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Ooooooo nooooooo Sasha gets out and her first test is seeing her GF being shipped with a corp heir who's also a friend and the ex of a mutual friend
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Apr 15, 2021 03:00
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Keldulas posted:I get the feeling that Fuzzy is going to be all over social media again. Patty's going to post 'how does this work?' and 'save the good ones for us' with that picture of her and Marco. Damien is going to have some Shadowrun-flavored incel apeshit meltdown over it if this happens. I have no idea what the 207X incel name is for trolls is, but I bet it's going to be ugly.
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Apr 15, 2021 03:12
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Toughy posted:Ooooooo nooooooo I can imagine that in an age of social media ubiquity that someone beating up corporate princesses so hard that they become poor, kicking the rear end of a toxic spirit in single combat, saving a man from being murdered by human supremacists and being on the arm of a corporate heir would probably get a lot of buzz about her. Especially when she's essentially a ghost before she comes to school. Yond Cassius posted:Damien is going to have some Shadowrun-flavored incel apeshit meltdown over it if this happens. 
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Apr 15, 2021 03:36
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Fuzzy, Marco, Mother Bear and John - Tuesday, August 22nd, 2075 – Early afternoon - Bellevue "So you're telling us that you can't tell us exactly what happened," said John, "But it has to do with what happened after you beat the toxic fire spirit. You don't want the other students digging it out of you because it might hurt you and other people. Am I right?" It was five minutes later and Fuzzy had explained the situation to both Marco and John. The wealthy corporate students were about to play a game to jockey for status and she was the ball. She didn't want to accidentally reveal what happened afterwards and she also didn't want the students to test her in a way that damaged her reputation or made her a target as Fuzzy felt that being tested was dangerous. Marco still wasn't sold on the idea but he didn't nay-say her again. "That's right," said Fuzzy. "Gotcha," said John, "The less I know the better. And you...Mr. Ivanoff?" Marco frowned slightly at the formality. John had learned that he was wealthy and connected and was more nervous than he was before. "Marco, please," said Marco, "Mr. Ivanoff is my father. But yes, I suppose I just outed myself. My father is upper management at EVO. He manages the design and manufacturing of furniture for metahumans." Marco patted his much larger than average chair for emphasis. "Well it makes sense why you're here then," said John, a little stiffly, "You went to that ultra exclusive private school." "Yes," said Marco. "Mind sharing about them?" Marco stroked his chin. "First off," said Marco, "I wouldn't count myself as one of them. At least not socially. The school is prestigious but the students are mostly the children of old money these days. At least what passes for old money in the corporate world. Orks and trolls are extremely new to upper management. The glass ceiling has really only broken in the last decade or so with very few exceptions." John nodded and Marco continued. "There were only humans and elves there for my first three years. I tried to make friends in my first year and had limited success but well...The friendships were superficial. There is also the matter that I was the single troll at a school that had previously only been open to humans and elves. Not because they excluded them but because it is a school for the privileged and orks and trolls did not have that privilege until recently." Marco shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I was never really accepted," he explained, "And eventually I accepted that I wasn't accepted. I spent my sophomore and junior years more or less alone though looking back I suppose my attempts at making friends among the elite just made me a different kind of alone. The weekend was a different story but five days out of every week I was alone until my senior year when I finally met some actual friends." Fuzzy placed a hand on Marco's arm. Without looking he placed his own hand over it. "I see," said John, "So you know these people. The students I mean." "I know how they behave, yes," said Marco, "I was raised among these people. At a certain point corporate culture stops really mattering as you get closer to the top. Among the normal corporate rank and file very intense rivalries are encouraged to increase productivity and create a sense of identity. Near the top those rivalries...Well, they don't disappear but they do take on a more personal shape. Less like team sports and more about individual achievement or the achievement of a political dynasty." "Dynasty?" asked John, "That sounds feudal." "Yeah," said Fuzzy, "Like kings and queens, princes and princesses." Marco nodded to Fuzzy. "Some aspire to those titles, yes," said Marco, "But we're not there yet. At least not for the most part. There are a few nations ahead of the curve. Tir Tairngire likes courting wealthy elves to give them the noble privilege that some desperately crave. EVO discourages it but that only increases the fascination with the aesthetic of becoming nobility." John leaned back in his high backed, taped up rolling chair and thought about it. "Actual corporate nobility?" asked John, "That's bleak." "You have no idea," said Marco. "I hope I never do," said John, "That aside, I'm guessing that you came to me because you needed someone you could trust to help you with Fuzzy's problem." "Yeah," said Fuzzy, "You're good with stories." John smiled. "I mean, I'm no pro," said John, "So I guess you have access to professionals but you can't talk to them." "I don't know," said Marco, "But I'm going to trust Fuzzy on this one. She normally doesn't ask for this kind of help so it must be serious. Fuzzy, if you need help I can be discreet. I can talk to employees within EVO." Fuzzy considered it but shook her head. "I'd rather go with friends," she said, "People I know I can trust. I don't have time to get to know your um...Writers?" "We call those people creatives," said Marco. Fuzzy nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I don't have time to get to know your creatives," said Fuzzy, "I do know John and I trust him." "Thanks," said John, whose tone became very calm and careful, "Now I have to say that normally I'd be hesitant to work with you, Marco. I mean if you really pushed, I would. No offense but getting involved in the schemes of very wealthy, very powerful people isn't good for my health. So I need to know that this isn't going to blow up in my face. You dropped who you are to Mr. Checkers and I'm pretty sure he's terrified right now. And honestly I'm more than a little scared too." "That is completely understandable," said Marco, "And understand that I have no ill will towards you." "Umm...Thank you," said John, "I assume that you're telling the truth. But if someone opposes you then I'm a target. I really don't want to be a target." "That is..." said Marco, and his face twisted up in sadness, "Also understandable. Which is why I would feel no ill will if you walked away. You're not wrong that this isn't completely safe but I can minimize your exposure. We'll do a single consult and be done. When I walk out the door I won't involve you any further and I'll personally guarantee your safety in case you are approached by someone else. I would give you my direct comm number in case you had any problems." John closed his eyes and rubbed at his temples. "Or perhaps you'd like a job?" asked Marco. John's eyes widened. "No!" said John, quickly, but he quickly composed himself, "That's um...I mean...Head manager at Pizza Right Now is about as corporate as I ever want to get. Again, no offense." "You don't have to do this if you're not comfortable," said Fuzzy. John sighed and nodded. "No, I don't have to," he said, "But I owe you big...So...I guess I'll take that comm number." Marco took the data pad in hand and typed in his personal comm code. He slid it over to John. "Make a backup just in case," said Marco, "And I'll of course make sure that you are well rewarded. I'll also skip any non-disclosure clause. It seems that you understand not to talk to others about this." John nodded back. "I'll do it," he said, "But I'm not sure what it is yet. We might need more than an hour. So let's break this down. It sounds like they're going to play a game with Fuzzy who is completely unwilling to play but she's unable to say no." "Actually she can say no," said Marco, "It will just cost her to do so and those costs will increase over time." Fuzzy fidgeted with her hands again. "Right," said John, "They're scared of her so she's not completely at their mercy but they're going to test her and that's dangerous. Either she does nothing and they test her more until they start abusing her or she lashes out and very wealthy people try to get revenge." "Yes," said Marco,"I don't entirely agree with her reputation of violence as her best defense but I understand that she may know better than me." "She does," said Mother Bear. They all looked to the teacher who'd mostly been silent up until this point. She didn't say anything else. She just kept looking into AR. Marco sighed. "Okay," said Marco, as he turned back to John, "I do have to ask. What are your qualifications?" "For stories and games!" exclaimed Fuzzy, "You're good at those." John blushed a little. "Uhh...I mean as a volunteer," said John, "Yes, I guess so." "Volunteer?" asked Marco, "In what capacity?" John's battered chair squeaked as he rocked back and forth in contemplation. "I helped create games and storylines for one of the local LARPs for almost a decade," said John, "I mostly got paid in free drinks, snacks and gear though I'd sell some of the gear as a tidy little side business. The LARPs are basically giant, outdoor AR games and the stories are created by a team of volunteers and then acted out on the ground. I did both. I had to quit as a volunteer because my old manager started stealing from me. I had to start working more and it was stressful to create for so many people at once." "Are you still too stressed to create?" asked Marco. John shook his head. "No, I'm great," said John, "I was never really too stressed to create. I just kept it to small groups. Tabletop games. Six people tops. I've got the itch bad." "The itch?" asked Marco. "To create," he said, "I'm happiest when I can lose myself in a story. I assumed I'd just start up another tabletop game or see about a position within the LARP but I guess I'm doing this now. Anyway, I've designed live action games for a long time now. I know how people have fun and what keeps them distracted." "And how do people have fun?" asked Marco. John raised his hands in negation. "Okay, wrong word," said John, "Fun isn't a descriptive word. It's too broad to be useful. What one person says is fun might be the opposite idea of fun for another. We'll get to that later. Let's work backwards instead. Small focus first. What do all of these ultra rich kids want from Fuzzy? What's the goal? The win condition for them?" "They want to know about my fight with a toxic fire spirit," said Fuzzy. Marco shook his head. "No, they don't," he said, "They barely care." Fuzzy blinked in confusion. "What?" she asked. "They barely care," he repeated, "Whoever told you that you're the ball in a game was more right than he or she knows. In this ah...Analogy...You would be the ball. One game ball is basically interchangeable with another. It doesn't matter what happened to you so long as it's interesting. The game that they're playing is for prestige." "Prestige?" asked Fuzzy. "Think about a reputation for status," said Marco, "Money is looked down upon because everyone has functionally infinite amounts of it." "Must be nice," sighed John. "Yes, well..." said Marco, awkwardly, "They want prestige so they can compare themselves to others. For example, one may try to obtain a certain masterpiece painting that is one of a kind. Technically it has a sale value but functionally it's priceless. You can't just walk up to the Louvre, slap down a billion nuyen and say, "One Mona Lisa please"." John laughed. "I'd love to see someone try," said John. "It's been attempted," said Marco, "But at a certain level, money no longer spends. You need to gain an enormous amount of prestige within the art world for years and most likely several decades to even be considered for one of grandest pieces of artwork. At the same time, other people also want it. Or perhaps they don't but they want to sabotage your attempts. If you look weak or foolish you lose prestige and your status within that heirarchy falls. There's a certain status to be had within gatekeeping." "Huh," said John, "I've written about it a few times. It's interesting to get an insider's perspective though." Marco nodded in appreciation. "This is the game of prestige," continued Marco, "Harvesting it is how the elite compete with one another. Art is just one example. Some might invest in or even deign to manage a sports team which is a pretty conservative option. Some might go into high science. The corporate space race is particularly fashionable right now." "What race?" asked Fuzzy. "Well," continued Marco, :Every year or so one of the megas sets up a base on another planet. My own corporation set up a Mars base a few years back but the current conflict for prestige is setting up large bases further and further away. Ares already has a shuttle convoy on the way to one of Jupiter's moons to look for extra-terrestial life under one of the ice moons that circle it. I forget the name." "That's pretty cool," said Fuzzy. "It is and it isn't," explained Marco, "If they find life they'll probably immediately begin exploiting it. And I don't think they'll be gentle to the environment or particularly ethical when they do. If they find life on another planet they may destroy it." "Yeah, not cool," said John, "But didn't you say that you do charity? That's chasing prestige, right?" "It is, but I didn't chase prestige," said Marco, "Charitable organizations have existed as institutions for hundreds of years. Much further back if you consider the world's religions as part of that. Charitable institutions try to solve every societal ill under the sun. Sometimes resolution does happen like the eradication of a disease but that's a rarity." "I mean," said John, "Little actually gets solved. Otherwise we'd be living in a better world." "Right," agreed Marco, "Hunger, poverty, racism, homelessness, environmental destruction and more are never solved by charity. Charity from the wealthy makes you dependent and it's almost never meant to solve the problem. It's meant to justify the wealth of the elite while they play games of prestige and make the poor dependent on the elite. Growth in the non-profit sector is always accompanied by growth in poverty." "And you do this different how?" asked John. "My giving was with the intent of actually freeing people from poverty," said Marco, "I helped create a community in the Ork Underground with the idea of making it self-sustaining. I succeeded which means I'm no longer necessary. I visit sometimes and it's one of the few places in the world where I feel welcome. That would be the difference." "That they're not dependent on you?" "That's right," said Marco, "We're getting off topic though. If you're interested about why charity doesn't work I'd suggest reading up on the charitable-industrial complex." John nodded. "Okay," said John, "So where does Fuzzy fall in terms of prestige? How many people will be fighting over her?" Marco sighed. "Her presitge is fairly minor," said Marco, "And it'll be the entire student population. Easily over a hundred." "Wait," said Fuzzy, "Fighting a toxic fire spirit and winning is minor? But it'll get everyone's' attention? That doesn't make any sense." "It does," said Marco, "Because the student population is bored. Sasha and I ran interference for you when you saved that man from being murdered. It was also considered to be so minor that it was barely worth fighting over. Approaching you over hitting Minuet was quietly terrifying to everyone. There was no prestige to be harvested. Now I'm gone and Sasha's situation is...Complicated. Fighting a toxic spirit of fire in one on one combat is enough to actually rate competition over." "I could just uh...Give it to Jayvon?" asked Fuzzy, "The prestige?" "Who's that?" "He's a student," said Fuzzy, "He's with CrashCart." "Oh, CrashCart is a subsidiary of Evo," said Marco, "I might know him or his family. Do you know his last name?" "Uhhh...Williams?" she asked, "Yeah, Williams." Marco thought about it but shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know him," said Marco, "And if I don't know him then he's probably lower ranked. Even if he was highly ranked in a corporation he wouldn't be able to take all of the prestige for himself. It's not something that can just be given away. There needs to be competition." "Uggggh," groaned Fuzzy, "That sucks. It's still minor though. Why do they all want it?" "Because they're stuck on an island five days a week with nothing to do," said Marco. "Fuzzy is the only game in town," guessed John. Marco nodded. "Almost everyone will play because there's little else to do," said Marco. "Can I wait it out?" asked Fuzzy. "No," said Marco. "And I can't just tell them no." "You can for a while with escalating consequences," said Marco, "I'd actually suggest telling a few of them no before you give in though. You can't look too eager. If the game is too easy they'll get angry that the game is over so quickly. Though you'll probably have no say in how it's run." "Bleh," said Fuzzy, "I don't like it." "I know," said Marco, "Which is why I'm here to help you." The conversation came to a lull and John stood up. "I'm going to vape and grab a pizza or two," said John, "It'll help me think. Either of you want anything?" "Got any meat?" asked Fuzzy. "Soy meat," said John, "Depends if you think it is." "Food is food," she said, with a grin. John made finger guns at her. "Mega-Meat Right Now it is," said John, "You want anything, Marco?" "I suppose the vegetarian option is all soy as well?" he asked. "You got it," said John. "Two veggie pizzas for me," he said, "Mother Bear, do you want anything?" She waved him off without saying anything. "Two Mega-Veg Right Now," he said, "Be back in five. I'm going to do some thinking." John left the room and closed the door behind him. Marco sat back and looked to Mother Bear. "What are you watching anyway?" asked Marco, "I can tell you're checked out." "I'm watching Wheel," said Mother Bear. "What's Wheel?" asked Fuzzy. "Wheel of Fortune," said Mother Bear, as she continued to stare ahead. "It's a game show. It's what I do to relax because it requires absolutely nothing from me. I don't even guess at the word puzzles. I just watch it happen." "Huh," said Marco, "Well, any ideas so far?" Mother Bear shook her head. "I'm not an ideas person," said Mother Bear, "Given enough time I can cough one or two up but usually people put out better ideas than I can figure out on my own. I'm a magical safety instructor through and through. I'm here to say no to what won't work." Marco nodded at Mother Bear and looked to Fuzzy. "What gift do you think I should give to John's help?" asked Marco, "I mean he's obviously not doing this for me but it does give a sense of danger." As Fuzzy thought about it, she leaned up against Marco. "You're affectionate today," said Marco. "You need it," said Fuzzy. Marco opened his mouth and then promptly shut it, looked down and smiled self-consciously before he opened it again. "You're not wrong," he said, "I just don't want to make Sasha jealous." "Why would she get jealous from me hugging you?" asked Fuzzy, "That's weird." Then Fuzzy considered. "Okay, maybe you're right," said Fuzzy. "Really?" "Yeah," she admitted, "Not because it's you. More that I haven't spent enough time with her. I've been hunting and Sasha senses the deer I've killed on me and the pigs over the summer too. It makes her uncomfortable until it wears off. We spent some time together yesterday but we really need to catch up. I think I'm going to have to stop hunting for a while so I can spend more time with her." "Going to hang up the bow?" asked Marco. "What? No," said Fuzzy, dismissively, "I still need to feed my family. But I'll do it maybe once a week for a while. I'll just need to find another way to keep sharp." "You could try some games," said Marco, "Sasha kept trying to get me to play Miracle Shooter with her but I'm no good with guns fake or otherwise." "I'll ask her about that," said Fuzzy, "Also uh...I need to catch up on my studies. I'm caught up for history and English but my math and science are still really bad. I'm just beginning middle school math and science and I have sophomore classes in both of those next semester." "Makes sense," said Marco, "The gift though?" "Oh uh..." said Fuzzy, "Hmm...He and his girlfriend are moving apartments. Maybe you could get him some new furniture? I've been over to his place a few times and a lot of his furniture is falling apart." "Good idea," said Marco, "Hey, do you think your dad would take some furniture? I've asked but he keeps turning me down. I don't know what I'm doing wrong." "Uhhh...He usually doesn't like to take things from other people," said Fuzzy, "I think he only did because the house was falling apart. I'll ask when we leave though. I need to tell him that we got a farm and that the food problem is solved. We still got to move it around but dad has a new truck now. Also I need to talk to him about keeping some deer meat for myself." "Going to have a barbecue or something?" asked Marco. "What? No," said Fuzzy, "I promised some meat to someone and you're fixing my commlink so I figure I could make you some jerky." She poked a muscular arm through his hoodie. "You need the protein," she said, "For the one ton club." Marco smiled at her but shook his head. "You don't have to do that," he said. "And you didn't have to fix my commlink," she said. "I'm not actually fixing your commlink," said Marco, "Some tech in EVO is going to do that. I doubt I'll even be billed for it." "And you think I'm actually making the jerky?" asked Fuzzy, "I suck at cooking." "But you hunted it," said Marco. She waved that away. "I'm going to make you some jerky," said Fuzzy, "Or at least I'll ask Oli since she can cook and I can't. I'll see if she'll want the good cuts for herself. Maybe some tenderloin. See? We're both doing it. Asking for help. So it's fine." Marco looked like he wanted to disagree but thought better of it. "Who's Oli?" asked Marco. "She's an awakened out of Touristville," said Fuzzy, "Dave's daughter. The guy I saved?" Marco's face lit up with comprehension. "Is she the one that Julie asked me to help get in to the school?" he asked. "I think so," said Fuzzy. "Wonderful," he said, with a smile, "How is she doing?" "Well she's an artist," explained Fuzzy, "And it turns out that she can use her magic to cook too. Chip loves her food." "What's she like?" "Quiet. And that's me saying that. Good at art. Honestly I don't know that much more. I've been too busy to really get to know her. I know her dad and step-brother better." Marco considered. "Fair enough," he said, "Jerky it is. Can you do spicy garlic?" "Probably." At that moment, John came back into the office carrying four pizzas boxes. The smell of pizza and a touch of peach green tea vape on his clothing filled the room. He put the pizzas on the desk, opened them and distributed some napkins. "I don't have any plates," said John, "But I do have napkins. Just layer them if you want a plate. Also I grabbed some real red pepper flake packets. They're a nuyen a piece but I run this place now so I'm going to splurge." "Thanks," said Fuzzy, "A whole nuyen though?" "Yeah," said John, "We've got some other spicy flakes that look like it but this is actual red pepper. We don't sell a lot of them though." "I still don't understand money some days," said Fuzzy, "Sometimes I think one nuyen is a lot. Then I remember that I have way more than one." Fuzzy bellied up to the table and hesitated as she looked at her packet. After a brief bout of fidgeting she ripped open a packet with her teeth and spread it on her pizza. John did the same for his own pepperoni pizza. Marco didn't use any but he scooted forward next to Fuzzy. Mother Bear declined to eat and stayed where she was. Marco lifted up a piece of gooey pizza laden with imitation veggies. "I'm not sure if I've ever seen pizza this greasy before," said Marco. "So much grease," said John, "You don't even know." The three dug into their