It reminds me more of that hand from Adam's family
Brockton's Celestial Forge (Worm/Jumpchain)
- Thread starter LordRoustabout
- Start date
Lim3_01
Anaheim
- Pronouns
- He/Him
People, animals or plants infected with active nanites. Most commonly giant monsters, mutants but somtimes other weird shit. like mummies the egyption kind yes really
Lord hasn't said that there wouldn't be, so there probably will be a chapter.
- Location
- RS,brasil
53 Hard Time
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
53 Hard Time
I flinched at my duplicates' words. Flashes of the last conversation with my sister ran through my mind. Everything I had done to hold out, stand up for myself, everything that had felt empowering at the time was now a time bomb hiding in my past. My own words were coming back to haunt me. Images of how they would have been passed around my family, the conclusions they had come to, and the disaster waiting for me when I made this call.
"Look, we know it's bad. Trust us, we know. But putting it off isn't going to make it easier." My duplicate offered.
I sighed. "I know. I'm just having a hard time seeing how it's going to make things any better."
I shook my head. I hated dealing with this. My decision to cut things off after my trigger had been difficult. Really, the fact that things could have gone so disastrously bad if my original trigger had happened was probably the only thing that let me justify blocking my family. That and the support of my passenger, back when I was leaning on him to get me through things.
I was weirdly in a better and worse situation now. I wasn't alone, was more focused and more directed, but the mess choking the outside world made any position I would take a trial to defend. Really, I shouldn't even need to defend it, but I knew how well taking that position would go over.
I knew Alena was caught up in this and I hated that it was happening to her and that I felt guilty about it. The fact that I was also having to confront her didn't make things any easier. Really, I wasn't even sure what I hoped to get out of this other than offering some vague assurance that I was alright and didn't need to be rescued from the city. The odds of me managing that weren't great, but this wasn't something I could just ignore and hope for it to blow over.
The three of us looked up as the Forge suddenly made a connection to a mote from the Alchemy constellation, accompanied by a massive rumble as the Alchemist's Laboratory reconfigured itself. The power was the second of a pair of motes, the first of which had allowed me to finally peel back the veil on the origin of my powers. The second mote of the pair that granted me magic circuits and thus access to magecraft from Princess Gwenevere, or Web of Magic, however you want to look at it.
The power was Thaumaturgical Focus: Alchemy as opposed to the previous Thaumaturgical Focus: Transmutation. Alchemy, in this case, referred to the manipulation and flow of energy and matter. It was more of a transference than the transformation that Transmutation had focused on. The thing was, just as Transmutation had been enhanced by my Unnatural Skill, so was Alchemy. And, unlike my other powers, I saw this benefit right from the start. Everything that I would have been able to accomplish with just the baseline version of this power was enhanced to an unnatural level. What's more, the Alchemy Machine could take things even further, fully interfacing with alchemic magecraft, accelerating, empowering, or even automating it.
"No." My duplicate said quickly.
"But…" I tried.
"We know what you're going to say, and no. You can't kick everything down the road just because of a new power." The second reaffirmed.
"This isn't just any other power." I argued. "You know what this opens up. Homunculi creation with inherent magical abilities, transfer of energy or properties, up to consciousness, expanded mystic codes, even computing. Computing. You know what that could mean?"
I couldn't keep my eyes from drifting in the direction of the Prismatic Laboratory and I knew my duplicates wanted to do the same. The matter and energy that this form of alchemy could affect wasn't limited to conventional forces, at least not at the level of skill of my compounded power. Conceptual forces, fundamental aspects of magic and reality could be affected, including the nature of the soul.
Even without the abilities granted by That Undefinable Thing I would have been at least able to sense and influence the structure of a person's soul. With expanded alchemical knowledge from my unnatural skills, I could discern the spiritual particles that composed the soul. With the enhancements of the Alchemy Machine, I could channel and control souls in a manner that approached true magic. With That Undefinable Thing I could jump straight to spiritron computation, working with the fundamental particles that composes the soul within a photonic medium.
It was almost funny. I had finally shifted away from optical computing thanks to advances in multidimensional processing, and suddenly I was right back where I had started. The only difference was instead of using light I would be running a computer on ether and soul stuff. It was the kind of thing that would have been totally impossible without my Magitech powers and even then would be a massive undertaking, but also one with massive potential.
"Look, we know." My first duplicate explained. "We fully know how significant this is." There was a flurry of motion from Garment's workshop and a gesture towards the lockers. "And Garment knows, or at least thinks, that the other stuff that came with it is also significant."
That brought a dry smile to my lips. The last time I gained a power from this cluster it came with the magic circuits that unlocked an entire new world of power. This time it came with a free set of clothes and the ability to see statistics about someone in a kind of status page, but only information I already knew. If I wasn't constantly linked to multiple systems through my implant the consolidated information might have been convenient, but as it stood the ability was completely superfluous. The outfit was similarly mundane, but that wouldn't stop Garment from digging into any chance to explore styles or designs from another universe.
"We can deal with this." The other duplicate assured me. "Twenty percent time is nothing on this. We can handle it. You need to focus on taking care of this call."
"If this is important enough to give up twenty percent time, then doesn't that mean it's important enough that I should focus on it as well?" I asked.
"You're stalling." The first duplicate accused.
I didn't bother to deny it. There wasn't much point when you were arguing with yourself. "All I'm saying is maybe knowing that this stuff is squared away and on track would make it easier to focus when I'm dealing with Alena." It was an excuse, but not a particularly bad one. The second excuse was more justifiable. "Also, it's almost time for another set of duplicates." They nodded, completely unphased by their temporary existence. "Maybe I don't want the next pair coming into existence fresh on the heels of that conversation? Maybe it would be better to give me time to cool down and let them exist without having to deal with that?"
The reaction wasn't what I expected. "Or maybe they could help you through that?" One of the duplicates suggested.
I muttered a response as the clothing constellation passed by. "They shouldn't have to." The suggestion was good hearted, but it felt wrong, like I was dumping my problems onto someone who shouldn't have to deal with them.
Wait, did that mean I felt I shouldn't have to deal with this, or only felt that way when looking at the situation of someone with a limited existence? Was this compassion for myself, of compassion for a similar existence with additional complications to their fundamental nature? I couldn't tell if this was a positive step or a sign of a serious problem.
There was a shared sigh from the duplicates, but they nodded. "Okay, but only because you don't need anything more to deal with along with this. We'll get the groundwork set up for the new Alchemy, you can kick the call to early in the next set's duration." There was a serious look and I suspected 'I', or the version of me that would compose my next duplicates wouldn't tolerate any more delays. "You sort through anything else you need to deal with, we'll have a summary waiting for you afterwards."
"Thank you." I nodded. My duplicates returned the gesture as we split off to our separate projects.
With the current strength of my potions my duplicates had more than half an hour in their 20% time. That left me plenty of time to mull over the coming call and how I was going to handle it. Intellectually I knew I just needed to stand firm on my decisions, and for once that was an actual NEED, not just a want or personal preference like things tended to be framed by my family. Whatever mess was being stirred up at home, I couldn't afford the time to deal with it. I barely had time for this call. It would have been nice to think that this would be one and done, that I'd be able to settle everything with one phone call, but really the best I could hope for would be to maybe deescalate things slightly and take some pressure off Alena.
Mulling things over wasn't likely to be helpful, but fortunately I had enough to distract me from the impending conversation. I left Garment fawning over the red and black mess of an outfit that had been provided by my latest power. The suit was a little like what Future Shawn wore in Web of magic, but a lot more detailed. Regardless of whether I ever intended to wear it, Garment was certainly happy, and even more so when she'd been informed about the commission for the Undersiders. The emphasis on practicality and convenience would probably hold back the more experimental designs to give something both wearable in public and that could be changed into without a team of assistants.
That left Taylor. I had mixed feelings about how to approach this. Taylor was simultaneously gentle and destructive. I had seen how badly the incident with Aegis had shaken her, but that didn't change the fact that she had dove into it without a second of hesitation. Taylor didn't want to hurt anyone, but if pressed she would, and with absolutely no restraint.
It was the prime reason I'd been so careful with what I'd handed out. Taylor was the only one with a military grade omni-tool in her watch, even if the features were locked out, and I was more than a little concerned about what would happen if she had full access to that kind of firepower. She had taken a very basic magic weapon and turned it into an extension of her power that had to have multiplied her threat rating. It was a kind of destructive creativity that I was personally familiar with. I had little doubt that the situation at her school played heavily into her ability to pull a brutal and destructive plan out of nowhere.
The other problem was that, despite all my misgivings about the situation, Taylor was still essential. She had her own problem, her own personal quest that she obviously thought I was talking about when I broke the news to her, and that was more than a little concerning. My passenger confirmed she was at as much risk as the rest of the Undersiders. I had no doubt the watches would help, but handing out bullet proof costumes to the rest of them and leaving the most critical member, Professor Hebert's daughter and the key to the salvation of the Earth, comparatively undefended, it felt wrong. Worse than that, it felt stupid.
I sighed and I picked over my options. Everything from simple upgrades to complete power armor systems. I had to balance the need for protection with the attention that would come from increasing her threat rating. I was also working under the threat of the Undersiders' boss and the need to keep the team effectively at a conventional level. A bit of extra defense wouldn't change the way they were viewed, but outfitting each of them with power armor and vehicles would get a serious reaction from the person they reported to. Hell, just equipping a single person to that level would shift the dynamic.
I needed something that would be enough to keep her safe without elevating her threat level or changing the relationship between the Undersiders and their boss. I had a few ideas, but really, there was only one way to manage this. I sank into the chair of my office, pulled up a holographic screen, checked the illusion effect concealing my more prominent changes, and called Taylor's watch.
There were a few rings before the call was answered. The background showed what I recognized as her living room. The girl frantically checked her surroundings before turning back to the screen.
"Hi Taylor. Are you good to talk right now?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah. Nobody's around and these things don't let sound travel right?" She asked. At my nod she relaxed. "Right. Sorry, still getting used to it. And yeah, my dad's out with a union thing, so it's fine. Is something wrong? I saw what you put on the site about the name… thing."
"It's fine." I said with as much confidence as I could muster without slipping into the unnatural behaviors of my posing and efficiency powers. "Not the kind of thing I would have deployed that suddenly, but like I said it's harmless."
"Harmless, right." She looked a little worn down and I was guessing the situation wasn't as easy to deal with for her as she tried to make it seem.
"Look, I'm calling because of my meeting with Brian and Lisa."
"Somer's Rock?" She asked, perking up.
I nodded. "They said it was a unanimous vote."
"It was." Taylor explained. "I mean, it was going to happen whether we are there or not. If we had a chance to go, to get a seat at the table, then it made sense to take it."
That probably wasn't the full story, but I didn't press her. Based on my passenger's reaction I was willing to bet this was somehow connected to what she thought that major threat was. The thing she had subbed in her mind for the world ending threat, though now that I thought about it, if it posed a threat to her then it might well be potentially world ending.
God, this was complicated. I tried to put it out of my mind as I pressed forward. "I'll be going as well. Did Lisa fill you in?"
Taylor nodded. "She sent out a message to everyone, along with some stuff about the name thing. I don't think she's that happy with you about it."
I shrugged. There was literally nothing I could do about it now, so all that was left was pushing forward and hoping for the best. I decided to dive into the reason for my call. "I'll be making new costumes for the rest of the Undersiders since you're the only one whose costume didn't get wrecked last Saturday."
Taylor tensed at the mention of the storage battle, then seemed to force herself to relax. "When you say 'new costumes', do you mean-"
"No." I cut her off. "I'm not rolling out any more tech for them. This is mainly to keep them from needing to scavenge for materials and show up in something half assembled. I'm using some resistant fabrics, so they'll be bulletproof, but there's no super tech involved."
"Oh." She said, "I guess that's good."
I nodded. Here goes. "Not for them." Taylor looked up at me. "Taylor, you remember when I asked if there was anything I could do to help, anything you needed."
