Why the fuck does everything need such a variety of ingredients? This one especially stings, as I actually had enough build grist for once…
[STACK MODUS && DESKTOP COMPUTER]
???
500 Silk, 500 ???, 500 ???, 500 ???,
Not enough grist!
My name is Taylor Hebert, and I hate my power.
Oh, don't get me wrong. It's strong. At least, I think it is, but it's impossible to use it, because I don't have the resources.
I take the totem off the alchemiter, and stack it against the wall with all the other duds.
Why couldn't I have gotten a normal power? Even before my never-ending cape research binge that I've been doing since I triggered, I still would have known that this wasn't how it was supposed to be. For most tinkers, the start of their career is the hardest part. Collecting materials draws attention, the power grids are closely monitored for odd behavior, and everyone, heroes and villains alike, are desperate to snatch them up.
I had it easier than most in many ways. I didn't need electricity to power my machines. I didn't need to raid the junkyard for parts. I didn't even need a workshop somewhere, as I had my basement. But what I did need was grist, and I was swiftly running out.
That was it. That was the tally in my brain of every resource at my disposal. These little... blue and white candy-looking things, that I could only track mentally.
Well, not every resource. My power did come with a lot of freebies.
Firstly, my sylladex. I'm not quite sure where that name comes from, but it's like… an extra dimensional storage space for sylladex cards. I'm guessing it's extradimensional anyway. I don't really know how it works. But it came with five cards, and I can store items inside them (again, I'm assuming through the method of dimensional shenanigans) and take them back out.
In many ways, this is a great power, even all by itself. But it's limited. Five items isn't that many, and the way it defines an "item" seems pretty arbitrary. It'll take water, but only if it's in a container. Canisters of compressed air work as well, but not just air by itself. A stack of items can go in one card, but they all have to be the same- except minor variations are allowed. Like, I can pick up a bunch of totems in a single card, even if I have them carved differently.
It's also got a really weird gimmick where I can only take out the last thing I put in. Other cards get buried. If I try and pick up more items than I have cards for, whatever is most buried goes flying out at dangerous speeds. As far as I can tell, this is because my sylladex uses the "stack" modus, a little card that looks like a captchalogue card, but has a button on the back I can press to swap it to "queue" mode, allowing me to instead only have access to the card that's most buried, rather than least. Cumbersome, and so far I've had no luck modifying the modus with alchemy. Speaking of alchemy, allow me to explain what it is I'm doing…
Actually, you know what? My power is really complicated! Let me give you the simple version:
Step one: captchalogue an artifact (put an item in a card).
Step two: flip the card over, and enter the captcha code on the back of the card into a machine dubbed by my power as the "punch designix".
Step three: take a card, put it in the designix. The machine will punch the card with a pattern representative of the entered code. This renders the card useless in terms of captchaloguing things, so make sure the card is empty before punching it. (I had lost my can of pepper spray doing that, luckily punching the card with its own code… not that I had the grist replicate it, ugh.) Thankfully, I realized early on that this would be a problem, and wrote down the code to make more blank captchalogue cards, that being "11111111".
Step four: put the punched card in another machine called the totem lathe, and also put in a totem (a brown crystal cylinder) retrieved from yet ANOTHER machine, the cruxtruder (why yes my basement is feeling a little cramped at this point why do you ask?) into the thing. The totem will then be carved in accordance with the code.
Step five: place the totem on- oh can you guess what you put it on can you I bet you can't oh would you look at that it's the biggest machine yet- the smaller platform of the alchemiter. The alchemiter will then scan it.
Step six: mentally review the cost of the item, and how many you want to make.
Step seven: mentally send the "okay", and watch as the alchemiter manifests the item represented by the code, and eats up your precious, precious grist in exchange.
Got all that? Basically, so long as I have grist, and I can get whatever it is I want to fit in a card, I can make duplicates of it.
But better still, what happens if you screw with it a little?
Well, my power informs me on an instinctual level, that if you put more than one card in the lathe, the resulting totem will produce an item that combines the properties of the items used.
As such, I've been down here for a while, trying to get cool stuff out of random household items. It hasn't been going well.
The machines themselves were free. I didn't even need to alchemize them; I just sort of mentally visualized where I wanted them and *poof*. There they were. The one exception to this was the punch designix, which inexplicably costed me four units of "silk grist" for some reason.
I started with twenty build grist, and four silk grist. But between the coat hanger I stupidly duplicated at the cost of 2 build grist as I was trying to get a handle on my power, the designix taking all the silk, the "perfectly generic object" (a useless green cube?) being made from another two build grist when I tried to use a blank card in the alchemiter, and then another six spent on making more captchalogue cards, I was down to ten build grist, and five cards left in my sylladex, the six others having been punched.
That was it. At least the alchemiter produced seemingly endless totems. So, grist is the problem. How do I get more?
Murder.
That was the answer my power was giving me. Stab a guy dead, he drops some grist. It made an intuitive sort of sense to me, despite being totally insane. Between this and me not wanting to deal with teen drama, the Wards were out of the question. Surely they wouldn't take a cape whose power relied on murder. Not that I was going to just, go out and kill anybody, right?
Right?
Right.
Right?
I mean, if somebody killed Hookwolf or Lung or someone like that, nobody would complain, right?
No, no, no! I shook my head to clear my thoughts. They didn't have a kill order. And it's not like I had any chance of beating them with a power that basically amounts to extradimensional storage.
Or did I?
Maybe? Somehow?
Ugh, what should I do?
[] Join the wards. Out of the question. Mostly because the author isn't sure he can portray the bureaucracy even close to correctly.
[] Kill somebody. Write in who, why, and how.
[] Ignore the alchemy for now. Focus on using the power you do have. Train using the sylladex. Write in how.
[] Write-In
AN: Feel free to also suggest item combinations at ANY time during the story. They won't always be used, especially right now when you have so little grist, but they might be later. On a similar note, write-ins are always accepted unless otherwise noted, as are modifications to non-write-in votes. The voting works based on a combination of "what got the most votes", and "what do I feel like writing"? Update schedule is whenever I feel like, don't expect consistency. Also don't expect every system to work exactly as it does in Homestuck.
(Note, this is not reflective of every combination Taylor has tried, this is just a list of most of the specific ones that have come up explicitly. Note that this may contain spoilers up to the latest update!))
(Grist Gazette is reflective of Taylor's understanding of grist, and is written from her perspective. The information here may not be correct, and also may contain spoilers up to the latest update!)
Build grist:
Build grist seems to be the most basic one. It also is the only one so far that doesn't seem to be based off of bugs for some reason? What a weird, gross, upsetting theme. Anyway, I guess it's just used for generic stuff? I mean, literally it is, considering it's the only thing used in the "perfectly generic object". It also seems to be used in things that directly relate to my power- it's the only cost of almost all the machines I can make.
I can get it from killing animals. Small animals give barely significant morsels, but larger animals can give hundreds.
Silk grist:
Silk grist is the only one that I started with, other than build. And only enough to make the punch designix. The designix by the way, being the only machine that costed anything other than build grist? Why? Well whatever the case, it seems like this grist comes up often in combinations involving clothing. I can get more of it by killing rabbits and foxes. Because they get used for clothing sometimes? Not sure.
Shellac grist:
Shellac, according to Wikipedia, is a resin, secreted by the "lac bug". I got it from killing a deer, and the only thing it's come up in was when I tried to duplicate a cup of my own blood. Might have some kind of connection to biology or healing then? I'm not sure I get the logic here.
Shell grist:
Shell is acquired from bears... because it's black and brown, like bears might be? Ugh, probably not, but I don't have any better ideas. Anyway, it's not shown up in many things, mostly just combinations with my computer, and some of my early attempts to make armor.
