Forsythe looked a little awkward for a moment but it passed quickly. “Agreed. She actually asked to work with you. Ms. Encart is quite accomplished in the techarmor business, especially considering her youth, although it shouldn’t be surprising. Let me take you out to her now and I will have the contract ready for after she has shown you your underlayer and armor options. It could be sooner depending on how long that takes.”
He then led Rory to a private room in the back with an expensive couch and four circular full-body-sized projectors embedded into the floor to show the options and final products. The whole place from floor to ceiling was made of shiny expensive-looking wood. “Ms. Stephanie Encart will be joining you shortly,” Forsythe said before leaving.
Rory got comfortable on the couch and decided to check his summary while waiting. He had not checked it yet today.
Soul Summary:
Available/Used Vessels (Gathered): 3/1
Available/Used Vessels (Granted): 0/268
| Wielder |
--Body
---Vitality (2/X)
---Strength (1/X)
--Mind
---Defense (1/X)
| Construct {Serpent Chakram} |
-Melee (0/1)
-Ranged (0/1)
-Neutral (0/1)
| Soul |
-Soul Bond (250/250)
--Active Bond {Ice Basilisk} (1/1)
---Soul Form (X/115)
-Soul Control (1/1)
--Soul Capture (5/5)
---Soul Call (5/5)
---Summoning (1/X)
----Living Spring Treant (5/63)
---Withdraw Soul (1/5)
Yes, the Wielder tree confirmed it – not buying armor yet was definitely wise with his strength and vitality still increasing. The mental defense gain was interesting. Was that how he had broken free of the rainbow snake’s hypnotism, or because of it? Did he get it from Leilah? Did he get the resistance to cold from her or his own element?
“So many questions and nobody has answers,” Rory whispered to himself.
Thinking of Leilah, he looked down further and was startled to see the change. Soul Form (X/100) was now Soul Form (X/115). That must have been the cost of Leilah’s help. It weakened her or something. His screw ups keep messing others up. One day he’d make up to Leilah and his mother and everyone.
There was a knock on the door and Rory shook himself free of the maudlin thoughts.
“Come on in,” he called loudly.
A new person, a black-haired boy in a tuxedo, came in pushing a cart with tea and biscuits. He spoke in a squeaky voice he was obviously trying really hard to stay professional. “Mr. Forsythe said the process can take a while so he sent refreshments and wanted me to let you know the room is yours for the rest of day and you won’t be disturbed unless you call for assistance. You can do that by touching that panel over there.” He pointed to a small interface panel next to the door.
“Thank you,” Rory said with a smile.
The kid – he must have been ten or eleven – nervously bowed and exited.
What’s with all the bowing and scraping anyway?
Only people he didn’t want to emulate required that sort of treatment. He shuddered at the reminder.
Needing a distraction, Rory removed his boots, lay back across the couch (it was so soft!), and took out his tablet. He was still trying to find the right potential locations for a future hunting trip. That lead to thinking about what he needed to procure, which returned him to thinking about the quid he had and needed.
Frustratingly, Rory found he was losing track of all things he had to do. So he started a list.
1. Buy new clothes
2. Gather leftover skin from Lucifer’s nest
3. Capture a rainbow snake
4. Save £ for upgrades.
1. Commo (£ 16K)
2. Enhancements? (£ ?)
5. Research Enhancements
6. Learn how to hunt in the wilds.
1. Camping
2. Cooking
3. What else? Research!
7. Gain myst
1. Kill more.
2. Explore mammal door? Bird door? Is it even possible?
3. Find hunting grounds
1. Distance?
2. What do I do about mum?
4. Mum rehab?
1. £ 20,000 per month
2. Make it last?
3. Would I be abandoning her?
4. What would da say?
That last section really bothered Rory as his fingers just wrote what his mind had come up with.
What am I supposed to do?
He couldn’t just abandon her for days at a time. But he needed to move beyond the mines at some point and that meant going away for at least two, maybe three days. He had found an excellent rehab facility in the nicest area of Queen’s Gate, but it was insanely expensive.
Even if he could make enough, would his da say he was abandoning her? It felt like it. But it also felt like what he was doing wasn’t working. She’d drink herself to death if it kept going and he knew it. That left rehab, even if she hated him and his da would too. Even if he hated himself.
There was another knock. Rory cleared his throat, wiped at his eyes, and called, “Come in.”
It was Ms. Encart. Stephanie, the manager had said. She saw him lying on the couch with his tablet and smiled widely.
