Tuesday, June 05, 2018, 09:30 AM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America
After the late-night last night’s excitement, I worried about using magic early in the day, but realized that I needed to get some answers before I did anything to incriminate myself at the job or in general. I resolved to get some information before even heading out from the house. I readied up my ability to search the worlds’ libraries for the information that I needed, that being the different forms of evidence and their legality. What showed up was fairly interesting, in that it was a bit of a change from the extreme availability of magic in Magnimar. A lot of focus on physical evidence, like fingerprints, and “DNA” a new concept that apparently people each have an individual genetic code, and situational information, like being in a certain place at a certain time.
Then, I summoned up the effect of listening to the rumors of the city, extremely fast. I focused on the “Painkillers” Gang. The rumors of the city were basically about the hit that happened last night, how there was apparently a new superhero who had taken them down. This was linked up with a rumor that the Pepsi Boys were hit by the same “super”, a few nights ago. The Painkillers apparently had been hit fairly hard by the Decimation, and those four had been the largest cell in this area who remained, and all that was left aside from that was any support structure that might have still been in existence before everyone disappeared. A good thing and a bad thing, in that the gang was gone, but now another gang would try to horn in on their terrain, a fact that I would have to keep any gang from consolidating their power.
Most of the other information that I gleaned from the listening was that the four of them were all hit with drug charges, the claim that there was a dragon there was only further added to the evidence that there was drug usage on the individuals. There wasn’t much more of in the way of the Painkillers gang for the rumors that I could find through the usage of this individual arcane instance. I got all of my gear ready and ate a decent breakfast of stew, bread, and eggs. I isolated all of the cash that I had acquired, and then had a thought of depositing the jewelry that I had “acquired” from those criminals and the ones I had stopped before. I spent some time talking with Rex, who told me that he thought that it would be good for him to stay at the house and keep watch to make sure that nothing happened to our safehouse today, for which I expressed my appreciation for his wisdom, and thanked him for his help with this.
Before leaving, I set up the TV to operate on some random channel to give Rex something to watch. He already knew how to utilize the toilet, kind of fascinating thing to consider, honestly, and I set out food and water for him, and told him that I would be out of range for him to send empathic feelings to me, so that if he got in danger, it was more important to just get to me, rather than defend the house and the property, if it was in danger. Rex told me that he understood, so I took the jewelry that I had collected and all of the cash, and headed out of the house, locking up as I did. I had decided that I would go talk to Jonathan at the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters during “lunch” today. His number was in my phone, so it wouldn’t be that difficult of an issue to get sorted, and maybe I can get the jewelry set up as part of a similar plan to the gold and silver coins that I had in deposit.
I rode to work on my bicycle, being careful that I did not get into any trouble of any kind. I had decided to take a different path to work, going along the main road. I found a café and deli not far from where the Safehouse was, so I stopped and went to get something for drinks for work, as I didn’t especially appreciate all of the fizz from the sodas at the vending machines at the place where I started working. There was some form of newsprint named “The Virginian Pilot”, that was available that had a very blurry picture of me in my full gear with the four hogtied criminals around me. My oath of anonymity seemed to do the job of blurring me slightly enough for the picture to not be good enough to be recorded at least.
I was glad that I had done that and spent some time recoloring my gear before everyone arrived and that I had put my revolver away before the police had arrived. I smirked to myself and purchased a copy of the newspaper, a couple of large metal cans of something called “Arizona Green Tea”, and a breakfast sandwich. The person behind the counter engaged me in a bit of conversation about the “Blip” and how half of all people disappeared, and asked if anyone I knew ended up disappearing. I didn’t have anything prepared for this line of questioning, so I went with the truth, telling the cashier that I had lost everyone that I knew in that event, and that I was starting new here in Norfolk. The cashier nodded, welcomed me to Norfolk, and wished me well before I paid in cash for the items and wished the cashier a good day before continuing on my bicycle drive to Bob’s.
I took the most direct route possible to get to the business, taking care to obey any traffic laws from the book that I had been given for commonwealth of Virginia. There were not a lot of police on the road in any event, but it never hurt to be careful, especially since there could be some way that I wasn’t familiar with to link me to the “super” that was new to the city of Norfolk. As I got to Bob’s, Doug was just opening up the door and noticed me, letting me and my bicycle in. I thanked him and went in to put my bicycle up before heading to the workstation. I got my journal entries written out and decided that I’d drink my “tea” before starting work.
