Chapter 18.5
- Location
- OK
I decided to try and scrounge up some money this week. I needed a Thinker's opinion on something, and if I were in her position, I'd probably charge for it.
I started out doing crucial stuff for my plan, the most important of which was twofold.
I rented out a small building on the boardwalk, and hired a company to install high-speed internet there, buying a laptop and installing it with the latest Dragon's Keep VPN Software.
There was one other thing that I had to buy, I felt, but it still gave me an ominous feeling, as I went into the local AT&T and set myself up with a simple cell-phone for my business.
To their credit, the cashier there was just as soulless as any other individual who had their soul sucked out by retail, not somehow tainted further by my irrational feelings on the matter.
They failed to bat an eye at me as I purchased a fancy touch-screen phone and the associated data plan, and didn't seem all that shocked when the costumed-cape-lady paid in cash for it.
As I walked outside, my new work phone stuffed into a little grass-pouch that I sprouted on my belt, it felt a bit too heavy, and for a brief moment I entertained the thought that there was lead in it.
After I crossed the street, I sat down on a bus bench and pulled it out, trying to familiarize myself with the advanced touch-screen controls and all the little icons that made up its 'Apps'.
Taking a deep breath, I decided to focus on the curiosity I felt instead of the slight dread. For one thing, I couldn't help but wonder if the way I felt about this damn thing would alter the way my magic affected it.
It wasn't worth testing on my work-phone, but I had a bunch of junkers in a box back at home.
Writing down my own phone number on a piece of paper with some mana to remember it, I pocketed the phone and made my way towards the building I rented.
Since it was right on the edges of the boardwalk, I'd probably get a lot of attention there, so I wouldn't be able to really store anything important at the place unless I wanted it stolen, but at the same time, gimmicky cape-stuff is one of the big attractions of a tourist-trap, so I was certain that I'd get more than a few customers of note there.
That, however, wasn't the important part of my business idea. That came a few days later when my internet was finally installed at the place, and I got the time to set up a simple website with some more money spent on getting that up and running properly.
I wasn't the first person or the last to try doing Rogue Business over the internet, so it thankfully didn't involve any actual coding on my part. Just a small fee to the people at RogueFire.com, and I had not only my own page there to attract attention and get me in with the community, but also direct links to the website that was produced in my name with their help.
SageProduces.com was officially online, selling Saffron Spice at a ridiculous price!
I immediately got a lot of really uncomfortable and downright disturbing requests from the e-mail associated with it, but boxes of spice were already being mailed out from my spot on the boardwalk. It would take a while for the stuff to arrive, and for reviews to start coming in, but when they did, hoo boy, I'd be making real money then!
Only one person personally came to the shop to pick up their order, interestingly enough. A man in an utterly immaculate suit who was also apparently picking up the biggest order.
I was a bit stunned by how casually he had stuffed the roll of bills into my hands, but I certainly wasn't going to complain if someone really wanted that much saffron!
1d20 vs 1d20 = 16, 6
The next day, I called Lisa around noon, prepared to try and get her help with the weird Thinker-Vision that I got last week. She seemed delighted to hear from me.
"Hi Lisa, it's me. I've got a bunch of money, and I'd like your help with something," I ask, and she 'ooooh's in response.
"Good going rich girl! I see you managed to avoid getting shot. So, how can the bay's loveliest psychic help out our dashing rogue?" she responds coyly.
"I-" I start, before she interrupts me.
"Ooh, that is bad. I'll meet you at the usual spot, unless you have somewhere in mind?" she asks.
I shake my head before remembering that we're on the phone, but she answers as if she saw it.
"Great. I'll see you there in five! Bring the big wad of cash!" Lisa finishes, hanging up.
I put the phone in its receiver, hand going to my face. "She's going to be the death of me," I mutter, already exasperated in the whole minute it took that entire conversation to transpire.
I jogged up to the cafe that we had gone to last time, and this time, Lisa was waiting outside for me, waving with a friendly expression.
She leans in as I walk through the door she opened up for me, and mutters in a low tone "Don't take out the money until later. Wrong time for it," she advises, and we both take a seat near the window.
After ordering drinks for both of us, Lisa temples her hands together and gives me a smirk. "So, what's the situation?"
I blink. "I assumed you already knew?" I say, my statement trailing off with a questioning lilt.
