Saturday, March 6th?, 2010
My arm is itching me really badly. Stupid festering wound. The status effect still says 63 plus days, so why did Blasto tell me it would clear up in a few weeks? That's not a few weeks, that's over two months. He would have had no reason to lie either, he didn't even think I would remember the conversation! Is he simply wrong? What is he basing that on anyway? Did this Butcher hit me with a worse version or did it interact weirdly with my powers?
I stop walking. I'm finally in front of Julia's address. All this time, all this shit I went through to get here. Do I look presentable? Do I *sniff* …
Damn, I haven't showered since DC! That was days ago and I've been in two fights and woke up face down in an alley with my clothes stripped… and, I don't even have a mirror. Is my hair messed up? Of all the damn things to forget to put into my inventory! I forgot to put in a mirror! That's the only way I can use Observe on myself, I haven't even checked to see if my age changed to find out if it was my birthday. Damn it, I don't even have a comb in my inventory either! I got days' worth of food, camping gear, tools, clothes, guns, and miscellaneous crap, but no comb or mirror!
Should I go or should I clean up first? Where? Where the hell am I going to do that? Fuck it…
I ring the doorbell, but no sound emits. Observe. It's broken.
I knock on the rusty wrought iron storm door. It made an unpleasant clatter as red flakes fell away. I could just use my free camera to check, but maybe that's going too far...
Okay, it's been a minute now. I knock again and cause more flakes to fall.
Another couple of minutes pass by. Okay fine, Free camera.
I send my view through the door, into a living room that looks three decades out of style. I explore a kitchen with a tiny table and a sink overflowing with dishes. It's not exactly a tidy place here. I come back around through the hall and into the downstairs bedroom. It looks even more out of style than the living room. Ahhh!! Granny panties. Definitely not Julia's room. I send my view back through the living room and up some stairs with a worn-out banister. I zoom through the dingy hallway, go through a bedroom door to find it filled with towering boxes of crap, and head back out again. I go across the hall into the other bedroom.
What do I see? A desk with a loose hard-drive, schoolbooks, and miscellaneous crap on it, a rumpled comforter atop an unmade bed, girl's clothing was strewn all over it and the floor … I see an electronics' book, lots of wire, that's a voltmeter? Is she a tinker? Well, enough Observe uses have indicated it is definitely her room, it's just that nobody is home right now.
Well damn. All this way and they aren't here. I switch back to my normal camera mode.
Now what? I look around the neighborhood at run-down houses and unkempt yards. It would be kinda creepy to wait here on their porch. I see a charred house down the street with some broken caution tape around it and wander over. I wonder what happened here?
****?
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
I find an occluded spot in the burned-out house that still lets me see Julia's house. I can use Observe to see when someone comes home. I scratch at the wound on my itchy arm as I dismiss the notification. That skill had been close to leveling. At least that lowered the timer by a week. Is there any way for me to make this go away faster? Do I want to? It's free Disease Resistance training, and if I trust my status effect numbers it will go away eventually. I just don't know if I want to wait that long. I can't inventory whatever the parasites are because they're 'alive', though I bet I can inventory the dead bits. Maybe I can burn them out? I don't have much else to do while I wait…
Your Damage Resistance (Fire & Heat) skill has increased by 1
Three hours of carefully burning my arm, at the same rate my HP heals, only managed to shave four days off the timer. The theory works but will take a damn long time. Grinding Fire Resist is getting a lot harder using just a lighter, though being distracted by making sure I'm not being watched and checking Julia's house repeatedly did slow it down. Oh, there is a car there now out front!
Two women climb out of a super beat-up beige Honda civic. One is an old lady,
Conduit, that sounds very familiar. The weird dream I had when I blacked out when Chela triggered comes to mind. I look at my own cape database entry, man I really need to update my own Observe snapshot with a mirror. Yeah, there they are.
Primary Exchange A: Conduit Connection Interface [Attachment, Shard] (Passive), Conduit Data Exchanger [Attachment, Shard] (Passive)
As suspected, now confirmed, she is my trigger mate. She's the source of whatever my Primary Exchange A power aspects represent. That means Sparky is the source of Primary Exchange B, also already suspected, and the third trigger-mate. So his powers are related to both our Primary Exchange B power descriptions. She also has a single secondary with multiple parts, one of which has the same name as mine, but different descriptions. Chela has a secondary which derived from me, so that means Julia and I both triggered in the presence of another cape. I suppose Sparky did too then.
Multi-triggers create a list of Primary Exchanges based on the Primary 1 powers of their trigger mates. When someone triggers in the presence of other capes, they get a list of secondary power descriptions, one for each cape that got hit that was nearby. Hit, connected to, pinged? Fragments, I'm not sure where those come from or how they are made. Both Julia and I have a couple of them, yet Chela doesn't. No other cape I have used Observe on has listed Fragments.
I still have so many more questions. Many of my conclusions are correct, even though I had suspected them beforehand, Parahuman Lore went up a smidgen. I don't think she is a tinker, that guess is probably wrong.
They've already gone inside. Reading her Observe record took a while.
Should I have checked email first? I can't, I have no internet connection right now, I haven't in days. It will take too long to get one. I'm making excuses, stop wussing out and just go. I check myself over as best as I can again, smooth out my hair and shirt, as I walk up to the door once again.
I firmly knock on the door and return my hands to my pockets.
With my enhanced hearing, I hear her grandmother ask Julia to go see who's at the door, followed by feet bounding downstairs. I can't help but watch a bit with free-camera as she comes up to the door. She must have taken off her hat and jacket upstairs, she leans on the door and looks through the peephole. Can she even see through this corroded screen? I put on a smile anyway.
