Stage 1: Houston, Arc 2.2
Thursday December 31st, 2009
New Year's Kiss
Kiss someone at midnight, on the mouth.
Time Limit: 3 minutes remaining
Success: 150 XP, ???
Failure: More temptation to abuse your camera modes.
"Julia! New Year's Kiss? Even got mistletoe." I ask
"Really, Simon?.. That's fake and taped to your hat." Julia says as she backs away a little.
"Janet?" I ask, making a ridiculous pucker face. "I'll find more torrents for you."
"Dream on, freshman."
"Katy? I'll.."
"I have a boyfriend, you goofball." Katy says, reaching up and pulling my silly hat down over my face.
"You have a boyfriend? You never mentioned that." Janet says in surprise.
"Uh, I can't see" I pretend to flail around, still making a smoochie face. "Who's this? Melissa?"
"Ew, no!" she says and spins me in some other direction.
I move my hat back up, open my eyes to see Joanna in front of me. She makes a face at me and backs away. "Aw come on, anybody? It's a tradition! Rachel? Rachel, you know I'm safe."
"Ha, ha, right. Actually..." Rachel says, contemplating something.
"Really?"
"I'll give you $20 bucks to kiss Thomas."
"Wait, what?"
"Haha, freaky, I'll throw something in to watch that." Janet says.
"Y'all are weird." Julia adds in.
I shrug my shoulders and look at Thomas. Quest didn't specify gender.
"No way, faggot! Get away from me." Thomas yells.
"I'm secure in my masculinity! How about you? I'll split the pot with ya!" I say, but Thomas just gives me the finger.
"30 seconds to midnight!" Katy announces, a party horn hanging from her mouth.
"Come on Julia, first New Year's Eve I'll remember!"
"Hmm, okay, close your eyes." She whispers to me, I do as instructed.
"Woo, go girl!" I hear Rachel yell.
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…" Everyone counts down. I feel something soft hit my lips with far too much force, and I fall backward. Julia socked me right in the face with a couch pillow.
Quest: New Year's Kiss has failed!
I sigh and dismiss the notification. "Oh, my heart aches. You wound me, you cruel tease." I say in mock despair amidst the jubilation of Happy New Year shouts. I can't help but notice they aren't as enthusiastic as I feel they should be.
"You're such a dweeb." Julia laughs mildly.
"And you're a prankster. Good to hear you laugh though. I noticed you came in late to the counseling session, I hope that's being useful to you."
She sighs. "Court took up most of the day. Took some deferred disposition deal, didn't want to but was the fastest way to put this behind me. I have to do a bunch of community service, attend some youth anti-crime and violence classes and stay in counseling. If I do all that and don't get in any other trouble, it'll get dismissed in a few months."
"Well, I guess there could've been worse outcomes. Did you get your stuff back?"
"Just the Jewelry. The gun got turned over to CPS."
"Alright, party's over, everyone get in your rooms by 12:30" Mrs. B announces to everyone's groans.
"I downloaded some songs from those bands you said you like. Let me give them to you before we get herded into our pens."
"Oh, awesome, thanks." Score, +1 relationship with Julia, getting harder though. Torrents for Janet and Melissa earlier got me to acquaintance level, so that's more progress in that quest. Rachel too, but she was already achieved.
"Simon, did you do the dishes earlier?" Mrs. B interrupts us.
"Yes" I say with exasperation. If it weren't for the piddling small, chore quest XP those would be far more annoying.
"See you tomorrow, got to get into the shower before one of the others takes it." Julia says before departing.
I burn off the rest of my mana observing every mundane, unique party favor and such as I can. I've restricted myself to non-living, inanimate stuff, even skipping electronics or anything 'complex'. It's boring and my power gives me rude and snarky comments, but I hope it'll create a specialty.
I get into my room and review the day's progress. Some gains in computers from all the torrents. I still need to hack the router and other computers. Progress in Drug Resist from my meds, but it's slowing down a lot. Empathy, Psychology and a bit in Gamer's Mind from the counseling session, best gain from that is 10 stress points, now I'm at a 99.
We lose power again sometime after midnight. I hear Mrs. B yelling at the girls about hair dryers or something. They yell their denials in return. I don't know what is with that.
"Alright, my homies" I say after we all get shut back into our room. "Who wants to play poker again?" Cause I'm gonna cheat and get some of my money back.