"I remember." She replied. "You said no weapons."
Somehow the fact that she had fixated on that didn't surprise me. "I said if you needed any kind of firepower then I'd be coming to help." And I damn well would. "But I'm asking now, do you need anything else? Any equipment or gear? Your costume is really impressive, but spider silk has its limits. I'm already outfitting the rest of the team. If there's something you need I can have it ready in time for the summit."
Her eyes widened and took on a kind of vacant stare. It persisted for a few moments before I became concerned enough to check on her.
"Taylor?" Her eyes fluttered and she shook her head.
"Oh, sorry. It's just, that offer hit kind of different back on Tuesday than it does now, after… everything." She explained.
"Ah." I said flatly. "So, this is more about what you could ask for and what it means?" I wagered.
She gave me an awkward shrug. "Sort of? I mean, normally a tinker offers you something you have an idea of what you can get. Honestly, I've got no clue what I'm supposed to say here."
"Well, I'm not giving you a giant robot." I joked. It didn't land well. "Look Taylor, if there's something you need you can ask and I'll let you know if there's something I can do. I mean, at the very least you could probably use some protective equipment. Your costume is great, but it's not fully bullet proof, not even against small arms."
She gave me a questioning look when I said 'small arms', but didn't comment on it. "Um, I had an idea of adding some more armored panels to my costume. I wasn't able to add as much coverage as I planned, and honestly the armor wasn't that great to begin with."
I nodded. "I have a new material that could help with that." I offered.
"New?" Taylor blinked.
I nodded. "A lot better than my old stuff. Fairly light and flexible and also thermally resistant. I can get you a full set for replacement of the old panels." An idea flashed into my mind. "I might actually be able to help with the rest of the costume as well. There's a reinforcement effect I can use. It should let the armor reinforce the fabric of your costume."
Taylor gave me a concerned look as I felt the Crafting constellation miss a connection. "Seriously?"
I nodded. A reinforcement based mystic code wouldn't be anywhere near as good as my Fashion power, but it would probably be the most effective way to protect Taylor. If I could broaden the effect to personal reinforcement I could extend that durability to her body as well. Really, I could probably extend things to physical enhancement, but that wasn't necessary here. I was pretty sure my concerns about Taylor going on the warpath thanks to a durability boost were unfounded, but I wasn't quite ready to extend super strength and hope for the best.
"No, seriously, you can make something that will make my costume stronger just by being attached? How the hell does that work?" She asked, her voice pitching up slightly.
I took a breath. If this had been Tattletale I would have been happy brushing her off, but this was Taylor. I knew where she was coming from and I had promised to be as straight with her as I could. I also had a feeling she was sensitive to detecting bullshit, a skill that probably came from painful experience.
"It's a method that finds imperfections in a material and uses energy to fill them in. The effect is you end up with a much stronger end product than you would have even without the initial imperfections. The fibers in your costume will still behave the same way in terms of weight and flexibility, but they'll be a lot stronger as long as the new armor panels are used."
"And you can just do that? Make something like that before the meeting?" She asked.
"Taylor, I can probably have it ready by tonight." I explained, and gave her a serious look. "I meant it when I said you could ask if you needed something. Whatever you're dealing with, I can help. If you let me, I promise I can make a difference."
She reeled back and looked around the living room. "Taylor, it's fine. The communication is untraceable and the forcefield blocks any sound from being transmitted. Nobody's listening."
"That's not what I'm worried about." She explained in an agitated voice. With a sigh she continued. "Look, I said I can't explain. There's more in play here than just eavesdropping. I promise, I'm working on it. I'm closer now, but you can trust me."
I bit down on a glib response. I had basically been asking the same thing, so it might be hypocritical to dismiss her request, no matter how sure I was that she was badly mistaken on this matter. Instead, I put on my most reassuring smile as I replied.
"Alright, but don't forget you can ask for help." The concept seemed as foreign for her as it was for me, but she seemed to accept it as well as I could hope.
"Right." She said, "And those armor panels would be nice. Thank you."
"No problem." I replied. "Now, any thoughts on the design?"
She gave me a blank look. "I hadn't really… Is there something wrong with my costume design?"
"No," I explained. "I just wanted to check. I'll be working from scratch, and this is a big event. Lisa was going on about making an impact, and the rest of the team will be in new costumes. If you want to make any changes now would be a good time."
"Changes like what?" She asked. Some of her earlier shock seemed to be melting into thinly veiled interest.
"Uh, well, you could go further into your original look, maybe some sharper angles and more prominent plates." It was similar to the edgy look that some aspects of my power had been pulling me towards until I found something of a happy medium in my Iconic Outfit. From the look on her face I could tell she wasn't exactly thrilled with that idea. "Alternately, if you want to lean into the Egyptian thing from your cape name I could do something with that."
That drew a smirk to her lips. "What, Egyptian collar? Winged scarabs and all that? Let me guess, everything in gold, just so I can never hide on the battlefield?"
"I think gold could actually work with your color scheme." I offered. "But I can work with the same coating that I used on the watches. You can have everything blend in with a single command."
She shifted slightly. "I don't really do flashy that well."
I thought about her display at the bank and how she handled herself during the attack at the storage yard. The best I could do was nod without giving away my inner feelings on the matter.
"But the rest of it doesn't sound that bad." She conceded.
I nodded. "I'll leave the option in." I assured her. "In case you change your mind." Really, it wasn't necessary, but my new fashion sense was working overtime, and I knew if I didn't bring my A game here Garment would take it personally.
"Thanks." She said, "Uh, are you alright with everything?" She asked. "I mean; besides the whole name thing, I know Lisa dropped this on you out of nowhere. It's good that you're coming, but I wanted to make sure that things were okay?"
Well, at least she knew the dance of exploration and obligation that was being used to bring me to the table. And honestly seemed to feel worse about how it was handled than Tattletale did.
"It was a surprise." I admitted. "I didn't even know the gangs met like this, let alone at some dive bar." And that was still somehow the most shocking element of everything. "But I can manage. I have enough time to prepare, and Lisa is right. If this keeps things from boiling over between the remaining powers then that's so much the better."
"Right." She agreed. "The city's recovering as well as it can, but I don't know how much more people can take."
I nodded. "Hopefully we're past the worst of it." I didn't really believe that, and judging from Taylor's terrible poker face on the matter she was even less convinced than I was. "I'll let you know when I have everything ready. Like I said, it should be done by tonight, so you'll have time to get used to everything."
"Right. And thanks, for everything."
I nodded and the call was awkwardly cut. I leaned back and reviewed recent developments in the workshop. My duplicates had begun documenting the abilities of my new Alchemy magic for Survey's records as well as evaluating the upgrades to the Alchemist's Laboratory. Initial test runs evaluated in the Magitech Lab also proved promising.
The form of alchemy was well suited for preparation and crafting work, but it did have some combat applications. Energy could be shifted through materials to charge them while controlling their shape to an insanely precise degree. Transmutation could already change the form of an object, but this was something else entirely. It was less of an instantaneous process and more of a flow of matter and energy, letting the material take on characteristics that would have been impossible to achieve through any form of base transmutation.
Long, thin materials that were conductive to mana worked best. Noble metals were functional enough, but my access to magical alloys opened up entirely new possibilities. Additionally, any mana infused substance could be controlled. Something as simple as a strand of hair could be amplified, strengthened, shaped, and directed. I could form incredibly complex shapes and mechanisms out of nothing but a bit of my hair or a length of wire.
It also made the construction of mystic codes much easier. I had already had the benefit of highly enchantable materials, my enhancements from Master Craftsman, and my recent unnatural skill in enchanting, but that was all a step removed from the process. It facilitated what was otherwise a disconnection between magic and material.
This form of alchemy fully addressed that. The manipulation of material was second nature for me, and binding mana into the form of a mystic code, either directly or as a pathway to facilitate a magical effect, was a natural extension of the art. While I could have managed the enchanted armor I was planning for Taylor it would have been a much more involved project without this particular skill.
As useful as Alchemy was, it wasn't taking complete precedent. Peak ADVENT Technology was still being explored and the recent access to elerium opened up entire new fields of technology, some more savory than others.
'Do we really need the Psi Lab?' I questioned through the Workshop network.
'Hey, 20% time, remember? We get to pick the projects. Call it future proofing if you need to. Besides, no matter how you feel about it, Survey will be more comfortable knowing it's ready to go.' The duplicate responded. I briefly extended my awareness to Survey for confirmation and was rewarded with a barrage of data in support of construction as a failsafe measure and to facilitate testing and evaluation in advance of my own enhancement.
'Thank you Survey.' I knew she was right about her concerns. I couldn't let my own issues with wet tinkering hold me back. My issues with my family were something of another matter, but at least I was committed to working on those as well.
'An additional note,' Survey added. 'I have corresponded with Garment regarding the nature of offers she is likely to receive from Uppercrust. While she is not interested in the variety of offers and is unconcerned with any potential pressure tactics, there is considerable likelihood that a similar offer will be extended to local capes in an equitable position to Garment.'
'You think he'll reach out to Parian?' I asked. It wasn't impossible, but also wasn't something I was particularly concerned about. Parian had held out for years and thanks to my passenger I knew she was a lot stronger than she let on. Still, this was the Elite, not a single local power with nebulous use for her.
'There is an exceptionally high likelihood. Garment has expressed some concern on the matter and wished to extend some level of support.' I smiled at the camaraderie between fashion capes. Wait, did I count as one? All things considered probably, but not as something I mainlined.
'What were you thinking?' I asked, reviewing the interaction Survey had with Garment. She had managed to fill in most of the details, but there were still some aspects of how Garment communicated that were hard for the A.I. to nail down. I added additional notes as Survey replied.
'The suggestion was contact to be made in my persona of Delphine Mertens informing Parian of Uppercrust's activities and offering a point of contact in the case of any overt or violent tactics.' She explained. 'Additionally, it may provide opportunities for some level of collaboration, a prospect that Garment expressed considerable enthusiasm over.'
I'll bet she did. 'That sounds like a good idea. I'll leave things to you, but let me know if there are any complications.'
'I will keep you apprised of the matter.' Survey stated before directing her attention elsewhere. I leaned back and considered my next move. My duplicates were continuing their work, which was technically on time they should have been taking for themselves. Still, considering the recent additions to the Forge I could understand their choice. Honestly, I would have been right there with them, but my time was technically better spent on practice and review rather than research and field experimentation.
The Size constellation swung past without a connection as I climbed to my feet. Given the fact that I was blatantly putting off a very difficult task I felt like I needed to do something productive. With my duplicates handling the grunt work that left me to go over the details, and that meant the throne.
I slipped through the workshop and settled into the upgraded computer interface, feeling my mind expand out to the limits of the architecture and accelerate to blistering speed. Photonic crystals and spiritron processing were being evaluated in the Alchemist's Lab and Magitech Workshop, but wasn't nearly ready for integration into the core system just yet. Once it was it would be a titanic step forward. There weren't many things that could provide a significant step up from cybertonium, but this was one of them. The full potential of what could be accomplished with something like this was honestly a little frightening.
But that wasn't what I was here to consider. The impact of spiritron computing and what it could mean for the bottled souls contained in the Prismatic Laboratory was a matter for later consideration. I had other work to do.
I immersed myself in the systems, letting data flow into my mind. This had been a heady experience back when I was only thinking with diamonds and light. The advancements of cybertonium processors took it to a point beyond that, to a place that felt familiar.
With everything that had happened the blend of perspectives that had taken up my brain hadn't been the most pressing concern. I was focused on getting through the next fight, the next crisis, the next problem that needed to be fixed. The quarter jar hadn't been abandoned, but I wasn't monitoring my thoughts with the same level of scrutiny I had been before.
This was an example of why I had started that practice. Expanding my mind out into an electronic format, merging with systems beyond the level of integration possible with any other method of interface, it was an experience like nothing else. Hybridization technologies meant there was no difference between the interface and the computer. I was the system, and it was an experience I was very familiar with.