*****
Tuesday, June 05, 2018, 2:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America
Once I got in, Doug approached me with a new series of tasks today, telling me that since I had finished all of the scut work yesterday, that I’d be learning to do a more difficult task today. Doug took me to a different work bench and showed me a rifle that had a bunch of parts that were in a series of bins. Doug explained that there was a custom order here for a very picky client, and that I would have to discuss everything with them. I sighed and asked where the individual was, and he told me that the person would be in the meeting room at ten o’clock. I sighed and prepared as best I could, thinking through any preparations I could or should make, and not coming up with anything.
When I went into the meeting room, a few minutes before ten, I checked to ensure that everything that I would need for it would be there. At ten, precisely, the customer came in and sat down in the chair, imperiously. I apologized that I needed to go over everything again, but that I wanted to make sure that we had everything according to his specifications. The man seemed to be somewhat appreciable of my approach and went over all of the changes that he desired, some of which seemed to be mutually exclusive.
For the second half hour, we went over every individual item and change from the base model and how each one interacts with the other changes. The man seemed to be a bit iffy but was listening along and providing his desires and inputs for each item and change that he wanted, and specifying the order that he wanted them in. I took copious notes, writing down every significant bit of information that was passed from him to me. This work took a fair amount of time, and I made sure to add to the lists with input of changes for how each one changed the previous work and what they did. We made it through this part of the interview fairly well.
Starting up the second hour, the meeting was getting a little tenser, with the customer seeming to get more ruffled as I tried to rationalize each of the incongruencies between what he desired and what could reasonably be accomplished. The customer was following along with everything that I was pointing out, and even going back on some of the changes and additions that he had claimed that he had wanted. We talked further about the different other options that were available, which might go with some of the other items that he had wanted. Even if the meeting had gotten a bit more strained, the customer seemed to be following along with everything and not immediately hostile to everything that I was offering up. We had gotten a good portion of the way through by the time that we were closing in on the end of second hour of discussion, but it was getting rather strained.
It was the start of the third hour, at around one pm according to the clock, that started to show some recalcitrance with the direction of our meeting. I had thought that I had been doing so well, when apparently, the customer had fell back on their initial requirements, and did not want to budge. They exclaimed that they had seen this done on YouTube, and demanded to know why we could not do something so simple as this. I was only vaguely aware of this “YouTube” site, but understood the basics of it, so I asked him if he could tell me which YouTuber was the one who did the modifications, and that we can reach out to them to find out what technical modification we might have missed and how much testing that they have been doing with those modification to ensure that they were safe in the long run. I eventually calmed down the customer and got a list of some supposed people on the website that might have made the changes, and titles of the videos that documented them.
The customer seemed to become a lot more accepting of the process and where we were going with it after I had shown that little bit of acceptance. He backed off of his more outlandish claims, exclaiming that on recollection, he figured that some of the options might have been on different models, and not on this specific one. We worked through a few more permutations of the changes, until we came up with something that he agreed with, and that I felt that we could accomplish with the resources that we had here. There were a few things that we would definitely have to order, but the core of everything was that it was viable and that it was something that we could do. It was at the end of that third hour that Doug and Steve came in, clapping the customer on the back and congratulating me.
I was, at minimum, very confused by what looked like a very congenial greeting, between what I had been led to believe was a very recalcitrant customer and a very annoyed technical staff. The three of them laughed a little and looked to me, before Steve congratulated me on being the best custom order technician he had seen, elbowing Doug in the ribs a little. Thinking I was the butt of a joke, the third man, whom I had never met, explained that he was Robert Marcus, the current owner of Bob’s Gun Shop and that he was putting me through the paces to see if I could be good with what might be needed to take custom orders. Robert, or Bob, went on to tell me that he was most impressed with how I kept going back to the actual mechanics of the situation, how I never seemed to get flustered, and how I worked to get the meeting back on track after the fake blow up. Bob went to shake my hand, and I took up his hand and shook it.
Bob exclaimed that I was definitely a good hire for the company, and that he could see good things from me in the future. Bob looked over at Steve and Doug, back to me, and then back to them before he said to them that he’d like a few minutes to speak with me to make sure that employee startup processed was completed properly. Doug and Steve both acknowledged the explanation that we needed to talk and said that they’d get going on the other work that needed to be done. Bob led me to his office and offered up a seat on the other side of his desk. As we both sat down, Bob told me that he was the one who had been approached by S.H.I.E.L.D., having worked with them long ago, on a job to protect the country back when he was just a simple grunt.