Carmine grist:
Acquired from the deer, in a laughably small quantity. Used in basically everything, feels like it's practically a second build grist with how common it is. To be fair, maybe that's just because I keep trying to make weapons, and I guess that's what carmine is for? But I was able to make the igneous flarespewer without it, so who knows. And it did also show up in the "cup of blood" recipe, but I'd guess that has more to do with the fact that blood is red more than it does with anything else. I say this, because carmine is apparently a type of red dye... extracted from bugs. And it's in all kinds of food. Ew.
I should also note, although grist don't seem to be physical objects that actually exist or occupy space in reality, I do know exactly what they all look like. The first three all looked like 3D hexagons, but this one is like, a cube with powdery channels carved into it? I don't know what that means. It sort of looks like a red version of the perfectly generic object though.
Propolis grist:
Another unusual shape, also obtained from the deer. Propolis is a type of resin that bees make out of a mixture of their own saliva, wax, and "exudate" from plants. Whatever that means. Thanks for the specificity, Wikipedia. Anyway, for some reason, this is used to make the igneous flarespewer, so it's probably my favorite grist so far. It was also used in the || combination of my rifle and pepper spray, so maybe it's like, a secondary version of carmine, and it's for weapons? If so, then that makes the other thing I've made with it so far- the dandyskit- even scarier.
I... Hm. Maybe?
I look around the basement. It actually takes longer than you might have expected, but I eventually find a spider hidden behind a box of Christmas stuff. Sorry little guy... I slam an uncarved totem onto it.
*Squish*
Nothing. Damn it. Some small part of me had really expected that to work. Maybe spiders are just... not enough?
[X] Murder seems a little... impractical. Maybe kill small animals to see if they have grist?
[X] See if you can chapta living things and if they come out still alive.
You know, my power was really pushing for me to kill people. I'm not sure why, considering how sick I felt just trying to kill this stupid bird.
I had gone out to somewhere secluded, but outdoors. With a hoodie, and a scarf to cover my face, just in case. Sylladex filled with stacks of totems. My plan had been to find a bird or something, drop a few totems, pick them up one at a time in separate cards, causing them to launch out of the deck at the birds. It would be good training to see how effective my sylladex could be in combat, and maybe it would score me some grist as well?
But as I sat the totems on the ground, a handful of birdseed tossed out to keep the avians in place, I had another thought. It was one I had had before, but hadn't actually tested, mostly because I'd assumed it wouldn't work. But now, I had the perfect test subject. I just sort of reached out and-
And now I had a card with a pigeon in it. I released it, and it was still alive, if confused.
I quickly reached out (mentally, not literally, I didn't need to actually "touch" something to captchalogue it) and grabbed five pigeons.
Back in the basement, I released one, and launched a dowel (another term for the totems) at it.
There was a sickening crack, and-
+1 Build grist
I nearly fell over with relief, all the tension rushing out of my body. I put down the other birds as well. The next few hours were spent bird hunting, and by the end of it, I had twenty sylladex cards in my deck, and twelve build grist left over. And now, I always knew where to get more.
Dear god, I was so fucking glad that my power didn't actually need me to kill people.
Still, this didn't feel practical in the long-term. It took a long time to hunt the birds, and I risked detection every time, if my location wasn't sufficiently hidden. Not to mention, how many birds could I kill before it became a problem? Not that pigeons were endangered, but if I slaughtered a a few hundred, how many would be left in the city?
...A few minutes at the computer assured me that actually, probably quite a lot would be left. Though I couldn't find any exact numbers about bird population in the city. Dealing with the bodies wasn't even a problem, because I could put more than one corpse in a card.
My mind raced. They didn't seem to drop anything other than build grist, and only one each, but...
[X] Try and see if there is any other machine you can get. Like something that can recycle objects for grist?
Hah! That would be the dream, but no. With that said, I did have other machines I can make.
Punch Card Shunt (10 build grist) - Acts as a sort of "inventory slot" for the jumper block extension.
Jumper Block Extension (1,000 build grist) - Attaches to the alchemiter, and upgrades it in accordance with cards put into it.
Holopad (10,000 build grist) - Displays what a punched card will produce, without needing to make the item.
Intellibeam Laserstation (100,000 build grist) - Reads captchas, even normally unintelligible ones.
Even without making them, I knew what they did. The punch card shunt was useless for now, but maybe now I could get the jumper block extension, if I really wanted, and I saved up for it? I don't really know what "upgrade the alchemiter" means though. Maybe it makes items cost less? But apparently the cards used upgrade it in different ways, so maybe it's more complicated than that. Like, it adds their functionality perhaps? Hard to say until I could test it.
Okay. Thinks are looking up. At least I have options now.
(Taylor will now gain 20-50 build grist per day by hunting birds, rodents, and other small vermin. )
[] Save up for the jumper block extension. Maybe make a thing here or there, but mostly keep costs low. It is currently March 1st, saving up could take a lot of time.
-[] Suggest items to try and upgrade the alchemiter with, once you have the extension.
[] Don't save, at least not yet. Focus on using your grist as best you can.
-[] Suggest items to duplicate, or to combine! Build grist can mostly only make basic or mundane things.
[] Maybe... Maybe bigger animals give more grist, or different kinds?
-[] Suggest what Taylor should try to kill, and how she should go about acquiring it.
[] It's fine to stay small for now, but this isn't great. You have school, need to make excuses to get dad from looking into what you're doing to deeply, and the kinds of secluded areas you need to hang out in to find and grab the animals without anyone seeing them vanish probably aren't exactly "safe". You need to find a way to hunt more efficiently.
-[] Write in how.
[] Write-in
AN: Votes are not mutually exclusive. You may for example, vote to save grist, but also for item combinations you would like to see, in case the votes go the other way, or to hunt large animals, but also to improve small-game hunting efficiency. Also, does anyone know how I can make the box I'm using in the info post wider? I don't like how it looks right now, and how it's splitting things into multiple lines.
[X] Go hunting with Dad. If you need to kill bigger animals for more grist, having an adult along for backup, supervision, and an alibi can't hurt. Also allows for family bonding. At the same time, equipping a hunting rifle or bow will probably unlock the Strife Specibus, which will be useful later.
[x] Hunting is a recognised hobby. See how you can get licence if required. Out there in the woods, no one is watching how many animals you kill. In the city you are a werido budding psycopath to be put on watchlist if you go around everydayn killing animals. Common sense duh!
My father's eyes boggle out of his skull, as though this was in fact the most surprising possible thing I could have proposed over breakfast. He sits there, fork halfway to his mouth, utterly shocked.
"What," I ask, "it's a perfectly normal hobby. Could be a good bonding opportunity...?" damn it, shouldn't have said that, I didn't want to guilt him into it-
Still, the look on his face shifts when I say that. A little less shocked, a little more thoughtful. "Well, I- I guess?" he begins, "you've never shown any interest before though, have you? What brought this on?"
Thankfully, I had a lot of this conversation prepared ahead of time, and have an answer right away. "I heard some guys at school talking about how they went hunting with their dads over the weekend. It sounded like a lot of fun."
My dad's face scrunched up, considering it. I let out a small sigh. I'd known this was a long shot. My dad was a sort of manly guy, but more in the sense of being a "businessman" than having "machismo". Of course he'd have no interest. Not to mention, it was a costly hobby. Between the gun, the butchering, the time expenditure-
"I mean, wouldn't we need a license or something?" he asks, interrupting my thoughts. "And what would we even do with the meat?"
I bring him up to my room, and show him the info on the computer. Just a few classes was apparently enough to get a hunting license. And the bay had plenty of butchers.
