Stage 1: Houston, Arc 2.0

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Stupid house has stupid rules. Everyone has to be in their rooms at 9pm, lights out from 10 to 6. I can only sleep five of that, so I practice meditation again. With the exception of breathing, I have to be perfectly still, I can't talk or even open my eyes, or breaks my trance. At least I don't have to sit in some special pose, lying in bed is sufficient.

I'm glad Meditation helps recover MP, because where the fuck did it go? I tried observing that cop and got a message saying I don't have enough MP. I had half my bar filled, and then I'm staring at nothing. What happened? I had turned off notifications for when MP was lowered or gained, because it was too spammy. When whatever happened stopped, my regen kicked in as normal and MP ticked back up to 1 point in a few minutes, and increased at its normal rate over the next few hours until we got ushered into our rooms. There were a couple of notifications later that said I had gained two levels of Null Resistance.

That's the second time that skill was involved in the presence of Julia. That face-puncher dude dropped down to level 4 after she knocked him out. Do I need more proof? I can't point it out very well. Hey Julia, are you a Parahuman? Why do I ask? Because you drained me and that dude at the store? How can I possibly know that? I have my own power that lets me notice weird shit. Yes, that means I'm a Parahuman too. Why no, I didn't out you to the PRT, please believe me. How did getting arrested last night go for you? Yes, I know your family's dead and this just makes things more complicated. Why are you running away? Argh. I have no idea how to handle that landmine and she isn't here right now.

There's two rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. I share the boys room with 3 other teenagers, it has 3 metal framed bunk beds that look like what you'd see in a teen comedy about summer camp. Why do I even know this? My selective amnesia is damn weird in its selections. Anyway, I'm the newbie, and got relegated to a bottom bunk.

The only thing I can do in meditation is think, I imagine goals to set for myself, and see which ones might turn into quests and figure out how exactly that works. Even though I can't check my results without breaking meditation, I hear a few notifications go off.

I get tired of meditating, so I get up to explore the house. A tired, annoyed, Mr. Beckett meets me on the stairwell and sends me right back into the room to wait the 25 minutes until 6am. Stupid. Apparently, they have motion sensors which cover the upstairs lounge/TV/computer area and the stairwell.

At 6am I'm free, but the only kid that actually gets up that early. There’s two bathrooms, one for the girls and one for the boys, with a connecting bedroom door and a door to the hall. The bathrooms share a wall, the bedrooms don't. The rest of the upstairs is an open area with a study table, wall TV, couches, and a computer desk. Downstairs has a small kitchen/dining room/breakfast nook, an additional living area with the couch we were on last night, a coffee table, another TV, and the office the Becketts' used for their searches last night. That's all the rooms I can reach. There's locked doors that block off an entire section of the downstairs. I assume it's where the Becketts' room and bathroom are.

Mr. Beckett tries to talk to me about my behavior last night; I tune him out while I eat. Julia's not back yet, and he doesn't know what's going on, but is sure Mrs. Pearson will let him know later. I excuse myself to go back upstairs to take a shower and a crap.

****

I grab pen and paper to take cryptic notes on my weird powers. Since it's video game themed I lay it out as if I was designing a video game to throw off anyone that might read it.

Quests:

Some are created via goals set for myself. Others are created automatically. I have partial control over the former, none over the latter.

Quests from goals need to have some kind of 'self-improvement' result which requires a degree of risk, difficulty and chance of failure? The 'self-improvement' might be tangible or intangible. But, setting goals like 'Gain X levels in a skill' didn't seem to trigger quest creation, nor did 'Gain X in a stat', 'Gain X levels' and so on. But, there are some exceptions. There's far more failures in conceptualizing a goal, ones that didn't create a quest, than there are successes.

Successful New Quests received:

Get In Shape!

Train all physical stats (STR, AGI, CON) up to 15 without spending points on them.

Time Limit: none

Success: 500 XP, a better bod.

Failure: Continue being a wuss.

Don't be a Stranger

Introduce yourself to all the other kids in the house, and gain enough relationship with each to not be a stranger.

Time Limit: 7 days.

Success: 200 XP, Achieved: 1 of 10.

Bonus Condition: Make a new friend, 150 XP

Failure: Everyone thinks you are anti-social.