As I listened, he went in to explaining how he had been a grunt in Vietnam and was part of a platoon that was sent out to recover an agent who had been caught up in the trail for Ho Chi Minh, trying to end the war early. Apparently, the agent was a senior member of S.H.I.E.L.D. who had actually been going after some alien wreckage that had been found to have crashed in the jungles there. As they worked together to help get an important member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his retinue out of the area, the group came under fire and most of the retinue and his platoon were lost. Bob informed me that although that person and their group got out, the crew that they had was broken up after, and he wasn’t considered for entry. Bob told me that the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent did single him out for later work, and that they had worked together in the past on other small things.
Bob looked at me and smiled before asking me the truth about why I was here. I sighed and realized that it wouldn’t behoove me to try to maintain the falsehood. I told him about how I was brought here from a different world, one where someone from this world had previously come from, like a decade ago, and that they had brought some of their technology to complement the world’s already existing magic. I had been trained by him a little, especially in firearms repair and fabrication, and in the usage of some technology, but that I was mainly employed by my home city as a detective of sorts. I continued with telling him that I had joined forces with that person against a very dire threat to the city, when me and my familiar got transported here. It just so happened to coincide with the event that caused half of the people to disappear here.
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Bob nodded to me and noted that he had apparently lost some people and it is still a little bit chaotic out there, before noticing something about me and asked me if I was doing anything to help already. I looked a bit sheepish, before pulling out the newspaper that I had gotten today, before pointing at the blurred figure. Bob smiled and noted that he had figured that I was doing something like that, since I had just shown up and this figure didn’t start until after I had done so. Bob added that he was glad that I was dealing with the gangs and that I wasn’t killing them, even if I was inflicting some harm on them. I countered that I always made sure that I didn’t kill anyone and if someone is in danger of dying, I can heal them a little bit to ensure that they won’t.
Bob perked up at that, and asked just what I could heal. I thought for a minute, and told him that right now, all I can heal are wounds, but eventually I might be able to remove poisons from someone. Unfortunately, I added, that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do something drastic like regenerate limbs or remove diseases or bring back the dead ever. Bob perked up a little bit at the mention of some of the things, but then looked a bit disappointed when he realized I’d never be able to do it, but he managed to recover his composure quite quickly. Bob asked what kinds of other things I could do, aside from attacking with sound and having a dragon with me.
I chuckled a bit to myself and admitted that part of what I could do was thoroughly clean items without even touching them, and I tacked on a couple of other things that I could do. When I got to enhancing the quality of an item, he stopped me and asked if I could permanently make something higher quality. I told him that I could only do it permanently, but that it required sacrifice of some components. I offered up that I can get into specifics later, but that it required quite a large quantity of material to do so. Bob asked how much better the improvement was. I shrugged and offered up a generic figure of five percent increase in accuracy.
Bob looked a little impressed at the five percent figure, and he asked if I could do this to any weapon. I offered up that I could check about anything, but that if the quality was already too high, I couldn’t improve it further. Bob thought for a minute and asked if I’d be willing to do some based on commission. I told him that I’d definitely take it up on consideration, especially with his recommendation, and that I’d come up with some blanket cost for an individual to expend for me to undertake the required rituals. Bob then asked if he’d be okay with them booking the individuals, and I agreed that it would be for the best.
Bob then got down to business, telling me that they were definitely hiring me, and giving me a base rate per hour for the work that I would do in the shop, and that if I needed to cut out for any reason, that I should inform him directly. He told me that he would eventually be passing this secret on to Doug, if the sale went through, which Doug was aiming towards even if he wouldn’t admit it yet, but that until it became necessary, it would be between the two of them and S.H.I.E.L.D. I thanked him for his consideration and asked him if I could have a little time to go get my banking information set up during lunch. Bob told me that he’d drive me there himself, as it was part of his traditions here that he takes new employees to lunch early on in their employment, and since he wasn’t in the store yesterday, today would be the first day. I thanked him and offered to go work on whatever might be needed until around two pm.