pizza. Technically Fuzzy did have a fairly large meal just a few hours ago but she was perpetually hungry and would never turn down a free meal. "Okay, so," said John, "Had my thinking vape and the pizza is here. It's what I do when someone stumps me at the LARP or for tabletop. I take five." "Come up with anything?" asked Fuzzy. "Sort of," said John, "Mmmph...Red pepper flakes. Love them." He chewed and swallowed his pizza. "Anyway, we're still going to work backwards. Marco, you said that it doesn't matter what Fuzzy did?" "Barely," said Marco. "Okay. So what if they could harvest prestige for other things? Things she's already done. Things she might do." Marco considered as he ate his veggie pizza. Technically they were all veggie pizzas though. "Yeah, that could work," said Marco, "But she'd have to do something on par with defeating a toxic spirit in single combat. It's not exactly the minimum but it's close. Anything less wouldn't attract everyone's attention. Why do you ask? "Okay, so," said John, who took a bite, chewed and swallowed to buy time to think, "I say that we distract from whatever Fuzzy wants to hide by making the game more engaging. Fuzzy is the ball. That's not going to change, right?" "Right," said Marco, "Even if she refuses to play it's how she'll be viewed." "But maybe we can change what kind of ball she is," said John, "You said that one ball is as good as another. It's interchangeable. So maybe we can change what kind of ball Fuzzy is to one that doesn't get kicked around." Fuzzy covered her mouth to talk. "I like that," she said, "Let's do that. I want to be a not kicked ball." "Definitely," said John, "So it sounds to me like they're only looking for an excuse, any excuse, to compete. Fuzzy is incidental." "Correct," said Marco. "So maybe we can change how the game is played too," said John, "In LARPs or tabletop my favorite thing to do is to get my players chatting amongst themselves. Roleplaying. Like we were doing earlier. Fuzzy gave us simple direction and we ran with it." "I needed a lot of direction," said Marco. "Some people do and that's okay," said John, "But what I'm saying is that we want them to interact with Fuzzy as little as possible. If we can offer more prestige then they'll go on to the next thing. We get past the secret and the game becomes less dangerous. So we'd be making two games." "You'll want to space it out if you do something like that," said Marco, "If whoever wins doesn't have time to crow about it then they'll feel cheated. I'd suggest two weeks for them to squabble and then two weeks for them to reshuffle who's on top and who's not. The person or people who come out on top might grumble but most will be eager to get back into the game." "I actually want to do three games," said John, "Since the priority seems to be getting past the secret." "I mean, yeah," said Fuzzy, "But why three? Why not just two?" "Three is a good number," explained John, "In fiction and comedy. People find it more satisfying, funnier or just more narratively effective. That's the rule of three." "The rule of three?" asked Marco. "Yeah," said John, "If you just drop the one thing then people will be squabble over it for a while to establish the pecking order. If you drop two then the smarter people might notice that you're trying to get past the first event. They may get curious and circle back. But the rule of three is so ingrained in narrative fiction that people don't really question it. You want to put distance in terms of time and narrative. Literally treating it like a story and moving ahead. By the third...Uhhh...Arc I suppose, most people have completely forgotten about your fight. It becomes boring." Marco thought about this and slowly nodded. "That's clever, yes," said Marco, "People probably would get curious if you distracted from the fight with something else. You'd need to make the second and third more interesting though. Enough that coming back to the first would seem boring. Maybe even so much that it would even become embarrassing to mention." "Bronze medal, silver medal, gold medal," said John, "We want like being top dog over the first prestige fight to feel like a win. But we frame it so that in the long term it feels like a bronze medal. Meanwhile, silver and gold are still up for grabs." "I don't understand what you're talking about," said Fuzzy, "Medals?" "They're awards in the Olympics," said Marco, "Where people compete against other athletes from across the world. Bronze is third best in the world. Silver is second. Gold is the best in the world." Fuzzy smiled. "That makes sense," she said. "But unlike those medals," said John, "Someone could win more than once. It keeps them competing and less likely to feel cheated. Then they're on to the new thing. We want to create distance in terms of time and in terms of the narrative. Plus the rule of three is old as far as rules go. People probably won't question it. It's too ingrained into how we tell stories and you can hide more when you don't appear like you're deviating from well trod narratives." "So you're saying that by being boring..." began Marco. "Not boring," said John, "Cliche." "How is that different?" John smiled. "Things are cliche for a reason," said John, "With a little effort and thought a cliche will work. We're just going to hide some things in the cliches." "Okay," said Marco, "I'll take your word for it. But how do we get Fuzzy to lie at all? Obviously she can roleplay but you're still new to it, right?" "Right," said Fuzzy. "I doubt you'd be able to fool over a hundred people who regularly play social games," said John, "It won't work. Even if we can get you to roleplay instead of lie and I doubt you'll be able to fool everyone by talking." Fuzzy's heart sank. "So there's no point," she said, glumly. "No, you don't talk," said John. Fuzzy perked up. Not talking to the other students sounded fantastic. "At all?" asked Fuzzy "Yep," said John, "I don't want you to talk to them at all." Fuzzy beamed. "I'm great at not talking to them!" she exclaimed, "I practiced all of last year." "Good to know," said John, "But you still have to interact with them." Fuzzy's cheer diminished significantly "Oh," she said, "I like that less." John shrugged. Fuzzy sighed. "What do I have to do?" she asked, her cheer gone. "I'm not sure yet," said John, "But I saw you use illusions at the LARPs pretty frequently for special effects. How does the spell work?" Fuzzy thought about it. "Uhhh...I think about something, cast the spell and it seems real," said Fuzzy, "I'm not great at spellcasting though. Or summoning. Also I don't know anything about alchemy either. So I'm not really sure about how it works. I just think about it and do it." Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Apr 17, 2021 |
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Apr 17, 2021 16:22
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Mother Bear tapped at her AR glasses to pause Wheel of Fortune. "The trid phantasm spell that Fuzzy knows creates realistic three dimensional objects, creatures or scenes as far as the caster can see," said Mother Bear, her tone bored as she recited the properties of the spell, "Depending on the level of success of the spell it would seem more or less real. It can also fool technological devices while most of the other illusion spells can't. Trid phantasm is the most realistic and the most taxing of all of the illusion spells. If Fuzzy wasn't already magically gifted and strong willed I would have suggested another spell." "So she could create a scene that would engage the five senses?" asked John. "There are far more than fives senses young man," said Mother Bear, "We have over fourteen without adding more with technology. For example, balance is a sense. As is pain though creating pain with trid phantasm is tricky as there are spells dedicated to causing illusory pain. It even fools other specialized senses for animals like echolocation if the caster knows what they're doing." "Wow," said John, "You can fool dolphins with illusion magic?" "Yeah," said Mother Bear, "At least in theory. Someone would need a lot of practice." "And I don't have a lot of practice," said Fuzzy. Mother Bear grunted. "Just take it more seriously," said Mother Bear. "I'm taking a spellcasting class this semester," said Fuzzy. "Good," said Mother Bear, "Work hard." Fuzzy sighed heavily. She'd worked hard all summer and had probably taken off more work than she could easily handle. The problem was that Sasha was lacking attention for her work ethic. Fuzzy felt the need to work and she wasn't entirely sure of how to stop. Neither taking a break or ignoring Sasha felt good. She was broken out of her brief reverie when John began talking again. "So here's a hypothetical," said John, "Could Fuzzy make them believe that they fought the toxic fire elemental in the Ork Underground? Not make them believe they were her. That's not a sense. I mean something more like a VR sim. Could she do that?" Everyone looked to Mother Bear. She took off her glasses and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "With enough practice, yes she could," said Mother Bear, "But there are ethical problems with that." "What are those?" asked John. Mother Bear put her glasses back on but didn't reengage AR this time. "Fuzzy would essentially be selling her experiences," said Mother Bear, "That's first. These would be very personal experiences for her. Especially if there are three of them. She may not be comfortable with that. She is also the subject of the illusion spell. Would they be her? If there were, would they be in her clothes for example? Would they feel her body as she moved? It's intimate and invasive and she is a minor." John blushed and began to stammer. "I-I-I didn't mean..." he began. Mother Bear shushed him with a hard, dismissive sniff. "I didn't say you were some sort of pervert," said Mother Bear, "I just want to make sure that Fuzzy doesn't give people a show. It's very possible to take herself out with some changes but even then it's still an intimate view into her life. It might be too much. So that would be for Fuzzy to think over and decide." She nodded to Fuzzy who didn't know how to feel. "And you might want to talk to your girlfriend, dear," said Mother Bear, "If you want to test this you should do it with someone you trust who can give you good feedback. Sasha has a good head on her shoulders. It would be important to talk to her to see if she's comfortable with this. I've had students use illusion magic to replay memories before. You would be putting your life on display for others. At a minimum you would need to filter out the sensation of your own body. There are ethical ways to do this but I can't determine your level of comfort in sharing your life. Only you can." "But I'll have a hard time saying no," said Fuzzy, quietly. "gently caress that," barked Mother Bear, "If it were me I'd just take you out of school for the semester. If I remember correctly then you've got a year long visa for Salish lands. Both you and Sasha could spend a semester on Council Island or even in Salish Council proper." "But...I'd be away from school," said Fuzzy, "And my friends." "The world is bigger than one school," said Mother Bear, "Much, much bigger. And soon you'll be too big for it. Not everyone maxes out but I've got a good feeling about you. Once that happens I can convince all some oldsters to come take a look at you and maybe teach you a thing or two. Powerful ones. They would laugh at the idea of you being a toy for the wealthy. You're not a toy. You're a woman and a shaman and my student. You'll only be a toy if you allow it. I don't suggest it. If they get the idea in their heads that they can play with you once then they'll never stop trying." "So...It's a no," said John, slowly. "I told you," said Mother Bear, her tone grumpy, "I'm not an ideas person. I'm just telling you what won't work, what's not acceptable and why. Maybe you have something here if you rework it but if you put it in their heads that Fuzzy is a toy for them to play with then she's set up for even worse trouble down the road. I won't allow it." "What's the alternative?" asked Marco. "I don't know," said Mother Bear, "Keep talking and I'll tell you if it's bad. If I don't hate it then maybe you have something. You have parts of something that might work. Take those parts and make something. If you can't I'm going to tell Julian that she needs to take a semester off." To Fuzzy, knowing that she had options was a relief. Also the idea of spending time with Sasha like she had in summer sounded great. This time she could spend more time with her. But she also felt guilty. Julie, Kenji and Chip might need her and Sasha's help and it would be harder to give from Council Island. Meanwhile, Marco furrowed his brow in thought but then brightened and looked to Fuzzy. "Is it true?" asked Marco, "You're about to awaken?" "I got told this morning that I was close," said Fuzzy, "Though I'm not exactly sure what it means." "I thought you were all already awakened," said John. Marco looked to Mother Bear but she'd already turned her AR glasses back on again. "You just don't need me for this," said Mother Bear, "Go ahead." Marco pursed his lips. "Do you have any drinks? Cups?" John cast about the desk and found an old two liter of Fizzychug and a few disposable cups. Marco grabbed the two liter, unscrewed the cap and filled just a little of the cup. Fuzzy sometimes had problems with perspective with trolls. The two liter looked small in Marco's large hand but the cup was tiny. Then when he set it down again it seemed to change size despite no magic being cast at all. Even after a year of lunch with him she still wasn't fully used to it. "So people with magic are called awakened," said Marco, "That magic lets you draw on forces that would otherwise be inaccessible to normal people. Some people have a little magic." Marco poured some more. "A very few people start out with more," said Marco. Her poured a little more. "Magic tends to be increased by contemplation, isolation and adapting to hardship. There are other ways but these are the most reliable ways to increase magic in a safe way." Marco pointed to the cup. "The term awakened used to mean something specific," said Marco, "But it's become a kind of catch-all term for people who have magic. Awakened refers to someone who has maxed out their natural potential for magic." "So magic users aren't awakened," said John. Marco carefully filled the cup even higher. "Not true awakened," said Marco, "No. Awakening originally referred to something specific. The term comes from Buddhism. The story goes that when the Buddha began to wander around India some people came to understand that he was some sort of extraordinary being." Marco kept tipping small amounts into the drink. So high that it couldn't be grasped without spilling it but it still wasn't up to the top. "At first they asked him if he was a god. And he said no," said Marco, "And they asked him if he was a reincarnated god. Again he said no. They asked him if he was some sort of wizard. No again. They asked him if he was just a man. And no, he was not just a man. So they asked him what he was." Marco finally topped off the drink. Then carefully he levitated the fizzing liquid with a small spell. The liquid hissed and fizzled in the air without spilling. John stared, mouth poised to eat another bite of pizza as Marco shaped it into a ball. To Fuzzy, Marco and Mother Bear though this was nothing remarkable. But to John, the casual use of magic was noteworthy. "The Buddha said that he was awake," said Marco, "And how to awaken was what he taught." Marco raised his hand and the little ball of fizzing liquid began to orbit around it in lazy revolutions like a fizzing moon. "Wait," whispered John, quietly, "You're saying that awakening is enlightenment?" He shrugged with one shoulder as the ball of Fizzychug continued to orbit his hand. "I have no idea," said Marco, "The Buddha has been dead for almost two and a half millennia. Buddhists believe he's come back over and over again but I'm not a Buddhist. The term was popularized when some people realized that there was a difference between regular magic users and those who awaken when they max out their magic for the first time. Not only does one become more powerful but it shifts your perspective. You begin to view the world in new ways and see things which aren't obvious to other people." "What's it like?" asked John. Marco got a far away look in his eyes and smiled. "It's like growing closer to God," he said, reverently. Marco looked to Mother Bear who said nothing. "One in a hundred people are magic users," said Marco, "Only one in a hundred of them ever awaken. Most don't try because many fail. They just don't have what it takes or they do but they give up." Fuzzy did the math on her fingers. It took a few seconds but eventually she got it. "So a hundred people in a million awaken?" asked Fuzzy. "Yes," said Marco, "And that's hundred ever. Not per year. Total. Seattle has several million people and we do attract more true awakened as a result. However, I'd be surprised if there were more than a five-hundred in the city. Three of them teach at Blake Island. I was lucky enough to awaken in my junior year. Julie came to school awakened." Mother Bear grunted neutrally but said nothing. There was also the slightest moment of hesitation from Marco, but he pressed on. "And now it looks you might do it, Fuzzy," said Marco, "Congratulations. Even making it close is a feat." "Huh," said Fuzzy, "What does it do?" "Besides top out your magic?" asked Marco. "Yeah." "How much?" asked John, "More power I mean?" "Not a whole lot," said Marco, "You can summon more powerful spirits. That's actually extremely useful." "But I'm really bad at summoning spirits," said Fuzzy. "How many classes have you taken?" asked Marco. Fuzzy breathed through her teeth in frustration. "Just the safety class," said admitted Fuzzy. "That'd be why," said Marco, "That's only two weeks long. I'd suggest taking those classes. Awakened level spirits are pretty powerful. Uhhh...Let's see...You could cast spells at a more powerful level. You could bond more focuses." "Like magic items?" asked John. "Ish," said Marco, "Most of them enhance already existing talents. It's why they're called focuses." "No flaming swords then?" joked John. "A true, non-focus magical flaming sword would cost millions of nuyen to make," said Marco, "There's probably a focus power that can replicate it..." "There is, I checked," said Fuzzy, excitedly, "I can also use lightning or cold." Marco grinned. "You'd know," said Marco. "I really do," said Fuzzy, smugly. "Anyway," said Marco, "If you wanted to make a true magic item it would be outrageously expensive. There's plenty of research and development into making true magical items and there have been some successes but tech is the more sensible option if you want to make something like a ah...Flaming sword." "A man can dream," said John, reverently, "Dream of flaming swords." The globe of Fizzychug bobbed up and down a bit. Marco refocuses and it steadied its revolution. "And as Fuzzy is a physical adept she'd be able to get more physical adept powers," said Marco, "Powers which I sadly lack." Fuzzy smiled smugly and wondered if she might be able to get even faster than she was now. John stroked his chin. "So it's prestigious," said John. "Oh yes," said Marco, "Extremely. Only a handful each year actually awakens." "Okay. I think I'm getting a grip on what matters to the wealthy and the magical community," said John, "We're going to make sure that Fuzzy isn't some toy for the wealthy. The elite still want to play their game and her presence is barely consequential. So we stick with that rule of three. Fuzzy, do you think you'd be willing to share a modified illusion of your fight with the toxic fire spirit?" "I'm not sure," said Fuzzy, "I'd have to think about it. Also I want to talk to Sasha about it too." "Didn't she play the wolf the last time we went LARPing? That was her, right?" Fuzzy smiled a goofy little smile. "Yeah," said Fuzzy, "I invited her along. We had a lot of fun." "Aww," said John, "You should bring her along sometime for real." Fuzzy's smile instantly vanished. "Uhhhh...I don't think...She could...Uhhhh..." "It's cool," said John, quickly, "Don't worry. Whatever. Her business." Fuzzy nodded gratefully. "Back on topic," said John, "In order to distract, we escalate what' on offer. We start with the fight. You don't need to lie because you have illusion magic. You could just show them." Mother Bear eye's focused on John John and she gave him a look. He quickly backpedaled. "Theoretically," he said, "And only if you're comfortable with it." Mother Bear's eyes went out of focus again. "Next on offer would be something like your memory of punching Minuet. Obviously you'd have to play it cool. You can't just tell everyone it's on offer." "What if they ask?" asked Fuzzy. "You deny it," said John, "You don't need to be especially convincing. Everyone will know you're lying." "So it's okay that I suck at lying?" asked Fuzzy, "But they'd know I was lying." "They'd know you're lying and you'd know you're lying," said John, "But so long as you maintain the fiction I think they'd be okay. I imagine that they might even want to make a game of keeping up the fiction. What do you think, Marco?" "Fuzzy seeming to punch the status, privilege and wealth out of Minuet..." began Marco. "Don't forget teeth!" exclaimed Fuzzy, "I got most of them!" John looked to Marco and tried not to laugh. Marco put his hand up to his face. Mother Bear chuckled darkly. "Would be considered extremely perverse by the wealthy," continued Marco, some seconds later after he composed himself, "Socially at least. Which means that almost everyone would want to see it. Even if just in morbid curiousity. It would have to be handled delicately. I'd suggest asking Kenji for help." Marco looked to Mother Bear for disagreement but she gave him a small shrug. "Float it by him," said Mother Bear, "He knows a good portion of the students. If he can get the popular students to agree then the rest would probably agree as well. In a few minutes he'd convince them that it was all their idea." Marco nodded. "Being contrary and ruining the game would be considered extreme distasteful," said Marco, "But you'll want to seed the idea early enough that you can back out. You don't admit anything. You let people draw their own conclusions." "And the third option?" asked John, rhetorically, "An illusory record of Fuzzy's awakening." "No," said Marco and Mother Bear, both at the same time. John held up his hands before him. "I figured you might say that," said John, "Why no?" Mother Bear pulled off her AR glasses and slapped them down on the table. "Awakening is the most important experience an awakened can have," said Mother Bear, coolly, "It's why we're called awakened. Those experiences are not for sale. Period." John folded laced his fingers together and leaned back in his chair. "I figured as much," said John, "You know, I've abandoned the idea of Fuzzy even attempting to run this on her own. In fact, I want this to be an educational experience. These are the children of the elite. So tell me, how much sway do they have in running the school?" Mother Bear stared at him for a long time. The tension was such that Fuzzy began to fidget and squirm in her seat. "A little more than a normal student at a normal school," said Mother Bear, "But not that much. We do much to separate them from their wealth and priviledge at school and for good reason." "Why's that?" asked John. "That's not for you to know," said Mother Bear, flatly. John nodded once. "I guess I don't," he said, "I was just curious." Mother Bear harrumphed. "Remember," said John, "I'm working backwards in designing this. I've identified how a good way of getting past Fuzzy's secret. We can work out the kinks. But I think I can find a compromise that preserves Fuzzy's secret, keeps her out of danger by keeping the students busy and creates incentives for the students to achieve educationally." Mother Bear continued to stare down John for a few more seconds before she gave him the smallest of nods. "It's not a no yet," said Mother Bear, "Go ahead. Try and impress me." "One second," he said. John pulled out his commlink and spent half a minute searching for something. He made a flicking motion towards the data pad and pulled up a book. It was old. Almost a century old in fact. Then he pulled up another and another. "So pre-magic," said John, "And also post to some extent, there were the blending of two fiction genres. The British boarding school genre and the fantasy genre. And they've made a resurgence in the last few decades as magic has become more and more understood and therefore less and less scary. One of the major plot points of a book in these series is to do a kind of magical tournament. Whole arcs revolve around