blocks before coming down from roof hopping and running back to the garage from there.
The DSL installation has happened and my shadow clone has already checked to make sure the modem is just a modem. She has connected the modem to our diagnostic computer. It's not a machine dedicated to research, but at least it has the right connections. Je'Lu has been enjoying looking things up online and telling Joe what he is learning about this world. My shadow clone has also made a bunch of parts for Bunby Helis. I work on those for the rest of the morning while she is distilling down some more ground beef, then we have some sandwiches for lunch. We take the early afternoon to finish the Helis. Then we're out of urgent tasks. While I'm standing with myself, trying to decide what to tinker up next, Je'Lu comes in and preempts us to continue the game we made characters for yesterday.
I figure with the license I have already accomplished the most important thing today, and with the Bunby Helis done, my responsibilities are completed too. So I figure some downtime is a good idea.
We sit down at the table and Je'Lu begins, "You find yourselves in the Ol' Boar Inn in the small town of Oakhurst. The town's senior cleric of Pelor, a gnome called Dem 'Cookie' Nackle, has called Yvonne Dawnbringer and Solmadler Dai to investigate some mysterious happenings. Meanwhile, Arfean and Bott have heard about these happenings through the underground rumor mill, and have come for their chance at riches and glory."
"Greetings."
"Yes. Hail and well met, I am Solmadler Dai, cleric of Pelor, and I have come to investigate the sinister happenings near this town."
"Do we know each other?"
"If you want to know each other, then you can."
"Then do Solmadler and Yvonne know each other?"
"Sure. Let's say they do." Je'Lu's shadow clone turns to the group. "... and this is my companion, the noble paladin Yvonne Dawnbringer. You good sir, what is your name?"
"Baaat. Source Error."
"Well met indeed my new friend, Bott the Sorcerer, and who might this be?"
"I'm Arfean."
"And what brings such a lovely elf to Oakhurst?"
"Um, glory and riches?"
"Well there shall be plenty of both to go around. Since there is safety in numbers, shall we join forces to exterminate whatever forces blight these lands?"
"Yes."
"Uh, sure."
"Absolutely. We shall smite that evil."
"That's the way to get into it, Taylor! You all spend some time asking around at the inn, and hear some interesting stories, Tales of the nearby ruins called the Sunless Citadel..."
Playing D&D is a nice way to spend an afternoon. Really, I think it is just that I like spending time with other human beings that are not trying to make me miserable. But it feels pretty good, even if being 'in character' feels a bit silly. We start delving into the dungeon. It is a little tough. We have to retreat fairly often to heal up and refresh our spells. But before long, it's time for me to go home. I have homework, and it's more work on getting targeted tunnels set up. My shadow clone is going to work on the ground penetrating tunnel project.
Dad brings fried chicken home for dinner. "So I talked to several of my friends about that gym you were interested in. It's not a good choice. But my friends had another option. It has a good reputation. No gang affiliations. If you're going to work out, that's a good place to do it. Here is the information."
I take the information, it's another gym. No karate or wrestling, but they do offer kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. It's further away, a little closer to downtown, but not close enough to be in the domain of the E88. I tell my dad I'll check it out tomorrow.
I work on lights for the tunnel. It's tough, but I manage some overly complicated code that should be able to transfer solar energy. I'm hoping solar energy from the mouth of the tunnel can be transferred down and spread through the tunnel. I'll have to incorporate that into the tunnel entrance array my shadow clone is working on tonight.
Day 16, Thursday January 20, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Databases: Magical unlocked. Cost 300CP/450CP. Perk Talking Head purchased for 300 CP. 150 CP banked.
Spoiler: Talking Head (300CP)Talking Head (300CP): Something between a magical computer and a lab assistant, this Spirit of Intellect would have forgotten more about magic than most wizards ever knew if it was actually capable of forgetting without being ordered to. Its personality is something between your own and how you think it should behave, which means you're probably getting something close to Bob if you're not careful. Aside from dispensing forgotten lore, they're able to possess and control things, ranging from friendly dire housecats to giant stone lions, and can even act as an emergency mystical battery if need be. Includes a free storage skull.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Knowledge: Future Tech unlocked. Cost 600CP/250CP. Insufficient CP. 250 CP banked.
That's an interesting power. A spirit of intellect that seems to be designed to be a magical assistant. In the form of a human skull that has been inscribed with intricate runes and symbols. The skull bit is creepy, but it could be useful. I'm eager to see what it's like, but I also want to stay on my running schedule. So I put the skull in my backpack, swear to not be upset with myself when I punch myself in the head later, and take off for my morning run. I deviate from my normal route and make a brief stop at the garage. I drop the skull, summon a shadow clone, and take off for the rest of my run.