Bob put me on my way, and I went back out to work with Doug, cleaning more firearms and working one getting the replacement parts replaced, as needed. The rest of the time until Bob was going to take me to the “secret” S.H.I.E.L.D. field office was spent going over some other repairs and cleaning checks. It was an interesting experience, doing everything by hand, with such little magic. It was certainly a bit of reflection based on when I started learning back in the Sandpoint Hinterlands Institute of Technology. I still don’t know why David chose that name, but he was specific about it, that, and the Sandpoint Devil as a school mascot.
*****
Tuesday, June 05, 2018, 8:00 PM, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America
We drove in Bob’s vehicle, something he called an S.U.V., to the place that Sharon Carter had taken me when I first arrived. We parked and I walked into the building, where I provided my ID, and we were both invited in. Bob found someone who he knew from a long time ago and stopped to catch up with him, coincidentally. I went to go talk to Jonathan, to try and get some things ironed out. Jonathan was free, so I managed to snag an immediate meeting.
We talked for a bit before getting down to business. Of course, S.H.I.E.L.D. knew what I had been doing, and didn’t think it a sufficient use of resources to bother to stop me. Jonathan mentioned that he figured that it was either part of them allowing me to settle in, due to the differences between my world and this world, or that they didn’t have the resources to bother dealing with me cleaning up the streets, especially so soon after “The Blip”. I dropped off my “Ill-gotten gains” of the various items of jewelry, which got the same treatment as the gold and silver coins that I had “deposited” when I first joined. We discussed some other minor things for a while before Jonathan mentioned that the organization might have a use for one of my supposed powers.
I was a bit curious about this and asked him what power that a large organization like this might need. Jonathan leaned in and whispered that there was a very senior agent who had been wounded in such a way that they cannot heal. I asked him to explain the nature of the wounds, if he could, and he explained how the wounds seemed to resist technological methods and had severed bones from a god’s weapon. I sighed and mentioned that I would be more than happy to try it, but that I doubted that it would have any effect, as my healing capability is basically limited to lacerations, bruises, and abrasions basically. I apologized that if there was anything more serious, I doubted that I would be able to heal it.
Jonathan offered up that the company would appreciate it if I gave it a try anyway, and I told him that I would of course do so. I asked him if I could ride the bicycle that I currently used to go back and forth to work. Jonathan laughed and said that he’d get me scheduled to head down on Friday night. I told him that I would set everything up that I can and be as prepared as possible through the rest of the week, and be here after work, Friday night. Jonathan laughed and said that he would have whoever was picking him up at my work at six thirty pm Friday. I told him that Rex would be going with me, to assist wherever he can, and would be waiting above the shop at that time.
While I was still discussing with Jonathan, I mentioned my difficult with getting communications with Rex while I was further distances away. Jonathan noted that he’d put it further up the chain for any specialized equipment research, but that I could get a fairly simply Bluetooth microphone/speaker setup with another phone. I told him that I would do what I can, but that he can only speak a non-human language. Jonathan shrugged and offered up that we can try that at least and see where we go from there. I agreed and said that I was willing to try it, at the very least, maybe I can make something work a little to at least be able to contact me directly.
After we got done with everything, I mentioned that I still needed to get the ‘Bank Information” for my pay from the Bob’s Gun Shop job. Jonathan laughed and told me that everything was all set up already and had been when I got the okay from Bob. With all of that dealt with, I asked Jonathan if there was anything that S.H.I.E.L.D could use my assistance in investigating. Jonathan thought about it for a minute, and shook his head, noting that I was currently just a baseline agent and thus not in line for any special projects, but that if I encountered anything more interesting than the street gangs that I was currently dealing with, that I should inform him,, as he was the only current agent in Hampton Roads (the conglomeration of cities that made up the surrounding area).
I remembered that Agent Sharon Carter had said that she was leaving the country when he said that, and offered up that if he did encounter anything that needed my specific brand of expertise, to let me know. Jonathan meekly offered up that he would like to get together one day after work to compare some information that he might have from this world with what was the condition on my world. I offered up that he can call me to schedule up anything, and that I’d take off from patrolling that night. I added, as an afterthought, that the main reason why I dealt with the group last night, was that one of them was scoping out the safehouse that I had been set up with. Jonathan listened and apologized to me that since this was a low priority safehouse, that it didn’t have all the advanced bells and whistles of some of the other S.H.I.E.L.D. safehouses.
