Chapter Three: More Experimentation
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur. For stage crew, Sarah had me shuffling between testing lighting equipment and helping out with some of the props. While not the most exciting, it was nice to hang out and talk with the older college students. I've learned so much about frat parties and hangovers from them.
Danny ended up staying late for theater practice, so I took the bus route home. The closest stop was only a couple blocks away.
Throughout the rides both to and from BBU, I texted in the group chat. Evenings spent power testing were hardly conducive to interaction with my friend group, and I didn't want to seem like I was completely blowing them off.
I was the first to get home. Cody must have still been at the clinic. My brother's vocational studies involved shadowing veterinarians at the combined clinic/shelter in Downtown (Don't let his aloofness fool you, he's a softie at heart).
Normally, I would take the time before dinner to do my homework, but this was an opportunity too good to pass up. No one was home. I am alone. I can test the parts of my power that would get me caught if my family was here.
I had a few options. Any crafting or tinkering was out of the question. My parents were just too observant. They would notice if appliances started going missing around the house. Whatever I wanted to build, the parts would need to come from what limited items I already had in my room. Or from what I could smuggle in from a clandestine shopping trip, but that's not an adventure I was willing to embark on tonight.
My first idea for an experiment might be pretty stupid. I had to test my Health bar at some point, and now was the best time to do it when nobody could see me look like an idiot beating myself up.
Test one. I slapped myself in the face. Ow. It felt like I slapped myself in the face. Go figure.
My Health did not go down, and I still felt pain. Either I had not done enough damage to myself to warrant one whole point of Health, or it wasn't activating for some other reason.
I should probably stop slapping myself because going to school tomorrow with a bruised face would look bad. What's the least debilitating way I can harm myself?
…
The depth of depravity my power had already drawn me into was concerning. Self harm is not the answer, kids. Seek out help if you need it.
I wracked my brain for any palatable options.
Ohmygosh I'm an idiot.
I have a healing spell. I can heal myself. Why am I worried about showing injuries when I have a broken healing spell? Despite my enthusiasm for testing the limits of my powers, I was not in a pragmatic state of mind.
Sighing, I walked to the kitchen and grabbed a steak knife from our knife board. Okay, stabbing myself is a little much for me. Instead, I braced my body and slashed across my palm. There was a flash of heat and pain that felt like, well, like a knife slashing my palm. But no blood spread from the cut. And more importantly, my Health bar appeared! I had done at least one point of damage to myself.
My Health bar had disappeared by the time I finished my observation. Checking my status, I noted that I was back to full Health. If my power was following Skyrim logic, then my Health regenerated just like my Magicka and Stamina.
Now I had to figure out the rate of regeneration and other statistics…
This was not going to be fun.
In the end, I could only handle five minutes of testing. Maybe I'm a wuss, but continually tormenting myself with phantom pain was not my idea of fun. I got just enough data to measure the most important number: Health's regeneration rate is a base ¼ / second but only moved in integer values, so I got one Health back every four seconds.
No matter how many times I struck with the knife, my body did not actually receive any injuries. A light slash caused only one point of damage, but a solid stab on my arm chunked a whopping twenty points all at once (and hurt significantly more). My tentative hypothesis based on the lessons I learned from Stamina testing is that Health acts as a bulwark against injury; attacks will cause pain and lower my Health but not cause physical damage until it hits zero, at which point attacks will harm me the same way they would anyone else. For obvious reasons, I would not be testing my hypothesis anytime soon.
It took some convincing, but I've decided that the pain feedback from lowering Health is beneficial. It's a reminder telling me not to mess around because losing Health is not to be encouraged.
Thank you for looking out for me, powers.
I wasn't sure that my powers were sentient, but it felt right to thank them for all that they'd given me.
Moving on. Time to see what other uses I can get out of my map and inventory.
First up, what kind of things can I place in my inventory, and how easily can I do it? So I rapidfire touched random objects around the house to see what worked.
Couch – Nothing
Pen – No result
Apple – Nada
Dinner plate – No can do
I really expected at least one of the last three to work. My limitation might be that I have to pick up the object first before it can be inventoried. Sure enough, the pen, apple, and plate all vanished when I lifted them. I was unable to lift the couch.
Just like with my sock, the required mental effort was minimal. A simple thought of wanting to store the item, and it was gone in an instant.
Checking my inventory, the apple was classified as food while the pen and plate were both under miscellaneous items. No surprise there. I also noticed that I had an encumbrance limit of 295 pounds that was currently at three pounds of weight including my clothing.
The possible uses of my inventory were manifold. Firstly and most obviously, I can keep any item I want in storage and remove it later when needed. I can also transport heavy items over long distances so long as I can lift it initially. I might be able to solve my tinkering supplies problems as well. If I can browse stores unobserved…
No, bad Sam. Stealing is wrong.
Okay so my tinkering problem isn't solved unless I want to be an amoral jerk.