When I'm out, I turn on my phone and check messages. There are two major messages. One is a link to an online motorcycle operation course. Once I complete it, I can print out my own motorcycle permit. It's only good during the daytime, I can't carry passengers, and it only lasts for 30 days, but it would make riding a motorcycle legal. The second is a list of broken tech that Leet is willing to give me. A lot of it is just more weapons, and I don't think I need more ways to kill people. But there are a few enticing pieces. The one that grabs my attention (especially given the previous text message) is the Fenrir motorcycle. I take a few minutes to jot down the instructions to access the online class and the list of tinkertech and then run back home. I make it home and have breakfast and a qi pill (my shadow clone had brewed a new batch yesterday). Then I take a shower and head out to the garage.
"Hey, Taylor." Then I punch her in the head. I really want to find out what she had learned while I was on my run. And, after absorbing her memories, she didn't want to be stuck in running clothes all day anyway. They can get chilly in January if you're not exercising to keep yourself warm.
I take a moment to review her memories. First thing she noticed was that the servo skulls were happy to have another skull with us, but then disappointed when they couldn't find any electronic interfaces on it. Still, she put it down on the desk in the corner and tried to wake it up. Soon, its eyes were glowing with yellow light.
"Hello. I'm Taylor. What is your name?"
"My name is not something you can afford."
"Hello Not something you can afford. How are you doing today?"
"Do not call me that."
"Well, I have to call you something and that's what you said your name was."
"Still, names are valuable. I will not simply give mine out."
"Okay, but I still need something to call you, Miss Not Something You Can Afford."
"Not that."
"Well, the perk I got you from said you might end up like Bob, but I have no idea who Bob is. And you certainly sound female to me. How about Roberta?
"That would be much better than the other thing you called me."
"Great. My understanding is that you are a spirit of intellect. Able to act as a magical computer and lab assistant."
"That is a vaguely accurate summary of my abilities."
"Okay. I have a bunch of magical abilities, and I need help sorting them out and improving them."
"That is within my capabilities."
"Good. Can I trust you to stay loyal? I don't want knowledge of my capabilities getting out."
"I am bound to whoever holds the skull."
"That might be a problem. We'll have to figure out how to prevent someone else from taking you."
"Okay. First things first, let me show you around the place. This used to be where a mechanic worked, but we bought it. I'm a tinker, which means I make stuff. So this garage is where cars used to get fixed. And through here is the old break room. Now it's a kitchenette. There's a bedroom through there, but Je'Lu is still sleeping, so let's leave him alone. Through here is the garage we've repurposed as a research area. There is our R&D center, and there is our Chemical Synthesizer."
"What does the R&D center do?"
"Collects data, analyzes designs, refines and fabricates them."
"We have a few magic things in here. There's the shadow clone scroll." My shadow clone showed the skull the scroll.
"That is quite powerful magic, though made far too safe. It's as if the writer of the spell wanted to teach magic to idiots."
"And here's the first magic book I wrote. It's all trigram magic."
"This is powerful magic you possess. But your spells are... rudimentary."
"Well how would you make a temporary tunnel through the earth?"
"Like this." Yellow lights projected from the skull filling the air with an intricate trigram array. She was struck by how much more complicated the array was than anything I had attempted. More complicated than anything I dreamed of attempting.
"Wow. Just... wow. Um, can you hold that for a minute?" She went to get the Monkey Tool to scan the spell. Once she had it recorded, she went on, "Okay. Thanks. That's enough. You're really good with magic."
"Yes."
"And so humble too. Here's some designs for magitech stuff. Let's see how you do with that."
"The first formula is for turning a few simple chemicals into an explosive. Mundane starting and ending points, but a magical transformation to get there. The second transforms the explosive and some poison into something that spreads the concept of incapacitation around an area. And the third is an unnecessarily complicated way to detect magical traps."
"It also detects technological traps"
"Hmph."
"Then we have the alchemy lab. We've gotten three different kinds of alchemy, plus this wagonful of alchemy equipment. The one we use most is related to a form of qi cultivation. We're trying to develop our qi, and it helps with that. It can also make poisons and curatives."
"What meat are you using for the distilled beast essence?"
"Ground beef."
"That would work, I suppose. You would get better results with Ghoul meat. I mean, not as good as dragon meat, but I assume you are not suicidal enough to try that."
"No. I'm pretty sure neither of those exist in this world. It's not a very magical world. I don't think anyone else has magic. Although some people do have superpowers, and some of them style it as magic."
"There's also a form of alchemy from Tamriel. But most of that requires collecting herbs and mushrooms. I've found a few of them around, but I think most of them don't exist in this world. So I don't use it much."
"That is a deeply limited form of alchemy. It does not matter."
"And lastly, we have a kind of alchemy that can produce healing potions. It's also supposed to be able to make potions for any buffing spells we know in the ranked magic system that is supposed to go with it, but I really only know the one spell, and it isn't from that magic system."
"Hmm. Perhaps it could be adapted. What spell is it?"
"It's called 'Arc of Embodiment', and it can materialize anything I can imagine, except truly living creatures and it can't overwrite established reality like the weather." She showed the skull a sword, and summoned a creature, and then made an image.
"There are a huge number of different things you can do with that ability. It is quite potent. However, I sense you are not exactly an expert with that system of magic."