I thought about it and noted that I was going to leave Rex at the safehouse until something more concrete was set up, and that he can just escape to get within range to contact me once he gets within range. Jonathan perked up, and asked me, one mile, correct? I looked at him a bit curiously and replied that he was correct, to which he pumped his fist in some kind of satisfaction. Jonathan stood up and shook my hand, telling me that he was glad that he had at least one more active ally in S.H.I.E.L.D. in the city. I stood up when he did and thanked him for all of his assistance.
Bob was done with his conversation when I came out of the office, and together, we both went to get lunch at the Monastery Restaurant, which Bob had a bit of favor towards. While we ate, Bob told me about how he had tried to clean up the neighborhood when he got back in Vietnam, and had some success, at least until the gangs got too organized. He finished up by saying that this is probably the best time to start to get the area back from the gangs. I thanked him for his vote of confidence, and asked him how it had gotten so bad, if the police have such a presence here. Bob went on to tell me about how the local politicians ended up getting corrupted by easy money from the gangs and other groups, and they curtailed a lot of the good police, which left, and then there were only the corrupt cops.
Listening to him intently, I took in as much as I could. I figured that I could get a good amount of historical information for the area from him and others like him, that I wouldn’t have to use spells to duplicate. He went on about how he realized that the only choice for the area was for the people to be able to protect themselves. He added that he was going to be selling the business on to Steve here in the next year or so, and that he was looking at getting out of the area to go somewhere warmer soon. I offered up that I had heard something about a place called Tahiti being a magical place.
We finished up our lunch and headed back to the store, where Bob went back to his office, ostensibly to handle more of his tasks as the owner while I continued learning from Doug about all of the different tasks that I would have on a daily basis. The tasks were fairly simply, comparatively, with a lot of janitorial style work, counting parts, performing inventory checks, and the like. While the day went on, I continued to think about what I would need to do going forward to get this area under some kind of safe and sound. I also went on to think about what I needed to do myself to get things done that would need to be done, considering that I was likely going to have to stay here for as long as I can see.
By the end of the day, the business responsibilities that I was responsible for seemed to be in a good condition and ready to end for the day. As we locked up the workshop for the night Doug shook my hand and welcomed me officially as a fellow employee. Doug and Steve both went to their vehicles and left. Bob had left earlier in the day, around five pm, to go catch up with the person that he had apparently met up with before at secret S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. I started to get on my bike and head home before I got stopped by someone really demanding to sell me on going to the Norfolk Harbor-fest this weekend.
I tried to apologize that I wouldn’t be in Norfolk this weekend, and the vendor couldn’t accept it. Even if the event was free. The vendor went on and on about how there would be music from such bands as the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Firefall, Pure Prairie League, The Family Stone, Thomas McClary of The Commodores, American Authors, and Norfolk’s own Super Doppler. I listened intently while I kept my eyes out for any possible pickpockets that might try to use me being distracted. Luckily, there wasn’t and eventually, I managed to get them to accept that I would go to the event, if I was available, and the vendor finally left me alone.
I made my way home, and as soon as I felt the empathic link reconnecting, I reached out the Rex, and he sent back to me feelings of comfort and relaxation. I rode the rest of the way home, picking up some fresh fish at a market for Rex, and a burger for myself on my way home. Once I got home, I locked up the bike and brought everything in. I started looking over whatever recipes I had for any kind of curative agents. Unfortunately, nothing that I had references for was much stronger than my healing belt’s effect.
Without any kind of alchemical item that I had access to, I decided to try to use a spell to get access to a recipe that might assist me in getting this agent’s wounds repaired. Summoning up the arcana and a blank section of a book, I also pulled out my “Earth Alchemy book” and set it to a new page. I activated my transfer of written material effect, and then summoned up the various texts of the world to find Alchemical recipes for saving this individual. I came up with six possible recipes, Aqua Clarissima, Aqua Regia, Tisane of Amaranth, Unguent of Juniper, Vitus Flask, and Balm of Arnica. I pulled every component from the recipes and did a quick search for where I could get everything.
It was fairly expensive, especially to get things delivered tomorrow, but everything was purchasable and should show up to Bob’s Gun Shop tomorrow, assuming that the deliveries can be done. Without much left for the day, I decided to improve upon my knowledge of this world, assuming that I might end up getting a commission to make something enhanced sooner rather than later. I went on to start focusing much more heavily on the gang aspects of the area, with some more information about specifically the two that I had come across, the Pepsi Boys and The Painkillers. I quickly documented what I could transfer into books, and then set everything up for the next day.