Minor Change: Digital Weapon Proficiency --> Electronic Weapon Proficiency

The tea was alright, clearly having been quickly made with nothing added- but it also wasn’t supposed to be mine, so I couldn’t complain much. The agent I took it from recovered quickly and sat down across from me, introducing herself as Mary while they fiddled with their tablet. After a few seconds, they informed me, “it is standard procedure for these interviews to be recorded. I hope this isn’t a problem for you. Before we start, is there anything that would make you more comfortable?”

Pretending to be thinking, I started up the computer integrated into my prosthetics. Due to being controlled by thoughts, it took only a fraction of a second to open a text document and type out, “Cleo, if you can read this, how do [Magical Hacking] and [RAT King] work?”

As soon as I was done, another block of text appeared under the one I had written, reading, “[Magical Hacking]: By sending a packet of magic along with data to a computer, you can edit a system’s data through its physical storage. Sending more ULE speeds up the process but is more detectable.

[RAT King]: Using magic, you can create a program that allows you to access any device it is on from any other device provided both are connected to the same network. Simple directions can be given to the program to operate outside of direct control.

Additional Note: It is possible to have a [Magical Hacking] packet install a RAT, however the process would require a relatively large amount of ULE and time.”

In between reading each sentence, I pieced together a response. “Would it be possible for me to get a copy of your organization’s brochure and contract if you have one? I’m pretty sure I’ll stay here, but I want to get a bit more information.”

A little surprised but happy, Mary replied, “Of course. However, I don’t have physical copies of anything you requested- but I can email you a copy.”

As they pulled up some stuff on their tablet, I asked, “You transfer via wired connection work? It would be faster and easier for me.”

Pausing a moment, they said, “that would be possible, were you thinking about transferring to your phone?”

“Not quite…” I muttered as I focused on switching the lantern from whatever strange ULE it emitted to the normal type seeable through unaltered manasight. As soon as I noticed it had changed, I disabled [Unremarkable], holding the end of my tail in both hands near my chest. Much to my distaste, the observation room became invisible to me once more, but the visible recoil of the agent in front of me made up for it a bit. Trying to sound a bit ashamed and shy, I continued, “I took the liberty of using your production facilities to replace my eyes. They were beyond saving after the events of last night… It has an onboard computer that I was planning on using…”

Quickly finishing up with finding the files, the agent handed me the tablet, saying, “Everything should be in that folder. I’ll wait to ask about your circumstances until after we have officially started, but I can say now that our facilities are open to any and all MGs- regardless of affiliation.”

I pressed one of the flat edges of the tip of my tail against the port on the tablet, giving it a few seconds to create the right plug before I transferred the files over. While I wanted more information about the organization I was planning on joining, my real objective was the program I put in their place. I created a RAT and told it to hide itself and find me the wifi password. With the help of the knowledge gained from the computer related perks, I also quickly enabled the device’s hotspot and connected to it for the meantime so the RAT could send me what it found.

Once I had handed back the tablet, I opened a live feed of what it was displaying and watched as the agent opened a voice recorder before checking on a call they were connected to- which interested me much more. Satisfied that what I had done wasn’t noticed, I changed the lantern back to its normal operation and enabled [Unremarkable]- letting me see back into the adjacent room as Connor spoke into his end of the call I was now listening in on. “Under any other circumstances, letting a foreign actor connect to your device would be reckless. Anyway, please get started- our helper has been ready for a while.”

Not reacting to what I know we both heard, Mary spoke more to the tablet than me, “Let's get started. I am agent Mary, would you please state your first and last name for the record?”

“Uhh, yeah. I’m Silvia Brightworth.”

“Thank you. We will work backwards from where we are now to when you made your contract to become an MG. With that in mind, how have you found your treatment at the Special Energy Youth Academy so far?”

“Last night was mostly a blur with my exhaustion and the administration stuff, but the room and bed were pretty nice.”

“Before we started, you mentioned that you made use of our machine shop to create prosthetic eyes- would you please inform us on how you gained access and your experience with it.”

I noticed the subtle emphasis on how I could have possibly gotten in, but kept up my shy demeanor replying, “My familiar scouted the area when I was sleeping- and when I woke up they suggested I head there and make these.”

From the call, I heard Connor say, “Ask them how they got into the building.”

“How did you get into the building? As there are a lot of expensive machines in there, the doors lock themselves automatically.”

Intentionally flashing a guilty smile, I said, “All of the doors have a normal lock as a backup, and one of the doors isn’t covered by cameras. I have some experience with lockpicking as a hobby- although I haven’t really used it for much.”

