Setup 2.4

December 28, 2010, Dev's House - Brockton Bay, 7:11 AM

I woke up with an actual hangover. Last night, after I had finished cursing Rob, his AI, and N generations of his honourable ancestors, I had downloaded all the books I could find on critical thinking, memory techniques, time management, mind hacks... etc. And absorbed 6 of them in an angry rush, then collapsed on the bed with my head about to burst.

My mind still felt fuzzy, I went into meditation and let things sort themselves out in my brain, even tried to push some mana into the process to see if it helped. Apparently mana wasn't a hammer and my mind wasn't a nail. Fair enough, it took about another three hours of meditation for the knowledge to finally settle. When I came out of meditation, I found a note from dada saying he left for office and didn't want to disturb my meditation, and with a postscript telling me he was going to charge lower than standard interest rates on the $600 loan because of 'family discount'. And the AI told me that all the skills learned last night had been clubbed into a macroskill called Occlumency. Fucking trolls, both of them. But I did appreciate the two INT points and the permanent +10% increase in INT the skill gave me. Hopefully I'll get some more free INT points from more knowledge skills

I headed out, jogged up to the alley near the bookstore, bless the gods of probability the cartons were still there. I repacked the books from the inventory into them, picked the cartons up, headed back into the bookstore with my best sheepish simper smeared like supersaturated slime on my sodding face. (I tend to get wordy when I'm filled with righteous anger, it's a defense mechanism)

20 minutes of liberal usage of Lying, Negotiation and Intimidation skills and I finally managed to get the counter lady to buy back the whole lot for $400 and gained a charisma point in the process. I came back home, left the money on the table with a note telling dada I was charging him only $200 for rescue from muggers and as future protection money, because of 'family discount'. Ha! Two can play that game!

I also pinned a note on my room door telling him not to disturb me till further notice except in case of emergencies. And then there were new skills to be had.

I found out that absorbing a single book and meditating while it assimilates was more efficient than absorbing a bunch and passing out. Also, the strain of assimilating a single book demanded much less focus. So I could simultaneously train mana boosting, relentlessly practice intensive katas and keep creating and reabsorbing simple mana constructs. Training that last skill up to the level where it would be of any proper use was going to be a pain, but it promised the greatest rewards.


January 3, 2011, Winslow High - Brockton Bay, 7:00 AM

First day of school! I was so excited! - No I wasn't. Dada's insistence of social interaction was the only reason I was even going. It had taken me the last few days of almost constant learning to get up to a basic college level of education in almost all the subjects under the Earth. I intended to get a solid diverse grounding before I started specializing.

There had been only 3 interruptions in my skill acquisition spree. Once to go out with the Heberts to buy them decent phones; a sturdy basic smartphone for Taylor, one hardy dumbphone for Danny, and a throwaway second-hand smartphone for me - I wanted try messing with it using mana. I also set Taylor up with the spare spy-glasses, showed her how to access the relevant slice for her feed in the anonymous server, how to extract video clips and mail them to herself as evidence. She picked it up very quickly, INT monster after all. Once I was done with them, I excused myself, went into the market proper and bought a lot of myriad knick knacks and survival gear to get my inventory up to scratch. I had taken money from dada this time while pointedly specifying that it was not a loan.

The second interruption was dada checking up on me to see 'if I'd left the mortal coil to achieve nirvana yet', smartass. He also informed me that we'd been invited to the new year's party at the Heberts'. Which was the third and final interruption, it was nice though, both Taylor and Danny were showing only mild depression, though I still had no clue why Taylor was not an NPC.

I'd also taken some time, during training biology, to write to Amy. Mentioning the disease curing retroviruses, plants which created novel sterile hypernutritious fruits, possible body enhancements that she could offer heroes, cosmetic treatments that she could sell. A living bio-armour for herself that she could use if she wanted to go out with her team in combat, new super tranquilizers and paralytics she could sell to the PRT. To help vicky control her aura, a bracelet containing an amygdala which would glow everytime it experiences a sudden hormone influx. To avoid addiction and other mental conditions, even if she didn't do brains - which was a good restriction - she could map out the chemical imbalances in detail and create customized drug plans to mitigate those imbalances... And tons of other ideas. I'd received a reply soon enough thanking me and telling me she'd consider them very seriously and would let me know which options she would develop. That was nice of her.

Anyway, finally, I was at the gates of Winslow High, I'd heard such good things about this school! - No I hadn't. By mutual agreement Taylor had gone in separately when we got down from the bus, I didn't want the pattern of her bullies to change because she was seen coming in with a newly transferred upperclassman. I realized I was getting a lot of wary looks from the gang-affiliates and social politickers, I also realized why.