He still looked unsure, but couldn't turn me down when I was clearly making such an effort to find something we could do together. How could I be so manipulative? I almost felt queasy...
But, about fifteen days later (+181 Build grist, penalty due to distraction), being out there with my dad... I had to say I could see the appeal of all this.
Something about hunting was soothing to me. It was tense, and required stealth and care, but it also was a situation where I felt very... In control, I guess. Sure, we were kind of out in the wilderness, but we had guns! What was a deer gonna do? Hell, what was a bear gonna do? My dad didn't seem to feel the same, but it was almost kind of funny how nervous he was. Not to mention, it made me feel more secure if anything, knowing that he was keeping an eye out for danger, and was too paranoid and out of his element to do anything else.
More than all that, it was nice to have a break from the norm. We were doing this over the weekend, it's not like I was skipping school or anything, but it still was nice to just be away from it all for a bit. To remember that even when it didn't feel like it, there was more to life than the city- no matter how much it felt otherwise sometimes. No matter how hopeless the rest of my life-
I shook my head. Happy thoughts. Had to focus on the here and now.
It took hours. I suspected that we were, in our inexperience, making more noise than we thought.
It was the only thing we got that day- probably for the best considering how queasy dad looked helping me field dress it- but I couldn't have been happier, and my joyful attitude quickly rubbed off on him.
By the time we got back home, we were both exhausted, and immediately turned in for the night. Well, he did anyway. I said I was, and then went down to the basement after I thought he had passed out.
If nothing else, it was time to check those cards I'd already made, and see if I could use them now.
Hm. Everything involving my computer still had at least one grist type left to discover. Meanwhile, carmine was used in tons of things- the pepper spray is cheap enough to only cost 2, so I could make a copy of it, but at this point I'd already bought a new can- and of course carmine is the one I have the least of. Besides silk, which I have yet to get more of from anything.
Okay. I've held off for long enough, it feels like I'm gonna explode of I don't do something cool with the new grist to celebrate. Time to try random combinations until something works!
(Taylor will still gain 20-50 build grist per day by hunting birds, rodents, and other small vermin. She will also go hunting twice a month, and receive highly variable amounts and kinds of grist from it. )
[] Suggest items to combine! You still have very little to work with, but the occasional combination might do something now.
[] Write-in
AN: As it turns out, hunting, hunting law, gun law, and more, are all pretty complicated! And I know nothing about most of it! Everything described in this chapter is based off of what I could glean from skimming google searches, Reddit posts, and wikiHow articles. My apologies if this is wildly inaccurate.
[X] So animals can be placed in your syladex. Does that mean you can also convert them into punch cards? If so, this may open up accessible options for armor, and possibly weapons.
Indeed. Sadly, they cost more grist to make than they give in return, and after testing a few combos it seems they have a tendency to make pretty expensive stuff. Nothing viable as of yet.
[X] Get a small piece of thick high quality steel or titanium from the hardware store, combine with clothes and/or protection gear. Should result in armor, hopefully stronger armor than random household items.
[X] Combine bike protection gear (if we have any) with our cutlery to see of it'll improve its armor rating, do the same with a shirt and pants and if it works put all of it on the same card to serve as a costume.
-[X] See if ejecting it from the sylladex will equip them on us.
Alright, a bunch of attempts at combining metal with clothing later, nothing worked. It seemed to always want silk, and some other type (or types) that I've yet to discover.
Uh. Success? I've made a dandyskit.
Dandyskits are apparently a kind of... Eight-legged fluffy plant-bug thing. It looks like, and is about the size of the head of a dandelion, with eight small green stalks supporting it. It's mouth is proportionally huge, giving it the appearance of it splitting it's own body in half whenever it opens it, kind of like a gulper eel. If it has eyes or sensory organs, I couldn't see them.
It tried to scuttle away as soon as it was created. I captchalogued it.
Okay, so my power was capable of creating life. I already knew that I guess, considering I could copy birds and stuff, but this seems to be an entirely new life form.
...Wasn't that like, really bad? I'd heard about other tinkers who do this kind of thing. Wasn't that Blasto guy over in Boston also able to make new life forms, and the only reason he wasn't considered an S-class threat was because his creations don't self-replicate?
I looked down at the card. The white fluff, if that's all seeds, then... this could get really out of hand, if I released it.
Okay. This one probably stays in the card. Whether or not the thing is actually dangerous, I'm not sure I'd even want to chance testing it.
[X]Combine hunting rifle with Pepper spray. Use both possible combination variants. One should be a pepper bomb rifle, long ranged nonlethal, the other a bullet spray, close range, portable, concealable extreme damage last resort.
Not even close. Still, I really want this to work. Maybe I could try some other way of combining them? Like, punch all the holes from both the cards, rather than just the matching ones?
Nope. Not that expensive though, I could probably get it if I set my mind to it.
[X] Practice with Modus. What's the furthest you can be from an object to capchalogue it? Can you do it through walls? From behind glass? If you can't see the object but know it's there?
-[X] On that note, change up where you hunt rodents, etc. No need to potentially get eyewitnesses to birds spontaneously vanishing in the same area each week.
Easy enough to say, but it's not that easy to find an excess of small animals where you wont be seen, and also where you can go without getting mugged.
[X] See what the grist cost would be for addition ammunition. Try to help offload the cost of buying more.
Looks like it only takes a single carmine to make a bullet. But I decline to make it. My dad is buying after all, how would I justify to him where they're coming from?
[X] Find a camera. Maybe there's one in the basement?
-[X] [CAMERA && CAPCHALOGUE CARD]
Why. How in the world am I supposed to ever be able to make this?
What about fishing, including illegal fishing? Fish can be larger than a pigeon, and a successful throw of explosives, even small ones, into the water or an electric shock will give us up to several dozen fish. Especially if you lure them in advance with food in one place.
[TAZER && BULLET]
???
10 Carmine
Not enough grist!
I'm starting to think that maybe trying to make all these weapons with only two carmine at my disposal isn't really going to work.
[X] Catchloge your own blood, you are a cape and as one you know it will be needed. Maybe go chat to the hospital to see if you can Catchloge viable organs. You can do a very good deed by having reproducible functional organs for transplants.
Okay, now THAT is a great idea. If I could spin this into some kind of healing power, that would be amazing. Let's see...
I pricked my finger, and dripped a few beads of blood into a cup.
CUP OF BLOOD
10 Carmine, 10 Shellac
Not enough grist!
I'm beginning to really hate carmine.
[X] Until more grist is obtained your primary focus should probably be to get out of situations alive. Hookwolf as an example is a giant walking mass of knives and MURDER. Try to find combinations that could help protect you in a fight, such as body armor. If it can be hidden or worn in public? Even better.
Ha! Hookwolf, that's a laugh. No, I don't think I'll be fighting him any time soon.
...
Although. Now that I thought about it... Maybe I could stand a chance? If I made a few hundred cards, could I just captchalogue his blades as he made them? I wasn't sure.
[x] Find a sword (maybe a fencing foil) and allocate it to your strife specibus
[x] Start exercising you need to be shredded if you want to be a cool kid 😎
I'm not sure that "sword wielding coolkid" is really the image I'd like to go for...
Although. I'm not sure what my ideal image would be.
Maybe I should start considering that? At this rate, maybe I could get a decent weapon in, I don't know, a month's time? If I get lucky with the cost of something, and get a decent amount of carmine on the next hunting trip or two?
I lean back in shock. It's finally sinking in. I could actually be a hero. My power, with enough investment, can make basically anything. And I guess needing to kill stuff might not be as big a problem as I thought. Even if I can never get some types of grist from just killing animals, I can still make enough types to do some cool stuff. I could actually maybe start considering the details of my secret identity?
