And choice two wins! So as some of you may have assumed this will be at least partly a smut chapter, our girlfriend is coming over and we're going to finally have sex with her, yay. I'll try to backload that a bit to post beta so that hopefully means a longer chapter today. Which means more rolls so lets see if we get something interesting. To clarify objects we make will increase in power and complexity exponentially for each perk we manage to work into the design and pretty much nothing else will manage to tag the third one again, so we need new perks to kick it up a notch. Also to address a question, unlike most knowledge we get from the forge the Legion training is an insert perk in the original jumpchain. It's a whole backstory, and it comes with memories, getting the memories of years of training as a sixteen year old would normally change a person immensely, the forge blunts that a bit by making them less important but it doesn't prevent it. Anthony wants to start a Legion now because thats what he was taught, and it makes him stronger to have more Legion fighters as per the perk, its mostly subconscious but it is a driving factor. If we get more insert powers (there really arent that many of them) we may change further, or maybe legion will help us offset the differences, we'll have to see.
You frown down at the clock on your workshop table. It's a neat little thing, giving you a side by side reading of both outside and inside time to help keep track of how long you spend crafting. You scowl at the thing for a moment then shake your head and make a quick call to the school calling in sick for the day, you follow it up by dialing another number you haven't had time to use yet waiting through the ring until a melodious, husky voice picks up "Hello?" You smile at your girlfriend(?)s bleary tone, noting she clearly isn't much of a morning person.
You can sympathize you aren't much of one either luckily this is pretty much still the middle of the night for you "Hey, it's Anthony, I'm not coming in today because I'm exhausted, I was wondering if you wanted to come over, I have a few really cool things to show you. We can play hooky and spend the day together, if you're up for it." You decided that it will be more fun making things if you have someone to share them with and Felicia is sweet and super hot, you can show her a few things, though you probably wont bring up the forge itself just yet.
You hear a low sultry laugh rumble through the line "Oh you have a few thing's to show me do you? I'll bet you have all kinds of interesting things for me to do today." You grin at the innuendo because hey, you arent an idiot, if your bombshell lady friend is interested in a booty call you're more than happy to oblige...after you test your brilliant now brain interface on her. Which isn't as bad as it sounds, you'll be monitoring her the whole time, and you dont make bad tech. The forge is full of fully functional and tested methods of creating tech, even when innovating you can do better first try than most manage after years of testing. Not to mention your Artisan perk makes your first attempt at anything basically perfect, and even better when you try harder. Your glasses triggered three simultaneous perks, they have pretty much all the determination in you behind them and you doubt anyone can make something on that level at all no matter how many QC hoops they jump through. Plus if you do testing yourself and collect the data you can use it falsify a trial history for them so it looks like you tested them thoroughly. Before you can respond to that you feel the forge trigger again.
Celestial forge accessed: Magic For Dummies spec: Enchantment, Rune Carving (I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused The Apocalypse) (800CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total Banked CP: 100.
You blinked at that one. Well damn, you had a sense of the general scale of the size of the forge and it was huge, you could feel that the chances of hitting the same power twice like that were slim, weird. You shook your head, luckily having only taken a second to space out and register the roll before you could respond to Felicia "Not what I had in mind Kitten, though it's certainly on the table, or against the wall, or over the counter, basically anywhere you want I'm up for it. But in any case you'll need to come over to see." That caught her interest and she agreed to come over. You considered eating breakfast but decided to cook for her when she got there so you just took a quick shower after you got off the phone while you waited for her.
It only took her about thirty minutes to show up, which was good timing because you needed to boil yourself a bit to wake up and then get dressed. You decide to wear a tighter shirt than normal, figuring your usual baggy clothes hide your form enough to give a plausible explanation for her not noticing you were fucking shredded now. Luckily the legion prized maneuverability so it was all dense tight muscle. Explaining why you were suddenly a Mr. Universe level body builder would have been complicated. You might worry about her having noticed it when she was on your lap at the movies, but you were pretty sure she was distracted by your coma inducing magic fingers.
If you though you looked good though, you have nothing on your girl. Felicia decided to take the opposite approach to her usual tight pants and top look and wear a loose flowing yellow sundress. It was still low cut and she still wasn't wearing a bra (honestly with tits that size you suspected going braless like that must be a superpower itself) but she came across wholesome and sweet, even if the hemline on that sundress showed a nice amount of fairly thick but toned cheerleader thigh. She looked amazing, and you could tell she knew it as she smirked at your slack jawed stare. She clearly tried hard to look good because it was January and that meant cold as hell, which because of her lack of bra you could tell for sure she had noticed.
