There have been some rumors that Ad Astra has developed an addition to the Interface provided to us all by Syntropy. This is simply not true. Along with those rumors came the usual hardline zealotry using words such as ‘sacrilege’ and ‘defilement’ and the ever-demanding ‘goes against the will of the gods’.
Let me put all of your fears to rest. Ad Astra would never, ever attempt to alter or subvert the Interface. The Interface is a must-have tool for all sapients, and risking damage to it far outweighs any benefits.
That being said, gods are such local creatures, limited in their scope and their power; There are so many of them scattered over countless worlds all across reality that simply existing is enough to be sacrilege to at least one of them. Ad Astra does not bother with such things.
-Chairwoman Nina Ellory, Ad Astra Space Shipping, Passenger, Mining, Acquisitions, Exploration and Exploitation Corporation.
-this. What?!
Alex blinked rapidly as he found himself standing in the middle of a stone-walled room. Though there were quite a number of interesting things to look at, Alex’s eyes were drawn up to the ceiling where the room’s source of illumination hung - a large blue sphere partially covered by pale yellow clouds. A spark of insight hit him.
“That’s my soul, isn’t it?” he wondered aloud.
“Aw, we were going to make a dramatic declaration about that, but yeah. A projection of it, at any rate.” someone said, sounding cheerfully disappointed. Alex took his eyes away from the blue sphere and they settled on an athletic young woman with long blonde hair. The woman looked vaguely familiar.
“What’s the yellow stuff?”
“That’s the soul damage you’re suffering, “ the blonde shrugged, “Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time before it calcifies.”
“Well, not plenty, “ another voice spoke up. “But enough.” Alex turned his head to look at an elderly woman with short hair who wore a chunky cardigan. She had a typewriter before her, which lay upon the surface of a large round table that both women sat at, along with a number of other individuals.
The sight of this woman also poked at Alex’s memory, and he frowned at the old woman until it came to him. “You look like Angela Lansbury. Why do you look like Angela Lansbury?”
Alex’s brow furrowed as he looked around the table. He recognized almost everyone in one way or another, except for the large mass of writhing tentacles that shifted around one large green eye. “Uh. Hi?”
“Hi Alex!” the creature waved a large tentacle happily. “It’s me! Peri!”
“Peri. This…this is what you look like normally?” Alex asked, and then tried to recover from the rude question. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course.”
“No, it’s not what she normally looks like.” the blonde woman spoke. She leaned forward, elbows on the table, and smiled playfully. Alex’s brain finally kicked in and he pointed accusingly at the woman.
“You’re Gabrielle, from Xena: Warrior Princess.”
“It’s Sparkles, normally.” the blonde grinned. “These are all projections. A deep analysis of your psyche showed that you would best take advice from familiar female humanoid figures, so we pulled these images from your memories.”
“I feel like this says something about me that I want to argue against but don’t have an education in psychology to back any objections up.” Alex muttered. He eyed the tentacle-monster-Peri. “Humanoid?”
“Except her, “ Sparkles shook her head. “Peri just wanted the extra appendages.”
“I was going to go for the pigtailed blonde girl with the cyborg uncle detective - you know, the one that had the book which was also a computer? - but tentacles are neat!”
“Right. I see,” Alex looked around the table. “So that means you’re not Angela Lansbury, you’re Jessica Fletcher from Murder, She Wrote.”
The elderly woman nodded and smiled kindly. “I have another name, but for the sake of convenience you can call me that.”
“So you can call me Gabrielle instead of Sparkles.” the athletic blonde added.
“Fine, fine.” Alex pointed to the next seated figure, a young redhead wearing a garish yellow jumpsuit and a keen expression. Her coloring was vibrant, but at the same time strangely flat. “You’re animated. April O’Neil, from the eighties cartoon of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
“I am. You used to have a crush on this image.”
“Which is slightly embarrassing to be sure, but less so than you.” Alex gestured to an animated anthropomorphic mouse girl who wore blue coveralls, goggles, and had a massive wrench beside her that leaned against her chair. “Gadget…uh…Gadget Hackwrench, from Rescue Rangers?”
The mouse girl winked and grinned at him, enjoying the blush that rose in Alex’s cheeks. He was starting to see the theme here. Apart from the tentacle monster, these were fictional characters that he’d admired in one way or another when growing up. Except for…
Alex squinted as he looked at the last figure that sat at the round table. A small girl with thick black hair sat clutching a notebook with a nervous look on her face. She looked like every generic Japanese anime schoolgirl ever, right down to the uniform.
“I never really watched much anime, so I’m not sure where you’re from. Who are you?”
“I’m-” the girl started to speak, but Spar-no, Gabrielle now, cut her off.
“She’s a leech. Ignore her.”
“I’m not a-”
“Shush, you disturbing little creature. You’re not part of this team.” Gabrielle gave the little girl a rude gesture, and she shrank back hiding behind her notebook. “You shouldn’t even be here, you creepy little shit.”
“Hey now, “ Alex admonished gently, “That was a bit mean.”
“I was invited…” the girl muttered, her dark bangs covering her eyes.
‘Under duress. Most people in the multiverse don’t have a little parasite like you latched onto their Interface.”