[X] Consider raising chickens or some other type of fowl collection. They're the easiest to raise, have the least suspicion over dying, and could provide more passive bonus materials. Probably not much, but every little bit counts, right?
[X] Buy a lizzard or snake , can see if You can reproduce the regeneration of the lizzard tail in the future, can captchaloge the venom and reproduce it.
I'm not sure about the chicken coop. Would dad go for it? Probably not, and it would be weird besides. I'm already deviating from how I normally am with the hunting, and I don't want him to get suspicious that there's something up with me. But pets in general might not be a bad idea... A quick Wikipedia search though tells me that there's actually barely any venomous lizards out there, all of them seemingly quite big and not exactly common. Some sort of snake might work better, but even then I'm not sure that venomous snakes are sold at pet stores?
A quick search online later, and it looks like the only obviously venomous thing they sell at PetSmart is the "Asian forest Scorpion". The venom is incredibly mild, with apparently zero human fatalities, but if anything that makes it better for alchemy, it's not like I really want highly-lethal stuff as anything more than a backup precaution.
[X] Write down any patterns you notice on what things give you what grist, so you know what to farm for.
[X] Combine a lighter and the head of a hose, the lighter for the fire effect and the head of a hose to create a cone that will spread the fire, that's the direction I want this to go in.
Okay, this thing is... not very useful, but it is cool.
It's basically a reskin of the hose head, now red and black and covered in tacky flame decals. But when hooked up to a faucet, it converts the water into flame.
Yes, I've made a flamethrower that uses water as fuel. This is objectively awesome.
Sadly, it's not exactly subtle. Nor is it particularly long-range, even at the highest setting. And requiring a water source and hose doesn't exactly make it convenient. Still, it's nice to have made something that so... Normal, but also clearly tinkertech. It's not just a copy of something else, nor is it random nonsense, nor it it existentially terrifying. It's even maybe kind of useful. If nothing else, it'll be a fine ingredient in other combinations.
Okay. Well, that was all fun, even if I was only able to actually make two new things. But what should I do now?
[] Write in ideas for a name, costume, signature weapon type, ect. Feel free to be as vague or specific as you like.
-[] Begin patrolling. Write-in where, and how to go about it.
--[] Bring the gun, just try not to hit vital spots.
--[] Bring the gun, don't use except in case of emergency.
--[] Don't bring the gun.
[] Save up for the jumper block extension. Maybe make a thing here or there, but mostly keep costs low. It is currently March 17th, saving up could take a lot of time.
-[] Suggest items to try and upgrade the alchemiter with, once you have the extension.
[] Write-in items to duplicate, or combine.
[] Buy scorpion.
-[] Write-in a name for it.
[] Don't buy scorpion.
[] Write-in.
AN: How does the draft system on this site work? I had this update mostly written, figured it'd be okay to close the browser and shut off my computer so it could update, on account of the autosave, but nope...
Also, suggestions that Taylor should work at a slaughterhouse will be ignored. Not because it's a bad idea- it's actually a really great idea- but I don't really have to stomach to research it enough to write it. And, I should have clarified this earlier, sorry, but Taylor does not have a Strife Specibus.
Right, of course, I should have done that, the dandyskit was dangerous, I should have gotten rid of it...
I grabbed the card, and... D-did I really have to do this? The dandyskit was the first combination I'd ever tried that was actually successful. I was sort of proud of it, in a weird way.
But no, clearly it wasn't okay to have around. Of course I couldn't even allow myself to bask in the glory of my creation, of course I'd have to destroy any real threat I'd made, of course-
I ripped the card in half before my thoughts could keep spiraling.
...No grist. Of course.
Maybe I should have expected that. Otherwise, punching holes in the cards with the punch designix could spew grist everywhere.
And I guess I was sort of glad it didn't work, because man would I have felt dumb about all those birds and rats I'd been killing through blunt force trauma rather than ripping cards.
[X] Use a brick or contundent objet let it fall from as higt as you can, see it retain inertia, if so You can have hi impact disposable wepon with it at low cost.
I tossed a clothes iron as hard as I can, and captchalogued it before it went too far. I then released it outside, and-
It drops to the ground.
Testing it the other way, where I fill my deck until it's pushed out the other side, it also doesn't seem to work, with the direction and speed still being pretty random.
[X] See if you can captchaloge things inside boxes, other people bags, with a wall of separation, in your 10 feet range. You can use it to disarm gang members and retribe drugs/arms/documents with a little less risk to yourself.
No, no, and no. Well, sort of, to the first two, but only if the containers are open, and I can see the item.
Except, not really, because my eyes don't actually need to even be open in order to captchalogue things. After a bit of testing, it seems that it's more based on whether I "know" where an item is, and if I "could" have just gone and grabbed it. Or something. The fact that my power seems to treat walls and containers as totally different things that work in different ways doesn't much help. Like, It can't go around a wall, even if the door is right there, and it's open. Meanwhile, it can go into a bag, so long at it's open.
Grabbing things out of peoples hands at least should be possible though. I tested it by tossing a piece of bread to a bird- and then captchaloguing the bread before it could get the whole chunk in it's mouth. It works, so merely being held by others shouldn't stop it...
I really hope so anyway. If it works differently with other humans, I'm gonna end up riddled with bullets trying and failing to grab a gun out of someone's hand.
[X] Combine hunting rifle with capchalogue card.
[X] Combine wallet with capchalogue card. The wallet modus is one of the best available, and seems easy to find, if probably expensive.
[X] Igneous Flarespewer && Toy Bubblegun
"Bwuh?" I say aloud in shock, as the combination actually takes hold, and a new fetch modus falls to the ground. I equip it.
...
Okay, well, now I knew why it's so cheap. It didn't seem to be very good? Though it did have one advantage over my others.
The light gun modus let me use any card in the deck whenever I wanted. Technically. It technically did that.
It did it by manifesting a tacky pink-and-white gun made out of cubes into my hand, and spewing out every captchalogue card in my deck, which then bop around at random in front of me. I could then shoot them with the gun to retrieve the items inside.
The sad thing is, this is actually more convenient for everyday use. It lets me not have to empty the entire fucking sylladex just to get at one card at the bottom. But in combat, it's probably better to not have to take my eyes off the enemy to play a fucking minigame.
And before you ask, no, the gun doesn't seem to do anything to anything other than cards. Probably for the better, my guess is that it would need a lot more carmine if it were a real weapon.
[X] Better things need more grist, average ones don't need much...so awful things would need far less! Time to experiment!
-[X]Combine the most awful printed out jpeg in existence with something also awful, such as meat flavored candy canes or weird meme-y glasses, and note the cost.
Huh, there's a thought... I can't think of any stores near me that sell crappy stuff like that, but maybe I can at least do the "terrible JPEG" thing...
I open a drawing application, and draw my shittyest possible rendition of a tranquilizer dart.
I then combine it with the bubble gun.
Didn't work, but hey, maybe I'm onto something? The cost is low- wait, fucking, zero? It costs zero of some type of grist? What the fuck does that mean?
Okay, lets try...
This one costs a negative amount of some sort of grist... I don't know what that means.
But by this point, I'm kinda getting into it. Something about drawing these terrible things is sort of soothing... Just one more.
[CHEEP... COMIC && HUNTING RIFLE]
???
-1 ???, Current carmine +1 Carmine
Not enough grist!
Okay, so now my power is just fucking with me. This is literally impossible to make, because it'll always want one more carmine than I have.
Still. This feels promising. Maybe I'll do more like this some time...
