I gestured for Pickelman to get in the van with me and then joined him. We went back to the garage and unloaded everything. The metools went back to their hiding emplacements in tires. The bunbis had their own launch rack inside the garage. Pickelman (we really need to come up with a better name for him) joined Joe. Joe got his blaster back, and that made him feel better.
I took off, stealthed. Many blocks away, I pulled up the number for Tattletale. The problem is, she was supposed to be a thinker. It was dangerous to let a thinker know about you. I had the voice changer, that might help throw her off, but I didn't think it would be enough. So for the first time ever, I decided to drop my gravitas.
"Hello, Palladium."
"Heya, Tats!"
"Thank you for taking out Coil's power."
"I'm sorry you had to kill him. I'm sure that made you feel bad inside."
"I'm not. He deserved to die."
"Maybe. But you don't deserve to be a murderer. Hey, shouldn't it be me saying thank you for stopping Coil, and you saying you're sorry for taking advantage of the situation? He he! We should, like, totally replay this conversation playing opposite parts."
"You know, don't you? You recovered his data. Damn, I thought he would ensure it would be destroyed. No, he tried. You salvaged it. Some of it. Damn. Then why are you so bubbly? Dammit, you're gonna give me a headache."
"Do you want the files of his interrogations or would you prefer not to know? Say please, pretty pretty please."
"Please."
"Okay!"
"I thought I would have to wheedle that out of you."
"You deserve to know if you want. You're the only one that does. After all, you were there. Sorta. Not that you were actually there, but the alternate you that from his split timeline was there, and if that isn't you, it's at least a close sibling. Like closer than an identical twin, so I figure you really would deserve to know."
"Stop babbling. Yeah, I want to know. Better to know than to have my imagination go wild. So, you want information on the Merchants?"
"Yes. I might want leads on others at a later date."
"Okay, we can turn this into a working relationship. I want all the data you have from Coil's computer."
"No."
"You don't need it."
"No. He interrogated me."
"Well, all except that."
"No. No. No. He unmasks a few others in there. There's a reason I didn't hand it to the PRT."
"I don't care about identities. Heck, I was probably the one to help him get most of those, I could figure them out again."
"Then why do you want it? You want to take over his accounts. You think you can guess his passwords. Become your own crime boss with his money. So, no. No data for the poopy pants villainess. Try being a hero and rescuing the princess from the dragon. Then the king would shower you in riches."
"Who is the princess in this scenario?"
"Um, Glory Girl? She wears a tiara. That makes her a princess, right?"
"Please try to make some sense or this headache is going to kill me before we finish this phone call. I could out you if you don't give me the data."
My blood ran cold. "Ooh, you're a real Dudley Doowrong meanie. But I shall not fear even if you tie me to the railroad tracks, for Sir Alive-See will surely save me, even if she has to do battle with the wicked Lee Sawill-Burn."
"Dammit. You have those transcripts. Fine. We'll keep this professional. Five thousand dollars."
"Sounds good to me. Do you have an account for me to wire the money to? Or would you prefer cash? That might take longer."
"That's it, you're just going to give me cash? You're not even going to negotiate?"
"Why would I?"
"Because I could just take the money and run. Give you bad information. Set you up."
"Aww, you really do want to be a bad guy. You work so hard at it. You won't cheat me. Cause I'll pay you for more information later. And cause a set up won't work, and then you'll look like a stupid-head. If you want to take the money and run, then consider it a gift to get you on your feet."
She gives me an account number, and I call up Gursky to transfer the money for me. He manages that with next to no delay. Then I call Tattletale back.
"Okie dokie. It's money in the bank."
"It is, you came through. Okay. There's a merchant stash house in the abandoned warehouse at 551 Western."
"Thank you! You're the bestest!"
I hang up and think about the conversation that I just had. Was that even me? Being able to switch my personality is scary. At least now I had a lead on a good night of work.
I spend my afternoon upgrading the R&D center. It got plenty of research back on Thursday, but all of mes have been too busy trying to capitalize on Leet's tech while we still had it to finish that task. The clone that went to meet Uber and Leet helps me with that task. The clone that was testing out our new assembler is off gathering resources with Joe, Pick, Je'Lu and dad (both clones).
With two of us working on the task, it doesn't last long. Since the clone is going to be going out hunting Merchants tonight, she takes a nap and will work on reviewing our infinity circuit plan for tomorrow later. That leaves me free to start analyzing the teleporter pipe that Leet left us.
Looking at the outside reveals almost nothing. I have scans that the clone made while receiving it, but I set it up for a long slow detailed scan by the diagnostic computer. I look for a way to take the casing off to examine the inside, but it doesn't seem to be designed to be taken apart, so I quickly give up on it. So I settle in to take a long look at what scans I already have. At first I don't understand what I'm looking at. I go to research in obscure electrical engineering texts to figure out some components, then come back to the scans, then more research in multidimensional physics, then back to the scans. There is a long and growing list of puzzle pieces I don't understand, but that's okay. I trust that I'll reach some sort of critical mass of understanding and the pieces will fall like dominoes... eventually. For now, I'm at least confident I can identify a power source and a control computer and an activator and some high energy parts.
The activator is at the top of the pipe, and that's the first piece of it going through the detailed scan, so that's the first piece I get a good look at. I understand it relatively quickly. It makes sure that nothing projects outside the sides of the pipe (which is both game-accurate and probably a safety feature) as well as that nothing extends more than four feet above the top of the pipe (which is solid, and just painted to look hollow). This confuses me for a while, but when I recall that you have to kneel on the pipe to go down it, it starts to make sense. If Vista had been allowed to go after the pair when she was a couple years younger, she might have gotten accidentally sucked through the pipe.
