You decide after the frustrating day of work in the lab you should take some time off, and you were already technically out. You pulled out your phone and texted your girlfriend to slip out of school and come meet you and that you had a new friend you wanted to introduce her to, and then texted Ruby. She responded almost immediately, which made you smile because you were pretty sure the little blonde had a bit of a crush on you, and you arranged a meeting near the warehouse your lab was currently connected to and slipped out the archway. While waiting for your new friend your phone rang and seeing it was Felicia you picked it up. You couldn't help but smile as you answered, "Hey baby what are you upto?"
You could almost hear the eye roll "Some of us still go to school Anthony, we cant all drop out to be successful inventing super geniuses. I have gym next period though so I could be talked into taking an early day. Who is this friend you wanted to introduce me to? And are they female by any chance?" You had expected that last question to have some edge to it but mostly she just sounded amused.
You weren't worried about jealousy, your Kitten was incredibly confident "As a matter of fact she is. Her name is Ruby and she's new in town, I offered the both of our time to show her around. Seems like she could use some friends and god knows I could too. Plus I think you'll like her Kitten, she's a cool girl, very snarky sense of humor that reminds me of you." Your girlfriend laughs at the compliment and promises to head over, calling her driver and hanging up as she heads to the nurse to fake a stomach ache. You're just lucky it isn't a game day. Felicia has good grades and teachers love her so she can afford some ditching and make it up later, but your lady loves her cheerleading and she absolutely wouldn't bail on it.
You almost jump out of your skin when a cheery voice says from behind you "I'm flattered, really. You sound like you care a lot about your girlfriend so the comparison is an honor. " Ruby was apparently a fucking ninja or something because you didn't notice her even with your Legion training, and situational awareness is REALLY important in shieldwalls. She was grinning that sassy dont give a fuck grin at you from where she sat on a brick outcropping off to the side of the warehouse "Also i appreciate you actually having plans for us to do something, when you asked me to meet you alone behind an old warehouse I gave it even odds you were just trying to get your dick sucked."
You burst out laughing at her matter of fact tone and took in her outfit. Converse and skinny jeans (ripped dark ones of course) and a black spaghetti strap top with the word Princess in pink rhinestones under a black oversized hoodie with purple crowns all over it. The cuffs of the hoodie had holes in them where she had slipped her thumbs through so the sleeves acted like fingerless gloves. "As fun as that sounds I think maybe we should save the dick sucking til you meet my girlfriend and see if you get along." You grin at her to show you're joking and gesture to her clothes "Cute outfit by the way, am I supposed to bow when I'm in your highness's presence?"
She returned the grin with a cheeky smile of her own "I'm happy to meet your girlfriend, and bowing isn't necessary just try to avoid eye contact and walk three steps behind me at all times." She gave you a wink "Make sure to keep those eyes above the waist though." Your smile grew even wider at the comment. She and Felicia were either going to be best friends or one of them was going to murder the other and dump her body in the hudson. You headed over to hop up on the outcropping with her to wait for Felicia and asked her about how the move had been.
Ruby regaled you with the usual first time in new york stories, though with a bit of a twist because she was living on an army base. Her mother being a general Ruby mostly got left alone but some of the soldiers tried to pull rank on her sometimes and she was forced to remind them that she wasn't in the damn army. Aside from the usual annoyance you notice a bit of hostility at the idea of being controlled by others, but as soon as she starts getting angry about it she seems to remember where she is and calms down, blushing slightly at her slip up. She's a funny girl, possible anger issues aside, and has you in stitches over more than a few of comments shes made to the army guys near her place.
You talk for about a half hour before you hear a limo pull up out front and hop down from the wall. You both walk around to the front of the warehouse to greet Felicia and you cant help but blink in surprise when a curvy silver haired blonde threw herself on you and kissed you enthusiastically. You grinned against her lips, knowing she was showing off for Ruby but fairly sure your new friend wouldn't take it personally given her obvious sense of humor. Felicia pulled away with a wet smack and a gave your companion a radiant smile "Hi, I'm Felicia Hardy and this is my boyfriend. There are many who like him, but this one is mine."
Ruby was grinning at the reference and the display "Point made, I don't think I'd mind being yours either with hellos like that. If you were trying to make me jealous you succeeded, I haven't had a pretty girl stick her tongue down my throat like that since I moved to town. Do I get a hello kiss too?" You see your girlfriends eyes widen in excited glee at the other girl and internally wince at what you may have unleashed. Luckily they distracted each other for a moment because as soon as Ruby said that you felt the forge fire.
Celestial forge accessed: Designs (Arcanum Of Steamworks And Magic Obscura) (50CP) Sufficient CP! Purchased: Purchased 50 CP. Remaining CP Banked 400.