Don't be shy!

Convince a girl to go out on a date with you. Bribery, blackmail and hookers do not count.

Time Limit: 2 years

Success: 1000 XP, ???, Open a new quest chain.

Failure: Everyone thinks you are a loser, or possibly gay.

Make your First Golem

You have the skill now, what are you waiting for?

Time Limit: 2 weeks

Success: 250 XP, Free +1 to Create Mana Golem Skill

Bonus Condition: Do it without outing yourself, 100 XP

Failure: No XP or skill bonus reward if you do finally get around to it, more trolling.

The Path to Min-Maxing

Figure out how to train the rest of your stats

Achieved so far: INT, WIS, AGI, STR

Success: 50 XP per stat.

Failure: Continued wallowing in your ineptitude.

The other kids are up now, I know Rachel and Janet from yesterday, but there's three more girls I don't know the names of yet. There are the three guys I room with, Thomas, Cody and Max. Cody is younger, still in 8th grade, the others older and in high school. Completing 'Don't be a Stranger' should be easiest. I got 1 relationship point for each of the boys just by friendly introductions. I assume Julia counts for the '1 out of 10' already achieved. Does that imply a prediction that she is returning? I should create or complete some kind of simple quest every day if it's doable.

****

My thoughts are interrupted by disturbing sounds from the TV as a news program drones on. I glance up to see what it is and freeze. Footage from the attack showing Leviathan was playing, my heart races and I panic. "Turn that off!" I hoarsely scream.

"What?" Thomas asks.

"TURN IT OFF!!" I yell.

"No, I'm watching TV"

I vaguely become aware of more yelling, but my mind retreats into the trauma of reliving my near death at the hands of the giant aquatic Chupacabra. I come to my senses; Janet and Rachel have entered at some point. Rachel is trying to get my attention, Janet's sobbing in the corner, Thomas is nursing a bloody nose, Mrs. Beckett is bandaging a cut on Rachel's hand.

"Shit, Simon you okay?" Rachel asks.

"Watch your language, Rachel" Mrs. Beckett responds.

I hold my chest with my good hand because my heart is still racing. "What the hell happened?"

"You were screaming, Janet and I came out to look. Janet started crying too, cause of the fu- news footage. I punched Thomas in the nose because he wouldn't turn off the TV or change the station."

"You do not attack other people in this house Rachel, Mrs. Pearson will be informed of this."

"The dickhead wouldn't listen..."

"That's no reason to resort to screaming and violence"

My fear converts to anger "You've got four kids in here that have been traumatized by that fucking thing, Julia and I have even seen it with our own eyes. You don't think making sure we don't see any reminders of that is too much to ask? Look what happened!" I yell at Mrs. Beckett.

"We are aware, and it is in fact not supposed to be displayed or changed immediately if being shown on the news. Thomas is being reminded and disciplined, and you should moderate your tone when speaking to adults."

I shake my head sighing. "Thanks, Rachel, I'd have done it myself if I could think straight for a moment."

"Yeah, no prob."

"Regardless, that's not the kind of behavior to encourage." Mrs. Beckett has to edge the last word in.

A number of notifications have gone off but I ignore them and walk over to Janet. "Hey, sorry for screaming, you didn't need to see that. Nobody needs to be reminded of the giant aquatic Chupacabra that wrecked our lives. You okay?"

"Yeah, you didn't do anything wrong, thanks for asking." Janet said. "That's a stupid name for …"

"Yeah it is, ain't it? That's why I use it, helps my mind deal with it. Nobody that hasn't been through what we have will understand. The mental image of a wet, smelly, mangy coyote is easier to handle instead."

"Is that what a Chupacabra is? I thought it was some mythical monster."

"It's both. That's what the scientists and skeptics think people actually see when a sighting is reported."

"Yeah, but with capes everywhere now, who knows if that's still true."

"The myth of the Chupacabra pre-dates Scion, so I'm betting on the mangy coyote idea."

"How do you know this?"

"I don't really know."

"You and Julia really saw…it…up close?"

"Yeah…" talking about it isn't easy so I don't. She picks up on my reluctant silence, and doesn't press the issue. By then, Rachel has sat down and we move to idle chit chat.