Unfortunately, the activator is so understandable, it doesn't take very long at all to understand it, and the next section of the scan won't be ready for quite a while. So I move on to another project. I take a few mana crystals and hook them up to charge some energy crystals and hook those up in turn to produce electricity, then feed that electricity through some coils. I make sure to use heat to bend the conductor into the coil shape so my new Heart of Flame perk will apply. Now I just need to feed a ferromagnetic projectile into the coil, and I have a coil gun also known as a gauss rifle. This basic design was something I got with the Xenotechnology power way back when. I didn't make it because it was a potentially very lethal design, basically a sniper rifle on steroids. But now that I have a good nonlethal weapon, I thought it was time to have more powerful backups in case I needed to take on... a ramped up Lung or something.
But although I can make a gauss rifle, it doesn't come with preset specifications. I need to come up with those myself. So instead I go to the components. I measure how much energy the energy crystals hold and how quickly they can be recharged by the mana crystals, so I know how much energy I can put into each shot. It's quite a bit. In fact, the refire rate is more limited by the heat dissipation of the components. I decide to merge the heat resistance of titanium into the final product to help with that. Unfortunately, I don't have any superconductive materials yet, that would make the design much more efficient. Then I decide how much mass to accelerate. That fixes the calculations for the length and turns on the main barrel. I assemble all that and realize that the recoil is not something a normal human could handle. Not even a slightly enhanced human in serious power armor like I usually am. So I either need to lower the power of the weapon, or make some sort of inertial compensation system, or mount it on something big enough to take the recoil. I settle on the first for now and design a coil gun for a smaller projectile and lower speed. Still more than any standard firearm, but only enough to knock me back, not enough to tear off my shoulder through power armor.
All that takes me into the night. Clone one comes back from the resource world, swaps out of the armor and goes back to work on the assembler. Then clone two swaps into the armor and heads out to confront the Merchants. Once I finish with the rifle a few hours later, I can take a few more minutes to go back over the detailed scan. The next piece scanned is mostly the high energy parts of the pipe device. That's the most core to the device's function and at the same time, the least understandable. So it results in me looking up various properties of the materials involved and trying to figure out what phenomena would be produced by the parts that I scanned. It's the long research part of the design. It would be aided if I knew exactly what pattern of energy would be provided by the power source, but that part of the scan hasn't happened yet. I'll have to look into it tomorrow.
I was out in the brisk winter night. The address Tattletale provided me seems to be correct. The scouter shows no parahumans around. The warehouse is busy for an abandoned property, five people milling around inside. I lurk in the rafters until one of them breaks off from the others. I freeze them, then come down to stun and zip-tie them. Another one leaves the group a minute later and receives the same treatment. Then I just take up a good firing position and freeze one in the group. I shoot another before they manage to draw weapons on me. Then the last man standing opens fire on me. But he's panicked, and doesn't even hit the energy field that protects me from bullets. Meanwhile, I get a shot on him and the fight is over. I head over to stun and tie up the remaining three. Then I can call the police and the PRT.
The warehouse itself didn't contain much. There were bundles of drugs and stacks of cash. There was money counting equipment and drug cutting materials. Tables and lights and old shelving units. Not much beyond that. Not even a chair. The PRT took fifteen minutes to arrive. The cops took longer. I told the PRT what happened here and they seemed moderately surprised that I didn't take the cash. I guessed that's what most vigilantes would do. I probably would too, if I still needed money. But I surmised that the money proved a case of distribution better than just the drugs, so it would better keep the dealers off the streets.
The PRT asked who I was, but when I told them I was Palladium, they had my identity on record. So I suppose registering with them was worth something besides early access to a driver's license. When the cops showed up they took my statement. Then they took it again. Then they wanted me to testify to make sure these guys actually got locked up. I told them to contact me through my lawyer, but that I would try to make myself available. It ended up taking longer to get through the police and PRT than it did to get to and take out the five merchants that I had. It was a wonder independent heroes put up with the hassle of going through all that. Then I realized that they probably don't which explains why the gang problem doesn't seem to go away. Oh well. I can finally get some sleep.
Day 26, Sunday January 30, 2011
+400CP 400CP banked
4 rolls:
Cannith Contemporary200 CPQuality: AppearanceInfinitely Customizable200 CPQuality: DesignValuable Memories300 CPVehiclesDelorean DMC-12400 CPVehiclesClick to shrink...
That was a pretty decent set of rolls. I'm earning my way back up. Four choices and I could afford any of them. I look up Cannith and it's part of a setting for Dungeons and Dragons (at least on Aleph). I'd be tempted to try it to increase my magical crafting, except that it's in the Quality: Appearance field, which means it doesn't actually do magical crafting, it makes my crafts look better. The Delorean is another one that the source could be guessed. Back to the Future was a movie shortly after Scion showed up. It featured a time-traveling Delorean. I'm guessing that the Delorean I get would be able to travel through time and maybe fly too. But I should be able to figure out time travel on my own, so it seems like a waste to buy a perk for it.
The other two are a bit of a mystery. Infinitely Customizable in Quality: Design makes sense, I suppose. Although there's nothing specific to do a search about. I don't know how Valuable Memories could be a Vehicle, though. As curious as I am to find out, I decide against it. Instead, I lock in Infinitely Customizable and see what I get.
Spoiler: Infinitely Customizable (200 CP)
200 CP banked
Quest prompt: You should get ready to fight off an Endbringer.
Well that was kind of a waste. I don't have any power nodes, and I don't know how to make them. So that whole part of the perk is useless. There is still the added benefit. I can break down weapons and tools into parts and reconfigure them. I suppose that means I could combine the toolkit with the Monkey Tool. But would that be a good idea? I can foresee situations in which that would be a positive and ones where it would be a negative. I settle on not trying that for now. Then I consider whether the assembler could be considered a tool. That might bear deeper scrutiny.
In any case, it was time to rise and shine. I get up, spin out a couple clones, and go for my morning run. I check messages, but there's nothing important. Back at home, there's a post-it stuck to the fridge reminding me to skip breakfast because I'm scheduled for surgery today. Yes, self, I'm a doctor too, you know. I take my qi pill anyway. Then I mosey over to the garage.