“M-most people in the multiverse don’t have a whole team looking after their advancement, either.” The little girl rallied, but let out an ‘eep!’ and ducked back as Gabrielle pulled what looked like a quarterstaff out of the air and rapped the table in front of the girl with it.
“Spar-Gabrielle, “ Alex sighed, “I have no idea what all this is about, but stop being mean. Little girl, who are you?”
“I-I’m…” the girl peered out, looking around the table at the various scowls and expressions of disapproval, “I’m the Ad Astra addition to your Interface. I’m here because I’m part of this as well.”
“Much to our mutual disgust.” Gabrielle added.
“What’s your name? I don’t really remember who you could be.”
“I don’t have one. This is just a random image from your mind.” the girl replied quietly.
“Don’t worry about that thing, Alex. We have a lot to go through.” Gabrielle urged. As she spoke the little girl shrank back further. Alex shook his head.
“Hold on, don’t be like that, “ he said, “Look, if she is part of my Interface now she’s going to be around at least as long as it takes me to finish up what I need to do on the space train, right? I’m not going to have anyone being antagonized inside my brain. Or soul. Or whatever this is.”
“It’s not a ‘she’, it’s just a construct.” Jessica Fletcher pointed out, “Unlike us, your carefully chosen team of professionals specialized in assisting with your time utilizing Syntropy’s Interface, that creature isn’t real.”
“I think I’ll call you…Addy. Is that alright?” Alex ignored the writer-slash-mystery solving maven. The little girl’s eyes lit up a little.
“O-okay!” she said. Alex smiled at her.
“Ugh, great, you named the puppy.” Gabrielle groaned. “But now can you take a seat Alex? We need to go over your advancement opportunities.”
Alex took a seat. It was solid wood with a plush velvet cushion that felt quite comfortable for something that was, essentially, in his head. A thought occurred to Alex.
“Hey, can you guys do this without blowing your budget again? Peri told me that the space dragon cost you all a lot of whatever it is you have as currency.”
“Oh, this is fine.” Gabrielle waved a hand dismissively. “We’re just using things from your own memories - and you’ve got quite an interesting database of imagery we can draw from. Now, you already know everyone’s chosen names, but you don’t know what we all do, so…”
“I’m the team lead, “ the blonde woman declared after a brief pause, “I’m in charge and I’m, like, super good at it. This lot all think I’m awesome.” This statement was met with some halfhearted smiles, none of which conveyed the full extent of regard that Gabrielle seemed to think her team held her in. “And you know Peri is your immediate Syntropic liaison - she’s the only one permitted to actually communicate with you through the Interface.”
“Sixteen years of hoop jumping, and I’m finally certified for it, “ The tentacle monster added with another languid wave of her pseudopodia.
“April’s area of expertise is skills and talents. Jessica is all about soul-related issues, which apparently took a very expensive series of classes that has absolutely crippled her growth but made her incredibly useful on a team that watches a soul-damaged person such as yourself.” Gabrielle went on.
“I see, “ Alex said, more to interrupt the non-stop words from Gabrielle than anything.
“Gadget is seriously good at figuring out a variety of decent growth directions for paths, “ Gabrielle went on, and then reached the little girl and sighed deeply. “Addy here - and thanks so much for that, I’m sure adopting the thing will cause absolutely no future issues at all - will assist with any Ad Astra related advancements.”
“It’s not incredibly rare for that sort of thing to exist, but most sapient beings know better than to fuck with the Interface.” Peri opined, “It’s temporary, until you’re done with Ad Astra.”
“Parasite, “ Gabrielle muttered, and then shook her head. “Sorry. Now you know your team - we’re here to help you, and we’ll do our best at that. Despite what Addy said, everyone gets a team. You just don’t usually meet with them all - and you probably won’t see us all at the same time again in the future. All good so far?”
“I have so many questions, “ Alex replied honestly, “But okay.”
As he said the word each of the others around the table except for Addy gave a shudder, their images wobbling for a moment. After a pause Gabrielle giggled. “Sorry. We’re still going hard on the drinking game.”
“Ah.” Alex remembered. He looked once more around the table at the familiar yet strange ghosts of media consumption past. A therapist would love this, he thought. “This whole thing is the Syntropic synchronization, right?”
“Your first. Which is a milestone. One second.” Gabrielle held up a finger. From unseen speakers Queen’s We are the Champions began to play. Little motes of multicolored light formed high above and began to rain down. When Alex reached for one it dissolved and felt cool on his skin.
“Congratulations!” Gabrielle cried out, and the team started to applaud him with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Only Addy sat unmoving, still half-hidden by her hair and her notebook. “You made it to your first Syntropic synchronization!”
After approximately eleven more seconds the music cut off and the motes of light vanished. A small strip of paper fluttered down from nowhere. He picked it up and read the nearly printed words. You have reached the limit of your free-use of this copyrighted material. Do not overstep. Alex raised an eyebrow.
“Queen is copyrighted but using television character images isn’t?”
“We don’t want to mess with Queen.” Gabrielle said seriously. The others nodded solemnly as she added “Nobody messes with things from Beyond.”
“I...no. Leave it alone, Alex.” Alex muttered, trying his best to ignore the implication that a band from his world was apparently from something called Beyond with a significant capitalization. “Back on topic. Is reaching the first synchronization a cause for celebration ordinarily?”
