Law of the Sword (Worm/Destiny Quest)

I am numb. The lady in front of me is talking, but all I hear is a droning static. I can't remember her name even though I know she told me, I can't even commit myself to identifying parts of her face. My limbs feel like they are separated from me at the seams, and my heart feels like it is hanging in a hole blown through my chest. It has been… a week? Maybe more, maybe less. Everything has faded to this static permeating my thoughts and senses.

They're dead.

That's the only coherent thought I can hold onto.

They're dead.

The lady keeps talking, I might be responding, I'm not sure. A few words slip through the haze as I try to pay attention. 'Food' 'sleep' 'collapse' the effort it takes to try to listen isn't worth the few meaningless words I manage to catch, so I stop.

We move at some point, leaving the office on pins and needle legs. We walk to a car, and I am driven somewhere. It's not until I walk in the house's front door that I realize that I am home. I turn around, but the door is closed, and the lady is nowhere to be seen. I somehow end up laying on my bed, looking up at the ceiling. Like an avalanche, a small thought gets loose from the fog and starts to fill my attention.

This is the Empire's fault. I don't suddenly fill with energy or emotion, but I can feel the static to burn away. Since the night I was given the news, my head has been emptier than ever before, and I can finally begin to appreciate the clarity. The static isn't gone, but I can feel my body again. Everything aches, and my stomach feels like it is yelling at me.

I sit up too fast and have to take a moment as a small wave of dizziness hits me. Glancing at my window and a bit confused to see that it is dark out, wasn't it day time when I arrived? I can't remember. Moving downstairs, I make myself a simple PB&J while I try to plan.

What am I going to do? The first thought that pops into my mind is to kill them all, but I quickly push it aside since that is a quick way to get myself killed. Unless my power would stop that? I don't know, I just know my power has something to do with killing. God, I hope I'm not the next Butcher, aren't they supposed to have voices in their head? I am finally free of one voice, I don't want another one. I shake my head and try to refocus.

A thought jumps out to me. I need to make a sword. My brows furrow, a sword? Why not a gun? But my power doesn't give me anymore feelings. Aren't Tinker powers supposed to tell you how to make something? Well, I don't think I'm a Tinker, that's the first time I've had the… feeling? Idea? To make anything with my power.

On the other hand, do I need to go after them now? The trail is probably cold by now, whatever that means. Maybe if I watch the area, I'll find the people that did it? There's no way of knowing who the culprits are, though…

I rest my head in my hands. In the movies, the person that is going out for revenge already has the 'skills' to find whoever, and it's not explained further. I have no idea how to go about looking for someone that I don't know anything about.

I try to prod at the nebulous idea of 'killing' that my power gives me when I try to trigger my power. The obvious solution is to kill something and see what happens, but that also seems like a quick way to have something bad happen. What if I start a zombie apocalypse?

The idea of hunting something down does make me strangely… giddy. I've never considered myself a violent person, but the idea of killing those responsible makes me smile. Maybe it's only because I've never had a reason to be violent before.

Stop, Roman, you need to plan. I slap my cheeks to refocus myself.

There are three options that I can see. Start hunting down the empire, make a sword, or go to the PRT. I could also do none of that and try to figure out my power more, but I don't even know where to begin with that, so I don't know how well that will go. I also don't know how to hunt people down. Well, there are those recruiters at Winslow that I could follow to, wherever gangsters go to organize crime?

How would I make a sword? My power gives me three main ingredients for the sword itself, but I can feel there is more to actually making the thing. The three things are gold, my blood, and metal. It doesn't seem to matter the kind of metal, but I can tell there is more to it that I don't understand. It feels like my power is giving me fistfuls of sand, and I'm loosing half of what is going on. I guess I will have to hope more information comes with experience.

A power I have a vague idea about and a goal I don't even know the first step to achieve. Where do I begin?


What do you do?
[X] Approach the PRT, though I don't really have a way to prove I'm a cape…

[X] Make the sword, my power was kinda clear about needing one?