The clones have already prepped the surgical suite that came with my cybernetics power. I start getting really nervous. Someone is going to be cutting into my head, well, upper neck might be more accurate. Intellectually, I knew what was going to happen. And I had enough anesthetic that it shouldn't hurt. I would need to stay conscious during the operation, so only local anesthetics would be used. I would have a fresh healing potion with me the whole time (and a straw since I would by laying face down).
I can tell that the instruments have already been disinfected. The bed has already been adjusted for me. The anesthetic is prepped, surgical covers are ready, and the next step is for me to lay down on the table. I tremble. I'm going to cede control of my own fate ... to myselves admittedly, but still. They need to strap me down and paralyze me so I don't jostle them when they perform delicate adjustments. It's a scary prospect.
Je'Lu puts his hand in mine. He doesn't push, but the offer of support is clear. I start moving and he takes a step with me. A short moment later I'm at the surgical table and lying down. Shaving the tiny strip of hair along my nape isn't so bad. Getting injected with the paralytic is. That's when the panic starts setting in. I can't move, not even my mouth to tell them how scared I am. I can't invent my way out of this. I can't use trigrams. But the Arc of Embodiment doesn't require movement. I conjure an image of a sign that says 'Stop!' My clones stop.
"What's wrong? Does something hurt?"
'No.'
"Is it fear? Are you afraid because you cannot move?"
'Yes.'
"Then lay your fears down. You don't need to move. You have this sign to communicate with us. And I shall play the part of your hands for the duration of this procedure."
'Thank you.'
"May they continue?"
I pause a moment. 'Yes.'
I hardly notice the cut down and across the back of my neck. But a few strands of hair dangle down a bit further than they usually can. It's a little creepy. Then comes the drilling. Bone conduction takes the vibrations through the skull and into my ear bones. I couldn't avoid hearing it with even the best noise canceling headphones. I knew this would happen, but that does nothing to decrease my tension. One of the clones notices my blood pressure increasing and tries to calm me down. She ends up getting dad to lay on the floor in my sight. It helps a little.
The operation takes hours. Most of that is scribing runes and hexagrams and trigrams and such into my cortical stack, and not actually working directly on me. There are many hexagrams that apply to this situation. We are using Providing-For, Returning, Deliverance, Persevering, Intelligence Hidden was too appropriate not to include despite its darker connotations, so it was balanced with some Radiance, and of course Returning Maiden. There are fewer trigrams that are directly appropriate, but we do include some Skull and Nervous System.
Or at least that's what they're supposed to be doing. And I doubt plans have changed much in the hour between when I conjured them and when we started surgery. I ask what is going on with my magic sign. The clones start describing what they are doing while they do it. They didn't need to since they both knew the procedure, but it's good practice in medical theaters when you are not all the participants, so I don't feel bad for making them. At least that keeps me engaged for the rest of the procedure. Toward the end, they move the Fab-Unit over to apply some properties to the stack. It needs to be able to conduct Aeldari soul magic for one, and strengthened with a tiny sample of some weird indestructible metal we found in the Sack of the Maker last week. Around noon they finish up. They sew the back of my head back together and neutralize the paralytic and I get to drink a healing potion through a straw.
I should be fine after the healing potion, but they make me convalesce anyway. They put me in our comfiest chair and make lunch for me. It's only canned soup, but they use a Bunsen burner to heat it up, so it's still Heart of Fire delicious. Then they give me access to the detailed scan of the pipe that finished overnight. I start with the control system because it's the most understandable. It's mostly based on normal circuitry. I check through the paths and it seems mostly understandable. The command structure can modulate the power to the components in certain ways. The scan didn't 'see' the software, so I don't know exactly what ways it IS modulating them, but I know the limits of what the commands could be.
I check out the power systems next and those are a bit less understandable. It's not like the pipes plug into a wall outlet. But it does work on electricity, so at least I have a foundation to work from. There's a battery, but it doesn't have enough power to activate the device. The problem is that the main source of electricity seems to come from nowhere, or at least a device that doesn't seem to create power. In fact, the device mirrors one of the high energy components in smaller scale.
Then I get into the higher energy components. There are three main systems I can distinguish within it. I can determine which order they should be activated in, but I don't know what phenomena they create, so I don't know how long it takes for them to create them, so I don't know what order they happen in. Still, I've noticed a few interesting properties, so it's a start. And by that I mean that I have an idea of what I need to study. And it's specific enough that it's not textbooks, but individual journal articles. Unfortunately, I don't have access to journals with the basic online research library access that I have. I have to get a subscription to a technical journal service. One of the clones goes to tell the lawyers to get that for us. She also calls Tattletale for another lead on the Merchants, and goes grocery shopping.
By the time I'm done studying the scans, one clone is in the resource world with a group, and the other is out shopping. I take a half hour to stream tai-chi videos to my mesh inserts and go through the forms. It feels like I'm really getting better at it and I can feel my chi sloshing around inside me. Plus I laid down for hours this morning and sat for more hours this afternoon. I really need to move around. At least now I've got a mind and soul backup. Just need to figure out how to get a backup for my body.
I spend some time making up a big batch of qi pills. My clones have harvested spirit beasts from the resource world almost every day since I got it, so I have plenty of chi-rich meat stored up. Enough that I can actually start thinking about putting together a Foundation Establishing pill. Not that I can, yet. That takes a lot of rare reagents. But it is worthwhile looking into getting those reagents.
My lawyer told my clone that we won't get access today. It's good that we get access, but if I have to wait for access, I'll probably already be beyond what they have to offer in the field, so I apply my Promethean Hacking Apps to the protection of the journal sites and it slices right in. Really, they don't have very good security. It mostly just tells people they aren't authorized and they stop trying. Any actual attempt to bypass the security would probably succeed. Nobody tries because there's no money in it. Honestly, I might have been able to hack in without the hacking apps.