“Surprisingly, yes! Roughly seventeen percent of newly integrated sapients don’t survive through their first day.” Gabrielle replied.
“That’s a lot, right? I mean, it seems like a very high failure rate.”
“Not all integrations happen in relative safety, Alex. Sometimes it’s entire worlds all at once.” Gabrielle frowned, looking pensive. “We’re lucky we didn’t get assigned to something like that. It makes fantastic viewing, but honestly being bounced around from soul to soul as one expires after another…eh. Not our jam at all.”
“So what happens now?” Alex prodded the conversation forward. “We keep getting bogged down in asides and little tiny reveals here that probably won’t be relevant in the future.”
“Now we look at your progress, figure out your rewards, and give you advice on how to proceed.” Gabrielle said.
The cardigan-wearing mystery writer looked up at the projection of Alex’s soul. “You’re nowhere near getting access to magic just yet, “ Jessica told Alex, “Though it’s interesting. Your [Interesting Times] soul upgrade is putting in a little overtime. It’s actively trying to generate events that will push you closer to that goal.”
“That implies that the encounter with the Bruise brothers and the meeting with Vod were there to get me magic. That didn’t happen.”
“Closer to it, not just hand it to you. You can expect more.” Jessica shrugged, adding “It’s somewhat simplistic in its methods, so not every event going forward will assist with the purpose which means you can also expect your usual random chaos events as well.”
Alex nodded. He wasn’t sure how some of the things that had occurred to him on Earth would apply out here in the depths of space on board the limited area of the space train, but like many other aspects of his life Alex didn’t have to understand it fully in order to get through it.
“That being said, let’s talk about your most recent event.” Jessica said. The elderly woman hunched over her typewriter and started to bang at the keys in a seemingly random way. As the room filled with the heavy clack click clack of typing, words began to pop out where the paper would have been held. Golden text hovered in the air above them all.
~
Event 1284 - The Word of Vod
Status: Complete
Score: 100%
The self-proclaimed Overlord of carriage 9997 sent his heavies to bring you in for a polite chat-cum-threat. You went along with the Bruise brothers with no issues, and didn’t even comment on their apparent bent-mirror similarity to an Earth reference.
During the talk with the deceptively reasonable orc, you learned several vital pieces of information that you were able to quickly piece together, along with other snippets that will become relevant in the future. Well done.
Your parting was amicable after making a deal that you believe will hold for at least as long as it takes to reach the point where Vod actually has to fulfill his end of the bargain, which seems incredibly one sided but there are still benefits to it.
If you had killed Vod, you would also have received a full score, but with your instincts and your behavior guided by the Way of Reason you still reached a positive end result to the event.
Reward: 150 Path Points. Choice of one out of three options:
1) A skill chosen specifically by Syntropy
2) Rapid Pre-Integration Trait Actualization
3) Enhancement to an interface-tracked item you currently have.
~
“Oh wow. I get advancement rewards for Events? What about-”
“Past events that occurred pre-integration don’t get anything retroactively. Sorry Alex.” Gabrielle interjected, sounding apologetic.
“Eh, it was worth asking.” Alex shrugged. He hadn’t known rewards were a thing before, and since he hadn’t been eligible anyway there was nothing to worry about. “Okay, so - God, guys, can you please hold off on the drinking came while we’re discussing my survival? Thank you. So I choose one of these options as a reward - can you go into detail?”
“Some.” April O’Neil spoke up. She had been looking up at the options offered. “Firstly, getting a skill specifically chosen for you by Syntropy is a little inaccurate. The Interface is scanning you constantly; It looks at what you do, who you are, what you might do, how you think, all of that sort of thing. And then it generates a skill based on that. It could be a rare skill that gets seen comparatively less often than others, or something as common as hydrogen atoms. However it’s always immediately useful to you.”
“As for the second option, “ the animated reporter continued, “Rapid Pre-Integration Trait Actualization is just sort of hurrying things up. Peri told you before that you’re still undergoing the generation of skills, talents, and such from the Interface getting a full read on you. You got [Repurpose] that way.”
“Nothing in this option is something you wouldn’t normally get over your first week or so as an integrated individual.” Gabrielle chimed in. “It’s a shit option.”
“So if I wait these things would come to me anyway.”
“If there are any to get and you keep on just being you, yeah.” April shrugged. “Gabrielle is right in that it’s not the best option to choose if you have some time to spare. Now the third option…an enhancement to something that the Interface is already tracking. That’s a tough one.”
“Very.” Jessica agreed, nodding along with the conversation. “It could be something simple as an increase to one of your attributes. It could be a rank-up of one of your skills, or even an evolution. It might have something to do with your chosen Way, or even give you more options from them to choose from. In short, we don’t know what it will be.”
“It’s always a benefit though.” Gabrielle said.
“Well, yes, but comparatively something minor such as a single attribute point would be of less benefit than, say, an early evolution to a skill that would normally happen at rank five.”
“Right, so which should I choose?” Alex asked.
“Take the skill.” Gadget said. The others looked at her and she gave a mousy shrug. “It’s practically guaranteed to be something to do with his path, and from what I’m learning about [Mender] he could definitely use some additional options.”
“I’d suggest the enhancement.” Jessica said, “Whilst there are more variables, it’s a direct improvement to you.”