"No. There isn't anybody to teach me magic. Except, I guess that's your job now."
"Indeed."
"And through here is the storage area. Hmm. The rocket hammer isn't magical, but this toast cannon is. I have a form of magic that can enchant things to be more gun-like. It's sorta stupid. I don't think I'll ever use it."
"That is a very chaotic and specialized form of magic. But potent within its domain."
"Huh. I wonder what would happen if I made you more gun-like?"
"There are many possibilities. Do not do so."
"Yeah, probably wouldn't work out well. I don't think we need many things to be more gun-like."
"This is our main gear for heroing. Not that we've done much of that. There's the power armor with stealth mode and boost mode. The stun rapier. The freeze gun. There's also the plasma rifle, but that's too deadly for most uses. None of it is magical yet. We've got an ability to enchant armor, but it requires runes, and we don't have any of those. Maybe you can help us come up with those?"
"Perhaps, please describe the runes that you need."
"Well, you need three runes to form a glyph. A potency rune, an essence rune, and an aspect rune. The potency runes can be additive or subtractive. The additive runes are jora, porade, jera, jejora, odra, pojora, edora, jaera, pora, and denara and some more I'm not good enough to use yet. The subtractive runes are jode, notade, ode, tade, jayde, edode, pojode, rekude, hade, idode, and more I'm not good enough to use yet. The essence runes are like dakeipa for frost, deni for stamina, hakeijo for prism, kuoko for poison, makko for magicka, and a bunch of others. The aspect runes are ta, jejota, denata, rekuta, and kuta."
"Do you have pictures of these runes?"
"I've got drawings, but I'm not very good at drawing. They're in my power diary." She went back to the R&D room to get our diary to show to the skull.
"Interesting. Is this perhaps related to that weak version of alchemy you showed me earlier?"
"I don't know. Maybe. It's hard to tell what powers are related. Anyway, to complete the grand tour, past the storage space we have the forge."
"That is a very powerful set of soul-forging equipment."
"Yeah, we're not going to be mutilating any souls. That just sounds... evil."
"I would not know. I do not have an innate sense of morality."
Greaaat. The new skull is a sociopath. "There are a few other abilities. There's one magitech ability that lets me use a COMP, which is like a demon summoning/magic using interface to a central source of magical power. But I'm not going to be summoning any demons."
"Disappointing."
"I've got a few gem magic abilities. I can summon gems made of different materials. I think it's supposed to summon crystallized mana, but I haven't figured that part out yet. I can make normal precious gems or ice or other transparent crystals. It drains my magic, though."
"Interesting. What else?"
"I can use smaller gems with that same kind of magic that I don't have. Which is entirely useless. And I can create energy crystals with this machine. Seems to take any kind of energy as input. I haven't really played around with it. Let's see... what else? I can pick up an item and know the recipes it can be used in. Which is mostly distracting. And I can fuse an item to my soul, and then unfuse it later. I've been hesitant to try that one out."
"Very well. Let us begin by coming up with some exercises to train up the one spell you have. Then we can get into leveraging all these other abilities..."
With those memories in my head and some time to regain my chakra, I go through the hand signs and summon a shadow clone. We both head inside and I go to the skull.
"Hello, Roberta. Thanks for the lesson. Now, is there anything I can do to train up the chakra energy I use for the shadow clone power? Or is there a better way to train up my chi? Also, is there any way to make a magical implement?"
"Yes. Yes. And Yes."
"That is so very helpful. How? For each?"
"Chakra seems to be very closely related to your body and mind, so training those should help immensely. Chi training is also related to the body and spirit. So for that, physical fitness and meditation. And for the magical implement, you just carve one yourself."
"Okay. I'll work on my physical fitness. But walk me through carving an implement."
Creating one's own implement is actually pretty complicated. First you have to find an appropriate base to make it out of, and there has to be an appropriate magical resonance and symbology. Then you have to carve symbols into it, and you need to do it by hand because you need to include the importance of the symbols to you, as well as infuse the implement with magical energy. And the symbols used and the way they are carved all depend on what exactly you want the implement to help with. Needless to say it will be a project. I'm hopeful it will only take a few days to get it together, though.
An hour later, Je'Lu wakes up. "Good morning."
"Hail and well met. Anything new this morning?"
"Just this skull. Roberta, this is Je'Lu. Je'Lu, this is Roberta. Roberta is a spirit of intellect who is an expert with magic. Je'Lu is a rogue scholar, and galaxy traveler."
It says something that both of their reactions were, "Fascinating."
"Roberta just came up with a way we can make a magical implement. So we're going to work on that. And this morning, she made up this trigram array." I show Je'Lu the Monkey Tool's recording. "Plus ways to train up several of our magical abilities. This might just be the breakthrough we were looking for. My clone is getting a motorcycle permit and doing research on Leet's inventions on the computer. As much as I would love to keep learning about magic right now, two of my magic systems require physical fitness, so I really should check out that gym suggestion that dad gave me last night. You want to see if you can come up with something new with Roberta?"
