Installation 1.4
December 23, 2010, Dev's House - Brockton Bay, 6:25 PM
Lift box, move box, place box, observe box, unpack box, observe contents, place contents, collapse box, find new box... Rinse and repeat.
It was almost meditative, it did allow me to order my thoughts, go through this whole Gamer mess one clue at a time, and compile notes. Meanwhile, I got two points in strength, one point in vitality (after moving furniture non-stop for half an hour), and 3 levels in observe, whose results were reaching new heights of snark:
Another Packing Box
Quality: Mundane.
It's another packing box, 0.55 cubic metre capacity, can hold upto 90 kg without collapsing, you can use this to pack and move things.
You can also use this to pack yourself and ship yourself off to oblivion so that you never ever have to observe. Another. Fucking. Packing. Box.
I couldn't blame it, I also get very snarky when I have to repeat myself incessantly. Oh well, grinding is grinding. If only the AI would get fed up and level my skills up for free.
Talking of leveling up, I need another 200xp to get my first level up. Could I create a quest for that? Dada had already texted me that he'd come to pick me up at 7 for 'neighbourhood social interaction'. I thought hard about finishing unpacking and getting ready by then for 200xp.
QUEST CREATED!
Get ready for neighbourhood social interaction
Finish unpacking and get ready before Dev arrives. Remember to dress well!
Success: 50 XP
Failure: being nagged by Dev
[ACCEPT/Y] [DECLINE/N]
Cool, sadly it wouldn't let me control the xp gain, as that would go against the 'Rob is a dick' protocol. But at least I could level up without combat, because seriously, I wasn't getting in a fight before I was sure I could subdue multiple baseline humans without breaking a sweat. I'll have to experiment with ways of combat training, maybe I could join a dojo or something? Oh well, decisions for later. I accepted the quest and went back to grinding, I mean unpacking.
I finished well within time, dropped of all the collapsed boxes in the basement, the house was looking well, my room was all spic and span (not for long, I wasn't a very organised person at all) and I got dressed in my fashionable best - which amounted to a white turtleneck and jeans, my charisma score was not low for nothing.
While getting dressed I noticed something, my so called 'athletic' frame seemed to have some actual muscle definition beginning to show, at least it was slightly more deserving of the moniker than today morning. So stat gains showed up on the body too, does that mean if I put too many points into strength I'll hulk up? Hopefully the presence of avatar options would help me avoid that! Need to find body shaping skills soon enough.
I opened up my messages and took a look at the notes I've taken, if I couldn't soon find a way to get hard copies from AI output I was in for a lot of typing.
From: Me
1. Rob's chosen appearance was that of the Laughing man. Not ominous at all.
2. Rob is a dick.
3. Rob mentioned 'the area'. Presuming it's this city.
4. Parasites, what are the parasites?
5. Given he called conventionally triggered supers as 'parasite powers', what exactly do parasites have to do with superpowers?
6. Given previous points. And the timing of all of it, there's trouble brewing in Brockton Bay.
7. Parasites are causing xenocide, hence 'parasite powers' are part of the problem which can apparently eradicate humanity.
8. Parallel dimensions are a proven thing (Haywire was a tinker, assuming 'parasite powers' in play here), so eradication of humanity would have be pan-dimensional. Parasites are at least trans-dimensional if not pan-dimensional.
9. Even tempered people are not prone to triggering with powers, parasites are giving powers to people who are specifically not even tempered? Only mentally unbalanced people get powers? Hero to villain ratios actually support that. Not. Ominous. At. All.
10. Why give powers? What do they get in return? Life force? Lulz? why would it cause xenocide?
11. My powers are not from the same source as parasites, assuming Rob is not lying, my powers' source comes from higher up in the food chain. ExtraUniversal was sufficiently emphasized. While parasites were mentioned as part of the universe.
12. Mana is being called the energy of thoughts and creation, the options menu mentioned flexibility as crucial to developing new skills. Keeping my mind open while training with mana is a given must. Need to practice lateral thinking.
13. The gamer power takes subspace/pocket dimensions as a granted thing. The implication needs to be explored. Proceed with caution.
14. Completely jailbreaking my powers will not be allowed, but munchkining/hacking it is actually recommended.
Though they raised many more questions than they answered, the gist of these points were not painting a pretty picture. I was unconsciously mimicking Rob's callous amusement about this mess, which is a good way to maintain sanity, but that didn't mean I should not treat everything related to this with utmost caution and seriousness. Dada's attitude seemed to make much more sense after I went through my own notes. I decided to take things a tad bit more seriously on a personal level.