Friday, January 1st - Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
I double my pain meds, to grind Drug Resist faster. Maybe not the smartest thing to do, but makes this boring weekend go by faster. Julia is gone almost all day and the weekend, doing community service cleaning up after New Year's and her required classes.
I spend my coherent time grinding Observe and making more torrents to gain Computers and boost my relationships, except it's not working on Cody. He's the only one left to finish 'Don't be a Stranger'. He doesn't care about music and isn't very sociable, so have to find something else.
I need to finish a Quest, either the stranger one or the Geometry book one. At least studying gets me small gains in Basic Academics, stupid skill. Studying also gets me an INT point. That's sweet, more mana, and another +10 stress points. That puts me over 100, and my 'Stressed' status effect goes away. Is 100 the boundary for that? Probably, my power likes significant numbers.
After gaining that INT point, I should take the 'Mana Reserve' perk. The only way I can grind Observe faster is with a larger Mana pool. Looks like it's retroactive, that's good, but it means I could have waited to take it. Hmm, a flat 25% bonus to mana points per level. I've derived that Max Mana equals (INT * Level * 10) * (1.25 for Mana Reserve.) Mana regen seems to want to keep a minimum gain rate based on a percentage of max mana, so higher max mana, also increased the regen rate.
I play poker every night, no cheating this time, to try and gain luck. I didn't manage to get a point until Saturday. I keep asking Cody to try and get that last relationship gain, but he won't play, not even for fun, and he turned down an offer to teach him how to play. I practice meditation each night before I go to sleep; it's making slow but steady progress.
On Saturday, I hit the next level in Observe. I was right. I got 'Captain Obvious' as a specialty and took it. What does it do? No idea. It's probably my power trolling me. I can't observe another inanimate object to find out what benefit it gives, because doing so may contaminate my progress toward a different specialty. I'm going to restrict Observe entirely to people for the next level to see what happens.
Third night in a row a circuit breaker trips in the house. Mr. Beckett is getting pissed, and thinks it is a wiring issue. He starts getting out his kit of stuff to inspect things.
I pick up some padlocks at a store Saturday to practice Disable Device on at night by the light of my interface window. Also forces me to learn to do it quietly, but cuts into meditation practice.
I get to level 8 in Observe Sunday morning, but there's no specialty offer. Don't know what happen, probably fucked it up. I only used Observe on people, and once on myself in the mirror again. Did that one time mess it up? That pisses me off, I have to start over or pick something different, yet unique enough, and be consistent the whole time. What happens if I use Observe on the word 'Specialty'? My Observe skill descriptor gets a new window of info. Damn, is this the secret help guide? Gaining specialties did work about how I suspected. I just wish it gave me a list of actual examples. I use it on 'Captain Obvious' next. Apparently it means "Using observe on mundane objects (tinker tech not included) costs one less mana, and provides additional info such as item HP, damage resistance and reductions.' I start using observe on all kinds of interface stuff. It still costs me 3 MP per use, guess my interface windows are not 'mundane objects'. Even better, I'm grinding Gamer's Interface at the same time, so that's cool.
We're finally going back to the mall again today. It took a lot of cajoling, persuasion and convincing the other kids to keep asking. That got me another skill level in speech. We wait until Julia gets back from community service. She still has more youth anti-crime and violence classes next Saturday though.
We're at the mall for more clothes and school supply stuff. I finally got a good relationship bump to Cody, I just needed to figure out what bribe to use. It was obvious when he stared lustfully at the Sports Illustrated 2010 Swimsuit/Superheroine calendar. 'Featuring Gravina: Get down under with this Australian Hottie. She puts the Super in supermodel. See her defy gravity in more ways than one!' The innuendo is blatant. I buy it for him, and help him hide it because he's afraid the Beckett's will take it. They probably would. We cut out the pictures and hide them in his new notebooks and school supply stuff. As if he is going to use the actual calendar part of it.
That finally lets me complete the 'Don't be a Stranger' quest, and the relationship improvement or the speech training got me a point of CHA too. So that's one more checkbox off the 'Path to Min-Maxing' quest. Training CON is the only one left.
Then, off to the arcade. I ask Julia but she says she isn't ready for that. Stupid me; thought she might be interested because that's where I first saw her in Galveston. It's also where things went to shit.