One by one the others voted. Gabrielle sided with Jessica, and April voted with Gadget. Peri shrugged - an impressive gesture for a gigantic eyeball within a nest of tentacles - and abstained. “I don’t have the same background as this lot, so I couldn’t give you a good opinion.”
“And you?” Alex gently asked Addy, who froze when she was spoken to, and then shook her head without uttering a sound. Alex waited a moment, and then sighed. “Fine. Can you guys tell me how my attributes work, just in case it ends up being an increase to one of them? I have a ton of questions about what they’re actually defining. Like, does intelligence actually make me smarter? Will strength make me Hulk out?”
“Peri will fill you in, once you can communicate with her again back in the waking world.” Gabrielle said.
“Can’t you just tell me now? Peri, be an angel and spill. It’d be way more convenient. This isn’t a ‘we’ll tell you when we think it’s important’ thing, is it?”
“I, um, well…” Peri’s tentacles waved about, and she used several to cover up part of her eyeball.
“Peri gets paid for each Interface-related question she answers for you.” Gabrielle offered, “That’s why out of all of us she’s the most affected by our actions in bottoming out the budget and now I owe her dinner.”
“Ah.” Alex could respect the need to work. He shot finger guns at Peri and smiled. “Got you covered. So can I wait on choosing something here then?”
“It’d be best not to. Why wait for a benefit that can apply immediately, especially when you have no idea what tomorrow will bring?” Gabrielle asked. That sounded sensible enough.
“True. Okay, um. The skill or the enhancement. Hey, I can get skills in other ways as well, right?”
“Yes, “ April nodded, “By doing things that the Interface can quantify into skills, though it takes time. Sometimes you can get skills awarded from tasks or quests - and in your case, Events.”
“Also from leveling up, “ Gadget offered. “Speaking of, you do have a level pending.”
“I do?” Alex was surprised. “Oh! I got path points from the event too.”
Stolen story; please report.
“Exactly. You’ve hit level two, and we’ll go into that once you’re done with your choice here.”
“Well, if I might get a skill from so many other things I do…I guess I’ll just roll with the enhancement and see what happens.” Alex shrugged.
All of the golden letters above their heads burst into motes of light. While everyone else was distracted Peri’s tentacles shot across the table and snatched Jessica Fletcher’s typewriter.
“Ooh, here it comes! Let’s go!” She started to whap at the typewriter, smashing keys with heavy blows from the rubbery tentacles. Golden text reformed, both above the table and also in the corner of Alex’s vision.
>Your Soul Upgrade [Interesting Times] has been enhanced.
>New Designation; [Interesting Times I]
>Whoa. So you know how this was a temporary upgrade to your soul for just one lifetime? Well it still is, but it doesn’t have to be anymore.
Alex looked over at Peri who continued smashing at the keyboard with enthusiasm. It was odd how excited an eyeball and tentacled mass could look, but Alex supposed that the promise of pay was a powerful motivator. He guessed this was also why Peri was sending it as a message rather than just saying what was going on, since it was technically something she could use her status as his liaison with the Interface.
>It’s been moved from Soul Upgrades and turned into an upgradable trait instead, which is sort of awesome. The upgrade you received from it this time around is a more robust linkage to the Interface which allows it to communicate the details of an Event with greater accuracy. Next time an Event comes around you’ll see it. Trust me, this is pretty neat!
As Peri stopped typing, the elderly cardigan-wearing mystery writer leaned across the table and dragged her typewriter back with a heavy sigh. Jessica waved a hand to restore the badly battered machine back to its former pristine state.
“Even as a trait instead of a Soul Upgrade, it still falls under my purview.” Jessica said, “And as such I can speak on this. You’re going to be getting more information about your events going forward. Don’t worry, it’s nothing that should influence you unduly, but it will help guide you through to a more optimal ending. Considering that [Interesting Times] is actively attempting to heal your soul, this can only be considered a good thing.”
“Oh. Neat. It sounds neat, right?” Alex asked. Jessica nodded, and Alex smiled. “I look forward to seeing it work.”
“Excellent, “ Gabrielle clapped her hands together sharply, “So next we’ll talk about levels. Gadget?”
“You’ve hit level two, which isn’t too much to write home about but at least it’s a start.” said the mouse girl, “With that, you get awarded certain things. Are you ready?”
“Sure. More rewards for doing not much of anything sounds pretty okay with me.” When Alex stopped talking he began to feel a slight tingle throughout his body. He also felt a little warmer, as if he’d been just walked into a midsummer’s day from an air conditioned building.
“Right now your body is twitching, thrashing, and sweating like crazy.” Gadget confided, “This is why things are done when people are asleep - it hurts a little sometimes, especially at first.”
“Incoming.” Peri chimed in. “Nothing I can touch yet though.”
>You have reached level 2.
>All things strive.
>Path points to reach level 3: 60/200.
>8 attribute points have been awarded for you to assign.
>One choice of a passive skill is now available.
Everyone around the table looked up at the golden text. It hadn’t come from the typewriter, instead gently raining down from the projection of Alex’s soul. Alex spoke first.
“Eight attribute points…to put into things that I still don’t quite understand.” he eyed Peri, and nodded. “But we’ll do it the right way. Gotta make that rent money, right?”