[X] Start hunting the Empire's members, I can figure something out.
-[X] Try the recruiter at Winslow?
-[X] Strike out on my own.
[X] Do nothing, now's not the time to be making plans.

Following the one bit of clear guidance my power has given me is probably the best option, what if I am a precog? No, that doesn't seem right either.

So what do I need? Gold is probably going to be the hardest one to come by, I don't have enough money to just go and buy a gold bar. I'm sure Mom and Diamond had some gold jewelry, but the idea of using that makes me sick. I could probably rob a pawn shop? That's probably the best option. Wait, aren't there dedicated gold sellers? Those shops would have better security, though, so probably easier to do a pawn shop. Well, don't pawn shops sell guns? That would raise the security by a lot, right? Something to look into later.

My blood is probably the easiest component to come by, seeing as how I already have it. I can tell that I am going to need a lot though and blood loss is a dangerous thing, so I need to find a way to store it separately without drying out so that I can use it all at once. I'll have to get a hold of blood bags though, putting blood into ziplock baggies sounds like it would go badly. Do blood banks actually exist, or is it a term for a hospital department? I'll have to go to the library to look it up since the internet bill won't be getting paid.

Lastly, 'metal' whatever that means. I try to tug on the sense that what metal being used matters but nothing bubbles up from the non-pressure of my power. It is probably a good guess that different kinds of metals have different properties, more different than iron being different from copper. That idea resonates, but I don't have any inkling to what that means. Would iron be sharper than copper? That doesn't really make any sense, but tinkers can make laser guns out of a remote controlled car, so I decide not to dwell on it too long.

Where do you get a lot of metal? My mind immediately goes to the dockworkers, I remember Thomas taking me to work with him one day and seeing a few piles of scrap metal in one of the warehouses. I could also go to a junkyard or the boat graveyard, but those two would likely only have rusted metal. I'm sure you can buy metal online, but it is probably expensive, and I don't really have any money, so theft it is.

Some part of me raises the question of why I am suddenly fine with committing crimes, but it is not important right now, so I dismiss the concern.

I glance at the stove clock and see that it is two in the morning, I don't feel tired, but know I should sleep since I can't remember the last time I've slept. I'll do more research in the tomorrow and clean up my plate before returning to my room. It takes a long time for my eyes to get heavy, and I manage to fall into a light sleep. I dream of nothing for the first time in my life.


The transition from asleep to awake is as quick as opening my eyes. I roll off my bed and right onto my feet, having to brush off a wave of dizziness that hits me and take a shower. I make sure to comb out my hair, but otherwise don't do anything with my appearance and throw on some clean clothes.

Newly refreshed and now with the sun out, I get a notebook out of my backpack and start to write down my thoughts from last night, so I don't forget later. The best way to get gold would probably be from a pawn shop, I need to get blood bags from, somewhere, as well as figure out how to keep the blood from drying out, and lastly I need to get metal from the dockworkers…

I need to do more research, and aren't you supposed to case the place you are going to rob? I know nothing about security systems, though, and I doubt anywhere in the bay has anything more than a system that calls the cops for their stores. Though the boardwalk probably keeps the enforces around at nighttime, not that I am going to do anything near the boardwalk because the cops probably respond to that area faster too. So maybe somewhere in the docks would be best. The library computers will be the easiest place to start planning this stuff out.

With that thought, I grab my backpack and dump it out onto the desk so that I don't have to carry this notebook around. Locking the door behind me, I make my way to the nearest bus stop. It is a bit away, but the neighborhood has been pretty quiet lately, so I reach it without much issue. I am not the only one that gets off the at the library bus stop, but there is only one other person that actually goes inside and not off to other places.

Thankfully, since it is morning and a weekday, there are not many people inside. The librarian does give me a side eye before going back to playing on her phone. Taking a seat at a computer and pull out my notebook, I should probably focus my efforts on getting one item first, the metal is probably the easiest, but the other two are going to be harder.