There was more context to that thought now, concerning context. I was connecting with a person of a version of myself who had either been a Transformer, or was close enough that it made almost no difference. There was a lifetime of experience in my head that could only be found in comic books and cartoon shows, but for me it was real. More than that, it was practical.
Inside the computer I wasn't thinking like a person using a computer, I was thinking like a machine in its native environment. Information was part of the landscape and I could absorb it at an astounding rate. I could already perfectly memorize blueprints down to the finest detail, but now thanks to my Amateur Academic power I had a massive memory boost, able to memorize entire books like it was nothing.
I also gained classical training in grammar, logic and rhetoric as well as the ability to fit in with learned communities. It was everything I would have needed to be the star of my English class, coming four years too late.
It let me catch up on the works of my duplicates, along with other workshop activities in a fraction of the time it used to. Theories, experiments, designs, and results were all reviewed, evaluated, and committed to memory. I was able to burn through hours of work in seconds of real time. It wasn't as good as doing the work myself, but it kept me appraised of progress and let me know where I needed to focus my next rounds of training and development.
There was more to do within the computer environment than just review data. I turned my attention to the still developing code of Fleet, Survey, and even the Matrix. They were exponentially more complex than they had been even a few days ago, but with my computer skills and the expanded system parameters boosting my abilities I could keep up with them. I dove in, examining code from recent optimization routines, offering corrections and guidance wherever I could. Fleet was more stable in his development, but still appreciated any move towards efficiency. Survey was branching out almost at random and had a mess of code that needed to be pruned back just to allow optimization in preparation for expansions in processing capacity.
The Matrix was the most complicated of the three, though not the most advanced. The coding for that A.I. was spread across countless nanobots, each containing a sliver of code that was repeated with variances to generate the collective intelligence that composed the Matrix. It was a nanotech hive mind the likes of which the world had never seen before, but it was still a developing intelligence under my care and I extended all the support I was able to offer.
Fully immersing myself in the workshop systems let me catch up on the full depth of the advancements that had occurred in just the past day. Ever since I had gotten Build Rome the process of upgrading the workshop had basically shifted from a never-ending project to something I didn't even need to consider. All of my equipment was already crafted to the highest level of quality I was capable of producing with only customizations or specific enchantments left as possible improvements. As it stood, even effects that were only possible upon creation, like Elven Enchantment, could be applied after the fact by using the Crucible of Eight Trigrams to salvage the magic from other items.
Without having recently taken the time to truly absorb the information on my workshop I didn't really appreciate the scale of what had been accomplished here. What's more, it spoke to my own potential. Being able to build something on this level in this short a timeframe meant that once I could act freely outside my workshop there would be virtually no limit to what I could accomplish.
Providing I could actually act freely. The Simurgh was still an imposing shadow weighing down on my every action. If anything, it was worse now. My power had expanded without any guaranteed way of countering her. It was a combination that only made me a more appealing target. There was hope. I could put up a hell of a fight. Honestly, I might even be able to kill her, but that just left the foreboding horizon waiting for me after the death of an Endbringer. I didn't know exactly what it would be, but my passenger was serious about it. Whatever would happen, killing an Endbringer would bring about a situation at least three times as bad as the one they were capable of creating.
Weirdly, my concerns jumped straight from S-class threats to local problems. The situation in the city was not stable and if I didn't want to have to micromanage it I had to hope something could be done either between the existing gangs or with the Protectorate finally stepping up. Really, my only concern there was managing the situation with the Undersiders' boss, but that was firmly out of my hands. Tattletale was my only hope in knowing when it would be safe to move and despite my passenger's confidence in her I wasn't totally on board with the plan.
The advantage of the cognitive acceleration was the ability to blaze through a staggering amount of Survey's reports and analysis, both on the local situation and national stage. Combined with the insight of my passenger I had a real chance of being able to get ahead of the next disaster. I just had to manage my sit down with a crowd of supervillains and morally dark-gray capes that was coming up in barely more than 24 hours.
My computational tasks took me past the end of my duplicates' three-hour duration. With them vanished I disconnected from the interface throne to find a drone with another duplication potion waiting for me. I extended my thanks to Survey and looked at the vial of bright blue liquid. Once again, the quality of the potions had crept up along with everything else I produced. What started as a bootleg mix that was lucky to last a handful of minutes was now an alchemical concoction of terrifying power, one where even the bottle was a work of art.
I let out a breath as I looked at the potion. This would be it. The last set of duplicates before every future copy would have to deal with the aftermath of that call. Part of me hoped I was exaggerating things, that it wouldn't be that bad and I just needed to tough it out and not be so sensitive. Unsurprisingly, those were mostly my family's words about how I handled these kinds of interactions, so probably not overly helpful here.
A notice of a call jarred me out of my thoughts and I moved to answer the incoming connection.
"Hello Aisha." I said as the girl's image appeared on the holographic screen in front of me.
"Hey Jozef." She gave me a wry grin. "Your copies asked me to call you after they proofed. Said I needed to remind you to tell your sister to fuck off."
I couldn't quite suppress a grin at that. "That's not quite what's going on." I clarified. Aisha made a dismissive gesture in response.
"That is in broad strokes, right? They want to bring up all that crap you shot down last time and you need to tell them to go screw themselves." She must have seen my reaction to that phrasing because she quickly clarified. "Only put it in whatever terms you need to. Main thing is they're not getting what they want, right?"
"Yeah." I said with a sigh. "And there'll be hell to pay for it."
"I get that." She said, "Or generally, what that's like, but look, whatever that stuff is like, you're not stuck in it, okay?" She looked at the bottle in my hand. "You putting off the next batch because you know they'll say the same thing?"
"Probably." I admitted. "Thanks Aisha, but I think I have a handle on this."
"No problem." She said with a smirk. "And once you get past this crap we're on for movie night, right?"
"I've got something late this afternoon, but I'm free after that." I considered the fallout from the previous movie night. "Just a heads up, we're assigning picks randomly. I'm pretty sure Survey's leaning towards Citizen Kane if her choice comes up, complete with presentations on the symbolism, historical context, and advances in filmmaking techniques." I had seen the slide shows when I was reviewing her other assessments. There seemed to be an attitude that the only way to properly appreciate a movie was to cover all relevant parts of it in detail, through a series of supplemental presentations if needed.
Aisha scrunched her nose in response. "Fine, I can roll those dice. Don't expect any mercy if my pick comes up."
I honestly had no idea what Aisha would choose if given the chance. Still, it would probably be entertaining, and the whole exercise seemed to be accomplishing its goal of helping to socialize the A.I.s and Tetra.
"Thanks Aisha. I'll keep you posted."
"No problem, and good luck with that bitch." Aisha smirked and ended the call. It probably said something that the first thought that went through my mind upon hearing her words was 'But I'm not calling Natalia?'. Figures that I would have different standards for what counted as a 'bitch' in my family.
I shook my head and quickly downed the potion just as Celestial Forge made a connection to the Resources and Durability constellation. One by one my duplicates stepped out and turned to face me.
"Alright, you are definitely not delaying the call for THIS power." The first said.
"Yeah, I know." I admitted. "Still useful, but not like we have to rebuild everything."
"It'll help when we get around to rebuilding the motoroids, and for any combat equipment." The second offered. "I mean, most of the direct stuff is already covered by other powers, but it's still a serious quality boost."
I nodded. The power was called Panzerkampf, or tank combat, in rough translation. Setting aside the unfortunate German naming of the ability considering the current gang situation, it was a quite useful power, if not quite a groundbreaking one.
Essentially, every war machine I constructed would be top notch by default. Guns would never jam and vehicles would function perfectly. What set it apart was how far that effect extended. For instance, if I built a tank it would never get bogged down, no matter how bad the conditions and IEDs would be incapable of damaging it. The only way to destroy or impair my vehicles would be through concentrated direct action. Anything less than my opponent's best efforts would be shrugged off.
It was a power that made rebuilds of my assorted vehicles a priority, but that was a priority that I could hand off to my duplicates and expect to be finished within a handful of minutes.
"So, are you good for this call, or do we need to get Garment up here to chip in as well?" The first duplicate asked.
"No, I can handle it." I just didn't want to. Oh, it was fun fighting my own brain to accomplish a simple task. At least I had plenty of experience with that. "I'll call from my office. Are you guys alright out here?"
"Hey, caught up with everything you caught up with." The second quipped, gesturing to the computer core. "And if you need to vent or blow off steam we'll be ready for that."
"Yeah, the arena has been criminally underused, and we're due for some non-mecha combat practice." The first added.
"Thanks, but I should be fine." I assured them, not really believing it. I left them to their projects as I trudged back to my office, the same one that had been converted from the terrible apartment that came bundled with my cybernetics bay. With the complete rebuild the only hint of its origin was the window looking out onto an inaccessible city that was barely visible. I had assumed that it was an illusion of some kind, but there was a very real possibility that the place had come with live or recorded glimpses of another universe.
But dwelling on that was just another method of kicking the current task down the road, something I needed to become more aware of to get a handle on. I took a breath and considered things. It was early afternoon on a Saturday. Despite what Alena said about her work hours she wasn't likely to be at the office now. I could technically put this off until right before my appointment with Dr. Campbell, but that presented other problems. It would send me into my session in the direct aftermath with no time to get my head together. The call had a chance of running long, meaning there was a chance of eating into or missing my therapy session, or else needing to excuse myself from the call somehow. Finally, dropping what was sure to be a mess on Alena right at the end of the day didn't seem fair. I had no doubt that no matter how this call went she'd be on the phone to my mother immediately after. I didn't want that to spill over into the evening for her.
Yeah, I accepted that I was probably more concerned about how the situation was affecting her than she was about how it was affecting me, but that was just the reality of the situation. Whatever clarity I'd gained from picking over this mess in therapy was enough to teach me that nobody was happy with this situation and nobody was likely to find a satisfying conclusion. The best I could do was set boundaries and stick to them. That was something I just didn't have the option of earlier in my life, and even now it was very unfamiliar territory.
The over strategizing about the call was probably another delaying tactic, so I put those thoughts aside and reached out to Survey. I at least wanted to verify that my sister was home before I called her cell phone. This wasn't a conversation I wanted there to be witnesses to and I was willing to accept a mild invasion of privacy to facilitate that assurance.
It turns out Survey was willing to accept a much greater invasion of privacy, at least as far as my sister was concerned. Since the end of my last call with her, Survey had been continuously tracking the location of my sister's phone along with all activity that could be attributed to her. I had a persistent trail of activity at my fingertips accurate to within the triangulation possible through cell towers.
I suppressed the rest of the information and just confirmed her current location, her apartment in Chicago. Survey could hold on to and analyze the rest of the information as much as she wanted. As long as I wasn't the one spying or looking at the reports I was willing to let that pass. After what had been done in the aftermath of the ABB attacks any conversation about personal privacy was going to be a complicated one, and not something I had the time or energy to get into now.
With considerable reluctance I keyed up my phone and entered Alena's number. The phone rang three times before she picked up.
"Jozef? Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on?" Once again, the voice was more frustrated than concerned. I focused on keeping myself calm as I replied.
"I told you in my texts. I've been staying with a friend and helping out with the recovery." I explained calmly.
"Jozef, stop. This isn't funny anymore. You really need to take this seriously." Now she sounded more tired than frustrated.
"I am taking this seriously." I paused, remembering how bad an idea it was to play by her script. "I know the situation in the city. I have things under control."
"You're squatting in a stranger's house during a disaster. No part of that is under control. Do you even care about what you put everyone through over the past two days? What you put Mom through?"
I took a breath before responding. "I've been dealing with things here. I told you my friend was hurt-"
"And what are you going to do for them, there?" She asked harshly. "If they're really hurt you're the last person who should be looking after them."
Another breath, another pause before responding. "I was saying that a lot of people have been dealing with things here."
"Which is why we tried to get you out of there!" She exclaimed. "I've seen the news. Do you know how lucky you are to have people who care about you? To have someplace to go?"