You actually get excited at what you roll this time! The power is weird, sure, but it gives you actual options. That said you didnt have time for it right now since you had to prevent your girlfriend and new friend from destroying the world together. Luckily the forge only takes a second to fire so I was able to savor Felicia's reaction to Ruby's teasing, which was to step forward and grab the girl and slam her against the wall to kiss her senseless. You had expected Ruby to have been teasing and get flustered at the kiss but judging by the healthy handful she was getting of Felicias candy ass she was enjoying herself immensely. What started as a joke seemed like it was spiraling and as awesome as that sounded like it would be to watch you felt the need to intervene.
Clearing your throat you saw the two girls break apart, shooting you nearly identical devilish grins to let you know that had been only partly for your benefit and they weren't shy about doing it again. You consider the possibilities but this seems a bit fast especially since you and Felicia got together recently, so you roll your eyes good naturedly and turn around to walk off in the direction of a nearby diner for lunch. You hear them giggling followed by the unmistakable sound of a hand on a thicc skirt clad ass and a squeak of surprise before they catch up to you. Introducing these two might have been a bad idea. You weren't sure you would make it the rest of the day.
The walk to the diner calmed things down, each girl taking up a space wrapped around one of your arms as they get to know each other. As you suspected Felicia LOVES Ruby and the two of them are already laughing and getting becoming best friends, somehow managing to make obscure inside joke like comments about you that you dont understand despite having just fucking met. By the time you reach the diner you're officially sulking and the girls are cackling like evil fairies. You get to a booth and get shoved into the seat on one side while the girls sit on the other. Much like Fecilia Ruby eats like a sumo wrestler, which is good because otherwise you would feel self conscious of how much food it takes to upkeep your Named Legion physique. You order two burgers a salad three bowls of soup, four slices of pie and three sundaes, before asking the girls what they want.
Even Felicia looks startled by the spread, but you need more calories to fuel your intensive healing from the fight the other night so you just shrug and let them order. After the waitress leaves Felicia turns to Ruby excitedly "Rubes you shouldn't get too used to food like this, pretty soon we can get him cooking for you and then it's all over. Anthony is the best fucking cook I've ever seen, and my daddy hires michelin starred chefs for my birthdays! I'll have to make him cook us dinner soon if you're willing to work it off after." She winks at her fellow blonde. You dont think the flirting is even really that serious. They just both like making other people squirm and they've fallen into a game of bisexual chicken.
Not that you dont think they're actually attracted to each other, but at this point the goal was to make the other girl crack more than it was to actually fuck each other. Sadly for Felicia she seemed to have met her match as Ruby slipped closer to her in the booth and reached around behind her to palm one of her massive breasts "Only if I get to suck these fat fucking milkers for dessert, I've been salivating for these titties since I saw you." Felicia actually squeaked and her face turned bright red as she froze up under the groping, and without missing a beat Ruby threw both hands in the air and let a whoop of victory! "Fuck yes! I win, you big tittied slut! You blushed! Pay up!"
Felicia scowled at that, but noticed your look of confusion before she rolled her eyes and took a hundred out of the clutch you made her. "We made a bet back at the warehouse about who could make the other one flinch. After that makeout session we both realized we had a knack for making people hot and bothered and we each thought we could do it better." She handed over the hundred and smirked at our new friend "Sex jokes aside he really is an amazing cook, I was serious about that dinner invite. Just as friends though. I wouldn't mind fooling around a bit but as cool as you are I think a third person in the relationship would be a little fast for a first or second meeting." Once again when they were distracted I felt the forge fire.
Celestial forge accessed: The Creator: Tailoring (Everyone Else is a Returnee) (600CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total banked CP 500.
Ruby smiled reassuringly "Hey I get you, I wasn't expecting anything like that, honestly hadn't expected to get along so well with you both. I'm not even sure I'm ready for something like that, I've never really had a relationship. But you guys are both awesome and super hot, I'd love to do dinner and maybe some fucking. As a friends thing I mean. Doesn't have to be anything too serious. Just spending time with you today has been a blast. I usually dont make friends so fast in a new town since I worry about having to move away. But it looks like mom will be here for a while and I turn eighteen in a few years so I dont have to worry about having to bail after getting to know you guys." She had a sad look when she said that last part and couldn't really look at us, which set Felicia off with a coo of sympathy as she pulled our new friend into a tight hug.