Rachel is a sophomore, Janet is a senior. Using Observe doesn't tell me much more than what it did yesterday, just with the lingering trauma and emotional effects of the recent dust-up, and Rachel's injured hand. Hmm, so long as something's changed since the last time I used Observe on a target, I get a little skill gain out of it. I previously discovered using Observe on the same target over and over gains nothing, except ever snarkier commentary, and wasting my MP. As we talk, I get casual introductions to the other three girls staying at the house. Melissa is a freshman like me, Katy a junior, and Joanna an eighth grader. I introduce Rachel and Janet to Max and Cody; they know who Thomas is already.

Your Gamer's Mind skill has increased by 1

Thomas Arlot has gone from stranger to annoyance

Rachel Zamora has gone from stranger to acquaintance

Mr. Beckett finally comes back up and makes Thomas apologize to everyone, and Rachel apologize to Thomas. My relationship sheet tells me I got an 11 with Rachel already, that made her 2 of 10 for the quest. Janet is at 5. Thomas, dropped to -12, which still qualifies since 'annoyance' isn't 'stranger', making him 3 of 10. Observe, basic psychology and the glare Thomas levels at me, tells me he blames me for his reprimand, and indirectly his bloody nose, because I freaked out at the newscast. The rest of the kids are still in the 1-3 relationship range.

Hmm, interesting, Lifeline, Rappel, Granite, Carlos Ortega, I think that's the face-puncher guy we tied up with pantyhose at the Palais Royal, and ??? Jones, (was that the PRT officer?), has decayed about 1 point towards zero. Do several days of no interaction make people move toward neutral? Negative ten is definitely a boundary since Jones is a 'stranger' instead of an 'annoyance'. The only one that didn't change was Sparky who's still at -100 and an 'Enemy'.

I gained another level of Gamer's Mind. Clearly from getting blasted by a sustained post traumatic trigger…occurrence. It's some stupid bullshit that I have to mentally torture myself to get that skill to raise faster than it otherwise would by leveling up.

My introspection is interrupted by Mrs. Beckett saying we're going to the mall. Good. Maybe that means I can get my $300 back which they 'held onto for safe keeping'. It's so we can go clothes shopping to supplement our meager possessions. At least I'm not alone in having my money held. I seem to have more than the others, after it gets doled out we climb into a minivan and drive to the mall.

****

I decide to purchase a few outfits. Observe shows me interesting things about various clothing. Some have (minor) cold and (very minor) heat resistance properties. Some have bonuses to Comfort, many have bonuses to Allure. Some, heavy jackets and boots, have minor fractional bonuses to Armor as well. Nearly all of those unique items are entirely out of my price range. I still don't know how most of these numbers actually work. The few things I do get only net me some minor comfort bonuses.

I disable some more security tags in the changing rooms. I don't steal anything. I just confirm it still won't raise my Disable Device skill any further. I guess I need to use more challenging locks. I can fix that with a trip to a hardware store.

I really need to figure out where an arts and craft store is that has enough clay to use in making a golem. My skill says I can make up to a 10 pound golem, I should get at least 10 pounds of clay. How big of a golem will that make? I doubt it will fit in a conventional oven. I won't be able to look for that until I get on the internet back at the house. Until then, I don't have a reason to save mana, so blow it all using Observe on everyone and everything in the mall. Oh, there's an Arcade, and the Becketts' don't have any consoles. Time to try that video game skills cheat out.

****

Video Game Skill Cheat: For performing a repeated action you may gain the 'Vehicle Operations' skill.

Vehicle Operations levels up quickly from some racing games. I go from level one to 99.99% of level two and get a specialty prompt for 'Cars'. I accept it, which drops me back down to level 1 again, and play some more before I realize maybe I should switch to something else and see if I can get another specialty. The text of the video game skill cheat did say 'low levels only'. I go to Tank Commander, and get to level two but don't receive a specialty prompt. I keep playing to level three, and get a specialty prompt for 'Tanks', accept it, and it drops back to level 2 again. This time I swap to the helicopter game immediately and play it until I get a prompt for 'Helicopters', which I accept again. It drops to level 2 again, and I kept playing. I still need to confirm it though. Partway through to level three I swap again and go to a Jet Ski game. I get to level 3 and it stays there. No specialty prompt is given. Also Vehicle Operation then stays at an even level 3, 0.00%, and won't increase any further. So, gaining a specialty requires absolute focus on practice related to the specialty during the entire level up and not splitting it across different types of activates? If true, then I missed getting the Jet Ski and a big rig specialty for Vehicle Operations, since there's a game for that too. I switch to shooters to confirm my theory.