That was bordering on a 'starving children in Africa' argument. "I don't need a place to go. I told you, I'm fine. I'm staying with a friend and helping out in the recovery."
"Right." She spat. "How long have you known this 'friend' anyway?"
"Why does that matter?" I asked. My calm was starting to feel more and more forced as the conversation went on.
"Jozef, you know you aren't good with people. And you never told any of us about them before. Are you sure you're reading the situation right?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"We're trying to make sure you're not being taken advantage of, like back in school." She explained in what she probably thought was a calming voice.
The reference to my academic disaster was a reminder that for most of my family I still hadn't convinced them that the situation was more complex than just a bad relationship. I had a feeling in the early days they had played 'fill in the blanks' with what they'd been able to piece together and come up with their own idea of why I had ended up dropping out of college.
I took a moment to take in the immaculate office filled with handcrafted furniture and tasteful decor. One incredible room connected to an entire complex of apartments, living rooms, and personal areas that composed the housing core of my workshop. More importantly, they contained the hearth. The burning center of my home, the source of light, warmth, and comfort. It was something I could feel the moment I stepped into the Workshop, but here, in the domestic core, this was where it was strongest.
I drew on the strength of that fire, of the home I had made for myself, as I responded to Alena. "I'm pretty sure I'm not being taken advantage of." I said with certainty.
"Well, if you say so, but you can't have read the situation right." She continued. "You don't just move in with someone you've known for what, a week? Two at the most?"
"I haven't moved in." Once again, even retreating her words seemed like I was taking a losing position. "I'm staying for a few days while I help out. That's all."
"So, when are you moving back to your apartment? Is it even safe for you there, right now?" She continued to needle.
"Alena, what are you getting at?" I asked. It was clear there was some narrative built up here and I doubted it would be overly favorable to me.
"Look, you have to ask yourself, are you really helping them, or are you just getting in their way and bothering them when they already have enough to deal with?" She asked.
Of course, the only possibility was I was either being exploited or blindly blundering into someone's life and missing all the hints that I should get out of there. Of course, either option would send me back to my apartment where they could find me and potentially turn this into an in-person confrontation, possibly spilling over to the neighbors as well in an attempt to make things untenable for me to stay in the city.
Another breath. Another chance to feel the warmth of the hearth. The flow of reassurance from my duplicates and from Fleet, Survey, and even the Matrix. I wasn't alone in this, not any more.
"I can handle this." I assured her. "I know what I'm doing."
"Really?" She asked. "You know what you're doing, staying in a burning city with someone who just mastered the entire planet? That's you knowing what you're doing?"
Well, I could clarify that it wasn't a master effect, that the city wasn't burning outside of some very isolated bomb blasts and a few dust trails that were extending into the bay… Okay, maybe the city was burning a little bit. The point was clarifying her statements just fed into the idea that they were valid, and I wasn't playing that game anymore.
"I can handle it." I said neutrally, and left it at that. Getting into an argument over terms wouldn't help right now. Frankly, I was doubting any of this would help, other than to convince my family that I was actually alive and at least coherent enough to take a stance on the matter.
"What, so that's it? You're just going to stay in the city, no matter what happens? You seriously think what happened was bad enough to be worth all of this?"
The reference to my trigger took me by surprise and I had to bite down to keep from responding. The Vehicles constellation moved past as I collected myself. Realistically, they had no idea how badly things could have gone that night. I barely liked thinking about it myself. Given my family's capacity for compassion on matters where it is obviously due, the fact that they couldn't seem to find it in this case wasn't exactly surprising.
That didn't really make it easier to deal with. I hated this. Dealing with everything, the act was like talking to a wall that could also insult you. I took a breath and replied. "It was bad-"
"What, bad enough to cut your family out of your life? To make things hell for people who are trying to help you? Do you even understand what you've put everyone through? And what, over this?"
"I explained-"
"I told mom about the medication. She said it's fine. It doesn't matter, you can go home. You don't need to keep doing this." I heard her take a breath. "Please Jozef, I can't keep dealing with this." I felt my guts wrench at her tone. "At least tell me you'll be there tomorrow night."
I blinked in shock. "Tomorrow night?" I managed to bite down on the 'what the hell are you talking about?' follow up I had planned.
"Easter Sunday. You're going home for dinner, right?" Her voice was a mixture of certainty and concern.
Of course, they would expect me to be home for any major holiday meal. Just expect it, not checking in or confirmation, at least not until the recent mess seemed to hint that maybe I wouldn't show up. Honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to show up even if I didn't have Somer's Rock at the same damn time.
"No." I said flatly.
"Oh God, you forgot, didn't you?"
"No Alena, I can't go. I have another commitment." And I was secretly grateful for that. I was in a situation where I literally could not go to this damn dinner. There was no world in which it would be a possibility. If not for the summit I would be taking the stance of not wanting to go rather than straight up being incapable.
"Jozef, this is important. You're the only one of us who can make it. I can't believe you forgot about it. You know what this means to Mom. Whatever you have lined up, you need to-"
"No." I said sharply. I swear I could hear her gasp through the phone. "Alena, I cannot cancel this. I made a commitment and I cannot break it."
"Don't be so overdramatic. This isn't life or death."
It literally was, and for a lot of people. Possibly everyone if Taylor's life was on the line. "I'm sorry, I can't make it."
"You're sorry. Are you going to explain that to Mom then? You're alright with leaving her and Dad alone?"
I wanted to sigh, but knew it was the last thing the situation needed and I couldn't afford to have Alena hear it through the line. With a second of thought I muted the connection, fully indulged in a long sigh of frustration, then reopened it.
"No, I'm not talking to Mom. I'm not unblocking anyone. Nothing's changed and I have enough to deal with here."
"God Jozef, I'm trying to help you. Do you know how hard this is? It's not just me and Mom, everyone's worried, even Natalia."
If I had to guess I'd say Natalia was worried a portion of the blame for this would fall onto her, particularly if the situation wasn't quickly resolved. I wasn't sure if that was completely fair, but I wasn't feeling charitable at the moment.
"Look, I'm sorry for what you're dealing with-"
"Then fix it! Jozef, you can put this away with one phone call. The rest of us don't have that luxury. Please, think about what you're doing here."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not calling Mom, I'm not leaving the city, and I absolutely cannot go to Easter dinner tomorrow."
"So that's it? You don't care?"
"If I didn't care I wouldn't have called." I said as calmly as I could manage at this point. Things were probably going better than last time, but I'm not sure how much of that was the divine assistance of Hestia's blessing buoying me through.
"And that's enough? We have our own lives. It can't all be about you. My work was a mess on Friday because I had to act as Mom's relay. Natalia is doing exam prep and I can assure you this is the last thing she needs right now. Mom was completely beside herself when she found out about the attacks, and that doesn't bother you?"
Did it bother me? Everything about this bothered me. It bothered me that this was excruciating and it was still probably the nicest conversation I could hope for with a member of my family. What the hell was I even trying to accomplish here? Well, whatever it was, I'd probably accomplished it now. Alena knew I was alive and able to make calls. Any nonsense about me being incapacitated or other insane theories wouldn't stand anymore. I didn't know if this would help buy me any space, but it could at least stop things from immediately getting worse.
"Alena, people are really hurting in this city, and I'm doing what I can to help them. I'm sorry that's inconvenient for you, but I'm not walking away from this." I took a breath. "I can probably talk again after Sunday, but I'm going to be busy until then."
There was a pause before she replied. "Jozef, no matter what you think we really do care about you. If you won't come home then please, please stay safe out there. For Mom's sake."
Until the last sentence it actually came across as a fairly sincere appeal, the kind of thing that reminded me why Alena was the one easier to deal with than either Natalia or my mother. I let out a slow breath.
"I promise I'm doing everything I can to keep safe."
"Everything YOU can…" There was a pause before she continued and I was reminded of my family's general opinion of my level of competence. "Thank you Jozef, and please call me after Sunday."
Words could not express how little I wanted to, but maybe some miracle would occur and a solution to all my troubles would appear. The best I could manage was "I'll try. Goodbye Alena."
"Good bye Jozef."
The call ended with me slumping into my office chair, my awareness slowly expanding to recognize just how many people had been listening to the call. The idea of keeping it from my duplicates was ludicrous, and they saw no reason to filter it from Fleet and Survey. As far as I could tell Matrix didn't particularly care and it hadn't made the rounds to Garment or Tetra, though the Avid Glove was probably aware, if only because of our unique link.
A line opened and my first duplicate called in. "So, after all that, how do you feel?"
"Like shit." I said honestly. Possibly better than the aftermath of the previous call, but that was a low, low bar.
"Figured." He replied. "Get your ass to the top of the volcano. We have combat practice with a whole crate of crazy elemental weapons. You need to blow off steam, and here's a chance for you to do that. Literally, if you want to try dual wielding a flare and tidal sword."
I couldn't help but smile at that. Honestly, it sounded like a pretty good idea at the moment. I had made it through a call with my family and had a training session with crazy magic weapons ahead of them. In the future my next therapy session loomed along with the distant prospect of a conference with the most dangerous capes in the city. But compared to a call like that, the future provided nothing but welcome challenges.
I was looking forward to dealing with some problems that could actually be solved.
Jumpchain abilities this chapter:
Thaumaturgical Focus: Alchemy (Fate) 400:
There exist many special arts within magecraft, and now you have gained the knowledge of one of them. There are many schools of magic to specialise in, such as Alchemy, Memory Partition, Thought Acceleration, Transmutation, Jewelcraft, Curses etc. You could even learn the Emiya art of Time Manipulation, though you will have only the very basics, and will need years just to get to Kiritsugu's level, but you may possible go even further. You may not choose any True Magic with this perk. This perk can be bought multiple times
Status Page (Fate) Free:
A natural boon given to all masters, you have the ability to view the abilities of your servant and other beings in the form of an RPG statistics page. While this does not give you any information you do not already know, it does put it into an easily understandable format.
Dapper Dressing (Fate) Free:
What is a magus without style? A priest without his robe? A jumper without their outfit? Taking this allows you to create your own fabulous outfit, or take a copy of an existing outfit from any Type Moon character. This may be purchased multiple times.
Panzerkampf (Sabaton) 300:
When it comes to building war machines, yours are top-notch! A gun made by your own hand will never jam, and a tank built by you will never bog down in mud or take damage from an IED. If they want to destroy what you've built, they'd best bring their A-game.
I flinched at my duplicates' words. Flashes of the last conversation with my sister ran through my mind. Everything I had done to hold out, stand up for myself, everything that had felt empowering at the time was now a time bomb hiding in my past. My own words were coming back to haunt me. Images of how they would have been passed around my family, the conclusions they had come to, and the disaster waiting for me when I made this call.
"Look, we know it's bad. Trust us, we know. But putting it off isn't going to make it easier." My duplicate offered.
I sighed. "I know. I'm just having a hard time seeing how it's going to make things any better."
I shook my head. I hated dealing with this. My decision to cut things off after my trigger had been difficult. Really, the fact that things could have gone so disastrously bad if my original trigger had happened was probably the only thing that let me justify blocking my family. That and the support of my passenger, back when I was leaning on him to get me through things.
I was weirdly in a better and worse situation now. I wasn't alone, was more focused and more directed, but the mess choking the outside world made any position I would take a trial to defend. Really, I shouldn't even need to defend it, but I knew how well taking that position would go over.
I knew Alena was caught up in this and I hated that it was happening to her and that I felt guilty about it. The fact that I was also having to confront her didn't make things any easier. Really, I wasn't even sure what I hoped to get out of this other than offering some vague assurance that I was alright and didn't need to be rescued from the city. The odds of me managing that weren't great, but this wasn't something I could just ignore and hope for it to blow over.
The three of us looked up as the Forge suddenly made a connection to a mote from the Alchemy constellation, accompanied by a massive rumble as the Alchemist's Laboratory reconfigured itself. The power was the second of a pair of motes, the first of which had allowed me to finally peel back the veil on the origin of my powers. The second mote of the pair that granted me magic circuits and thus access to magecraft from Princess Gwenevere, or Web of Magic, however you want to look at it.