Felicias hugs are as one might imagine soft and comforting and Ruby seemed to relax into her arms as Felicia spoke up "Whatever you need we're here for you Ruby, to be honest we don't have an easy time making friends either. Most girls don't like me and guys just want to fuck me I've never clicked with anyone as fast as i have with you, I feel like we're already sisters and i know Anthony likes you alot too. I could tell you guys bonded when you talked earlier and we would love to spend more time with you. You dont have to worry about being alone in a new city, you have us now." You could see Rubys face as Felicia hugged her and she had a soft smile on it, but she must have been pretty emotional from the speech, because you could swear she was tearing up a little.
The rest of your day was a blast. Ruby and Felicia were impossible to separate and you didn't mind having gorgeous women draped all over you. After your reasurance Ruby seemed to be warming up to you, and some Artisinal application of the art of conversation and maybe a bit of the art of seduction had her loosening up a ton. Ruby must have been really sheltered growing up because all the basic things you were doing seemed new and exciting to her. She had never been to a carnival or on any rides, and when you took her to Coney Island and won her a stuffed bear she actually blushed. When she caught herself doing it she seemed horrified and she was stiff and withdrawn for the next half hour until you and Felicia got her out of her shell again.
You had some strong words for Rubys mother if you ever met her, the woman had clearly kept her daughter locked up away from any friends or fun of any kind, and while military discipline was all fine and good, imprisoning your kid was messed up. You were pretty sure Ruby even felt guilty about all the fun she was having because you kept seeing her flash guilty looks at you and Felicia and you couldnt imagine a mother being so hard on a girl she felt BAD about having fun with friends. After an exhausting day you say goodbye to Felicia and Ruby, who hugs you a bit tighter than expected when she gets ready to leave. Felicia offers her a ride home in her limo and you make plans for that dinner. Heading back to the house you wonder what you should do with the rest of your night, this had been a good day and you wanted to make sure to finish it off on a high note.
You get back to your room with plenty of night still to spare and decide to do a bit more work. You slip into you workshop and sit in your chair, mentally going over your new haul from the forge, which if your new found connection is anything to go by will be hitting again soon. The recipes you got were frankly amazing, one to bring back the dead, one to create super soldiers, and one to cure any illness. You felt a flash of sadness as you reviewed your designs to find that you couldn't bring back your mother. As you hadn't had much money a funeral had been out. She had been cremated and your reanimator formula needed a body, if you could even make it right now.
Which you definitely could not. Duct tape master let you substitute chemicals, but the rarity of the compounds involved in the resurrection formula were absurd. You would need a small lake's worth of any organic compound you could think of to even make a vial. As you considered your options with the new formuli you felt the forge trigger again.
Celestial forge accessed: Gunsmith (Starbound) (200CP) Sufficient CP: Purchased. 400 CP banked. Total banked CP: 400.
That was...pretty fantastic. You were excited to finally have a damn tech tree to play with and had an amazing idea for how to use it, but that could wait until you made your first vial of cure all. You wished you could make the Vivifier, but the ingredients for that were just as rare as the Reanimator. The Vivifier was interesting actually. It gave a flat ten percent bump in several human attributes, which one the surface wasn't near as good as the super soldier serum Captain America had. But the Vivifier's bonuses reinforced each other. Ten percent stronger and ten percent more durable meant much more than ten percent more force output, especially when factoring in the ten percent bump to speed. The ten percent bump to Charisma and Beauty (which seemed really subjective) stacked with the strength and constitution to remold the body into a more pleasant and also effective shape, making the user more fir and attractive which further boosted the muscles strength used to work.
For yourself it would be even more pronounced due to benefits from your Named status. At least you thought it would. The design actually said one point not ten percent, but it seemed to be a base ten system for mapping human potential so ten would be the average. The only issue was that might mean your stats were higher already from being named and you might actually get less out of "one point". Sadly without the proper chemicals you would have to settle for making the cure all. Even that was going to be a pain in the ass, but it was the least rare of the formuli you had. You had hit the grocery store to try to find the necessary ingredients in the right amounts and had gotten lucky. Rarity was important but as mentioned before your base ingredient had to be close. Weirdly one of the major ingredients in the Cure all was incredibly close in composition to pepto bismol. You'd had to buy out their entire stock of the stuff and needed fifty gallons of high grade motor oil for the other ingredient but according to duct tape master you should be able to make a few vials of cure all. Three to be exact.
While your workshop didnt supply organic compounds it did have a set of lab equipment laying around, and following the directions from the designs you got straight to work. You had done some odd things but you didnt think you'd ever seen anything as weird as pouring bottles of pepto into a decanter and watching a single drop of yellow liquid come out the other side and drip into the glass. You got the impression from duct tape master that another compound would work better, and upon thinking through options weirdly discovered cocaine would be an ideal converter. Shrugging you finished your pouring and got to the business of mixing the vials after some time boiling and condensing.