Wait, what? Her face and Observe window indicate feelings of surprise, shock, and confusion. Well I guess, it's not expected, but… She turns around but doesn't open the door, just leans on it and puts her hand over her mouth. Does she not recognize me? I know I changed some with stat changes and all that but it shouldn't be that much different. My hair dye isn't even there anymore. She still doesn't move.
"Well, who is it?" Josephine asks. Julia doesn't respond.
I guess I should say something. "Julia? It's Simon. I can hear you on the other side of the door. I know this is probably really odd, but I can explain, even if you don't…" The door opens. "Hi," I say, smiling, as I swap back to first-person camera mode.
"Well, who the fuck is it?" Josephine yells again. I see her peek around the corner from the kitchen.
"Just someone from school," Julia lies, then opens the screen door and steps out onto the porch with me.
"How are you even here? Why are you here?" she asks me.
"That's kind of a long story, kind of a quest even…"
"A quest? Do the Beckett's even know… no they would never allow this. You ran away and came all the way from Houston to here to see me? You realize that's kind of creepy right?"
"Yeah, Rachel warned me it would look bad…"
"Rachel knows you came here?"
"She um, found out about, uh, that I was a, and you said you knew before you left, but I swear I'm not trying to be creepy, it's not like that at all…"
"Oh, I'm not worth traveling cross country for?"
"Wait, no, I'd totally…." She held a perfect poker face, but her Observe record betrayed her. "Now, you're just messing with me aren't you?"
"You deserve it. But seriously, what the hell? Rachel knows but you couldn't tell me, pick up a phone or text?"
"You never gave me your actual phone number remember? Your plan wasn't working and I didn't have a number at the time either, we just exchanged emails, but…"
"Did you see the one I sent?"
"You sent me an email? I haven't had internet while traveling so no, I couldn't check. What did it say?"
"Nothing relevant, I'm just, beyond surprised to see you in person, when I was never expecting to again, and I don't know how I feel about that."
"That's fair…"
"You still haven't said why you are here," Julia states, closing her arms around herself more. Is she cold?
I quiet my voice down and whisper. "I know you're a parahuman, and I know you know I am as well. But more than that, we're trigger-mates. Part of a 'cluster' I think it's called?" Her eyes widen. "Parts of our abilities are based off each other’s. I think one of the better ways I can learn more about them is, well, by asking and interacting. I think that will be the same for you too. Have you heard about that before? Though it's not that well understood even by people that study this stuff."
"I've come across the term, but my research has been… sparse... due to lack of resources."
+3300 XP, 'Follow Your Multi-Trigger Mate' quest completed.
New Quest chain opened: 'Partner Up'
You have gained a level! You are now level 29
I grin as I dismiss the new notifications and quest.
"What are you grinning at?"
"Wasn't sure how much I'd tell you, but I guess, well, I told you before. I had a quest to find you, it just completed, and I got a new one."
"You were being literal?"
"Yeah, my power is really weird…" I whisper even quieter again. "I have another quest to return your dad's gun to you also. I've got it, but we should…"
"That was you!!!?" Julia yells a little too loud.
"That was me what?"
"They called my grandmother a few days ago."
"Who did?" As I ask I spot movement in the curtains and gesture my head in that direction. Julia turns and looks, then moves out onto the front walk further away from the house. I follow her.
"Houston CPS. They told us someone had broken in and stolen property, mine included. They would have mailed it to my grandmother if she was willing to accept it in my stead, otherwise, I'd have had to wait until I was eighteen or twenty-one or something."
"Huh, I assumed they would never give it back, so…"
"Is that how you got my address also?"
This feels like it's getting off the rails. Did I do the right thing here? "I didn't know... well, I have it, do you want?.."
"Yes!... No, wait here…" Julia says then goes back inside the house.
I switch to free-camera and my view follows her inside. Her grandmother is standing in the living room, smoking a cigarette and holding a beer while wearing a fuzzy bathrobe and slippers.
"You datin' him or sumthin'?" she asks Julia.
"What? No! And stop snooping on me!" Julia responds then goes up the stairs. She gets her jacket, hat, and a pack of cigarettes from her room and then comes back down again. Her grandmother continues to peek out the curtains after she comes out the front door. I switch back to first-person view as she walks up to me.
"Where is it?"
"On me, but I should retrieve it away from prying eyes." I glance back to her window.
"She's mostly harmless."
I follow Julia as she walks down the street a bit toward the same burned-out house I had waited in earlier.
"What happened here?" I ask.
"It burned. Where is it?" She asks me again as she holds a cigarette with one hand. She leads us out of view of the street into the house and places two fingers around the other end of the cigarette and a bright spark jumps between them lighting it up. She eyes me fiercely. Her Observe record indicates she is feeling tense, nervous, and wary, but also hopeful.
I double-check that no one is watching or recording. "I have a pocket dimension, there is going to be a brief, minor flash of light," I say quietly as I pull my hands out of my pockets and retrieve her gun from inventory, making sure it appears pointed down with the grip facing her and my fingers nowhere near the trigger.
She expresses surprise as the gun appears in my hand, then takes a step forward and retrieves it. Her hand brushes against mine as she does so, and she gets another quizzical look in her eye. Then she looks over at my other hand.
+440 XP, 'Gun Smuggler' quest completed
"What the hell happened to your hand?"
"I got into a bit of an accident while heading this way. Traveling alone isn't so safe."
"You're missing fingers, that's more than a bit of an accident…"
"Yeah…wild animal, I'd rather not talk about it." No need to scare her off about the damn Nine. "What about you, you're like, an inch taller, and did you work out a lot more or something?" Some of her stats and her height and weight have changed since I last saw her. Her level has changed massively but I can't trust that value to be very consistent anyway. It's a current threat rating at best, which is very high for her right now, enough that I don't know her level.