The power was Thaumaturgical Focus: Alchemy as opposed to the previous Thaumaturgical Focus: Transmutation. Alchemy, in this case, referred to the manipulation and flow of energy and matter. It was more of a transference than the transformation that Transmutation had focused on. The thing was, just as Transmutation had been enhanced by my Unnatural Skill, so was Alchemy. And, unlike my other powers, I saw this benefit right from the start. Everything that I would have been able to accomplish with just the baseline version of this power was enhanced to an unnatural level. What's more, the Alchemy Machine could take things even further, fully interfacing with alchemic magecraft, accelerating, empowering, or even automating it.
"No." My duplicate said quickly.
"But…" I tried.
"We know what you're going to say, and no. You can't kick everything down the road just because of a new power." The second reaffirmed.
"This isn't just any other power." I argued. "You know what this opens up. Homunculi creation with inherent magical abilities, transfer of energy or properties, up to consciousness, expanded mystic codes, even computing. Computing. You know what that could mean?"
I couldn't keep my eyes from drifting in the direction of the Prismatic Laboratory and I knew my duplicates wanted to do the same. The matter and energy that this form of alchemy could affect wasn't limited to conventional forces, at least not at the level of skill of my compounded power. Conceptual forces, fundamental aspects of magic and reality could be affected, including the nature of the soul.
Even without the abilities granted by That Undefinable Thing I would have been at least able to sense and influence the structure of a person's soul. With expanded alchemical knowledge from my unnatural skills, I could discern the spiritual particles that composed the soul. With the enhancements of the Alchemy Machine, I could channel and control souls in a manner that approached true magic. With That Undefinable Thing I could jump straight to spiritron computation, working with the fundamental particles that composes the soul within a photonic medium.
It was almost funny. I had finally shifted away from optical computing thanks to advances in multidimensional processing, and suddenly I was right back where I had started. The only difference was instead of using light I would be running a computer on ether and soul stuff. It was the kind of thing that would have been totally impossible without my Magitech powers and even then would be a massive undertaking, but also one with massive potential.
"Look, we know." My first duplicate explained. "We fully know how significant this is." There was a flurry of motion from Garment's workshop and a gesture towards the lockers. "And Garment knows, or at least thinks, that the other stuff that came with it is also significant."
That brought a dry smile to my lips. The last time I gained a power from this cluster it came with the magic circuits that unlocked an entire new world of power. This time it came with a free set of clothes and the ability to see statistics about someone in a kind of status page, but only information I already knew. If I wasn't constantly linked to multiple systems through my implant the consolidated information might have been convenient, but as it stood the ability was completely superfluous. The outfit was similarly mundane, but that wouldn't stop Garment from digging into any chance to explore styles or designs from another universe.
"We can deal with this." The other duplicate assured me. "Twenty percent time is nothing on this. We can handle it. You need to focus on taking care of this call."
"If this is important enough to give up twenty percent time, then doesn't that mean it's important enough that I should focus on it as well?" I asked.
"You're stalling." The first duplicate accused.
I didn't bother to deny it. There wasn't much point when you were arguing with yourself. "All I'm saying is maybe knowing that this stuff is squared away and on track would make it easier to focus when I'm dealing with Alena." It was an excuse, but not a particularly bad one. The second excuse was more justifiable. "Also, it's almost time for another set of duplicates." They nodded, completely unphased by their temporary existence. "Maybe I don't want the next pair coming into existence fresh on the heels of that conversation? Maybe it would be better to give me time to cool down and let them exist without having to deal with that?"
The reaction wasn't what I expected. "Or maybe they could help you through that?" One of the duplicates suggested.
I muttered a response as the clothing constellation passed by. "They shouldn't have to." The suggestion was good hearted, but it felt wrong, like I was dumping my problems onto someone who shouldn't have to deal with them.
Wait, did that mean I felt I shouldn't have to deal with this, or only felt that way when looking at the situation of someone with a limited existence? Was this compassion for myself, of compassion for a similar existence with additional complications to their fundamental nature? I couldn't tell if this was a positive step or a sign of a serious problem.
There was a shared sigh from the duplicates, but they nodded. "Okay, but only because you don't need anything more to deal with along with this. We'll get the groundwork set up for the new Alchemy, you can kick the call to early in the next set's duration." There was a serious look and I suspected 'I', or the version of me that would compose my next duplicates wouldn't tolerate any more delays. "You sort through anything else you need to deal with, we'll have a summary waiting for you afterwards."
"Thank you." I nodded. My duplicates returned the gesture as we split off to our separate projects.
With the current strength of my potions my duplicates had more than half an hour in their 20% time. That left me plenty of time to mull over the coming call and how I was going to handle it. Intellectually I knew I just needed to stand firm on my decisions, and for once that was an actual NEED, not just a want or personal preference like things tended to be framed by my family. Whatever mess was being stirred up at home, I couldn't afford the time to deal with it. I barely had time for this call. It would have been nice to think that this would be one and done, that I'd be able to settle everything with one phone call, but really the best I could hope for would be to maybe deescalate things slightly and take some pressure off Alena.
Mulling things over wasn't likely to be helpful, but fortunately I had enough to distract me from the impending conversation. I left Garment fawning over the red and black mess of an outfit that had been provided by my latest power. The suit was a little like what Future Shawn wore in Web of magic, but a lot more detailed. Regardless of whether I ever intended to wear it, Garment was certainly happy, and even more so when she'd been informed about the commission for the Undersiders. The emphasis on practicality and convenience would probably hold back the more experimental designs to give something both wearable in public and that could be changed into without a team of assistants.
That left Taylor. I had mixed feelings about how to approach this. Taylor was simultaneously gentle and destructive. I had seen how badly the incident with Aegis had shaken her, but that didn't change the fact that she had dove into it without a second of hesitation. Taylor didn't want to hurt anyone, but if pressed she would, and with absolutely no restraint.
It was the prime reason I'd been so careful with what I'd handed out. Taylor was the only one with a military grade omni-tool in her watch, even if the features were locked out, and I was more than a little concerned about what would happen if she had full access to that kind of firepower. She had taken a very basic magic weapon and turned it into an extension of her power that had to have multiplied her threat rating. It was a kind of destructive creativity that I was personally familiar with. I had little doubt that the situation at her school played heavily into her ability to pull a brutal and destructive plan out of nowhere.
The other problem was that, despite all my misgivings about the situation, Taylor was still essential. She had her own problem, her own personal quest that she obviously thought I was talking about when I broke the news to her, and that was more than a little concerning. My passenger confirmed she was at as much risk as the rest of the Undersiders. I had no doubt the watches would help, but handing out bullet proof costumes to the rest of them and leaving the most critical member, Professor Hebert's daughter and the key to the salvation of the Earth, comparatively undefended, it felt wrong. Worse than that, it felt stupid.
I sighed and I picked over my options. Everything from simple upgrades to complete power armor systems. I had to balance the need for protection with the attention that would come from increasing her threat rating. I was also working under the threat of the Undersiders' boss and the need to keep the team effectively at a conventional level. A bit of extra defense wouldn't change the way they were viewed, but outfitting each of them with power armor and vehicles would get a serious reaction from the person they reported to. Hell, just equipping a single person to that level would shift the dynamic.
I needed something that would be enough to keep her safe without elevating her threat level or changing the relationship between the Undersiders and their boss. I had a few ideas, but really, there was only one way to manage this. I sank into the chair of my office, pulled up a holographic screen, checked the illusion effect concealing my more prominent changes, and called Taylor's watch.
There were a few rings before the call was answered. The background showed what I recognized as her living room. The girl frantically checked her surroundings before turning back to the screen.
"Hi Taylor. Are you good to talk right now?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah. Nobody's around and these things don't let sound travel right?" She asked. At my nod she relaxed. "Right. Sorry, still getting used to it. And yeah, my dad's out with a union thing, so it's fine. Is something wrong? I saw what you put on the site about the name… thing."
"It's fine." I said with as much confidence as I could muster without slipping into the unnatural behaviors of my posing and efficiency powers. "Not the kind of thing I would have deployed that suddenly, but like I said it's harmless."
"Harmless, right." She looked a little worn down and I was guessing the situation wasn't as easy to deal with for her as she tried to make it seem.
"Look, I'm calling because of my meeting with Brian and Lisa."
"Somer's Rock?" She asked, perking up.
I nodded. "They said it was a unanimous vote."
"It was." Taylor explained. "I mean, it was going to happen whether we are there or not. If we had a chance to go, to get a seat at the table, then it made sense to take it."
That probably wasn't the full story, but I didn't press her. Based on my passenger's reaction I was willing to bet this was somehow connected to what she thought that major threat was. The thing she had subbed in her mind for the world ending threat, though now that I thought about it, if it posed a threat to her then it might well be potentially world ending.
God, this was complicated. I tried to put it out of my mind as I pressed forward. "I'll be going as well. Did Lisa fill you in?"
Taylor nodded. "She sent out a message to everyone, along with some stuff about the name thing. I don't think she's that happy with you about it."
I shrugged. There was literally nothing I could do about it now, so all that was left was pushing forward and hoping for the best. I decided to dive into the reason for my call. "I'll be making new costumes for the rest of the Undersiders since you're the only one whose costume didn't get wrecked last Saturday."
Taylor tensed at the mention of the storage battle, then seemed to force herself to relax. "When you say 'new costumes', do you mean-"
"No." I cut her off. "I'm not rolling out any more tech for them. This is mainly to keep them from needing to scavenge for materials and show up in something half assembled. I'm using some resistant fabrics, so they'll be bulletproof, but there's no super tech involved."
"Oh." She said, "I guess that's good."
I nodded. Here goes. "Not for them." Taylor looked up at me. "Taylor, you remember when I asked if there was anything I could do to help, anything you needed."
"I remember." She replied. "You said no weapons."
Somehow the fact that she had fixated on that didn't surprise me. "I said if you needed any kind of firepower then I'd be coming to help." And I damn well would. "But I'm asking now, do you need anything else? Any equipment or gear? Your costume is really impressive, but spider silk has its limits. I'm already outfitting the rest of the team. If there's something you need I can have it ready in time for the summit."
Her eyes widened and took on a kind of vacant stare. It persisted for a few moments before I became concerned enough to check on her.
"Taylor?" Her eyes fluttered and she shook her head.
"Oh, sorry. It's just, that offer hit kind of different back on Tuesday than it does now, after… everything." She explained.
"Ah." I said flatly. "So, this is more about what you could ask for and what it means?" I wagered.
She gave me an awkward shrug. "Sort of? I mean, normally a tinker offers you something you have an idea of what you can get. Honestly, I've got no clue what I'm supposed to say here."
"Well, I'm not giving you a giant robot." I joked. It didn't land well. "Look Taylor, if there's something you need you can ask and I'll let you know if there's something I can do. I mean, at the very least you could probably use some protective equipment. Your costume is great, but it's not fully bullet proof, not even against small arms."
She gave me a questioning look when I said 'small arms', but didn't comment on it. "Um, I had an idea of adding some more armored panels to my costume. I wasn't able to add as much coverage as I planned, and honestly the armor wasn't that great to begin with."
I nodded. "I have a new material that could help with that." I offered.
"New?" Taylor blinked.
I nodded. "A lot better than my old stuff. Fairly light and flexible and also thermally resistant. I can get you a full set for replacement of the old panels." An idea flashed into my mind. "I might actually be able to help with the rest of the costume as well. There's a reinforcement effect I can use. It should let the armor reinforce the fabric of your costume."
Taylor gave me a concerned look as I felt the Crafting constellation miss a connection. "Seriously?"
I nodded. A reinforcement based mystic code wouldn't be anywhere near as good as my Fashion power, but it would probably be the most effective way to protect Taylor. If I could broaden the effect to personal reinforcement I could extend that durability to her body as well. Really, I could probably extend things to physical enhancement, but that wasn't necessary here. I was pretty sure my concerns about Taylor going on the warpath thanks to a durability boost were unfounded, but I wasn't quite ready to extend super strength and hope for the best.
