Today's my birthday, so as a gift to you all, have a new chapter!

Awoken 1.6

We split off to various stations in the workshop. Zach started working on the scanner I'd asked for, while Richard sat at a computer, brainstorming costumes and equipment. I found a small whiteboard, grabbed an empty table, and began designing my first psitech weapon. Or, at least, my first attempts at one.

I'd given it a bit of thought, after the errant thought of a telekinetic gauss rifle. Rifles have their perks, but if there were two things gauss rifles were infamous for, it was finicky calibrations and heavy recoil. I couldn't afford something that wasn't dependable in hostile environments, and I had no time for testing different timings. Add in the fact that I hadn't fired a gun in a few years, and had never shot anything with more recoil than a 12-gauge shotgun? You were inviting problems on both the designer's, and user's, ends.

But I was from the South, and if there's one thing they love down there, it's the Second Amendment. Guns were far from the end of my experience: bows, knives, slingshots, axes, and even a bit of swordsmanship were under my belt, courtesy of the Boy Scouts of America and a few redneck friends.

A bow seemed like a good fit, as far as ranged options went. Familiar, easy to use, powerful, and dependable when made with the right materials. But how to make it a psitech weapon?

Simple, at least on paper. Munchkin the hell out of it.

Make it a magnetically accelerated bow, power that with a telekinetic generator. Then I'd have a bow with the added ability to charge shots for devastating damage. Since I'd make it specifically so that only a telekinetic could possibly use it as intended, it should fall under Combat/Psitech for attack rolls, even when I didn't charge it. A low-tech solution for a high-tech weapon skill.

Only problem? I hadn't done circuitry work in several years, not since Robotics class in high school. My crash course over the last day or so had hardly been helpful in reminding me how to put things together. I remembered just about all of it, I think, but I was out of practice.

So, it was back to the drawing board, in a very literal sense.

First, I drew up a concept, and listed out goals for the end product. Every feature I could realistically want went on the list, then that list was in turn reordered in order of importance. I then spent well over two hours working backward from the concept, through the math, to the specific layout of electromagnets, and finally to the mechanisms required for the device to fire properly, which was my bare minimum acceptable outcome.

Science Check(Int): Rolled 8+1 vs. difficulty 8. Pass.

Several designs were scrapped for being too complex, unfeasibly bulky, or too advanced for my current abilities. I had to outright remake the whole bow when I realized all my designs were recurve instead of compound; it would absolutely suck to lug a three to four-foot recurve bow around in an urban environment. A force of habit- almost all of my experience was with recurves.

Finally, I ended up with a design- albeit one missing many of the features I would have wanted- but this was more about having a weapon, not having a great weapon.

Now, to start building it. I wiped the board clean of the evidence, having committed the design to memory, then made my way over to the scrap pile for parts.

Perception Check(Int): Rolled 8+1 vs. difficulty 7. Pass.

After a bit of searching through piles of extremely dangerous Tinkertech, I came across something unexpected: a damaged, but fixable, compound bow, reminiscent of the futuristic designs from Crisis, or whatever Bet's equivalent was. It would need a bit of repair and re-tuning, but the fact that it existed would save me hours of pulley-shaping and scrapped parts.

I might even finish this thing before dawn, at this rate. All that I really needed was the handle apparatus, and that was just… a lot of circuitry, and probably a few exploding capacitors, and a whole bunch of other fun tech problems away.

Maybe I was being unrealistic with my timeline. Eh, I guess I'd find out how long it would take when the sun came up.

I made my way over to the computers again, pulled up a CAD program, and began designing a handle for the 3D printer. After another hour, I had the design the way I wanted it, and simultaneously had size restrictions set in stone for my internal parts. Maybe I was going about it in the wrong order, I wasn't really sure; but I also couldn't make it too big, or it wouldn't be feasible to use, so having set restrictions on size made sense.