"Yes to the latter, but taller? I'm 5'9…"
"Nah, you're definitely taller, 5'10" an inch more at least. You should measure yourself again. Almost as tall as me now, and in only a few months at that."
"You've put on a lot of muscle. You're nowhere near as skinny as I last remember seeing you. You could barely drag a suitcase back to camp on Galveston. That's…"
"Not normal, I know. I'd like to claim hard-work as credit, but most of it is power related. It lets me cheat in a way." In several ways really.
She looks over the gun, then puts it away in an inner pocket inside her jacket. She looks at me as if she is appraising me in some manner. Her feelings listed on the Observe record flit back and forth, wary, interested, curiosity, caution, confusion. Her motivations skew toward wanting to know more. Finally, she holds out her hand. "I can electrocute people to death with just a touch, but I can also learn about their powers via the same. Do you trust me?"
Vibes, as weak as that odd ability is, has not changed. Nothing negative comes from her, and while mostly it signals benign intent, some hints of positive intent are mixed in as well. "I trust you. I saw from the cigarette trick. You probably could have earlier, when you brushed my hand, or you could have just reached out suddenly but you didn't. Not that I think you would have anyway." I clasp her hand with my good one.
Her eyes widen in wonder, then furrow in concentration, as she continues to hold on. "You… is this normal?... It's…"
"Is what normal? I don't know what you're reading…"
Minutes passed before she speaks again. "I don't know," she says. "I've never held on this long…I… don't have many other examples to compare to." She is still holding my hand.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
"Whoa, you're draining my mana"
She lets go suddenly. "Your what?"
"It's like an energy reserve, you just ate over a third of it, despite resistances."
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I didn't know that would happen…"
I do my own double take as I notice her level went from double question marks to triple question marks. "Don't worry about it, I'll gain all that back, by the time I wake up tomorrow, in fact, do it again. Try to be aware of what you are doing and choose whether or not you want to do it."
"Are you sure? I feel… way more charged than before…"
"Charged huh? Okay, well your level definitely shot up." I say as she grasps my hand again.
"Level?" She asks in surprise. Then furrows her brow again in concentration. I watch my mana tick down, and my Null resistance tick up.
"My power has a weird way of assigning a threat rating to people, cape's included. Yours went from an unknown two-digit value to an unknown three-digit value, after charging up from eating a third of my mana."
She doesn't respond, but I watch as the rate of change fluctuates. "Julia?"
"…Concentrating…. I don't… really… know what I'm doing… Never done… this before."
I wait a while longer until I get the notice I am hoping for.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
"Okay, that's enough," I say as I pull my hand away I leave myself with about 500 MP for an emergency. Her level was still at ???, but her attack modifier had gone from +105 to +405 from draining about 10k mana from me. Definitely not a tinker. She didn't need any equipment to do that.
"Wow," She says as she lets go. Electric arcs dance across her outstretched fingers as she holds her hand up and stares at it in amazement. "It got a lot more difficult to do at the end." The arcs shrink and fade into her hand, and she looks normal again, except for her hair standing up from static electricity. It looks amusing, and I can't help but smile. "What?"
"Your hair went all poofy."
She huffs and tries to smooth it back down, but fails. "Damn, I didn't bring my anti-static spray."
"Side effects, huh. They can be a real bitch to deal with." More than you know.
"Yeah, and expensive. I've gone through ten cans of that stuff. Are you really sure you are okay that happened? That was weird, way faster transfer rate than what I've ever done before. I might have been getting the hang of it but it was hard to tell, once I knew it was actually happening, at least I could recognize it right away."
"it's alright, didn't really even feel anything. But, I would like to know what your power, whatever you got from 'reading' me as you called it, told you about mine."
"Well, it's more like a bunch of feelings about concepts and images, it's not like there is actual communication, powers don't do that."
I quirk an eyebrow at her. "Don't be so sure, there's room for different interpretations about that."
"The first sense I get is whether or not you're parahuman. Then a sort of concept about your primary powers. I got a sense of adaptation, hacking, and simulation, some kind of self-improvement mechanisms. Is that like what you said about cheating to get more muscles?"
"Probably, go on."
"Some way of interfacing with something, but I don't know what. That was really fuzzy. Some kind of false representation or shell, some other mechanism of communication channels that were somewhat faint, a definite energy source, that is what I felt I could latch on to and drain once I knew what was actually happening. Something distant, something foreign that's not available but can be called? There was also some kind of cooperative sense, that can isolate members of the cooperative against external stuff and more internal communication."
I nod along as I compare what she said against my last Observe snapshot.
"There was a sense of some scanning and information exchange mechanism, that felt eerily familiar. Your self-improvement stuff and energy source like I said before, don't know why I felt that twice, actual self-improvement stuff hit like three times."
"Is that all?" I ask her.
"There was also some scattered images of computer screens, and mud and rocks, but those were really weird. I'm not sure if it was important or…"
"They were important." She nailed almost everything on the list. "Anything else? Any finer details than that?"
She shrugs. "I don't know if I would get more with longer contact or not, that was the longest contact I've ever had. Finer details get lost to me when contact has stopped."
"We could try again tomorrow…"
"Simon…I don't know about that…."
Worry and trepidation cross her Observe record, I should change the subject quickly. "Alright about you being able to tell if someone is a parahuman or not purely by touch, don't ever tell anyone else you can do that. Not even the PRT if you ever go that route. Secret Identities and all that, capes will get really pissed."
"You tell me that after I tell you? But duh, that's not something I'm going to blab, are you? You seemed to have known that already about me though, was I wrong?"