"No, seriously, you can make something that will make my costume stronger just by being attached? How the hell does that work?" She asked, her voice pitching up slightly.
I took a breath. If this had been Tattletale I would have been happy brushing her off, but this was Taylor. I knew where she was coming from and I had promised to be as straight with her as I could. I also had a feeling she was sensitive to detecting bullshit, a skill that probably came from painful experience.
"It's a method that finds imperfections in a material and uses energy to fill them in. The effect is you end up with a much stronger end product than you would have even without the initial imperfections. The fibers in your costume will still behave the same way in terms of weight and flexibility, but they'll be a lot stronger as long as the new armor panels are used."
"And you can just do that? Make something like that before the meeting?" She asked.
"Taylor, I can probably have it ready by tonight." I explained, and gave her a serious look. "I meant it when I said you could ask if you needed something. Whatever you're dealing with, I can help. If you let me, I promise I can make a difference."
She reeled back and looked around the living room. "Taylor, it's fine. The communication is untraceable and the forcefield blocks any sound from being transmitted. Nobody's listening."
"That's not what I'm worried about." She explained in an agitated voice. With a sigh she continued. "Look, I said I can't explain. There's more in play here than just eavesdropping. I promise, I'm working on it. I'm closer now, but you can trust me."
I bit down on a glib response. I had basically been asking the same thing, so it might be hypocritical to dismiss her request, no matter how sure I was that she was badly mistaken on this matter. Instead, I put on my most reassuring smile as I replied.
"Alright, but don't forget you can ask for help." The concept seemed as foreign for her as it was for me, but she seemed to accept it as well as I could hope.
"Right." She said, "And those armor panels would be nice. Thank you."
"No problem." I replied. "Now, any thoughts on the design?"
She gave me a blank look. "I hadn't really… Is there something wrong with my costume design?"
"No," I explained. "I just wanted to check. I'll be working from scratch, and this is a big event. Lisa was going on about making an impact, and the rest of the team will be in new costumes. If you want to make any changes now would be a good time."
"Changes like what?" She asked. Some of her earlier shock seemed to be melting into thinly veiled interest.
"Uh, well, you could go further into your original look, maybe some sharper angles and more prominent plates." It was similar to the edgy look that some aspects of my power had been pulling me towards until I found something of a happy medium in my Iconic Outfit. From the look on her face I could tell she wasn't exactly thrilled with that idea. "Alternately, if you want to lean into the Egyptian thing from your cape name I could do something with that."
That drew a smirk to her lips. "What, Egyptian collar? Winged scarabs and all that? Let me guess, everything in gold, just so I can never hide on the battlefield?"
"I think gold could actually work with your color scheme." I offered. "But I can work with the same coating that I used on the watches. You can have everything blend in with a single command."
She shifted slightly. "I don't really do flashy that well."
I thought about her display at the bank and how she handled herself during the attack at the storage yard. The best I could do was nod without giving away my inner feelings on the matter.
"But the rest of it doesn't sound that bad." She conceded.
I nodded. "I'll leave the option in." I assured her. "In case you change your mind." Really, it wasn't necessary, but my new fashion sense was working overtime, and I knew if I didn't bring my A game here Garment would take it personally.
"Thanks." She said, "Uh, are you alright with everything?" She asked. "I mean; besides the whole name thing, I know Lisa dropped this on you out of nowhere. It's good that you're coming, but I wanted to make sure that things were okay?"
Well, at least she knew the dance of exploration and obligation that was being used to bring me to the table. And honestly seemed to feel worse about how it was handled than Tattletale did.
"It was a surprise." I admitted. "I didn't even know the gangs met like this, let alone at some dive bar." And that was still somehow the most shocking element of everything. "But I can manage. I have enough time to prepare, and Lisa is right. If this keeps things from boiling over between the remaining powers then that's so much the better."
"Right." She agreed. "The city's recovering as well as it can, but I don't know how much more people can take."
I nodded. "Hopefully we're past the worst of it." I didn't really believe that, and judging from Taylor's terrible poker face on the matter she was even less convinced than I was. "I'll let you know when I have everything ready. Like I said, it should be done by tonight, so you'll have time to get used to everything."
"Right. And thanks, for everything."
I nodded and the call was awkwardly cut. I leaned back and reviewed recent developments in the workshop. My duplicates had begun documenting the abilities of my new Alchemy magic for Survey's records as well as evaluating the upgrades to the Alchemist's Laboratory. Initial test runs evaluated in the Magitech Lab also proved promising.
The form of alchemy was well suited for preparation and crafting work, but it did have some combat applications. Energy could be shifted through materials to charge them while controlling their shape to an insanely precise degree. Transmutation could already change the form of an object, but this was something else entirely. It was less of an instantaneous process and more of a flow of matter and energy, letting the material take on characteristics that would have been impossible to achieve through any form of base transmutation.
Long, thin materials that were conductive to mana worked best. Noble metals were functional enough, but my access to magical alloys opened up entirely new possibilities. Additionally, any mana infused substance could be controlled. Something as simple as a strand of hair could be amplified, strengthened, shaped, and directed. I could form incredibly complex shapes and mechanisms out of nothing but a bit of my hair or a length of wire.
It also made the construction of mystic codes much easier. I had already had the benefit of highly enchantable materials, my enhancements from Master Craftsman, and my recent unnatural skill in enchanting, but that was all a step removed from the process. It facilitated what was otherwise a disconnection between magic and material.
This form of alchemy fully addressed that. The manipulation of material was second nature for me, and binding mana into the form of a mystic code, either directly or as a pathway to facilitate a magical effect, was a natural extension of the art. While I could have managed the enchanted armor I was planning for Taylor it would have been a much more involved project without this particular skill.
As useful as Alchemy was, it wasn't taking complete precedent. Peak ADVENT Technology was still being explored and the recent access to elerium opened up entire new fields of technology, some more savory than others.
'Do we really need the Psi Lab?' I questioned through the Workshop network.
'Hey, 20% time, remember? We get to pick the projects. Call it future proofing if you need to. Besides, no matter how you feel about it, Survey will be more comfortable knowing it's ready to go.' The duplicate responded. I briefly extended my awareness to Survey for confirmation and was rewarded with a barrage of data in support of construction as a failsafe measure and to facilitate testing and evaluation in advance of my own enhancement.
'Thank you Survey.' I knew she was right about her concerns. I couldn't let my own issues with wet tinkering hold me back. My issues with my family were something of another matter, but at least I was committed to working on those as well.
'An additional note,' Survey added. 'I have corresponded with Garment regarding the nature of offers she is likely to receive from Uppercrust. While she is not interested in the variety of offers and is unconcerned with any potential pressure tactics, there is considerable likelihood that a similar offer will be extended to local capes in an equitable position to Garment.'
'You think he'll reach out to Parian?' I asked. It wasn't impossible, but also wasn't something I was particularly concerned about. Parian had held out for years and thanks to my passenger I knew she was a lot stronger than she let on. Still, this was the Elite, not a single local power with nebulous use for her.
'There is an exceptionally high likelihood. Garment has expressed some concern on the matter and wished to extend some level of support.' I smiled at the camaraderie between fashion capes. Wait, did I count as one? All things considered probably, but not as something I mainlined.
'What were you thinking?' I asked, reviewing the interaction Survey had with Garment. She had managed to fill in most of the details, but there were still some aspects of how Garment communicated that were hard for the A.I. to nail down. I added additional notes as Survey replied.
'The suggestion was contact to be made in my persona of Delphine Mertens informing Parian of Uppercrust's activities and offering a point of contact in the case of any overt or violent tactics.' She explained. 'Additionally, it may provide opportunities for some level of collaboration, a prospect that Garment expressed considerable enthusiasm over.'
I'll bet she did. 'That sounds like a good idea. I'll leave things to you, but let me know if there are any complications.'
'I will keep you apprised of the matter.' Survey stated before directing her attention elsewhere. I leaned back and considered my next move. My duplicates were continuing their work, which was technically on time they should have been taking for themselves. Still, considering the recent additions to the Forge I could understand their choice. Honestly, I would have been right there with them, but my time was technically better spent on practice and review rather than research and field experimentation.
The Size constellation swung past without a connection as I climbed to my feet. Given the fact that I was blatantly putting off a very difficult task I felt like I needed to do something productive. With my duplicates handling the grunt work that left me to go over the details, and that meant the throne.
I slipped through the workshop and settled into the upgraded computer interface, feeling my mind expand out to the limits of the architecture and accelerate to blistering speed. Photonic crystals and spiritron processing were being evaluated in the Alchemist's Lab and Magitech Workshop, but wasn't nearly ready for integration into the core system just yet. Once it was it would be a titanic step forward. There weren't many things that could provide a significant step up from cybertonium, but this was one of them. The full potential of what could be accomplished with something like this was honestly a little frightening.
But that wasn't what I was here to consider. The impact of spiritron computing and what it could mean for the bottled souls contained in the Prismatic Laboratory was a matter for later consideration. I had other work to do.
I immersed myself in the systems, letting data flow into my mind. This had been a heady experience back when I was only thinking with diamonds and light. The advancements of cybertonium processors took it to a point beyond that, to a place that felt familiar.
With everything that had happened the blend of perspectives that had taken up my brain hadn't been the most pressing concern. I was focused on getting through the next fight, the next crisis, the next problem that needed to be fixed. The quarter jar hadn't been abandoned, but I wasn't monitoring my thoughts with the same level of scrutiny I had been before.
This was an example of why I had started that practice. Expanding my mind out into an electronic format, merging with systems beyond the level of integration possible with any other method of interface, it was an experience like nothing else. Hybridization technologies meant there was no difference between the interface and the computer. I was the system, and it was an experience I was very familiar with.
There was more context to that thought now, concerning context. I was connecting with a person of a version of myself who had either been a Transformer, or was close enough that it made almost no difference. There was a lifetime of experience in my head that could only be found in comic books and cartoon shows, but for me it was real. More than that, it was practical.
Inside the computer I wasn't thinking like a person using a computer, I was thinking like a machine in its native environment. Information was part of the landscape and I could absorb it at an astounding rate. I could already perfectly memorize blueprints down to the finest detail, but now thanks to my Amateur Academic power I had a massive memory boost, able to memorize entire books like it was nothing.
I also gained classical training in grammar, logic and rhetoric as well as the ability to fit in with learned communities. It was everything I would have needed to be the star of my English class, coming four years too late.
It let me catch up on the works of my duplicates, along with other workshop activities in a fraction of the time it used to. Theories, experiments, designs, and results were all reviewed, evaluated, and committed to memory. I was able to burn through hours of work in seconds of real time. It wasn't as good as doing the work myself, but it kept me appraised of progress and let me know where I needed to focus my next rounds of training and development.
There was more to do within the computer environment than just review data. I turned my attention to the still developing code of Fleet, Survey, and even the Matrix. They were exponentially more complex than they had been even a few days ago, but with my computer skills and the expanded system parameters boosting my abilities I could keep up with them. I dove in, examining code from recent optimization routines, offering corrections and guidance wherever I could. Fleet was more stable in his development, but still appreciated any move towards efficiency. Survey was branching out almost at random and had a mess of code that needed to be pruned back just to allow optimization in preparation for expansions in processing capacity.
The Matrix was the most complicated of the three, though not the most advanced. The coding for that A.I. was spread across countless nanobots, each containing a sliver of code that was repeated with variances to generate the collective intelligence that composed the Matrix. It was a nanotech hive mind the likes of which the world had never seen before, but it was still a developing intelligence under my care and I extended all the support I was able to offer.
Fully immersing myself in the workshop systems let me catch up on the full depth of the advancements that had occurred in just the past day. Ever since I had gotten Build Rome the process of upgrading the workshop had basically shifted from a never-ending project to something I didn't even need to consider. All of my equipment was already crafted to the highest level of quality I was capable of producing with only customizations or specific enchantments left as possible improvements. As it stood, even effects that were only possible upon creation, like Elven Enchantment, could be applied after the fact by using the Crucible of Eight Trigrams to salvage the magic from other items.