them." Fuzzy stopped fidgeting. Her eyes widened at the idea of a tournament. "What kind of tournament?" asked Fuzzy, excitedly. "You're loving joking," said Mother Bear, "Am I going senile? Or did I not just say to impress me. Young man, this is the opposite of that." "Hear me out," said John, "It's a tried and true fantasy narrative. It's formulaic. You barely have to explain a wizard tournament. It's helpful when things are self-explanatory. Your students live in isolation and contemplation. The reason that they'll all focus on Fuzzy is because all of them are bored. If they had any other stimulation then they'd do that instead. But the attention of over a hundred of the world's elite is frightening as hell. Like...Whoa." John rocked back and forth in his ratty chair. His eyes got a faraway look to them as he imagined the scenario. "You don't let this fall on Fuzzy," said John, "She's not prepared and there's no chance she will be. You use the school as a buffer. You take their informal game of posturing and jockeying for position and you formalize it by making a real game of it. You pick the winners based on your own criteria but in the books it tends to be about individual achievement and how they embody the values of the school. Fuzzy comes to you about working on a project. Her uh...Capstone project." "I am?" said Fuzzy. "In this idea," said John, his grin wide, "You seed that plot point for later. That you're working on something big. They don't care yet. Or better yet some might. Anything to draw attention away from your secret is good. You won't be able to ignore them all. Instead you misdirect them. So the school says that this semester we're going to do something different than quiet contemplation and isolation." John slowly opened his hands wide. "There's too much interest in Fuzzy," said John, "You have to disarm that. All that attention is dangerous. So instead of leaving her to the sharks the school steps in, formalizes the game, creates rules, sets boundaries, gives prizes that really don't matter so everyone can compete and communicates its values to the students. This acts as a buffer between Fuzzy and everyone else." "You want to have a wizard tournament," said Marco, incredulously, "That only happens in stories." Mother Bear groaned in frustration. "That's not exactly true," sighed Mother Bear, "Awakened tournaments were very fashionable among students in the 2050's. I wasn't a teacher back then but a few of the teachers with long careers have mentioned it a few times. Some of them even made the trid." "How'd they end up?" asked Marco. "A mix of good and bad," said Mother Bear, "It would be a shitshow but some of the old teachers remembered them pretty fondly. No one died at least." "So it's not terrible?" asked John "I hate it," said Mother Bear, "But it's not the dumbest idea I've heard. Can't do it though." "Why not?" asked Fuzzy. "Blake Island has students from over a dozen mega corporations," said Mother Bear, "There's red tape everywhere plus a mountain of paperwork to climb for the smallest things. Throwing some tournament together on short notice is basically impossible." Marco winced and shook his head. "Actually it might be a good idea," said Marco, "Giving them a busy box I mean." "What's a busy box?" asked Fuzzy. "A fun time waster," said John, "Something interesting enough to be distracting." "Hey," interrupted Mother Bear, "Marco, why do you think a busy box would be a good idea?" Marco looked distinctly uncomfortable. "You remember how Ares took over Lone Star?" asked Marco, "The hostile takeover?" Fuzzy nodded. "I heard about that," said Fuzzy, "One police corporation ate another police corporation." "That's about right," said Mother Bear, "Why?" "Well, details have been spilling out," said Marco, slowly, "And pictures. It seems like the entire board of Lone Star was massacred. Ares didn't just take it over through guile and assassination. It looks like they rolled in, stole all of the voting stock, murdered everyone and now they own or control over almost all of the policing contracts on the planet." There was silence for a time. "And that's...Bad," said Fuzzy, slowly. "It's very bad. It's also never been done before," said Marco, "People in the corporate world fight through proxies, intrusive and assassination. Rarely you'll see a corporate war but it's even rarer that anyone at the top is ever touched. This is an entirely new precedent and everyone in the corporate world are different mixes of terrified, confused and angry." "So..." said Fuzzy, slowly, "That's...Also bad." Marco nodded emphatically. "Very, very bad," said Marco, seriously, "I'm not sure if my parents will pull me back to EVO headquarters in Vladivostok or not. If they do I'll have a hard time saying no." "I don't want you to leave," said Fuzzy. "And I don't want to," said Marco, gently, "But this is dangerous. Especially for people like me." Fuzzy bit her lip. The corporate world was not a good place. Even she knew that. But she didn't want to see her friend get hurt or be forced to leave. "I hadn't heard about this," said John. Marco sighed. "The media has been priming the public ever since it got out," said Marco, "Knowledge of the decapitation of Lone Star's entire corporate board is being suppressed but you can't hide something this big forever. I'm told that it's being openly talked about on the more paranoid parts of the matrix. The public doesn't know yet but they will. It's just a matter of time." "poo poo," said John, "What do you think is going to happen?" "I don't know," said Marco, "That's for the corporate court to decide. But until some sort of consensus is reached that anger and confusion and fear is reverberating throughout the corporate elite. That's going to filter down to the students. Many of them will ignore the ban on lethal spells and summoned spirits are extremely dangerous. It's possible that they might attack one another." Mother Bear buried her head in her hands. "loving bullshit," she grumbled. "The response is pretty mixed so far," said Marco, "Some think it's just an Ares internal matter. They did it, it's done and so they don't expect any more violence from Ares. It's going to take them years to fully take over Lone Star and they might not get it due to how they took it. It's a terrible precedent. Others are fleeing to the corporate enclaves or their private bunkers. I expect to get a full security detail once my parents finally pay attention to me. That could take days or even weeks though." Marco's orb of Fizzychug was levitated back into the cup, picked it up and he took a sip of it. "So a busy box would be a good idea," said John. "Anything to keep them from attacking each other," said Marco, "When was the last time there was a real fight at school?" "There was Minuet," said Fuzzy. "No, at school," said Marco, "When was the last time someone had a real fight at school with magic? They all looked to Mother Bear whose face was still in her hands. She pulled them away, leaned back in her chair and looked up in remembrance. "Here?" asked Mother Bear, "Some scraps, but we're extremely careful. We usually break up fights pretty fast. There was a pretty famous incident at one of the local military schools though." "What happened?" asked Fuzzy. Mother Bear grunted. "The government has schools for poor awakened," said Mother Bear, "They're a pipeline for the military and they don't get as good a grounding in no and don't. One student summoned a beast spirit and told it to attack another student. He wanted the spirit to scare the poo poo out of his victim. Bat him around a bit. Or so I was told. Instead the spirit nearly clawed the second student to death. Well...Technically it did. Dying didn't take though." "Oh!" exclaimed Fuzzy, "I remember Mrs. Maureen talk about that during the summoning safety class. About why we shouldn't give vague instructions to spirits." "That was one of the examples, yes," said Marco, "Most spirits follow instructions literally. Bad instructions lead to bad results." "But why did it happen?" asked Fuzzy, "She wouldn't say." "It happened because a poorly trained child was angry and thoughtless with a dangerous creature," said Mother Bear, enigmatically, "Which is why we do our best to teach all of you what not to do before anything else. When the words "no" and "don't" don't sink in deep enough then thoughtless actions can lead to tragic consequences. The student that was attacked by the summoned spirit was clinically dead for five minutes before being resuscitated. All it took was three seconds of anger and thoughtlessness by a child who was taught to destroy." Marco shivered. "That happened two years before I came to school," said Marco, "It was famous. I heard the spirit tore him open." "It was a lion beast spirit," said Mother Bear, "It pounced, ripped open his neck with its jaws, grabbed on and disemboweled him his its hind legs. He was basically killed by a lion." Everyone shivered. "I didn't hear that in the summoning safety class," said Fuzzy, quietly. "You'd hear it if I taught summoning safety," said Mother Bear, "But it's not my class to teach. Mrs. Maureen and I disagree about about methods and I think that people would pay a lot more attention in class if you talked about how bad it gets and how it can happen to them. Accidentally murdering someone with a loving lion gets the point across. They brought him back but he was good and dead for a few minutes." Fuzzy looked at her meat pizza and put it down. Being killed by animals was abstract for most people here but as a huntress that was very possible. Everyone was quiet for a while. They'd lost their appetites after talk of the spirit attack. Only Marco sipped at his drink. Then Mother Bear came to a conclusion. "All right young man," said Mother Bear, to John, "I'm not sold on your idea but I don't completely hate it either. Something unprecedented has happened and there needs to be change in order to preserve the safety of my students. I don't need a spirit or a spell injuring or killing my kids. Change needs to happen rapidly so I want a few plans to take back to the school. And Marco, I'll need you to dig up what you know so I can get the ball rolling." "Of course," said Marco. Mother Bear looked to Fuzzy and spoke to her. "I'm not sure what I could dangle in front of the students that will get them all playing for prestige. I could probably find something given enough time but I'm not sure how good it will be and I don't know when I could get it. You talk to that girlfriend of yours and think long and hard about whether you want to help out or lay low. I'll talk to the other teachers to see if we have something worth competing over." Fuzzy nodded seriously. "Sasha doesn't get out of the hospital until Tuesday," said Fuzzy, "Something about outside patient?" "Outpatient," said Mother Bear, "And yeah, she's busy until Tuesday. So I think you'll spend Monday and Tuesday on Council Island. I think we can keep a lid on any possible violence for a day or two to assess just how bad it's going to be." Mother Bear picked up a slice of "meat" pizza in one bony hand. Her stomach was unphased. "Okay young man. Hmm...No...John," she said, "We might just have your wizard tournament. Or something. Personally I don't give a poo poo what it is so long as it keep my kids from killing each other. So you three keep talking and I'll tell you no until we have something worth a drat."  CYOA Timeor Fuzzy and Sasha lay low on Council Island. or Something else? Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 19:07 on Apr 17, 2021 |
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Apr 17, 2021 16:22
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So I thought about this for a long while. I don't think that the "Wizard Tournament" will take up that much more narrative space in the story as it'll plug into things I'm already doing and make it weirder. And not in a Harry Potter way though I basically am making a direct reference to it as well as getting a little meta by having one of the characters being genre aware in the genre he's in because I like doing poo poo like that. Wizard Tournament would be the fever dreams of end stage capitalism as the hyper-elite jockey for status that is ultimately pointless by spending shitloads of money that they don't need while Seattle burns. All to keep them distracted or at least competing in a way that keeps them from killing each other after Marie murdered the entire Lone Star corporate board and Ares got blamed for it. This is not me saying do it or don't. It's more me clarifying what it would mean. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Apr 17, 2021 |
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Apr 17, 2021 16:54
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Bangs fists on table: Wizard Tournament!
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Apr 17, 2021 17:15
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Bangs fists on table: Wizard Tournament! As long as it isn't quidditch
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Apr 17, 2021 18:01
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Prize wise I'm thinking vague that can be turned into another years tuition for ollie or others and so if ollie wins the Corp kids won't be too upset, but it can't be money direct, school board approved favor? Not exactly a wish but Corp kids could use it to get better materials, personal tutoring from a teacher if their choice?
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Apr 17, 2021 21:48
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I vote for Fuzzy lies low because it's a good option for her relationship with Sasha and it has less room for things to go wrong. Though I'd be interested to see Julian's take on the idea - it almost sounds like MB thinks that it would be good for her personal growth, at least in the long term.
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Apr 17, 2021 22:40
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I vote for wizard tournament it sounds awesome. I'm getting a little bit of Fuzzy talks to the author vibes from John, Ice did you used to work in pizza?
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Apr 18, 2021 12:36
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Julie, Kenji and Julian - Interstate 90 - Tuesday, August 22nd, 2075 – Afternoon - Seattle Metroplex It was an hour after Julie's emergency session with her therapist, Mr. Brand. Julie didn't feel great but she did feel better than mindlessly fleeing through the woods in a panic. She obviously hadn't been able to talk about the upcoming massacre or the fact that they weren't going to help like she thought they would. Better wasn't great. It wasn't good. It wasn't even okay. But she was better than she'd been. These were the thoughts that occupied her as they rode in a taxi and approached one of the metroplex's eastern border. Julian was asleep. In fact he'd fallen asleep almost instantly upon entering the taxi. He looked exhausted and Julie felt like she was right behind him even though she couldn't sleep. Kenji's eyes were unfocused as he checked the matrix through AR. They traveled down east down the I-90 as it straddled Renton to the south and the Redmond barrens to the north. She saw the mountains to the south and when she stared long enough she found an icon in AR. As she stared at the icon it unfolded into a name that read "Tiger Mountain State Forest". However any chance and looking to the north was blocked by an tall plascreet divider. It seemed that no one wanted the commuters to look at the barrens though the divider was covered both real and AR graiffit as far as the eye could see. Before Julian had passed out he'd explained that they were going to the Salish Council. Not Council Island but actually outside of the metroplex and into another country. If not for the spectacular failure that was the CPS meeting this likely would have been trickier if not impossible but their failure was Julie and Kenji's gain. A trip to the Salish Council would shorten the time spent restoring their injured magic. Time was precious and so they made their way towards another country. Since there was nothing else to do and being alone with her thoughts was terrifying, Julie decided to brush up on her history. She accessed the matrix through her commlink and found some history on the Salish Council from their official matrix site and so she began to read. The nation of the Salish Council is a confederation of tribes that was created by the original tribes that lived here long before European colonizers arrived. The matrix site gave an overview of their history which Julie skimmed over until she stopped at more recent history. How they survived the concentration camps of the old United States and Canada in the 2000's and 2010's. In their greed both nations attempted to strip the land from every surviving tribe left on the continent on behalf of corporate interests. When the tribes attempted to defend themselves and their lands any who did not accept the will of these dying nations were thrown into the camps. When magic came back into the world, these tribes were among the first to discover and weaponize magic and no nation on earth had yet developed any defense. Julie paused here. The site didn't mention why they'd received magic first. The uneducated opinion was that those of the tribes were inherently more magical. This was untrue and more than a little racist. She'd been taught that no one group had more or less access to magic than another. The prevailing theory is that adversity fuels magical development and the more adversity the more development one had. Outbursts of magic were a defense mechanism which Julie knew far too well. Time spent under pressure accelerated the development of magic. So the more these old nations oppressed the natives the more powerful some of the oppressed became. Julie focused back on the matrix site. After ten years of repeatedly losing to a far less numerous, far technologically inferior but magically superior force, the USA and Canada still refused to negotiate for the stolen land. This ended in the Second Ghost Dance War where awakened magicians caused Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Adams, Redondo Peak and others to erupt simultaneously, terrifying both the USA and Canada. The eruptions were so violent that they'd defeaned local residents and destroyed and the resulting ash permanently cooled the planet by half a degree Fahrenheit. Almost all of Canada and most of the Western United States were ceded at the Treaty of Denver. Julie paused again. She remembered from her childhood how some of the racists she knew would go on and on about Los Alamos which had sat at the foot of Redondo Peak. Of the twenty-thousand people who lived there almost none survived. It had spawned the hate group Alamos 20k and it appeared that they had some involvement in bombing the Grand Terrace, the elven restaurant that had been attacked at the beginning of the semester. "History is complicated," she said to herself and continued on. The Salish Council has taken back the land of the tribes that resided within the former states of Washington, most of Idaho, western Montana, northeast Oregon and roughly half of the province of British Columbia. They were joined in the NAN by the Sioux Nation, Pueblo Corporate Council, Algonquian-Manitou Council, Trans-Polar Aleut Nation, Ute Nation and Tsimshian Nation. Julie was pretty sure that a few of those didn't exist anymore but she couldn't remember which ones off the top of her head. She read about the Salish Council's major exports, which were a mix of environmentally sustainable renewable resources, power and pharmaceuticals. How the NAN had the largest number of leonized people in the world which she knew was the process where the elderly were made youthful through science. The Salish Council had the world's oldest living citizen who had been born in July of 1936. Julie read that twice to be sure and yes, she'd read that right. And that the population of... Kenji judged Julie in the side and she turned off her AR glasses. "What?" she asked. "We're coming up on the border," said Kenji. Julie nodded and looked to Julian. A little drool glistened at the corner of his mouth and she smiled a little. "Want me to wake up Julian?" she asked. "Give him a few more minutes," said Kenji. The automated taxi rolled to a stop. There was a line at the border and so they let him sleep until they near the front. Julie tapped Julian who stirred. "Mrrr?" he asked, unintelligibly. "We're at the border," said Julie. He sniffed and rubbed at his face. "Kay," he said, sleepily. They said nothing more until they reached the front of a line near a fortified checkpoint. People in armor and security drones patrolled but despite the weapons the checkpoint seemed calm and routine. Julian rolled down the window as someone approached. "State your business," said a bored looking man. Julie tried to see him but Julian was in the way. "We're shamans on a spiritual retreat," said Julian, sleepily. "Destination?" "The Snoqualmie Hot Springs over in North Bend." "Do you have any items to declare from the following list?" Julie couldn't see it and so it was most likely a list in AR. "No," said Julian. "Do you consent to a scan for any contraband or hazardous items?" "Yes." A small drone about the size of a softball began to hover in front of the cab. A small light in the center of shined brightly as it slowly moved and inspected the car. It passed around each side of the car, over and even under it before it flew away. Julian hadn't mentioned where they'd be going. Only that they should pack a change of clothes and a bathing suit just in case. "Hot springs?" mouthed Julie. Kenji shrugged. "I see," said the man, "Your paperwork is in order. Welcome to the Salish Council." "Mhm," grunted Julian. The taxi began to move again and Julian rolled up the window. He was about to curl up to go back to sleep when Julie tapped him again. "We're going to cleanse in a hot spring?" asked Julie. Julie looked at Julie, bleary eyed. "No," said Julian, "It's just nearby. There's a thousand year old tree we're going to see in the morning. The hot springs are nice but they don't have any cleansing properties." Julian turned around again to sleep but Julie still had questions. "Why didn't we go in the morning?" she asked. Julian sighed and looked reluctant to stay up. Julie took the hint. "Sorry," she said, "I'll ask when we get there." Julian nodded once and relaxed. In half a minute he was asleep again. Julie still had questions but she could consult the matrix for answers. Before she could she got a text from Kenji. Kenji: Julian is beat. Julie: Yeah. Kenji: So are we going to be in a cabin or... Julie: No clue. We might be outside. Kenji: Great. She looked over to Kenji. He looked unenthused. Julie: Is this your first time in another country? Kenji shrugged. Kenji: Do extraterritorial corporations count as other countries? Because if they do we just went to the Aztechnology Pyramid yesterday, remember? That's technically Aztlan. Julie: It doesn't feel like another country. It feels like a corporate enclave. Kenji: Same difference to some people. I've never been outside of the metroplex before. You? Julie shook her head. Kenji: That answers why we're here tonight. I guess it would be kind of lovely if we came to a new country for the first time and only spent a few hours there before going home. Julie quickly looked up North Bend. It was about forty minutes away from Touristville and they'd crossed roughly half of that. The Snoqualmie Hot Springs were another forty up a mountain and there was a five mile hike up a mountain though they wouldn't climb that much as they'd drive most of the way up. Julie: I think we're hiking. Kenji frowned at that. Kenji: Any chance you could levitate me? Julie stifled a small smile but the sadness she'd been trying to process began to creep back in. She didn't text him but she did whisper something to him. "I'm not doing good right now." She could admit it at least. That was something. He slowly nodded, folded an arm around her and didn't say anything for a while. If she were in a more stable mood she might have worried about him being that close. Instead she enjoyed the comfort but she was still alone with her thoughts and her thoughts kept going back to letting people die. Before she could think about this too much her AR glasses pinged as Kenji invited her to a game of cards. The invitation was to a game called Tien Len. "Kenji: Want to play?" "Julie: I don't know how." "Kenji: We've got a minute." Julie was grateful. A little distraction was just what she needed. Kenji handed her an AR glove which was a little tight on her hand. He wore the other one and together they played AR cards one handed. For the next forty minutes, Julie took comfort from Kenji as she leaned against him. He kept her mind off everything with a game of cards. -- I roll composure for Julie. 5 hits with Kenji's help. She is dealing well enough to be able to admit that she's not doing great. Kenji gets a 6. He's seen quite a lot of bad stuff in the ACHE and the target number to beat to deal with it is lower. Caring about people in the abstract isn't a very Kenji or Dog thing to do. What bothers him is Julie's reaction and he supports her. I roll body x 2 for Julian. He gets six hits on six dice. Looks like he'll be refreshed from the nap and he'll roll normally on his way up the mountain. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Apr 19, 2021 |