"Nope, not wrong, you said as much back in Houston, and I had been pretty careful."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Not careful enough if Rachel found out."
"Point, though she knows you are too."
"What!? Did you tell her?"
"No, no, she's just perceptive. She told me she figured it out from the house blackouts only happening when you were in the bathroom, maybe from other stuff too but that's all she mentioned."
Julia frowns. "This doesn't seem equitable." She snuffs out her cigarette and lights another one with sparks.
"I can tell if someone is also, but I don't need touch. So that's even more dangerous for me."
"You just said you shouldn't tell anyone."
"I did and I haven't, except for you. I want to make this more equitable and show some more trust. Furthermore, I can also tell things about people, and their powers from an ability that is kinda similar to yours. You weren't wrong about computer screens. I see things my power shows me in illusionary windows of text only I can see. Computer screens are a spot-on analogy."
"Fair's fair then. What's your say about me?"
"And I'll tell you, but how about I write it down so you can keep it? I'm going to pull some paper and a pencil from my inventory."
"Your what?"
"Inventory – my pocket dimension"
"Levels, Inventory? You sound like a video game character." I laugh as I pull the pad and pencil out. "What's so funny?"
"You'll laugh too when I'm done," I say as I start to write. "I'm curious though, have you ever used your scanning power on yourself?"
"No, why should I? I know what I can do."
"You didn't know you could drain mana from me. Humor me and try it out."
"Sure…" Julia becomes lost in thought. Minutes tick by and her cigarette burns to nearly nothing with barely any puffs on it. I finish writing up a copy of her active Observe record and wait for her to come out of her trance.
"I never thought that would work on myself." She finally says. "There's more than…"
"Don't tell me yet. Look at this, and compare what you felt about what the power summary section says." I hand the paper over to her.
"This is a dossier, no this is a character sheet and a dossier…"
"I told you you'd laugh, I see something similar for myself in those windows."
"I'm not laughing. This is invasive and personal." She frowns without looking up at me.
"Well, it's…"
"Shush…" She holds up a finger and continues reading. I wait for her to finish. So far, this isn't the reaction I was hoping for. "You can just look at a parahuman and get this information?"
"Anyone actually, I have to spend some of that energy you drained, but basically, yeah."
"What do all these numbers even mean?"
"They’re a simulation of however it is my power decides to quantify stuff. I question the accuracy of them, they prove to at least be a generally good guideline. I'm more interested in how accurate the power summary section is."
"It's…very accurate, in broad strokes. The terms used in it capture the concept better than what I pictured in my mind. That's weird to me, but it's very lacking in detail.
"What's missing then?"
"That would be me giving you more info about what I can do, I want to know more about this." She shakes the paper at me. "What's the context for these numbers? Do you really measure people's health, stamina, and stress via numbers? How is that even possible? How much of this is power, and how much of it is subconscious projecting? Eye Candy, really? Do you think I'm eye candy? And why in the hell do I have an alias listed as 'Raiden'?"
"Raiden's not your cape name?"
"No! I don't have a cape name, certainly not that. I'm not a…." She trails off and stares at some big hole in the burned-out wall of the house before looking back at me.
"I don't know then. It has always put cape names in that spot."
"If it wasn't for the scary accuracy on some of this, I'd say you were just full of bullshit. What about the rest?"
I shrug. "I've seen guys with that Eye Candy perk thing. It's gender-neutral. Hell, Legend has it, but it's not even a parahuman thing regular people can have it too."
"You used this power on Legend?" she asks with awed surprise.
"Uh... I shouldn't answer that."
"When were you even near him?"
"I was passing through DC at the same time they had that press conference outside about the Protectorate expanding into Mexico. I wasn't near him at all. Look, I'm sorry some of that info is disturbing. I get it. Honestly, I hope some of it is wrong, that a lot of it is wrong. I hope you can tell me those mental things it says about you is wrong, that you can tell me you've recovered enough and don't need more help. That quest thing I had about finding you, it had a failure time limit on it. I had no idea what that meant, or what would happen if that time limit expired. I was afraid it wasn't going to be something good."
"You're really serious about that quest stuff. I know powers are weird, but yours takes it to another level."
"Yeah, I know, and your word choice is ironic."
She sighs. "Yeah, I still have lingering issues from… everything that happened in December. But I don't exactly have the money or time to deal with that kind of stuff."
"That's basically what it says."
"I know, it's disturbing, but also not too hard to guess, at least for that part."
"Well, there are things you can do. Maybe quit smoking, make that nicotine addiction and lung irritation go away over time."
"If it's real. Smoking's one of the things that lets me de-stress, and I live with a chain smoker." She pauses to take a final drag out of the burned-out cigarette then smashes it on the floor. "I'll think about it. Last I recall you smoked too."
"The first time I did so was in Houston from what you gave me, all the times after that was so I could socialize with you and later to grind resistance skills, but they don't work for that anymore so I stopped."
"You didn't have to bum a cigarette off me to talk to me. Wait, resistance skills? No never mind. Just explain the rest of everything on this so-called character sheet your power generated based on me."
"From the top. Name is self-explanatory. Level is a threat rating. Below a certain value, 60 something, I can see the actual number. Otherwise, it's a question mark per digit. Yours was two before, so higher than sixty-something but less than 100. It shot past 100 when you drained my mana."
"Stop saying 'drained my mana', it sounds… weird."
"Right, alias, always held a cape name but I suppose it doesn't have to be cape specific. I've seen people with several listings. Gender, age, and ethnicity. I don't even need the power to know those most of the time. Race is how I can tell if someone is parahuman or not in the beginning when this ability was more limited than currently."
"It was limited before and has gotten less limited?"
"Yeah, it didn't have power summaries, that's a recent development."