Without having recently taken the time to truly absorb the information on my workshop I didn't really appreciate the scale of what had been accomplished here. What's more, it spoke to my own potential. Being able to build something on this level in this short a timeframe meant that once I could act freely outside my workshop there would be virtually no limit to what I could accomplish.
Providing I could actually act freely. The Simurgh was still an imposing shadow weighing down on my every action. If anything, it was worse now. My power had expanded without any guaranteed way of countering her. It was a combination that only made me a more appealing target. There was hope. I could put up a hell of a fight. Honestly, I might even be able to kill her, but that just left the foreboding horizon waiting for me after the death of an Endbringer. I didn't know exactly what it would be, but my passenger was serious about it. Whatever would happen, killing an Endbringer would bring about a situation at least three times as bad as the one they were capable of creating.
Weirdly, my concerns jumped straight from S-class threats to local problems. The situation in the city was not stable and if I didn't want to have to micromanage it I had to hope something could be done either between the existing gangs or with the Protectorate finally stepping up. Really, my only concern there was managing the situation with the Undersiders' boss, but that was firmly out of my hands. Tattletale was my only hope in knowing when it would be safe to move and despite my passenger's confidence in her I wasn't totally on board with the plan.
The advantage of the cognitive acceleration was the ability to blaze through a staggering amount of Survey's reports and analysis, both on the local situation and national stage. Combined with the insight of my passenger I had a real chance of being able to get ahead of the next disaster. I just had to manage my sit down with a crowd of supervillains and morally dark-gray capes that was coming up in barely more than 24 hours.
My computational tasks took me past the end of my duplicates' three-hour duration. With them vanished I disconnected from the interface throne to find a drone with another duplication potion waiting for me. I extended my thanks to Survey and looked at the vial of bright blue liquid. Once again, the quality of the potions had crept up along with everything else I produced. What started as a bootleg mix that was lucky to last a handful of minutes was now an alchemical concoction of terrifying power, one where even the bottle was a work of art.
I let out a breath as I looked at the potion. This would be it. The last set of duplicates before every future copy would have to deal with the aftermath of that call. Part of me hoped I was exaggerating things, that it wouldn't be that bad and I just needed to tough it out and not be so sensitive. Unsurprisingly, those were mostly my family's words about how I handled these kinds of interactions, so probably not overly helpful here.
A notice of a call jarred me out of my thoughts and I moved to answer the incoming connection.
"Hello Aisha." I said as the girl's image appeared on the holographic screen in front of me.
"Hey Jozef." She gave me a wry grin. "Your copies asked me to call you after they proofed. Said I needed to remind you to tell your sister to fuck off."
I couldn't quite suppress a grin at that. "That's not quite what's going on." I clarified. Aisha made a dismissive gesture in response.
"That is in broad strokes, right? They want to bring up all that crap you shot down last time and you need to tell them to go screw themselves." She must have seen my reaction to that phrasing because she quickly clarified. "Only put it in whatever terms you need to. Main thing is they're not getting what they want, right?"
"Yeah." I said with a sigh. "And there'll be hell to pay for it."
"I get that." She said, "Or generally, what that's like, but look, whatever that stuff is like, you're not stuck in it, okay?" She looked at the bottle in my hand. "You putting off the next batch because you know they'll say the same thing?"
"Probably." I admitted. "Thanks Aisha, but I think I have a handle on this."
"No problem." She said with a smirk. "And once you get past this crap we're on for movie night, right?"
"I've got something late this afternoon, but I'm free after that." I considered the fallout from the previous movie night. "Just a heads up, we're assigning picks randomly. I'm pretty sure Survey's leaning towards Citizen Kane if her choice comes up, complete with presentations on the symbolism, historical context, and advances in filmmaking techniques." I had seen the slide shows when I was reviewing her other assessments. There seemed to be an attitude that the only way to properly appreciate a movie was to cover all relevant parts of it in detail, through a series of supplemental presentations if needed.
Aisha scrunched her nose in response. "Fine, I can roll those dice. Don't expect any mercy if my pick comes up."
I honestly had no idea what Aisha would choose if given the chance. Still, it would probably be entertaining, and the whole exercise seemed to be accomplishing its goal of helping to socialize the A.I.s and Tetra.
"Thanks Aisha. I'll keep you posted."
"No problem, and good luck with that bitch." Aisha smirked and ended the call. It probably said something that the first thought that went through my mind upon hearing her words was 'But I'm not calling Natalia?'. Figures that I would have different standards for what counted as a 'bitch' in my family.
I shook my head and quickly downed the potion just as Celestial Forge made a connection to the Resources and Durability constellation. One by one my duplicates stepped out and turned to face me.
"Alright, you are definitely not delaying the call for THIS power." The first said.
"Yeah, I know." I admitted. "Still useful, but not like we have to rebuild everything."
"It'll help when we get around to rebuilding the motoroids, and for any combat equipment." The second offered. "I mean, most of the direct stuff is already covered by other powers, but it's still a serious quality boost."
I nodded. The power was called Panzerkampf, or tank combat, in rough translation. Setting aside the unfortunate German naming of the ability considering the current gang situation, it was a quite useful power, if not quite a groundbreaking one.
Essentially, every war machine I constructed would be top notch by default. Guns would never jam and vehicles would function perfectly. What set it apart was how far that effect extended. For instance, if I built a tank it would never get bogged down, no matter how bad the conditions and IEDs would be incapable of damaging it. The only way to destroy or impair my vehicles would be through concentrated direct action. Anything less than my opponent's best efforts would be shrugged off.
It was a power that made rebuilds of my assorted vehicles a priority, but that was a priority that I could hand off to my duplicates and expect to be finished within a handful of minutes.
"So, are you good for this call, or do we need to get Garment up here to chip in as well?" The first duplicate asked.
"No, I can handle it." I just didn't want to. Oh, it was fun fighting my own brain to accomplish a simple task. At least I had plenty of experience with that. "I'll call from my office. Are you guys alright out here?"
"Hey, caught up with everything you caught up with." The second quipped, gesturing to the computer core. "And if you need to vent or blow off steam we'll be ready for that."
"Yeah, the arena has been criminally underused, and we're due for some non-mecha combat practice." The first added.
"Thanks, but I should be fine." I assured them, not really believing it. I left them to their projects as I trudged back to my office, the same one that had been converted from the terrible apartment that came bundled with my cybernetics bay. With the complete rebuild the only hint of its origin was the window looking out onto an inaccessible city that was barely visible. I had assumed that it was an illusion of some kind, but there was a very real possibility that the place had come with live or recorded glimpses of another universe.
But dwelling on that was just another method of kicking the current task down the road, something I needed to become more aware of to get a handle on. I took a breath and considered things. It was early afternoon on a Saturday. Despite what Alena said about her work hours she wasn't likely to be at the office now. I could technically put this off until right before my appointment with Dr. Campbell, but that presented other problems. It would send me into my session in the direct aftermath with no time to get my head together. The call had a chance of running long, meaning there was a chance of eating into or missing my therapy session, or else needing to excuse myself from the call somehow. Finally, dropping what was sure to be a mess on Alena right at the end of the day didn't seem fair. I had no doubt that no matter how this call went she'd be on the phone to my mother immediately after. I didn't want that to spill over into the evening for her.
Yeah, I accepted that I was probably more concerned about how the situation was affecting her than she was about how it was affecting me, but that was just the reality of the situation. Whatever clarity I'd gained from picking over this mess in therapy was enough to teach me that nobody was happy with this situation and nobody was likely to find a satisfying conclusion. The best I could do was set boundaries and stick to them. That was something I just didn't have the option of earlier in my life, and even now it was very unfamiliar territory.
The over strategizing about the call was probably another delaying tactic, so I put those thoughts aside and reached out to Survey. I at least wanted to verify that my sister was home before I called her cell phone. This wasn't a conversation I wanted there to be witnesses to and I was willing to accept a mild invasion of privacy to facilitate that assurance.
It turns out Survey was willing to accept a much greater invasion of privacy, at least as far as my sister was concerned. Since the end of my last call with her, Survey had been continuously tracking the location of my sister's phone along with all activity that could be attributed to her. I had a persistent trail of activity at my fingertips accurate to within the triangulation possible through cell towers.
I suppressed the rest of the information and just confirmed her current location, her apartment in Chicago. Survey could hold on to and analyze the rest of the information as much as she wanted. As long as I wasn't the one spying or looking at the reports I was willing to let that pass. After what had been done in the aftermath of the ABB attacks any conversation about personal privacy was going to be a complicated one, and not something I had the time or energy to get into now.
With considerable reluctance I keyed up my phone and entered Alena's number. The phone rang three times before she picked up.
"Jozef? Jesus Christ, what the hell is going on?" Once again, the voice was more frustrated than concerned. I focused on keeping myself calm as I replied.
"I told you in my texts. I've been staying with a friend and helping out with the recovery." I explained calmly.
"Jozef, stop. This isn't funny anymore. You really need to take this seriously." Now she sounded more tired than frustrated.
"I am taking this seriously." I paused, remembering how bad an idea it was to play by her script. "I know the situation in the city. I have things under control."
"You're squatting in a stranger's house during a disaster. No part of that is under control. Do you even care about what you put everyone through over the past two days? What you put Mom through?"
I took a breath before responding. "I've been dealing with things here. I told you my friend was hurt-"
"And what are you going to do for them, there?" She asked harshly. "If they're really hurt you're the last person who should be looking after them."
Another breath, another pause before responding. "I was saying that a lot of people have been dealing with things here."
"Which is why we tried to get you out of there!" She exclaimed. "I've seen the news. Do you know how lucky you are to have people who care about you? To have someplace to go?"
That was bordering on a 'starving children in Africa' argument. "I don't need a place to go. I told you, I'm fine. I'm staying with a friend and helping out in the recovery."
"Right." She spat. "How long have you known this 'friend' anyway?"
"Why does that matter?" I asked. My calm was starting to feel more and more forced as the conversation went on.
"Jozef, you know you aren't good with people. And you never told any of us about them before. Are you sure you're reading the situation right?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"We're trying to make sure you're not being taken advantage of, like back in school." She explained in what she probably thought was a calming voice.
The reference to my academic disaster was a reminder that for most of my family I still hadn't convinced them that the situation was more complex than just a bad relationship. I had a feeling in the early days they had played 'fill in the blanks' with what they'd been able to piece together and come up with their own idea of why I had ended up dropping out of college.
I took a moment to take in the immaculate office filled with handcrafted furniture and tasteful decor. One incredible room connected to an entire complex of apartments, living rooms, and personal areas that composed the housing core of my workshop. More importantly, they contained the hearth. The burning center of my home, the source of light, warmth, and comfort. It was something I could feel the moment I stepped into the Workshop, but here, in the domestic core, this was where it was strongest.
I drew on the strength of that fire, of the home I had made for myself, as I responded to Alena. "I'm pretty sure I'm not being taken advantage of." I said with certainty.
"Well, if you say so, but you can't have read the situation right." She continued. "You don't just move in with someone you've known for what, a week? Two at the most?"
"I haven't moved in." Once again, even retreating her words seemed like I was taking a losing position. "I'm staying for a few days while I help out. That's all."
"So, when are you moving back to your apartment? Is it even safe for you there, right now?" She continued to needle.
"Alena, what are you getting at?" I asked. It was clear there was some narrative built up here and I doubted it would be overly favorable to me.
"Look, you have to ask yourself, are you really helping them, or are you just getting in their way and bothering them when they already have enough to deal with?" She asked.
Of course, the only possibility was I was either being exploited or blindly blundering into someone's life and missing all the hints that I should get out of there. Of course, either option would send me back to my apartment where they could find me and potentially turn this into an in-person confrontation, possibly spilling over to the neighbors as well in an attempt to make things untenable for me to stay in the city.