For this vote, you are deciding what Roman manages to find. Choose one main and then one sub vote. He lacks money and so cannot buy metals directly from an online source. Write-In's cannot contain magical solutions.

What should I focus on first?
[X] Look for places selling gold.
-[X] Pawn shops
-[X] Gold sellers
-[X] Write-In
[X] Try to find out how to store blood without it drying out.
-[X] Hospitals
-[X] Write-In
[X] Find metal sources.
-[X] Dockworkers Union
-[X] Junkyard/Boat graveyard
-[X] Write-In
[X] Get basic notes on all three and return home. Then what?
-[X] Write-In

Metal will be easy seeing I know where some is for sure and finding a way to store my blood is probably going to be the hardest, so I decide to go with gold to start with.

I start by looking to see if gold sellers exist and see that they do, but the only ones in the bay are downtown, which makes sense. I then look up pawn shops in the area and am happy to see there are a number in the docks, which makes them easier for me to get to. The problem I am once again faced with is that I don't know how to really break into a place.

And where do I want to set up the forge? I don't really have a place to do it at home and a random warehouse seems like a bad idea, but it will have to do. Hopefully I can think of somewhere else later.

I don't think I need a lot of gold, not right now anyway. It is going to be used as… something, a binder? No, that's what my blood is for. I think it is to channel something. That makes sense because isn't gold a good conductor? I do a quick search and see that it is in fact a good conductor and is even used in electronics.

I feel my brows furrow. Could I just get a bunch of old electronics and then get the gold from the boards? That would probably draw less attention than robbing somewhere, right? And cars have a lot of electronics, and it stands to reason that their electronics boards would be bigger too. Gold doesn't rust, I remember that from school, so the junkyard's viability as somewhere to visit just jumped up by a few notches.

How do you actually get the gold out of the boards? The internet says I need nitric acid or hydrochloric acid, neither of which I know how to make or get. That's not entirely true, wasn't there some hydrochloric acid in the science room at school? I can't remember for sure. The hydrochloric acid method also needs hydrogen peroxide, but I know for a fact that you can just buy that at the store. I note down all the steps on the page I am looking at and see that I also need methanol. A quick search tells me that I can buy some at a hardware store like Lowes, so that's not a problem either. The chemical reaction will take a week, it says, so that gives me time to figure out the other parts of this equation.

I am about to start looking into a way to store my blood when there is a tap on my shoulder. I jump a bit and feel my neck almost pop as I turn around. It is the librarian with a neutral expression on her face.

"Hey, lunch is almost over. If you want to get back to school in time, you're going to have to leave now." I take a peek at the time in the corner of the screen, and it is 12:11.

"Oh, thanks." I say and log out of the computer.

"Yep," she says, drawing out the word before returning to her desk.

It's better to play along than have the cops called on me for skipping school, not that I think Winslow would care, but I don't need any level of attention right now.

I step out and start walking to the bus stop to head home before pausing. I could just head to Winslow now and snatch the acid if it actually is there. Plus, with it being school hours the supply room is probably unlocked, and I know for a fact that Mr. Moor takes smoke breaks.

This vote also serves as a gauge for how fast you all want things to start moving. I can write this out day by day or if you want you can start to encourage Roman to pick up the pace.

Should I try to get the hydrochloric acid now or wait for later?
[X] No time like the present.
[X] I should probably plan things out more.
[X] Not the acid, but I should start getting the electronic boards now.
[X] Write-In

March 2nd, 2011
12:15 PM

I shake my head and resume my journey to the bus. I can always go another day.

On the ride I hear a few of the other passengers talking about the Empire apparently doing something last night and I have to keep myself from demanding more information. I reach for my phone to look it up myself, only to come up empty-handed, I must have left it at home. I suppose I did leave in a bit of a rush, and even if I did have my phone, I wouldn't be able to look anything up on it. Doing my best to block them out, I let my mind drift for the ride.