"Sure. You'll be back to pick up that game we were playing?"
"Yep. No problem."
I take off for the gym. It's a ways away, so I take the bus. It's a run-down place. Everything is old, but was built to last in the first place. It's not ill-maintained. You can see the occasional newer item where something has needed replacement, but the overall impression was that the place was careworn. It isn't the type of gym that offers pilates classes or has walls full of mirrors. It is the type of gym frequented by guys who want to honestly get better at beating people to a pulp. So while there is a lot of beefcake on display, I might be the only female in the building. But there is a women's locker room. I walk through the gym area and go to the offices. I'd like to get checked in before anybody tells me I don't belong there.
There's one guy in the office area. He's wearing a sleeveless vest that looks like it belongs in a Bruce Lee movie while working on paperwork.
"Hello. I am interested in joining the gym."
"Oh, hey. I'm Mickey Graham. Nice to have a new member. Sorry, the business part of small business is... like fighting an opponent I can't see. But that's not your problem."
"No, but maybe I can help out? I'm pretty good with business stuff. I'm Taylor." I eyed the papers he was struggling with. He seemed to be struggling with employee time cards.
"Just having another dues paying member would be a help. So, why are you interested in our gym? You don't look like a fighter." He hands me the registration form and I fill it out. The monthly fee is very reasonable, but classes could get a little pricey.
"No. At least not yet. But I need to be able to defend myself, I was thinking about learning kickboxing."
"Well, we do offer a women's self-defense class on Monday and Thursday nights. That's good for beginners. We have kickboxing classes Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday."
"Sounds good. Sign me up. When does the kickboxing class start?" I added enough cash to pay for both classes.
"In about forty minutes."
"Great. No time like the present."
"You should really put on workout clothes."
"Right. Good idea. Sorry, I'm new to going to a gym. I'll go get some."
I could have gone home to get the clothes I wore to gym class at school, but by the time I waited for the bus, got there, got the clothes, waited for the bus back, and made it here, it might have been over. So I do the quicker thing, and go to the mall that is a block away and buy a new set of sweatpants, tee shirt, and sports bra. Then just to be sure, I buy an extra set of all three. I have plenty of money both from the lawyer and that magically appeared yesterday.
While I'm out shopping, I stop by a computer store to buy a printer and a couple reams of paper for the garage. It would have been nice to have that Tuesday when we were trying to make character sheets. On a whim, I stop by a game store to get a game console and several of the games that Uber and Leet based their tech on (and that they say my tech is based on). That just about eats up my time, so I hurry back to the gym.
I get changed in the women's locker room and it looks like only one other locker is in use. I leave my purchases in there without too much worry of someone stealing them. The class is okay, but it really wears me out. It uses too many muscles that I have never used before. Mickey is a pretty good instructor, but my arms and legs are jelly by half way through the session. I end up having to ask him to help me carry my purchases to the bus stop for me.
I get back to the garage to find out that Je'Lu has invited Roberta to join our D&D game. She made a Bard named Delphine Hallowdancer.
"Mounted and stuffed animal heads adorn the walls. The mounting job is sloppy, and the assortment of heads includes cattle, rats, and other not particularly impressive specimens. However, a few grisly trophies share the wall with the animals, including a couple of kobold visages. Smashed and broken cabinets and small tables litter the periphery of the room, mute victims of some sort of rampage. A rusted iron spike stands askew in the center of the room, trailing a broken chain. Thin patches of ice coat sections of the walls, floor, and debris." Je'Lu rolls the d20 several times.
"There is a high probability that this is where the ice wyrmling resides. The chain was meant to restrain it. The ice is from its breath weapon."
"Uh, okay. I look around for the dragon."
"You spot some motion under a table. The cat-sized lizard darts out. Roll initiative."
"Ten plus four is fourteen."
"Eleven"
"Uh, nineteen."
"Two En Tee Won."
"Fifteen."
"Okay, Joe goes first."
"Cross bow."
"That is a natural nineteen. Plus three is a total attack roll of twenty two, which should hit a wyrmling white dragon. Critical threat. Roll to confirm. Five plus three does not confirm. One damage."
"Bott shoots his crossbow at the white lizard and the bolt glances off the dragonling's eyebrow."
"I shoot it with an arrow. Attack roll is ten plus six plus one for point blank range is seventeen."
"That hits."
"The arrow deals one damage plus one for point blank shot."
"As your foe has not yet acted in this combat thus making it flat-footed so your sneak attack damage should apply."
"Right. Plus another ... four."
"I will roll knowledge arcana to identify this creature as a wyrmling white dragon. Die roll of two plus seven is nine. Failure. That is a very unrealistic outcome. Delphine will attempt to shoot it with her shortbow. Four plus one is five, which also fails. That was much more likely."
"Smash this evil dragon's head in with my mace. Eighteen plus two is twenty."
"A hit!"
"Three damage."
"Yvonne?"