“And pay for the drugs.” Peri’s tentacles somehow twisted themselves into a recognizable thumbs-up gesture.
“You got it, “ Alex murmured, and then looked around the table at his team of helpers. “Any recommendations for where to assign these?”
Gadget Hackwrench scratched one of her large ears thoughtfully as she pondered the question. “Several, actually. [Mender] is a hybrid path that could go in a lot of different directions. Its theme is simply “fixing things” which leaves a lot open to interpretation by Syntropy. You’ll definitely get benefits from Intelligence and, for you, quite honestly boosting your already high base Charisma. Wisdom is a must for everyone, I feel, except Gabrielle here who eschews it like it’s poison.”
“I’ve got better things to focus on than being all wise and shit.” Gabrielle shrugged. “And since I can see the thought starting to form, I’ll remind you that even though all of your attributes are currently at zero, you have a starting base in everything that depends on your species, and you personally. Attributes given through Syntropy’s Interface are on top of that.”
“Perception, “ Gadget continued, “will keep you alive. The more you notice and recognize the better.”
“What about the ones under Magical Potency?” Alex asked. “Wouldn’t that be the start to getting access to magic?”
“You’d think so, but no. You can have all the Magical Power in the world, the deepest Mana Pool in existence, and more Mana Regeneration than you can shake a stick at but you can’t do anything with it without some basic magical skills.” April answered. “Skills that you probably wouldn’t develop on your own, so they would need to be rewarded or offered to you first.”
“Oh.” Alex felt disappointed, but continued to listen as the group spoke to him. It was a little like a tennis match, watching the ball of conversation be hit across the table to whomever felt the most qualified to speak - or in some cases simply wanted to say something.
“You probably don’t need to invest too much into the physical stats at this point, but some would be a good idea to keep you alive.” Gadget suggested. Alex ran down his list of attributes and sub-attributes and let out a small, rueful chuckle.
“You’re basically recommending a little bit of almost everything.”
“Sort of, yeah.” the mouse nodded, giving Alex a mousy shrug. “Sorry Alex. Listen though, it’s your first level-up and only eight points. You can only increase a sub-attribute up to the value of your level so nothing can go above two right now. There’s no optimal build for you right now, not until we see how the path plays out.”
“And what skills and talents you end up with.” April added.
“So if you were in my shoes, what would you do?”
“I’d be screaming and trying to hide.” Gadget giggled. “Sorry, I don’t have [Unflappable] and I was never any good at being adaptable to all the insane things you encounter regularly. Honestly though, if you absolutely want to push me into an answer…?”
“I would, at least to start with.”
“Right. Learning Ability - throw two points into that. Reason, Logic, and Pattern Recognition should get a point each - your Way of Reason is boosting those, so why not help it out? The rest you should stick into Charisma’s sub-attributes.”
“Which one?” Alex accessed his status and looked over the three choices. “I see Wit/Charm, Personal Presence, and Deception.”
“That really would be up to you, but I’m going to recommend going with your gut. As you improve things you’ll find yourself leaning in those directions the further down your path that you travel.” Gadget gave a helpless shrug, “Just know that you always have the choice to act counter to where your strengths lay. Too many people make that mistake.”
“Peri, “ Alex turned to his liaison, “If this is something you can answer in here without losing out, if I were to put points into Deception-”
“Oh, yeah, no.” Peri answered immediately, “Without going into detail, your attributes don’t change who you are. You won’t suddenly become some evil-minded mass-manipulating asshole if you are able to stretch the truth more easily.”
Choice matters. Okay.
“You should also consider Precision, “ Jessica said, “Though Gadget skipped over it, your path does involve fixing things and not everything can be taken to with a hammer and chisel.”
“Right, right, “ Gadget flicked her tail at the mystery writer, “But he has time for that once he’s actualized more of his path.” Jessica nodded in acquiescence.
There’s a lot to consider here. Then again, as April said, it's only my first level up…
“Do I get eight points each time I level?”
“You do, “ confirmed Gabrielle, “For being on a common path.”
“The implication there is that there are uncommon or rare paths. Do they get more points then?”
“Not that it matters since it doesn’t apply to you, but no. They get less.”
“Really? That seems counterintuitive.”
“Rarer paths are more powerful in their own right, and have greater benefits to them beyond attribute points.” Gabrielle said, “But like I said it doesn’t matter since it doesn’t apply to you anyway.”
“I guess. Okay.” Alex felt like he could second guess himself if he spent too long on it, and so took a moment to concentrate on assigning his points. As he did so the golden text above the table formed into confirmations of his results.
>Intelligence: Learning Ability increased to 2.
>Intelligence: Logic increased to 1.
>Intelligence: Reason increased to 1.
>Agility: Precision increased to 1.
>Perception: Pattern Recognition increased to 1.
>Charisma: Wit/Charm increased to 1.
>Charisma: Deception increased to 1.
There had been a minor internal debate as to whether he should choose the less morally upright sounding sub-attribute to invest in, but Alex had a strong feeling that even though he liked to resolve issues with honesty it wouldn’t always serve him to speak nothing but the truth.
Around the table his team of helpers noted the point assignments and nodded. Gadget spoke first. “Good, that was relatively simple. Thanks for that.”
“You’re thanking me for listening to a group of people that know what they’re talking about?”