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Apr 18, 2021 20:35
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steelninja posted:I vote for wizard tournament it sounds awesome. I'm getting a little bit of Fuzzy talks to the author vibes from John, Ice did you used to work in pizza? I delivered pizzas for a few months but it was only part time. I knew people like John while who worked in the services industry though and one specifically while I was there. It is partly the author talking to the characters but I make sure to keep that limited and make it more of a metacommentary. I'm going to do my own take on the tournament and I wanted to give the opportunity for poo poo to get weird. Mother Bear doesn't want to do it because it's a headache but she also has responsibilities to the other students. Keeping them from fighting and hurting or even killing each other is extremely high priority for Mother Bear even if she doesn't like them very much. Also I thought it'd be amusing to lean into the genre a bit but from a different angle. A wizard tournament but almost everyone participating is horrible amuses me. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Apr 18, 2021 |
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Apr 18, 2021 20:49
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I vote they grasp the nettle and host a wizard tourney
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Apr 18, 2021 21:01
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Julie, Kenji and Julian - Tuesday, August 22nd, 2075 – Afternoon - North Bend, Salish Council They taxi stopped in North Bend which was a rural town snuggled between mountains. They were now in North Bend in front of an old cafe called "Twede's Cafe". As Julie had been paying more attention to architecture lately she almost instantly noticed that Twede's was different. Unlike the rest of the town which was awash in augmented reality and newer style buildings, Twedes was older with a real sign with neon lights, though they were currently off. The sign was a large red T, with a green oval in the middle of the T that read "Tweed's" and a white sign hung below like a flagpole that read "Cafe" in cursive. "Order something to take up," said Julian, "Get whatever sounds good and grab me a bison burger with fries. I'll heat everything up when we get there in a few hours." "Those fries aren't going to be any good if you reheat it," said Kenji. Julian grinned. "I'm a master of fire magic," he said, "Perfectly reheating cold fries is something that I'm very good at. I learned that in my freshman year of college." "Nice," said Kenji, "Guess all that fire has got to be good for something." Julian nodded sagely. "The taxi will take us the rest of the way," said Julian, "I'm going to get some camping supplies." Kenji frowned. "We're camping?" asked Kenji, "What, no cabins?" "Just for the night," said Julian, "You'll survive a single night of camping at a hotsprings adjacent tourist spot. Anyway, I've been to this restauraunt a few times before. I'd suggest getting a piece of cherry pie or two. Definitely worth it." That caught Kenji's attention. "Oh yeah?" he asked. "Mhm," said Julian, "They say around here that this must be where pies go when they die." Julian left and this left both of the teens confused. "What was that about?" asked Julie. "I don't know," said Kenji, "But I want that pie now." "Me too," said Julie. Twenty minutes later they'd both had perhaps the best tasting pie they'd ever had in their life when Julian walked into the diner. "Coffee to go," he told a waitress. "Sure thing," she said. He turned to his teens. "Ready to go?" he asked. Kenji lifted a heavy to-go bag. "Got you a slice," said Kenji, "You were right. Good stuff." "I told you," he said, with a smile, "I bought a few odds and ends for camping equipment. What I didn't bring. As soon as I get my coffee we'll go. I want to get there at a reasonable time." Julie checked the time. It was three-thirty. And when she looked away from her commlink Julian had his coffee. He'd brought his own container and the waitress had filled it up without complaint. He quickly paid and they were out the door. "It's twenty miles from here, right?" asked Julie. "There's a service road a couple miles east of here," said Julian, "Once we get there it's fourteen paved road and six unpaved. I'm going to have to actually drive the last six and then drive it back so it can hook up to Gridguide. Then it's a five mile hike. We're driving up most of the mountain so the rest of the hike upwards will be pretty gentle. We'll take a break if either of you get tired." "How will you get back?" asked Julie, "If you have to take the taxi back?" Julian wiggled his fingers mysteriously and said nothing else. "Okay," she said, "Just don't tire yourself out with magic since we're hiking right after." "I used to be a park ranger," said Julian, "It'll be fine." Julie was pretty sure that it was Julian who was going to get tired first. That life as a park ranger seemed pretty far in the past but she kept that to herself. They all piled back into the cab and Julian punched in the directions. Then they buckled up and were on their way. The town quickly disappeared behind them but they didn't get back on I-90. Instead they headed through the small town, took a turn near a school and the signs of town got thinner and thinner as the forest got thicker and thicker. "So I've got to say," began Kenji, "The price is definitely right here. I got a pork chop dinner for fifteen nuyen." "I got the crawfish and shrimp pot with sweet potatoes," said Julie, "That only cost twenty. Is this food really real?" "It's very real," said Julian, "These prices are what it looks like when one corporation doesn't hold a monopoly over your food. The lunch you had at the CPS fiasco cost a few hundred. A little price markup is pretty normal for that kind of neighborhood but it had actual coffee and meat on the menu. Those are scarce in UCAS. Aztechnology lobbies for incredibly high import tariffs with a lot of governments wherever it's located which keeps food prices high. Since the metroplex has such a high population in such a confined space we actually have the highest rent and food prices in the entire UCAS." "The rest of which is thousands of miles away to the east," said Julie. "Mhm," said Julian, "The import tariffs do funny things to what we eat as well. If I'd asked for soykaf instead of coffee in that diner they would have been instantly known that I was from the metroplex." "Why?" asked Julie. "Because soy is from Southeast Asia," said Julian, "And if it's in any of the traditional dishes from around here or from the tribes that moved west after the war then I can't think of any. Eating soy and krill and fungus while pricing the poor out of meat, fruit and vegetables is something really only practiced in places where Aztechnology sets up shop." Julian sipped his coffee and sighed happily. "Wait," said Kenji, "I paid three nuyen for a slice of cherry pie. Are you telling me that those were real cherries?" "Those were real cherries," said Julian. "From real cherry trees?" "Yes." Kenji looked down at the to-go bag in his lap and stared at it. "The best pie you've ever had if your life was made from real cherries and it only cost three nuyen," said Julian, "Even that is considered a little high." "I mean...It's not the best pie," said Kenji, "I've had better." There was a pause. "It was really good," said Julie. Another pause. "It's the best pie I've gotten for three nuyen," said Kenji, "I'll admit that much." "Why is it considered high?" asked Julie "Because anyone can set up a drone farm anywhere," said Julian, "If you can get the capital they're not hard to run. There's tons of land out here and most of that land belongs to the tribes and they don't deny food to their own members. Six million people are packed into the metroplex. Only nine million live in the Salish Council and it is way bigger in terms of land. A lot of that land is still blighted due to pollution from how the old United States treated it before it fell apart but even so you can set up a drone farm to basically grow anything anywhere." Julie took this in. She wanted to ask more questions but Julian looked like he was enjoying his coffee. Plus she wanted to finish her latest card game with Kenji. So she and Kenji played for a little while longer while Julian ate his pie and drank his coffee. The taxi took them deeper into the forest and up the mountain, crossing a river and then following it. The taxi kept moving and a few minutes later it stopped a hundred feet short of a dirt road. The unpaved road was servicable but it was covered in potholes. "Leaving Gridguide coverage area," said the taxi, "For your safety we have come to a complete stop." "That looks rough," said Julie. "You should see the inside of the ACHE," said Kenji, "We have potholes on most of the floors and we don't even have cars." Julian fidgeted with the controls of the taxi and paid extra for manual control. He stepped out of the car's back seat and stepped back into the front seat. "Are you going to be able to drive that?" asked Kenji. "I used to drive roads like these all the time," said Julian, "I'm surprised Gridguide got us this far. And now I just have to pay to get manual control..." He slotted his credstick and winced. "Oh, that hurts," said Julian, "Should've gotten a different ride in town." The next six miles were slow on what was effectively a one lane dirt road through the forest. More than once Julian dodged around potholes or when he couldn't the entire car shook as the shocks weren't that great. He managed though and twenty minutes later they found a gravel parking lot with a wooden sign near a trail. Julian turned off the taxi and everyone got out. "And here we are," said Julian. Kenji and Julian took out their gear and the to-go bag but Julie hesitated. "Hey," said Julie, "Exactly how are you getting back? I mean, how long should we wait?" Julian thought about it. "Twenty minutes to get back to Gridguide coverage and ten to get back." "And...How?" Julian didn't say anything. Instead checked his commlink. "Is the meter still running?" asked Kenji. "Yeah," sighed Julian, "It'll stop when I let it go so I better do that soon. "But how do we get back tomorrow?" asked Julie. "I can set a pickup time," said Julian, "I'll just have to go get it in the afternoon. Unless you feel like another six miles tomorrow. It'd be good for you." "I'd like to try to learn that ritual spell I got," said Kenji, "Or at least get started on it." "I don't envy you," said Julian. "Me neither," said Julie. Julian unzipped his pack and found small sack which he took in hand. He then began to put everything that was in his pockets into his pack which he left on the ground. Then he headed back towards the taxi. "I'll be back in thirty," said Julian. Julian drove the taxi back the way they came and Kenji distributed the food between his and Julie's packs. "Cards?" asked Kenji. "There's all this nature around you and you want to keep playing cards?" asked Julie, "Let's look around a little." "Fine, fine," sighed Kenji, "Lead on." A short walk away Julie and Kenji found a scenic view overlooking the valley below. The view was a clear view of Mount Defiance to the southeast which was covered in trees on one side and was almost completely bare rock on the other. As she stared with her AR glasses she saw a tooltip materialize which told her the height of the mountain at 5,584 feet and its name. At the bottom of the mountain was a small lake and beyond it was a forest shrouded in fog, on the tops of hills poked out. Since Julie had never been in forest this large before she wanted to take the best pictures she could. So she levitated herself upwards and out to get a better angle with her commlink. "You're making me a little nervous doing that," said Kenji, "Our magic is busted, remember?" "It's diminished, not busted," said Julie, "And should still be reliable." "You sure about that?" asked Kenji. Julie thought about it and no she wasn't sure. She wasn't scared of heights after spending several days practicing astral projection with Krupa but a drop from this height would probably kill her if her magic failed. So she slowly began to back up and move down while attempting to play it cool. "Try doing this but with a giant chained to a mountain too," said Julie, "And when you piss it off it rips off the ledge you were standing on with its teeth." Julie touched down on solid ground and released the spell. "When did that happen?" asked Kenji. 'Yesterday," said Julie. A few seconds went by before Kenji got it. "Right, right," said Kenji, "You want to talk about that?" "Maybe later," she said, "I was going to talk it over with Julian. That and other things." She still had to talk to Julian about why her magic was so powerful. Normal people didn't start with their magic maxed out. It was a conclusion she'd come to and then stowed away on her shelf for later but that shelf had collaped recenetly. She figured it was probably best to address her problems and this one in particular was a big one. "Yeah?" asked Kenji. "Just some private stuff," she said. Julie lost the urge to take pictures and gently floated back down to where Kenji was at the scenic lookout. Kenji watched her carefully as if sensing something and Julie grew self-conscious. "What?" asked Julie. "Maybe you can talk to me about it," he said, "You've listened to me." She remembered last summer when he had confided in her. Kenji in her chair in her apartment during the party in Touristville. He'd revealed that he'd killed five people in the ACHE. Most as a mercy. One because he'd had a terrible feeling. She'd sat in his lap and almost kissed him but the moment had passed. That had been intense and she had no idea what she'd been thinking or how she felt about it. Neither of them had talked about that moment. It'd been too intense and weird. "I'll keep that mind," she said. "Cool. It's about time," said Kenji, "Let's head back." They did but they didn't find Julian at the parking lot. Kenji put down Julian's bag that he'd taken with him fore safe keeping and looked around. "So, what do you want to do while we wait?" asked Kenji. Before Julie could answer an enormous bird of prey, over three feet tall, its feather brown with tips and a wicked looking beak landed on Julian's pack. In its talons it clutched a familiar looking sack. It looked from Kenji to Julie, cried out loud, beat its wings and flew off. "Uhhh...That was a very big bird," said Kenji. "I think that was Julian," said Julie. "Think so?" Julie nodded. "Same sack," said Julie, "He can shapeshift. Mystery solved." "I wish I could fly like you two," said Kenji, "Spellcasters got it good." "I can't fly," said Julie, "I levitate." "Same difference." "Not really. My fastest speed is something like four miles an hour. Levitation is more meant for going up or down, not forwards or backwards. Julian can actually fly but you can't really take much with you when you do. It's pretty inconvenient." "I'd take inconvenience," said Kenji, "You know, so I could fly?" "You can do plenty of stuff that I can't," she said, "Do you have any idea what I'd do to be able to grow out my hair like you can?" Kenji ran a hand through his curly hair. "It is pretty nice," said Kenji, "I can make it curly too. Saanvi loves it." Julian emerged a minute later from behind a tree while clutching the now empty sack. Then he reached down and shoudlered his pack. "Hey," said Kenji, "I didn't know that you could shapeshift." "I can do a lot of things," said Julian, "Shifting into an animal is pretty handy since there's no flight spell." "That's what I've been telling Kenji," said Julie. "You literally flew here," said Kenji, "And you can literally fly up into the air." "I suppose that yes and argument can be made for flight," said Julian, "But it's an academic one." Julie noticed that the mention of an academic argument got Kenji to drop the argument. She wondered if that had been intentional. "Can I shapeshift like you can?" asked Kenji. "Technically you could learn how," said Julian, "But I don't suggest it. It's far more painful for physical adepts than spellcasters. You'd be casting with your body." "Meh." "You have plenty that you can learn and do that Julie and I can't which I'm sure we can all talk about later," said Julian, "Now let's get up the moutain. If we're quick then we'll be at the campsite before six-thirty. Be careful I don't leave you behind." He started towards the trail. Julie and Kenji shouldered their own packs and followed behind him. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Apr 24, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 23:25
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Julie, Kenji and Julian - Tuesday, August 22nd, 2075 – Late afternoon - Snoqualmie Hot Springs, Salish Council Julian sat on a rock. His face wasn't flush, he wasn't sweating but he did have to stop after an hour on hiking. The hike hadn't been demanding at all it was just that Julian was tired and a nap and coffee only went so far. He did have a bottle of water though and this he slowly sipped. From their vantage point they could see the trail and the forest around them. Behind them was a wooden bridge which spanned a mountain river. In front of them was the path up the mountain with a several hundred foot drop on their right side down to the forest below. The trail was wide and well maintained so it wasn't a problem but Kenji had stayed as far as away as he could. "Would a healing spell help?" asked Julie. Julian shook his head and sipped again. It took him a few seconds to answer. "A healing spell won't perk me up," said Julian, "There is magic to stave off sleep but I don't have it. I just need rest." Julie almost asked which spell would help but she figured her curiousity could wait. And so she did as she sat down next to Julian. A minute went by before Kenji, who'd gone ahead a little, called out. "Yo!" exclaimed Kenji, "Check it out!" He was a few dozen feet ahead on the path and so they could only hear him, not see him. There was a hint of urgency to his voice and so Julie and a partially recovered Julian came to meet him. Julie saw what the problem was immediately. It was a bear. Not a brown grizzly but a black bear, maybe two-hundred pounds. It stared at Kenji and he stared back. Though the bear grew more nervous as more people approached. "Oh," said Julian, "That's not too bad." "What do you mean?" asked Kenji, "It's a bear." "It's just a black bear," said Julian, "They're not too dangerous if you know how to handle them. If it was a grizzly or an awakened variant that'd be a problem. It's probably just up here to eat. It's berry season and there are a lot of wild berries near the campsite." Julie felt a little fear. She'd never seen a bear outside of a zoo before. It didn't look hostile but it didn't look afraid either. Instead it lifted its nose to test the air. "And I think it smells our food," said Julian. "What should we do?" asked Kenji, "It doesn't have any room to move except up the trail or down." "Good point," said Julian, "Normally you can scare off a black bear pretty easily." "With magic?" asked Julie. "No, by yelling at it and waving your arms around," said Julian, "But I don't want to drive it up the mountain since we''re camping." The bear took an experimental few steps towards the group. Julie was about to step back but Julian put a hand on her shoulder. "If you act like prey it'll chase you like prey," said Julian, "A black bear won't rush a person unless they run away or cower. It's just testing us." Julian looked upwards. "I think we'll take the short way," said Julian, "Julie, can you levitate yourself?" "My magic is damaged," she said, "Is it reliable?" "It's reliable," said Julian, "It just might take you more than one cast to pull it off." Kenji didn't look happy. "You're going to pull me into the air, aren't you?" asked Kenji. "It's that or the bear," said Julian, "And you were curious about flying." "Yeah, under my own power." The bear just stood there in the middle of the trail. If they had no magic it wouldn't have been an enviable position. Retreating from a bear wasn't a good idea and neither was driving it up the mountain. It couldn't move left or right. One was a steep drop and the other a steep incline up the mountain. "Are you going to be okay to do that?" asked Kenji, "You look pretty beat." "I can maintain five spells at my best," said Julian, "Two won't be that bad. And we're not getting around this bear any other way." Julie cast her levitate spell and felt the spell take hold of her. Julian did the same for Kenji and himself. The three hikers raised up into the air and the bear watched them ascend into the sky. Julie waved at the bear. "Bye bear," said Julie. The bear watched intently and as they moved far enough away it continued down the mountain. Meanwhile, the hikers ascended and moved forward. Forward momentum was slow but they were able to take shortcuts over the forest whereas the trail meandered. "We should've did this before," said Kenji, "Why hike when you can fly?" The wind blew harder and Julie had to adjust to keep from being blown backwards. "Because it's good for you," said Julian, "It builds character." "Thanks dad," said Kenji, sarcastically. Julie giggled quietly as they all continued to ascend which luckily didn't take very long. In ten minutes they came to a flat expanse of the mountain that was covered in a thick forest, a flat camp site, a small cabin and a small, natural pool made of rock. They set down at the camp site. "Sweet cabin," said Kenji, "You think..." "It's not for us," said Julian, "That's for the volunteer caretakers." He rubbed at his temples. "Drain?" asked Julie. "A little," said Julian, "And fatigue. We'll set up camp and eat. Once the sun sets I'll summon a spirit so our friend the bear doesn't bother us but that'll wipe me out for the night. Kenji?" "Hmm?" he asked. "Take the food away from the campsite," said Julian, "It doesn't have to be far." "Why?" "It's so we don't attract bears." "You just said you were going to summon a spirit." Julian's lips made a line but he kept his cool. "It's courtesy," said Julian, "If you eat at a campsite it'll attract wildlife and not just that night. This is for other people. I'll put up your tents." "Okay cool." Kenji and Julie opened their backpacks and she gave Kenji his share of the food. Julian dropped his own pack and unzipped it as Kenji walked towards some log benches near a fire pit. Julie lingered. Julian was so tired and she wanted to be helpful. "Do you want help setting up camp?" asked Julie. He gave her a tired smile as he pulled out the gear. "Have you ever set up camp before?" Julie nodded. "Yeah. In Girl Scouts. It's been a while but I got my merit badge for it. I only did it in my back yard though." "Fair enough," said Julian, "I could use some help. Let's set up camp."
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Apr 23, 2021 23:56
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Poor Julian. He's working out here yes, but it still means he's fairly off the grid and just gets to relatively chill. Yeah he has the cleansing ritual to do, but this task is probably quite pleasant in comparison to basically everything else that's been going on. Then he's going to come back to Fuzzy in the middle of another social media storm and Mother Bear pushing forward a busy-box to occupy the corp students due to the corporations freaking out over Lone Star.
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Apr 27, 2021 23:19
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Happy Goblinization Day, everyone!
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Apr 30, 2021 14:48
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Do we get a very special episode for the day, IP?
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Apr 30, 2021 16:54
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Butt Discussin posted:Do we get a very special episode for the day, IP? Just re-read Julie's background story.....if you want to be sad
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Apr 30, 2021 18:11
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Butt Discussin posted:Do we get a very special episode for the day, IP? I'm almost done with an update. So I'll see if I can get one or two out today. 
