[X] agree (+40 dollars, locks in two afternoon time slots on Day 2, + knowledge of capabilities?, + ???)
[X] Breakfast
-[X] cook something fresh (takes 2 time slots)
[X] Internet
-[X] News
[X] Check that cash-box you found
[X] Lunch
-[X] raid thine fridge
--[X] Lasagna copy-pasta for the win!
[X] You still haven't showered. Fix this.
[X] Check out that crazy tower, might be interesting.
[X] Talk to random strangers on the street. A well lit street. It can't hurt, right?
[X] Nerf gun target practice
[X] Go for a walk (requires parking)
[X] Read Undercover Monthly
[X] Dinner
-[X] eat out
[X] Stay at the restaurant after dinner and socialize.
[X] Internet
-[X] Research local laws. You don't want to be arrested for yodeling on a monday or some such.
Just an example of the type of inane law that might trip us up. Just like some polite gestures are rude in other cultures, I'd rather not be blindsided if hats, for instance, are punishable by death.
[X] agree (+40 dollars, locks in two afternoon time slots on Day 2, + knowledge of capabilities?, + ???)
[X] Breakfast
-[X] cook something fresh (takes 2 time slots)
[X] Internet
-[X] KITTY!
[X] Check that cash-box you found
[X] Lunch
-[X] raid thine fridge
--[X] Lasagna copy-pasta for the win!
[X] You still haven't showered. Fix this.
[X] Check out that crazy tower, might be interesting
[X] Try and figure out if you've got other powers besides the technopathy
[X] Nerf gun target practice
[X] Go for a walk (requires parking)
[X] Read Undercover Monthly
[X] Dinner
-[X] eat out
[X] Stay at the restaurant after dinner and socialize.
[X] Internet
-[X] Find out more about this exile thing. The explanation wasn't all that clear.
[X] agree (+40 dollars, locks in two afternoon time slots on Day 2, + knowledge of capabilities?, + ???)
[X] Breakfast
-[X] cook something fresh (takes 2 time slots)
[X] Internet
-[X] News
[X] Lunch
-[X] raid thine fridge
--[X] Lasagna copy-pasta for the win!
[X] Get money by doing some odd jobs
-[X] Cleaning all the toilets
[X] Find a pub or something and socialize
[X] You still haven't showered. Fix this.
[X] Check out that crazy tower, might be interesting
[X] Try and figure out if you've got other powers besides the technopathy
[X] Go for a walk (requires parking)
[X] Dinner
-[X] eat out
[X] Stay at the restaurant after dinner and socialize.
[X] TV
-[X] Local channel about hog racing
Mid-day
Cash-box: xxxxx
Lunch: xxxxxx
-Raid Thine Fridge: xxxxxx
--Lasagna Copy-pasta: xxxxxx
Odd Jobs: x
-Toilet cleaning: x
Shower: xxxxxx
Tower: xxxxxx
Talk to random strangers on the street: x
Powers: xxxxx
Nerf Gun Target Practice: xxxxx
Go for a walk: xxxxxx
Read Undercover Monthly: xxxxx
Evening
Dinner: xxxxxx
-Eat Out: xxxxxx
Stay at the restaurant afterwards and socialize: xxxxxx
Internet: xxxxx
-Exile?: xxxx
-Local Laws: x
TV: x
-Hog Racing: x Votes counted. Determining winning plan. Agree/disagree
[X] Agree
Mid-day
[X] Cash Box
[X] Lunch
-[X] Raid thine fridge
--[X] Lasagna
[X] Take a shower
[X] Go to Ominous Tower of Doom
[X] Testing out powers
[X] Nerf Gun target practice
[X] Go for a walk
[X] Read Undercover Monthly
Evening
[X] Dinner
-[X] Eat Out
--[X] Stay afterwards and socialize
[X] Internet
-[X] Exile?
The man with the lantern jaw leans over you, asking "Are you enjoying your stay?" He grins evilly, remarking "Well, I can certainly fix tha-
Blearily, your eyes slowly open to the sound of archaic disco music. It's 7:00 AM, and you slowly swing your feet out of bed. As you do so, you call out to your alarm clock "Thank you for the wake-up call."