They have the same dancing game. I'm right, got a 'dancing' specialty under athletics. There's also a canoeing and a cycling game. I earn a specialty in those. The golfing game I skip. I don't plan on being late this time. I pick up 'sub-machine guns' and 'lasers' from a weird alien shooter, as specialties under firearms. I wish I could find a shooter that uses rifles, I know they exist. Also want to find one of those virtual fighter/boxing games. Not a joystick/button masher, those don't seem to work; but one of those motion capture or pad-puncher ones. Maybe one of those will get me a new skill. When I get home, dribbling a basketball and several shots at the hoop gets me a 'Basketball' specialty in athletics. As before, I stop immediately after getting it.
Julia gets home late and heads to the shower. Lights flicker again before she comes down to eat dinner. "Hey, how was community service?" I ask her.
"Boring, exhausting…"
"Can you teach me Spanish? I know a little. I think I know more, but can't recall it." I'm not sure if I want to spend the skill slot, but I want something to let me interact with her more, and keep her mind off the bad stuff.
"I guess so."
It doesn't take long to get the skill prompt. I take it and it starts gaining well enough. "Thanks, I think I did know Spanish before, and am re-remembering. I hope it can trigger more memories." Actually I have no idea if I knew any before or not, maybe I did. That's just an excuse to cover up rapid gains. Observing the Spanish skill, and the English skill, tells me they only have a MAX level of 5. That can't take too long to gain, unless it is proportional to max level. Other Skills max out at 100, except Gamer's Body, Mind and Interface, which MAX at 25. I think those are special cases though.
We get herded into our rooms again, I work on the geometry book, that quest is nearly done. I grind Disable Device in bed, but the padlocks aren't gaining any more. I've hit another wall at level 5. No specialties, some skills have them, some don't. Unable to make progress on Disable Device, I can meditate again before sleeping. I should go back to the hardware store, return the padlocks and get something different.
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Finally I saw a doctor today and got my stitches removed and my cast replaced with a less restricting one. It doesn't affect my broken arm stat penalties though. They've been shrinking over time on their own, but the Feb 1st timer deadline hasn't changed. I used the last of my pain pills this morning, tripled, for Drug Resist gains. Some successful speech checks and overt complaining gets me a stronger prescription, or so he says. It's only 30 days' worth. Got the doc to prescribe physical therapy too, but not sure how that will go.
We have more individual and group therapy counseling sessions Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week and next, but school starts next week. I get more gains in Empathy, Psychology, and stress points again. We learn about 'exposure therapy' to help Julia and me handle our aqua-phobia issues, and even just be able to see pictures, or video of the aquatic Chupacabra, without having an anxiety attack. I'm told I've been making record progress, but that's because Gamer's Mind lets me cheat, the others don't have that luxury. I train Gamer's Mind in tiny bits, by actually preparing myself and forcing myself to watch the attack on the computer.
I finally get a bag of clay from a craft store. I still haven't made a golem because I need to do that somewhere private. Plain old dirt and mud didn't work, maybe there's not enough clay in it? Too contaminated? I don't know, I hope this will be enough. I said it's art therapy and I want to take classes in school. The Becketts end up knowing almost all our purchases by holding our money, doling it out for approved purchases for 'qualifying expenses', and having an inventory of our possessions. Hiding shit isn't easy. How would I hide a costume if I become a cape? The answer is probably inventory, which I still can't access yet. It's related to the Interface skill, so I have to keep grinding that.
So I'm doing exactly that, via Observe my interface. It works; I get a 'Parapedia' specialty. I take it, but now what? It took 750 successful uses, 2250 MP, to gain the specialty, going from level 8 to 9 and dropping. If I use observe to find out what Parapedia does, that's a use on the interface and not on what I want to try next, which means I won't gain a specialty at level 9 to drop to 8. I'll stay at level 9, and have to attempt it again between 9 and 10. If my calcs are correct, that will cost another 850 uses, or 2550 MP. It gets worse each level. I want to Observe people again, but if I restrict myself to gain the specialty, I can't use Observe on other stuff I might need to later. Gaining specialties at low levels is even more important than I thought. Given how useful Observe has proven to be, I'll be hard pressed to not want to use it on all kinds of things, so pursuing specialties on it is a significant self-imposed limitation.
I'd rather try now than later. I'm aiming to use Observe people only. This time, excluding myself, and Julia, just in case, and am only going to use it on people whose tags say they're level 10 or lower. Incidentally, overhead tags on Mr. Beckett show him as level 13. If my estimates are correct, that's the highest level I can detect.