After I sent the job to the 3D printer, I opened a new program on the desktop; a circuitry design application. I began drawing circuit boards based on the design of the apparatus, taking into consideration the electromagnets and the miniature telekinetic generator I would nest in the machine.

Science Check(Int): Rolled 7+1 vs. difficulty 8. Pass.

It wasn't a very large area, but all I really needed was a system of supercapacitors for a power bank, some resistors, and a few conversions between AC and DC between the inputs, storage buffers, and outputs. The supercapacitor banks would ensure that, when I needed it, I would have a large store of electricity ready, while the resistors would meter out the flow so that my electromagnets didn't become heating elements instead.

Couldn't help but feel like I was reinventing the wheel, but I couldn't put my finger on what I was missing. I sighed, and set the circuitry etching machine to work. After I revealed the full extent of my abilities, I might get a professional's help for small jobs like these, but for now, I had to do everything myself.

I turned my attention to my last project of the morning: the core of the weapon, the thing that I absolutely must not fuck up lest the entire project be rendered useless: the generator.

It had to be small, and it had to be powerful. To be clearer, for this to work, I needed to be able to dump enough power into the system every few seconds that I could power every shot without fail.

Tech/Psitech Check(Int): Rolled 8+1 vs. difficulty 9. Pass.

I spent the next two hours machining my own generator from scratch. I ended up with a finned cylinder with a tiny, oblong black wheel sticking out of one side, and two high-gauge wires feeding out the other. Inside, the wheel connected to a frankly ludicrous amount of heavily lubricated gearwork, which made even small rotations of the wheel send the internal dynamo spinning like a drill straight out of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

At least, it would in theory; I might have made the thing too hard to turn. I couldn't get more than the tiniest movement out of it by hand, because the gear ratio was so high that it took massive effort to even get a slight rotation out of the thing. The amount of continuous torque required to power the weapon would likely outpace even a reasonably strong man, but I was sure I could do it with telekinesis, as long as I got to level 2 soon. After all, telekinesis wouldn't tire me out, and didn't factor in grip strength and pauses to readjust grip.

I didn't dare test it here, but I was reasonably certain that it would work. Only while firing custom magnetic ammunition, at a higher weight than I'd like, and with nearly five of my six seconds of time per round used to charge it, alongside other problems; but it would do the job, and that was all that mattered.

I checked the clock as I stifled a yawn. It was only five-thirty? Holy shit, I was hammering this out fast. Must be rolling well, I guess.

Making my way over to the 3D printer, I was surprised to find it already finished, and a check of the circuitry etching machine found that project done, too. I took them all to a station, ran a few quick tests, and deemed them good enough. Donning a dust mask, I ground the carbon fiber shell a bit, smoothing sharp edges and fixing small errors, but that was soon finished, at least to my (admittedly poor) standards.

Standards aside, I had all the parts of a weapon: now it was time for the assembly.

I fixed the pulley system of the bow itself, a comparatively minor task after today's crash course in machining and design. The next step was far less simple: I had to cut off the grip, and fit my new one, with all its bulk, into the frame of the existing bow. It took judicious amounts of cutting, a few worried moments where I thought I might have structurally compromised the bow, and a near-miss that would have resulted in self-electrocution had I tested the generator. Eventually, I got the massive apparatus to fit, and encased it in the carbon fiber shell I'd printed. The only inner working left exposed was the wheel of the generator, as I would need to see it to power the device.

Finally, I strung the bow (a surprisingly difficult task in itself), readjusted its draw strength to a manageable forty-five pounds, and checked it for any other issues. After correcting a few flaws, patching the gaps in the casing with rubberized sealant to improve its water resistance, and tightening a few bolts, it… was… done! I whooped in victory, throwing up my tired hands to the ceiling.

Through careful design, precise craftsmanship, and no small amount of luck, you have invented your first item. Minor Goal achieved: 700 xp.

Level Up!