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Apr 30, 2021 18:28
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Julie, Kenji and Julian - Tuesday, August 22nd, 2075 – Late afternoon - Snoqualmie Hot Springs, Salish Council After setting up camp, Julian reheated dinner with a small spell and an effort of will. Just like he'd promised he'd perfectly reheated not only his fries but all of the food save for the drinks. Since the food smelled so good Kenji suggested eating "ACHE style" which meant taking a little from each plate and distributing it. Julie shared her crawfish and sweet potatoes, Kenji shared bites of his porkchop and rice and Julian shared his perfectly reheated fries which kept anyone from filching them. After their meal they all had a second piece of pie and it had been just as good as the first, especially since that pie was warm and it was cold so far up the mountain. Their stomachs now full, Julian summoned an earth spirit to watch over the camp. It appeared in the real world and looked like a rough shape of a metahuman but made from the the local grey stone. Julian wobbled as he finished and looked up at spirit whose rough head reached the tops of some of the younger trees. Then he inclined his head to the spirit in respect which Julie and belatedly Kenji did as well. The spirit did the same before it disappeared back into the astral. "I'm going to bed," said Julian, tiredly, "This spirit will guard the camp. I'll summon another spirit at sunrise when this one leaves. Don't stray too far from camp." Both Julie and Kenji nodded and with that he held his head as he half walked, half shambled towards his tent as if drunk. "Summoning that must have taken a lot out of him," said Kenji. "Yeah, lots of drain," said Julie, "He was exhausted before he came up the mountain. He had to stop for a while and it wasn't that bad a hike coming up." "Think he's okay?" asked Kenji. "I think he needs a lot of sleep," said Julie, "So let's try and keep quiet." Kenji nodded and looked towards the hot springs. The pool was actually pretty small, just a little bigger than a hot tub though made from stone which had a slowly trickling water source from a cave just a few feet above. Leading up to the cave were roughly hewn stone steps, an old wooden railing and the lip of the cave which kept the water in. "It'll be quiet in there," he said, "I texted Mrs. Liu on the way up here and she gave me details on what she's doing. We could soak and go over it." "She gave the plans to you?" asked Julie, "How did you know that it was even her making the plans?" Kenji's smile was knowing. "How did I know that you're not throwing together a complex business plan, organizing labor, creating factory farms, marketing for a dentist office and putting in the permits instead of sitting on top of a mountain?" Kenji scraped some cherry juice from his container and ate it. "I had a hunch," he said. Julie gave Kenji a cool look and he shrugged. "There's only so many people you'd talk to about getting that done," he said, "Maybe Devin, maybe Marco, maybe Mrs. Liu. It's a short list." "Fine," she said, irritably, "What've you got?" Kenji fished his commlink out of his pocket, a datapad out of his pack and showed Julie a bottle of elven wine that he'd concealed deep in his pack under some hastily packed clothes before he put the wine back. Julie's eyes grew wide at the contraband. "That's what I've got," said Kenji, happily. "Should we really be drinking?" she whispered. "I figure we have enough to take the edge off but not enough to get drunk," he mused, "So yes, we should be drinking. I read ahead and I wished that I had a drink so you might want a little." That gave Julie pause. "I meant should we be drinking this close to Julian?" she asked. Kenji nonchalantly glanced at Julian's tent and then back to Julie before he zipped up his pack. Then he transferred the data from his commlink to the datapad peer to peer and then stashed his commlink in his bag. "He's wiped out," said Kenji, "We'll be fine so long as we're quiet." "Did you bring a bathing suit like Julian asked?" asked Kenji. Julie shifted uncomfortably on her seat on the log. "I did," she answered, tersely. Kenji studied her body language and pursed his lips in thought. "So did I," said Kenji, "I'm going to change and hit the restroom. A soak will give us some privacy to talk. You go on ahead." "We're on top of a mountain in another country," said Julie, "Does it get more private than this?" "Someone tried to rig a child protective services meeting in order to steal your property today," said Kenji, "So yes. I'm paranoid." Julie didn't have an answer and she was unhappy about that. "Fine," she said. With a nod, Kenji tromped over to the old outhouse with his pack. She didn't envy him. Quickly she hurried back to her tent to change. If this had been a few months ago she wouldn't have minded that Kenji saw her in a swimsuit. At least the one that she had as it was a pretty conservative one piece. No, the problem was that she was pretty sure she'd put on weight and she didn't want him to see her new shape. Julie slipped into her lime green, one person tent with her swimsuit, a towel, change of clothing and toiletries enough to make it through the night. The sleeping bag and the foam sleeping pad underneath were already laid out. She zipped up the tent for privacy and quickly changed. As she put on her swimsuit her fears were confirmed. She had put on weight as the swimsuit pinched a little around the middle. Though mercifully she hadn't forgotten to bring her plastic shower cap and a beanie to hide it so her hair didn't frizz up in the heat. There was that at least. She briefly considered changing back into her clothing and sitting outside but it wasn't every day that she went to a natural hot spring in the beauty of mountain forests in her first time ever in another country. So she decided to just get in the water first and try to not think about her body issues. It was dark by now on the mountain but as an ork Julie could see in the dark just fine. Though this didn't keep her foot from catching on the lip of the tent and she almost pitched forward into the cave. As she recovered after some brief flaling she cast her gaze over at Julian's tent nearby where he slept but she saw no movement inside. Then she looked for Kenji but she didn't see him anywhere. So she quietly padded a hundred feet through the tough, mountain grass, skipped the pool, went up the stone stairs with her hand on the roughly made wooden railing. Steam gently billowed from the modest cave entrance and she paused to check the heat and realized that the steam was only there due to the fact that it was cold on top of the mountain. And so she stepped over the lip and into the cave. The cave was was steamy and inside was a pool of water that felt like a hot bath though one that she had to ease herself into. Not because it was piping hot but because the temperature this high in the mountain was cool and she needed time to adjust. So she slowly sank into the water and found a place to sit- A natural stone seat. Now seated she took a longer look at the cave itself. It was just high enough to accommodate her without bending over and about six feet wide though it did taper off at the back where it extended some dozen feet. Of course she could go into the city and find a place to soak that was private and temperature controlled. However before the times of saunas and bath houses this must have felt extremely luxurious. In fact, it still was even though she was sitting in a dark cave that dripped with condensation. So Julie allowed herself to luxuriate in the heated water that went all the way up to her shoulders and laid her head against an equally heated rock. For a few minutes she allowed herself to relax. "Yo," said Kenji. Julie opened one eye and saw a shirtless Kenji in swimming trunks with a datapad in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. What caught her attention first though wasn't the bottle of wine or the sight of him in a bathing suit but the numerous nasty scars on his chest, arms and legs. His lower legs and forearms were devoid of scars. Oddly so. In fact a few longer scars just ended abruptly where shorts and a t-shirt would show skin. She knew from using her diagnose spell on him a few hours previously that those scars had been cosmetically treated but it gave his body a somewhat curious look to it. Like he was a canvas and the artist had stopped at the demarcated areas. Then she remembered not to stare. Prison had taught her that. It was too late not to stare but she tried to play it off by looking at the bottle of wine. "Good call heading up here," he said, "I'm not drinking down in the pool. Don't need a tut tut from Julian again. You know, if he wakes up tonight. Doubt he will but you never know." Kenji stepped into the cave and carefully sank into the water, arms up to keep the pad and wine out before he found a place to sit. "Again?" asked Julie. "I might've gotten my hands on some prescription long haul so I could put off sleep for a few days to do some work," said Kenji, "Remember the shame pole in front of my cabin?" "Oh yeah, I remember," she said, "I'll refrain from tutting so long as you share." "I'm all about sharing with my pack." Kenji found a flat spot on the rock wall and set the bottle of wine and datapad down. Then with a little flourish he produced his white noise generator. Julie hadn't seen it in his hands before but now there it was, about the size of a pack of gum. He turned it on. The sound of wind through the trees from outside which she only noticed now from its absence suddenly stopped. Now she could only hear their breathing, the soft splash of water whenever they moved and the drip drop of condensation as it fell from the ceiling of the cave. "We'll sip a bit and put it outside," said Kenji, "It'll turn if it's left too long in the heat." "Next time you go up a mountain you'll just have to remember your ice bucket," teased Julie. Kenji grinned. "I'm not that fancy," he replied. "And no glasses?" she asked, with mock seriousness. Kenji raised an eyebrow. "Me? Be fancy with friends?" he asked. He shattered the facade of mock seriousness with a farting noise with his mouth. Then he reached into his pocket and the wine cork opener made a "click-clack" sound as he flipped it it out. It was odd. The idea of a shirtless Kenji coming into the hot springs with a bottle of wine would have made her into an absolute stuttering mess just a few days ago but this was all so incongruous with any fantasy she might have had that it was disarming. Plus numerous ugly scars helped to evoke sympathy rather than other feelings. They were just going to pass around the bottle and talk shop. Kenji worked the cork and popped it open with a satisfying noise. His mouth immediately went to the lip just in case any spilled out which it almost had as the sudden change in pressure pulled some out of the bottle. "Thanks for not spilling in the hot springs," she said, wryly. Kenji pulled his mouth away, breathed hard and passed it to her. "Just doing my part for the environment," he teased. Julie giggled despite herself, gripped the bottle as he handed it off and took a dainty sip. It was a little dry and a little fruity and not bad though she would have loved something sweeter. She looked at the bottle to read what it was but it was all in a flowing, beautiful script called Sperethiel, the elven language and she didn't have her commlink to translate. "Do you know what it's called?" asked Julie, "I mean, I don't know anything about wine but..." "It's fancy, red and looted from Joyce's wine cabinet which is now my wine cabinet. That's all I know." "I still can't believe you shook him down for wine," said Julie. Kenji smirked and shrugged. "It was more tactical," said Kenji, "I did him an amazing favor and I didn't want to walk out with him thinking we were friends after what he tried." Julie took another sip and handed it back "Didn't you punch him?" she asked. Kenji took it and hid his grin by sipping. "Couple times, yeah. Turns out that if you dig deep enough you can get past the aloof noble to what's underneath. The sullen rear end in a top hat part of him is the part that actually listens." Julie remember diagnosing Joyce and his surgery and became distinctly uncomfortable. She decided to change the subject. "So what did you get from Mrs. Liu?" asked Julie. "You're all biz tonight," he said, "All right, I thought we'd bullshit for a little while longer but whatever." He handed back the bottle, grabbed the datapad from its rocky perch and tapped it to light it up. "Just a little nervous," she admitted, "You know, about what you said since you skipped ahead? You said we'd need wine." "I mean, I brought it anyway," he admitted, "Happy accident that it'll help. All right, maybe we'll bullshit later." The steam and wet, stone walls were dimly illuminated by the datapad as he turned it on. "I'm tired of meetings anyway so I'm going to make this as fast as I can so we can drink wine and soak," said Kenji, "D was not kidding when she said there'd be meetings. I'm really going to want to do way less of these in the future." "D?" asked Julie. Then she realized that Kenji meant Dragonslayer. "Oh, her, right," said Julie. "Mhm..." said Kenji, distractedly, "Okay, got it. Just two points. First are the farms and second is how the dentist biz gets handled. And I suppose we should go over a recap about what we need to get done so we're both on the same page." Julie nodded, took another drink and offered the bottle to Kenji. He took it by the neck, sipped and passed it back. "Refresher first, began Kenji, "In the ACHE there's a food shortfall of sixty-thousand people for ten days at the end of the month. That's peak starving time for the ACHE." "So right now," said Julie. Kenji nodded seriously. "It's the twenty-third so yeah, "said Kenji, "There are some people who still have food but if people are still trading by now, which isn't guaranteed, the prices are basically everything you've got. The people with SINs, the gangs and people with a solid hustle are the haves. They have food and it might even last until the end of the month. The SINless and the people with SINs who don't get how things work or give up are the have nots. The have nots start getting really desperate around the twentieth like clockwork and poo poo gets progressively worse as the days go on." "That's horrible," said Julie, quietly. "Yeah, it is. Which we're going to try and change," continued Kenji, "So we can't just buy food. A poo poo tier meal made up of fungus meat and soy costs about a nuyen each because even poo poo food is expensive. Three meals a day for sixty-thousand people for ten days is one point eight million nuyen. If we tried to feed everyone right now we'd run out of creds in less than a week." Julie sighed and nodded. "Which is why we need the farms," she said. Kenji made a finger gun and pulled the "trigger" at her in agreement. "You got it." "And every factory farm makes food for about five-hundred people for a month," said Julie, "And they cost fifty-thousand nuyen each. So we'd need a hundred and twenty of them. That's six million nuyen. So it's smarter to buy farms." "It's less than that," said Kenji, "If we buy a bunch we can get lower prices. You know, bulk purchase. But we also need power, water, fertilizer, seeds and especially safe land to do a set-up. That last one is the killer. Maybe even more than getting the farms which is also out of our price range. Land is at an ultra premium in Seattle. The only free land is out in the barrens and if you put one of these up in the barrens you're basically hanging up a sign that says steal me. Rent is through the roof which is why your business works in the first place. You're not paying rent." "I actually own property," said Julie. "Commercial property," said Kenji, "Some people still own homes but basically no one owns commercial property except for the megacorps. Since you don't pay almost everything in rent to the megas your business can actually work and turn a pretty good profit rather than it getting sucked away by people who don't work." Julie thought about it. "So the problem isn't that people don't own their own homes or anything," said Julie, "Some people still own homes. They just don't own commercial property. Is that right?" Kenji nodded in agreement. "If you rent in Seattle the megas take basically everything you've got," said Kenji, "So land is going to be an enormous problem." Julie nodded glumly. She'd thought about this a few times and still didn't know what to do. "An enormous problem for another time," said Kenji, "Also parting shot before we move on. The food that we're going to be making is good food. High up on the food pyramid you might say." Julie groaned at the pun. Now she took a drink. "How long have you been waiting to call the Aztechnology Pyramid the food pyramid?" "All day," he said, with a grin, "Anyway, the kind of food we're growing isn't made from fungus and soy. It's further up that hierarchy of what Aztechnology feeds people. I can tell you from experience that the people in the ACHE aren't used to eating real food. They're used to the poo poo quality food on tier one and two of the pyramid." Julie thought about this and nodded. "Julian said that powerful organizations communicate to people with architecture," said Julie, "So the food pyramid isn't just an arcology. It's a hierarchy as well. Who eats what puts you on that hierarchy." "That's right," said Kenji, "And we're going to be growing real food. That's halfway up the hierarchy. We don't have real meat so we're not going super rich but if we get grains, veggies and especially fruit to everyone then we're solidly middle class. That's a serious flex and people from the ACHE will appreciate that. And we can turn that appreciation into something." "Action," said Julie. "Well I mean, sort of," said Kenji, "The ACHE is basically the last place you fall before the grave or worse. We're a deeply cynical group of people. The people of the ACHE aren't all the same but that cynicism is deep. We can put down roots but they'll be shallow at first. Better food will deepen them a bit more. Not treating them like poo poo will help too." "Respect isn't bought," said Julie, "It's earned." Kenji nodded seriously. "Very true," said Kenji, "The other problem is that we're loving with that hierarchy. People aren't going to like the poor eating better than them. It's going to gently caress with their heads and make them mad. That's going to be a problem." "Is it really going to be that bad?" asked Julie. "Depends on how we do it," said Kenji, "But if we roll up with a truck full of strawberries out in the open for the poor then people are going to be angry. So we want to get as much good feelings out of feeding the ACHE with the least amount of hate." Julie thought about it. "Good point," she said, "Also, are we going to do strawberries?" "No clue. If we do it'll have to be seriously secret," said Kenji, "We'll literally have to smuggle them in. Even one real strawberry will go a long way because they can either eat something good that a lot of them have never eaten before or they can trade it." "They'd trade just one strawberry?" asked Julie. "Hell yeah they would," said Kenji, "gently caress the business world and college. You want real hustlers you come to the ACHE. The reason I'm good at hustling is because there were days where if I didn't hustle I didn't eat and I had people that I could go to to get fed if I really needed it. So I'm not at the top of the game by far. You give the right kind of person one strawberry and they'll turn it into ten. Into fifty. Into a thousand. Into an empire. All they need is the environment to do bidness." "Bidness?" she asked. "Yeah," said Kenji, "It's hood poo poo. Hustling. I'll show you sometime." Kenji handed back the bottle Julie who took it. Then he wiped the condensation from the hot spring steam from the datapad as he began to read. "Good news though?" asked Kenji, "We've got three farms." "I thought we had two," said Julie, "The two we got from Aztechnology." Kenji gestured to the datapad which was already fogging up again. "Mrs. Liu took your mushroom idea to heart," said Kenji, "Which apparently you had from reading this. She's found space in Touristville. It needs a clean room but it can be a dark one. Power is going to be tight when you put up your business but a mushroom farm doesn't need much power. Just the right stuff to grow on, a farming drone to plant and pick and oxygen. It'll be set up by the time we get back." Julie beamed. "That's great!" exclaimed Julie, but her excitement quickly cooled, "But who's paying for it?" "Mrs. Liu's restaurant is putting up the funds," said Kenji, "It's way less expensive than a full factory farm but about as productive. It's why the poor eat so many mushrooms. You don't need to spend money on power. Anyway, there is a problem according to the notes. Mushrooms aren't plants. They don't breathe out oxygen. They breathe it in. That plus all the extra people getting their teeth cleaned every day is going to create a problem with having enough air." Almost immediately, Julie began to furiously think about how to solve the problem. Kenji looked back down at the datapad. "Which Mrs. Liu has already fixed," continued Kenji. Julie stopped thinking and suddenly felt annoyed. Kenji noticed, took a drink, passed the bottle back to Julie and while leaned over he patted Julie on the shoulder. "Don't be like that," said Kenji, "Unhelpful people come to you with problems. Helpful people come with problems and solutions. When people you trust handle the details that means we're freed up to look at the bigger picture." "In a way that only we can," said Julie. Kenji shot Julie a look through the haze of steam. She realized that she'd danced too close to the subject of the future. Instead of apologizing which was her first impulse she tipped back the bottle to drink and said nothing which earned her a nearly imperceptible nod from Kenji. "You're right," said Julie, when she finished. "I know. I love solutions," said Kenji, "Enter farm number two. Ares has these things called microgreens for space travel." "Microgreens?" asked Julie. Kenji looked back down at the datapad for an explanation and had to shake off more condensation from the steam. He read around for an explanation, mouth working once more before he found it and used his finger to keep his place. on the datapad. "Baby plants," said Kenji, "Right. Basil microgreens taste lemony. Carrot microgreens taste like carrots. Beet microgreens taste like an earthy flavor which I guess is a nice way of saying dirt. Good for salads which means that we can put dressing on it to cover up the dirt flavor. Normally I don't gently caress with a salad but she wanted to fix the oxygen problem and these are space microgreens bred for making oxygen and getting eaten in space so whatever. And since we have another factory farm lying around from the field trip she floated the idea. There are other ideas but they're expensive and a little dangerous." "I won't ask then," said Julie, "Where would it go?" "That's the cool part," said Kenji, "She's going to hang it from the ceiling." Julie quirked an eyebrow. "The ceiling?" asked Julie. "Yeah," said Kenji, "The farm can be cracked open and rearranged. It's all honeycombs. It's you know..." Kenji looked up at the cave wall and rolled his wrist, datapad circling as if to conjure up the word. "Modular?" she supplied. "Yeah, that," said Kenji, "So she's going to hang it from the ceiling like an air duct. Once we give the okay she'll get people to start hanging them up in the corridors. It'll offset the mushrooms and several thousand extra people coming to the dentist office and breathing up all the air. Turns out that being underground is kind of a problem that way. Only so many entrances and exits for air to get in. Too many people means not enough air." "So it'll feed people and produce air," said Julie, "That's great. Is she waiting on us?" "She's waiting on our okay," said Kenji, "And technically Julian's and Fuzzy's. We'll talk to Julian in the morning. Pretty sure Fuzzy will be cool with it. It needs to get started now though because it's a lot of work so I think we try and talk to her as soon as Julian wakes up so she can get it set up." "And the third farm is the floating one," said Julie. Kenji nodded. "Just that we need to get our floating farm at the school working," said Kenji, "Technically it's going to be a school project but that's on us because no one else is going to want to do it. The drone will do most of the work but we actually need to transport the food and that's going to be a hassle. We should probably not put anything in it that tastes so good that anyone else will want it though." "So no strawberries or anything like that," said Julie. "Definitely no strawberries," said Kenji, "At least not at school. Anyway we'll have enough food to feed about fifteen-hundred people right out of the gate by this time next month if we don't do anything else." Julie's smile was a little happy and a little sad at the same time. "Two a half percent towards the goal," she said, "I guess it's a start." "Definitely. Six K in meals is a day," said Kenji, "The problem looks big and it is but if you break it into little pieces you can tackle them one by one. A hundred and twenty farms is a massive problem. Twelve is more achievable and twelve is a day of food for everyone." Julie tried to and surprisingly it helped. "We work by twelves then," said Julie. Kenji leaned forward and offered his fist to bump. Julie hesitated because that was more his and Fuzzy's thing but she did it anyway. Their knuckles rapped together and it felt good. It was the same problem but ten twelves, working day by day seemed easier somehow than a hundred and twenty farms. Kenji looked down at the datapad and drew a line through the bullet point. "All right," said Kenji, "Now on to business. How we get that money for all this stuff. Mrs. Liu has two options. Get as much money as you can or pay what you want." "Pay what you want?" asked Julie. "Yeah," said Kenji, "Someone shows up. You tell them how much things cost on average and how much you need for the rest of the day to break even and then you ask them to pay what they want." "Does that work?" Kenji shrugged, looked down at the datapad and began to read again. "It works in...Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, some of the NAN countries and Amazonia," recited Kenji, "It's never been attempted in UCAS before at scale. Turns out that some people are incredible assholes but they're mostly a vocal minority. If regular people feel like they're being treated fairly they'll pay up if they can or even pay more. People know a good deal when they see it and generally they'll support it if they can. Not my words. Some article or something." Julie tried to wrap her head around paying what you like for services. It was a good thought. A kinder, gentler market. "The other option is get as much as you can," said Kenji, "We go full ruthless capitalist. We drive down prices to eat the competition alive but keep them high enough that we reap the most profits. We stay open for as long as possible and make it in the low tens of millions in about two, maybe three weeks." Julie blinked. "Did you just say tens of millions?" asked Julie. "Yep," said Kenji, "Drink." Julie paused as that number began to take form in her mind. "Or don't," said Kenji, "But this is about where I wanted a drink." She took a long drink. Then she tried to pass the bottle to Kenji who waved her off. He didn't encourage her to drink more and so Julie's grip tightened on the bottle as the concept of tens of millions of nuyen began to form in her brain. Then Kenji was snapping his fingers and Julie blinked a few times in confusion. "You okay? You spaced out on me," he said. "I did?" she asked. "Yeah. For a couple minutes," said Kenji, "It's a lot to take in. Drink your drink or put the bottle outside to cool off. Otherwise it'll cook." "What?" she asked. "The bottle," said Kenji, "Drink what you want and put it outside before it cooks." So Julie did. She drank and then almost got up, but didn't. After all she was still body conscious and didn't want Kenji to see how she fit in her swimsuit. So she took the cork from Kenji, awkwardly scooted over on her stone seat, leaned over the lip of the cave and deposited the bottle outside on the stone steps before awkwardly scooting back. All the while her mind raced at the thought of so much money. "Tens of millions..." whispered Julie. "In about three weeks," said Kenji, "Lower the price enough and you'll make a million and a half a day at full capacity. People pay stupid amounts of money for what's actually extremely cheap due to automation but it's expensive because rent is stupid high. You can compete in a way others can't because you don't pay almost all of your profit in rent." Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 19:12 on May 8, 2021 |
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May 7, 2021 06:45