[X] Take time to investigate how independent heroes make money, do PTR pay a reward for capture? , Can you keep the money or part of it if reported?, Ilegal goods like weapons and drugs are rewarded?, Who actualy have a kill order so if, and it is a very Big if you enconter them can actualy use the hevy hitters you make.
Sadly no, there are no rewards for independent heroes who turn in criminals. Not that it's really a problem, considering I might be able to sell my creations after I get better established. And I want to fight villainy for it's own sake anyway. I need to. And on that note...
[X] Visit a junkyard and capchalogue everything that looks interesting, broken or otherwise. Tinkers out themselves by raiding them for parts, but we'll never be seen leaving with anything suspicious.
[X] We'll call ourselves Hunter-Gatherer. It might be a bit obscure, but it fits our skillset and needs pretty handily. We'll wear a scarf sewn over a baklava to make it look like it's wrapped around our face without the risk of it being yanked off, and generic hunting clothes. Our signature weapon will be traps and trap-like items for now. Bolos and Nets are cheap, and our Sylladex could fire them easier than something like arrows or bears.
-[X] We'll patrol wherever there's plenty of vermin to kill. The dirtiest places surely have the most crime, and we can kill animals along the way for added Grist.
--[X] Bring the gun, don't use except in case of emergency.
It takes a few days to get it together. (+102 build)
But by the end, my costume is looking... Decent? I guess? It's hardly anything fancy, but that's to be expected, considering the "survivalist" angle I'm playing up. A dark green scarf sewn over a black ski mask. Camo jacket and pants. Ordinary hunting boots. My glasses.
And on a whim, I paint a symbol on the chest of the jacket. Ever since I first got the lid off the cruxtruder, the little screens at the bottom had been displaying this flashing green insect-looking thing. I'm not sure what it was or what it meant exactly, but it looked nice. And it felt fitting, to have a symbol.
A machete on my belt, and my rifle strapped to my back. Here's hoping dad won't notice it missing, but he's asleep, so it shouldn't be a problem... Oh, and my sylladex is loaded up with stuff. Nets at the bottom, ready to be fired out, light gun modus at the top in case I need a specific item, a captchalogue card full of blank captchalogue cards under that so I can expand my inventory and pick up more stuff without my deck firing pre-emptively, and a bunch of other stuff I might need like my civilian clothes, zip ties, and some water just under it.
Tonight, I wasn't Taylor Hebert. I was the Hunter-Gatherer. Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it's evocative, and that- embracing this identity- is what's important.
I sneak out.
I headed to the junkyard.
Now normally, this would be a bad idea. Someone- especially someone obviously in costume- going to the junkyard? That raises some alarm bells. You might as well paint a target on yourself that says "unaffiliated tinker who's just starting out! Come and get me!" but in my case, it was a little different. I didn't need to leave here carrying armfuls of conspicuous scrap, I could just load up my deck with items and rodents, and unless someone was actively watching me the entire time, it would look like I was just wandering around, not taking anything. And if someone stopped me to ask why I was there, I could tell them half the truth: I'm patrolling.
Of course, I gotta say, I don't think that deep down I was really expecting to see anyone. And if I did need to step in and prevent a crime, I figured I'd encounter like, a mugging or something. But nope.
Uber and Leet aren't scary. Not really. They were horrible people, but they knew better than to kill anyone, right? And they weren't really any good at what they did. Still, I had assumed they had better options for acquiring resources than just... rooting around in the junkyard, like me.
And yet, here they were.
They were in costume. I couldn't identify the game, but it looked like... well, they looked like they were cosplaying Indiana Jones or something. They were carrying whips, which weren't the most threatening of weaponry, but were probably suped up with tinkertech in some way.
They haven't spotted me.
[] Sneak attack. Fire the nets before they see you, then disarm them, zip tie them, find a payphone, turn them in. Easy! Assuming you can aim the nets well enough.
[] Disarm first. Who knows what they have on them, just rush forward and grab all their items. Then go on the offensive.
[] Run. Weak as they are, you're weaker. You weren't expecting to face anyone with powers tonight. Beyond that, it isn't like they're actually doing anything right now that needs stopping really...
[] Keep hiding. Follow them. Find their base. Steal all their tinkertech for your own use! And then call the PRT informing them of where the base is.
[] Write-in.
AN: By the way, I know most of you probably assumed this anyway, but just in case: when Taylor suddenly "has" an item to try combining, like the bubble gun, you can safely assume that she ran to the store to pick it up, or just had it lying around. I just don't want to write "So I went to the store and bought-" five thousand times.
Additionally, the grist gazette has been added to the info tab. As have pictures of all the alchemy machines Taylor has deployed so far, in the phernalia registry. Also, I can't remember if telling the authorities where Uber and Leet's base is would be a violation of the unwritten rules? For the purposes of this story, lets say that it's not.
Finally, I gotta say that writing in this weird past-tense perspective is hell, and I never know what words to use. Sorry if it's... incredibly inconsistent. Like, "I stopped even trying halfway through writing this post" level of inconsistent.
Part of me wanted to run. The reasonable part.
But I'd supposedly been a hero for weeks now. And I hadn't done anything.
If I retreated, that would be it. Nothing more to it, my first patrol ever, nothing accomplished.
Even if I couldn't turn them in, even if I couldn't beat them in a fight, I needed to get something out of this encounter.
I glanced around, and I soon located the snitch- the camera they used for their streams. I crept just in range... and captchalogued it. After all, it wouldn't be good if my first known act as a hero was... what I was about to do.
"Greetings. You are Uber and Leet, yes?" I step out from the shadows.
They whirl around to face me, Uber pulling out his whip.
I hold up my hands in a pacifying gesture. "I am the Hunter-Gatherer. I believe our abilities could be of use to each other."
I'm... not sure what this persona I'm putting on is, exactly. I guess I'm trying to sound polite? Whatever the case, they look...
Actually, they look pretty interested. I think deep down I was hoping they would pick a fight. Expecting it even. But I should have known better. I stopped watching their streams because they were impossible to root for, but rooting against them... It made me feel like Emma. Like I was just vindictively hoping for them to fuck up, for my own amusement. It made me feel like a bully.
Not to say they don't deserve that treatment, they do, but I knew better than most what it felt like to be hated by everyone. They probably don't have anyone beside each other to rely on. In my case, it lead to paranoia. But not everyone is me, I should have figured there was a chance that cooperation would be instantly snapped up.
For a brief, feverish second, I consider suggesting that I actually join their group. It would be such a horrid idea on every level, from logically to morally, and they probably wouldn't even have me considering my disinterest in video games. But I do still have the thought, and it leaves me feeling weird and gross for a second before I snap back to focus, realizing they'd been staring at me for like half a minute now while I've just been standing here psychoanalyzing them like a lunatic.
Then, Leet notices the lack of the snitch.
"Shit, where the fuck is the camera?!" he asks, failing utterly to keep his cool.
"Safely stored away. Don't worry, it will be returned at the end of this interaction. I simply don't want to be seen on the stream. "
They relax at that. A little. Still, it seems their guards have been raised.
"So," says Uber, "what do you want with us?"
[x] L337 can make ANYTHING once could he build a gristwidget 3000, or a strife specibus and would he be intrested in doing so for a trade
"A trade. I need a... machine, made. In exchange, I can... probably... duplicate some of your technology for you."
They glance at each other. Their faces are obscured by weird golden masks, so I'm not sure what they're communicating by just looking at each other, but I decide to go on.
"My power requires certain materials. You can build anything, yes? I need a machine that... produces them. Or lets me make them in some other way. In exchange, I could... duplicate some of your tinkertech for you. You can only make things once, yes? I can help you skirt around that, a little."
"Shit!" Yells Leet, I nearly fall over in shock. "Ah sorry, it's just- if that's true, we shouldn't talk about it here. Unless- do you have some kind of anti-surveillance power? Is that how you got rid of the snitch?"