But now with appropriate things to study to start to understand the tinkertech, I dig into research. I investigate known properties of strange materials. And possible materials with strange properties. I study electrical interactions of those materials under the type of conditions I expect to see when the device functions. It's a very interesting project.
While I do that, my first clone comes back from the resource world and my second clone heads off to fight more Merchants. The first clone works on a cloning device and tries to run oversight for the first's operation. I'm busy reading journals. Many hours later, the second returns victorious. As previously, no extraordinary resistance. Guns were brandished, but those are not much of a threat when the shield is powered up. The longest part was giving statements to the police (and that was longer than the response time which is saying something).
My clones force dad to take me home for the night. Tomorrow's mes will need me to get some sleep.
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Thread starterHarper's Fairy Start date5/1/2026 Tags worm (parahumans) celestial forge (cyoa) taylor hebert
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#294
Day 26, Sunday January 30, 2011
+400CP 400CP banked
4 rolls:
Cannith Contemporary 200 CP Quality: Appearance
Infinitely Customizable 200 CP Quality: Design
Valuable Memories 300 CP Vehicles
Delorean DMC-12 400 CP Vehicles
Click to shrink...
That was a pretty decent set of rolls. I'm earning my way back up. Four choices and I could afford any of them. I look up Cannith and it's part of a setting for Dungeons and Dragons (at least on Aleph). I'd be tempted to try it to increase my magical crafting, except that it's in the Quality: Appearance field, which means it doesn't actually do magical crafting, it makes my crafts look better. The Delorean is another one that the source could be guessed. Back to the Future was a movie shortly after Scion showed up. It featured a time-traveling Delorean. I'm guessing that the Delorean I get would be able to travel through time and maybe fly too. But I should be able to figure out time travel on my own, so it seems like a waste to buy a perk for it.
The other two are a bit of a mystery. Infinitely Customizable in Quality: Design makes sense, I suppose. Although there's nothing specific to do a search about. I don't know how Valuable Memories could be a Vehicle, though. As curious as I am to find out, I decide against it. Instead, I lock in Infinitely Customizable and see what I get.
Spoiler: Infinitely Customizable (200 CP)
Infinitely Customizable (200 CP): It's not that your guns are bad, by any stretch of the imagination, it's just that they could be so, so much better. And now you can actually do that. In this world, tools and weapons are aided by nano-scale circuitry, which leaves a lot of room for improvement, typically in the form of power nodes being welded into specific places to provide extra power to certain subsystems of the weapon, to increase power output, ammo count/efficiency, and even unlock special abilities, like setting enemies on fire, or exploding violently. As an added benefit, you also get the ability to break weapons and tools down into parts - specifically frames, tools, tips, accessories, and upgrade chips, see the Notes section for more information - and reconfigure them to your liking. You can even upgrade those parts individually using power nodes.
200 CP banked
Quest prompt: You should get ready to fight off an Endbringer.
Well that was kind of a waste. I don't have any power nodes, and I don't know how to make them. So that whole part of the perk is useless. There is still the added benefit. I can break down weapons and tools into parts and reconfigure them. I suppose that means I could combine the toolkit with the Monkey Tool. But would that be a good idea? I can foresee situations in which that would be a positive and ones where it would be a negative. I settle on not trying that for now. Then I consider whether the assembler could be considered a tool. That might bear deeper scrutiny.
In any case, it was time to rise and shine. I get up, spin out a couple clones, and go for my morning run. I check messages, but there's nothing important. Back at home, there's a post-it stuck to the fridge reminding me to skip breakfast because I'm scheduled for surgery today. Yes, self, I'm a doctor too, you know. I take my qi pill anyway. Then I mosey over to the garage.
The clones have already prepped the surgical suite that came with my cybernetics power. I start getting really nervous. Someone is going to be cutting into my head, well, upper neck might be more accurate. Intellectually, I knew what was going to happen. And I had enough anesthetic that it shouldn't hurt. I would need to stay conscious during the operation, so only local anesthetics would be used. I would have a fresh healing potion with me the whole time (and a straw since I would by laying face down).
I can tell that the instruments have already been disinfected. The bed has already been adjusted for me. The anesthetic is prepped, surgical covers are ready, and the next step is for me to lay down on the table. I tremble. I'm going to cede control of my own fate ... to myselves admittedly, but still. They need to strap me down and paralyze me so I don't jostle them when they perform delicate adjustments. It's a scary prospect.
Je'Lu puts his hand in mine. He doesn't push, but the offer of support is clear. I start moving and he takes a step with me. A short moment later I'm at the surgical table and lying down. Shaving the tiny strip of hair along my nape isn't so bad. Getting injected with the paralytic is. That's when the panic starts setting in. I can't move, not even my mouth to tell them how scared I am. I can't invent my way out of this. I can't use trigrams. But the Arc of Embodiment doesn't require movement. I conjure an image of a sign that says 'Stop!' My clones stop.
"What's wrong? Does something hurt?"
'No.'
"Is it fear? Are you afraid because you cannot move?"
'Yes.'
"Then lay your fears down. You don't need to move. You have this sign to communicate with us. And I shall play the part of your hands for the duration of this procedure."
'Thank you.'
"May they continue?"
I pause a moment. 'Yes.'
I hardly notice the cut down and across the back of my neck. But a few strands of hair dangle down a bit further than they usually can. It's a little creepy. Then comes the drilling. Bone conduction takes the vibrations through the skull and into my ear bones. I couldn't avoid hearing it with even the best noise canceling headphones. I knew this would happen, but that does nothing to decrease my tension. One of the clones notices my blood pressure increasing and tries to calm me down. She ends up getting dad to lay on the floor in my sight. It helps a little.
The operation takes hours. Most of that is scribing runes and hexagrams and trigrams and such into my cortical stack, and not actually working directly on me. There are many hexagrams that apply to this situation. We are using Providing-For, Returning, Deliverance, Persevering, Intelligence Hidden was too appropriate not to include despite its darker connotations, so it was balanced with some Radiance, and of course Returning Maiden. There are fewer trigrams that are directly appropriate, but we do include some Skull and Nervous System.