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Then Julie realized something. "Wait, people pay tens of millions in rent?" asked Julie. "Uh yeah," said Kenji, "Why do you think your business would even work? You think you're the first person to figure out automation?" "Of course not," she said, a little defensively. Kenji raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Sorry, didn't mean to attack," said Kenji, "But the only reason this works at all is because rent is too drat high. I don't know the specifics. I'm not a rent wizard or something. I just know that rent is so jacked up that your business wouldn't work if everyone else's rent was fair." Julie frowned in confusion. "Wait, if that's true then wouldn't other people rent for less?" she asked, "You know, to compete?" "You'd think," said Kenji, "But they don't. "Why?" asked Julie. "Ask a rent wizard," said Kenji, "Financimancer. I don't know. I just know what's on the pad." Julie nodded. She wasn't sure exactly why her business would work. Only that it did and that it had something to do with rent being high and commercial space being artificially rare. So she asked a different question. "Why do you say three weeks?" asked Julie, "That my shop will be open? My doctor's office has been open for a while now and it's been fine." "That's because it's small and doesn't make any money," said Kenji, "So it can be ignored. The dentist office..." Julie got it and not for the first time as this had been explained to her before. She was still a little spaced out. "Will be too big," she sighed. Kenji nodded in agreement. He was really starting to sweat now or perhaps it was the condensation. It was hard not to look at the scars. There were so many of them. "You got it," said Kenji, "If we go that capitalist route we absolutely explode out of the gate with stupid amounts of creds and attention. Ten million creds at the low end. Thirty million at the high. That's the estimate. But the governor is running against Prop 23 and you opening up a perfectly legitimate business that no one can ignore makes him look like an rear end in a top hat. I mean it does however you open it but then you're making shitloads of money. Mrs. Liu is expecting conservatives and fascists to froth at the mouth." "It's going to be that bad?" asked Julie. "Depends," said Kenji, "If we cut and run in a week, maybe two then maybe no one dies but we get less money. People are absolutely going to get hurt though. Big protests. Violent ones. Probably escalating. Maybe it ends up like the Grand Terrace. Maybe it's just some idiot with a gun. Maybe it's a siege by the police. Maybe mix and match. This is the small business version of a smash and grab. Get in, get what you need, get out, lay low until the heat dies down, count your creds, spend them later." Julie shifted uncomfortably on her seat in the water. "I don't really like the idea of being responsible for someone's death," she said, quietly, "In fact I really hate it." Kenji shrugged. "You wouldn't be doing it," he said. She frowned at him. "I'd be making it more likely," she countered. "No doubt," said Kenji, "But the point is the keep T-Ville intact and the ACHE fed. You take pain now to take less later. Mrs. Liu says most of the money made by the dental office and the money made by the community would go hard for ads on Gridguide and the trid. The vote on Prop 23 is razor thin. We can tip the scales." "But it's not guaranteed," she said. Kenji slouched a little in his seat as he laid back and looked up at the ceiling in thought. "Nothing is. Even if you do everything right you can still lose," said Kenji, "And we probably won't do everything right. But it does keep the ACHE fed. Six million buys the farms to make up for the shortfall. No idea where to put them though." "Maybe the ACHE?" asked Julie. Kenji laughed and shook his head. "If you give the ACHE farms you'll start a war," said Kenji, "Then what's left will be used to manufacture drugs. Probably bliss. You know, super heroin? At no point should we give the ACHE any of this." "They have the space," said Julie, "What if..." Kenji made a sharp cutting motion with his datapad. A little water splashed at the end as the pad cut into the water. "We're not starting an ACHEwide war and then a heroin epidemic that will consume and then spill out of the ACHE," said Kenji, "Yeah they got space. It's not a space problem. None of this is a really space problem. Not in the ACHE or out. D asked me to look at the Azzies and that's my takeaway. That got space for days all around the city but we can't use it because on one end someone says pay me even though they're not using it and on the other they'll just steal your poo poo or use it to make drugs instead of food." Kenji began to look angry which was unusual. "I mean I get the ACHE," he said, mostly to himself, "Hustle or die. You do what you gotta do. But landlords are greedy rear end motherfuckers sitting on poo poo that they don't need to get money they don't need. They have a lot of empty space just lying around and unless we cough up shitloads of creds we can't use it." Julie sighed long and hard. "It just can't be that easy, can it?" she asked. Kenji's mask of anger smoothed over into a mask of calm. "If it was it would have been done by now," said Kenji. "So yeah. Smash and grab, get paid, buy farms, buy commercials with the extra, hunker down until it blows over and cross your fingers that it works." "Doesn't sound that great," said Julie. "Yeah, well," said Kenji, "Tens of millions doesn't seem like much when it flows out of your fingers ten seconds later. It's just another paycheck that goes towards bills as soon as you get it. It's why I got over those zeroes so fast. You'll never have tens of millions in the bank. It'll flow out of your hands as fast as you get it." That also helped put things in perspective. Julie wasn't going to have tens of millions of nuyen. It was just going to flow through her fingers. It was still daunting but less so than being wealthy. "We have the other option though," said Kenji, "The one that makes money much slower." "Pay what you want," said Julie. "Not all the time. It's blended," said Kenji, "We charge the rich corporate types full freight which means blocking out two hours for when they commute. An hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. Most of them are on twelve plus hour shifts but most of them all get in or out at pretty specific times." "That doesn't seem fair," said Julie, "Charging some people more for the same thing." "Well this has never been done in UCAS before," said Kenji, "Mrs. Liu doesn't want to completely rely on the kindness of strangers in case there isn't any." "Still..." said Julie. Kenji waved the datapad dismissively through the steam. "The corpies won't miss their money," said Kenji, "They're loaded. What they want is time. If you can get them in and out fast they'll happily show up so they can shave twenty minutes off their commute. They are hungry for personal time because they get so little of it. They'll expect some white glove treatment but you give them a premium service and that's what actually pays for poo poo in case the public sucks. The rest do a pay what you want. We don't do any ads. We talk to them directly while they get their teeth cleaned." Julie frowned at him as she imagined talking to someone while the drones worked. "Uhhh...What?" she asked. "A second," said Kenji, "I hadn't read the details on this part yet." Kenji had to look back down at the datapad for a minute, finger and mouth silently moving. "Got it," said Kenji, "It's from your uh...Dentist friend." "Jimmy?" "I guess so," said Kenji, "Turns out that people are at least there for four or five minutes. Sometimes way longer. In that time you put a nanotrode helmet on their head. They dive into VR and don't feel the surgery. Great for saving money on pain killers and if you have anxiety about going to the dentist you pay a little extra you can go into a calming VR space." "I'm guessing you don't get that if you don't have any money," said Julie. "Nope," confirmed Kenji, "If you don't pay extra then most dentists play commercials and you're stuck watching them. You can't look away. The commercial even pauses if you try to close your eyes. The machine stops and you get billed extra for the time." "Gross," said Julie. "Yeah, people hate it," said Kenji, "But it presents an opportunity. We make okay money doing this. We buy one, two or even three farms a day if people are feeling generous. What we want from pay what you want customers are creds, sure, but we really want the votes. We make our pitch direct. You say you're not against people becoming citizens and getting government aid but Prop 23 is a bad deal. It tosses people out of their homes. Rights don't matter much if you're homeless. Can't eat them. Can't live under them. They don't keep the lights on. You just end up in the ACHE or the barrens or dead and you have to sell your SIN to survive. That's worse off than the status quo." "And how fast would we get shut down?" asked Julie. Kenji's flashed a knowing look. "The governor tries to shut down an incredibly popular program where people get their teeth cleaned and then they pay what they want?" asked Kenji, "Especially if we're against Prop 23 too? And if we don't weigh in on anything else? He wouldn't dare. Before the election I mean. Afterwards he'll get some revenge if he's still in power but that's a later thing. Best of all? You'll barely any conservatives because you're technically with them. You piss off the uh..." Kenji looked down at the datapad, wiped it off and sounded out a word. "Liberals," said Kenji, "The not conservatives. You know anything about them?" Julie thought back to her life in a conservative household with right wing media playing every day. If she'd believed everything on the trid and when she bothered to watch she had, you'd assume that liberals were the root of all bad things in the world. Her father when he was still alive was always ranting about the liberal media. "Uhhh...Only from the conservatives," she said, "Maybe I'm not the best source." "Yeah, that's not outlined here," said Kenji, "I get some of the politics pretty intuitively but I don't really know what the gently caress liberals are for other than being for Prop 23." "Is the non-violent route?" she asked. "No, it's the less violent route," said Kenji, "Conservatives don't protest because we're anti Prop 23. At least not very many of them. Fascists still might do some terrorism. Can't help that. We directly gently caress with Prop 23 and that's probably going to make people mad but not as mad as if we actually started going in for this or that candidate. But the odds of getting bombed or shot at or sieged is way lower." Julie smiled. There was that at least. "But so is the amount of money we make," said Julie. "I mean, over time you'll get to millions," said Kenji, "You might in the first month. Maybe tens in a year or so. How much people actually pay for pay what you want in Seattle is a big question mark. Milking the rich corpies makes it viable. Appealing to the masses gets the votes." "How many votes?" asked Julie. Kenji looked down again and skipped to the end. "Eight-thousand people a day," said Kenji, "More if you run twenty-four seven. Seventy-five days until the election. Word of mouth means we don't have to advertise. Maybe seventy days actual for unforeseen poo poo. A little over half a million people." Julie's mouth went dry. "How many voters are there?" she asked, quietly. Kenji had to look again but it didn't take long. "A million and a quarter," said Kenji, "But a lot of people don't vote anymore. We might reach more people than actual voters. Pay as you go isn't the real product. The people are the product and what we want is attention. I don't really believe that the vote will be fair and that this isn't all rigged but at some point you've got to engage with it." "It's not rigged," said Julie, defensively. Julie gave her a look. "Julie, poo poo sucks and I doubt if people actually had a say that poo poo would suck this bad," said Kenji, "You've got gang wars, you've got wage slaves, you've got ultra corrupt cops, you've got the corp that employed them that started a drug epidemic and it ate the other cop corp that experimented on children. Are any suits going to hang for all the people they killed and tortured or do they just cough up some creds and pretend that they're sorry?" Julie scowled but she didn't have an argument. "If you don't think voting matters then what's the point?" asked Julie. Kenji looked up at the dark ceiling of the cave once more in thought. Then he nodded to himself slowly and looked back to Julie. "When I was a kid," said Kenji, "I worked hard for very little. High risk job. Kind of an apprenticeship for a bigger one I got later." "What kind of job?" asked Julie. "Scavenging," said Kenji, a little quickly, "In a place better left alone." Julie almost asked what place but a deep frown from Kenji stopped her. "When I came back," said Kenji, "I'd play cards with the other kids. That game we played on the way here? Tien Len? You can play it straight but it's a cheating game. A lot more than that actually but..." "Did you cheat?" asked Julie, her tone suddenly cool. "A lot harder to cheat in AR," said Kenji. "I notice you didn't answer my question," said Julie. Kenji smiled upwards and left the point unanswered. His frown quickly returned. "It's a good game," said Kenji, "It teaches you how to cheat with fast hands, with fast talk and reading people. Cheating means you eat and eating means you survive. It teaches you to challenge people who you think are cheating you too and who not to challenge. No one tells you that they cheat. Slow learners starve." Kenji dropped the datapad into the water. It was waterproof so it only bobbed and lit up the bottom of the pool and cast odd light into the steam. He folded his hands over an ugly mess of scars around his stomach. "When I started playing I didn't know what's up," said Kenji, "None of the rules are explained to you. Not the game itself. That's explained. But the game around the game. You're expected to pick it up. These two kids were cheating me and when I called them out on it one flashed a knife at me. They forced me to play. There was no art to it. No luck. Just the knife and theft. When I didn't challenge him he'd keep it hidden but the threat was there- Implied. And I'd seen him stab someone before. I knew he could do it. And I very clearly remember how they'd laugh when they took what I earned." "That's awful," whispered Julie. "It was but it was also part of the lesson," said Kenji, "Sometimes people will rob to take your riches and keep theirs. There's a lot of games like that in life. Games that look fair but are rigged. They force you to play. There's no option not to. Except there is one. I went to a friend of mine. I explained the situation." "What did your friend do?" asked Julie. "She gave me a gun," said Kenji, offhandedly. Julie's mouth dropped. "You didn't!" she exclaimed. The sound of her shout echoed oddly off the caves walls before it hit the bubble of white noise. Julie had no words for it. It just made her cringe and all of the hair on her body stand on end. Kenji was calm though. "You didn't," she hissed. "Kill them?" asked Kenji, "No, I didn't and I didn't want to." Julie relaxed a fraction, nodded and waited for him to explain. "She showed me the rounds," said Kenji, "They were gel rounds. The kind the cops shoot at protesters. Rare in the ACHE and pretty nasty but they usually don't kill you. They'll bruise and maim you but you usually have to aim to kill to get a kill. At least most of the time. And she told me that the next time I was forced to play cards that I should pull out my gun, shoot them in the stomach and drop them on the trash pile." Julie folded her arms over her chest. "That's still pretty awful," said Julie. "Welcome to the ACHE," said Kenji, "Kids outside play games to prepare themselves to be adults. Some kids want to be a doctor or a fireman or an astronaut. We were playing at being gangsters. That's just life and in the ACHE you learn hard and grow up fast." Julie felt this little knot of anger and anxiety and sadness form inside of her. For a second she allowed herself to really look at Kenji's scars and realized that those had been earned. Few would be considered pretty. Instead it was a history of violence and abuse etched onto his skin. So she sighed and realized that she'd given him a far kinder response when he admitted that he'd killed people and now she was offended. It made her confused. "Why didn't they just take from you if they wanted your stuff?" asked Julie, as she moderated her tone. "Because that's how you get a hierarchy going," said Kenji, "The strong take from the weak. If they just stole from me then they're thieves and thieves are bitchmade. When gangsters take from you they let you know who's doing it and why. They want you to get used to it. Accept it. It's not enough to take your poo poo they need to know who's on top and who isn't. They've got the money and the power." Julie nodded along sadly. "That's familiar," she said, "I learned that in prison though um...I just had a celly who was scary. Sometimes she'd come back with things that people had given her." "And I'm guessing they didn't gently caress with you," said Kenji, "Because I'm guessing she was too gangster to mess with." Julie nodded again. "I got that impression," said Julie, "To put it mildly." "Well in the ACHE you need to teach these lessons," said Kenji, "Because growing up there is hard. I was training for bigger and better things. Not to be a killer but if I wasn't hard enough to deal with some peewee rear end wannabe G then there goes better things. I had a choice. I can either live under their knife or I could refuse. I let them cheat me one more time. I let them laugh one more time. When they got far enough away with my earnings and I had this moment where I saw my life go in one of two directions." "Live by the sword, die by the sword," said Julie. Kenji waved that away. "That's not living by the sword," said Kenji, "I've seen people live by the sword and die by it. That's the life. That's different. I'm saying that sometimes you have to defend yourself. And this was the second time I'd ever really done that. I thought of every time that they lied and cheated and smiled and flashed that knife at me when I said poo poo about it. So the last time when I was far enough away I pulled out my gun, called out to him to the kid with the knife, shot him in the stomach and tossed him twenty feet down onto the ACHE's main trash pile." "He lived of course," said Julie, neutrally. "Yeah, he did," said Kenji, flippantly, "His parents had some poo poo to say about that until they didn't. He didn't say poo poo to me after that." "I guess that leaves an impression," said Julie. Kenji laughed. "Literally," said Kenji. Kenji tapped his scarred stomach and made a ring with thumb and forefinger. "There's a dent in his stomach from where I shot him still," said Kenji, "He puts his beer there sometimes." Julie felt a little queasy at that. "That's kind of gross," said Julie. Kenji shrugged. "I wish I had useful battle scars like that," said Kenji, "Mine are really only good for impressing girls and they're not pretty. They're only good enough to really impress a certain kind of girl." Julie opened her mouth and then closed it again. Then she nodded. Scars were not her thing. "Anyway, knife kid was pissed for a long time but his fear outweighed his rage," continued Kenji, "That's what mattered. Later we drank about it. Laughed about it. The adults set us straight because they were watching. Didn't want kids games to get anyone killed." "And those are kids games," said Julie. "I mean, yeah," said Kenji, "In the ACHE and even then only among a certain set of people. I got noodles made from real wheat with real beef broth in it. I went on to bigger and better things not long after. So that's how you play cards ACHE style." "Did this story have a point?" asked Julie. Kenji looked down at the datapad as it bobbed in the water. With a casual flick of the wrist he batted it about and the light swirled in the cave. "T-Ville is where I was," said Kenji, "The game is rigged and they're forcing you to play. I know it and deep down you probably know it too or if you don't you'll get it soon. No one is going to let votes get in the way of business. Not the little g gangster bidness. I'm talking real capital G gangster poo poo business. Same poo poo, different scale. Play by their rules you will lose." Kenji leaned forwards now, face illuminated by the datapad. "And there's people laughing up their sleeves now that some suckers are voting like it actually matters," said Kenji, "When the real capital G gangsters already know the outcome. I'll say it again. If voting mattered then there wouldn't be wage slaves or corporate nobility or SINless or all of this starving bullshit in the ACHE or a million other things that are universally hated. Billions on the line means the people standing to make billions will steal and cheat and kill to rob you of your riches. And when you call them on it they will stop laughing and stop pretending. They flash the knife. And only when you start pretending to play again will they pretend too so they can keep robbing you. So you've got a choice." "Live under the knife or defend yourself," sighed Julie. "Mhm," agreed Kenji. Julie didn't immediately toss the idea like she would have when she was younger. Prison had taught her how violence worked. How violence from both the prisoners and the corporation that ran it caused people to band together to defend themselves. At the same time it warred against everything she'd been taught by her school and by her parents, though one was dead and one had abandoned her. "I think," said Julie, slowly, "That you are even more cynical than I thought you were." Kenji thought about this and said nothing. He merely gestured to his many scars. Julie's heart hurt for him. "But you also have a point," she said, "Even if I don't like it." He continued to say nothing as she worked out her answer for herself. "And I think that we should try voting," she said, "But...It would also be very handy to make friends just in case you're right. In case everything actually is rigged and we do live under the knife. We don't really lose anything either way." "Practical," said Kenji, approvingly, "And I think that we shouldn't stick out our necks out too far. Just reminding you. We're going to be support. All we have to do is find people to support." "Or rent them," she said, a little icily, "Like you said." "What about it?" he asked, innocently. She glared at him and Kenji smiled. Then he pursed his lips, snatched his white noise generator from where it sat on a flat piece of rock and moved over to where Julie sat. She scooted over while Kenji pressed a few buttons and put it on his shoulder of all places. The world became truly quiet. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Dialing down the white noise bubble," said Kenji, "Just big enough for your head and mine. About the size of a fish tank." She felt his side press up against her side, their cheeks almost touching they were so close. Despite herself she started to panic. The last time they were this close they'd almost kissed. Her heartbeat sped up. Meanwhile, Kenji was calm. He even faced away from her a little. "W-Why?" she asked, nervously. "In case you want to ask me," he said, enigmatically. She wet her lips with her tongue. "About what?" she whispered. He leaned his back up against her side and through the steam she could see the back of his head. Despite that, she could see the corner of his smile tug up at one corner. "About the kind of friends that you can rent," said Kenji. For a moment Julie thought that he was propositioning her and that was such a wild thought that she had no idea how to respond. Then she realized that he'd brought up the topic before. Just a few minutes ago in fact. "Why would I need those kinds of friends?" she asked. Kenji nodded as she grasped at least some of his meaning. He looked around at the dark, steamy cave. "The dark part suits," mused Kenji, "And I guess it's smoky enough if you count steam. And we did have drinks." "Okay..." she said, slowly. She was no less nervous but now she was nervous for different reasons. Though she didn't fully understand why. "Julie. Are you cool?" asked Kenji. She couldn't help it. She barked out a laugh. Despite herself her anxiety spilled out of her mouth. "I am so not cool!" she exclaimed, "I'm sweating everywhere not in the water and not because of the heat. And I barely fit into my swimsuit." He reached back and patted her arm. "That's not the kind of cool I'm talking about," said Kenji, "I mean, are you cool?" Julie was about to say no again but paused. Again she drew on her experience from prison. How some people needed secrets kept. That there would be no snitching. That an understanding might be reached. She'd never been "cool". But she'd seen Big Rita be "cool" plenty of times. Julie gulped as she spoke. "I can be cool," she said, quietly, "Even if I don't know why." "That's the best time to be cool," said Kenji, softly, seriously, "I read you. You're angry but you're curious about the kind of friends you need to rent. And I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't think it was important." "Okay..." she said, quietly, "Go on." Kenji nodded his head. "Rule zero," said Kenji, "Shadowrunners exist. If we're on the wrong side of them then we're in trouble. We're going to have to prepare." An hour later, Julie walked back to her tent in the dead of night. Kenji had been cagey about why he knew what he knew but he'd laid out a crash course about why she needed to be wary of shadowrunners. She wouldn't have taken him seriously if not for the fact that she'd met one of them not once but twice. First at the Christmas when she'd participated in the ritual to heal the sick and second when she showed up with an arsenal in minutes to combat a toxic shaman and had stood toe to toe with a toxic earth spirit and won. And while most of what he said went over her head he had given her a very healthy fear of them. She found her water bottle in her tent, drank heavily to replenish her lost fluids, changed into her sleeping gear and tried to think about what she'd do next. There were business plans to pick, drones to buy, farms to buy, space to find, people to piss off and very possibly shadowrunners to defend her community from. Professional, deniable mercenaries who were very dangerous people and might be set upon her by literally any group with enough money to hire them. When Julie finally fell asleep much later she had nightmares about indistinct men and women who stalked the corridors of her community, indiscriminately killing with gunfire and magic as she failed to do anything about it. She woke up suddenly in the dead of night, breathing hard and sweating but all she saw was the inside of her tent. Reluctantly she went back to sleep and dreamed no more that night. CYOA Time Julie has one of two choices to make. I'll abstract these in the business plans into what they mean. 1. Smash and Grab (Capitalist Route) A. Julie makes lots of money fast. A ridiculous sum that will solve a lot of money related problems quickly. It will most likely make somewhere between ten and twenty million nuyen. However, most of this will be gone about as fast as she gets it. B. It will piss off the conservatives and so this is the more violent option. The longer the dentist office stays open the more likely violence or death occurs from violent protest, terrorism or a siege by the corporate cops at the behest of the state. Even though Touristville opposes prop 23 they're going to use that money to advertise and the distinction will be lost on the conservatives/fascists. C. Prioritizes money over making friends. D. Once that money is gone it's gone. No more money is incoming and Touristville will reap rewards in the short term but it's a shrug in the long term. E. It'll be easier to play defense against shadowrunners or even hire them. F. No idea where to put the farms. 2. Pay What You Want (People Power Route) A. Julie makes money more slowly. Getting the corporate types to pay full freight will make it profitable but how much profit the pay what you want plan will actually make from the public is a big question mark. B. This will piss off the liberals because they'll be openly anti-prop 23. This makes it the less violent route because conservatives won't engage in political violence if they're openly against prop 23. Note that there may still be attacks but they will likely not be political violence. C. Prioritizes making friends over money. D. The business stays open but the money will roll in more slowly over the long term. Touristville reaps longer term rewards as well. Think two to three farms purchased a day. More if the public ponies up more creds or they get creative in making food. Julie also may be able to lean on Touristville for creds for farms through the reputation economy. E. It'll be harder but not impossible to play defense against shadowrunners. Hiring them will also be harder. F. Still no idea where to put the farms. Also note that this will be the last meeting for a while. This is the setup for what the mid to end-game will look like for the book. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 19:22 on May 8, 2021 |
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May 7, 2021 07:05
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I just don't see the kids going the smash and grab route, not after talking about the injustices within the system. People power all the way. May be longer term option, but they wanted to build a community anyway.
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May 7, 2021 12:56
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There's so many ways I can see 2) going wrong. And yet, it seems like the only real option that's in-character. I'll take 2) with the good and the bad.
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May 7, 2021 15:52
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People Power, for sure. Mrs. Liu would most likely prefer the more subtle, community-focused route over a dangerous, naked cash grab, and her support is vital for anything related to Touristville. Julie has a good reputation, but as a goblinized former human, she hasn't been an ork long enough to understand the exact kind of hell she'd be visiting upon one of the only refuges for orks and trolls from dystopian capitalism in the city. Prison isn't the same.