She giggled at your expression "I'd ask if you were happy to see me but I think that's pretty obvious, sorry i took so long, I had to double back a bit, my GPS took me right into a three car pileup. Luckily my driver knew an alternate route to this part of the city so it didn't hold us up too much." She gave you a happy smile, and you appreciated her not mentioning that she was meeting you at an orphanage. You didn't exactly advertise your living situation but she wasn't making a big deal of it and that meant a lot.
You walked over to throw your arm around her, feeling how soft her skin was and seeing her own jaw drop when she got an up close look at my muscles. You saw a flash of mild confusion before almost literally seeing her have the thought that she had been distracted and misremembered. Following that she cuddled up a bit closer so she could feel you better and vice versa. You grinned at that "So Kitten, I waited for you before I ate, I thought I could make us breakfast before I show you what I've been working on."
The smile she gave you was wicked but you could swear you saw a faint blush on her cheeks for a second "Aren't you supposed to tire a girl out BEFORE you make her breakfast? But I wont turn down a free meal, besides I have to test your cooking skills. My daddy always says you can tell a lot about a man by how much effort he goes to when he cooks for his woman." You grin at both the blush and the sentiment and lead her into the kitchen, plopping her rather voluminous butt on a stool as you dig into the fridge for a few eggs.
"Is that what you are then? My woman?" You saw the blush come back out of the corner of your eye, enjoying seeing the outspoken beauty a bit on the back foot as you snagged some cheese and a few vegetables as well as some ham, deciding to make her an omelette. You almost seemed to be juggling the ingredients as you took them out casually passing them over to the counter as you got out a pan. Luckily there were only a few kids at the orphanage and none of them were up this early so you didn't have to worry about your date being interrupted. It took only about five minutes with your apex level cooking skills (thank you Artisan) to finish making the most gorgeous omelette you had ever even heard of and sliding it piping hot onto a plate for Felicia while you made your own.
Your skill level was high enough that you could watch her and cook at the same time and you couldn't help a smug grin at her literal moan of pleasure when she took the first bite. Her eyes widened as she stared at you "This is literally the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. I knew you were good with your hands but dear god, you could open a restaurant with food this good. And this was just a random meal you threw together from a fridge." She gave you a greedy look "Yes, yes I'm definitely your woman. And I expect you to cook for me again soon. A nice meal, like a fancy dinner." You grin at her eagerness as she goes back to her omelette and you slip yours out of the pan. Luckily your timing is good because as soon as you slip it onto the plate your power triggers again, unnoticed by your distracted girlfriend as she experiences her first foodgasm.
Celestial forge accessed: Pocket Watch (Wonderland No More) (50CP) Sufficient CP! Purchased: 50 CP. Remaining CP banked: 150.
You feel the pocket watch drop into your pocket, and while interesting a watch that makes you faster for a bit while you wind it isn't really useful right now so you put it out of you mind to focus on finishing your meal. Which is...holy shit Felicia wasn't kidding, you had put in some real effort on this omelette to impress her and it kicked the quality up just that little bit past natural. This was probably the best omelette in the world. You cleaned your plate and had to physically take Felicia's to stop her from literally licking the bottom of it to try to get bits of omelette, which you only managed by promising to cook her a prime rib dinner and distracting her by taking her hand to take her upstairs. She blushed again at that, the intimate couple behavior seemingly more out of her comfort zone than flirting but she followed you anyway, staying unusually quiet for her.
You finally made it up to your room, thanking the gods above you lived in a small orphanage with individual rooms and you didn't have to share with one of the other tenants. You sat Felicia down on the bed and looked pensive for a second before deciding to just rip the band aid off. "Felicia, I have superpowers. You can think of me as like a super scientist, and I built something interesting I want to show you. My power also gives me a workshop and I want to take you there, but the entrance is weird so i wanted to warn you first." You expect a dramatic gasp and fluttering eyelashes but mostly you just get an intrigued look.