Or at least that's what they're supposed to be doing. And I doubt plans have changed much in the hour between when I conjured them and when we started surgery. I ask what is going on with my magic sign. The clones start describing what they are doing while they do it. They didn't need to since they both knew the procedure, but it's good practice in medical theaters when you are not all the participants, so I don't feel bad for making them. At least that keeps me engaged for the rest of the procedure. Toward the end, they move the Fab-Unit over to apply some properties to the stack. It needs to be able to conduct Aeldari soul magic for one, and strengthened with a tiny sample of some weird indestructible metal we found in the Sack of the Maker last week. Around noon they finish up. They sew the back of my head back together and neutralize the paralytic and I get to drink a healing potion through a straw.
I should be fine after the healing potion, but they make me convalesce anyway. They put me in our comfiest chair and make lunch for me. It's only canned soup, but they use a Bunsen burner to heat it up, so it's still Heart of Fire delicious. Then they give me access to the detailed scan of the pipe that finished overnight. I start with the control system because it's the most understandable. It's mostly based on normal circuitry. I check through the paths and it seems mostly understandable. The command structure can modulate the power to the components in certain ways. The scan didn't 'see' the software, so I don't know exactly what ways it IS modulating them, but I know the limits of what the commands could be.
I check out the power systems next and those are a bit less understandable. It's not like the pipes plug into a wall outlet. But it does work on electricity, so at least I have a foundation to work from. There's a battery, but it doesn't have enough power to activate the device. The problem is that the main source of electricity seems to come from nowhere, or at least a device that doesn't seem to create power. In fact, the device mirrors one of the high energy components in smaller scale.
Then I get into the higher energy components. There are three main systems I can distinguish within it. I can determine which order they should be activated in, but I don't know what phenomena they create, so I don't know how long it takes for them to create them, so I don't know what order they happen in. Still, I've noticed a few interesting properties, so it's a start. And by that I mean that I have an idea of what I need to study. And it's specific enough that it's not textbooks, but individual journal articles. Unfortunately, I don't have access to journals with the basic online research library access that I have. I have to get a subscription to a technical journal service. One of the clones goes to tell the lawyers to get that for us. She also calls Tattletale for another lead on the Merchants, and goes grocery shopping.
By the time I'm done studying the scans, one clone is in the resource world with a group, and the other is out shopping. I take a half hour to stream tai-chi videos to my mesh inserts and go through the forms. It feels like I'm really getting better at it and I can feel my chi sloshing around inside me. Plus I laid down for hours this morning and sat for more hours this afternoon. I really need to move around. At least now I've got a mind and soul backup. Just need to figure out how to get a backup for my body.
I spend some time making up a big batch of qi pills. My clones have harvested spirit beasts from the resource world almost every day since I got it, so I have plenty of chi-rich meat stored up. Enough that I can actually start thinking about putting together a Foundation Establishing pill. Not that I can, yet. That takes a lot of rare reagents. But it is worthwhile looking into getting those reagents.
My lawyer told my clone that we won't get access today. It's good that we get access, but if I have to wait for access, I'll probably already be beyond what they have to offer in the field, so I apply my Promethean Hacking Apps to the protection of the journal sites and it slices right in. Really, they don't have very good security. It mostly just tells people they aren't authorized and they stop trying. Any actual attempt to bypass the security would probably succeed. Nobody tries because there's no money in it. Honestly, I might have been able to hack in without the hacking apps.
But now with appropriate things to study to start to understand the tinkertech, I dig into research. I investigate known properties of strange materials. And possible materials with strange properties. I study electrical interactions of those materials under the type of conditions I expect to see when the device functions. It's a very interesting project.
While I do that, my first clone comes back from the resource world and my second clone heads off to fight more Merchants. The first clone works on a cloning device and tries to run oversight for the first's operation. I'm busy reading journals. Many hours later, the second returns victorious. As previously, no extraordinary resistance. Guns were brandished, but those are not much of a threat when the shield is powered up. The longest part was giving statements to the police (and that was longer than the response time which is saying something).
My clones force dad to take me home for the night. Tomorrow's mes will need me to get some sleep.
+300CP 500CP banked
3 rolls:
Crafting Tree 200 CP Knowledge: Abilities and Skills PERK ALREADY PURCHASED
Reclaimer 200 CP Quality: Resources
Absolute Scientific Mastery 600 CP Knowledge: Abilities and Skills
Click to shrink...
Not much choice today. Not enough points for Absolute Scientific Mastery, which sounded awesome. But Reclaimer is part of Quality: Resources, and I could probably use more of that. I lock that one in and move on.
Spoiler: Reclaimer (200 CP)
Reclaimer (200 CP): Rare is the heretek with wealth or connections enough to acquire the resources to pursue innovation without raising suspicion. Most must make do with whatever they can scavenge or build for themselves, and fortune seems to often favor them when harvesting useful components from wrecked machines. More often than not, the most delicate and valuable pieces of technology can be pulled intact from wrecks you find or create.
300 CP banked
Quest prompt: Did you ever figure out why Emma turned on you?
Ignoring for a moment the complete lack of context for the word 'heretek', that's an okay power. I'll get lucky when scavenging tech. I might have been disappointed if it were a six hundred CP ability. But it was pretty good for two hundred. And now I'm spoiled. Half of my powers would be good powers on their own. And I get all of them and the opportunity for more. I should be grateful. But does my power HAVE to remind me that my best friend betrayed me?
I don't know why Emma turned on me, thank you very much. I don't even know how to go about figuring that out. What makes a person betray their closest friend? It's not like I can go back in time and watch Emma to figure out what happened... actually I potentially CAN do that. And that kicks the time travel watch up my priority list a little bit. But despite my Insightful perk speeding up my research time, it still takes days to research and more days to assemble even simple things from Urkel's intellect. Time travel might still take a month. So I can't really figure it out today.