Julie mutters something under her breath... "Go on."
"Class: two entries for whatever is the most relevant job someone has, even subconsciously. I've seen delinquent listed before, but I don't think they would actually call themselves that. Yours includes 'Vigilante'. Is that accurate?"
"I don't consider myself one."
"Would other people consider you one? Or 'Raiden' one?" She shrugs evasively. "Well, it's also not parahuman specific. Faction is what faction you belong to. It's odd, also not parahuman specific. I've seen entries for the Protectorate, gangs, the PRT, the U.S Army, the local police force, and so on. I've seen multiple entries as well. Most people don't have a faction though. I think it has to be a pretty significant part of your life to warrant being listed. I've never seen anyone with a faction for a gardening or book club, so stuff like that probably isn't relevant enough. It's also a recent reveal. Before, it was either question marks or told me only if I already knew the answer."
I keep going. "All those stats are Strength, Agility, Constitution, Perception, Wisdom, Charisma, and Luck. Based on all my observations so far, the average values I have seen are… hold on a minute let me pull something up." I pull up my notes to check the running tallies I've been making to determine the average stat values.
"Those gestures you are making. Are you looking at some other window? I remember you making them in Houston. I thought you had a weird tic or something."
"Yeah I am, I'm looking up the average numbers that I've written down."
"Written down?"
"I basically have a computer in my head. I can take notes with it. Here they are. Strength: 14 for women, 16 for guys. Agility: 15, 17 for constitution, 18 for intelligence, 15 for perception, and 20 for wisdom all for both sexes. Wisdom is odd. 20 is the overall average, but it tends to be lower the younger you are and higher the older you are. Lower stats for young kids is a thing overall, as are physical stats lowering as people get older and weaker. They're highest at the prime of life I guess. The average for charisma is 16 for women and 14 for guys. Luck is 12.5 for both sexes. I don't have a good sample size for luck. It's only been revealed recently. My skill isn't even high enough to see the modifiers it can have yet."
"So according to your power, I have above average strength, agility, and intelligence, and below-average wisdom, and that's before all of these modifiers. What the hell does Luck do?
"I have no idea what luck does. I find it's best to ignore it."
"Where do all these modifiers come from?"
"They're the cumulative adjustment values from all status effects, perks, and flaws, whether they're good or bad. At least they are for me on my own info. I can't break the totals down for others, it doesn't reveal that to me. But those physical and mental ailments that are listed under effects, those are the source of all your negative modifiers based on what I know so far."
She shakes her head. "They're just numbers on a piece of paper and in your head"
"Yeah, they are. Don't put much stock in them, they're a simulation at best. You said you got the concept of simulation when you scanned me, so that fits. However, you also can't say that injuries and negative physiological effects don't debilitate people in some manner either. So there is some correlation of truth behind it. It's a terribly simplified quantification of complex issues and anatomy at best or straight-up wrong at worst."
"Is Allure really what I think it is?"
"Yeah, a quantification of someone's beauty. I don't think it's a cliché 10 point scale though, five is good. The average person has three to four. People with the eye candy perk usually have more than a five though, so you probably have negative modifiers, maybe the scars but that's dumb. Scars are cool, they make you look badass. Clothes and other stuff can also modify the value up and down. I use this same skill on clothing to pick out what I can wear to boost it, because well why not?"
"You can use this skill on clothes?"
"On items in general, it's a bit of a niche use though."
"What you're allure?"
Huh, didn't expect her to ask that… "Its base is a four, but.. all these injuries, and my stupid acne, modify it down, but at least those will go away when they heal and clear up." She gestures to continue.
"Armor is determined by what someone is wearing. Your value is normal. The average speed is 3 point something, so also normal. Your base attack value is a bit above normal, but the modifier is very high. Probably from your electric touch thing. Your dodge is above normal. It's based on modified agility which is already above average in your case with a hefty positive modifier.
"Health, is that like HP in a damn game? Keeping with the theme here? Does it show how close someone is to being dead?"
"Yes to the first, only sort-of to the second. I've seen people get knocked out and incapacitated, with plenty of health left, but it's uncommon. I've also seen people go down with zero and not die, but they've always been unconscious and messed up."
"So you've either participated in or watched enough fights to observe that behavior."
"Yeah, I have, and stamina is as it sounds. Hit zero and you won't be jogging or fighting until it replenishes."
"Stress?"
"Painstakingly slow to raise back to full naturally without deliberate actions to help it. It's kind of named backwards there. It's also hard to lose in big chunks without major traumatic events occurring. If you want context, I've concluded that I triggered when I hit zero, before I could even see all these values." I push the memory of the event away. "You probably did too," I say after a moment, she flinches slightly. "I'm just going to skip the rest. It's a lot of unnecessary mindless minutia. These numbers don't mean anything to you anyway, you can't see them. You can't see the rest of the stuff either unless I show it to you like this. The summary, the description, the feelings, and motivations, they've either got something in there useful for you to act on, or you can ignore it."
She looks back and forth between me and the paper a few times before finally speaking. "I suppose. All these status effects, I understand all of them, I know why they are there, except Conflict Seeking. What the hell is that?"
"Something nearly every parahuman seems to have." Telling her about the sentient nature of shards might lead to the same mind whammy crap that happened when I told Chela. She isn't bound to a bed and can kill with a touch. Hard pass, for now. "It's too common for me to think it's not caused as a result of gaining powers. It also explains some studies that have hypothesized that capes are driven toward conflict, so take that for what you will."
"Do you have it?"
"Probably, but it's hidden from me. Once I knew about it though, I could recognize it in other forms."
"You're making it sound like deliberate action…" She blinks a few times, as I watch her live Observe record.