“You’d be surprised at how many people don’t.” Gabrielle snickered. Around the table Gabrielle was given a series of emphatic nods at this statement.
“People thinking they can ‘game’ the Interface, “ Peri mocked the idea with a snort of derision, “Maybe get themselves secret hidden benefits.”
“Can they?”
“Nah.” Gabrielle leaned back in her chair and put her arms behind her head in a more relaxed pose. “Syntropy doesn’t hide anything; What would be the point of that? It works toward advancement and hiding shit would prevent that.”
“Some would argue that discovering secrets is a motivator to certain types of personalities, “ Jessica said, “But there’s enough mystery in the multiverse without deceiving people about how they can grow.”
“That being said, generally your team will first display the things they think you would benefit from the most.” Gabrielle admitted quickly, “But if you ask for more options they’ll always be there.”
“I see.” Alex said. And he did. If the Interface was that big, that extensive in what it could offer, what was the point of overwhelming people with showing options like tennis skills or neurosurgery abilities when they were just trying to work out how to be a better blacksmith or whatever?
“I don’t feel any different, “ Alex mentioned, considering the matter. “Do the sub-attributes not do much at low values?”
“You won’t notice in here, but at the same time you’re right in that a point or two at your level won’t be a game changer. Think of it like the difference between changing a thermostat by a fractional degree. It makes a change but you won’t notice until, well, you do.” Gabrielle replied.
“Let’s move on to the skill selection you’ve been awarded with your level-up.” April suggested. Alex acquiesced and more golden text spilled from the projection above the table.
>Skill selection. Choose one of the following passive skills:
>1. [Improvised Combat]
>2. [Guesstimated Engineering]
>3. [Material Efficiency]
Hmm…yeah, no idea. “Can I get a breakdown on these, like you gave when I got my other skills?” Alex requested of Peri, but when he turned to face her he found the tentacle monster having a tug-o-war with Jessica Fletcher over the typewriter. Peri had a good three hundred pounds of rubbery pseudopodia on the author, but Jessica was feisty and determined.
“Gimme!” Peri exclaimed.
“You don’t need it!” Jessica insisted.
“Neither do you! We’re projections.”
“So why are you trying to steal my prop?”
“Because it’s retro-cool and I wanna-”
“Hnnnnnnh!”
“HNNNNNNNNG!”
The rest of the table politely waited for the back and forth between the pair to die down. It took some time, but Jessica and Peri finally realized that everyone was staring at their childish display. Jessica solved the issue by making the typewriter vanish entirely, and both of them looked around sheepishly.
“Sorry.” Peri muttered.
“My apologies.” added Jessica.
“Honestly, they get sexcited when they have props to play with.” Gabrielle confided to Alex, who started nodding with understanding until he caught the word.
“Wait, did you say se-”
“Moving on, “ the blonde woman giggled, “Peri? You should be able to do the messages for this.”
As Peri’s tentacles began to thrash and move about in the air as if she were typing on an invisible keyboard, more text flowed into existence.
>[Improvised Combat] - Rank 1 (0/100) (Common) (Passive Skill)
>Legend has it that the greatest of warriors started with this humble skill. This is absolutely false, of course, and simply spread around to make certain sensitive people feel better about taking this rather lackluster skill.
>Honestly, the greatest of warriors would spit on this skill if they could; It’s a skill for the truly inept. [Improvised Combat] is a passive skill that simply assists in the art of fighting without specific training or weaponry much like the bumpers down the lane at the bowling alley assist in a five year old not getting all weepy over continual gutterballs. Except, you know, you can still very easily screw up and very likely will.
“Wow, tell it like it is Peri.” Alex chuckled. The large eye winked at him - or maybe it was just a blink, who could tell?
“Sorry, Alex.” Peri didn’t sound sorry at all, a trait that he’d noticed the entire team seemed to share among them. They tried to sound apologetic sometimes, but it never felt entirely genuine as they were having far too much fun. “Your combat capabilities are woefully abysmal to start with, and you’re not going to get a better combat skill than this as you are right now.”
“True, “ April agreed, “Taking this skill will help guide you instinctively in combat. As Peri was kind enough to point out though it’s not a valued skill for anyone with even a moderate amount of ability as it’s not going to actually improve your fighting skill. It will suggest you move certain ways, perform certain actions and the like, but it will heavily rely on your normal instincts and attributes.”
“It’ll help someone who freezes at the start of every encounter though.” Peri pointed out, giving Alex a meaningful look.
“I get it. Next?”
>[Guesstimated Engineering] - Rank 1 (0/100) (Common) (Passive Skill)
>This is a [Mender] path skill.
>Hey, have you ever looked at something and thought “I could build that”? Well, with this passive skill you have a better chance of doing so. When you’re examining something you can start to get a general sense of how it was put together, and also why it was constructed a certain way.
>You won’t be able to make an exact copy of the original item, but you might be somewhere in the same ballpark or at least playing the same game. Instead of a toaster you might end up with a radiant heat emitting bread browning device. Or instead of Hydrox you end up with an Oreo. Who knows?
“Well, alright.” Alex perked up. This skill sounded interesting to him. “I like the sound of this. I mean, I’ve looked at things and had ideas before, but I’m nowhere near good enough to reverse engineer them myself - I’m a tinkerer at best. This will help with that, right?”