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May 7, 2021 16:22
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I'll choose option 2.
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May 7, 2021 17:23
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#2. Riskier, more idealistic, but something I'd rather see. Hopefully they can make friends with someone who can help pay for protection. Dragonlayer and/or Dog might be able to send some help also. As for F, what's to stop them from putting all the farms on the water? Nowhere to dock them? Permitting?
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May 7, 2021 17:36
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I wonder if the Salish could be sold on hosting the farms as some sort of "gently caress Azzies" platform?
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May 7, 2021 18:37
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Then you have the problem of having to ship across borders constantly. A stopping point that's open to fuckery.
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May 7, 2021 20:55
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GimmickMan posted:There's so many ways I can see 2) going wrong. And yet, it seems like the only real option that's in-character. I'll take 2) with the good and the bad. Either way has lots of chances for failure, but option 2 if it fails would have a lot of sympathetic people have a true crack ping moment when a corp / government tries to brutally supress a organization that did everything right and tried to do the right thing by feeding a bunch of needy people. I mean, if we're worried we're going to get the Fred Hampton experience, we may as well go full BPP.
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May 8, 2021 01:11
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Definitely option two and I've got goosebumps when Kenji brought up shadowruning. It's going to get violent either way but with option two they'll have more people on their side. They really need to ally or start their own gang, I'm sure there's plenty of people and groups that share their goals. Black block, friends of dragon slayer, some of the people in touristville, maybe some shadowrunners put them on the payroll and use them for stuff.
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May 8, 2021 01:41
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Chip and Shar - Wednesday, August 23rd, 2075 – After Midnight - Downtown Seattle Chip took the LAW into his own hands. Not a system of rules which he actually appeared to be breaking tonight but liquid antacid water. It was an eyewash which helped neutralize the gases that were used on rioters. Specifically the ones that got into the mucous membranes like the eyes which made it hard to see. The person under him and receiving care was an ork with dark skin and androgynous features. They groaned in relief as the liquid ran over their eyes and helped wash out the worst of the blistering agent. Chip couldn't see much of them as they'd only pulled off down enough of their mask to expose their eyes. Hair color and hair style were hidden and Chip only understood their body as ork average under their clothing which was a little taller, broader and more muscular than a human. "gently caress this hurts," they groaned. "Keep your eyes open," said Chip. The spirit did a passable job but the ork's brown eyes were red rimmed from the gas. The person shook from the pain and swore and Chip had a hard time guiding the slip tip syringe to wash out their eyes and they kept blinking which wasted the LAW. There was plenty of it and it was easy to mix but Shar had told him that their stock wasn't infinite. Though the syringes that Chip provided extended the liquid far further and was far more accurate than the squeezable condiment bottles they'd used the night previous. Suddenly the androgynous ork stood up, blinked hard and put their mask and Know Shades back on. "Gotta get back out there," they said. "I'm not done yet," said Chip. But they were already away. The crowd that had been driven back by police and their drones was already moving again. There was safety in numbers. Protesting alone or even in a small group emboldened police and made them feel more secure in deploying violence. Chip had seen some of the results from that last night and if he stuck around long enough Shar, the leader of the medic collective had promised him that he'd likely see more. So he turned back towards the medic tent where a few of the other medics were now slowing down or taking breaks now the the crowd was leaving. The parking lot outside of the Denny Park parks and recreation department was otherwise empty save for spent vape pods, empty water bottles, snack wrappers and other trash as the closest garbage can was full. He'd been so busy that by the time it became full he hadn't noticed and the latest crowd had littered. Chip had magical control over trash because he picked it up with Julie when they went on walks together. Of course he didn't clean up the parking lot with his magic even though it would have cleaned it up in an instant. That would be too obvious and awakened were especially targeted by police for their ability to tip the scales during a protest. So instead he went over to the trash can, put on a sterile glove and pushed hard to press down the trash. There was a crunching sound as the trash gave way and when he was satisfied that there was enough space he stopped and turned to the dirty parking lot now intent on cleaning up. In that moment Shar approached, possibly drawn by the noise. Her features were completely obscured from top to bottom by black apparel. "You know they've got drones that do that here," said Shar, "In the morning. This is too nice a place to let trash sit around for long. Too rich a neighborhood." Chip looked back and the medic and then picked up a water bottle. "It's here now," said Chip, "It bugs me." Shar shrugged and he briefly left her behind as he picked up a handful of trash. Once his hands were full he walked it over to the trash can with its newly compacted trash. Shar watched him for a few minutes while she smoked. If Chip had more presence maybe he could have convinced others to help him either through words or by example but he wasn't that kind of person. He just did it while everyone wound down from the rush of injured, hungry and thirsty protesters. "Not as many people out tonight," said Chip. "Things got got wild last night," said Shar, "The cops ate a pretty bad defeat but it's because a lot of stuff got burned down. The non-violent protesters don't like being out during a riot because the stakes get higher. What we have left are the people who're good with violence, property damage and looting." "Do people really have to burn stuff down?" asked Chip. Shar puffed on her vape and nodded. "No one listens if you just march around and don't offend anyone," said Shar, "Protester break and burn a couple times a year. They got a taste for it after the Crash and never really stopped." "Why?" asked Chip. "Depends on who you talk to," said Shar, "Most of it boils down to being mad. Aren't you mad?" Chip suddenly left the conversation and scuttled awkwardly to catch a candy wrapper before it blew away. He almost put on a burst of speed but thought better of it. So he pinned it with a foot and picked it up. He came back to the conversation like nothing happened with yet another handful of trash. Shar didn't seem to mind. "I don't have that much mad in me," said Chip. He was speaking literally. When Julie had given her experiences to him it had been almost all of the best ones. In many ways he was her best self an she'd suffered for it because she'd been left with the negative experiences. Though not all of them were strictly positive. He had a little of her mischief in him. A little of her violence. And while he could get angry it was difficult to do so. "Huh," she said, "Oh, I asked around and got a little collection going. Bought something for you on the sly." She dug in her pocket and pulled out a pair of dark glasses. "For your uh...Condition," she said. The condition was for seeing into the astral. It was considered a disability among metahumans though Chip couldn't imagine why because all spirits and many magical beings saw the astral. Still, Chip pulled off his gloves and took the shades. The glasses were thick but dark. They were also shaped like a pair of Know Shades and were no different than anyone else's. "Had them done custom so you can't get picked out," said Shar, "They're thicker but no one will be able to tell if you mask up well enough. There are a bunch of online hacktivist types that are shredding every recording device they can get at but blackout coverage is spotty. With these you can do your thing a little more out in the open." "Wow," said Chip, "I hope it didn't cost you that much." "Yeeeeah," said Shar, with a great exhale of smoke, "About that. Just uh...Keep showing up if you want to. Cool?" He slipped on the shades and the world lost most of its color. No longer could he see emotions and magic. He could dimly feel it because there were large concentrations of both negative and positive emotions permeating this place. But he was disappointed as the world suddenly became very boring. "Huh," said Chip. "They work?" asked Shar. He turned to her and couldn't see her emotions even though they'd really been all over the place tonight. She'd go from extreme emotional distress to grey numbness and Chip was pretty sure that wasn't great. "They do," said Chip, "Uhh...Thanks." "Don't want you getting spotted," said Shar, "Can't lead you around by the hand like you can't see all the time." He tried to read her expression but couldn't. Metahuman body language was something that he wasn't an expert in and since her body was so thickly covered he had a hard time reading that. Chip had been able to get by by reading emotions directly. He figured he might be able to compensate. Like if he'd lost his sense of smell but could still taste food. But he wasn't sure how well he could compensate because suppressing his astral sense and seeing like metahumans did was completely new. "You good?" she asked. Again Chip couldn't read her. Especially since she was puffing on that vape pretty hard. The cloud got in the way of his vision. "It's good," said Chip, "But uh..." Shar watched him and he fidgeted a little with his shades. "The world without the astral is a little boring," said Chip. Shar took a last puff before she pocketed her vape. She nodded. "Yeah, I've done some deepweed," she said, "The astral is pretty loving cool in the right place with the right mood." Chip stopped cleaning up. "You can see the astral?" asked Chip. Shar laughed. "Only when I'm high," she said, "Deepweed is awakened kelp. I mix it with some good old THC when I smoke. Anti-anxiety blend. You keep being cool and maybe some of the crew will probably smoke out with you. Nothing hard though. Not anymore. Gotta be careful about that." "Well yeah, hard drugs are bad for you," said Chip. There was a pause for a few beats too long. "Yeah, yeah," said Shar, a little too quickly, "More uh...Relapses. Gotta be careful." She began to nervously tap her foot and then after a moment of indecision she pulled out her vape and began to smoke again. Chip had a hunch. "You okay?" he asked. She looked at him in a way that Chip thought might be searching and then slowly nodded. "Eight months clean," she said, "I still get the cravings." She offered her vape to Chip. He approached and took it. Early on last night he figured out that it was the social thing to do and so he did it. It didn't hurt him or give him any pleasure and so he only took little puffs. He tasted chemicals so processed that he could barely get any history out of them. "What was it?" asked Chip. "Bliss," said Shar, "loving super heroin. Boyfriend got me hooked. It made me think the world was all right. Helped me sleep. None of that anymore." Chip handed her back her vape. "Which part?" asked Chip. "The world being all right part," said Shar, deadpan, "I smoke up to sleep. There's this blend called Dreamless that's pretty solid but it doesn't always last. The edibles do but they're pretty expensive. But when I spluge? I get a full eight hours of dreamless sleep." She almost sighed out the last two words. "I've never really done anything," said Chip. Shar laughed and patted Chip on his second hand helmet. "Good, don't," she said. She looked at Chip through the vape cloud as if searching for something but without understanding her emotions or seeing her face the answer came to him belatedly and only on another hunch. Judgement, he realized. She wanted to see if he judged her. He didn't, almost couldn't as Julie hadn't given the part of her that judged people. Though he was still able to discern between right and wrong, good and bad of course. Judgement got in the way of giving care. He'd seen it a few times while working with others and didn't much miss the fact that he probably lacked the ability to judge others. Shar eventually grunted and put her vape away. Chip felt like a gift like he'd just received should be repaid in kind with another gift and so he opened the messenger bag at his side. This one was new to him though not new. Battered and black. A few protesters carried the same. Apparently his old brown one was too identifiable. However inside of the bag in a well protected pocket was half a bunch of grapes and an orange. Shar whistled. "Now that is an expensive habit," she joked, "You going to bring fruit every night?" Chip shuffled awkwardly. "I can't be here every night," said Chip, "I have work. I asked someone to cover for me again. But I'm drawn to pain and the place where I work doesn't have that much of it." Chip pulled off his gloves, put them in the trash and then handed Shar the orange. She reached into a different pocket than her vape and pulled out a butterfly knife though Chip had never seen one before. It danced in her hand with mechanical clicking sounds before settling into its final shape which left Chip momentarily mesmerized. Then she lifted her mask and began to carefully cut the orange into sections but she would stop at each cut and greedily suck the juice that welled up from so as not to waste a drop. "drat expensive habit," she repeated when she was done, "I'm drawn to pain too but is that a magic thing for you?" She wasn't judging either but she did discern that Chip had said something odd and he realized this too. Chip had a small crisis as he turned this question around in his head. After all he was a being of pure magic. Was his will magical too? All that he was and all that animated him? Or was that another part of him that was separate? He wasn't sure. "I'm not sure if I can separate myself from my own magic," said Chip, slowly, "It is a magical thing but I don't know if that's all it is." Shar stared at him for a while but the answer seemed to satisfy. Or if it didn't she only grunted and presented him with his slice of the orange. Even though Chip already had basically all the information he could possibly ever need from that type of orange he took the juicy wedge out of politeness. Then Shar popped hers into her mouth, shuddered in pleasure and smiled wide like she was wearing a mouthguard before she pulled up her mask again as if concealing a secret. "Gonna share with the crew and get ready for the next wave," she said, voice muffled by the fruit, "Got any plans for those grapes?" "About the same as the orange," said Chip. "gently caress yeah," she said, "By the way. You think of a protest name yet?" Chip smiled though it was hidden behind his mask. "Block," said Chip. It was close enough to his name that he felt comfortable using it. He still wanted to be himself even if no one here knew that he was a spirit. "All right Block," said Shar, "Let's get ready for the next wave." Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 19:25 on May 8, 2021 |
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May 8, 2021 19:04
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Ice Phisherman posted:Chip and Shar - Wednesday, August 23rd, 2075 – After Midnight - Downtown Seattle I was both bracing for this to be a third, entirely different kind of LAW and thinking, "Well... that seems out of character. What escalated that quickly?"
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May 9, 2021 08:58
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Yond Cassius posted:I was both bracing for this to be a third, entirely different kind of LAW and thinking, "Well... that seems out of character. What escalated that quickly?" haha, that was my thought exactly when I read that
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May 9, 2021 11:16
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If this was a TV show Chip would definitely carry a spin off
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May 10, 2021 23:12
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Julie, Kenji and Julian - Wednesday, August 23rd, 2075 – Late morning - Salish Council "So where's this big tree?" asked Kenji. Camp had been broken, breakfast eaten and now the small group of shamans trekked east cross country along a ridge. This meant that they'd left the trail behind and now they moved across rough terrain and away from any established trails. "All around us," said Julian. Julian was in a better mood now that he'd gotten some real sleep. He still looked tired but today he wasn't slowing down after an easy walk like yesterday. "No really," said Kenji. "We're about a mile to the tree," said Julian, "But I'm being serious. It's connections run far and wide even if you can't see them." "In a magical way?" asked Julie. "No," said Julian, "In ways that are pretty normal for trees." Julian hovered into the air with a sustained spell as he crossed a steep slope and carried Kenji with him with a second sustained spell. Julie did it on her own. All three touched down on a flatter part of the ridge. Julie steadied herself with the combination hiking pole and trash grabber that Mr. Peters had given her last semester. She hadn't needed to use it on the way up but an extra way to keep her stable definitely didn't hurt. "Keep the spell going," said Julian, "We're going to have to do that a few more times. Easier to just keep it going continually." Julie nodded and sustained the spell effortlessly in that way that most could not. They walked overland anyway. Even this high up the canopy was thick enough that going upwards was a problem. She'd never seen trees this big before. Some of them as thick around as she was tall though most were smaller. "So does this big one have roots that goes for miles or something?" asked Kenji. "No," said Julian, "They use fungus to stay connected." "Like mushrooms?" asked Julie. Julie nodded without turning around. "Not like you think of them, but yes," said Julian, "Trees in a forest blur the line between individual beings and a collective. They share resources with one another through a fungus network underground." "So like a road?" asked Julie, "A fungus...Road? Is that right?" Julian's step was light as he crossed a sheer drop off. Like one of those old cartoons Kenji and Julian walked off the mountain and over air. Though when Kenji looked down he didn't fall. Julie did the same and was very glad that she'd done astral projection training to lessen her fear of heights. It had taken some getting used to at first but trailblazing with levitation wasn't so bad. "Yes, like a road," said Julian, "If one tree needs water or nutrients that another tree has elsewhere in the forest those nutrients are shared. Not all soil is created equal. Not all rain falls the same everywhere. The trees and even some other plants share and cooperate to keep the forest healthy and alive. Mother trees are the oldest trees in the forest. They have the most connections because they have the most resources to give. Cooperation is how some of most of the trees in a forest survive and thrive. Some trees even share with trees that aren't their own species. Inter-species cooperation helps them thrive. Oh! There it is!"" Julian pointed towards a dense thicket of trees a few hundred feet straight down a cliff. There was a fantastically large tree. Almost two-hundred and fifty feet tall and eight feet wide it was as tall as a California Free State redwood and almost as thick around. The fir tree towered over all others around it. "Now that's a big tree," said Kenji, mildly impressed. "Wow," said Julie, quietly. "That is a magnificent specimen of Pacific Silver Fir," said Julian, happily, "A thousand years old now. We're in one of the few old growth forests that was never logged." Their teacher looked back to Kenji and Julie his smile a bit boyish. "And now we're going to talk to it," he said, excitedly. "We're going to talk to the tree?" asked Kenji. "No, we're going to talk to the forest," said Julian, "It'll manifest as a spirit through the mother tree. Through the roots and branches and the fungus that connects the trees to one another. The mother tree is just the spokestree you might say. The greatest part of a larger whole. That'll color its interactions with us." He once again stepped off the cliff and levitated down, down, down. Kenji kept his cool and Julie did as well as she followed them. The wind blew and as she approached the enormous mother tree its heavy scent reminded her of Christmas. She followed Julian as they made wide, lazy circles around the tree, their feet occasionally touching the tops of branches that were heavy with flat, needlelike leaves, its trunk a dark grey and covered in scales and furrows. Moss weighed heavily on the tree and animals made their nests in its boughs. And down, down, down they circled around the tree. Minutes past and the wind blew. Julian lead the way through the thick canopy of smaller nearby trees and when he waved his hand a few branches bent out of the way as if by magic because it was. The world darkened as light barely filtered through the trees but Julie could see anyway of course. When they touched down it was upon a thick bed of fir needles that were scattered among roots thicker than any of them were around. At least closest to the tree. And nearby was a rock half as tall as Julie covered in moss on the north side, its south side relatively barren. "Here we are," said Julian, "Here to atone." They all craned their heads upwards to look at the ancient tree. "How does that work again?" asked Kenji. "You two partook in an offense to nature," said Julian, "You ate food that had been purposefully driven extinct so that the decadent might enjoy it just a little more. Our form of shamanism makes no pretense at worshiping gods, goddesses or animal spirits. So we're here to talk to the largest and safest local representative of nature itself. With luck it will intercede on our behalf." Julie felt like he'd left something out. Now that he'd had some rest she felt like she could finally indulge her curiosity. "Wait, was there anything closer?" asked Julie. "Of course. Nature is everywhere," said Julian, "We technically could have spoken to The Puget Sound." Kenji grumbled. "Wait, we could've stayed at school?" he asked. Julian turned to him and grinned. "Why Kenji," he said, his tone amused, "I think that's the first time I've ever heard you be eager to get back to school." Even in the dark Julie saw Kenji blush and look away. Julie found it odd that he did and wondered if he'd been thrown off by all the levitation. "I mean," said Kenji, "Seems like a waste to come out all this way if we could've just went down to the dock." Julian barked out a laugh. "Oh no," said Julian, "Noooooo...We'd have to go into the Sound. That means diving deep and the Sound gets really deep since it was carved out by glaciers. We'd have to go to a depth with no light, no idea where up and down would, there's potentially hostile normal and awakened wildlife and the spirit of the Puget Sound is temperamental. Very dangerous. Or so I'm told. It's rare that I interact with water spirits." "Uhhhh...Yeah," said Kenji, hesitantly, "None of that." "And the the spirit of the forest is gentle?" asked Julie, hopefully. "The flora side of the forest is gentler," he said, "Still dangerous if provoked. The fauna side of the forest is all red in tooth and claw and presents a lot of the same dangers as the ocean. It's why we're not talking to an elder animal spirit. Luckily the offense given was associated with flora and so this is actually the best choice." Julie paused as she thought of something. "I am the Lorax," recited Julie, "I speak for the trees." "I speak for the trees have no tongues," finished Julian. Teacher and student shared a smile together. "What's that from?" asked Kenji. Their teacher maintained his cheerful attitude as he ran his fingers across the trunk of the tree. "The Lorax by Doctor Seuss," said Julian, "I have one that was saved from old California after they banned the book in one of the old logging towns. Laytonville I think it used to be called. It's a masterpiece of children's fiction. It's a first edition too. Either of you are welcome to read it." "Really?" asked Julie, excitedly. "It's a book about what, saving trees?" asked Kenji, "That's made out of trees?" Julian gave Kenji a guilty little shrug. "It probably saved a lot more trees than it cost to print," said Julian, "Point taken though. Anyway, shall we start the ritual?" "How long will it take?" asked Kenji. "Only about an hour," said Julian, "And however long the conversation takes. Trees can take their time." Kenji narrowed his eyes. "An hour real time or are we in for what feels like forever again?" he asked. Julie's eyes widened in response. "Oh, that's a good point," she said, "Please just let an hour be an hour. The last one felt like...What Kenji said. Forever." Julian raised his hands. "An hour is an hour," placated Julian, "It would normally take longer but we're close to where the spirit of this forest dwells. Powerful rituals can change your perception of time but simple ones very rarely do and if they do it's rarely that much. It'll be fine." Julie and Kenji relaxed and then they all sat close to the mother tree among the fir needles. Julian reached into his backpack and produced two little hardened spheres of mud. These were the containers for all of the seeds that they'd swallowed that had previously rolled around in their stomachs with the aid of a spirit. "What do we do with them?" asked Kenji. "Just hold onto them without breaking them," said Julian, "They're pretty tough so it should be fine." "And you'll lead the ritual?" asked Julie. "I'll be performing the ritual alone," said Julian, "You just sit and wait. Oh, um...Kenji, would you mind taking the commlinks and using that white noise generator of yours on them?" He nodded in understanding. "Hand them over," said Kenji, near instantly, "In fact just give me your backpacks." They did and Kenji deposited the backpacks several feet away. He set up his white noise generator and Julie looked to Julian while he worked. "But there's no wireless signal out here," she said. "Assume that any electronic device with a receiver is always listening," said Julian, "Because they do. They save data even when you're off the matrix and report it later. Even when it's off they're still not fully