Setup 2.0

December 27, 2010, Boardwalk Cafe - Brockton Bay, 12:35 PM

QUEST COMPLETED!

Defeat Tattletale!

Dominated Tattletale in verbal combat!

Success:

You got 5000 XP

Relationship with Lisa strengthened.

[ACCEPT/Y] [DECLINE/N]


Advanced social combat has improved your CHA by 2

LEVEL UP! You've reached Lvl. 5

LEVEL UP! You've reached Lvl. 6

Lying skill has reached Lvl. 9

Negotiation skill has reached Lvl. 6

Through repeated use of observe and status effects during conversation, the skill Social Empathy has been created.

Through repeated use of Gamer's mind to leak selected emotions and thoughts, the skill Intimidate has been created.

That was such a power trip, I flicked through the mental messages, lots of gains. As Lisa continued to expound on Coil's suspected powers and infrastructure, a part of me was relieved that I won't have my brother's shadow employer (possibly) get on our case. Another part was simply cringing at what I had just put the girl through. It was actually pretty easy, keep an eye on her status effects, drop her old name when she's confused, drop her new name when she's enraged, then respond to her threat with a cryptic sentence and tweak Gamer's Mind to leak certain bits of my emotions and feelings into my body language - combined with thinking of creative ways to damage her by pouring all the stat points into any one stat and going after her. Worked like a charm, but I did mentally chastise myself that I effectively threatened a teenager into submission. I should not take enjoyment from that, that way lies madness - and that thought gave me a Wisdom +1. Thank you AI, you're a good replacement conscience. Talking about threatening, I gotta give dada the Plot Armor ASAP, I'd completely forgotten about it!

Meanwhile, Lisa seemed to get irritated again, "Hey! Are you even listening?" I tapped my spy-glasses, she immediately got it and continued, "Oh, so a major part of his funding is apparently coming from thin air. I suspect Fortress, but their paper trails have been squeaky clean lately. I was looking for fake employees, where I saw your cousin's dossier..." she abruptly stopped, her mind apparently made a few connections. She was looking at me with narrowed eyes, I forced a smirk.

"Wait a minute! I was only looking for fake employees as money shunts so I didn't notice! Dave SenGupta, IIMA South-Asia Rank 3. IQ 157, mathematical savant, and currently deputy chief of accounts for Fortress. He's the reason their paper trails are squeaky clean! I can't easily follow the Number Man's work, but I definitely notice it. But your cousin is creatively sneaky! Dammit! I should've figured it out. Wait, shit, are you Coil's man? No, you aren't, you're independent, you have no allegiances right now other than Dave and yourself, and someone else, who else? Ouch!" she grabbed her temples again.

I raised up a hand "Stop giving yourself headaches. Get another coffee, don't try to use your power on my abilities or allegiances if you value your head." I was sure her power would short circuit if it tried to map extraUniversal influences. She sighed, nodded and got up, muttering something about stupid trumpish bullshit.

So Coil's power was some sort of probability manipulation, and he knew things he shouldn't have known, I needed to observe him somehow, would have to ask Lisa. Honestly, during my research, he was the only cape I had some respect for, didn't do the usual 'Garam' publicity, didn't leak much info about himself, quiet and competent, used proper mercs instead of thugs, used tinkertech as force multipliers, all in my good books. Sadly, the forced recruiting of a teenager was a big red flag. I'd need to observe him before I took any further decisions.

Lisa came back and sat down again, looking a bit more relaxed now. Good, I didn't want to scare her too much. "So," I asked her "You had questions? Mind you, if I say 'don't think', stop using powers immediately if you don't want your head to explode!" Ah, good, she didn't take that literally. It was hard to figure how serious I sounded without letting emotions colour my delivery.

"Got it, so how do you know me?"

"A certain ability of mine lets me glean a decent amount of information about a person when I look at them. Imagine a two paragraph summary of their whole being."

"You know you're a walking violation of the unwritten rules right?" She was visibly building up steam for a tirade, I cut her off.

"Not unless I directly use any of that information to out them or coerce them. Also, the unwritten rules are mostly superficial polite fiction. Did Coil catch you in your cape persona when he recruited you?"

She deflated a bit, "No, that was more complicated, anyway, I get your point. Second question, you're sure you're not a parahuman?"

"Not in the conventional sense. I don't think I have a corona, for starters. Don't think!"

She checked herself well. I love dealing with smart people. "Okay, no thinking on that, I've had enough headaches for a day. Finally, why do you suddenly want to help me? What are your motives?"

"That's simple, I don't like the fact that he recruited you by force. Also, I'd like you to work with me, when time comes."

"What kind of work?"

"Much less unsavoury than anything you're doing for Coil. Much more fulfilling."

"You want me to join your Hero team. No, not a Hero team, a Rogue team? Mercenary team? What? Stop messing with my power will you?" she snapped at me.

I loosened Gamer's mind a bit more and thought about my future plans.

"A team working beyond common goals? Saving the world? Saving the worlds? Saving humanity across worlds! Dude! Are you for real?" ah, well, that might have been a bit too much. I interrupted her again.

"All of it involving making lots of money and playing in the big leagues. But all that comes later. For now I just need you to focus on not letting Coil know about me. With the examples that you gave me, his power looks more like a limited precog than destiny manipulation or whatever bullshit he calls it."