I get dressed, summon two clones, and go out for my run. It's helped my fitness level a lot, so I need to keep my good habits up. Plus, I kind of want the zen emptiness of running. It would help me forget about Emma. Of course, with that goal in mind, I don't achieve it. I spend my run stewing over the betrayal. Old news, but the emotions it evokes are stronger than ever. I end up not focusing on the running and I go slower than usual and end up getting to Tai Chi late. Je'Lu is there before me, woken up in time by one of my clones. And I also see Dad joining us for the practice. And that just makes me uncomfortable with the situation. And when we start, he's still pretty horrible despite the quick lessons that I've given him. So stiff and still trying to copy the moves, but not noticing any of the important subtleties. On top of all that, it feels like I'm not doing as well as I did last time on Friday.
I try to shake off that feeling in kickboxing class. That goes well. Or, at least, it feels like I punch and kick things harder. It feels like I am getting my frustration out. At the very least it tires me out. The feeling doesn't last when I follow that up with some weight lifting. Every time I look at someone doing the same exercise I was just doing, it seems like they're using at least twice as much weight as I was. All in all, it makes me feel weak. After a while, I slump down against the wall and collapse in on myself.
"You okay?"
I look up to see the old guy who helped me get signed up at this gym, Mickey Graham.
"Yeah, I suppose. Just feeling weak?"
"Weak like sick? Or weak like you can't curl as much as Jimmy there?" I looked up to see Jimmy the Beefcake doing bicep curls with sixty-five pound weights.
"The latter."
"Well, don't worry about that. Can you curl more than you could last week?"
"Yes."
"Then you're making progress. That's the only important part. He's been working at it for eight years. You've been at it for one week. Who would you expect to be better at curls?"
"I suppose I'm setting unrealistic standards for myself."
"Yeah, probably. In addition to the time he has put in, he also has the advantage of being a guy. Guys tend to build upper body strength easier than girls."
"I knew that."
"Then don't compare yourself to him. I know, this gym doesn't have many other girls for you to compare yourself to. But the way I see it, that just makes it more important that you push yourself and be as good as you can be. So you can be the standard for the next girl to aspire to."
"You're pretty good at the pep talks."
"Thanks. Wish I was as good at running this business."
"Let me have a crack at it."
"Eh, why not. But gimme another set of reps first."
"Reps on what?"
"Whatever you were doing that got you down."
"Okay, whatever." I do another set of triceps kickbacks with my puny three pound weights. But even though it burns enough that I can't finish them, I feel better ending on that failure because it's the pain that comes with gain.
I put down the weights and head to the office. Mister Graham's files are a mess. His checkbook isn't balanced, his computer is barely functional, and his records are all covered in sweat and coffee stains. It takes two hours to put together a coherent picture of the business and in the end it's a mixed bag.
"Okay, so your income is down four percent, which is pretty fantastic considering you're doing no advertising. Doing a little targeted advertising could be a big help. The biggest revenue source was your jiu-jitsu classes, but your Tuesday and Thursday night beginners classes have had a terrible retention rate since a year and a half ago."
"Are you saying I have to fire Sammy?"
"No. I'm just saying that the product he delivers to your customers isn't something that they come back for more of. It could be he could work better in a different time, difficulty or sport. It's your job to figure out why people aren't sticking with jiu-jitsu with your gym when they start with Sammy, whoever that is." I move on. "Also, you wasted your money on new business compliance signs this year since there were no significant changes to the regulations. But that was only maybe a thousand. I don't know enough to say if you are overpaying in any area, but I could probably figure it out with a little research." I had already done the research on the awesome computer in my head, but it might seem suspicious to have too much knowledge right away.
"Wow. How did you get so good at business stuff?"
I really didn't know. The knowledge just popped into my head one morning. "Magic?"
"Heh heh. Right."
"I've got something this afternoon and I really should get ready for it. See you later?"
"Sure, sure."
I take the bus home and take a healing potion and shower and get ready for fencing class. I get to Clarendon ten minutes early and wait for people to show up. About five minutes later the instructor shows up to let the early birds in and I rush to get a practice sword.
"Taylor. Good, you're here." He puts his gloved palm out. "Lunge and hit my hand."
I give it the best thrust I could and manage to hit his hand. "Again." And I manage to hit it again. "Good. Now parry." He sent a slow thrust at me that I deflected. "And again." One more attack that I parry. "Good. Put a uniform on. Joyce called in sick so there's a spare. But I'm trusting you not to hurt anyone. If you start feeling like you no longer have that degree of control, be sure to stop yourself."
I am thrilled to be trusted to actually practice swordplay. I line up with the other novice fencers for the lesson to begin. Then my stomach falls when I see a certain redhead enter the gym with her favorite thug crony. This is supposed to be free from Emma. But there she is, paying the dues for a lesson.
I try to tough it out. I know she is going to be in with the rank novices that still need to learn to Lunge and Parry. I partner with Javier, who is way better than I am because he's been doing this since the start of the school year. But it's still a chance to do real drills against a real opponent. So I try to obey every order the senior student gives.
A few minutes later, Emma and Sophia are goofing around with each other near me and I hear her say loudly. "Of course Taylor comes here. She's so ugly it's the only way she can get a guy to poke her."
I miss the thrust I was attempting. I let Javier have a series of tries. He is better at it.
When my turn comes up again, Emma blurts out "This sport is perfect for Hebert because it lets her cover up her face!"
My thrust heads towards Javier's hand, but he parries it easily.
"Hebert! That thrust was not under control. Off the piste."
"Of course she sucks at it. She sucks EVERYTHING."
I drop my sword and mask and run away. I take the bus back to the garage before I realize I still have the uniform on. I'll have to return it. It wasn't even that good of an insult.
I sit down to play with the AI seed, but Je'lu comes over, "Perhaps you are not in the right mindset to be raising a potentially dangerous child right now?"
I had to agree my emotions were running high at the moment.
"Tell me what happened?"
"Emma."