My celebratory whoop was cut short with an "-ack!" by the sudden feeling of power rushing through my head. My hands shot to the sides if my head at the sensation. Not painful, but incredibly unsettling, and completely unexpected.

Zach called over, "Hey, you okay?"

Holy shit, was that a level up? Already? How? When?

I shut off the train of questions for later. Focus. Lie.

"Yeah," I gasped, still holding my head, "Just a headache. I'll be fine."

"Take a break, man. Don't work yourself too hard."

I nodded, grunted an agreement. Setting aside the bow, I made my way outside for some fresh air. By the time I'd ducked through the boarded-up door, the rushing had subsided somewhat.

My head still felt weird, though, and it didn't seem to be going away. Metaphysical noise seemed to pool in specific spots in my mind, slight areas of discomfort like the mental equivalent of stuffed sinuses. It was like when your ears are full of water, and everything sounds fuzzy and distant, except it was in my brain instead. I could actually feel the channels of energy that I would be focusing my powers through, both physically and mentally.

I was now aware of yet another telekinesis power at my disposal, signified by a slightly larger and less restricted path through my head. More importantly, there was one channel that felt like it needed something; I had a power slot to allocate.

Without hesitation, I grabbed the first level of Biopsionics. It wasn't healing yet; I needed to grab Biopsionics level 2 for that; but it did mean I would have the ability to revive the very recently deceased, and that would be vital.

I groaned a bit as the feeling of yet another new channel of power coursed through my head. Dammit, that felt weird. Hopefully the feeling would taper off soon. But hey, 6 whole PP, and a few new powers.

More importantly, I could start mastering my powers.

Mastery was the main reason I loved playing psychics. You could choose to spend the cost of a power permanently, and after a long waiting period based on the strength of the power, you would be able to use that power for free, forever.

Downsides: you had to master powers in order, from 1 to 9. This got expensive very quickly, as the higher-level powers cost a lot to use; without a modifier to add an extra PP or so per level, you might be barely scraping by in terms of expendable PP. You could only master powers that were lower-level than you, too, so I had to wait till level 2.

Upside? I distinctly recalled there being no restrictions on how many powers you could master at once. Which meant…

I focused on the channels of power in my head. Thankfully, I had an idea of what to do, probably thanks to backstory me actually having learned this shit. Taking all three of the smaller channels, I carefully wrapped them in energy from the standing 'pools' I felt earlier. The energy metaphorically flowed off the channels like a syrup, but it left a thin coating behind, fortifying and building them by the slightest amount. Maintaining the film required only the tiniest bit of effort afterward, a nagging reminder no worse than my mild tinnitus was.

I'd have to do this daily from now until… the Third of May, I calculated after checking my commpad. Fourteen days from now. Hopefully I had another level up before then, so I could master level two powers in the month before the Nine arrived in early June.

Still, having unlimited revives for teammates, short range teleports every six seconds, and the potential of constant telekinetic power over nearby stuff? That was well worth the wait.

I headed back inside. There was more work to be done.

Forcing Sleep Cycle...

My sleep was interrupted by the sounds of pots and pans in the kitchen. Rolling over, I half-mumbled, half yawned a weak protest, then went back to sleep.

What felt like a few minutes later, a plate was put in my hands. I was awake just long enough to place it on the ground, then I fell asleep to the sounds of a game starting up.

The next thing I knew, I had a frustrated person trying to shake me awake. I did the sensible thing for a sleeping person to do, and slapped at them pitifully, moaned at the light, and nestled my head into the couch cushions. Sweet slumber took me a moment later.

I woke up to the sound of an air horn. Screaming in a combination of surprise, fear, and unforgiving rage, I flailed my arm out, striking something, then shot up off the couch. in full on fight-mode. "WHAT THE FUCK!" I bellowed, breathing heavily as the adrenaline coursed through my system, glaring angrily at the person who had decided to give me a heart attack as a wake-up call. My brain caught up a moment later, and the pain a moment after that. Ow, fuck, I might have bruised the back of my hand, too.