Her smirk turns into a grin. "Nah. I was just fucking with you on the phone. All I could tell was that it's serious, and I mean, you don't have to be Sherlock on adderall to figure out that little miss 'absolutely no lawbreaking' would need a very good reason to contract a humble white-collar criminal," she explains, raising an eyebrow and daring me to challenge it.
"Plus, I needed to keep you from explaining everything over your home phone. Again," she offers.
Nodding, I start to explain. "Last week, I was taking Panacea back to my place, when something strange happened. I've got an Eiedic Memory of all the experiments I do with my powers, no matter how convoluted, but in the middle of walking home, I suddenly 'remembered' tests that I hadn't done. I remembered the results of Uranium bullets going through my ambient energy field, and lead pellets as well."
I scratch my leg remembering part of the unseen experiments. "I was made aware of the experimental results of an armor-piercing round going through the energy stored in my leg."
Lisa looks intrigued. "But none of that happened. No bullet holes, no guys with guns, your power just logged a bunch of new tests for you that never happened, is that the long and short of it?" she asks.
I nod.
She scratches her chin, taking a sip of the overpriced coffee she ordered.
"Do one," she demands.
"One what?"
"A test. I'm testing my own little theory, so you'll have to do that tinkering thing in front of me, if you don't mind. Just get ready to do a test, and then wait for my signal," she insists.
With a shrug, I pull out some silicon, a piece of cobalt, and a chunk of wood, intent on testing a transmutation result.
[Pull-Request, Please], I don't hear from Tattletale.
[Data], I don't say.
But I remember.
"You're going to turn that wood into something else,"/"Cobalt into Silicon into Wood transmuted in an environment of-" we both say at the same time.
Lisa looks impressed, and I just look at her with some awe. I remember the test result, but I never actually did it.
"You're a dirty little Thinker-Trump aren't you?" she says with glee.
"Holy shit you are. Me trying to figure out what you were doing? You somehow picked up on that. You somehow remember tests even if they happened in someone else's thinker-power, no matter how dumbass or convoluted the test is," she explains, huffing with silent laughter.
"That's just obscene. You know how hard it is for Precogs to predict Thinkers? And here you are, you're a Precog that can only predict Thinkers."
She leans in with a downright malicious smile. "There are capes who would kill to have a power like that in their corner."
After that, she leans back, putting her hands behind her head. "And meanwhile, here I am, getting paid to have your power backing me up. Lucky me," she says with a wink.
I think about what she said. My power is somehow pulling tests that only happened in some Thinker's predictions. "So who was it that-"
She answers before I can finish. "Called the hit on you, then decided not to? Little shitstain by the name of Coil," she says, looking a bit embarrassed.
"So, I'm going to have to level with you, I gave you some bad info the last time we met. Remember those people I said were Empire goons? Well, my power can give me bad answers if it gets bad info, and it got bad info. Coil's the one who's been staking out that little operation. The Empire just has fingers in the regular boardwalk enforcement, and Coil's guys just happened to also be posing as Empire."
She shrugs. "So that's my bad. You still got them off of me long enough to find that little nugget out, though, so I'll cut you a discount."
"Right. Thank you for telling me about Coil and my new power. I'm not sure how much thinker consultation costs, but..." I begin.
"Not for that. You'll be paying for that another way. I'm talking about my retainer fee. One way or another, I want in on that pie you're baking, because it's going to be a big one when it's done," she says.
"I told you I'd keep my nose clean when you struck it rich, didn't I? You pay me a few thousand dollars a month, and you'll have yourself a full-time thinker on staff. I'll even put on a silly costume if it gets me a signing bonus," she jokes.
I think about her offer very carefully.
[][Lisa] Hire Lisa and make her part of your burgeoning business.
(Profit Drop, Full Time Thinker Consultation at no additional charge)
[][Lisa] Don't hire Lisa
(Retain full profits. Advanced Thinker Consultation on subjects such as Powers, Gang Activity, and Events will require a minimum of 1000$ per use)
[][Lisa] Hire Lisa, and unironically make her wear a "Silly Costume".
(Sharp Profit Drop, Full Time Thinker Consultation at no additional charge. Lisa becomes a proper cape in Sage's 'Group', and will assist in the field as needed.)
She claps her hands, seemingly accepting of my answer. "Now then, onto my fee for today. I hate him, you hate him, and he'd be satisfied if the two of us had some extra holes in our skulls. You help me deal with Coil, and I'll help you with Coil."