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Video Game Skill Cheat: For performing a repeated action you may gain the 'Firearms' skill.

The shooter games are more limited in variety. There's lots of pistol/hand gun type arcade games, but only one that featured a pump shotgun. I get level 1 and continue until prompted for a 'hand guns' specialty and drop back to level 1, and stop immediately, even though the game isn't over. I go to the shotgun game, get the 'shotguns' specialty, drop to 1 again and stop.

So, the best way to gain skill specialties is as early as possible in the skill levels. So far, they appear to be unlimited, require complete dedication to solely that specialty activity, and the early levels are always the easiest to gain. Have I not been able to get specialties in Observe because I have been mixing activity types up or because the skill doesn't offer any specialties?

Video Game Stat Cheat: For playing games that test your perception, you have gained 1 PER.

I try some fighting games, but get nothing from them. I try some action games that let me cast spells, but again, get no skills from them. All the while, my arm is hurting because only an insane person like me plays a bunch of arcade games with a broken arm. It's not easy and I'm wasting a lot of money dying a lot when I normally can do a lot better. Is it because the driving games have actual controls, pedals, steering wheels, shifters, etc.? Even the tank, helicopter and Jet Ski games had somewhat realistic controls. The shooters have actual plastic pistol shaped weapons with triggers, even the shotguns have pump reload action. Those were a bitch to operate with my bad arm. At least playing all the driving and shooting games gave me a +1 PER video game cheat stat boost.

Video Game Skill Cheat: For performing a repeated action you may gain the 'Athletics' skill.

I try a dance pad game last, and gain the 'Athletics' skill. I'm half way to level 2 when the damn mall intercom goes off. "Simon Anderson, please come to the central information desk. Simon Anderson, please come to the central information desk." Shit, I've totally lost track of the time. We're supposed to leave at 5 pm. It's been over half an hour past that.

Richard Beckett has gone from stranger to annoyance

Andrea Beckett has gone from stranger to annoyance

The Beckett's aren't happy. Notifications for relationship status say so too. My arm hurts and all that banging around and exhaustion on the dance pad game took off some HP and most of my stamina. It did push my Gamer's body skill close to leveling. I need to come back again and use that game to get whatever specialty it will give me. Dancing? Probably not that useful but I'll take it anyway. Just have to make sure I don't do anything that counts as 'Athletic activity' and ruin the specialty gain. What other skills and specialties could I get from video and arcade games? Something to think about, plus I need to look up arcades local to the area when I get back, and see if there's some with more variety. Will consoles or computer games work too? My Strategy skill had to have come from something.

****

Between the clothes, and the arcade, I've spent 84 bucks and change. Half of that was the arcade, expensive purchase of skills, but useful knowledge. I feel like I know way more about those skills than what I should be able to know from a few hours of playing a video game, but no way to verify that knowledge. When we get home, I turn over only $120 to the Beckett's for 'safe-keeping' and stuff the rest in my underwear in case they were going to search me but they didn't go that far. I have $95 left in sweaty, stinky, small bills.

My punishment for making everyone late, and my behavior yesterday, is extra chores. I have to help with dinner and clean the dishes. 'Due to repeated action do I want to gain the Cooking Skill?' No, fuck, I don't want the cleaning skill either. Skill slots are a limited resource. My power spams me repeatedly until I leave it unanswered. I can't wait for that broken arm status effect to go away, but the timer says it won't happen until February 1st.

Julia is dropped off by Mrs. Pearson, in the evening. I didn't get a chance to talk, she goes straight to the girl's room, showers, and goes back in again. The Becketts bring dinner to her. That's what Janet and Rachel say anyway. She had to spend a night in jail, saw a juvenile judge this morning and was with the social worker for the rest of the day.