Oh, come on! I was trying to avoid that. Change the subject for now. "The power summaries. Primary Exchange A, that's something that came from me, came from my power, when we triggered together. Primary Exchange B that came from the other guy that was in the water, he triggered with us also. Remember him?"
Her face frowns, and her eyebrows furrow in anger. "Yeah, I do. He threatened to kill us when we ran into him and Rappel in Galveston. Fuck him."
"The PRT gave him the cape name of Sparky, but he calls himself Arc. I ran into him in Houston again after I ran away from the foster home. He tried to kill me then too. He got captured by the protectorate though, so hopefully, we won't ever see him again."
"Good"
"So, when I use my skill, my variation of your scan, I call it 'Observe'. When I use it on myself, I see a couple of Primary Exchange entries on my own summary. One describing a subset of your powers, and one for that other guy. That's because the three of us are a cluster trigger. I don't know how those trade-offs worked or why, but…"
"I think I know."
"Really?"
"I'm never not touch... in contact with myself, so the finer details I got from using my power on myself a moment ago hasn't faded, perhaps won't fade. My primary power, it's even explained here, in a way." She gestures to the paper. "Is to facilitate a kind of power swapping via exchanges through a conduit I can create. This electrical thing…" She says holding up her hand and manifests the electric arcs again briefly before fading them again. "It's just secondary, able to flow through these same invisible conduits I create. It's been adapted to meld seamlessly into my main abilities."
"Makes sense. Or is the adaptive hacking stuff you got from me helping make everything work together more efficiently?"
"Maybe. Do you have whatever this Secondary is and these fragment ones? I sensed them with my own self-scan, It explains a lot more."
"I do."
"Does one of your fragment's have the Regolith Infuser label?"
"It does, and the other is my Observe skill, labeled 'Conduit Scan' which is listed as one of your primary entries. My guess is the first phrase relates to how it manifests for us, and the second is where it was sourced from."
"That's…accurate."
"But I don't know where Regolith Infuser came from, but it relates to a completely different skill I have."
"Let me guess, it's related to the rocks and mud impression I saw."
"Yeah, it is."
She tightens her mouth into a pucker, looks around, and paces a bit before. "It came from that rock-guy we ran into. The one that threw us out of the supply area that Rappel and… Sparky… took over." She says his name with a grimace.
"Granite?"
"That's his name?"
"Yeah, he got captured along with Sparky in Houston."
"Yeah, so I think.. no, now I know that's my fault. I mean, my… 'primary' I guess, power put that there. In both of us."
"That's some Trump-level stuff. Be careful with revealing that."
"I only had guesses before I self-scanned. I touch a parahuman, I scan them like I mentioned. I get ideas and impressions about their powers. I touch another cape at the same time, I sense both and get ideas about how their powers could interact in different ways, how to modify them, and how to exchange that info into alterations or additions to what they can already do. The first time I noticed it was when that medic cape was rescuing us. You weren't even conscious but I was holding on to both of you at the time. Nothing happened then, the contact was pretty short."
I nod, taking it in as she continues. "When Granite picked us up, I again was in contact with him and you and at the same time, for a lot longer…" She looks down forlorn. "I'm sorry, I pushed something into you then and never told you about it. I didn't understand what had happened, it changed me too, but took a while for me to notice it, and only just now do I finally understand what it has been doing to me these last few months."
"Damn, don't be sorry though, the skill I got from that is cool and saved my ass several times. What did it give you?"
"Apparently it made my bones become a lot denser and stronger over time. Enough to add a lot of unnatural weight."
"And maybe make you grow an inch unexpectedly?"
"Huh. Maybe if what you said earlier is true. It better not make me freakishly tall too, I have enough issues with that already. I think it has stabilized though, my weight has been stable for a while now finally."
"So you got mineral density adjustment from Granite and I got a way to create stone and mud golems. I don't have any on me right now though."
"That's yeah, I remember that was one of the ideas that flashed into me at the time he was carrying us. I had forgotten the details since then."
"Maybe you got a Brute level out of it. I imagine dense bones are hard to break. Hard, mind you, not impossible, don't get overconfident. Your constitution score is not the highest that I've seen, and still within human norms."
She shrugs. I pull my phone out of my inventory and wait for it to connect and update the time. We've been chatting for a while. Huh, I have a voice mail…
"This other one, that came from you. It straight up says 'Copy Fragment'. I think that helped make that possible."
"You think it would work again?"
"I don't know if I would want to do that again. It physically changed me."
"Were you able to pick or control what was granted?"
"I don't know. I know it's a derivative, a modified sub-set of whatever power they had. At least I feel confident that is how it works. It's how it seems to interact and manifest in conjunction with all these other parts. I only have two examples to go by."
"So the first one just involved you and me and not a third person. What I got doesn't go as in-depth into power scanning as yours seems to, but yours doesn't give all the broad extra background info that mine does either. Mine is also by sight, and yours is by touch. I think my own adaptive hacking power modified the heck out of it as well."
"That makes you a Trump as well then."
"Yeah, but I won't advertise it. You want to try again. see if there is anything else exchangeable between us?"
"There isn't."
"How do you know for sure?"
"I guess I don't, but I didn't get that sensation from contact earlier"
"You thought you didn't need to use your power on yourself before either. I've already regenerated a bit more mana, in case you drain some again. Though try not to this time."
"Okay fine." She reaches her hand out and I clasp it again. Null Resistance ticks up a few percentage points and then stops. "Nothing new to exchange, it feels like it could only happen one time."
"Looks like you're controlling the drain now." She nods and begins to pull away but I hold on. "Wait, describe the finer details you sense about my power when in physical contact." I double-check to make sure fraps is on, but it always is now.