“It sure does, “ April agreed, “Though it doesn’t change your hands-on ability. Precision and its ilk will help there too. Peri, throw up the last one, but I think we all know he’s gonna choose [Guesstimated Engineering].”
Peri’s tentacle tips thrashed and flailed in an indelicate manner. If there had been a real keyboard Alex was sure it would have been a constant business expense to maintain.
>[Material Efficiency] - Rank 1 (0/100) (Common) (Passive Skill)
>Whether welding metal beams together or piecing a shredded heart back into an organized whole, [Material Efficiency] will allow you to exchange spending a little more time for using what you need rather than what you have.
>In short, the skill reduces the amount of material needed for a repair or a construction. Then you have leftovers. Handy, right? Overall this skill sounds lackluster compared with terrifying plague magic or manifesting the spirits of the dead over a cup of coffee, but it’s a solid little skill that quietly works for you in the background.
“That’s pretty useful.” Alex allowed, but when he logged at Gadget the mouse shook her head. April grinned at him.
“Yeah, you’re not going to pick it. Not yet, anyway.”
“Mind readers.” Alex complained in a playful way. “But no, I’m not. [Guesstimated Engineering] sounds the most interesting, despite its sort of iffy name.”
“The skill is also a path skill for [Mender], which matters. The other two are more generic.” Gadget said. “Though it does apply to multiple other paths as well, it’s got a greater resonance with your path.”
“April, you said that I wouldn’t choose [Material Efficiency] yet. So I can choose it later?”
“Sure, if it comes up for selection again.” the reporter shrugged, “Which it likely will since it’s a pretty common skill offering for technical-minded paths.”
“Okay, then yes, [Guesstimated Engineering] please.”
>Skill received: [Guesstimated Engineering]
>Updated Personal Advancement Tasks list
“As a passive skill, it’ll just work in the background - provided that you’re wondering how to make stuff while focusing on it. There’s no need to activate it like [Jury Rig] and the like.” April said.
“Cool. So that’s a level-up, attribute points, a new skill, and an enhancement to my soul upgrade. Are we all good now?” Alex felt eager to wake up and play with his abilities.
“You still have your skill rank increase for [Evaluate], “ April gave Alex a patient smile. “You know, the reason you wanted to fall asleep in the first place?”
“Right! How does that work?”
“Very easily.” April waved a hand, and in the air above Alex a button appeared. It was rectangular and flashed with bright neon pink light. As with everything else, it’s a choice. There’s only yes or no at this point, really.”
**~RANK UP [EVALUATE}~**
“So I just press that?” Alex queried. “Is there any reason someone wouldn’t?”
“Not really but Syntropy doesn’t force anyone to advance, it’s always the individual’s choice to do so.”
It wasn’t even a choice. Alex knew there was no reason to delay, so he touched his fingers to the button, which vanished with a swirl of light and a little fwip sound.
>[Evaluate] (1) has increased to [Evaluate] (2)
“That was a little unexciting.” Alex confessed. April smirked.
“It’s not that exciting a skill, Alex. You’ll get a bit more feedback on things when you use it, that’s all.”
“That’s fair, “ Alex nodded. “Okay, what’s next?”
“Nothing really.” Gabrielle said, yawning slowly. “Your attribute increases are taking place in your sleep, and you should be able to safely wake up in around thirty minutes.”
“Patina told me it would take four hours.”
“It’s been three and a half hours already.” Peri added, and something about her tone registered displeasure at the goblin girl being brought up. She was still a little salty about Alex asking her questions rather than to his official liaison. Alex chose to ignore it as there was nothing he could do about it anyway.
“Really? It seems like I’ve only been here ten minutes or so.”
“Time is weird.” Peri shrugged. Yeah, she’s salty. I guess if her pay is involved…
“Well I still have a lot of questions about things. Until I wake up, do you all want to answer some of them?” he suggested. “Nothing Interface-related, of course.”
“Um, actually…”
Heads turned to the speaker quickly with a variety of expressions, almost all of which were vaguely hostile. Alex smiled. “Yes, Addy?”
“There, um, there are some Ad Astra things to go over…” the little girl ventured.
“Oh, ignore it Alex. That thing can’t offer you anything good. It’s a parasite of capitalism taken to the level of self parody, and will probably try to sell you to yourself or something.” Gabrielle muttered. She pointed her quarterstaff at the schoolgirl. “You may be allowed at the table, but that doesn’t mean we want to hear you speak.”
“Gabrielle, stop being mean to something that lives in my head or my soul or whatever.”
“Great, now I have to find a new hobby.” Gabrielle rolled her eyes and sighed, “Fine. Talk to the invasive little shit.”
Alex shook his head, and turned back to Addy. “Hi there. You ha something you needed to say?”
“Um. Hi.” Addy got out of her seat and walked around the table to approach Alex. Her notebook was clenched tightly to her chest, and beneath the heavy black bangs the girl looked like she’d been crying. “Y-yes. In here, I can help you submit, um, your completed Ad Astra tasks? You can collect your duty credits and maybe if you want I can show you the company store?”
“It’s all overpriced crap most likely.” Peri called out, “I wouldn’t bother.”