An appointment with Mrs. Pearson, tells me there's been no luck finding any verifiable ID for me. Still won't stop me from having to go to school next week, merely complicates it. I do get the Geometry Textbook quest completed, and get a Mathematics skill and 'Geometry' specialty. It seems rather broadly defined, guess it will help me with school so I accept both. Basic Academics even tops out at 9 and stops going up. Browsing the other textbook I salvaged from Julia's house gets me 'Know the Earth.' It's another textbook quest to go through the Earth Science textbook just like the Geometry one. The time limit is only a month instead of before school starts.
Time to pester the Beckett's about my pain meds. If I pester them often enough at inopportune times maybe they'll give up trying to keep the things in a safe and just let me keep them. I do get to practice using scrying to view the combination to that thing each time I get them to open it though.
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
My eye doctor's appointment is today, and I guess I'm a deceptive little snit aren't I? I convince the eye doctor I do need glasses by lying, my free camera helps to know what lines to get wrong on purpose. The Beckett's bring me to Costco to get the prescription. Later, I walk back after photo-copying the receipt, and return them, getting store credit. I used my store credit to get a visa gift card, and use that to buy some cheap non-prescription glasses with the same frames, and pocket the rest. This bit of activity earned me a 'deception' specialty for speech.
I haven't realized I've been using it that way so much. Speech is an active skill, but have I been consciously or unconsciously using it thus far? 'Active' means it requires an explicit action or conscious choice. I guess I have been using it consciously, but not realized it? That doesn't make any sense. It may be easier to gain specialties if I choose not to use the skill when doing persuasive or deceptive things when I'm trying for a different specialty. What other specialties might there be? Streetwise? Barter? Intimidation? Debate?
It's a thought for later, off to the gym down the street for 'physical therapy.' They won't pay for a membership but I print up a trial coupon. I'll get on that as soon as I get to the hardware store and exchange the pad-locks for combination locks.
My goal at the Gym is to get that 'path to the cheese' quest completed. Prior attempts at simultaneously training skills haven't gotten to the minimum 5 so far. Julia let me borrow her MP3 player, and I'm listening to a Spanish audio book. So, run on a treadmill, listen to Spanish, double my pain pills, and use Observe on every person I see.
Success! I train Gamer's Body by draining stamina to zero, and get hit with negative status effects. The pills up my Drug and Poison Resistance skill, running trains Athletics, while listening to Spanish and using Observe gets me the 5 I need. I only maintain it for an hour. I stop after I get the prompt for a 'Running' specialty for athletics. It doesn't trigger any stat training though; I was hoping it would.
What did I gain? A level in Gamer's Body, a level in Drug and Poison Resistance. That's level 5 now, which unlocks a feature called 'Drugs are bad. M'Kay?' My power uses the weirdest names and phrases. The tooltip for it says 'Except when they are good. Positive medically beneficial effects are retained'. The XP gain for the simultaneous skill achievement bumps me to level 6. This gains me a level in Body, Mind and Interface. I'm still 8 levels short of 25 in Interface.
I'm exhausted when I got back to the house. At my stamina regen rate it will take over 5 hours to get to maximum while awake. I need to make more use of that gym, but I can barely get a free day to make that golem. I have no idea how long it will take. I need a day that's not overloaded with appointments or trips and such, which hasn't happened yet. Tomorrow is more counseling, and Friday. Next Monday, school starts. The deadline is the 12th. Maybe I can try Thursday or the weekend if I can get out.
At level 5 in meditation I got 'Chants', can't use them because it's noisy but it does let me talk and meditate at the same time. I can whisper Observe while scrying and pretending to sleep, but only after I have positioned my camera. I need new targets to practice Observe on so I'm scrying all the neighbors, and drivers passing by.
Wednesday January 6th, 2010
We have more group therapy appointments. I get slow skill gains, but also an 'Affective' specialty for Empathy and a 'Group Therapy' one for Psychology. Five more uses of Observe on people and I finally get another specialty, 'People-Watcher'. I'm not going for another specialty right now. If my suspicions are correct, there might be one for Parahumans, but I'd have to meet and observe 850+ Parahumans to get it, and never use observe for anything else in-between. I don't see that happening, ever. So now I can get back to using Observe unrestricted. Parapedia and People-Watcher, just like Captain Obvious, lets me gain a bit more info about those targets, and reduces the MP cost by 1. People-Watcher now includes an Equipment list? I still have to observe each individual piece of equipment to get more than just a name from it. Also, I can use Observe on buildings. It tells me the number of floors, the address, number of occupants, and who the owner or owning company is, as well as a faction tag, which so far has said nothing but 'none', just like most people.