As I finished the last part, a third voice cut in saying, “last part was a lie,” as the MG touched something on their tablet. Connor quickly followed up with, “move on, it’s not important.”

Mary said, “I see. How was your experience using them?”

“My familiar handled most of it. I haven’t really done anything like that before, but it was easier than I expected.”

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“If it’s not too much trouble, would you tell us why you require optical prosthetics?”

With a sigh, I recounted, “Might as well just summarize my whole experience in the Breach. I only made my contract like ten minutes before the Breach opened. Part of my reason for doing so was that my familiar told me it would screw with the first wave or two and give me a better shot at getting out.

“It immediately went to shit as the [MG Suite]’s fine print of boosting your immune system would have screwed with the balance of immunosuppressants I had going on to prevent symptoms of my Grave’s Disease from causing problems. So all I was left with was a very helpful cat, and my weapon perk, and my utility perk. To deal with what ended up being three waves of demons.

“The first wave killed pretty much everyone with flower-dog-demons appearing in rooms and hallways. I think I killed six or something? I started a fire to kill a few of them, but I don’t think it spread at all. Mostly just stabbed them. The second wave hit right after I was thrown out of the last surviving group to go hook up the emergency batteries so they could escape. The room where they were held was being swarmed by massive centipedes- so I made an IED and blew them up. The residual chemicals from all the cleaning products I mixed burned me pretty bad and horribly fucked up my eyes.

From there I did the thing, killed a destructor and rode off on a motorcycle only to be pulled over and arrested in the first town I arrived in. Although, the cop gave me a space heater to warm up with- so he was pretty cool.”

Nodding as I finished, Mary followed up by handing the tablet once again and asking, “Next, could you write out the perks you have- including simple descriptions- with respect to their relation?”

Holding the device in my lap, I once again connected to it- but held off from doing anything for now. Since the names of perks didn’t help much in knowing what they did, where they branched off from probably helped the organization get a better handle on the exact specifications of each. With nothing better to do, I started writing- eventually ending up with:

[Mg Suite] --> [Bio-Aug Initializer] \-> [Mental Tripwire] [Covert Requisitioning] --> [Unremarkable] --> [Act Like You Belong] |-> [Pocket of Holding] \-> [Magical Hacking] --> [RAT King] [Improv Weapons Prof] --> [Electronic Weapons Prof] --> [Comp Systems Knowledge (Humans 1)] \-> [Crafted Weapon Proficiency] --> [Synthesized Weapon Proficiency] --> [Chemical Knowledge 1] \-> [Chemical Burn Resistance 1]

With an extra section attached below containing the following descriptions:

MG Suite: Improvements to many physical and mental capabilities.

Bio-Aug Initializer: Prepares the body for later alterations via mechanical or biological means.

Covert Requisitioning: Briefly interferes with observer’s perception when taking an object as long the object is stashed or used quickly.

Unremarkable: Continually interferes with observer’s perception to hide abnormalities related to your appearance .

Act Like You Belong: Continually interferes with observer’s perception to make them more readily accept your presence in an area.

Pocket of Holding: When inserting an item into a pocket, you can instead send it to a similarly sized interdimensional space, which it can be retrieved from in a similar manner.

Magical Hacking: When sending data to a device, you can attach a packet of magic to execute commands on the data in physical storage.

RAT King: Allows you to create programs that can connect two devices on the same network.

Improvised Weapons Proficiency: Allows you to better use improvised weapons via ULE.

Electronic Weapon Proficiency: Allows you to better use weapons effective against electronics via ULE.

Computer Systems Knowledge (Humans 1): Gives you a better understanding of human computers.

Mental Tripwire: Alerts you to effects altering your mind.

Within the writeup, I quickly changed the text color of a few lines to hide their contents, making sure to add a [Magical Hacking] packet with instructions to delete the white text when the document was closed. With some of it hidden, what I handed back looked like:

[MG Suite] --> [Bio-Aug Initializer] [Covert Requisitioning] --> [Unremarkable] --> [Act Like You Belong] [Improv Weapons Prof] --> [Electronic Weapons Prof] --> [Comp Systems Knowledge (Humans 1)]

Why go through the extra trouble? Because I also saved a copy to my computer to make further updates to, and because I guessed- and was correct- that the next question Mary asked was, “Does this include all the perks you have acquired so far?”

To which I confidently and truthfully answered, “Yup.”

Not my fault they didn’t ask if it was entirely readable or that all of it would stay included in the document.

More minor mistakes fixed. Maybe I should improve how I keep track of things...

Also the images got deleted and the other hosting sites I tried didn't want to work, so you're stuck with tables.