Prudent decision making has improved your WIS by 1
Oookay, message received. Then again, I doubt anyone else got an introduction letter, a good night's sleep and AI assistance with their trigger event, so I was on much more solid starting ground to begin messing with superpowers.
I heard the doorbell, and got my quest completion message, that was a quick 50xp, I needed to get into the habit of setting as many mental goals as possible to milk xp at these lower levels. I didn't think it would be effective at higher levels if the xp curve followed standard RPG growth.
I went downstairs, thinking hard at 'good social interaction' didn't create any quests, I guessed vague goals wouldn't work. Opened the front door, dada was parking his new motorbike near the porch, huh, his license got processed that fast? It's been one day! Who are these Fortress people? He noticed me looking at the bike.
"You want one?"
"Huh? Oh, maybe later, let me get used to the streets here first."
I locked the door and he started walking down the driveway. I looked at him and whispered "observe", merely curious what a level 4 observe gleans from a person.
Dev SenGupta
Title: Coolest Brother Ever
Class: Financial Genius
Level: 15
HP: 200/200
Desc: Dev is a workaholic who loves to transact with huge sums of money. He's protective of his cousin and is pretty happy with his new job of covering up the shady dealings of Fortress Construction.
Status effects: None
Nothing surprising, but I realized how much potential that kind of information can hold to a stranger. I followed him down the street.
"Getting used to the streets first is actually a good idea, keeping to the right is a new experience. I almost forgot a few times" He mused.
"Your license got processed already?"
"No, Fortress got me a learner's permit fast tracked."
"What level of shady work are you doing for them that they're doing so much for you?"
"It's actually more grey than illegal, shell companies, foreign accounts, bending the law to get more profits from deals, hiding money trails that go to actual shady stuff. No direct involvement, but I assume I'm pretty valuable to whoever wants the trails hidden." He took a turn and I followed, we were just going around our own block.
I took a moment to absorb that statement, there weren't many people about, but looking at their labels I had already gleaned that most adults were between levels 8-12 and all had NPC tags, but no titles above their names. Figures dada would be at least a few levels above average, and had a title because he was close to me or something else? I turned my attention back to the conversation.
"Ah, I see, you got any leads to your illusive financial god yet?"
"Heh, not yet, but my hunch was right, the Number Man's subtle footprints are all over Fortress' account books."
"Do you think you'll get to work with him?"
"A man can hope." He said wistfully, then stopped and checked the house numbers.
"It's this one." He pointed to the next house.
We walked up to their front door and rang the bell. "Coming!" A young female voice answered. The door opened, it was the daughter I presumed, tall, pale girl, almost as tall as me, skinnier than me, wearing a baggy grey hoodie and sweatpants, she had glasses, a thin oval face and a head full of long pretty brown curls, above the head were blue letters.
Protagonist
Taylor Hebert
Lvl. 5 Abuse Survivor
"Uh, Mr. Sengupta?" She was adressing dada, but she was giving me strange looks. I was too busy looking at her title and class.
"Yes, call me Dev. You must be Taylor right? This is my brother Aveek."
Now her attention turned to me, and she was frowning at me. She had a title! She's a Protagonist?! And she was not an NPC! Why was she frowning at me? Because I was almost scowling at her. Oh, oh. Recovery mode!
"Ah, hello Taylor, sorry I was just looking at your glasses, I've been looking for frames like that, will you later point me to where you got them made?" I blurted and thrust out a hand. Dada quirked an eyebrow.
A borderline passable recovery has improved your CHA by 1
Her frown softened and she shook my hand. Wow, that was actually smooth of me, shut up dick AI! Her expression remained wary though. Figures from her class, is her father beating her up or something?
"Um, sure, why don't you come in? Dad's expecting you." She turned back and led us into the house. Dada gave me another curious look. I mouthed "later"at him and we followed her into the living room. Why was she not an NPC? Why does she have a title when most others don't? Why protagonist? What abuse? I had to get to the bottom of this!
QUEST CREATED!
Get to the bottom of this!
Find out why Taylor is not an NPC!
Success: 30K XP + ?
Failure: Plot derailment! Billions of deaths!
[ACCEPT/Y] [DECLINE/N]
Okay, she's definitely plot relevant. And that quest reward tells me it doesn't have an immediate answer. I accepted it and followed her into the living room with a whispered "observe."