Well, isn't this interesting? All the kids, the Beckett's, the counseling staff, and everyone else I've used Observe on, costs only 2 MP. Using Observe on me and Julia costs 3 MP. I know why it costs 3 for me. I think this is pretty strong proof. Maybe I can work up the nerve to ask her about it tomorrow. She seems to be doing better, but is still an 'acquaintance' at 80 relationship points. I might ask this evening but she has more community service to work through. I would prefer to achieve friend status first.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
If 'running' is a specialty, climbing and swimming might be too. Climbing has to wait until my arm is better. Swimming, I'm not ready for yet, nor is there a nearby pool to use and it's January. I can try jumping, that's often an RPG skill. Fuck. I got nothing at level 2. I fucked it up again? Does it have to be absolutely restricted to jumping or is that not a specialty that's offered? Walking doesn't count or I would have it already, but taking running long jumps gained athletics. Is it the running part? Maybe I need a jump-rope, but that also has to wait until my arm is better.
I can still try some other things. I grab some snacks to restore the HP I lost from banging my arm around and go back to the gym. Same set up, but let's use the weight machines instead. Drugged up on a double dose, I work Drug Resistance, Athletics, Gamer's Body, listen to more Spanish audio books, and use Observe on my interface to practice Gamer's Interface as well. Success! 6 simultaneous skills for an extra +50 XP, +1 Gamer's Interface, +1 STR and +1 CON. The CON gets me another +50 XP, and I finally get that Min-Max quest to complete. How can I simultaneously train 7 or more skills? I think the CON gain came mostly from the heavy stamina loss and occasional HP loss from banging my arm up. I keep going and stop when I get a 'weight-lifting' specialty for athletics.
Grinding Observe it easier without restrictions and at less cost I get to level 9 easily. After that, I switch to using it on buildings only since they still cost 3 MP. I hope there's a specialty for them as well. That will be more achievable than Parahumans. I can use my free camera while meditating to put my view high in the air, to allow me to use Observe on lots of houses. Good progress today. Now if only I can figure out how to pick the combination locks I bought. I may need to research some clues online. There will be a lot to do tomorrow, make the golem so I have something to show Julia about my own powers, and ask about hers.
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
"Where do you think you're going Simon?" Mrs. Beckett asks.
Damn, I was afraid of this. I have my backpack and the clay with me. I need to get the hell away from here before I try the golem skill. I have gym clothes with me too just in case.
"Out, jogging," I lie.
"You don't need a backpack for jogging."
"Jogging on a treadmill, at the gym, where I can shower and change, hence the backpack."
"You went there for the last two days. Shouldn't you take a break?"
"It's a trial membership; they only last for a few days. I have to use it or lose it; unless you want to pay for membership fees?"
"Nothing you can't do here or jog around the block for."
"Plenty I can't do here, you don't have weight machines, or even room, too many kids in the way. We had a sleet storm last night; it's still cold and icy outside. The gym is nice and warm."
"You could go out later, but you should stay, we're about to make breakfast."
"When the trial period is over, I’ll probably do it later if I can't go there and you actually let me out to do stuff." Because you really just want to keep an eye on me don't you? "I already ate breakfast an hour ago. Not my fault nobody else gets up when I do."
"You tripped the motion alarm again this morning. You don't need to be up that early."
Fucking motion alarm, why do they have them? Runaways, in case a psychopath invades the girl's room, teenagers' being teenagers, paranoia, CPS regulations or who the hell knows. "I know it's really unusual for teenagers to get up early in the morning, but it's not unheard of. I do, I'm a light sleeper. I fail to see why I should be forced to stay in the room awake for some arbitrary time limit."
"You could shower and do all your other morning routines beforehand…"
"I do! If I wasn't, I'd be out even earlier. Look, it's not my goal to wake anyone up. I try my best to stay quiet to be courteous. Ask Mr. Beckett, the only thing I was doing this morning was eating cereal downstairs and reading when he came out, to confront me, yet again, because of the absurd alarm. But I'm going to keep getting up early." Because I got shit to do and skills to grind lady! "And that alarm is going to keep going off. You and Mr. Beckett can keep losing sleep because of it, or you can just set the thing an hour earlier."