After dinner and chores I review all I gained today and anything I missed. Reaching level 10 in Gamer's Mind unlocked a new feature. 'No Pain, Still Gain' grants me a 2% immunity to pain effects per skill level. It's retroactively applied so it's at a nice 20%. That must have been how I was able to ignore my arm at the arcade. I still took a pain pill when I got home though, so it must have been bad. That bumps up Drug Resistance a tad, but without cigarettes or such I won't grind it too easily. Disease resistance has gone up a little; the status timer says that infection will go away tomorrow. I don't think I'll hit level 4 by then. Dinner restored the HP I lost earlier.

I use the computer, and note some nearby stores to visit, assuming I get a chance to leave the house unsupervised. I don't know what kind of schedule we have. Supposedly we all have meetings with the case workers and counseling sessions. School was supposed to start next week on January 4th, but got pushed back a week because of the attack. Oh and the computer, fucking non-admin public account and parental controls locking down the internet. Yeah nope, but don't have time to poke at that tonight.

With still no chance to talk to Julia, there's not much to do. I need to maximize my time to always gain or train something. I'm so close to another level, yet haven't gained enough XP. How best can I train the other four stats? CON, LUC, CHA and PER? How can I do it without outing myself to the house with so many people here? Have to think about that more because it's 9pm and we all get ushered into our rooms.

"So we got what an hour before lights out right?"

"Yeah and Mr. Beckett will barge in here if it's not off too." Max responds.

"Hmm okay… still a bright street light outside the window, anyone got some playing cards and flashlights?"

"Yeah why, what do you care?" Thomas asks, still annoyed.

"Well, anyone want to play some poker?" I ask as I count through my bills.

****

As I suspected, I'm not the only one that keeps hidden money. Max and Thomas are willing to play some games. Cody just watches. I get to practice my Empathy and Persuasion skills. I wonder if a Gambling skill prompt will appear. Yep, there's one. 'Card's and Board Games' but I don't accept it. We play past 10pm, lights off, using the window and the flashlights. Finally, I get the message I was waiting for.

Max Caldwell has gone from stranger to acquaintance

Thomas Arlot has gone from annoyance to stranger

For taking a chance at raw risk vs. reward, you have gained 1 LUC

It cost me. Since Max won most of it he’s happy and it put him into the acquaintance category. I even gained enough points so Thomas went back into 'stranger' status. At least that didn't negate my prior gain for the quest. I now have 4 of 10 achieved, and +50 XP from figuring out how to train luck. I should have stopped after I got my luck point, instead I tried using Observe to cheat and it didn't really work. It didn't reveal the face side of my opponent's cards, it didn't with the thinker tests either, dumb me. The emotional info might help me detect bluffs, if I had more real practice at the game itself. Though if I’m cheating, will it still count as training luck? After losing more money I stop when I’m $42 in the hole. I don't want to lose it all and my main objective is achieved. Still didn't breach level 5, so very close. I guess level 5 is at an even 1600 XP? I'm 5 measly points short.

So lights off for real this time, and back to bed again. Still not going to sleep, I need to think and plan more of what to do. I can use the light from my, invisible to everyone else, game windows to see my notes in the dark, but it's dim. Maybe, if I change my theme to white text on white background and flip the window around to face the paper I can get better light? Yeah, awesome, that works well. My power has an invisible flashlight. A notification pings off so I stop and look at it.

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

Holy crap my Gamer's Interface skill went up a whole level and then some because I figured out how to turn my game windows into an invisible flashlight? I open up more windows, make them bigger, face them away from me and set my theme to pure white. Damn I can nearly see most of the room in the dark. What other cheaty stuff can I do?

"Options" I whispered. Yeah, this is gonna take a while.

****

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

You have unlocked the Notes interface feature.

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

Wow, many hours of playing around with my gamer options in the middle of the night nets me multiple levels in Gamer's Interface, and a host of tangential powers I never even thought of before.

Also, Notes! My feature unlock for Gamer's Interface level 10 is 'Notes'. I have a brand new tab, and a new pop-up window which contains a keyboard interface. I can even select the keyboard layout I want to use. I copy all my hand-written notes off my papers and type them into my Notes tab. It's a glorified, personal text editor. I tear up the written notes I copied and flush them because I'm being paranoid.