Hmm, I should test to see if there is a size or weight limit. The television was probably the largest item I could lift within easy reach. Or… No. I need to think outside the box. I instead nabbed the blanket hanging off the back of the couch and unrolled it to its full length. It was now larger than the TV in every dimension except width, and sure enough, I could inventory it.
Alright, let's put that back. I sent my mental signal to replace the blanket to its rightful perch on the couch.
It spawned in a heap at my feet. There's a distance limit, good to know. I manually replaced the blanket, taking care to fold it back up.
For testing the weight limit, I knew just what item to grab. I bounded up the stairs, turning the sharp 180 degree corner at the top and jogged to Cody's room. I opened his door (it was unlocked), and searched around for my goal. Cody kept his room far cleaner than you'd expect from a teenage boy. The bed was made with sheets tucked in tightly, not a crease to be found. Belongings were arranged evenly and precisely on shelves and his desk. Walls were obscured with posters of his favorite sports teams and capes. I chose to ignore the large pinup of Narwhal (The Guild member's choice of garment, or lack thereof, was certainly a bold choice). And in the corner, tidied up neatly, was Cody's weights set.
I jumped straight to the heaviest dumbbell available, a 50 pound monstrosity that I had to lift with both hands.
"Hrrk," I got the weight to chest height and activated my inventory. Success! I can store objects of at least 50 pounds.
I made sure to be near the weight rack and uninventoried the dumbbell. It appeared directly onto the rack. Another success, I'm on a roll.
Satisfied for now with what I had learned about my inventory, I made my way back downstairs and plopped onto the couch. Let's move onto the Map. Before that, Samuel's memories of playing Skyrim reminded me that I should check for a compass. The familiar gray bar materialized in my field of view. Turning in a full circle showed that the compass displayed the cardinal directions based on the direction I faced. Facing to the east, in the direction of the front door, there appeared the stylized house marker.
Verifying on my Map, I saw the marker for my current position overlapped with the house's. Hovering my mental cursor over the symbol revealed its name as "Samantha's House". Two additional markers caught my attention, identical pentagons with a tower-like component in the center. If I recall correctly, this is the symbol for the College of Winterhold. The marker closest to me was labeled "Arcadia High" and the other further south "Brockton Bay University". Try as I might, I could not get the fast travel prompt to appear. I'm stuck with standard methods of travel. For now.
Okay, so the Map will be useful for orienting myself if I get lost, but not much else right now. There wasn't much else I could do without materials, and everything I could think to build required more than what I had on hand. I was sorely tempted to tear apart my laptop in order to start construction on the Pipboy, but I didn't have the tools. I'd at least need some kind of heating element for the casing and a soldering iron for the circuitry. Even if I did have the tools, I would not be able to explain a missing laptop to my parents.
Tools this, parents that. My lack of tinkering was becoming increasingly frustrating while at the same time, alternative options were looking more attractive. The only thing preventing me from going on a thieving spree was my own moral scruples, and it could be argued that stealing to build tools to help save the world was a worthy cause. But that wasn't me. I couldn't start down that slippery slope lest I start justifying worse crimes. I know all too well the atrocities Cauldron has committed and will commit in the name of the greater good. Stealing will be my last resort.
I could come clean. Tell my parents about my powers and sign up for the Wards. Pros: I get government level access to materials, I don't have to lie to my family, and I have a team to back me. Cons: More regulations are placed on me, I have to operate in the public eye, and the PRT is a corrupt organization with the backing of Cauldron. It was worth considering. Operating as an independent didn't hold much appeal anyways. Reliable backup was incredibly attractive to me.
Sigh, for now I can train Restoration as a nice way to make concrete progress.
Spamming Healing repeatedly had leveled Restoration to 2 by the time Cody got home around six o'clock.
He entered through the front, stretching his arms above his head, "Hey, Dad called. Mom's on the way home, but he's staying late. We're scrounging for dinner tonight."
"That's fine," I replied, "Wanna share a frozen pizza?"
"Sure."
With that settled, I preheated the oven and retrieved my backpack to do homework while we waited. I was over halfway done when the oven timer went off. Cody must have popped the pizza in the oven while I was working. As was our ingrained habit, we ate together at the table, sparing a few words about our days. While we were washing dishes, I heard the van pull into the garage. Mom was home.
She changed upstairs before entering the kitchen and grabbing the remaining slices of pizza, "How was your day, Sweety?"
"Fine," I said, "I had fun in art class today. We made pottery. How about you?"
"Oh, it was alright. I was working with one of the Wards on promotional material. I'm not technically allowed to tell you the details, but just between you and me, there's gonna be some great new products coming out featuring a certain adorable space warper."
Oh gosh, Missy hates my mom, doesn't she? "Can't wait to see it," I lied.
The rest of my evening was spent secluded in my room power leveling Restoration and intermittently texting my friends and finishing homework while waiting for my Magicka to refill.
Several hours later, with a notification of RESTORATION INCREASED TO 4, I decided that it was time to go to bed. I was close to a true Level up, needing only two more skill increases which I'd maybe obtain tomorrow. Sleep found me quickly.