"We could set it earlier, and we could set lights out an hour earlier too. I am sure all the other kids in the house would be pleased to hear about that because of you."
See this is where I'd really like to use Observe. I'm pretty sure she's bluffing, but can't use it to double check because I already started my 'building' specialty attempt. "I think you're trying to get me to comply by implying I'd be blamed for the rest of the kid's reduced evening time. I don't think that would work out how you expect, when I can simply point that out to everyone instead. You won't be able to sustain it either because of needed homework and study time when school starts next week. Also, you'd have to adjust your entire chore schedules. Furthermore, if I'm going to bed an hour earlier I'll just get up an hour earlier too."
She just stares at me for a while. "Can I go? I'll be back before lunch."
"Go. Lunch is at 1 pm."
I'm out the door and half jog down the street before she changes her mind. Shit no, walk, don't want to trigger an Athletics gain and ruin a specialty pursuit. Quick review, yep Speech went up, almost at level 5. No specialty there probably. I still have no idea what I'll try to pursue yet. Lost a point of relationship with Mrs. Beckett, I've been making better progress with her previously; at least she's still in the positives, barely.
****
I sit at a picnic table in an obscure corner of a park, at seven-something in the morning, playing with clay. I didn't think this through. It's cold, I'm chilled, a status effect says so. There's still leftover sleet on the ground, but it's not actively precipitating. My hands are freezing, but I can't work clay effectively wearing gloves. Clay is really hard to work when it is cold, and insufficiently wet. A water bottle gives a little help there. Although it's early this morning, I should have waited. Fucking Texas weather in January can still get cold but it'll all be melted by noon, it might even be hot tomorrow.
I've been messing with this for over an hour, and I made a...thing, and a mess. Artistry and Craft have risen. I hope this is sufficient. I place the lump of frozen malformed clay with uneven appendages into my backpack; hopefully the sides will obscure any view. I do a quick overhead scan with my free camera to make sure I'm alone within a given radius. Free camera leaves me really vulnerable; someone could coup-de-grace me if no one is watching my back.
Guess I should get this over with. "Create Mana Golem"
Nothing? No wait… there's a progress bar. Really? I sit in utter boredom watching it tick, 1%...4%...7%, while it's doing so my Mana is steadily dropping. Maybe I can scry while I'm waiting?
Please wait until other tasks are completed before using this function.
Oh, fuck you. How long will this take? 15%...18%...21%... I remove my hand to scratch my nose.
Golem creation interrupted. Restore contact in 10 seconds or process will be aborted and MP expenditure will be lost.
Fuck, I put my hands back on the hideous lump of clay. It looks like a failed attempt to make a bong that someone drew a face on and stuck too many legs on. Who cares, just finish the quest. It never said it had to look good. At least I hope not, I should have used Observe on the skill description more, why didn't I do that before I started doing the building stuff? 25%...27%...30%...33%...
Dammit I really needed to pee. 36%..39%...42%...45%...
Oh fuck people. Some dude walking his dog… nasty use a pooper scooper asshole! Go away now, please. 48%...52%...55%...58%...
Jogger… God damn she is hot. Fuck I can't use free camera. 61%...64%...67%...70%...
Can I use Observe on the buildings? No, wait till the task is complete. 73%...76%...79%...
How about meditation? No? Fuck you too. 82%...85%...88%...
90%...91%...92%. Oh come on, that's worse than Windows installation estimates. Wait why the fuck do I know that?
99%...
Five minutes later, 100%... followed by a bright flash in my backpack. Fuck did anyone see that? No? No one around? Thank god, or was that also an invisible effect? Probably wasn't or the quest would not have offered a bonus to not get outed.
Quest Make your First Golem completed!
Success: +250 XP, +1 skill level in Create Mana Golem
Bonus Condition Success: +100 XP
You've done it. It is probably the worst and ugliest golem ever made in the history of golems across the entire multiverse, but it's yours. Congrats, you must be so proud!
Well, fuck you too. It could be worse, at least it's not a miniature screaming, eating, and pooping machine. I almost use Observe on it before realizing I shouldn't. At least it has an overhead tag.
I've gained two levels in Create Mana golem; I guess one for making the thing and one for the quest bonus? That took all of just over half an hour, and 602 MP gone.
You have created a Golem, it is currently dormant. Your current skill level supports the following commands:
'[Name] Awake': Costs 61 MP. Activates this golem so that it can receive commands and initiates the 3MP per minute maintenance. If you run out of MP an awakened golem will automatically go to sleep.
