“When did you have time to update the aesthetic?”
I figured your new residential building deserved less beige.
The eight-story building I’m looking at is a far cry from the bland windowed building of yester week. Arcuate bands of greens and blues twist about a structural outset that itself is an arc leading from the entryway on the ground level to the lower garden terrace on the floor below me. On the top two floors, there is a complimentary, concentric arc with a massive semi-shade over the garden areas.
The arcs also have defense installations. The upper arc covers your residence and general field of view, where the lower arc is mainly to defend the entrance and the helipad.
No wonder this was so expensive!! Great work Tova. Solid additions and the building is beautiful. I wonder what other surprises you might have included. She says nothing.
The entryway looks a bit sterile for my taste but the furniture and the art on the walls lend enough color that I don’t feel like I’m in some kind of institution. The gym seems modern enough, with Tova near replicating the equipment from Warram on a smaller scale. My legs and arms immediately get antsy.
Moving on so I can get to the workout that I suddenly need, I head to the elevators to check out my new place.
There’s a private elevator through those maintenance doors. Services the top two floors only.
Okay, that’s cool. You’re making me feel all important, Tova. This is a funny and thrilling feeling! I scan my mosaic and the door to my elevator opens, and there’s another scanner on the elevator. I briefly consider the reason for this and look around to find that this really is the maintenance access area for the other elevators and maybe more. I step inside to find soft music playing in the background while I look at a panel with a handful of buttons. The floor I’m on is labeled ‘L’ with floors ‘EX1’ and ‘EX2’ above, with ‘SB1’, ‘SB2’, and ‘U’ below. Vowing to come back and visit all the private elevator’s floors, I push ‘EX2’.
What I see when the doors open brings tears to my eyes. There’s a sunken living room with a semi-circle couch right in front of me and to the left is a half-wall with a large display and a small case with games in it. Past the living room is a dining area next to floor to ceiling windows. To my right is a kitchen and bar area that also looks outside, but also out to the garden terrace. It has the feel of home that the suite I had with Belle did, but different enough that I can tell how much thought Tova had put into this.
I wander left to see a small bathroom with a shower and the half-wall reveals a small table in a cubby and some coat hooks on the side. I’m about to open the door that should be a window-side bedroom when I see a seam on the far end of the wall and black glass in the wall next to it. I resist the urge to open a floorplan in my HUD and advance on the curious structure.
I stare at the little glass panel, shrug and swipe my arm. A sucking noise and the feel of a breeze alert me that my code was accepted as the portion of the wall drops back and rolls to the side. An off-white and well-organized lab space with stainless steel tables greets me with taps for my solvents, a storage safe and a storage fridge for projects. Shelves on the wall have nearly the same components as my lab at Warram, and far more detailed stirring instruments and glassware. There’s a large autoclave and a centrifuge! More tears in my eyes.
Tova, you’ve done this terrifically wonderful thing for me. I don’t have the words to explain how much I appreciate this. Did you get anything for yourself?
I did, in fact. A private ansible repeater with different access from the one in the cafeteria, and a server room to aid my ability to conduct side projects while still helping you. With your aether able to connect to ansibles, I can effectively split my attention with a separate processing center.
I chuckle at that. You deserve it, friend. How much were we over your 6k estimate?
Around 500 credits on the building, then I spent 1700 more on upgrades and furnishings.
The extra costs surprise me, but what surprises me more is that I think she got a good deal. My AI friend preens in my mind as I shake my head at the turn in my fortune in the last year. People are trying to kill me, but I’m making more money than I thought was possible.
The drug making gets me a few thousand credits a month and my deal with Merc Arms is 100cr/mo. + 1%/kg sold. The deal with Penny is curious to me, she said the monthly would be lower, in exchange for a higher percentage. Which gets me about 30 credits per 10k kilo? For doing absolutely no work. If she’s planning to supply navies with it, then there was no way I could keep up. Making poison for Marcella is making me a few hundred credits a month as well, but I don’t like to think about that.
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“Do I gain anything for changing my residence in the system?”
I don’t think this lab would be appropriate to sleep in.
“No, doofus. The address.”
Nothing save assassins knowing where you live, which would be a silly choice.
“Yes, because the shiny new buildings aren’t a giveaway.” I scoff as rustle through my notes on anything I’ve been wanting to change. Ah, there’s one about messing up my cordite mixtures and creating a gummy, paste-like substance. If I buy a sack of corundum dust from Penny, I could see if that would firm up the gel and perhaps up-augment explosive speed and travel.
I put in an order for a few liters of the sand and figure I can imbue it and see how thick I can make the gel with my gunpowder and aether-infused sand. I of course will be imbuing the gun cotton, but I will likely leave the nitroglycerine alone as it already has problems with exploding spontaneously.