"Finally, I thought you might never wake up," Richard said as he made his way over to the air horn. "You are not an easy man to get out of bed."

I rubbed my eyes. I was still angry, but the murderous rage was tempering to a mere 'angry hibernating bear' level. "Yeah, could have told you that. Jesus fucking Christ, I think I'm deaf in one ear."

"Well, maybe if you'd gotten up when I made you lunch, or turned up the volume on the game, or shook you awake, or shined a light in your eyes… I could go on."

For fuck's sake. "Okay, for future reference: I have a disorder. My whole circadian rhythm is completely fucked, and forcing me to stay up late or get up early is generally a bad idea." A thought struck me. "What time is it?"

He hit a button on his controller. "12:30?"

Fuck me, that meant I'd only slept around five hours. Not that big of a problem for most people, but for me, it was a big deal. "Great," I said with a heavy sigh. "That means I have no idea when I'll get tired again."

"Oh, boo hoo. Just eat your lunch," he said as he picked back up the controller.

I took up the plate and groggily made my way to the kitchen. I was gonna be tired for the next few hours, and all because I didn't think to explain my shitty sleep problems.

"So," I called to Richard as I popped my plate in the microwave, "What's up? Besides lunch, anyway."

"Well, you asked me to train you up a bit. Figure if I have to do that, we should get started, so you don't embarrass us when something does happen."

"Makes sense," I said, while mentally groaning at the very idea of anything beyond being a couch potato for the next few hours. The microwave beeped its agreement, signaling that my sandwich, which appeared to be a tuna melt, was reheated.

As I made my way back to the couch, I realized that I did have a small problem, though: the question of skill points.

Uber was probably going to be my main Trainer, for obvious reasons, but I wasn't sure I wanted to learn the skill he was teaching. Right now, Combat/Unarmed was, at most, of moderate use. I wasn't going to do much damage with it, but I did need the skill for a few psychic powers, including the Teleportation tree. Plus, it did help me break grapples and do nonlethal KO's, so it wouldn't be a complete waste.

That said, I only had 2 skill points per level, and training Unarmed to 0 would take both of them. For the same price, I could train Medical tech, Psitech, Combat/Psitech, or even Perception to 1, any of which could be useful in the short term and long term both. Or, I could save my points and bump Science, Pretech, or Persuade to 1 next level, although that was admittedly less appealing.

I took a bite of my sandwich as I weighed my options, then made my decision. My best bet was to self-train Medical tech, and just hope I could get a free level 0 in Unarmed despite the lack of points. Maybe next level I could buy it, but I'd rather get a head start on figuring out the Lazarus Patch and Medical Kit tech before Leviathan arrived.

"Dude, this is a great tuna melt," I found myself saying after I swallowed, "Thank you."

He didn't even spare me a glance. "Eh, I just threw it together."

"It's tasty, man." I took another bite, while watching him play some Street Fighter 2. "You got the mayo right and everything."

"It's just a sandwich," he shrugged as he flawlessly executed combo hits, "don't make such a big deal out of it."

I took his advice, dug into my sandwich, and stopped trying to be friendly with him for now. It obviously wasn't working that well. Instead, I renewed the fortifications on my powers, which had mostly disappeared as I'd slept.

That was another issue, although not an immediate one: PP Regeneration happened as you slept, so I needed seven to eight hours of restful sleep to regenerate my spent PP to full. Great. So, not only was I going to want full sleep cycles, I would require sleep to recover after a major fight or power testing, and any interruption would lead me to be powerless for the next day. Chalk up one more item on the inconvenience pile.

After my tuna melt had been finished off, Richard shut off the game. "Go get dressed, and let's go."

I looked down, and back to him, quirking an eyebrow. "You do realize that you guys never gave me money for clothes, right?" I pinched at the silky, stretchy, oddly scent-and-stain-free fabric of my futuristic clothing. "This is the only outfit I own."