The point gains of my physical stats had turned my physique to actually athletic which filled up my usually looser turtleneck. The DEX gains - combined with a respectable level of martial arts training and the freshly acquired Etiquette and Social Body-Language skills had made my movements very fluid and catlike. Add to that a thing that I noticed only today, the gain in charisma points had actually very subtly smoothened the pockmarks on my skin and made my usually scraggly features seem 'sharp' instead (Not that I didn't appreciate it, but what the fuck AI? Really! Does it hurt to ask before you go around changing stuff like that?). I was suppressing the mild trepidation left-over from my socially awkward past self and exuding confidence instead. Overall, with my brown messenger bag (containing only the Software Architecture book which I'd chosen to keep as a reminder to always have an open mind), black turtleneck, properly pressed black trousers and well shined boots - Danny had jokingly remarked when I came to pick Taylor up that I looked "like one of Marquis' deputies!" With what I knew from research, I took that as a compliment.

I made my way towards the principal's office, having obtained directions from Taylor earlier. There was a secretary sitting at a desk in the waiting room beside a door which I presumed led to the principal's office proper. I had already developed a habit of observing everyone and archiving their results, I gave hers a quick once-over, nothing out of the ordinary. Walking up to her desk, I inquired, "Good morning miss Chambers, Aveek SenSharma, transfer student. Would you kindly direct me to the right place to begin my day?"

She looked up and stared at me for almost ten seconds (social reading told me it was with admiration and longing), then coughed when she realized she was staring. "Ah, ahem. Uh. Yes, Good morning, Mr. Sensharma. You were expected, please give me your transfer papers." I put my hand into my bag and brought out the papers from my inventory in a well practised move. She took them, went through them, nodding at appropriate places. "Right, everything is in order, I have your competency tests ready here. They are a simple set of MCQs for each of your chosen subjects to see if you have to take remedial classes for any of those. You can sit here and fill them up, it takes about an hour and a half. Do you have a pencil?" She had fallen into the comfort of rote, pointing at the couch and table at the other side of the waiting room.

I nodded. "Yes, thank you." I took the papers, went to the couch, sat down, took out a pencil from my inventory/bag. Took a moment to configure the Anonymity Protocols to alert me if I were to answer a question that my civilian persona should not be able to, then started answering the questions. It had taken some time to get around to understanding how to configure in the civilian persona properly at a level above average but well within human limits, my burgeoning programming skills had helped a lot.

I took only an hour to finish the tests. Miss Chambers was suitably impressed and fed the tests into a scanner, informing me that I was to wait for my interview with the principal, she went back to her desktop - possibly to process the tests. I went back to sit at the couch. After about half an hour, during which she stole quite a few glances at me, she asked me to go in.

I thanked her again and went in through the door. Principal Blackwell was a very typical school principal looking person. She was busy with something on her desktop. I introduced myself, "good morning, Madam Blackwell - Aveek SenSharma, transfer student.". I took my time to go through her Observe results while she repeated the staring act - ugh, I hated these 'for the greater good' types. Hopefully she'll get her act together once Taylor's case blows up in her face. She recovered better than her secretary, taking only about 7 seconds (I'd also configured the system clock in the AI to be more at the forefront of my mind), "Hello Mr. SenSharma," proper pronunciation, how nice of her, "please take a seat." I complied.

It was a pretty mundane interview, she complimented the Indian education standards, told me my STEM competency was way beyond high school levels, gave me a pass to skip those classes if I wanted to. Also told me that my World History was satisfactory, but I'd have to take remedial American History, gave me the schedules for those. I got the distinct impression throughout the time that she was being exceptionally nice to me because I had the markings of a star academic student.

She also asked me about why I didn't choose to apply for any sports when I looked definitely fit. I gave her a polite answer about fitness being more of a relaxing hobby and that I was far more into academics to have time for sports. Which apparently pleased her very much. Then she gave me a general primer on how gang activity and bullying were severely condemned and how I should immediately report if I have concrete evidence of anything of that nature. I kept my amusement fully suppressed and nodded along exuding sincerity. Finally she gave me the directions to the World History classroom, the period for which was about to begin in about 10 minutes.

I thanked her and left to get to that class. Students were milling about, presumably in between periods. On the way I noticed something odd while nearing the lockers, the student density there was very sparse, and whoever was there was exuding mixes of anxiety, trepidation and worry. Very suspicious.

I found out the reason soon enough, there were dull thumping noises coming from one of the lockers and everyone who was there was making an effort to not look at that direction. I observed the locker.

Taylor's Locker

Quality: Mundane

Contains few of Taylor's belongings, a lot of menstrual waste from many other girls, and Taylor herself, who has just triggered with a parasite power.

That's why she was not an NPC!

QUEST COMPLETED!

Get to the bottom of this!

Found out why Taylor is not an NPC!

Success:

You got 30000 XP,

Taylor is now a potential party member.


LEVEL UP! You've reached Lvl. 10

Party options unlocked!

LEVEL UP! You've reached Lvl. 11

LEVEL UP! You've reached Lvl. 12

LEVEL UP! You've reached Lvl. 13