I think about the kind of sword I want to make, my first idea is a standard knight sword, but that thought is pushed aside as I feel some pressure from my power. I focus on it and feel four sets of two… outlines for lack of a better term. One set is of large two-handed swords, the next is a bit smaller, then a bit smaller again, and the last set is composed of daggers? The shapes are out of focus and I can tell they each are tied to something out of reach.

My introspection is interrupted by the bus arriving at my stop and in the few seconds it takes me to get off the pressure has disappeared, and I can't see the outlines anymore.

I make my way home but stop a way's away from the house as I see a woman sitting on the front steps. Evidently she sees me too because she stands up and starts walking towards me. As she gets closer I can tell that she is the lady from yesterday, taller than me by about a head and dressed in a pantsuit, she doesn't look too happy.

"Roman Talbott where have you been? I was getting ready to call the cops!" Her voice would be smooth if not for the scolding tone that instantly makes me want to disagree with everything she is saying.

"Why?" I say, unable to keep my voice from sounding snippy, which only makes her face contort a bit.

"We agreed to meet at noon and when I get her you are nowhere to be seen, not to mention you didn't respond to my calls!" Her voice progressing to mad.

"I don't remember making any agreements." I counter, but that just makes her look up towards the sky angrily.

"Do you remember anything we went over yesterday?"

"Nope," a small pang of shame bubbles up at that, only to be washed away by the churning in my gut that makes me feel like a yelling match is about to start.

Only the woman's anger is apparently stopped in its tracks as her eyes squint at me.

"You do seem to be more aware than yesterday. Hopefully this will make this easier on you." And now her tone is to what I assume is her neutral tone, the sudden shift throwing me off.

"Who exactly are you?" She mumbles something under her breath before fully recomposing herself.

"I am Ms. Wolfe. I am the social worker assigned to your case." She ends the sentence by sticking out her hand for a handshake.

I feel a bit silly because I should have been able to connect the dots on that. Of course the state would assign someone to me, can't just leave a fifteen-year-old by himself, after all. Not that I plan on sticking around for long, or do I? I guess I haven't really put any thought into an actual plan for what I should do once I have my sword. I still don't even know what my power actually is.

Pushing those thoughts to the back of my mind, I debate not shaking her hand, the buildup to a fight still dissipating in my gut, but ultimately decide that making the person ostensibly in charge of my future upset with me. That in mind, I take her hand in a firm handshake like Thomas showed me.

"Let's get inside, and we can start to get things on track." She leads the way to the house and I note that she must have a key because the door opens without me needing to unlock it.


After a few hours of conversation, she leaves, and I lock the door behind her and take a deep breath. Ms. Wolfe was nice, but there was a lot of information that was tossed around.

The important parts are that I have about six days to decide if I want to go into the foster care system or if I want to move in with my grandpa that lives somewhere in Iowa who I've never met. Of course, she doesn't know I am a cape so that does open up some other options for me, the Wards for one, or I could just run around right? I'm not sure whether that's something that capes do, but I don't see a reason that I can't. That does mean that I have to get out of the house and moved in somewhere else if I want to go with that option.

If I do find somewhere to stay, that would mean I have to figure out a bunch of stuff like getting a food and a new phone because I know there is a way for them to track someone with their phone.

I massage my forehead and think. Six days is too short for me to get my sword going even if I were to suddenly get the acid I need and all the circuit boards a double check with my notes says that it will take about a week for the gold and plastic to separate. That's not even factoring in the problems that I am sure are going to come up with storing my blood.


What should I do?
[X] Go to Iowa, maybe a fresh start is for the best?
[X] Move somewhere else, I need to make my sword and leaving won't help.
[X] Approach the PRT, it would solve a lot of problems. Probably.
[X] I can worry about this later.
-[X] Write-In: Sword: (What next with the sword making process?)
-[X] Write-In: Change Priorities: (To what?)