He facepalmed, dragging it down his face. "God, this is such a pain," he grumbled.

"I'm not trying to screw up your day-"

"Shut up," he said, raising a hand. "Grab your stuff. We'll go shopping, then we'll do this stupid training session, got it?"

Cowed a bit, I swung my backpack on, and headed out the door.

Character sheet for Level 2:

Class: Psychic

Background: Researcher

Training: Academy Graduate

Attributes and Modifiers:

STR 12, +0

DEX 10, +0

INT 16, +1

CHA 12, +0

WIS 10, +0

CON 14, +1

HP: 9

PP: 6

Attack Bonus: 0

XP: 2100/4010

Saving Throws (1d20)

Physical: 13

Mental: 12

Evasion: 15

Tech: 16

Luck: 14

Skills (2d6+skill level+attribute modifier+bonuses):

Culture/Earth(real), 0

Persuade, 0

Perception, 0

Science, 0

Tech/Medical, 0

Tech/Psitech, 0

Tech/Pretech, 0

Combat/Psitech, 0

All others at -1.

Skill points: 2

Powers:

The primary discipline goes up automatically every level, up to the maximum of 9. Once capped, a new primary is selected. Each level, one other power is also able to be bought from any other tree.

Primary: Telekinesis:

Remote Manipulation - Level 1: The psychic can manipulate any object visible to his unaided vision as if handling it with one hand. The force has an effective Strength of 10 and can be used to wield an object to attack at a -2 penalty to hit and using the relevant combat skill of the psychic. Cost: 1 PP.

Telekinetic Press - Level 2: The psychic's strength increases at this level, if not his degree of control. Objects can still only be manipulated as if with one hand, but up to two hundred kilos can be lifted, or force exerted as if Strength 18. This force lacks enough fine coordination to successfully attack a mobile target. Cost: 3 PP.

Teleportation:

Sidestep - Level 1: The teleporter has unlocked the rudiments of the discipline. They can teleport up to 10 meters and carry up to 5 kilos of clothing, equipment, or other living organisms with them. Cost: 1 PP.

Biopsionics:

Biostasis - Level 1: The biopsionic can maintain the vital life processes of a mortally wounded teammate with a touch. The biopsionic may restore to life a creature that has been dead for no more than six rounds. There is a 100% chance of revival if this power is used within three rounds of death, with the chance decreasing by 25% for each round afterwards. The creature is set to zero hit points and remains unconscious until it recieves medical attention. It will die if it does not receive such attention within 24 hours. The power does not function on creatures who have been torn apart or otherwise mangled beyond conventional surgical repair, nor those dead of poison, disease, or old age. Cost: 1 PP, Target gains 2 System Strain.

Note: the Biopsionics tree uses a mechanic called System Strain. Your maximum System Strain is the same as your constitution score, and represents your body's resistance to metaphysical effects on a cellular level. Any effect that gives System Strain stops working on that target if SS is maxed out, and each point takes 24 hours of time during which the target recieves no biopsionic modification to remove.

Gear:

1 TL4 Backpack

1 Monoblade, 1d8+1 damage

1 Metatool

1 Survival Kit

1 Medical Kit

1 Lazarus Patch

1 Commpad

1 spare Type A power cell

Encumbrance: 6/12

Armor Class 9 (Lower AC is better)

Mag-bow

Psitech Weapon(Telekinesis) (Dex/Str)

Encumberance 2

Tech level 3

1d6 damage

Range 100/Max Range 400

Reloads and fires each round.

Alt-fire mode:

Only works if Telekinesis lv. 2 is active or a mastered power. Uses special ammo.

2d6+2 damage

Range 300/Max Range 800

+2 to hit

User must move at half speed while charging this weapon.

Reloads and fires each round.

Pierces light cover and ignores armor of tech level 3 and lower.