The little device acknowledges this with "It is my entire reason to exist. Thanks is not required, though it is appreciated." as you dress for the day. You opt to go for a simple pair of blue jeans with a white T-shirt, before making your way to the bathroom.
An intense feeling of relief results from that particular trip, and you make your way into the kitchen/living area of your mobile abode. Sitting on the couch for a few minutes, you plan out your day. A lot of it revolves around Madison's words last night. Apparently, you were an Innate, and from the sound of things you had more going for you than just the talking to machines thing.
So yeah, you're definitely going to want to check that out. You figure you can do a bit of independent testing before you go to see Madison. Another thing that occurs to you is to get some practice with that nerf gun of yours; it'd be great in a self-defense situation.
Still, you've got a bit of time this morning before any of that needs to happen. Grabbing Thomas, you open up a browser and ask "Hey, can you please set an alarm so I don't spend all day looking at cat pictures?"
Thomas replies "Certainly, I'm going to lock you out of non-research browsing once 90 minutes have elapsed." and with that, you begin. It starts with simple lolcats, but you soon find several hilarious and adorable videos. One in particular sticks in your memory.
Still, eventually it comes to an end when the browser window closes itself while Thomas remarks "You asked me to do this, you don't get to complain."
Your internet time over and done with, your stomach is making its displeasure at your chosen course of action quite apparent. With that, you take a quick look in the fridge. Deciding that Lasagna for breakfast twice in a row wasn't going to be happening, you instead opt to take a quick browse through the cookbooks you've got and you decide that you'll be making yourself a ham and cheese sandwich with pickles. You took a quick look in the box labeled 'special recipes', and it turned out to contain both the recipe card you found yesterday and another one that felt strangely familiar.
Still, your sandwich is soon finished and you sit down at the Dinette to enjoy it. The flavors blend marvelously, and you find yourself wishing you'd made two of them in fairly short order. Still, if you want to keep your figure you'd better stop.
Finishing breakfast you do a further appraisal of your resources, opening the cash box to discover what looks to be 1,000 Australian dollars in cash.
(Funds discovered!)
Not having much to do before noon, you try and find a few random objects you can use as targets for your nerf gun. Ultimately, you settle on your cookbooks . An hour passes this way, and by the end of it you're pretty good at hitting any reasonably sized target with your nerf blaster from as far away as Mel's interior allows. Seriously, you nailed a propped-up cookbook on the dashboard from your bedroom.
(Rank 1 {marksmanship} acquired)
Anyway, you're reasonably proficient with your nerf gun (and only wound up losing 2 of the darts) and it's only... 10:15 A.M. Needing another way to pass the time, you opt to finally read that magazine 'Undercover Monthly'.
As it turned out, Undercover Monthly is less of a 'Magazine' and more of a 'Highly in-depth yet entertaining how-to guide for aspiring spooks'. You found its articles both hilarious and informative. In fact, you rather liked the section on
[] Acting and how it applies to establishing a cover identity
[] Breaking, entering, planting bugs, that sort of stuff [X] Making nearly flawless disguises out of everyday materials and the tiniest bit of magic.
[] Cryptography
and simply can't wait for a chance to try it out!
Anyway, you're planning on walking to Ominous Tower of Doom to get some exercise, so if you want to get there on time you'll have to eat lunch early. With that in mind, you grab another portion of lasagna from the fridge, and into the microwave it goes. As you eat it you feel that energy shooting down your spine again, before snapping into place when you're about halfway done.
Status Effect: Duplicated (duration: 2 hours)
Oh yeah, that means you can do some other stuff while you're going to the Tower (3 clones available, more than one clone can be assigned to a given task)
[] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try (will require money for supplies)
[] Come with you to explore the Tower
[] Stop by the Grital's Egg
[] Visit the public swimming pool
[] Do some power testing
[] Write In
(QM NOTE: The first person to correctly guess how the chargen process worked gets a single non-lewd omake of their choice. I will wait 48 hours before confirming a guess as correct.)
[X] Making nearly flawless disguises out of everyday materials and the tiniest bit of magic.
[X] Come with you to explore the Tower
[X] Do some power testing
[X] Do some power testing
[X] Making nearly flawless disguises out of everyday materials and the tiniest bit of magic.
