Uncanny Sights
3rd of December 2006 A.D.
Namuru, the City of Death does not at first glance live up to its dread name, towers of steel and concrete rise in patterns like earthly constellations upon the great pillar, their windows alight with subtly different shades of radiance, according to the tastes and preferences of the dwellers within, surrounded by parks mantled blue-green life and filled with birdsong. Or dinosaur song maybe? Whatever the case the Goldcrests are out in force among the branches, warbling excitedly to one another as if the excitement of the city had caught them in its web. Or maybe its just that Olivia had taken to feeding them with the dedication of a habitual pigeon watcher. Either way whenever one of them takes a morsel from her hand the other park-goers try to tempt it to come over so they can pet it. For your part you keep your hands off any almost-birds so as not to accidentally impart some kind of sacred meaning to them.
So far Olivia had taken the revelation of another world beneath the one she knows, a world where you are queen about as well as could be expected, disbelief then questions then just not knowing where to look. At the trio 'line surfing' with bootleg grav-boards down the secondary power lines? The tocatli unloading bales of golden thread from the silk-farm, possibly their own production to judge by the rough and unadorned nature of their jumpsuits? The seta mystics floating serenely above, censers trailing hallowed smoke in their wake casting shadows over the crowds of office workers waiting on the tri-rail? In a sense you suspect that the simple fact this is so alien insulated both Olivia and Daniel from the implications... well than and the fact that they do not realize how enormous the city is. Forked Arches where you are now is a mixed neighborhood with a lot of park space in part because of what it houses at its core: Silver Needle Academy, the premier sharpshooting and sense-enhancing training ground in the city. They like having clean lines of fire in case of attack, not that anyone has attacked in more than eight hundred hundred great turns, something like a six hundred and forty years Earth standard but the memories of Sanctuary are long indeed.
"If you want to fight things that are tougher and stronger than you it makes sense to keep some distance from them so lets start here shall we? Olivia this should be particularly good with your gift and on top of that when you veil no one would notice the electo-flux gun."
"Magic guns? Sure why not? Makes sense," she murmurs under her breath gathering her courage.
"I know way more about swords than guns," Daniel points out. "As in I have never fired a gun in my life."
"That is a good thing," Lydia counters. "Means you have nothing to unlearn. Also I think that silk-backed body armor suits you. We just have to get you one made custom so you can hide it under your street clothes. What about helmets though? Something with cameras so you do not loose peripheral vision?"
He laughs. "Trying to turn me into Iron Man now?"
Lydia turns to look at him seriously. "Trying to keep you alive. I don't doubt you can learn how to be dangerous, people,
mortals" she grimaces at the word. "Have always been able to do that. It's staying safe that's harder. Don't ask yourself 'how to I kill a vampire of the Black Court', ask instead 'how am I going to keep doing that even when I am unlucky, even when I am outnumbered' and 'how do I run when I can't'. Better to be the longbowman than the knight."
Daniel nods at the advice, but he can't quite stop the smile that sneaks onto his face. "Careful your cultural bias is showing."
"Cultural bias?" Olivia asks confused
And that is how the four of you end up discussing Lydia's family history as you walk into Silver Needle Academy to inquire about instructors and specialized equipment. The armorer, a grey skinned man who had replaced the entire left side of his face with gold-plated cybernetics in stark contrast to his workmanlike demeanor takes working with unaugmented humans as something of a challenge.
"Electro-flux guns will burn just as might and these ones have the aiming mechanism internalized," he proclaims motioning at the sleek silvery shapes behind dark glass, like no earth-made weapon in more than just aesthetics. You can feel the power coiled inside them like a serpent of burning light, eager to strike.
By contrast the armour seems almost mundane, the alchemical composition of the silk the arcane tempering of the plates all making for something one can wear under concealing clothing easily enough. If this gets into some kind of laboratory though the results are likely to be much more through than any of the guns. Those would probably just explode given the energy containment levels. Then there is what you can only think of as 'gremlin in a can', a minuscule spark of arcane mistchief shed by one of the city's SUTRAs bound in brass and steel ready to be unsealed on unshielded electronics. Finally there is the surge kit, a patch of what looks like dark green ice with silver glyphs embedded in it like flies in amber which is simply placed on the wound and then attuned according to the needs of the operative to heal them. Though the medical terms fly over Daniel and Olivia's heads as much as they do yours apparently you can operate them on instinct alone. Judging by the armorer's sigh too many of the Academy's students take that as license.
Which if any of the decides to you gift Daniel and Olivia?
[] Yes
Daniel and Olivia gain
High quality electro flux gun: Damage 9 Levels; Range 400; Ammo: 5 (Can be recharged with Mana if the user possesses it) Conceal T (Trenchcoat) Special: Aggravated Damage as if it were flame; +2 Accuracy Bonus from the bound machine spirit
Electro-laser pistol: Damage 6 Levels; Range 50; Ammo: 15 (Can be recharged with Mana if the user possesses it) Conceal J (Jaket) Special: Aggravated Damage as if it were fire; +2 Accuracy Bonus from the bound machine spirit
Silver-Weave Armour: +4 Armour -1 DEX
Surge Kit: High end medical nano-tech from vat grown Waste lifeforms magically realigned to human biology The user rolls Stamina+Medicine with each success healing 1 point of lethal damage or two points of bashing damage, starting with the most severe wounds. A botch causes debilitating pain lasting three to five hours hours (-2 Additional Wound Penalty)
Haywyre Grenades: Destroy non-hardened electronics in 30 yards
[] Not yet, maybe once they have been properly trained
[] Only some of it
-[] Write in what
OOC: Welcome to Hell-tech. Incidentally the reason I specified that the weapons do Agg as fire is that they are not conceptual Agg the way Molly's sword is, they are 'only' as hard to ward against as mundane flame. 
(if only I hadn't stopped to take a drink of water before pressing post...)