"...Yes," I say, because... well, it's sort of true. I mean, being able to get rid of cameras probably counts, but- "why?" I finish.
"Well it's not like we're the only ones with cameras here," Uber interjects. "the entire yard is bugged to hell and back. We only come here cuz people know better than to fuck with us, but I guess that isn't a concern-"
"Oh, that is what you mean... No, my power can't deal with that. " I say, slowly, relaxed, serene almost, as though I'm not internally screaming in panic.
How fucking stupid am I? I knew that the junkyard is monitored, by the gangs, the PRT, everyone! Why did it not occur to me that they might, oh I don't know, use cameras and recorders to do so, probably surreptitiously placed around all over the fucking place, and also recording from a distance? What had I even thought the surveillance was if not that? Fuck fuck fuuuuuck this is bad. There's no way that this isn't being recorded, who knows who I might have just revealed my tinkertech duping powers to- not to mention, I'll be forever known as having worked with Uber and Leet, when I'm supposed to be a hero.
This was supposed to be a one off- or even a bait and switch. Get the tech I need, then part ways, or turn them in. But now... But, but, but maybe not? I mean, I don't know that I'm being recorded. Not for sure...
"We should meet somewhere else." Concludes Uber.
He pulls out a pen and a notebook- which I guess he just carries around? Or maybe it's part of the costume somehow- and scribbles out a time and place, bent over the paper, and I suspect using his power to make his handwriting really weird, considering that it looked like he was flailing the pen around at near random, despite what I'd later find to be a perfectly legible result. It struck me as a little paranoid, but I guess I don't have proof that the PRT wasn't recording this, and trying their hardest to tell what he wrote just based off of hand movements so they could ambush us. I guess.
He tears out the page, and hands it to me. I take the paper, and run off- Leet yells something- ah, the snitch! Right. I swap my modus mode, pick up some trash, and send the camera shooting toward them and away from me- hopefully that way it'll be to far to pick me up, though at this point maybe there's no point in hiding that Hunter-Gatherer is working with them. Ugh... I'll have to do some research on just how closely monitored that junkyard really is. Maybe they made it sound worse than it was...
I go home. I'm too wrung out from that encounter to do anything else.
I sneak into my room, unequip my costume, and read the note. It has a street name, and says to meet them at midnight, tomorrow.
It occurs to me at this point that there isn't much reason we couldn't have just left the junkyard together, and continued business away from the cameras tonight... Ah, they probably wanted time to decide amongst themselves what they wanted to do about me. Though that begs the question... what do I do about them?
[] Meet up, have Leet try and make a machine that can make grist. In exchange, you use some of the grist you get from it to dupe his tech for him.
[] Meet up, trick them. Get what you need, and try and figure out a way to turn them in as you do so.
-[] Snatch up any of their stuff that you can while you're at it!
[] Meet up, tell them you changed your mind. No need to leave them wondering, that could breed animosity.
[] Don't meet up. Hope you never meet again.
[] Write-in
AN: Okay, this one took a while. I did say not to expect consistent updates, right? I wasn't really sure how I wanted this encounter to play out, and in fact at one point had to choose between like... ten different ways it could have gone. It doesn't help that I don't really have the best idea of how I ought to write Uber and Leet. I hope they didn't come across as OOC- though the encounter was probably too brief to tell either way I guess.
We met at midnight.
This time they were uncostumed aside from simple domino masks. No need to dress up when not on camera, I guess. Unfortunate, because I'd really rather look at anything other than Leet's obnoxious TITS OR GTFO shirt. We duck into an alley.
"Greetings." I said, my voice serene, nodding my head toward them. "Shall we discuss?"
"Stop talking like a weirdo." Leet responded, point-blank.
I let out a little huff. "It's part of the persona..." I mumble, immediately a little off balance. "And who the fuck are you guys to complain about people talking weirdly? Uber talks like he's doing an announcer voice at literally all times."
"The difference is, I'm cool enough to pull it off!" Said Uber, not pulling it off at all. "Yeah, it's epic!" Leet added.
"Let's just... get to the point." I said, giving up. "I have the power to duplicate technology. This power is limited by the resources I have on hand. I need you to make something that generates these resources, and if it works well enough, I'll be able to dupe a few pieces of tinkertech for you. "
"Okay, what resources exactly?" Leet asked, squinting in suspicion.
"My power calls it grist. Colorful geometric shapes that burst out of animals when I kill them. Unfortunately, others don't seem to be able to perceive them."
"So let me get this straight," Uber intoned, slowly. "You want Leet to make a machine that spews out animals... and then immediately kills them."
"Fucking sick..." Whispered Leet, an expression of awe on his face, that quickly turns dour. "But, probably not gonna happen. I can build anything once, but kinda already went through most of my biotinker ideas on other stuff over the years."
"Well, it doesn't have to be exactly like that." I responded. "Also acceptable would be something that just generates the grist directly? Or hell, maybe just something that makes them easier to hunt?"
"What, like a better gun?" He asked.
"That'd be good too, but I was thinking something more like a lure. If I can just get the animals to come to me, I could save a lot of time. Oh, and actually-"
What about fishing, including illegal fishing? Fish can be larger than a pigeon, and a successful throw of explosives, even small ones, into the water or an electric shock will give us up to several dozen fish. Especially if you lure them in advance with food in one place.
"-Maybe some sort of, I don't know, explosive or electrical charge I can throw into water to kill a bunch of fish? I don't know if they give grist- not everything does, bugs don't for example- but it could work to a limited capacity. The issue is, even if they do, I need to hunt a variety of things, because they drop different grist, and I need different kinds to dupe more advanced objects. Big animals give a greater variety though, it seems."
Leet looks thoughtful at that. "Huh. I guess I haven't made a lure of any kind before. And explosives or electric stuff probably won't work, but maybe I can think of something..."
Uber interrupts. "Hang on, you're essentially saying... you need to grind mobs for rare drops?"
I'm not totally sure I know what 'mobs' are, but... "I guess so? Yes."
Uber and Leet look at each other. "Every gamer group needs a token gamer girl, right?" Leet asks Uber.
He responds, "At the very least she'd be useful. Say, Gatherer, how would you feel about maybe working with us on a longer-term basis than just this project?"
I cringe behind my scarf and mask. We've barely spoken, but a slight similarity to something video game related has them asking for a team-up? Really?
"Hah. Let's see if you can manage the task at hand before we start even considering anything more," I say, dodging the question as best as I can.
Still. Part of me can't help but feel a draw. It's not like there's no decent reasons to consider...
[] Uber and Leet are criminals. Ones the PRT aren't taking seriously, but are in need of justice just as much as anyone else. You saw that video of them beating up those prostitutes, as some kind of fucked-up GTA roleplay- and they've hurt a lot of other people besides. Maybe if you got in close, you could take them down from the inside- and take advantage of their abilities and resources in the meantime.
[] Uber and Leet are people. Gross, weird, fucked up people. But people. The PRT hasn't cracked down on them for a reason, right? Maybe if you joined up, you could guide them away from the more hardcore stuff? Or even, dare you say it- perform a redemption arc? Hah, probably not, no. But either way, it would at least ensure access to tinkertech to play with in your combinations. Meat or candy?
[] Both of these options feel fucking gross and dangerous, and you don't want to work with them at all beyond this project.
-[] But, you don't hate them or anything. You wouldn't pick a fight if you saw them around after this, unless they started it.
-[] But, if you do get the opportunity to screw them over, you'll take it.