He blushed and sat up quickly. “Sorry. I-”
She waved it away. Rory noticed her waving hand had an inscription. A wielder then. Almost certainly a crafter, given her job.
“You can lie down on the couch all you want,” she told him. “This is basically your room when you’re in it. The room is cleaned spotless between visitors. And you should know, while we track who enters and leaves, I can control it so there is no active monitoring or recording when we’re here alone. Privacy is critical to Cosmica, as I’m sure you know. This room is a perk we offer our best partners and customers.”
“Oh. Umm. Thanks.” Not sure how he became a best anything, Rory cleared his throat. “So how do we look at underlayers and armor?”
A disappointed look flashed across her face but the smile was back and she nodded. “To business then.” She showed him her tablet, which was way nicer than his, and told him what was to come.
“I will ask you a bunch of questions, bring up various options on those, and we’ll go back and forth on that for a while. When we have enough, I start displaying them as projections right there on the floor. You can walk around, make comments and changes, and then we do it again with the other underlayer and your armor.”
She walked over and sat down on the end of the couch. “Feel free to lay down. This could take a little while.” She surprised him by patting her lap. “I make an excellent pillow,” she told him with a smile.
Rory could feel his face burning when he coughed and asked, “Umm… miss. Is that… umm… okay?”
She giggled. “Relax. I’m offering because I think you’re cute. And we’ll be working together for a long time so let’s start getting comfortable with each other.”
Blushing, Rory laid back down and slowly laid his head on her lap looking at her the entire time. When she raised the tablet to allow him to do so, he realized she was verifying that was exactly what she had meant. His face was still on fire.
“Alright,” she said while messing with her tablet. “It’s our policy to start from the beginning so we can avoid any misconceptions about how our process or techarmor works. Is that alright with you?”
Internally Rory was relieved. He was hoping she’d start assuming he knew nothing. Because… well… he did. He nodded without saying anything. It was weird nodding while laying on her thighs.
“Before we dig in, do you know about the tiers?”
He nodded, having only just learned about them.
“Good. It is very important you don’t attempt to wear armor above your tier. It would almost certainly harm you as the armor would pull more myst from your body than it could provide. Our measurements assess what kind of capabilities an individual can support. It is based upon many factors, one of which is the wielder tree attributes. The ratio of body improvement to the amount of myst absorbed is one of the most influential factors to our techarmor. Also, the advanced features you can add are tier-specific as well and for the same reason. You can’t add a feature that has a higher myst-density requirement than the wielder can support. Does that all make sense?”
He nodded. So far so good.
“Alright, let’s dig in. Underlayer first. We’ll talk about what the purpose of an underlayer is. First and foremost it is a last line of defense. That said, it’s not armor and you shouldn’t think of it that way. When it’s not on you, you’ll see it as two pieces, the top and bottom. But when it’s worn and activated, the pieces merge to become one. It covers everything from your neck to your wrists and ankles by default, with customizations to have it cover more available. Fit-wise it’s a tight layer of material that acts as a second skin. You can’t wear anything under it.”
Rory felt her hand start running through his hair while she was reading and instructing.
Wow. She’s kind of… forward.
But he didn’t say anything because it felt nice. That and she was just some worker trying to make sure she got her commission after all, so he didn’t mind. Of course, he would watch for anything suspicious, but so far it was okay. Either way, he was always ready to summon his chakram.
Stephanie continued her explanation. “An effective underlayer will generally provide excellent temperature and moisture control. Everything we have spoken of so far are for tier one and their standard capabilities. They can be enhanced to include additional defenses, the ability to hold weapons, infusers to support the wearer in healing for example, and many other things. You can even purchase add-ons for the hands and feet such as those used in swimming and diving. The options are extensive. There are also advanced enhancements which include helmets, masks, or even full-face coverings with limited breathability support.”
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
She moved the tablet and smiled down at him. “Any questions so far?”
He quietly rocked his head back and forth on her lap and she giggled again. Why was her giggle so distracting?
“Alright. So let’s talk about what you are looking for. Any thoughts on color?”
“Isn’t it going to be black because the skin is black?” Rory asked.
She looked down at him again. “We have no idea. It depends on how it goes with the material. For now, let’s talk hopes. If you could get something other than black, would you?”
Rory thought about that. What was right for him? This was his chance to customize to his own needs and desires.
Smiling, he said, “One white and one black.”
“Alright. We’ll see what we can do. Now we walk through all the things you can add to it.”