[X] Come with you to explore the Tower
[X] Do some power testing
[X] More Nerf practice
[X] Breaking, entering, planting bugs, that sort of stuff
[X] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try
[X] Come with you to explore the Tower
[X] Do some power testing
[X] Breaking, entering, planting bugs, that sort of stuff
[X] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try
[X] Do some power testing
[X] More nerf practice
[X] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try (will require money for supplies)
[X] Visit the public swimming pool
[X] Do some power testing
[X] Buy Groceries
We're going to a secret lab, likely has secret information so cryptography might help learn more.
Going to swimming pool to see if we have super drowning skills or not.
[X] Making nearly flawless disguises out of everyday materials and the tiniest bit of magic.
[X] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try
[X] Come with you to explore the Tower
[X] Buy Groceries
3 x [X] Making nearly flawless disguises out of everyday materials and the tiniest bit of magic.
2 x [X] Breaking, entering, planting bugs, that sort of stuff
1 x [X] Cryptography
6 x [X] Do some power testing
4 x [X] Come with you to explore the Tower
4 x [X] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try
2 x [X] More Nerf practice
2 x [X] Buy Groceries
1 x [X] Visit the public swimming pool
So winning plan is
[X] Making nearly flawless disguises out of everyday materials and the tiniest bit of magic.
[X] Do some power testing
[X] Come with you to explore the Tower
[X] Give what you learned in Undercover Monthly a try
As you get up from your seat at the Dinette, you also stay sitting down. Nodding to yourself, you walk out the door and into the main area of Hillston Caravan Park. You take a moment to enjoy the fresh air, before you set out for the Tower on foot.
Walking through Hillston, you're roughly halfway to Ominous Tower of Doom when you come across a somewhat familiar face. You soon realize that it's the catgirl from earlier, only lacking the tail and ears. She's accompanied by a young woman you don't recognize who has her short red hair done up in a ponytail.
[X] Talk to someone
--[X] The robot and the catgirl
---[X] What were they fighting about?
As you come to realize who this is, you ask "Hey, didn't you have a tail and cat ears yesterday?"
The apparently part-time catgirl bristles before replying "Well yeah, those are just accessories I wear as part of my SFN persona, I don't have them constantly, otherwise I'd never get any peace and quiet."
In the background you hear the other one groan slightly before muttering "Please, not another freaking fangirl."
With that little revelation out of the way, you remember what you were actually interested in and ask "Anyway, why were you and that... robot? fighting yesterday? It obviously couldn't be that serious, given that I saw you two at the Grital's Egg later."
At this her companion snaps, informing you "Of course it wasn't serious! SFN fighting is just as fake as professional wrestling and everyone knows it! Why in the world wouldn't you know this!? It's like you just... ARGH! Anyway, we've got places to be."
As the pair departs, the part-time catgirl gives you one last remark of "Sorry, we're under a lot of stress lately. The network executives like to move us around a lot." with a slightly sad look in her eyes.
The rest of your walk is rather uneventful, and you soon arrive at the Ominous Tower of Doom. (Made by me in MSPaint)
Entering the lobby at 12:30 PM, you come across a relatively normal scene of a receptionist working on something with his computer. As you come closer, you manage to catch a glimpse of what he was doing. Almost as soon as you get that glimpse, the man at the desk hurriedly closes the Tetris window as he asks "Hellowhatareyouheretodayforpleasedon'ttellMrLaidler?"
You reply "Madison Mowbray asked for me to show up, she wants to take a closer look at my Mana Network for something."
The man (Mr Howe going by the name sign on the desk) briefly peruses something on his monitor, muttering "Madison Mowbray, in her senior year, Majoring in Arcanography with a minor in Bioarcanics." Eventually, he answers "Yes, she indeed did fill out a visitor request last night. She said she wants to meet you in the Bioarcanics lab. Take the lift back there and go to stop 14-D. From there take a right and it will be the fifth door on the left."
You oblige, soon reaching the lift. As you enter, you see a hilariously huge number of buttons and groan before asking "Can you please take me to stop 14-D?"
The lift replies "Most Certainly." and closes its doors. The first stretch of the trip goes much like you would expect, before there's a sudden jolt sideways, knocking you to the floor while you also barely stay up. As you help yourself off the floor, the lift replies "Apologies, but I needed to divert to allow another pair of lift cars to pass on their way down. One more diversion will be necessary to reach your desired stop."