Your surprise at the lack of reaction must have shown on your face because she shrugged "Honey, I'm blonde, not an idiot, I may not have been finger fucked before but I know it isn't supposed to be that good, not to mention the kissing. That was not my first kiss, and you're clearly better at it than is feasible, not even bringing up that omelette. I don't know what science has to do with any of that but you clearly have something going on. Plus you weren't that ripped when we had out date. I won't ask you to explain all the details since you want to keep it simple to start and I appreciate you telling me but MSST has been attacked by supervillains like thirty times, this kind of thing isn't really a shock."
You grin at her casual acceptance and mention your artisan power, getting another greedy look from your girlfriend before distracting her with a trip into your closet to take her through the archway. She was of course unable to see the thing until you took her through but once you brought her in you finally got a bit of a reaction, which was satisfying. "This" you said gesturing grandly "Is my workshop, and the site of my most recent project. I considered surprising you with the content but it seemed safer and better for the test if I give you a rundown. I recently created a new video game, though not like any one you would have played before. This one is a training and battle simulator for a fantasy Legion. It's pretty damn immersive so just be warned."
You take her over to the table and site her down in a fairly comfortable chair you usually sit at when you tinker before showing her the glasses. Her face lights up as she takes them in "Those are so cute! And I love the white, that is so my color. Are these a gift for helping you with your game? Because I could get used to cute presents from my sexy master chef super genius boyfriend." Her enthusiasm for the glasses has you mentally checking your bank account for a possible shopping trip before remembering you're a master artisan and you aren't going to pay for shoddy mortal crap to drape across your woman when you can make her supernaturally beautiful goods.
You give her a fond smile "No Kitten, though I can make you a pair of decorative ones while you're playing if you'd like, and if you have any other requests you can ask, though I dont have the stuff for like shoes or clothes. I could maybe do like a clutch though?" Duct tape master meant you could repurpose most things to be used for most other things but making a dress or shoes out of metal would take a long time even for you. A clutch could be hard enough that it wouldn't take much tweaking to make her one and it would be a good distraction while she played. Speaking of "Anyway sorry no, those are the access terminal for the game, I won't bore you with how they work but if you can lean back and put them on you can start. Don't worry I'll be monitoring you, and when you come out I'll have your presents done."
She pouted a bit when you told her the glasses weren't a gift but brightened up at the mention of the clutch and shades. She gave you a bright smile before sliding the things on and slumping back against the chair, out like a light. Wow, the state wave manipulator you included to shift a person into REM sleep worked fast. You pulled up the link program on your computer and connected to monitor her brain function, setting some parameters to trigger an alarm if they exceeded safe thresholds before plopping down on a spare stool at your work counter to begin making your lady her new accessories. The shades were easy, having already made a much more advanced version you were even able to improve them a bit since you didn't need to add in all that tech. You had just finished adding a scaling lens tint function when you felt the forge trigger again.
Celestial forge accessed: Hammer Upon the Wailing Muse (Exalted - The Abyssals) (200CP) Sufficient CP! Purchased: 200 CP. Remaing CP banked: 50 CP.
You blinked as you finished up the final touches on the shades unconsciously because of Artisan and started up on the clutch. Well apparently you could now make magical metal, Soulsteel was a supernatural alloy created my forging the souls of the dead into metallic ore. Aside from the moral implications of tormenting someone for eternity by shoving their spirit into metal, you also didn't happen to have any souls laying around and you weren't going to turn into a serial killer for a shiny new metal, so this particular perk didn't really do you much good. Scowling at the waste of CP you went back to your presents, finishing the clutch for Felicia just as she finished her session. You had been impressed with her responses from watching the readings, Felicia was a talented athletic girl and you might consider training her at some point, though beating her with a training sword probably wasn't a good place to start your relationship.
Felicia looked a bit shell shocked when she took the glasses off, her eyes wide as she stared at you. "That was...wow. That felt real. Like my muscles dont feel anything now but I can still feel the adrenaline in my veins. I felt the pain from the training, felt the fear when I saw the enemy. That was intense. This game is going to be so fucking popular Anthony. This is going to sell to everyone. Even older people who don;t usually play games will buy this. Fuck I even feel well rested, like I just took a good nap. God baby this is so amazing!" You could see her get more and more excited as she talked, nearly vibrating with energy. Being involved with something world changing like this at our age was an exciting prospect, and you smiled at her enthusiasm for your work. You had been right to call her over.