“Peri, be nice. You guys are all stuck together, so play nice with each other. I’d rather not have all this fighting going on in my head, okay?”
“I’m drinking on that one.” Peri muttered. Gabrielle agreed, and both of their images shimmered and wobbled for a moment. A long bench echoed throughout the room.
“You can help if you like, “ Alex replied gently to the little girl. Addy’s face lit up into a wide smile.
“Okay! Let’s go!!” she exclaimed, her sorrowful demeanor instantly changing as she stood upright, opening her notebook with a snap.
“Congratulations on completing two Ad Astra tasks! The first was the sealing of a door, for which you receive one duty credit!” A little ping could be heard, and in the corner of Alex’s vision he saw text matching Addy’s statement.
“Thank you.” he said.
“The second task was the survey of security systems to notate those which were working and which were broken.. The reward is…” Addy trailed off. Alex waited. The little girl seemed completely frozen in place. One of the team gave a dark chuckle, which Alex ignored.
“Addy?”
“The reward is…”
“It’s probably bugging out. These interface add-ons are janky as hell.” Peri suggested.
“You okay there?” Alex reached out to poke the little girl on her shoulder. She blinked rapidly and spoke again.
“An abnormal award variable has been detected. Checking. Valid. Wow. For handing in this one simple task, you receive a reward of thirty two duty credits!” Addy exclaimed.
“Cool, thanks Addy.” Alex smiled. He had scoped out a lot of the cameras and panels after all. “That brings me up to, what, thirty four duty credits in total?”
“Correct! Would you like to peruse the company store?
“Sure. Just…” Alex paused and considered what he was probably dealing with here, “I mean no disrespect when I ask this, but can you please only display the things that I can currently afford and would be useful to my duties as an Ad Astra technician?”
“Oh! Absolutely! Customized browsing has been selected.” Addy declared. “In addition, I won’t include any item that is not currently in stock within the Ad Astra spatial inventory. Which is almost everything considering the current supply chain issue.”
“That’s very helpful. Thank you.” Alex smiled. Supply chain issue? Oh goody.
At Alex’s words the little schoolgirl’s smile widened, and Alex could just make out a trickle of tears on Addy’s cheeks. “Okay! Here you go!” The little girl thrust out her notebook to Alex, and he quickly looked at the open page.
A short list of items was written In loopy, childish cursive. Some of them were tremendously unexciting, like ‘Protein Wafer, small’ and ‘Personal Digital Music App - SONGS NOT INCLUDED’, but Alex’s lips turned up into a genuine smile when he saw some of the offerings nearer to the bottom of the list.
“Are these for real?” he asked, tapping one of the items on the list. It had been very obviously underlined, and the words ‘Today Only Sale Price!!!’ had been scrawled next to it. To Alex, is smacked of interference from someone; That someone was most likely Harmony.
“They are!” she confirmed with a nod. “As they have no physicality except for a fractional use of data storage, information downloads are always available.”
“How does it work exactly?”
“You select the information you wish to learn, and it is downloaded directly into your brain via the Ad Astra add-on. We like our employees to learn and grow, as they then become a greater asset to the company.”
“But not for free. You’re not offering these things to everyone.”
“Oh, we are, but prices do tend to fluctuate depending on various market factors. The usual price of such valuable knowledge databases is upward of a thousand duty credits.” Addy replied.
“Yet this one is only twenty five.” Alex tapped it again. The schoolgirl looked like she’d been caught with her hand in a cookie jar, but just nodded again. Definitely some AI interference there, Alex decided. “Right. Well, I think I’ll take it.”
“Alex!” Gabrielle jumped up and approached on his other side, “It’s bad enough that this thing is latched onto your interface, but do you really want it messing with your brain?”
“It’s a benefit, right? It’ll improve my odds of success and maybe help me get home?”
“Ye-es, “ Gabrielle stretched out the word, and then sighed. “But careful analysis of your environment and time spent in the study of such things would net you a similar result, in time.”
“In time. Time that I don’t have too much of, right? Sorry Gabrielle, I completely see where you’re coming from, but I think this might actually be seriously helpful. Addy, “ Alex tuned back to the little girl, “I’d like to buy this one here.”
“Of course! Thank you, Fourth Technician Alex Orz, for making your first purchase through the Ad Astra Company Store! We hope that it will be the first of many-”
Pain ripped through Alex, shattering the room around him into a billion tiny motes of light. His brain felt like it was boiling in his skull as words and concepts, symbols and knowledge was forcefully thrust into it. A thunderstorm of information battered Alex.
He thought he passed, out, but since he was already unconscious he instead felt brief flickers of being there and then being here and maybe somewhere else entirely, and all the time his brain screamed and screamed and screamed-
-and then it stopped.
Alex shot up to a sitting position, coughing and gasping. He was covered in sweat, his vision wavered and shimmered for a moment as Alex found himself once more in the tech closet with a blinding headache and blood running out of his nose.
In the lower corner of his view, golden words ignored all of the pain, confusion, and visual issues.
>Information Download: Artificial Intelligence Systems (Hardware) is complete.
Alex coughed again, and wiped at his nose with his sleeve. He groaned at the pain in his head, but managed a bloody and almost savage grin.
“I know AI-fu.” he slurred to the room at large, and then fell back against the floor utterly exhausted.