"Ah. She followed you into a place you thought was safe."
I nod.
"Was it safe, though? The first time you tried to go to this class, you were abducted by Coil."
"Oh, no. I need to stop fencing."
"No. Not at all. You managed to defeat a superpowered criminal mastermind. How hard could an angry teenager be compared to that?"
I laugh despite myself. "I had help for that."
"And don't you have help for this?" He put his arm over my shoulder in a little side-hug. "Perhaps you could give your father and I a review of Tai Chi and then we could get back to our game of Dungeons and Dragons. I have a new adventure called the Forge of Fury."
Online classes were boring once again. But I was distracted by the upcoming visit, worried about how it will go. So I actually had to think about what was just said when the teacher called on me. But it only took a fraction of a second to recall the earlier bit of the lesson on the fall of the Eastern Bloc and come up with the answer, Gorbachev. Oh well. I had no problem with homework, and no problem making it through the day.
Then on to the most exciting chore of the day, delivering healing potions to a hospital. It wasn't very complicated. Just a simple drop-off. But I got to commandeer the armor from the adventuring clone and use the fancy tinkertech motorbike. I had to do the 'store the motorcycle in my soul' trick and sneak out to my usual appearing place. On the plus side, the stealth runes in my armor have really helped eliminate the last traces of clues as to my location. I noticed a photographer staking the place out. So I went behind him and appeared with my motorcycle before tapping him on the shoulder.
"You looking for something in particular?" The photographer startled and stumbled forward.
"Guess not. Later!" I hopped on the bike and jetted away before he could get a good picture.
I let myself have a chuckle about that. But once I was away I made sure to slow down to safe and legal speeds. Zooming around was fun, but it wouldn't present a responsible image of a tinker who wanted to sell life-saving liquids.
I pulled carefully into the hospital lot and walked into the front entrance. It wasn't an entrance for emergencies or even sick people. It was an entrance for workers and visitors. Still, there was a reception desk and the hospital administrator was there waiting for me. I asked to make my delivery. He escorted me up to the second floor secured pharmacy where I was to deliver the healing potions and introduced me. I presented the vials and the clerk there wrote out a receipt for them. Then I was done, and I could head back home.
I used a different spot to disappear on the way home. No need to attract additional attention. When I got there, the other clone nearly stripped me bare, taking the armor back for an afternoon adventuring. Which reminded me that sharing one set of armor was getting difficult. So I queued up another set of armor to be fabricated. It wouldn't have the enchantments of the first set, but that would be fine for ordinary use.
Then I spent the afternoon getting ready for a visit. I hung up curtains around the pipe so they wouldn't even be able to tell they were in a garage. Then I moved all the stuff I don't want Uber and Leet to see to the forging area. So went Roberta, the Fab-Unit, the synthesizer, the medical and cybernetic gear including the diagnostic computer, the vial of Extremis, all the alchemy gear and supplies, carving kit, and AI seed. Everything I could move that the gaming duo hadn't already seen. I wanted to move the R&D center too, but it was fixed in place. I couldn't even budge it with Je'lu and dad helping. We got this done in plenty of time because I wasn't willing to risk the pair seeing too much. I even rigged up some wooden stairs going up to the pipe and a holder for the scanner so it can be scanning while they arrive.
But I'm still done early. So I went down my to-do list. I can't read as well as the original Taylor with the computer in her head, but I can work on magic just fine. And I had a long-term task with Roberta to figure out the Ritual of Propagation so I can turn monster capes into humans. It only took minutes of mystical investigations when Roberta came to a startling conclusion.
"You aren't human."
"I am! I have been for fifteen years. There's no other species on this... No. I'm not. I have a power that turned me into a Gerudo. Which is pretty similar to human, but not the same thing."
"Exactly. So you can't lead the ritual to turn people into humans."
"Oh. But could we design the ritual?"
"Yes. But it would need a human to lead the ritual and without mystically empowered blood, it would take more of it."
"Multiple gallons. You would have to kill several humans to acquire that much blood at the same time. And you have previously expressed distaste for ending other human lives."
"Or take a pint of blood from hundreds of different individuals maybe?"
"That would work too, even better in some regards because the genetic diversity of the multiple samples will help to better match the target genome. But at that point the secrecy you desire is at the mercy of the chattiest of the hundreds."
"Roberta, humans use pints of blood for medical procedures. If I could acquire a lot of blood packets, would that work."
"That could work well. However, I may have to adjust the ritual to account for the decay of the samples in question."
About that time fleshy Taylor came back from fencing class early. She was upset. And she still had the fencing outfit on. I sent dad and Je'lu out to comfort her. I didn't look forward to when I poofed and was her.
"Uh... so let's get to it. What's the first step?"
"It would probably be simplest to develop the Ritual of Propagation to turn people into Gerudo first. Then re-examine it and attempt to change it to human. So let's start by examining a tiny drop of your blood."
What is it with Roberta and blood magic? We started with small-scale rituals designed to turn ants into Gerudo. They failed, of course, but the modes of failure gave us a lot of information to refine our technique.
After a couple hours, the clone that had been in the resource world came back. She was tired, so I swapped into the armor (after giving it a quick wash) so I could greet Uber and Leet and she took over the magical experimentation. I started the scanner near the pipe and sat down to wait for my guests.
The scanner was still scanning when Uber and Leet showed up seven minutes late. First, Uber's head slowly rose out of the blackness that was painted on top of the green pipe. He knelt frozen as he rose, then once he was completely out came to life and hopped off. A few seconds later, Leet repeated the process. My mind raced to put things together. One of the subassemblies I identified must have been a stasis generator, and I already have a guess as to which one. That's good, that gives me ideas. A stasis field would be good to have for the cloning pod. I just had to figure out how it worked and how to assemble things inside it. That also made me reconsider the other subsystems and what made them tick.
"...her alone, she got an idea from seeing the pipes in action."