***
An hour and a half later, Rory was walking around two projected models of himself, each wearing one of the two underlayers he had designed with Stephanie. They were floating next to each other. The white on the right was a full suit that covered everything except his eyes, which wore special filtering eye covering designed to see details in a snowy landscape. That one also had extra defense, grippy feet that wouldn’t slide on anything unless he set them to, a small amount of supplementary breathable air, and a few other things. It was almost an armor unto itself, Stephanie’s warning aside.
The black next to it was much simpler and was only intended to act as a standard underlayer. Its primary purpose was to control all the fancy things his actual armor would eventually offer. It had a few hidden add-ons that would help his survivability, but the only visual one held his hair out of his face and eyes. When he commanded it to, the black skin would flow up the back of his neck and tie his hair into a short ponytail. When they first put that up on the screen Stephanie could barely contain herself from reaching for Rory. She was cute.
Speaking of, the door slid closed behind her as she had just returned with a clear translumin bottle of water, offering one to Rory. He took it, verifying that it was still sealed and didn’t have any sign of tampering.
Then nodded his head at the two models. “What do you think? You’re the expert. These will be my first armor.”
She walked around them and stopped at the white one. “For winter, snowy, icy, or other cold-weather environments, this is the best possible option that does not include actual full armor. You’ve already said you aren’t worried about the temperature control being insufficient. The extra features will allow you decent combat effectiveness for tier one. Beyond that, I have nothing else other than that it will be excellent. Hopefully, the color won’t be an issue.”
Then she walked to the black and her grin flashed widely. “This one is more flexible but less advanced. You said it will be your primary underlayer and it will serve well in that role. Beyond all that, it’s sexy as hell.”
Rory laughed, having gotten more used to her flirting and thus blushing quite a bit less. A few hours of her making him feel comfortable had apparently paid off.
“Let’s focus on armor next. Back to the couch,” Steph directed. Rory nodded and they returned to their head-on-lap positions.
“Just to verify, you’re sure about light armor?” she asked.
“Absolutely. I need to be fast, reactive, and not hindered.”
Once again running her fingers through his hair, she confirmed, “That’s definitely light armor. I need to ask some questions you might find personal. Just tell me if you don’t want to answer. But the more detail we have, the better selections we can make. Okay?”
Rory knew he would have to let go of some of his paranoia to get effective techarmor. How much was the question though.
Taking a breath, he nodded.
“Alright. You’re a warrior and not a defender, supporter, or crafter, correct?”
He nodded again.
“Ranged or melee?”
He cleared his throat. “Both.”
She looked down at him with raised eyebrows. He looked back with the same expression.
“Okay then,” she said ruefully. “That increases our interview length. Since that means we get to spend more time together, I’m glad.” She really was quite forward. Or maybe confident? He wasn’t sure. Either way he kind of liked it.
“The first set of questions will be about melee,” Steph continued. “Slicing, piercing, or bludgeoning?”
“Slicing,” he responded.
“Close like knives and swords or distance like pole arms?”
“Close like knives.”
“Element?”
“Ice.”
She paused at Rory’s answer and looked down again. He smiled up at her.
“That explains the cold-weather underlayer,” she said.
“I’m surprised you didn’t ask sooner.”
She shrugged. “Underlayers can’t support elemental supplementation. It’s part of their protection. They can’t both protect from it and allow it at the same time.”
“Ahh. Well, you’re the expert,” Rory said with a grin.
She giggled again. “Well. If you had to say your weapons were more speed or strength, which would you choose?”
“Both.”
Rory heard her sigh. “Are you playing with me?”
“Not about this.” She had helped him relax and he was way more comfortable with her now. Then again, he knew next to nothing about flirting and hoped he wasn’t messing it up. Her regular giggling made him think he was doing okay.
Steph lightly bumped her tablet onto his forehead at his snarky answer and he laughed.
“Are there any motions you make more than others when using your weapons in melee?” she asked.
Rory thought about that. “In melee, inside-to-outside, up-to-down or visa versa slicing are most common, I think. Sometimes diagonal.”
“Ok. Which is your primary hand?”
“Both.”
She jerked the tablet up and looked down at him quickly. “Seriously? You’re ambidextrous?”
Rory nodded. “My right is ever so slightly dominant, but basically I can use both equally.”
He saw her eyes flashed with some thought he wasn’t sure about but she moved on.
After clearing her throat, she said, “Alright. Any Soul Techniques?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. But soon.”