You grinned and pulled her out of the chair over to your work bench. "Glad you like it Kitten, but for now I have presents." You handed her the shades explaining the tint shifter so they would change lens color in brighter light, and you had even worked in a thermal option in case she needed it. She squealed cutely when she tried them on and posed in front of a hand mirror you had for checking uniformity in production. But the big reaction came from the clutch. You had used platinum as a base metal carefully sculpting a cat into the surface of the small case with a beautiful artistic filagree of your girlfriends name below it. You'd have liked to add some emeralds for the eyes so they would match hers but sadly while platinum could be and was used in making machines emeralds were not considered a "standard material" and as such your workshop didn't supply them.
Felicias green eyes were wide with adoration and surprisingly lust as she looked at the present, and she threw herself against you, kissing you fiercely. Despite the flirting and even the fingering Felicia was a virgin, and you had expected to take things slower, but you were pretty sure she was ready for sex. Like right now. You supposed your first time was usually awful and losing it to an Artisan sex god would definitely be a pleasant experience. You shoved her hips back and broke the kiss, sliding down and ignoring her needy whine when you pulled back. You pushed her fat asscheeks up over the edge of the chrome counter ignoring her hiss at the cold metal as you reached up under that gorgeous sundress to strip off the yellow lace thing she had worn below it.
You had felt her pussy before, but you had never seen it and it was gorgeous. The trimmed patch of silver platinum hair above her dripping cunt only made how needy she was more obvious and you leaned down to run your tongue over her, drawing out a hiss. You knew your Artisan perk would work here. What you were about to do to her was an art, and you were going to put in your best effort. You latched onto her slit, tolling your tongue across it and sucking it between your teeth gently as you slid you fingers back into the hottest, tightest, most responsive place they had even been, Her hips tried to smash upwards but you pinned them in place, licking and sucking and rolling your tongue in the most perfect ways you could imagine. You were careful this time, you had enough control to keep her from passing out if you wanted and you definitely did. You ate your girlfriends pussy for about twenty minutes, not allowing her to cum, edging her to a screaming squealing moaning soaking mess on the counter as she begged and cursed and cried for you to let her finish and when you had her just on the edge and you knew she couldn't take a single second more you hit all three spots you had before, and shoved a finger right up her ass to hit her g-spot from the other side as you did it.
Felicia...exploded. Her voice actually went out from the screaming. Every single muscle in her body tensed up and tightened then just relaxed as the orgasm ripped her fucking worldview apart rolling from her cute little painted toes to the top of her platinum blonde head. She collapsed backwards, and you caught her head before she bumped it on the counter and left her panting and dazed on the counter. Luckily you had finished her off because you felt the forge trigger for the third time in a single day, a first for you, and you didn't mind a bit of a distraction right now to calm you down. if you fucked her right now without taking a second after watching that you would blow within seconds.
Celestial forge accessed:Augment Blade System (Dark Cloud 2) (200CP) Insufficient CP: 150 CP banked.
Thank god, you couldn't have processed a new power right now anyway. You stood up and grabbed Felicia by the hips dragging her ass forward to the edge of the counter as you reached for your belt. You grabbed her by the hair with your other hand to pull her up, but made sure your grip was spread enough that it didn't pull too much, you assumed she would prefer it to having you possibly rip her dress. "Felicia" you said to your cum drunk girlfriend "Baby I need to know if I should stop, if you're too out of it I wont go anymore, we can do this later, I might have gone a bit overboard there."
Her lidded eyes flew open and she lunged forward to fumble at your belt "No! Please give it to me baby, I need it so fucking bad, I'll be good baby I promise just fuck me!" She buried her face in your shoulder as she fumbled to take your cock out moaning "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, please baby I need it, need you so bad." Unable to find a reason to possibly argue you let her take your dick out and pressed it against the soaking pussy you'd spent the last twenty minutes tasting and memorizing. You would do better this time, oral was definitely an art, but fucking Felicia was an art too, and you were quickly becoming a skilled practitioner, the more you did the better you got and harder you tried, you were improving not just at sex but at sex with Felicia, so when you shoved you cock into her you knew exactly how deep, how fast, and how rough to go after spending twenty minutes learning every little reaction.
She keened as you shoved into her. You didn't have to worry about her hymen, Felicia was a gymnast and a cheerleader and had broken it years ago, but she was still SO fucking tight. it was like being inside a fucking velvet volcano. She was so hot and tiny and you were pretty sure you literally couldn't have even gotten your dick in if you hadn't spent the last half hour getting her hornier than should have been physically possible. You heard yourself muttering something to her about how hot and tight she was and how perfect she felt but you honestly barely even registered your mouth moving. This was your first time too, and literally the only thing that kept you from cumming inside her right now was the Artisan perk. She felt like fucking paradise, and you literally didn't know if you would ever get enough of this. But Felicia was more important so you angled your hips to the exact spot you knew would feel best and pushed with just enough force, before starting up the perfect rhythm as you fucked her.