"Oh, hey. Uh, welcome. To my workshop. Um..." Leet had a black bodysuit with white armory bits and a giant spiked skull pauldron on one shoulder. Uber wore shiny plate mail with a shield and hammer.
"Thanks for having us. No worries. I've seen Leet zone out like that lots of times."
"Yeah. Sorry. Before we go any further, I shouldn't have to say it, but nothing you see here gets discussed with anyone who is not here. I don't want power details leaking out."
"Yeah. No problem. We get it."
"Good. Thank you. Anyway, in here is the break room." I showed them into the mini-kitchen we used to sit and eat and play games. Je'Lu and my father were both waiting there in their armors. "And these are... uh... my associates?"
"So the tall one is your dad you kept safe at the Palanquin, right? Do you two have names you want to go by? Cape names are fine, just so we have something to call you."
"Well, since you already figured that much out, you can call me Superdad."
*snrk* "Nice to meetcha, Superdad." "Such a terrible name."
"Fine. What's an element related to Palladium?"
"Nickel and Platinum are in the same group."
"I'm not fancy enough to be called Platinum. Call me Nick."
"Okay. Much better than Superdad. How about the third member of your group? What should we call you?"
"Oh, Pilgrim would be fine."
"Okay, Nickel, Pilgrim, and Palladium. Sounds good. Leet?"
"Yeah, nice to meet you and all. Oh, hey, you play D&D? Nice. Play any Neverwinter?"
"Uh, no."
"That's okay. We came dressed for Diablo. I'm the Paladin, he's a Necromancer. Any chance we could get you to play the Amazon, Assassin or Sorceress? If Nick and Pil want to join in, we could pad out Nick with fake muscles to be the Barbarian and maybe rig up a way for Pilgrim to be a Druid. "
"Or the enemies from Diablo 1 are pretty similar if you want to do the Warrior, Rogue, Sorcerer trio. We might want to re-gear for that, though."
"Hold on. It's just... powers are weird. Let me show you what we have first." I lead them through the research center to where the resource world portal is in the workshop. "Come through here."
All five of us go through and look upon a vast landscape brimming with raw materials. "This is the resource world. There are ample patches of coal, iron ore, copper ore, even some uranium ore all just sitting on the surface. There should be a normal distribution of natural resources under the surface. There might be a few abnormal resources from games or whatnot scattered about, too. There are packs of monsters roaming about, mostly weak ones waiting to be slaughtered. But occasionally you might find a spirit beast, and those can be very dangerous. When monsters are killed, some of them drop resources like gold coins or runes or whatnot. Many leave behind meats or useful bits of carcass. Everything is all mixed together. But nowhere will you find anything sentient or made by anything sentient. Zombies exist, but they were never human. Which all... makes no sense."
"Wow."
"Wow is right. What even is your power?"
"Well, she never said it was HER power." My dad surprised me by interjecting.
"Oh... Well, sweet synergy then."
"So the creatures are all spread out. I was figuring you could use your camera drone to scout around. Or I could try to make some copies of it. Then we would have locations for the nearby critters and we could plan a route to maximize our effectiveness."
"Okay. Good point. A wide-range scouting would also get us a catalog of creatures we could compare to games so we know what to plan for."
"Yeah. Let's head in that direction. I believe there are several pockets of creatures that we haven't dealt with yet."
We took an hour fighting random groups of whatever the resource world wanted to throw at us. Only once the pair knew what to expect from the resource world did we return to my base.
"So, could I please scan your snitch?"
"What about this? I've made so many things. And a lot of them aren't even broken. Just in PRT lockup. If I could get those things back, I could be back in my prime. So we steal that stuff back and you can scan everything I've made and you can even keep the broken stuff to repair on your own."
"That is so illegal. I want to be a hero. I'm not helping a villain steal from law enforcement!"
"Then why are you even helping us with these shoots?"
"Because if you're shooting episodes in that world, then you're not fucking up peoples lives with dumbshit hijinks in this one."
"Bro, Palladium. Calm down. We have a good thing here. We have a half dozen potential episodes waiting in that other world. We just have to shoot them. And Palladium is willing to help with that. That's a good thing. Maybe we can earn some cash and respect. That will help us recover what was lost, even if Palladium doesn't help with that part."
"Well said, dear boy."
"Now, Palladium wants to scan the Snitch. I don't think it would be a terrible idea to let her do it. Imagine if it were damaged. Maybe she would be able to replace it."
"It was my very best. My first."
"I know. It's okay. The scan won't hurt it, right?"
Leet shrugged. I chimed in "No, it's a completely nondestructive scan."
"And she is willing to help us in some SMALL way for the privilege of scanning your tech, right?"
"Sure."
"So what videos are we going to shoot, and what do we need to pull them off? Maybe we can come to an arrangement."
Thus began the long slow analysis of the targets available in my resource world. After much analysis and discussion, Uber and Leet found the potential for eight episodes based on: Arcanum of Steamworks And Magick Obscura, Diablo 1, Diablo 2, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Final Fantasy IV, Gemcraft, and Starcraft. They already had equipment for Diablo 2. Diablo 1 was even easier. They wanted help with the steampunk aesthetic of Arcanum, but I only really had the three recipes from there and none of them was particularly iconic. Elder scrolls was easy enough to re-use old equipment. They wanted help with Fallout and that was about the easiest type of crafting for me to do, so I promised sets of equipment for that, but I would end up keeping it once we were done shooting. They were able to find characters in Final Fantasy IV that could re-use old equipment. Starcraft was also easy enough to repurpose old stuff for, although it was significantly more shooty stuff than the Diablo 1 and Elder Scrolls repurposed stuff. Gemcraft was a problem for them. They didn't have much that fit the powers and aesthetic of the game. I promised I would think about it, but I didn't have any good ideas on how to do that.
In the end, the promise to make the Fallout stuff and the promise to make more scouting drones if I could was enough to secure the scan of the Snitch that I wanted. And with that, and a scan of the pipes in action as the duo left, I was bushed out and ready to evaporate when Taylor went to bed.