'[Name] Attack': The golem will attack a target you mentally designate, or if no target is specified, whatever enemy is the closest. It will continue to attack until its current target is incapacitated, destroyed or it is commanded to stop.
'[Name] Stop': The golem will cease executing its current command.
'[Name] Follow': The golem will follow to the best of its ability, the target you mentally designate.
'[Name] Guard': The golem will follow and guard the target you mentally designate, and attack anyone who attempts to attack, use, or take the target.
'[Name] Sleep': The golem will cease all actions and go dormant.
'[Name] Status': View this golem's status information.
Would you like to give this golem a name? Y/N
Sure, I type in 'Golem 1'. I don't have any idea what else to call this thing. What would have happened if I had made this before getting my nifty keyboard interface? The Golem feels stiffer, but still cold and slimy. However, it no longer leaves clay residue on my finger when I rub it like the uncreated lump did.. Otherwise, it still looks exactly like an ugly lump of clay, and weighs about the same. Two pounds, given the extra 2MP cost it had above 600.
I take a look at its status page.
Name: Golem 1
Level: 0
Creator: Simon Anderson
Controller: Simon Anderson
Quality: Extremely Crude
Size: Tiny
Weight: 1.96 lbs.
STR: 1 (0) 1
AGI: 1 (+8) 9
CON: 1 (0) 1
INT: 0 (0) 0
PER: 3 (0) 3
WIS: 0 (0) 0
CHA: 0 (0) 0
LUC: 0 (0) 0
Armor: 2.0
Speed: 2.33
Attack: 1.0
Dodge: 6.0
Health: 30/30
Golems are immune to all non-movement binding status effects. They cannot gain XP. They are destroyed when they reach 0 HP. Their natural armor value is dependent on the material from which they were crafted. Their physical stats and HP are related to the type and mass of material from which they are created. Their movement, speed, and ability to execute commands well, are dependent on the quality and nature of their construction.
Function follows form and aesthetics. A golem cannot move without limbs of some kind to propel itself with, and cannot grasp without hands or claws, etc.
It's an odd thing according to its stats. It's pretty weak, but agile? It has a lower dodge than myself. Is that because I gave it eight legs in an attempt to make it spider-like? I gave it eyes. Well I drew a smiley face on a clay ball that became its head. Is that what gave it a PER of 3? Just how far does 'Function follows form and aesthetics' let me go? How skilled do I need to get in Artistry, Craft and this Golem skill to get past the 'Extremely Crude' quality marker?
Now the next part, waking it up. I scan with my free camera again to make sure I'm relatively alone, and command it to 'Awake'. No flash like before, but I see my mana go down and the overhead tag change from 'Dormant' to 'Active'.
I take it out of my backpack and place it underneath the stone picnic table, and watch it. "Follow me" I whisper. Wow, there it goes, it totally looks like it's drunk, but the thing ambles its way over to me in a dozen or so steps and stops about a foot away. It's very apparent that it moves with awkward difficulty. My crafting job is not symmetrical. Its legs are not the same length or thickness, nor even have the same number of 'joints', if they have any joints at all. Some legs seem useless, not even touching the ground. At least it stays up right, even if its 'head' lolls to the side.
"Attack" I intone, focusing on the stone picnic table. The thing then starts ramming into the stone legs of the table repeatedly. I let it do its thing for a few minutes, watching my own maintenance MP drop. Fuck, it lost one HP, as a fleck of hardened clay broke off. "Stop", it now stands motionless in its spot. There are a few scratch marks in the table, where it was ramming it, but nothing that looks remotely significant. I think if I had let it attack indefinitely, it would bash itself to pieces and the table would win.
Those commands are pretty limited and being so tiny, it seems rather useless. Was this a useless skill after all or just crappy at such low levels? It says I can do up to 30 lbs. of mass now, I suppose that can hit harder than this thing. If I was at level 100, that would be 1000 lbs. of mass, and I suppose stone is a lot harder and more durable than clay. But I'd also have to create or sculpt those 1000 lbs. Doing that will take a damn long time. It's something I can show at least. I put the baby spider-bong back into my backpack and command it to Sleep. It's still fucking cold out and now I really do need to clean up at the gym and get some other crap done.