And how does this project turn out exactly? Pick one:
[] Forest Lure. A small box that slowly builds up synthesized pheromones that attract random forest creatures. 25% chance of breaking every time you use it, but you might be about to get a lot of grist out of it before then, if you're lucky. Making this will render Leet almost totally incapable of creating other lures.
[] Water lure. Same principle as the forest lure, but for the water. For the record, large fish do indeed give grist, though you're unlikely to get any other than build from them. Stranger sorts like sharks or octopi might be a different story, but will be rarer. Will be generally less effective than the forest lure for getting special grist, but better for build grist, and way better than hunting birds. Same odds of breaking. Making this will render Leet almost totally incapable of creating other lures.
[] Gristwidget 69420. If you decide to give Leet almost every scrap of info you have on your power, including details on how the machinery and alchemy function, and actually giving him some captcha cards and letting him borrow your light-gun modus, he can figure out enough to make this thing. This machine takes captchalogue cards, shreds them, and then gives you a small fraction of the grist you would have needed to make whatever was in the card in the first place. Doesn't work with cards that are punched, the item actually has to be in the thing. It also requires literal money in order to function, roughly equivalent to what the shredded item is worth monetarily. It's far more sturdy than most of Leet's tech, though it may still break some day. He'll want more than just duped tech for this- you'll have to combine some stuff for him as well. Making this will render Leet incapable of creating a lot of shit, and make it hard for him to ever do anything else with captcha or alchemy technology.
[] Write-in. Generally assume that the more normal whatever he makes is, the more his shard hates it, and will make it prone to breaking. And the better it is, the more he'll ask for in exchange. It also has to be something that he hasn't obviously done before, and I don't just mean you have to come up with a creative idea for each component of it, it's not like we know every random thing he's gone through or whatever so just let me handle that. I mean that it has to be conceptually different from most of the sort of things you'd expect him to have made- no normal-ass guns to help you hunt, for example, because he's probably already gone though most of his ideas regarding that, and all that's left is esoteric shit he wants to keep for himself. Though, there is some leeway due to this being his first time working with Sburban tech. But of course, the more you lean on that, the more you must reveal to him about your power for him to make use of it.
AN: Wow, look at that, another short update after a long hiatus. My excuse this time is that I'm really uncomfortable writing dialogue, and feel like it never flows the way I want it to, but at least it's finally written. Also, sorry if anything is really screwed up here, I wrote this over the course of hours and on very little sleep. Let me know if I messed up the continuity somewhere or whatever.
[X] Forest Lure. A small box that slowly builds up synthesized pheromones that attract random forest creatures. 25% chance of breaking every time you use it, but you might be about to get a lot of grist out of it before then, if you're lucky. Making this will render Leet almost totally incapable of creating other lures.
Days passed. I got bullied, I noted everything they did, I angsted about how useless it all was, I tried to alchemize things that obviously wouldn't work, I hunted birds and vermin to calm down (+117 build), same thing, day after day.
And so, I hit my new lowest low: Meeting with Uber and Leet being the best part of my day.
We met up in the alleyway again.
"I haven't tested it yet." Leet said. "Didn't want it to break. The synthesized pheromones and the materials I had to use for the ampoules that hold the stuff don't play well together. Sorry to say it, but you might not get a lot of chances to use this thing."
I captchalogued it out of his hand. "That's fine. I can probably duplicate it, remember? If it works, anyway."
"Hey that's right!" Uber yelled suddenly, as I took a look at the back of the card, to take note of the code. "We're basically giving you infinity of these, right? We should get some extra tech for that."
"Whatever." I say, quietly, not wanting to argue. But then quickly reconsider, and say "Actually, maybe not. I think my power is having some issues with this thing."
I say that, because honestly, I could not read this captcha.
"Oh that is such a load of horseshit! Are you really going to try and rip us off like this?" Leet said. "I don't know who you think we are if you think we-"
"Shut up. I can't duplicate it if I can't read the code." I snap at him, before pulling the card into physical space. "See? This is fucking unreadable. "
"Codes?" Leet looks interested. "And what is this thing anyway? Is this what you're storing stuff in?"
"That's on a need to know basis. Point is, I can't do it. Not without expending even more grist, anyway. Besides, you agreed to the deal, and knew I could copy tinkertech. It isn't my fault you hadn't realized, I thought you knew."
Uber squints at the card. "w-n-u... Something, y, u or w probably, based on the black space. Could be lower or uppercase... w-A-W-9."
I'm a little taken aback. It's shocking to see Uber actually use his power for something useful. "Hm. Noted. Thank you, I'll be sure to try that. But of course, it only matters if it works."
We got in Uber's car. I tried to breath through my mouth, and not touch the mess, but the thing was just too full of garbage to avoid it. It reeked of old fast food. But Uber was, as you'd expect, really good at driving. It helped that it was late, few other cars on the road. I was trepidatious to say the least, about getting in a car with these two, but worse comes to worse, I could disarm them of anything I might need to, and I always had my gun.
We arrived in the forest with thankfully little fanfare. I pull out the lure. It's a small black box, with my symbol, the little green bug, painted on the bottom. A nice touch. On top was a valve with a button in the center that you could press down to allow the valve to spin. Meanwhile, there were curved indents on the sides of the box, all four holding glass- well, not glass I guess, but it looked like glass- ampoules filled with a pale, iridescent yellow fluid. Nozzles pointed out from the four top corners.
I pressed the button, and span the valve. Mist spayed out of the nozzles at a speed that honestly looked dangerous. Thankfully, Leet had warned me to hold my arms out from my body, and avoid having the nozzles pointed directly at any part of me. The mist covered the entire area, in a giant "X" shape, that slowly spread out.
It didn't take long for the first animal to show up. By which I mean, about thirty squirrels, followed soon by a shit ton of dear, bears, and other assorted forest creatures. So many, in fact, that we were almost overwhelmed, and Leet and Uber actually had to step in and help fight. Unfortunate, because I don't get the grist from those kills, but it's hard to complain when swarms of cuddly forest animals are trying to dogpile you. I ran out of ammo quickly, and resorted to strategic captchaloguing to take out the threats both big and small- the small ones being stored for later killing, the big ones getting pelted with random heavy shit I'd filled it with.
After about half an hour, they stopped coming. Possibly because the pheromones had worn off, possibly because we'd massively and irresponsibly disrupted the forest's ecology and killed or captchalogued basically every single creature in it, who can say! But you know what? I didn't care. Didn't give half a shit. You know why?
(+5,870 Build, +706 Silk, +160 Shell, +140 Shellac, +270 Carmine, +812 Petal, +53 Pollen, +20 Nectar, +490 Propolis, +4 Honey. Massive penalty due to most of the kills not being yours.)
I felt light-headed. In part due to the pain and blood-loss from the various bites and scratches all over my body, but also from the unbridled, heady power. I'd never had this much grist. Uber and Leet didn't share my enthusiasm.
Leet sheathed his weird tinker-extendo sword. "That was bad." He said, in a tone that suggested he thought it was possibly a little bit worse than "bad", but didn't have the words.
Uber didn't say anything. Just stared, as gore dripped off of us. Finally, he spoke. "We should probably get out of here, in case anybody heard and comes to check it out."
I nodded, feeling a touch delirious. We got in the car. Uber had the audacity to complain we were getting blood all over the seats.
Soon, we were back where we began, the alley. There was much yelling, on Leet's part, now that the shock had worn off and he could process the near death experience. Pretty silly considering he was the one who made the damn thing, and misjudged how effective it would be, but it's not like I expect maturity from these guys. I let it wash past me, nodding and grunting at the right places to get the conversation moving forward. Eventually, he opened the trunk of the car, grabbed some stuff, told me to duplicate it and leave it here when it was done, and that he would have more for me in the future that he expected me to copy as recompense for helping fight the animal horde. Then, blessedly, they left.