"Stabbity, stabbity. Uh, move around to the other side from Solmadler first for the flanking bonus. Er, two plus three plus two for flanking is seven, which is still nowhere near a hit."
"The creature exhales a cone of ice at Solmadler, Arfean, and Delphine. Roll reflex saves to reduce three damage by half."
"Hmm. Fourteen."
"Seven plus eight is fifteen."
"Seventeen plus three is twenty."
"All of those succeed, so take 1 damage instead of three."
"Or none, if you have evasion like Arfean."
"Back to the top of the initiative order. Bott's turn."
"Maj ick miss ill"
"Bott casts a spell and a bolt of magic flies unerringly across the room to strike the creature for four damage."
"Eh, delay until after Delphine."
"Move up to engage in melee and draw shortspear. That takes both actions since I do not yet have base attack bonus of one yet."
"Move to flank with Delphine and draw longsword. Seven plus three, plus two for flanking is twelve."
"Not good enough. Sorry."
"Once again, smite the foul beast with my mace. Seven plus two plus two is eleven, not good enough."
"Stabbity. Still flanking. Fifteen plus three plus two."
"Easily hits."
I sigh, "Two damage."
"The tiny creature goes after Arfean. It takes a five foot step into her space, provoking an attack of opportunity from her."
"Five plus, even worse than last try."
"It bites at you with an attack roll of seventeen."
"AC is eighteen."
"And it claws at you twice for two and fifteen. Both misses."
"Bott?"
"S peer."
"That's going to miss."
"Aid another to help Arfean. Eighteen will provide a bonus."
"Five foot step away to flanking position and stab. Ten plus three plus two plus two is seventeen."
"Plenty to hit."
"Deals one plus two plus six sneak attack damage. Total of nine."
"Your longsword nicks it, but you manage to catch an artery with the slice."
"Aid another to help Yvonne. Four plus two fails."
"Move to flank and swordify it. Six plus three plus two is eleven. That's a miss."
"The dragon will try to attack Arfean again. Another attack of opportunity."
"Nine, plus three plus two for flanking is fourteen."
"Exactly enough. Roll damage"
"Five plus two plus six for sneak attack is thirteen."
"The dragon is slain."
Spoiler: Mundane Supply World (100CP)
"Did you run this entire game just to get me to slay a fictional dragon?"
"Not entirely. It was also fun."
The field is Supplies: Magical Large Scale, and the power is immensely powerful and mostly useless. It's an entire world, no, an infinitely sized world full of resources for me. The problem is, I need to collect them myself.
"What did you get? Besides a hundred and twenty XP each? Also a carved jade figurine, a crystal goblet, twenty four pieces of fine silverware, and a sealed scroll case of carved bone."
"Let me show you." I take the group into the research room and point out the doorway that has appeared. "That goes to another infinitely large world that I can plunder for resources. Except no sentient life."
"So we are going to explore it, right?" Je'Lu beamed.
"It does not escape my sense of irony that by pretending to be an adventuring party with Taylor, Taylor has thus gotten an ability that requires her to assemble an adventuring party to explore."
"Yeah, we'll need to explore. But no reason not to bring our tech. Let's see... we have two power armors, But I don't think they will fit anyone but me. So one for me and one for my clone. We've got the plasma rifle, ice gun, and toast cannon for ranged weapons."
"We should send the shadow clones to do the exploring. As callous as it sounds, they are expendable."
"But if we lose the equipment..."
"You can make more. Except maybe the rocket hammer, you can make more of any of them."
He had a point. The Monkey Tool had allowed me to scan a sample of Omni-Gel, and that was the limiting factor of most of the recipes I can access. I already know how to make all the metals the R&D center uses to fabricate except Kett Alloy. It can do more with certain alien byproducts, but I don't have a source for those.
"Okay, fine. You two make a first foray."
To keep busy while the shadow clones are out, I print out a copy of Roberta's tunneling spell and start going through it. I have Je'Lu looking through my shadow clone's research on Leet's available tech. It takes me a while to establish the principles of how it works. And I have to admit, it is a very slick spell. It even carves stairs into the downward portion of the tunnels. But I have some concerns about safety. Namely, what happens if this temporary tunnel is disrupted while someone is in it. This version would collapse the tunnel in from the sides, crushing them.
I bring this up with Roberta, but she seems offended that I think her array design could fail. She isn't mollified until I mention I want the array to be able to fail in case someone finds the garage (or heaven forbid, my house) and I have to destroy the link. Then we work on redesigning the tunnel to some safer parameters. That discussion turns into more concerns about underground obstacles like water or sewer pipes, electric lines, basements, aquifers or septic tanks. They're hard to plan around. But we do manage to come up with a design that will fail safely if there's anything it can't get around. I print out two copies of the array and place one of them in one of the repair pits in the garage.
The shadow clones return triumphant. The other side is a similar biome to Brockton Bay, but without any civilization. But it also has a lot of things we don't have, like Nirnroot and Blue Entoloma, components of an invisibility potion. They also mention being attacked by a mudcrab, which is not an earthly creature. But they buried the lead, because then they show off the Jora rune that dropped when they killed it. And that's not to mention other oddities, like patches of coal and ores just sitting on the surface of the world.