She sighs, revealing some of the stress that this situation has put her under. "Eventually, he's just going to press-gang us into his little group he's putting together, or just have us shot, and while you might like walking around in spandex, I really don't fancy the idea of playing cops and robbers for a Bond-Villain Wannabee,"
Ignoring the mortification I felt at the idea of 'walking around in spandex', I nodded.
"I don't respond well to being threatened," I agree.
Lisa smiles, more maliciously than before. "I thought you might say that."
Lisa's idea held merit, and when I got home, I drafted up plans to make one when I had the time.
It was clever. Lisa wanted in on my anti-thinker power, some kind of device that would react when Lisa was in danger, warning me a mana test, and thus letting me warn her that she was the subject of one of Coil's thinker-predictions. If we knew in advance that we were the focus of a thinker's prediction, then we could react accordingly, and at least be on our guard.
I wasn't sure how exactly I would implement that, considering how mana likes to decay without a source of energy. There was one or two ways I could get around that, primarily using dust engines, but my only experiments with those were large and cumbersome.
Then again, if Lisa just had mana of her own, I could power it off of that... It's the sort of thing I didn't feel comfortable with unless I knew she was on my side.
I decided I would get a few tests done while I considered my next course of action.
I set up the blast shields again, and slowly shoved my basin of water into the middle of the room, before blocking off everything, and having a golem drag my Thunderbolt Iron Sword into the basin of water.
A bit of Reroll Magic to fill it up, toss the sword in, and...
1d20 vs 1d20 = 17, 4
When the magic faded, I lowered the shields and went to check the results.
The sword had transformed, becoming a large, crude, Adamantite sword instead of a Thunderbolt Iron one.
Instead of raw, unstable force magic, the blade now possessed a truly rugged durability and was made of a speckled red metal that glowed on its own.
All in all, though, it didn't seem that much better than the Thunderbolt Iron one, aside from its admittedly cool appearance.
At least this one wasn't liable to jump out of my hand when I swung it with amplified force.
My next test, I made a Pentacle out of copper wire, and ran enspelled Cast Iron and Wrought Iron magic through it, using a spell to make the magic behave like electricity so it would flow through.
The mana behaved exactly as I expected it, beams of solid magic wrapping around one another and surrounding the pentacle in a protective dome of interwoven fibers of magic.
It seemed to be far more durable than their normal counterparts, but because the pentacle only protected what was immediately near it, I would either need to figure out a way to enlarge the sphere of protection, or I would simply need to make a giant ringed pentagram on the ground to protect stuff inside of it. Or contain things within it...
I could use mana other than Thaumic Mana to power a rune, with predictable effects and minimal natural attunement.
My final test was simpler. I took dust made of powdered Salt, Silicon, Graphite, Copper, Chromium, and sawdust, and ignited a few runes made up of them.
The effects were predictable but still intriguing. A pentacle drawn with salt powder created a dome of separation that seemed to cut through anything caught in it during its creation, a cross drawn in sawdust created a large grid of liquid plant magic, one that seemed to make the perfect scaffolding for growing plants up into the shape of, and, one interesting trick I had learned, I could use a rune made of Silicon Powder to make a magical effect, and then toss silicon beads into it to grow a threadbare material as a result.
If I used a line of silicon dust, and ignited it in front of a metal plate, the mana would crash into it, petrifying it as a result. I wondered if I could make something like a powder gun. A barrel filled with iron dust could release obscene amounts of force if I ignited it, I imagined, and if all that dust were packed into a line-shaped rune, a barrel?
Could be fun to find out...
I also found out that the Inward Space Rune, if drawn in Copper Dust, did something... Strange. It did the exact same thing, but the gravity it created, I could tell, was somehow a product of time instead of space, or even a blend of the two.
I guess it made sense that time and space were similar. I read something along those lines in a book once, I'm sure.
I also figured out that I don't need to draw runes using dust. Using copper and a knife, I tried cutting a Triangular rune into a piece of copper tubing, and when I washed mana over it from the right angle, the result was a beam of earthwind dust, with a bit of copper magic mixed into it as it attuned very slightly.
I could simply carve runes onto things, so long as I had a mana supply to feed into the right part of it. I strongly suspected I could simply make runes with nothing but willpower as well. The runes do their magical effects because of the movements the magic makes.
And well, I can move mana just as well as a channel cut into a piece of copper can.
More Business Actions to come. I didn't forget about the PRT stuff!