She was panting now and her eyes were unfocused and her face the biggest stupidest grin you could imagine on it as you slammed into her. She hooked her ankles behind your back and you adjusted your motions to compensate, hitting her exactly where she needed it and she threw back her head and quealed with joy "FUCK! Yes, that's it right there! You're so good baby, I need it so bad, you're fucking perfect please don't stop, don't ever fucking stop." You could feel her building to another orgasm, having lasted this long only because she'd been recovering from the brain melting you gave her earlier and you weren't far behind.
You grab her by the thighs and lift her off the counter holding her in mid air as you pounded into her, the discarded mirror she had used earlier showing me her thick milky ass jiggle and bounce each time you drove into her, you were fucking hypnotized watching her cheeks roll as you tried not to think about the fucking heavenly furnace you were shoving your cock into and you couldn't even bring yourself to break line of sight with the mirror as you leaned down to groan into her ear that you were about to cum. She shook her head so violently she almost headbutted you in the face, her christmas tree tinsel hair smacking you across the face as she whipped it back and forth in denial "Don't care, don't care, don't care! Inside me baby I need it inside, fucking cum with me!" That was the last you could manage and you looked up into her burning emerald eyes as you slammed her back against the wall next to the counter, bottoming out inside her as you filled her pussy with a frantic scream and then literally fucking blacked out.
When you came too you were both on the floor, luckily when you pinned her against the wall you had fallen against it and after blacking out you slid down and neither one of you got hurt. You were... in shock. That had been your first time having sex too, and it had been...insane. What you hadn't considered when you decided to fuck Felicia with your Artisan abilities was that art was enjoyed by everyone, as evidenced by your omelette this morning. You fucked Felicia like a sex god, but that meant you had lost your virginity in a sex god level fuck too, and your brain had melted just as bad as hers. You felt your girlfriend cuddle up closer to you making cute mewling noises and smiled, that had been, amazing. this whole day had been. A thought that almost like magic triggered the damn forge AGAIN.
Celestial forge accessed: OrgoTek Bioware Database (Trinity) (400CP) Insufficient CP: 250 CP banked.
As you picked up you snuggling bombshell of a girlfriend gently to carry her out into your room you thought about how amazing today had been. You couldn't wait to have more days like this, who needed to go to school when your brain was a repository of extradimensional knowledge. You hadn't slept for like two days relative time now not counting a brief stint being passed out, and you could use a damn nap. Falling into bed beside your beautiful lady friend you kicked off your shoes and pulled her against you grabbing a handful of that fat ice cream ass as you dozed off. You only wondered what the night would bring.
[] Choice 1: You owe Felicia dinner, blow her mind with some prime rib and maybe try to score a bottle of wine.
[] Choice 2: You and your girl had a blast today, keep it going, head out exploring and try to find something to do.
[] Choice 3: Fun time is over, the testing is done, try to find some investors and maybe work on a few redundant prototypes.
[] Choice 4: Ask Felicia to come with you to Hammer industries, you'd have to tell someone who your dad is but you just know just Hammer will fund whatever the hell you want to screw over Tony Stark.
[] Choice 5: Write in
Pocket Watch (Wonderland No More) (50CP)
An ornate silver watch with an hourglass engraved upon its casing. If you wind back the watch, you will gain enhanced speed/quickness until the watch finishes unwinding or an hour has passed. You can also immediately stop the watch's effect by snapping its case shut.
Hammer Upon the Wailing Muse (Exalted - The Abyssals) (200CP)
Much of the Underworld's economy rests on the production of soulsteel, one of the magical materials, which can only be produced by combining shavings from the walls of the Mouth of Oblivion with the melted corpus of a ghost. Forging soulsteel is difficult for even the best smiths.
Soulforging is the process by which the souls of the dead are melted down and then shaped into useful items or are used to produce soulsteel. First, the corpus of a ghost is carefully heated with soulfire crystals so that it can be reduced to a viscous state without damaging its integrity. Once liquified, the corpus can be smelted with other materials and then worked into any shape appropriate to conventional metalworking.