And that's not to mention other things there like Deathclaws (vicious bipedal lizards) and spirit beasts. Those got harvested too. So I should have plenty of ingredients for more powerful qi pills. And it would seem that all the worlds I've gotten powers from are represented there. As long as the materials I need are not from a sentient being, I should be able to get them. My clone also brought back a yew branch that we should be able to turn into a magical implement.
The availability of materials is good news. The sub-sentient monster infestation is not quite so good of news. It seems like today has been all about opening up new possibilities. It is getting late, so I head home.
At home, I go down to the basement and open up the coal chute in the basement. I place the other printed trigram array in it, and a tunnel forms from the basement to the garage, several blocks away.
ERROR: No 100CP perks available. Checking 200CP perks...
Spoiler: Weapons Recombination Template (200CP)Weapons Recombination Template (200CP): The shady dealer (Actually it seems like everything he's offered so far is shady) just shrugs when you pick this up. Apparently it binds two weapons together, and allows you to shapeshift the weapon between either form. You're not quite sure how it works, but he demonstrates it to you by showing you how a bow can shift into a sword. You can't help but notice that it also turned into a Moogle afterwards...but apparently yours won't do that. Unless you throw a Moogle into the mix. Wait...does that mean...
Well, that is interesting. I wasn't expecting to get an unlock out of making the tunnel, but it figures that at hundreds of feet long, it is the largest thing I plan on making any time in the near future. The field is called Quality: Size. Although I'm not sure how the associated power relates to size.
I spend some time making dinner. Dad comes home and I tell him I signed up for a self defense course tonight. So after we eat, he drives me over to the gym. I go through the whole session (I had healed up after the early afternoon workout). It's not nearly as intense as the kickboxing session was, but I still learn a few things.
We come home and I don't have any tinkering to do, so I just end up watching TV for a while, then trying to meditate. It doesn't feel like it accomplishes anything, but at least I'm trying.
Day 17, Friday January 21, 2011
+100CP Perk rolled, field Quality: Design unlocked. Cost 100CP/350CP. Perk Wired Watchmaker purchased for 100 CP. 250 CP banked.
Spoiler: Wired Watchmaker (100CP)Wired Watchmaker (100CP): Long hours hunched over the machinery and books that define your profession have left you with a keen eye for detail. Your eyesight is excellent even in the occasionally poorly-lit workshops you frequent, and your mind has sharpened to the point you'll easily remember the details of any schematic you're trying to assemble. You can still wear that monocle of course, but this time, you'll wear it for style!
+100CP Perk rolled, field Facilities: Magical unlocked. Cost 400CP/350CP. Insufficient CP. 350 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Skills: Enchanting unlocked. Cost 600CP/450CP. Insufficient CP. 450 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Knowledge: Intelligence unlocked. Cost 600CP/550CP. Insufficient CP. 550 CP banked.
+100CP Perk rolled, field Facilities: Mundane unlocked. Cost 400CP/650CP. Perk Fringe Institute Fab-Unit 20000 purchased for 400 CP. 250 CP banked.Click to shrink...
Spoiler: Fringe Institute Fab-Unit 20,000 (400CP)Fringe Institute Fab-Unit 20,000 (400CP): A marvel of technological wonder, and an outright Wonder at that. This device can take mundane objects and combine them together whilst maintaining the best of the two items. When used the items merge together so that it keeps the chosen properties of each, though without stacking redundant attributes. (Ex. A computer chip and a brand new superconductor would produce a new computer chip designed with the superconductor already in place. However, two nigh identical computer chips wouldn't make a computer chip twice as good as the originals.)
+100CP Perk rolled, field Quality: Efficiency unlocked. Cost 100CP/350CP. Perk Savant already purchased. Purchase again? Y/N
This was a new situation. Every time before now perks that had already been purchased had been rejected. What made this different? The perk gave me great potential and ability to learn motorcycle riding and specified that it could be purchased multiple times. But last time, I got motorcycle riding because I got it while examining a motorcycle. I don't want to get it again for laying in bed. But is there anything else I do want to get it for? I could really use something that helps me learn how to fight. But at the same time, it might be suspicious if I suddenly start learning how to kickbox at an astounding rate. Which doesn't matter, because I don't have any way to connect this perk with kickboxing anyway.
But I do have a way to connect it to tai chi. It's sorta close to martial arts. And it might help me master my chi and improve my cultivation. I just need to not decide until I get there. I get dressed, take the tunnel directly to the garage, wake Je'Lu up, take a peek at the new Fab-Unit while he is rousing, form a shadow clone, and take off for the park. Once we get there and start attempting the tai chi, I finally decide YES.
Perk Savant purchased for 100CP. 250 CP banked.