"Hmm, limited precog. Information from the future, contingent upon his actions, limited to the changes due to his actions only. Argh, I can't get any more, but that's still much more than I knew yesterday, and you figured that much out without any inference powers. Huh. You're not smarter than me!"

"Actually, base intellect-wise I'm just a hair smarter than you."

"Base intellect-wise? You know exactly how much my power is boosting my intellect. You have numerical specifics of it! You were not smarter than me to begin with, you have increased your intelligence, how have-"

"Don't think!"

"Ah, thanks, good call. I get a bit carried away when my intelligence is called into question."

"Don't bother, my cousin is twice as smart as you or me without any power bullshit when it comes to raw reasoning ability, and his IQ is only 156. So we'd do well to be humble."

"yeah, yeah, you're right. Anyway, anything else you'd like to tell me oh future employer? Ah, you think of me rather as a future colleague, and oh. Oh you flatterer!" her smile was back. Ah, I might have let go of Gamer's mind altogether, stupid me. I clamped down on my embarrassment before it got too visible.

"Hey hey! No need to go all blank, it's alright, you're a gentleman Aveek. You have no idea what kinds of thoughts people have when they see a pretty face."

"I know perfectly well, I'm male, I'm 17 and I have internet."

"So you do, anyway, I noticed that you found me attractive when I first saw you. I take it as a compliment, my tolerance levels are much higher, thank you. Ah, I see, Indian culture, very different ideas about sexuality. Dude, you're such a prude! That's so sweet." She was smiling indulgently. I knew that smile, sure, tease me about being a nerd why don't you?

"No, not that! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tease you about being a nerd at all! I have all the respect for nerds! I'm quite the geek myself. I value knowledge a lot!" Man, she was scary when she was in her element, but I didn't clamp down anymore, it would only distance her.

"And yes, thank you for not mind-blanking, it's much more comfortable to talk to you like this. Also no, I can't have one sided conversations like this with everybody, I generally have to wait for people to speak if they don't know of my powers and even if they know they just get intimidated and spooked when I do this. This is so much better!" I could see what she meant.

"Yes, well, you're welcome. So anyway, back to serious topics, I've offered help. And as for right now, I can't do anything concrete, but I have some advice."

"I'm all ears."

"Okay, so, your power, apart from boosting your intellect, injects a lot of aggression into you. Next time you feel like tearing into someone with words, try to introspect with your own power to see if you'd have the same impulses without your power."

"That, that makes a scary amount of sense. Yes, all powers are geared towards conflict. Powers grow through conflict, powers collect data through conflict. My power would never lead me directly to think about this. The source of parahuman powers want to keep the collecting data bit hidden. Ow! Powers actively nudge users not to think about the source! Ow! What the fuck?! This is not you!" she was rubbing her temples again.

Wow, that was one of my questions answered! Parasites gave powers to people to collect data about their usage! That's what their gain was! That's why powers went to people who're predisposed to get into desperate situations with them! And I needed to stop Lisa before her parasite fried her brain for thinking the right things.

"Stop thinking!"

"Yeah, ouch, yeah. I get it." She took a gulp of her coffee, sporting an irritated grimace.

"I want you to practise actively not using your powers during certain times of day, don't stop using them completely, but get into the habit of not using them. Then, if you have to do some thinking about the source of powers, think while consciously not using your powers for it."

"I get it. Or my power will keep pavloving me with brain punches. Wow, this is big you know?"

"This is not half of it, stop thinking."

"Yes yes, I'm trying not to use my power for now. The headache is actually helping me not use it."

"Good, so, I guess I better get going now. My presence won't help you practice any better. Also, I need you to vow not to tell Coil about me. Not even under threat of death."

"Why specifically so? Wait, let me think. What happens if I choose to not tell him under any circumstances? He can't torture answers out of me. But he generally doesn't torture me anyway. Ah! I see, limited precog, if he has no way to get info directly from his actions, he won't get it. And I figured it out without my power! This feels so much better than the instant answers I'm used to. Aveek, I would've kissed you for this - had my power not turned me asexual." now that smile was the first genuine one I saw on her, even with the teasing bit.

"Heh, we'll have to work on that one." Wow, I just delivered that smoothly! Improved charisma points FTW! And her smile widened, down hormonal teenager! Down boy!

"So, I can get Dev to give me the civilian names of all the possible invisible backers of Fortress and collate dossiers on them. Can you sniff out Coil from among them?" I was more than sure she could.

"Possibly. I'm not sure about Fortress being the one yet. But it seems most likely. He won't be any of the visible board members, rather something like a silent partner deep inside the paperwork somewhere."

"Dev will get them. This is what he lives for. Once I can get a look at Coil, I'll have a much better idea about how to deal with him"

"Yeah, your life-story-download ability."

"Hey, yours are no less bullshit than mine. Bloody psychic. So how about we meet here in a week or so?"

"Aveek SenSharma, are you asking me out?"

"You tell me."

"Smartass. Saturday after next, 11:30. Don't be late."

I saluted, we exchanged throwaway email ids and I left. Today was shaping up to be a good day. I took up a run and continued towards home. Maybe I'd get the vitality point after a 5km run non-stop. It was a nice day, and it felt good to run.

A bit more than halfway down I did get the VIT +1 prompt. Then I got a text on my phone, took it out without stopping. A text from dada it was. It would be nice if I could figure out a way to interface the phone with my mental AI interface.

I tapped the message open, it had 3 letters. - SOS