After I prep the solvents and set the Astorian wood pulp to soak it in, I set a mental timer and finally leave my sweet new lab space to go check on my room.
The first thing I notice is the lounger next to the floor to ceiling windows and a door to a patio? The chair has a side table and an ottoman, but there’s a patio? I obviously can’t resist going out there, so I open up the door to see a respectable width patio that I couldn’t see from the ground because my place is a little smaller than the floor and the result is the patio, and with the creative coloring, the transition disappears. Neat.
The patio slash walkway extends all the way to the Garden with a recessed hot tub in front of the living room windows. The cover doubles as more floor when it’s closed. That’s really waving our wallet at people, Tova.
Didn’t all drug magnates of old have ‘sweet pads’?
I’m about to refute that, but I produce a lot of cocaine and I sell it wholesale. While I make a lot of money, I’m not making cartel money. It really doesn’t surprise me that Medvedev fleeced me on this deal. Now that I think about it, the brokerage fee is more than I make, so no wonder people have it out for me. If I wasn’t paranoid and violent to begin with, I would surely be dead or chained in a hole somewhere already.
I continue to mull the idea of what to do with the brokerage money in holding as I walk through the garden’s levels, eyeing the various plants that don’t look familiar. Screencap and research later seems a good way to handle this unknown. Plus, if my eyes are correct for the ones I do recognize, Tova ordered a good portion of food and alchemy ingredients. I walk to the end and decide I need a seating area in the greenery and add a bench before looking over the side of the precarious ledge. I bonk my head against something very solid.
Every bit as funny as I’d hoped. I thought you might want to grow some niche plants, so most of this is enchanted to be transparent, and with the controllable sunshade on the arches with the guns, we have ourselves an aether-capable greenhouse.
Holyshit! Does that mean I can plug in some aether crystals and raise the ambient in my house?
You can, but it’s more cost effective to raise one room than the rest of the large floor this place is built from. So the completely sealable Lab is your most cost effective option.
Meaning, you already had the parts installed and probably have a box of crystals ready in there somewhere. She pings the affirmative. Empress’ sweet patootie, you continue to surprise me today. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, yep here come the tears.
While I can’t speak, I draft up a message for Paolo to say that some of our private apartments are available and to let people know that the residences are available. I also say that the dorms won’t be available for about two months. He replies that Beverly and He will look at the building when her shift is up and then talk with the few other workers tomorrow.
\Kimber, DE Bev. You thinking of expanding to Reno in the near future?\
/Uh, hi Bev. It is on my long-term plan, but not near, no./
\What if I told you I want to take him with me?\
/I wouldn’t be surprised. What if I said it depends on if he has a Columbian friend that knows the process like him?/
\You pay for the job?\
/I’ll look at a proposal./
She sends ‘copy’ shorthand back to me and I’m not sure I want Paolo to go. Ultimately it’s up to him, but in the last year I’ve grown pretty close to his skinny ass. Although he really is replaceable, and it doesn’t need a Columbian, but I promised to try to get some of his friends out and Bev seems able to motivate others to her cause.
My alarm for my guncotton project goes off and I wonder where three hours has gone. I continue the process and put it out to dry while I set up the reaction for nitro glycerin. I babysit this process and finish by putting it in my volatile’s safe and wait the four additional hours to dry my guncotton product appropriately. I dump aether periodically into the tub that the corundum dust came in and head to bed for the night as soon as I take the guncotton out of the vacuum chamber.
/I wish I could hug you right now/ I find myself messaging Zia instead of Marcella. Huh.
\If I were on planet, I would totally shuttle over. You okay?\
/Yeah, just I’m pretty sure my plant manager just found his future wife and they are talking about leaving town. He’s like my only local friend./
\What about that gym boy that likes you?\
/I don’t like guys like that, Zia./
\He can still be your friend, doofus. You were saying you got along great.\
/I’ve had too many attempts on my life recently to be working out there lately. I suppose you’re right though, I could try a little harder to maintain contact./
\Andromeda save me. I can hear your mopey pout from 3k lightyears away.\
/Blarg, sorry. I’m doing really well and crying about attempted murder. Pretty lame am I right?/
\Hah! Totes lame. But when I come visit, we’re def going to put some assholes in the dirt.\
/You are the coolest person I’ve never met./ If we ever met, I bet my embarrassment shoots through the roof.
\If you need, we can holo conference.\
/Nah, it’s not that serious, but if I ever stop being a drug dealing pyromaniac, I’ll take you up on that./
\If you’re sure. Sleep well doofus.\
/have a great day Zia./
Yeah, time differences that aren’t always the same are a fun time. She’s right though, I should get to sleep. Hopefully the next few weeks are less exciting in the death department and more fun in the explodey department.