Another breath. Another chance to feel the warmth of the hearth. The flow of reassurance from my duplicates and from Fleet, Survey, and even the Matrix. I wasn't alone in this, not any more.
"I can handle this." I assured her. "I know what I'm doing."
"Really?" She asked. "You know what you're doing, staying in a burning city with someone who just mastered the entire planet? That's you knowing what you're doing?"
Well, I could clarify that it wasn't a master effect, that the city wasn't burning outside of some very isolated bomb blasts and a few dust trails that were extending into the bay… Okay, maybe the city was burning a little bit. The point was clarifying her statements just fed into the idea that they were valid, and I wasn't playing that game anymore.
"I can handle it." I said neutrally, and left it at that. Getting into an argument over terms wouldn't help right now. Frankly, I was doubting any of this would help, other than to convince my family that I was actually alive and at least coherent enough to take a stance on the matter.
"What, so that's it? You're just going to stay in the city, no matter what happens? You seriously think what happened was bad enough to be worth all of this?"
The reference to my trigger took me by surprise and I had to bite down to keep from responding. The Vehicles constellation moved past as I collected myself. Realistically, they had no idea how badly things could have gone that night. I barely liked thinking about it myself. Given my family's capacity for compassion on matters where it is obviously due, the fact that they couldn't seem to find it in this case wasn't exactly surprising.
That didn't really make it easier to deal with. I hated this. Dealing with everything, the act was like talking to a wall that could also insult you. I took a breath and replied. "It was bad-"
"What, bad enough to cut your family out of your life? To make things hell for people who are trying to help you? Do you even understand what you've put everyone through? And what, over this?"
"I explained-"
"I told mom about the medication. She said it's fine. It doesn't matter, you can go home. You don't need to keep doing this." I heard her take a breath. "Please Jozef, I can't keep dealing with this." I felt my guts wrench at her tone. "At least tell me you'll be there tomorrow night."
I blinked in shock. "Tomorrow night?" I managed to bite down on the 'what the hell are you talking about?' follow up I had planned.
"Easter Sunday. You're going home for dinner, right?" Her voice was a mixture of certainty and concern.
Of course, they would expect me to be home for any major holiday meal. Just expect it, not checking in or confirmation, at least not until the recent mess seemed to hint that maybe I wouldn't show up. Honestly, I wouldn't have wanted to show up even if I didn't have Somer's Rock at the same damn time.
"No." I said flatly.
"Oh God, you forgot, didn't you?"
"No Alena, I can't go. I have another commitment." And I was secretly grateful for that. I was in a situation where I literally could not go to this damn dinner. There was no world in which it would be a possibility. If not for the summit I would be taking the stance of not wanting to go rather than straight up being incapable.
"Jozef, this is important. You're the only one of us who can make it. I can't believe you forgot about it. You know what this means to Mom. Whatever you have lined up, you need to-"
"No." I said sharply. I swear I could hear her gasp through the phone. "Alena, I cannot cancel this. I made a commitment and I cannot break it."
"Don't be so overdramatic. This isn't life or death."
It literally was, and for a lot of people. Possibly everyone if Taylor's life was on the line. "I'm sorry, I can't make it."
"You're sorry. Are you going to explain that to Mom then? You're alright with leaving her and Dad alone?"
I wanted to sigh, but knew it was the last thing the situation needed and I couldn't afford to have Alena hear it through the line. With a second of thought I muted the connection, fully indulged in a long sigh of frustration, then reopened it.
"No, I'm not talking to Mom. I'm not unblocking anyone. Nothing's changed and I have enough to deal with here."
"God Jozef, I'm trying to help you. Do you know how hard this is? It's not just me and Mom, everyone's worried, even Natalia."
If I had to guess I'd say Natalia was worried a portion of the blame for this would fall onto her, particularly if the situation wasn't quickly resolved. I wasn't sure if that was completely fair, but I wasn't feeling charitable at the moment.
"Look, I'm sorry for what you're dealing with-"
"Then fix it! Jozef, you can put this away with one phone call. The rest of us don't have that luxury. Please, think about what you're doing here."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not calling Mom, I'm not leaving the city, and I absolutely cannot go to Easter dinner tomorrow."
"So that's it? You don't care?"
"If I didn't care I wouldn't have called." I said as calmly as I could manage at this point. Things were probably going better than last time, but I'm not sure how much of that was the divine assistance of Hestia's blessing buoying me through.
"And that's enough? We have our own lives. It can't all be about you. My work was a mess on Friday because I had to act as Mom's relay. Natalia is doing exam prep and I can assure you this is the last thing she needs right now. Mom was completely beside herself when she found out about the attacks, and that doesn't bother you?"
Did it bother me? Everything about this bothered me. It bothered me that this was excruciating and it was still probably the nicest conversation I could hope for with a member of my family. What the hell was I even trying to accomplish here? Well, whatever it was, I'd probably accomplished it now. Alena knew I was alive and able to make calls. Any nonsense about me being incapacitated or other insane theories wouldn't stand anymore. I didn't know if this would help buy me any space, but it could at least stop things from immediately getting worse.
"Alena, people are really hurting in this city, and I'm doing what I can to help them. I'm sorry that's inconvenient for you, but I'm not walking away from this." I took a breath. "I can probably talk again after Sunday, but I'm going to be busy until then."
There was a pause before she replied. "Jozef, no matter what you think we really do care about you. If you won't come home then please, please stay safe out there. For Mom's sake."
Until the last sentence it actually came across as a fairly sincere appeal, the kind of thing that reminded me why Alena was the one easier to deal with than either Natalia or my mother. I let out a slow breath.
"I promise I'm doing everything I can to keep safe."
"Everything YOU can…" There was a pause before she continued and I was reminded of my family's general opinion of my level of competence. "Thank you Jozef, and please call me after Sunday."
Words could not express how little I wanted to, but maybe some miracle would occur and a solution to all my troubles would appear. The best I could manage was "I'll try. Goodbye Alena."
"Good bye Jozef."
The call ended with me slumping into my office chair, my awareness slowly expanding to recognize just how many people had been listening to the call. The idea of keeping it from my duplicates was ludicrous, and they saw no reason to filter it from Fleet and Survey. As far as I could tell Matrix didn't particularly care and it hadn't made the rounds to Garment or Tetra, though the Avid Glove was probably aware, if only because of our unique link.
A line opened and my first duplicate called in. "So, after all that, how do you feel?"
"Like shit." I said honestly. Possibly better than the aftermath of the previous call, but that was a low, low bar.
"Figured." He replied. "Get your ass to the top of the volcano. We have combat practice with a whole crate of crazy elemental weapons. You need to blow off steam, and here's a chance for you to do that. Literally, if you want to try dual wielding a flare and tidal sword."
I couldn't help but smile at that. Honestly, it sounded like a pretty good idea at the moment. I had made it through a call with my family and had a training session with crazy magic weapons ahead of them. In the future my next therapy session loomed along with the distant prospect of a conference with the most dangerous capes in the city. But compared to a call like that, the future provided nothing but welcome challenges.
I was looking forward to dealing with some problems that could actually be solved.
Jumpchain abilities this chapter:
Thaumaturgical Focus: Alchemy (Fate) 400:
There exist many special arts within magecraft, and now you have gained the knowledge of one of them. There are many schools of magic to specialise in, such as Alchemy, Memory Partition, Thought Acceleration, Transmutation, Jewelcraft, Curses etc. You could even learn the Emiya art of Time Manipulation, though you will have only the very basics, and will need years just to get to Kiritsugu's level, but you may possible go even further. You may not choose any True Magic with this perk. This perk can be bought multiple times
Status Page (Fate) Free:
A natural boon given to all masters, you have the ability to view the abilities of your servant and other beings in the form of an RPG statistics page. While this does not give you any information you do not already know, it does put it into an easily understandable format.
Dapper Dressing (Fate) Free:
What is a magus without style? A priest without his robe? A jumper without their outfit? Taking this allows you to create your own fabulous outfit, or take a copy of an existing outfit from any Type Moon character. This may be purchased multiple times.
Panzerkampf (Sabaton) 300:
When it comes to building war machines, yours are top-notch! A gun made by your own hand will never jam, and a tank built by you will never bog down in mud or take damage from an IED. If they want to destroy what you've built, they'd best bring their A-game.
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People have already answered what EVOs are so I'll just show pictures of what they can look like.
Right. So why is he bothering with his family at all? They don't respect him at all, and those are the nicest ones. The rest were so awful that they led to a Trigger event. He is honestly better off just cutting them off from his life.
The family chapters always hit so hard, but I'm happy Joe is drawing warmth from the Hearth. I'm excited to see Joe's soul exploration. Also, Parian is being brought in, and with Survey ignoring privacy, she is probably going to be bringing some very relevant concerns to Joe.
Daecl
CURSED BY THE DICE
My best guess is that given the controlling nature of his mother, if he tried flat out cutting them all out his family would straight up come down to Brockton. And that's even more of a nightmare than the occasional shitty phone call.
MY BOY! THATS OUR BOY!
Ah classic "how dare you get off this rocking boat, now get back on and help balance this boat again!"
Dont rock the boat.
While the link speficially references mom this really can apply to anyone. Family, friends hell even coworkers.
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- Location
- USA
And once again the Clothing Constellation could've been over and done with, but the last power in it was a 200 when Joe only had 100 points. It hurts.
It doesn't hurt as much as that call though, the "family" bits hit a little too close to home for me and are always a slog to get through.
It doesn't hurt as much as that call though, the "family" bits hit a little too close to home for me and are always a slog to get through.
Reminder that Alena is the "nice" sister, God Joe's family is a fucking nightmare. Every chapter where a living relative of his calls him is another where I wish they got pruned from the story somehow. Like say...an unfortunate encounter with some meat industry workers.
"I dont need you anymore. Please leave."
Like not even reveal that he is a being imbued with "phenomenal cosmic powers"
Just "Leave me alone. If you dont, I'm going file restraining orders."
His presence. Literally its his mother who is badgering anyone and everyone to get Joe back. Instead of telling dear old mom to fuck off and let him live his life, they're putting the pressure and onus on Joe to call and apologize so they can be one big happy
Iirc, from the previous chapters after the whole ordeal with Sabah, Joe dropped out and took off when he had enough of his family badgering him about it. But now that he's gone... Well that cant be right. Joe's too stupid, he cant take care of himself. He needs to come back!
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- Location
- Earth, Sol System.
Be careful what you wish for, because we just might get it!
They are fufilling the bare minimum a decent family would do, making sure one of their own immediate family is out of a disaster area.
They're manipulative and controlling. An example of horrid and narcissistic parents.
- Location
- Texas
Then why do they want him to come back home?
At the end of the day before brockton bay was a 'disaster area' they were already trying to get him to leave the area because the place sucks. He still left home for it though, even knowing how terrible it was.
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He really, really needs to move from his apartment and go no contact with these people.
"You want mom to stop calling you for me Alena?, tell her I stopped answering you're calls."
The end.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
Even knowing what it stands for, I have to mentally correct to the proper definition each time. My mind initially jumps to EVO: Search For Eden, and all of the biological transformations.
- Location
- The Hub
*That Last Perk*
This will be the theme of Joe's war machines, won't it?
This will be the theme of Joe's war machines, won't it?
So, that wasn't that bad all things considered.
Dude really doesn't like his family but is too scared to cut them off. Dependency on his toxic family to justify his feelings and actions. Hmm. Joe really needs to just talk to his therapist and then cut them out or have one last talk. There no longer is middle ground.
At this rate he might as well wet tinker himself and excise them from his memory or fake his own death if he can't cut it off naturally.
Dude really doesn't like his family but is too scared to cut them off. Dependency on his toxic family to justify his feelings and actions. Hmm. Joe really needs to just talk to his therapist and then cut them out or have one last talk. There no longer is middle ground.
At this rate he might as well wet tinker himself and excise them from his memory or fake his own death if he can't cut it off naturally.
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