You answer "It's not a problem, I'm fine. Just warn me for the next one." from two mouths at once as you gently hug yourself, trying fruitlessly to re-merge.
You've just barely managed to partially blend yourselves back together when the lift tells you "Diverting now." and the jolt to the side reverses your progress, sending you stumbling away from yourself. You don't have any further issues as the lift comes to a stop horizontally; this time both of you are holding on to the handrails.
Stepping out of the elevator, you turn to the right, and 5 doors down you turn left and knock while also continuing on in a straight line. Madison soon answers.
"Hello there Neraine. You're a little bit early, but if you like you could join me for lunch."
to this you reply
[] Sure thing, I'll come with you
[] Can I just stay here?
[] I already ate
-[] But I'll come with you anyway
-[] So would you mind if I just stayed here? The correct choice can open certain gates.
while you also find
[] Oh hey, you know this guy! He's the one who took that Troll off your hands.
[] A room with a sign reading "Robotics Club". You hear sounds of power tools through the door.
[] A lecture on some topic that sounds interesting. Something about 'dimensional resonance' and 'alternative counterparts'.
[] Eh, this is boring, let's prank Madison! (meanwhile, back at Mel...)
You've got some other things you want to try while you're going to the Tower. As you get up from the dinette, you also stay put and gently slide yourself a spot to the right. Departing, the two of you get up from the Dinette, and you opt to try lifting yourself. As it turns out, you're easily capable of lifting yourself over your head, with about as much effort as you remember using to lift a pencil back before... this.
Huh, that's certainly interesting. You wonder just how much you're actually capable of lifting?
...3 minutes later...
As you bench press Mel with a grunt of effort, the motorhome in question actually shouts "NO! STOP IT! THAT COMPONENT IS NOT LOAD-BEARING!" You hurriedly comply, jerking back your arms and letting Mel drop, her bumper hitting you in the face as she rocks forwards.
owww...
You actually wince on your ways to both the Tower and the Arts and Crafts store Thomas gave you directions to. Still, you manage to extricate yourself from underneath your mobile residence and make your way back inside. A quick look in the bathroom mirror reveals that you aren't bleeding, but there's already a large bruise forming on your forehead. In some ways, you're just glad that it'll be temporary.
As you curl up on the couch with a bag of ice on your forehead to dull the pain, you're also arriving at the arts and crafts store. The supplies the magazine said you'd need were large amounts of cloth (silk would be best, but cotton or linen will do), some general sewing supplies, A bunch of zippers, and a spool of very thin copper wire. You also got a couple mason jars, a bit of string, some sugar, and a small bottle. (-100 dollars)
Returning back to Mel, the two of you get to work. While you begins brewing up some of the powdered mana crystals that will catalyze the runic stitching, you're also getting to work on cutting the linen you purchased into the correct shapes. The exact specifics aren't quite as important as they'd normally be, mostly due to the fact that it'll contort space somewhat to match your body type to that of the desired final appearance. Anyway, the instructions came with a couple example patterns to work with, and you ultimately decided to use
[] "Tina", an archetypal 'bombshell blonde' with long hair, big secondary characteristics, a butterfly-shaped tattoo on her right cheek and several anecdotes describing 'her' appearing at parties in large numbers and the shenanigans that ensued. She's also a good 3 cm shorter than you.
[] "Johnson", a tall, grim man with wide shoulders, brown hair and a vaguely 'pointed' face. 'He's' also got a scar running down the left side of his face.
[] Eh, the instructions were pretty detailed. You think you'll wing it. (reduced odds of success)
-[] provide image or description
[X] Sure thing, I'll come with you
[X] A room with a sign reading "Robotics Club". You hear sounds of power tools through the door.
[X] "Tina", an archetypal 'bombshell blonde' with long hair, big secondary characteristics, a butterfly-shaped tattoo on her right cheek and several anecdotes describing 'her' appearing at parties in large numbers and the shenanigans that ensued. She's also a good 3 cm shorter than you.
[X] I already ate
-[X] But I'll come with you anyway
[X] Oh hey, you know this guy! He's the one who took that Troll off your hands.
[X] "Johnson", a tall, grim man with wide shoulders, brown hair and a vaguely 'pointed' face. 'He's' also got a scar running down the left side of his face.