"You…you really are themed around video games aren't you? You gain and improve skills, and stats, you gain levels and quests… This is completely ridiculous."
"Is it more ridiculous than shooting electric currents out of your hand or giving people new powers? I'm hoping for some insights I haven't thought of myself yet."
"You can convert this mana energy into electric current. It's part of what came from that Sparky asshole. It's why I can…" she sighs, "…drain it. Have you tried doing what I can?" She asks me, demonstrating the sparks dancing across her other hand again.
"Huh, that must be where data-interface comes from. I can empower electronic devices in my inventory, but I never tried that outside of it. I've tried so many things to get new skills too, with no result that I had given up." I looked at my injured hand, my uninjured one was still holding on to Julia's. "I'll wait to try that later. Anything else you can think of?"
"You also have some mechanism for pushing or attaching powers to people. It partly came from what you got from me, partly from some other source. I don't know much more than that, or how it would work. So much of what I scan is hard to describe in words. I don't think there is anything else I can say." She says with finality as she pulls her hand away again.
"Wicked. Well, that's useful. Very useful. I hope you learned as much as I did. Anything else you want to know I might help with?"
"All these skills you have listed here. Most of them appear mundane, some definitely are not. There is no way this is all though. Driving isn't even listed here, and I just started doing that again."
"Again it's just a simulation, and it definitely is not all of them. Most people have a few hundred skills that my power feels are relevant enough to quantify. You included. You do have driving. Well, you have 'Automotive Vehicle Operation' classified as 'Adequate'. Over 90% of the skills that get listed on people are at 'Competent' or less. I only included the highest ones that you have. They're in order from most skilled to least skilled. Though since it doesn't use numbers, it’s still hard to compare them against each other or other people."
"A lot of these look superfluous, Basic Human Motor function, Basic Empathic Modeling? Languages, Social Interaction? That's kind of dumb to point out don't you think?"
"Yep, definitely. I sometimes wonder if the power that generates the info doesn't know what's important or not and just lists everything above a certain threshold into whatever category it thinks is relevant. But there's still a clear pattern here. Basic Human Motor Function is the highest skill anyone, parahuman or not always have, barring cases where a power derived skill supplants it like your Electric Damage immunity. People use it every day of their lives, just to get out of bed or even breathe. The rest follow the same trend. Motor functions, Empathic Modeling, Social Interaction, Native Language, Primary and Secondary job skills, domestic skills, and hobbies. Everything after that is the miscellaneous crap people pick up over a lifetime, you included, but wasn't worth writing down. Old people have longer lists cause they have lived longer. I'm guessing you played the recorder in elementary school? It's way down near the bottom of the list and marked as 'Dabbling' but it's kind of pointless to mention right? Your interesting stuff is at the top, and the ones marked with plus signs are apparently boosted by parahuman powers or are purely derived from parahuman powers."
"According to this, all my physical skills are boosted."
"You don't sound surprised."
"When I scanned myself it became more obvious. My body can conduct electricity, it does so partly through my nervous system, and partly through these conduit channels I can make. It makes my nerve signals faster than they would be otherwise."
"That probably explains some of your other modifiers as well."
Your Empathy skill has increased by 1
Yea for sustained positive human interaction. I dismiss the notification and pull up my relationship score with Julia, it's 156 now, a sizable jump from before.
"Fire Resistance being called out separately is odd, but I guess it makes sense. Enough electricity will create heat and burn stuff. I just thought it would have been part of the other ability" she says while poking the burn scars on her palms.
"Experiment go wrong?"
"I melted a copper electrical wire I was holding on purpose, to see if I could."
"That's pretty hot. Resistance isn't immunity though. It’s worth considering how to safely test that."
"No thanks, I have enough scars."
Hmm, well how else can I convince her to make a partnership. "The thing is, the power bits you got from me, the ones described as 'Adaptive Self Improvement' the way it has worked for me, is repeated practice or exposure. I built up my strength quickly because I got gains from training at an abnormally fast rate, but the same applied to studying, even taking damage or constant repeated use of the skills and abilities I got. An example is the one I apparently got from a modification of your scan. It started out very limited and got much less limited with repeated use. At least a good part of that comes from Adaptive Self Improvement, plus whatever other hacking my power does. This question is will your variant work the same way? If it does, is it worth exploring, and how would you measure it if it is?"
"You're suggesting your power to quantify stuff could show that progress?"
"Ah, well yeah, exactly. Maybe we could partner, um team-up for…"
"That's pretty transparent Simon. Lots of other ways could show me if it's a thing at all. But I think you're ignoring the bigger issue."
"I am?"
"You ran away from foster care and traveled across the country to see me. That's stalker-like behavior even if you felt like you had good reasons. Even if this conversation has been… enlightening. I'm still not entirely comfortable with that fact. I need time to process all this."
"That's…I'm sorry. You're right. That's not at all the impression I wanted you to get though."
"I believe you, but still…" She folds up the paper with her stats and puts it and her hands into her jacket pockets and shifts her feet. "It's been a while, my grandmother is going to start wondering what is going on. I need to get back."
I can't help but sigh as we walk out of the burned-out house to the sidewalk. "I guess that's it then. But I understand. It wasn't entirely what I was hoping for but, we did learn some stuff. I'll leave you alone if that's what you want." We walked back to the front of her house in silence.
"Take care, Simon," Julia says as she turns away and walks up to her house, and disappears inside.
This sucks. I turn away from her house and walk down the street. Not even Gamer's mind prevents the wave of rejection I feel wash over me. What was I thinking? I thought I'd get the girl, that's what all the RPG heroes do. I did all that stuff and came this far, lost my fingers even, and now what? I'm in some new city I barely know anything about. I'll barely be able to afford a couple of nights in a cheap motel and then what?