Your Computers skill has increased by 1

Even weirder, screwing around with my virtual text editor is gaining me levels in Computers. I've gotten to level 6, then the level 7 boundary, and got a prompt for a 'Typing' specialty of all things. I take it and it drops back to level 6. I stop here because I'm not sure what I want to do next, or if I want to pursue more specialties under the Computers skill. I do have plans to use the computer tomorrow.

What kind of cheaty stuff can I do with all these options?

Subtitles: I can turn them on or off, and select language. Current default is English, and there's over 200 language choices, even fictional ones like Elvish and Klingon. Cheaty power possibilities: Read whispered conversations, or conversations too distant to hear? Understand any foreign language, even if I can't speak it? I can also select the language used on my interface, but I don't see much point in setting it to something I don't know.

Camera Mode: Wow, this one is the most cool, and most disorienting. There are three modes. In 'First Person View' the camera's behind the eyes just like in real life, and the default. 'Third Person View', literally allows me to look at myself from behind or over the shoulder just like in a lot of video games. Of course I can see plenty of my surroundings also. I can't control the position of the camera in this view. It's automatically moved to whatever position gives the best angle. But, I do have limited control over the rotation of the camera.

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

Cheaty power possibilities: Can I get around being blinded or deafened? Both my visual and auditory senses move with the camera like some form of remote viewing, even when my eyes are closed and one arm is covering my face, I can see and hear from the perspective of where the invisible camera is located. I think it has a maximum range of around a dozen feet, but my experiments have been limited to the bedroom and bathroom. This camera won't go through walls, and I can move my body and walk around, but it's disorienting. It's hard to sync my movements up with my eyes when my senses are not located where they're supposed to be. I missed multiple times trying to grab the bathroom doorknob before just sliding my hand down the door using my tactile senses, which are still centered on my body, despite staring right at the thing from my third person camera POV. I hope this is something that I can overcome with practice. I can definitely cheat at cards now though.

The third mode is 'Free Camera'. Using that I can freely control the position and rotation of the camera and it's not restricted to looking at me from 6 to 12 feet away. At best guess, the free camera has a radius of about 100 feet or so from where my body is located. Could be more or less, can't be sure without measuring somehow. Like third person mode, I'm able to send my visual and auditory senses anywhere in that sphere. It's not restricted by walls, so that includes the other rooms of the house, into the walls, ground, and the air above the roof.

My interface windows and HUD stay with the camera. Also, now that I have an illusionary keyboard layout, I've gained access to key bindings for a lot of commands, including camera control. It does take time to move the camera around. The weird part is that, according to looking at myself, I am still moving my arms and hands to poke at where my interface would have been located if I were using First Person mode. Though it would be really, really useful to figure out a way to mentally do it instead. I can even use Observe, but again physically, I can feel my mouth moving to speak the commands, even if my camera is too far away to hear my body whisper it. Trying to walk, or do anything more than lie down or sit upright making flailing gestures while in Free Camera Mode is right out. Really fucking disorienting, and gives me a headache. Also, moving the camera's position in Free Camera mode is slow, probably slower than walking, so it takes time to go spying. Yes, I did that, shame on me, but it's dark and everyone is asleep so there's not much to look at.

Cheaty power possibilities: The obvious one, limited range 100ft? remote viewing for visual and auditory senses. Limited Microscopic View: ability to zoom in super close with the free camera combined with flashlight theme to illuminate or backlight something to magnify stuff to a level I can probably not do with the naked eye. I don't know what the magnification level is, but I can't see cells or bacteria and what not so it's still limited. There was no way to achieve the opposite, a macroscopic view ability that I could find.

There's a 'Gore Level' which is set to real life, it has other options but they're disabled. There's a Profanity Filter. When set to 'On' there's a selection of sound effects I can choose from, I selected 'BOOP'. When I said 'fuck', what came out instead was BOOP, in a very unnatural non-human sounding manner. I don't think this was silent either, but I did that while in the bathroom, so hopefully no one noticed. Will having the filter on causes other people near me to say the same thing when they swear, or will it only affect the way my mind perceives it? I'm going to keep it off for now.

Cheaty power possibilities: I can make weird non-human sounds effects, just by swearing? Maybe use it as a distraction? It could possibly be pretty loud if I crank my interface volume up.

I have a 'Display Mode', not the one from the status screen, but from the graphic options. It's on 'Full View' which equals real life, and there's 'Windowed'. It does what I thought, but seems pointless and restrictive to my perceptive abilities. I can't think of a positive use for this at the moment.