off. Before the CPS meeting I assumed only passive data collection. We weren't interesting enough to get attention. That's changed. The spirit of the forest may ask us to do specific things to atone like..." Julian watched Kenji flip on the white noise generator. A small part of the forest went almost completely silent save for the faintest electronic hum. Kenji gave Julian a thumb's up and trudged on back. "Like plant these seeds," said Julian, "And that would make Aztechnology incredibly angry. At best we'd be looking at a lawsuit for theft of intellectual property. At worst...Well...I'd rather avoid that. I don't expect the spirit to talk but there's always a chance that that it'll attempt to speak in case we don't understand. Dumb things down for us." "Why is that dumb?" asked Julie. "It'd have to translate plant into English," he said, "And plant isn't even a language. It's a state of being. So there'd be a lot of translation errors both ways." Julie nodded in understanding as Kenji made his way back and sat down. "Now I expect that it won't speak to us with words," said Julian, "This is a spirit of plants and a fairly significant one at that. I know both of you are used to speaking with Chip but Chip is a spirit of man and Julie gave him the ability to talk to people more effectively. Most spirits are not like that. They are difficult to understand. The closest language you'll get with a plant spirit will probably be something akin to emotional communication. Julie, you have plenty of experience in this regard with your connection with Chip so I expect you to take the lead." Julie just stared at Julian. "Uhhh...What?" she asked, "You're not going to do it?" "I'm here to make introductions," said Julian, "But you're both here to apologize and atone and cleanse yourselves so you can reestablish full connection with your magic. I can't do any of those things for either of you in any meaningful way." There was a pause as both Julie and Kenji digested this fact. "Right," said Kenji, "Any advice?" "Be sincere," said Julian, "If you don't feel an apology in you then don't make it. Most spirits don't care for deception." Another moment as this was considered. "Anything else?" asked Julie. "One more thing." said Julian, "Your transgression isn't unforgivable. And it was for a good cause. You have the ability to make amends. Two major points in your favor. I don't expect this to go badly. Just make your case as plainly as you can and be as truthful as you can." "Okay," said Kenji, "Let's uh...Let's just do this thing." They all nodded and Julian reached into his pocket. Out of it he drew a number of stones which clacked in his hand. Julie used her astral sight and immediately identified them as reagents or small items filled with bits of magic. They'd used a pretty big pile of them for the ritual but it looked like the one that Julian was going to attempt was a much smaller one. It was not a summoning or a binding which would take many hours and concentration. This ritual was to contact a spirit that was known as a genius loci, or spirit of a place. And this didn't seem like summoning or binding magic that would put it under his control. The spell he worked was far simpler and Julie got the impression like Julian was reaching out to poke the spirit. Their teacher closed his eyes as the magic built and...Nothing happened. There were no lights or sounds or distortions that came with normal magic. The two teens just waited with the the little balls of mud containing seeds of extinct plants in their outstretched hands. The wind rustled through the trees. Birds sang. Christmas smells were especially heavy in the air. Julian muttered to himself under his breath from time to time but otherwise all was calm. So Julie relaxed her astral vision and merely waited. Minutes later Julie's eyes were closed so she hadn't caught who among the other two had loudly farted. Everyone laughed and neither the laughter nor the fart seemed to disrupt the ritual. Then Julie began to daydream. Even more minutes slipped by. About what she'd do when she got back and the people she'd help. About a girl and a boy in this very forest etching their names on a rock and kissing which felt odd because she didn't know either of them. About making the hundreds or perhaps even thousands of seeds inside of the little mud balls grow. This last one delighted her and something tickled at the edges of her awareness. Then she opened her eyes and looked at and then into the ball of mud and imagined herself seeing through to the seeds inside. At first there was outrage. These plants had been killed to the last. But even worse, the plants had been rendered defenseless. Their sweetness had been selectively bred above all else. If these seeds were placed in the wild they would die. Images of insects eating and diseases ravaging the plants to be gave Julie an overwhelming sense of sadness. Outside of a sterile, disconnected environment, these plants would die. "It's here," whispered Julian. "Is that what that is?" asked Kenji, "I thought I was daydreaming." "About what?" asked Julian. "Not liking Christmas," said Kenji, "Seems like it's mutual." Julie smirked and continued with the daydream. Imagination seemed to be how she communicated with the spirit. On a whim she opened her astral senses and saw that the entire tree she was under was incandescent with the magical presence of a very powerful spirit. The mother tree was the conduit for the plants of the forest and the attention of all of the plants of this forest was upon the three shamans. The tree did nothing. It merely waited. So Julie closed her astral sense and her eyes and used her imagination as she tried to explain through the connection with the spirit. The scene inside of the pyramid replayed in her mind. Being sent by the great spirit Dragonslayer to witness what happened inside, moving their way up, seeing her place in the social hierarchy in what food she did and did not eat, meeting the agent who used pheromones to try and trick them, being given gifts, making their way up to a secret place, insulting their hosts for offending them and being given a choice to eat food that was purposefully rendered extinct. The great mother tree stopped waiting. It groaned and shuddered. It shook about in the wind, angry and indignant. Not in her daydream but just a few feet away from her. A branch cracked and split above them but did not fall though a number of the fir needles fell upon them like snow. "Don't run," said Julian, gently, "Don't even move. Make your case." Julie shivered and as she looked up she became very aware of a thick, dangling branch some twenty feet directly above them. That kind of fall with that kind of weight might injure or even kill them. Her heart hammered in her chest but a hand found hers. Kenji seemed to have sensed that Julie was distressed. Their fingers threaded and they held hands and she drew strength from that touch. Kenji squeezed her hand and she squeezed his back in return. Her heart slowed and she found the courage to make her case. She returned to the scene in her mind. There was a girl who was in trouble because of their actions. Anacaona, or Ana would have likely been punished if they did not partake and her punishment would have likely been far worse than what happened to Julie. Julie did not like the pyramid. It was a bad place. Ana was at their mercy and they did not seem to have much. What else could she have done? Julie did not want to eat but she did what she had to do to protect someone else. There was a snapping from above. Julie waited for the fall but a hard gust of wind carried the branch. It crashed down with a crash some ten feet away and Julie cringed anyway as she felt the impact of the heavy branch. "Well it's mad," said Kenji, his voice a little tense, "Just not at us...Uh...Right?" "It seems that way," said Julian, "Keep going." And so Julie, whose teeth were on edge went back to her communication with the spirit. She emphasized that she would not have done what she did if not to protect another. With all her heart she apologized for the offense against nature and asked what she could do to atone. The answer was in her hand. Her attention was shifted to the seeds. Despite the death sentence that hung over them she saw them in bloom. Their bushes thick with berries and flowers and healthy leaves. Humans ate of them as did animals and if some just dropped on the ground that was fine too. Julie wondered about how exactly they might live if being in nature was a death sentence and the spirit of the forest sent her pictures in her mind of bees and butterflies and other pollinators. Of wild, hardy plants cross-pollinating to create a new generation. The plants born of these seeds were fated to imprisonment but their children, the hybrids, would be given a chance at life. "The spirit wants us to plant the seeds and to make hybrids," said Julie. "Do you both agree?" asked Julian. "Yes," both Julie and Kenji said as one. The feeling of cleansing was gentle. It came like a feeling of rain after a long drought. Like nourishment when hungry. A ray of light on a dark day. Julie's spirit drank greedily and she found herself coming back to her full strength. She sighed in relief and thought thoughts of gratitude towards the spirit. The task was done and the spirit did not seem intent on lingering but she still had questions and needs and desires and one stood out in her mind as she experienced the wonder that was forgiveness. As long as she had the attention of this spirit she might ask a question or two. Sensing her intent the spirit of the forest did not depart but waited. It took a moment for Julie to collect her thoughts but the tree was patient. Julie thought of her own magic and where it came from. Her suspicions were that she had unwillingly stolen her magic from her father when she killed him. In her mind she replayed the scene that she'd gone over and over and over again in her mind. The moment in her life that robbed her of sleep and happiness and her family and had left her with power. The therapy she'd done to accept what happened had been intensive but the pain was still there. She just knew how to compensate. Her body as she changed from human to ork on a softball field and then in a hospital. The small amount of magic she'd hidden because her family didn't approve. Her father's attempt to kill her. Finally, her defense of herself that left him dead and her alone. And she asked the spirit if her power had come from murder. The spirit did not answer. At least not at first. There was an awkward feeling of negation that came to her as refusal of a seed to sprout. A new thought came to her. There was a young tree. Once healthy. It was struck by calamity after calamity: Fire, flood, drought, insects, disease, all the things that might twist and stunt it, but it did not die. Julie reasoned that this was her but no. That seed did not sprout. So Julie reasoned if this was her father and the seed sprouted. A yes. In her mind many seeds fell from this tree, her brothers and sisters. Confirmation again. But furthest from her father dropped a last seed. Julie focused on it and knew that this was her. The youngest of all of chis children. Watched herself grow up in her father's image or at least how the tree imagined it. She grew much like the others and then one day she changed. Her leaves merely turned a different shade. She was after all still a tree. And so the father tree, twisted and dying, finally fell over. Julie tried to ask if this was what the spirit imaged was violence. The spirit paused and once again a seed sprouted in her mind in confirmation. Her attention was taken back to the father tree. Its roots were ripped from the ground as it was about to die. It nearly crushed the smaller tree but instead it was caught in Julie's branches. Daughter tree stood strong, injured by the fall and the father tree was dying with its roots free of the earth and exposed. But it did not completely die. The daughter fed the father tree, the wound closing around a piece of him before the main body of the father tree finally collapsed for good The wound that eventually closed permanently took a piece of him inside of her. And there was Julie back on the hospital bed. Julie panicked and tried to turn away from the memory but the spirit soothed her with the feeling of gentle rain and warm sun and cool earth and so she witnessed as the spirit of the forest soothed her. She knew the beginning. Knew the pain. Knew how her father had crept into the room to reject and murder her. And then Julie had lashed out at him to defend herself, though she did not know how she did at the time. And then it went on in a way that Julie only barely remembered through a overwhelming pain and grief but the spirit soothed her and cradled her in a way that allowed her to witness the death of her father. This was not out of cruelty but to show Julie what happened after. As her father lay mortally wounded it still took him time to die. In that instant something from him transferred to her while she was insensate with pain. That thing was magic. His magic. Magic long long hated and longer concealed. It crept into her through the wound she'd made on her heart by taking his life and it secretly nestled there when the wound closed. She was no thief and if she was a killer it was to defend herself. She was no toxic shaman in the making. A piece of her father still lived on inside of her and that part had not been taken unwillingly. In fact that piece of him appeared to flee into her like a dying thing might crawl towards perceived safety. Julie asked the spirit that kept her fragile emotions cradled what all of this meant but the spirit did not say. Frustrated she asked it why it would not speak and tell her what happened and Julie felt it struggle with something for a time before it answered. "Do not words," said the spirit of the forest in her mind, its voice a sigh like wind through leaves, "Me/us/we no words explain. Look inside. Answers." Julie nodded in understanding and then thought of a budding plant in agreement which the spirit took as assent. The spirit seemed to hesitate as it again struggled with words. "Wrongness done. Sadness you. Sadness me/us/we. Me/us/we forgiveness you?" Julie instantly tried to deny and reject that forgiveness. The rationalizations for her guilt were worn and heavy and painful like a scar that had never healed right. She went through them. The spirit attempted to listen but each of her unspoken rationalizations. First that she was a bad person because she killed her father. No sprout. She broke up her family and they were right to abandon her. No sprout. And so she grew desperate and the rationalizations grew more and more desperate as she attempted to blame herself. That she could have been a better daughter. That she should have known that she was about to change. That it would have been better if she'd let her father kill her. The spirit rejected her thoughts and embraced her and Julie clung fiercely to that feeling of love from the spirit of the forest. Of a spirit that is accustomed to giving unconditionally in that way that so many plants do. "Me/us/we forgiveness you?" asked the spirit. With all of her rationalizations gone she felt scraped raw. A feeling of dead flesh gone and shiny, new skin underneath and raw and painful. She nodded desperately. She wanted forgiveness. "You forgiveness you?" asked the spirit. Julie was shocked. It had never really occurred to herself that she could forgive herself. The idea that she could was both obvious and terrifying. She wrestled with that idea and wondered if it was even possible. Did she deserve forgiveness? And she remembered church and the idea of grace. About mercy. It wasn't the spirit of the forest or the idea of grace or her own desperation to feel like she wasn't a monster that allowed her to finally forgive herself. It was a little bit of all of that. And the forgiveness wasn't total. She didn't feel instantly exonerated. She didn't forgive most or all of what she felt. But she did forgive herself a little and that little was enough to grow on. A little seed of forgiveness to nurture. "Thank you," whispered Julie. That seed was planted inside of her. A sob escaped her chest. Tears began to flow. A snap rang out from above her and there was a soft thump on the fir needles as something rolled against her leg. "Gift," whispered the spirit, in her mind, "Me/us/we sleep. Visit again?" She thought of a seed sprouting in her mind. The spirit sent her the same back. The promise was made. The feeling of being cradled slowly and gently abated and that hurt but she could take it and she did. Then the spirit left and the mother tree was just a tree once more. Later she would realize that a pinecone that was larger than her forearm, quiet possibly the largest from the tree had rolled against her leg. It was a gift from the spirit and it contained many possibilities. But for now Julie only wept as pain and the relief of forgiveness washed over her. Someone held her. And then someone else placed her hand on her back and she felt cared for once more. Julie forgave herself. Just a little. But little things could grow in time. -- Julie and Kenji roll to talk to the spirit of the forest. They need a minimum of 2 hits for atonement. Julian rolls 5 hits and gives +3 dice to Julie and +5 to Kenji, their maximum due to their ranks in etiquette. Simple advice but well taken. Kenji rolls charisma 8 + etiquette 5 + aid of 5 and gets 4 hits. That's enough to get redemption but not a crit as the threshold for a crit starts at 2 + 4 = 6. But his magic is repaired. Julie rolls charisma 5 + etiquette 3 + Julian's aid 3 + an affinity for talking to spirits of 2. When she rolls high I spend her edge gained back from sleep and get 11(!) hits which is two crits. She gains knowledge from the tree. It's hard to parse out exactly what happened but she has a direction to look now. The spirit also forgives her and Julie accepts it and she is able to forgive herself for her part in her father's death. She will gain another +2 to her composure test for Denny park for a total of +6. She also gets a pine cone and it is huge and magical. I'll think about how magical and what it can do later. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 17:34 on May 12, 2021 |
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May 12, 2021 09:48
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Julie, Kenji and Julian - Wednesday, August 23rd, 2075 – Early Afternoon - Seattle Metroplex The hike back was quiet and uneventful. They made their way down the mountain and Julian picked a few huckleberries to share that hadn't been eaten by the local wildlife and they all shared in the taste of the wild blueberries. When they reached the road Julian changed into a bird once more and came back as a person in a Gridguide taxi. The road was bumpy until it became smooth as they came down the mountain once more. Everyone got a piece of pie on the way back and Kenji deposited a few wild huckleberries into the whipped cream on top. She was so fragile that she almost cried again. Four hours later they passed out of the Salish Council and back into the Seattle Metroplex, UCAS. Her first visit to a foreign country had been short but eventful and she'd taken plenty of pictures. Maybe next time she could take Fuzzy, Sasha and Chip too. Julie held off from answering or even looking at the text messages she'd gotten until she passed the border. She wanted her memories of her short trip to be good ones even if Kenji had talked to her about shadowrunners and that hadn't been great. Still, the feeling was genuine enough that she waited until she crossed the border to pull down her AR glasses and check her messages as she went west on I-90, her sight of the Redmond Barrens and its poverty obscured by a high, grafitti covered concrete wall. There were a few texts from Fuzzy. She wondered how Julie was doing and the messages had become heavy on the emoticons as of late. There were a few from Devin asking what was happening with this dentistry business. And there were pretty sizeable updates from Mrs. Liu in terms of plans, updates on the conversion of her apartment, Jimmy's efforts to remotely clean everyone's teeth and the expected expenses. The itemized list dragged her attention kicking and screaming towards the hated numbers. Dental Drones: 10,000 nuyen each. 39 required. = 390,000 Nuyen. Pilot program rating 4: 3200 each. 39 required. = 124,800 Nuyen Autosoft rating 6: 3000 each. 39 required. = 0 nuyen. Rating 4 Rigger Control Consoles: 8000 each. 2 required. = 16,000 nuyen. Dental Facility: 50,000 nuyen. Apartment Retrofit: Supplies and labor donated by comunity. = 0 nuyen Total: 625,600 nuyen Note: This is pre-negotiation. I expect prices to be much lower since we are buying in bulk. I am aware of the autosoft numbers and it is not a discrepancy. Codes have already been found. Please contact me at your earliest convenience so we can begin negotiations. - C. Liu Julie felt instantly worse. Some animal part of her wanted to scream and run away and her still fragile self wanted to recoil from the horror of those hateful numbers. "You okay?" asked Kenji. Julian and Kenji sat with her in the middle of the back seat on the way back. So she turned to him and slowly shook her head. "What's up?" asked Kenji, with a frown, "Someone die or something?" Julie shared the file with him. It turned out that he already had it. Sharing the horror somehow made her feel better but she felt worse when Kenji grunted. "Good shot on the autosofts," said Kenji, "And I figure that we can shave thirty percent off the total. Maybe more." "How can you be so calm?" she hissed. "What?" he asked, "Oh, you know. Gotta spend money to make money." Julian looked over at the both of them. "What are you two talking about?" he asked. "Uhhh..." said Julie, nervously. "The bill to get the dentist shop up and running," said Kenji, "I was saying to Julie that it's too high." Julie's foot began to nervously tap against the taxi's floor. "Let me see," said Julian. Kenji hesitated but nodded. Every single part of Julie's body that could cringe did cringe as Julian read over the itemized list. To make matters worse, Julie found a drop down menu of a fully itemized list. She'd just found the simple list. There was so much stuff and it all had price tags attached and those price tags were made of numbers. High numbers. "This is an incredible amount of money," said Julian, in his sternest teacher voice, "I'd just like to remind both of you about that. What you're both attempting to do. This is what it looks like. It's real. You're sophomores in high school and you're trying to get me, your guardian and teacher to sign off on spending over half a million nuyen." Julie's heart fluttered and she definitely wanted to cry. "Less than that," said Kenji, though Julie could detect a little edge in his voice, "It is our money. We are going to confirm that this is good financial sense. And that kind of money might buy you closet space downtown." Julie could feel them both staring through her and she was deeply uncomfortable. Julian put a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him and his face was kind and imploring. "It's not too late to back down," he said. Julie almost did. She was in an emotionally vulnerable moment and this was definitely too much but she had responsibilities and she wasn't willing to give them up. So she set her jaw and shook her head despite her fear. She looked at him. "It wouldn't be right to back down," she said, "And I'm going to help a lot of people. People are going to pay what they want. It's going to work." Julian frowned in confusion. "Pay what...What?" asked Julian. "Two business models that Mrs. Liu floated," said Kenji, "The first was loud, dangerous and guaranteed to make a lot of money and get people hurt before it got shut down. The second is pay what you want. It works. We're is going to help a lot of people and we're going to reach a lot of people." Julian's eye twitched once. He broke eye contact and looked out the window. Minutes passed before he spoke again. "If you fail," he said, quietly, "This is going to be a very, very expensive lesson. I will not allow you to go into debt. Bad things happen to awakened who go into debt. You will never be free if you owe money." "I'll throw in," said Kenji. Julian didn't move. He just stared out the window. "You may end up with nothing," said Julian. "Julie's situation is so rare and weird and cheaty that it's a license to copy and paste creds," said Kenji, "It's not going to make money because Julie is some business wizard. It's going to make money because she owns property and she has money to invest without going into debt. If you have money and property and you're willing to use it then you win in this rigged system of ours. You don't have to be a genius. You don't have to even have to be average. Julie has the tools to help her community and I'm willing to throw in too." Julian sighed. His breath fogged against the glass. "No debt," said Julian, "And we are going to run this by a business expert who is going to sign off on this. We are going to do this by book. All the books there ever were. I do not want to give CPS another reason to try again anyway." Julie felt a little hope spark in her chest. "Is that a yes?" she asked, her throat tight. "This pay what you want thing," he said, voice full of false cheer, "It'll help people I take it?" "Y-Yeah," she stuttered. "Great," he sighed, "Well then. I can't think of a way to say no. You're not children. You know what you want. If this is what you want to do then I'll sign off." Julian looked incredibly unhappy and was not bothering to hide it. The mixed messages confused Julie but she wasn't going to question it. She hugged him and he put an arm around her back and patted her on the back. He finally looked at her. "I just wish that you could've been kids for a little while longer," he said, "Not everyone gets to have a childhood. Some come to it a little late. But everyone should get to have it even if just for a little while." Julian looked back towards the window and Julie stopped hugging him. Kenji quietly rerouted the Gridguide taxi towards Touristville. No one talked for the rest of the ride. -- Kenji succeeds against Julian on an etiquette roll 4 v 3. Julian cannot think of a reason to deny them no matter how much he wants to. I'll also note that this is the first time that Kenji has succeeded on an etiquette roll versus Julian in the entire series. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 02:25 on May 13, 2021 |
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May 12, 2021 11:49
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That was beautiful.
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May 12, 2021 14:51
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Man this vacation really doesn't get to last long. It was obviously helpful for all involved, but reality intrudes basically immediately. Apparently Kenji first win on the Etiquette roll is when it really matters. Good on him. We got Julie with some insane high-rolling on the cleansing and Kenji with some bad luck intruding. Seems legit.
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May 12, 2021 22:46
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