After twenty or so minutes, it was done. Three vials of cure all completely finished. You looked in awe at what amounted to a panacea, and felt like you could do more tonight. So you decided to turn to your Gunsmith tree and try to finally make some damn tech. Being an arms dealer or whatever wasnt perfect but it was SOMETHING. You finally had a unique technical skillset. The irony of that being weapons manufacturing was not lost on you.
You mentally sorted through your designs and suddenly you felt a spark. Your eyes flew wide and you reached out to start grabbing parts, this was going to be amazing. You stacked the parts and ran over to start scribbling symbols on the floor of the workshop, lighting candles along the way as you drew a circle and began spitting out incantations. Your Legion training made this old hat, and you used a nearby piece of rebar to smash the head of the demon summoned in as it popped up, barely slowing down at killing something even goblins were able to subdue.
You went through the grinding ritual but left the last step of goblinfire creation hanging as you darted back to the workbench, kicking your chair out of the way as you assembled the sleek futuristic flamethrower, you felt Duct Tape Master slot into place alongside Legion and Soft Physics kick in in the background condensing the odd goblin make containment design into the sleek tank of the flamethrower as Artisan sculpted it into a work of true glory out of the Gunsmith made design. After several hours of constant tweaks and work you finally finished, and once the construction was done you dropped like a puppet with cut strings.
Synergy was exhausting, and you had worked for hours without rest, if you hadnt been named you might have literally passed out from exhaustion, which would have been fatal given your materials. You dragged yourself up to stare at your creation, and finally, as you knew you would need to with your last step. You named it. Apollyon. And with that you felt the weapon click into place in the forge.
Celestial artifact created! Apollyon: Rank B! Congratulations, you have created a true artifact of the celestial forge! By synergizing three perks and catalyzing it with your natural Spark of Genius you have created a wonder of the world. Your connection to the universe grows deeper! Continue to create wonders to understand more about what this means. Synergize more perks to create higher ranked wonders, and deepen your connection even faster! Celestial artifacts are a part of the forge and cannot be recreated, but they also can't be destroyed. If damaged or broken Apollyon will reappear in its complete form in your workshop after forty eight hours.
And right after, almost as if rewarding your accomplishment, though you could feel from the deeper connection it was just a coincidence you felt the forge trigger again.
Celestial forge accessed: Tech tree (Factorio) (600CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total banked CP: 500.
You were honestly glad nothing had connected. You were exhausted and sore and your brain was fried from creating Apollyon. You dragged yourself to your feet and fell into your chair, picking up the weapon to look it over. As you had suspected you no longer had the ability to make goblinfire. But considering this thing would respawn if broken and you hadnt wanted to make a stockpile anyway that was probably for the best. And Apollyon was...special. B rank was the highest level artifact you had made, and artifacts became more than what they were before, like Glory had. The perks used to create Apollyon had an effect on how it worked, shaping it into something new.
The major adjustment was Artisans effect. Allowing you to sculpt the flames as you fired. Apollyon burned what you wanted it to and nothing else. That was great in that you wouldnt accidentally burn down a building but it didnt really make it less of a last resort weapon. It WAS still goblinfire and it would burn for seven days and couldnt be put out. Also just because the flamethrower wouldnt actually ignite something you didnt want it to didnt mean the fire couldnt spread. If anything touched it or got into the flames it would still go up. You took in the shape, the black metal barrel ended in a grasping three pronged black claw with each spike creating a thin white flame pointed inward toward each other for the globlinfire to use as a source when you pulled the trigger. The whole thing was a grim monstrosity.
You couldnt help but grin though, you wouldnt be able to make anything like this again soon probably but who cared. With a shrug you fell back against the chair, letting yourself drift off into sleep after an amazing creation session, though as you feel asleep you had one last thought. What the hell were you going to do with the Cure Alls?
Designs (Arcanum Of Steamworks And Magic Obscura) (50CP)
This small portfolio contains any three schematics of your choice, out of any you might find in Arcanum. You may choose both standard technologies such as the Feather Weight Axe and Elephant Rifle, as well as prototype inventions that aren't found in the curriculum of the technological disciplines, such as those for the Miracle Cure, Electro Armor or Tranquilizer Gun.
Gunsmith (Starbound) (200CP)
The point of a gun is simple: take an object, and accelerate it very quickly into another object. Despite your somewhat flighty nature, you've mastered these principles, and can make a truly astounding variety of weaponry, from assault rifles, to shotguns, to flamethrowers and other more exotic guns. You can also add special features and secondary firing modes, mixing and matching to your heart's content.