I stumble home. Thankfully I have the presence of mind to swap into my normal clothing well before hand, so as to avoid getting (as much) blood all over the place. The adrenaline is wearing off, but the excitement is only growing. So much grist. Not enough- nothing could ever be enough- but so much. I wasn't expecting the lure to be that effective- evidently, neither was Leet, but unlike him, I wasn't about to complain.
I threw myself into the shower, to get off the remaining gore. My wounds stung like crazy but I knew I had to wash them at least, and so I powered through.
...Wow, that's a lot of blood. Better slap on some band-aids as well.
I got out of the shower, threw on a new set of clothing, and rushed down to the basement.
Firstly, the Lure. I ran through the possible codes, not sure which is correct, but it didn't matter because I couldn't get any of them. The others all had weird costs, not to mention they seemed too cheap over all, mostly locked behind me not having the right grist types, rather than the "fuck you" style of overpricing I'd expect from tinkertech, so I'm pretty sure this is the right one:
wnuWwAW9: 10 ???, 10 Nectar, 50 ???, 100 Propolis, 500 Honey
Hard to say for sure though. Oh well, I tried. But I didn't let it get me down. Because could finally deploy a new machine!
-1000 Build
The jumper block extension manifested, and hooked itself into the alchemiter. I quickly filled all it's slots up with punch card shunts (-80 Build) and got to experimenting.
It seems that I could slot a punched card into a shunt, and it would upgrade the alchemiter with that item's functionality. Sadly, I couldn't captchalogue my machines- they're too big- so those were right out. Very unfortunate, as the basement was getting pretty damn claustrophobic. Would have been nice if I could have combined them into one, and maybe reduced the total bulk. Not for the first time, I have to wonder if I'll be able to keep dad out of here forever somehow, or if one day I'll have to explain why a bunch of giant machines are cluttering the place...
Whatever. I punched a card with the code for the light gun modus, and threw it in a shunt, just to see what would happen.
The alchimiter gained a screen, with a light gun hooked next to it. I wasn't quite sure what it did, it was blank...
I made a new card, to replace the one I destroyed punching it (-1 Build) and the function became apparent. The item failed to manifest, and instead appeared on the screen as an image of a captchalogue card, inside another captchalogue card. The code of the stored item displayed beneath it. Shooting it with the light gun added it to my captchalogue.
Okay, so it's like in intermediary storage for things I make? Could be useful, if not for the fact that cards didn't take up much space, and were cheap to make. Granted, it does show me the code, but it doesn't let me just put items in- I can only take them out, or put in things I've alchemized- and if I've alchemized something, that means I have the code for it already anyway. So, not helpful. I guess it's good for things like, say, the dandyskit? Instant containment for if I alchemize something dangerous. With that thought in mind, I guess I'll leave the card in the shunt.
Well, at least I know how it works now.
I'm desperate to screw around with the shunts some more, or to get to work on some of the more promising alchemizations I've come up with, but I guess Leet's tech comes first. Thankfully, he didn't trust me enough to give any of his actual finished projects to work on to begin with, just parts for now, so I can prove I'm not bullshitting.
Tinkertech components -50 Pollen Grist. (Code noted, may be used in combinations!)
Okay, well, that blows. All but three of my pollen were used up just copying this box of parts. And given Leet's earlier comment about me owing him, maybe tinkering more and using up grist would be irresponsible of me- haha fuck that. I've been waiting... how long has it been now? Too long. Way too long. It's time to alchemize.
(+69 Bug Grist) Well. Okay, that's quite nice, just a whole new grist type- one that looks like a bunch of glitchy JPEG artifacts. I guess recipes with a negative cost give you grist- I had figured as much, which was why I bothered wasting so much silk on this. And I figured it'd be a waste- but holy shit, it's so much worse than you can fathom.
It's a pair of glasses, with the functionality of a phone. But the lenses are shaped like E.T.'s head, and are both way too big. There's no way to get them to sit right on my head. The lenses are heavy enough that the temples can't actually keep them attached. You have to kind up look up, and balance them carefully on the bridge of your nose, or otherwise just hold them in place with a hand.
They try and operate by putting a UI over your vision, with apps that you can open by looking at the icons- except that there's no need to stare, just look, and the thing instantly tries to open it. So you're constantly opening and closing things at near-random, and having more than one app open at a time makes the thing lag like crazy and eventually crash. As for the apps themselves, most of them are shitty, broken rip-offs of basic games like Pong, Tetris, and Breakout. It also has a browser I've never heard of that actually looks kinda neat. Nemesis. It's icon is the only well drawn thing in the... POYI, I guess I'll abbreviate it to, in lieu of the otherwise wordy name.
It can make phone calls apparently. So, I technically have a way to call 911 to report a captured criminal or whatever. I'll have to test this by calling our home phone sometime when dad isn't around, make sure everything is comprehensible...
[BULLSHIT DART PRINTOUT && BUBBLE GUN]
TAKE A NAP YOU BUBBLY BITCH
4 Nectar 2 Pollen 0 Bug
Well, it was cheap at least. It's an oddly boxy bubble gun that fires triangular bubbles with images of a "Z" in them. Releasing one of many lab-rats that I have stored away for situations like this, I hit it with the bubbles. No reaction. I turn it on myself, and feel...
...
...
...Wha- oh.
Damn it, I almost just passed out. Okay, this thing makes you drowsy I guess. But like, it can be resisted, and I'm basically dead on my feat already. So it's not great. Still, better than I'd expect for something this cheap, with those ingredients. With that said, let's move on to "real" combinations, not crappy JPEG art.
Huh, okay. This seems... dangerous. Maybe in a good way, maybe not.
Basically, it now takes bubble fluid instead of water, but it's far more economical with it, and you can just screw a bottle of the stuff in rather than needing to hook up a hose. It fires a barrage of... well, flaming bubbles. They hurt, lightly singeing things easily, though it's not super quick to get something to actually combust with them unless you maintain fire. They also, like any other bubble, can be easily carried off by the wind. Here's hoping I don't start a forest fire.
Alright, that's most of the really cheap stuff. Time to start going a little farther with this...
Maybe. Maybe... Maybe not? I don't want to waste resources. How careful should I be?
[] It's okay to splurge on bigger stuff, it'll probably be better anyway. You need a real weapon to hunt animals in those amounts, and you're not gonna get it by being carful with your expenditures.
[] Just build up more cheap items for now. Make lots of little things, quantity over quality.
And honestly... maybe I'm even more out of it than I thought. Because actually, what I should do, is fill the punch card shunts. Who knows what kind of benefits I'm missing out on?
[] Write-in! Any item Taylor has/can get a code for can go in the shunts. Don't bother voting up other people's ideas for this one, just throw every idea at me that you got (though no more than eight per person please...) and lets see what sticks. I'll pick whatever I think Taylor would find useful out of whatever you guys suggest.
[] Write-in! Also toss in any alchemy ideas you have, if you have them. Again, try and limit yourself to eight (or preferably less) because otherwise it gets to be a bit of a slog for me.
AN: Woah, hang on, another update? So soon? "Surly this cant be real" you say to yourself, exactly like that, with the misspelling and missing an apostrophe and period, so wrapped up in your own excitement. Little do you know that a cruel and capricious god watches over you always, and that this indignity you have forced it to witness will be the tipping point of your damnation. So close to the pearly gates you were, but now here you are, where you have always been deep down: Worm Fanfiction Purgatory.
Anyway, expect updates to the Grist Gazette, Alchemy Excursus, and the Phernalia Registry tomorrow probably maybe. eventually. Nemesis sprite taken from here.