“That’s okay,” she said, hand moving back into his hair. “They always come late. For now, that closes out melee. Let’s move to ranged. Slicing?”
He nodded.
“Short, medium, or long?”
“Short to medium. Mostly short now, but will grow to medium,” was his answer.
“Okay. A normal answer for once. Yay!”
Rory rolled his head over and bopped her taut stomach with it. Then feeling a little brave, he nervously tucked it closer and left it there.
Not objecting, she asked with a laugh, “Thrown or shot?” Her hand was back but occasionally running along his forehead in addition to his hair.
“Thrown,” he told her.
“Element of ice, ambidextrous, balanced speed and strength. Any Soul Techniques?”
“Same answer. Soon.”
“How about motions. Anything particular?”
“Underhanded, overhanded, and sideways from inside out straight. All throws. Rarely outside in. At least so far.”
“Hmmm. Ok. We’ll have to do some fancy work on the hip and upper body joints. That you don’t focus on outside-in at either melee or ranged is helpful. I know I’m not supposed to ask, but I’m just so curious.”
Rory just smiled but remained silent.
She sighed and inquired, “Do you have any specific environments in mind?”
“Jungle or forest mostly. But I might move to the mountains in a month or two. It depends on my progress and how things are in the areas around Brompton.”
“You keep saying that you will advance quickly. How sure are you?”
Thinking how to answer for a moment, he said, “I can’t see the future, but I have a plan and hope it will pan out. I have some… ummm… family things so it may cause a delay, but it’s hard to say. Either way, I’m pretty confident I’ll be growing a lot in a short period of time.”
The back of Stephanie’s hand ran along Rory’s cheek then. “Family is complicated.”
He let out a sigh and nodded, not wanting to speak on the topic. Then he heard her tablet beep and she said, “Your contract just came in. Let’s swap places and you can read it.”
He sat up and they swapped positions. Her tablet was so much easier to read than his. He sighed.
“Gotta add ‘Upgrade Tablet’ to my list now.” She giggled on his lap.
The contract was filled with all the legal rubbish he thought and feared it would. Aware that he was not any kind of expert in legal blarney, he used GalNet to help him. While reviewing the contract he swapped tablets occasionally as he looked up some terms he didn’t understand. During this work, his body had involuntarily jerked once as Steph adjusted herself and her head got a little too close to him, but she backed off and apologized.
Okay, so he still blushed around her occasionally.
Forcing himself to refocus on the contract, he was a little concerned she was trying to distract him into missing something, but other than that one moment she said nothing and did nothing. She just silently lay there.
Upon review and to the best of his ability to understand, the contract was what he agreed to with Mr. Forsythe. Rory would provide two sixteen-yard by one-yard rolls of the mystery material and they would provide him with two under layers and one light armor, all to his specifications using the material he would provide within eight weeks of the completed order. He was given a little leeway in regards to the measurements, four square inches in total. If more was missing, he’d have to provide material to make up or compensate them. As he knew he could make up the inches, that didn’t worry him in the least. Additionally, Cosmica agreed to monitor his growth for an as yet to be defined period of time, but less than three months. And that was it. He had no problems with anything specifically written in the document.
But something wasn’t right in his mind. Knowing it would take a bit more time, he thought he should warn Stephanie. He looked down at her and found her eyes closed and her breathing steady. She apparently had no problem just lying there. Fine with him.
Returning his focus to the contract, Rory pulled up his tablet and did some research on contracts in general. After nearly a half-hour of searching, he found what had been bothering him. He went back to the contract and found the area where he could make modifications. Copying almost verbatim from his tablet, he added a statement that there was nothing in there for if they failed to meet their side of the agreement while there was if he was short. So he wanted to add a line that if they failed to complete the armor within eight weeks or if they failed to do the measurements at least twice per week, they owed him the value of the material he provided at twelve thousand per square yard.
He sent it back, put the tablets aside, and spoke softly to her. “You awake?”
Her mouth widened in a stunning smile and her gray eyes opened to look up at him.
“I’m done for now,” he said to her. “We can go back to the armor.”
She looked up at him and asked, “Hey Rory?”
He told her to call him by his first name. The “master” and bowing nonsense made him want to hit someone.
“What’s up, Steph?” A short name for her was requested as well.
“Have you ever been with a girl?”
Rory blushed again. “No.”
“Why not? You’re polite and attractive and will obviously become more so as you invest more myst.”