Spoiler: Savant (100CP)Savant (100CP): There is some area of endeavor in which you are truly brilliant. This could be Waldo's talent for cooking, a particular sport, music, or any other real world skill set. You have the talent to be among the very best in the world, if you put in the work, and will achieve that status in far less time than most. This perk can be purchased multiple times. This perk has been purchased twice and applied to motorcycle riding and tai chi.
Yes! It worked. It doesn't make me better at tai chi immediately, but it does increase my sensitivity to my own body. With every move I make, I sense the subtle errors I make and I can correct them for next time. I feel the ebbs and flows of energy within my body, and when I do the moves correctly, it has the power of the tides behind it. I can already tell I'm going to improve a lot with my tai chi.
I do take a minute to consider the other perks I gained this morning. Wired Watchmaker seems odd. It seems to have improved my vision. I don't need glasses any more. However, as a weird quirk of the power, wearing them does not impede my vision at all. It also helps with my darkvision, which I noticed in my early morning run to the park. It's still very dark this early in the morning at this time of year.
The Fab-Unit has interesting possibilities. I'm already considering combining a diamond with my power armor to increase its surface hardness. Maybe put some foam in there for padding too. Something for elasticity, because I don't want it shattering. I give a brief thought to what I could combine my weapons with to improve their function, but that reminds me of the combining weapons power I got last night. I'll have to put in some thought about how to leverage that ability.
After a productive tai chi session, Je'Lu heads back to the garage, and I go for my run. When I check my phone, there's a message reminding me to drop off the next batch of gold and platinum blocks. I come back home, eat breakfast, take a qi pill, and head down the tunnel to the garage. In short order I make it there. But to my surprise, I don't find anyone awake. I expected Je'Lu to be asleep, but my clone is gone, and so is Joe and Roberta. My armor and weapons are gone too, so I suspect they're exploring my resource world.
I sit down to plan out a new loadout. I'll probably want to combine my stun rapier with my plasma rifle and ice gun. Then I can keep it as the ice gun for most use and pull out melee or heavy weapons as I need. Of course, I should consider keeping a backup weapon around in case I need it. I suppose I could put together that main-gauche pistol that the survey wanted me to pair with the stun rapier. I could include an alternate form or two for that too.
I did a little research on a few properties I was interested in. Obsidian fractures down to a single atom, so it takes the sharpest edge. Far sharper than steel or ceramics. I spend a few minutes trying to make a crystal of obsidian only to fail. Upon further research, obsidian is a glass, not a crystal. Apparently there's a difference. But that's okay. It just means instead of summoning it myself, I need to plug in the formula for obsidian to my chemical synthesizer and let it make some for me. The most flexible material in the world is graphene. I queue up a batch of that to be formed after the obsidian.
Since that will take a while, I start thinking about other problems. I don't have any way to communicate with the shadow clones, Joe and Roberta. They should have taken along one of the handbrains I got two days ago. We should really work on our communication. Unfortunately, I can't make any more handbrains, and those are the only good communication method from my current powers. My post-apocalyptic scavenger tinkering has an image of a personal computer thing with a radio built in, but it only receives signals, and I'm not sure it would be compatible.
Another concern I have is resource detection and gathering. There's a whole world to explore. I'll need to be able to move around on it and collect the resources I need. Fortunately, I do have the path to a good tool for that. The R&D center has the capability to develop a six-wheeled off-road vehicle with resource scanners that can deploy mining drones. Unfortunately, before I can make that, I need to upgrade the R&D center to handle making larger items, I need the research for the vehicle AND the upgrade, and I need the resources for each of them.
The third thing I want is data collection. Some way to find the Merchants, to know where the villains are and what they are doing. So far the only possibility I have there is to buy some of Leet's tech. Even then, he only offered one information gathering item that he calls a 'Scouter'.
The fourth consideration is the security of the garage. I still want to hide our presence here better. And set up defenses in case someone does attack. That was what I was going to use the Mega Man robots for once I got them back from Uber and Leet. But better ways to sneak in and out would be good. A Somebody Else's Problem field would also be good. As would a massive force field or other brute force solutions. That would include a set of power armor for Je'Lu. He's not much of a warrior, but he is an experienced explorer.
Of course, there are always the goals of unlocking the last two tasks. I would work on the implement, but I need Roberta's help with that, and my clone took her out exploring. The last task is to examine Trainwreck's tech, and the detection equipment would be a good start into that.
With all that in mind, I start by telling the R&D center to fabricate a set of armor like mine, only sized for Je'Lu. It will eat up most of the resources I have left for it, but I'm working on replenishing those already. Then I sit down to work on connecting the Monkey Tool to the diagnostic computer and the diagnostic computer to the R&D center. I figure the first would be easier since the Monkey Tool is super easy to use and the diagnostic computer is closeish to modern technology. Of course, the Monkey Tool doesn't really have an interface port on it, but I'm pretty sure it's got some kind of wireless interface in it. Since the diagnostic computer has several wireless interfaces meant to talk to bits that can't be removed, I just have to program one of them to interface with the tool.