'Frames per Second' is set to 'Real Life'. I could set it lower and did so but didn't notice anything different. I don't know what the fuck it did. All the other graphics options, Texture Detail, Resolution, Shadow Detail, Reflections Detail, Shader Quality, Anti-Aliasing, Bloom, Light Shafts, Light Flares, and Motion Blur, are set to 'Real Life'. Setting them to something less only makes the world look shittier, so I don't see the point in changing them. Maybe I can think of a way to abuse these settings later.

Gamma Correction, Brightness, Black & White Mode, however? Those are useful. By playing with these, I can see in the dark really well, or in low light conditions. I should find a way to set up macros, to assign presets to these for various environmental conditions. I can even see in absolute darkness, by changing to the flashlight theme, thus generating my own invisible light, and setting those values to amplify it further.

Cheaty power possibilities: Darkvision & Low-light vision for the win.

Audio options: I have five generic channels, Voices, SoundFXs, Ambient, Interface, and Music. They all have volume controls. I can mute them all and be in perfect silence. Doing that gives me a 'Sound of Silence' buff that boosts my Comfort. It's a lot easier to hear conversations when I can turn off the background noise. I can also crank them up and get some damn good hearing. The drawback is that someone right next to me is loud as fuck. Fortunately the decibel control option mitigates that. It appears to limit the loudness of any sound. With all other channels off and voices maxed out, I can hear the Beckett's talking in their room, from the boys room upstairs. It's a bit mumbly, but via free camera remote viewing, I can look and confirm the conversation is what I thought it was, by moving my senses closer. They're not talking about anything interesting.

The Music option is cool. It's very obvious no one can hear it but me when I have it turned on. However, there's a 'Broadcast' button only visible when Music is on. It's set to 'Off' and I'm going to keep it there for now. I can sample from a huge number of listed genres to find out what I do and don't like.

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

Cheaty power possibilities: Super Hearing and audio filtering via volume settings and channel muting. Sound Protection via decibel control. Immunity to sonic or voice based power by just muting it? My own personal jukebox by setting broadcast to 'On'?

Simon's Character Sheet:

Name: Simon Clarence Anderson

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Race: Parahuman

Class: Foster Kid / Petty Thief

Faction: None

Money: $173.77

Title: Vermin Stomper

Level: 4 (99.37%)

XP: 1595

Primary Attributes

STR: 6 (-0.70) 5.30

AGI: 5 (-1.10) 3.90

CON: 9 (-0.30) 8.70

INT: 16 (-1.75) 14.25

PER: 10 (-1.00) 9.00

WIS: 18 (-1.75) 16.25

CHA: 10 (-0.75) 9.25

LUC: 9 (0.00) 9.00

Unspent Points: 8

Secondary Attributes

Health Pool: 160/160

Stamina Pool: 148/148

Mana Pool: 316/640

Stress Pool: 85/340

Attack: 6.00

Speed: 2.66

Dodge: 7.85

Armor: 0.20

Carry: 53.00

Allure: 2.50

Skills

Max Slots: 30

Free Skill Slots: 5

Artistry: 5 (0.00%)

Athletics: 1 (54.45%)

Basic Academics: 8 (20.43%)

Computers: 6 (0.00%)

Crafting (Stone & Pottery): 5 (8.65%)

Create Mana Golem: 1 (0.00%)

Disable Device: 3 (0.00%)

Disease Resistance: 3 (44.76%)

Drug & Poison Resistance: 2 (32.13%)

Empathy: 2 (74.24%)

Firearms: 1 (0.00%)

Gamer's Body: 6 (96.45%)

Gamer's Interface: 13 (45.95%)

Gamer's Mind: 10 (24.87%)

Language-English: MAX (0.00%)

Meditation: 3 (69.96%)

Null Resistance: 3 (13.69%)

Observe: 6 (88.39%)

Parahuman Lore: 3 (22.89%)

Programming: 2 (67.45%)

Psychology: 2 (12.54%)

Speech: 2 (29.97%)

Strategy: 1 (0.00%)

Vehicle Operations: 3 (0.00%)

Video Games: 25 (87.68%)

Unspent Skill Points: 9