Rory exhaled. “I have serious trust issues.” She looked concerned and he continued, “Hanging out and flirting has been a fun new experience for me, and I really appreciate it. But I don’t think I can… I don’t even really know what to do.” He ran his hand along his face. “Steph, I don’t know you and even if we did more, I’d be wondering what your real motivation is and thinking in the back of my mind about your eventual betrayal. I’m thinking it already and we’re just having a little fun.” Shaking his head with a sigh, he concluded, “I hope we can still work together though. You’re obviously really good at your job.”
“You must have had a difficult childhood,” she said with a sad smile.
Rory turned his face away from her so she wouldn’t see the flash of pain.
Rather than talking about it further, she changed the topic a few moments later. “Okay. Let’s focus back on the armor. Swap places?”
He nodded down at her, his eyes frustratingly a little wet.
After they switched, she went back to asking questions. Eventually, they got to the details of the armor and the mood lightened, led by her positive attitude.
***
Two hours later, they were once again standing and staring at a projected model of Rory in his new black-as-space armor. It was a single-piece like the underlayer but was made of non-reflective black plates. His armor would attach to the underlayer and actually expand and retract into it, which was the most brilliant thing he had ever seen. Only a single plate attached to the underlayer’s back would be present when fully retracted. The hand coverings were extremely thin and flexible and could be retracted individually or together too. There was an added hood that could rise or retract at his command, as well as a mask that could cover either half his face or all of his head. When both the hood and mask were up, his hair was one hundred percent hidden; otherwise it was visible.
When the mask covered his eyes, he would have the ability to see in low-light situations as well as offering zoom and advanced ID range features, which were all bloody huge in his mind. It also had a retractable spot or widespread light that could come out of his left forearm or shoulder, depending on his desire.
And there was one last rather odd feature, but Rory had decided on it. A black cloak could appear when the hood was up to hide the details of his form with an active camouflage. That was the only tier one camouflage capability available. He was excited about that feature, even if he would have to spend a good amount of time experimenting with its effectiveness. It was also apparently a power hog, but he’d learn what that meant later.
Using the tablet, Rory switched the projection between the different mask and hood combinations. He turned to Steph with a smile. “I think this may be the best thing I’ve ever seen. Thank you.”
She laughed, leaned into him and whispered, “You’re welcome,” into his ear. He shivered. Then she kissed his cheek leaving a tingling feeling.
The contract had come back during their work saying the company had agreed to the changes with the addition that Rory had to be available at least two days per week during business hours. That was entirely fair in his opinion so both he and Forsythe signed the agreement, received a copy, and now he and Cosmica were in business together.
Having wrapped up, Rory asked Steph where he should put the materials and she took his hand and guided him through the back of the store to their storage area which was basically a small warehouse that held measuring and science machines of who knew what purpose. A few folks were waiting anxiously for him and he smiled while placing the two large rolls of dark snakeskin in front of them. They started touching and feeling the poor skin, making Rory almost felt bad for Lucifer, being manhandled that way. Rory didn’t stop them, but, honestly, it was a little creepy.
They finally got over their groping and took measurements. Both rolls exceeded the requirements (apparently, he’d underestimated) and the contract was all signed and witnessed and whatever else you call it when legal people get overpaid for writing their name.
Steph dragged Rory by the hand back to their room, stood in front of him, looked up, and said, “Thanks for a great day. And I know you made sure I got credit and the commission. So, thank you for that too.”
She had a weird look as she said it, but Rory figured it was because she thought he was trying to bribe her. The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind at the time, but it was understandable. He just wanted to hang out and be fair to her. And she was cute.
He opened his mouth to tell her it was no problem and she had earned it. But just as he started, she rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him. He froze but didn’t pull away. Then, without a clue what he was doing, his lips started moving with hers. His whole body was tingling and buzzing. After an unknown amount of time, she stepped back, face flushed and panting a little. He was in the same condition when his hand slowly raised and touched his lips.
“Wow,” was all he could think to say.
“See you in a few days for measurements?” she asked with a wide smile.
Rory looked down at his hands and said, “You’re really… forward. I told you-”
“I’m a confident person Rory,” she interrupted. “I know what I want and what I’m doing. I have a good feeling about you.” Then she grinned. “And you taste good.”
Feeling the burn and knowing he was blushing scarlet all over, he said while looking down, “I’m sorry if that wasn’t good. First time.”
She said, not unkindly, “It was good. Especially since it was your first time. Maybe when you come back for your measurement we can practice together."