I spy an empty beer can and Power Strike kick it across the street as hard as I can. There is wetness on my face. Tears? I wipe them away and my breathing shudders.
"Simon?" I turn around and Julia is there standing on the sidewalk a couple of dozen feet behind me. "Wait…" she says, then starts walking toward me.
Simon's Character Sheet:
Name: Simon Clarence Anderson
Alias: Potter, Stasis
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Ethnicity: Hispanic, Native American, German, Scandinavian
Race: Human (Parahuman)
Class: Teenage Runaway / Rogue
Faction: None
Money: $115.13
Title: Gentleman Thief
Level: 29 (45.54%)
XP: 80996
Primary Attributes
STR: 18 (-1.05) 16.95 (0.00%)
AGI: 25 (-1.25) 23.75 (4.16%)
CON: 60 (-3.78) 56.22 (83.83%)
INT: 30 (+0.00) 30.00 (1.72%)
PER: 12 (+0.00) 12.00 (64.04%)
WIS: 22 (+0.00) 22.00 (67.95%)
CHA: 14 (+0.00) 14.00 (28.53%)
LUC: 15 (-2.00) 13.00 (79.82%)
Unspent Points: 18
Secondary Attributes
Health Pool: 3300/3390
Stamina Pool: 2040/2082
Mana Pool: 1777/10875
Stress Pool: 495/520
Attack: 21.65 (-1.00) 20.65
Speed: 3.29 (+0.00) 3.29
Dodge: 21.67 (-1.00) 20.67
Armor: 0.4 (+0.00) 0.4
Carry: 169.5 (+0.00) 169.5
Allure: 4 (-0.35) 3.65
Status Effects
Teenage Acne: ALU -0.50
Alluring Charm*: ALU +1.00
Stylish Outfit*: ALU +0.50
Fractured Ribs: STR -0.50 AGI -0.75 CON -1.50
Bruised Organs x4: AGI -0.30 CON -0.75
Severed finger: STR -0.15 CON -0.02 ALU -0.13
Partially-severed finger: STR -0.10 CON -0.01 ALU -0.13
Broken Hand: STR -0.20 AGI -0.20
Butterfly & The Bee: DOD +1.00 ATK +1.00
Festering Wound: STR -0.10 CON -0.50
Exotic Parasitical Infection: CON -1.00 LUC -2.00 DOD -2.00 ATK -2.00
Bruised Neck: ALU -0.10
Visage of a Wuss: ALU -1.00
Skills
Max Slots: 69
Free Skill Slots: 22
Artistry: 10 (85.89%)
Athletics: 13 (10.89%)
Basic Academics: 9 (0.00%)
Computers: 10 (11.23%)
Crafting (Cooking & Brewing): 1 (0.00%)
Crafting (Stone & Pottery): 10 (5.67%)
Create Mana Golem: 13 (23.72%)
Damage Resistance (Corrosive): 2 (89.83%)
Damage Resistance (Electrical): 3 (24.35%)
Damage Resistance (Fire & Heat): 7 (31.85%)
Damage Resistance (Ice & Cold): 8 (0.00%)
Damage Resistance (Physical): 14 (66.29%)
Damage Resistance (Sonic & Concussive): 2 (8.81%)
Disable Device: 12 (63.76%)
Disease Resistance: 22 (5.24%)
Disguise: 4 (67.98%)
Drug & Poison Resistance: 29 (31.67%)
Empathy: 16 (9.54%)
Firearms: 1 (5.00%)
Gamer's Body: MAX (0.00%)
Gamer's Interface: MAX (0.00%)
Gamer's Mind: MAX (0.00%)
Journalism: 1 (0.00%)
Language-English: MAX (0.00%)
Language-Spanish: MAX (0.00%)
Mathematics: 4 (0.00%)
Medicine: 3 (48.67%)
Meditation: 13 (92.28%)
Melee Weapons: 5 (14.73%)
Null Resistance: 20 (4.03%)
Observe: 32 (23.62%)
Parahuman Lore: 13 (29.59%)
Power Dash: 6 (55.16%)
Power Strike: 10 (40.85%)
Programming: 10 (0.54%)
Psychology: 5 (12.61%)
Science (Biology): 1 (53.22%)
Science (Chemistry): 1 (0.00%)
Science (Earth): 1 (0.00%)
Speech: 11 (29.56%)
Stealth: 15 (11.34%)
Strategy: 6 (74.76%)
Survival: 2 (67.65%)
Thievery: 12 (72.60%)
Unarmed Combat: 5 (33.13%)
Vehicle Operations: 4 (0.00%)
Video Games: 26 (16.74%)
Unspent Skill Points: 0
Perks
Free Perk Slots: 1
Gaia's Blessing: Mana Pool and Mana Skill access
Gaia's Attunement: Elemental Affinity access
Light Sleeper: Need only 5 hours to get fully rested
Mana Reserve: Bonus MP per level increased by 25%
XP Whore: +10% Level XP
Fast Recovery: x4 HP, Stamina and healing regeneration speed (Free at 50 CON)
Toughness: Bonus HP per level increased by 50%
Quick Items: Retrieve and place items in inventory instantly w/out using the window
Flaws
Selective Amnesia: We had to make room for stuff in your head
A Bit of a Troll: Sometimes you just can't help yourself
Unnatural Curiosity: Can't always resist the urge to find stuff out
You still look like a Wuss: Even with a few extra muscles, you still look like a wuss.
Wanted by the S9: You think they'd forget? Git gud, skrub
Affinities
Earth: 8
Water: 4
Plant: 5
Lightning: 3
Fire: 4
Air: 1