I have several perks that improve my intelligence and computer skills, but it didn't go well until I started thinking about the Monkey Tool as a piece of xenotechnology. Monkeys aren't human, after all. Then my Xenotechology perk kicked in and it was just a matter of incorporating the "artifact" into the sensors of the diagnostic computer.
I'm not quite done with that when Je'Lu wakes up and comes out of his room. He asks me about my morning and I describe the new powers I got. He is very curious about the Fab-Unit, and applauds my use of Savant. He summons a clone (we learned early on that clones tend to disappear when you go to sleep) and both of them go off to poke at the new property combiner tech.
I finish the Monkey Tool/Diagnostic Computer interface and start poking around the R&D center to figure out a way to connect it to the diagnostic computer. It's both easier and harder. They're both future human tech, which should make it easier, but that means that Xenotechnology doesn't work. All together, Cybernetics gives me a pretty good understanding of the Diagnostic computer and of interfaces in general. Tech wizard helps me understand computers, insightful helps me research. Savant's Understanding helps me learn what I don't know. All that doesn't help enough because I don't have a good basis for understanding the R&D center's tech. So my Inspiration just tells me to toss that all out the window and use the new Fringe Institute Fab-Unit to fuse an ethernet card into the R&D center. The diagnostic computer already has an ethernet connection. Or at least a connection that is backwards compatible with ethernet. By default it's a ten thousand base T or some such. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare ethernet cable, so I have to unhook the printer to connect the computer to the R&D center.
Then I can finally upload the scans on the Monkey Tool to the R&D center. The R&D center eats up the data, but most of the things I have scanned have been more magical than technological, so it only gets a modicum of benefit from the scans. Still, it means that I can use scans by my portable tool to fill the R&D center with information.
About that time my shadow clone comes back for lunch with Roberta and Joe. They've collected a bunch of resources. I might have enough herbs and fungi and stuff to actually start using my first alchemy skill. They also have a few runes, several harvested beasts, and a few mystic raw materials. I manage to resist expressing my irritation to my shadow clone. It would just end up as a memory of me lecturing myself, and once we fuse, the next clone will remember my pent up annoyance. Je'Lu's clone notices what I've done all morning and takes the Monkey Tool to scan everything we have to scan. It helps out. My clone dismisses itself and we humans enjoy lunch (and Joe enjoys conversing with us over lunch).
After lunch I dress up as Nicole and make a shadow clone. That clone heads off to the law firm with the delivery of gold. She decides to go shopping on the way back. She gets duct tape, groceries, a few ethernet cables, a backpack, some containers, a shovel, probably all the stuff that would make the guy at the checkout think you're a low budget hitman. When she gets back, she forges a machete for Je'Lu. While she is busy with all that, I buckle down to work on the Wand of Embodiment with Roberta. It's carving on a stick, but there are no shortcuts to speed it up. Spending the time with it is a necessary part of the process. Je'Lu spends some time talking to Joe while his clone wanders around the neighborhood looking for good alternate entrances for a tunnel to access this garage without people walking in and out of it all the time. He finds one, but when I bring it up with Roberta, she thinks it won't be stable to make the tunnel branch. Plus we don't have a good way to make sure nobody goes there and finds the entrance other than it being behind a bush.
The shadow clones take Joe on another resource gathering run in the mid afternoon. They take a handbrain this time so we can call them back if we need to. I want them to look for element zero. I'll need more if I want to make the Nomad that I want. I spend the afternoon working on the Wand of Embodiment. I don't get it done, but I'm most of the way there.
When I head home for the night, I find three packages on the doorstep. It seems that distance learning academy has sent a shipment. I open the heaviest first and it contains brand new textbooks. Only two are the same textbooks I was using at Winslow, but even those were older editions than the ones I just got. The rest are all different authors, but equally new. It's not all textbooks. There are about a dozen books it looks like we will be reading in English, too. The second package contains a brand new laptop computer. The third contains a couple CDs for the computer, but mostly a packet of papers from the academy. They cover class times and syllabi, extension programs for extracurricular activities, instructions for setting up the computer, standards of academic honesty, the schools inclusiveness, tolerance and bullying policy (it's nice to know that's there, but why is that needed?), dress code (for video chats?), and more ever more inane topics.
Dad is as excited as I am to get the stuff. It looks like homeschooling is going to work out. At least so long as Emma doesn't join too. Even then, most of the things Emma did to me would be blatant violations of the bullying policy. Of course, while I can read the books and papers and turn on the laptop, we don't have a connection to the internet with which to connect to the academy. Of course, one of the papers indicates that a high speed internet connection is included in the scholarship. We throw together a pasta dinner, then enjoy a leisurely evening. I don't get a chance to do much tinkering, but I do manage to scan dad's truck. It's not exactly the right kind of off-road vehicle to base the Nomad's research on, but it will provide a baseline. With that done, I spend the rest of the night reading the materials in the packet.
AN: Coil was watching the lawyer's office. In the other timeline he just tried to abduct Nicole, but she went poof. In this timeline, he just followed her back to the garage.