****
I blow a lot of MP using Observe on buildings while heading to the Gym. I just want to get all this clay washed off. What other specialties can I try for while there? I already have weight-lifting, running and cycling, that doesn't leave much room. The broken arm still restricts me a lot. They do have some scheduled classes, Yoga is one of them. I have to wait around for it to start though.
The instructor is somewhat reluctant in letting me join, a bit of speech and she does anyway. Not sure if it’s due to my broken arm, or because I'm on a trial membership, or because I'm a teenage boy and most of the participants are women. Now that I'm in here, I keep getting this weird feeling of familiarity, some ghost of a memory maybe? What could that be? It takes an hour, but I still haven't gained a specialty but am damn close to level 3. Hope I didn't mess this one up as well. The class primarily covered stretching exercises, so when I get back to the house I try doing the same. Success gets me a specialty for 'Flexibility'. I thought it'd be 'Yoga' but apparently not.
That accomplished, I read before lunch. Julia's on the house phone the whole time so I can't talk to her. I think she's talking to Mrs. Pearson. Our lunch is equally busy without privacy. Finally seizing a chance when she isn't occupied I speak to Julia. "Hey..."
"Hey."
"There's something I wanted to ask you about and show you." Then the doorbell rang.
"What is it?"
"Better to do it outside." I say as I pick up my backpack, and we head downstairs.
Mrs. Beckett intercepts us on the stairwell, "Julia, there is someone here to see you. Go sit down on the couch." I hear her call for Janet also after she goes upstairs.
There's a police officer downstairs, it's an older guy not wearing a normal uniform or at least not one like the Houston PD I saw earlier. This is another case where I can't use Observe on this guy to get more clues, while I am trying for a specialty. Julia doesn't look pleased, she's downright tense.
"Can your thing wait?" she asks me. I reluctantly nod in agreement.
"Yeah, I guess." Damn, what the hell is going on now?
Simon's Character Sheet:
Name: Simon Clarence Anderson
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Race: Parahuman
Class: Foster Kid / Deceptive Snit
Faction: None
Money: $168.56
Title: Vermin Stomper
Level: 6 (43.14%)
XP: 2950
Primary Attributes
STR: 7 (-0.60) 6.40
AGI: 5 (-1.05) 3.95
CON: 10 (-0.25) 9.75
INT: 17 (-1.44) 15.56
PER: 10 (0.00) 10.00
WIS: 18 (-1.44) 16.56
CHA: 11 (-0.48) 10.52
LUC: 10 (0.00) 10.00
Unspent Points: 16
Secondary Attributes
Health Pool: 191/191
Stamina Pool: 166/166
Mana Pool: 243/1275
Stress Pool: 153/350
Attack: 6.18
Speed: 2.63
Dodge: 8.13
Armor: 0.20
Carry: 64.00
Allure: 2.50
Skills
Max Slots: 33
Free Skill Slots: 6
Artistry: 5 (0.00%)
Athletics: 2 (0.00%)
Basic Academics: 9 (0.00%)
Computers: 6 (50.00%)
Crafting (Stone & Pottery): 5 (8.65%)
Create Mana Golem: 3 (0.00%)
Disable Device: 5 (0.00%)
Disease Resistance: 4 (0.86%)
Drug & Poison Resistance: 5 (76.07%)
Empathy: 3 (32.12%)
Firearms: 1 (0.00%)
Gamer's Body: 9 (77.76%)
Gamer's Interface: 18 (36.97%)
Gamer's Mind: 13 (14.03%)
Language-English: MAX (0.00%)
Language-Spanish: 2 (45.87%)
Mathematics: 1 (0.00%)
Meditation: 7 (0.00%)
Null Resistance: 3 (13.69%)
Observe: 9 (18.78%)
Parahuman Lore: 5 (47.79%)
Programming: 2 (67.45%)
Psychology: 3 (25.65%)
Speech: 4 (78.75%)
Strategy: 1 (0.00%)
Vehicle Operations: 3 (0.00%)
Video Games: 26 (5.87%)
Unspent Skill Points: 9
Perks
Free Perk Slots: 0
Gaia's Blessing: Mana Pool and Mana Skill access
Gaia's Attunement: Elemental Affinity access
Light Sleeper: Need only 5 hours to get fully rested
Mana Reserve: Bonus MP per level increased by 25%
Flaws
Selective Amnesia: We had to make room for stuff in your head
A Bit of a Troll: Sometimes you just can't help yourself
Unnatural Curiosity: Can't always resist the urge to find stuff out