Soulforged items normally have the consistency of mortal steel. However, if the liquified corpus is smelted with molten ore taken from the Labyrinth, the result is soulsteel, one of the magical materials... and the only one that screams when struck with the smith's hammer. Proper soulforging is a highly specialized art that requires rarified equipment, access to Labyrinthine materials and a willingness on the part of the soulsmith to condemn another ghost to eternal torment. Understandably, soulforging is a heavily regulated art. But one you have mastered to extent rivaled by only a scant few amongst the dead, able to forge souls into proper soulsteel, combine soulforging with jadecrafting to forge sophisticated artifacts, and having gleaned the secrets of creating Oblivion's panoply, jealously guarded by the Deathlords. Though you would need to delve deep into necromancy to put the latter into actual practise.
Wow folks, I was on fire here! Longest chapter yet and I think I nailed our boys first sex scene. Let me know what you think. Expecting plenty of positive feedback from this one considering all the calls for more booty lol.
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Last edited: Mar 5, 2021
Mar 4, 2021Report
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Looks like option one takes the cake. Keep in mind a dinner scene won't be much content, so if something interesting rolls during it we can get more inventing done and if not we can just catch Felicia up on our abilities or something.
You stretch with a yawn as you wake up, noticing Felicia is still on your chest and your palm is still full of big thick ass cheek. You let go with a sad expression and slip out from under her, penning a quick note, which thanks to your artisan perk came out looking like some kind of elven scroll of ancient lore, except readable. You stuck the note, which was on a sticky note pad, to her forehead so she couldn't miss it and slipped out to run to the grocery store to pick up the things for her dinner. The other tenants in the orphanage rarely used the kitchen, there being only a few of them and most of them being in their rooms or out as much as possible, like you usually were.
Once you got to the store you checked your bank balance, your zombie game had apparently become something of an underground hit, and you actually had a few thousand in microtransaction fees on your debit card now. You decided to splurge a bit and went to Whole Foods, knowing the harder you tried the better the food would be and procuring the best ingredients was definitely trying hard. You were wearing a new set of clothes because your old ones reeked of sex, and your hair was a mess, though luckily hairstyling was very artistic so it only took a few minutes with a comb to make it look amazing. You headed for the meat aisle and on the way slammed right into someone.
The tiny girl you smashed to the ground went flying into a shelf and you felt your eyes widen as you had to dive forward to catch her. Her blue eyes appeared to be swimming a bit as you helped her stand and apologized profusely. "Oh holy shit, I'm so sorry, I got distracted for a second and I didn't see you come around the corner, are you ok?" You noted bitterly that apparently walking is not an art, especially if you aren't paying any damn attention. Though you guessed it could become on if you did it deliberately or something.
The girl you had bumped into was cute and tiny, with blonde hair (the regular kind not silver like Felicias, and blue eyes. She was cute and looked pretty badass, wearing a spaghetti strapped top with spiked leather bracelets and several necklaces with different designs. Her blue eyes were ringed with...whichever makeup thing went around eyes, you were pretty sure mascara, and her body type was thin and toned as opposed to your girlfriends curves, but still in a very pleasant way. She gave you a wry smile and raised an eyebrow "No big deal man, thanks for the save, if you had actually let me fall I would have been pissed." The catch HAD been done at artisan levels, so nothing had fallen when you caught her and it had probably looked awesome. She held out her hand "Hi, I'm Ruby, Ruby Hale and I'm afraid I'll need to keep an eye on you for the rest of your time shopping here so you don't lineback any more poor defenseless girls."
You raise your own eyebrows "Why do I get the impression you're anything but defenseless? You give me the vibe of someone who can kick some serious ass, but if a pretty escort is the only price for almost knocking you through a wall of pasta jars I think I got off easy. I'm afraid I'm on a mission though, I'm making my girlfriend dinner, so I might be in a bit of a rush." You expected to see a bit of disappointment in her eyes when you mentioned being taken but the girl just gave an easy shrug and a relaxed smile, giving the impression that she wasn't really bothered by much.
Ruby trailed you through the whole store, telling you about how she was new in town, her mother was an army general and they moved around alot. She had some kind of posting at Fort Hamilton and was always at work so Ruby was always on her own and had no idea where anything was. She was obviously fishing for a tour and you were happy to offer, though you would bring Felicia with, Ruby seemed really cool and you bet they would hit it off, even if she seemed like she might have been interested in you there to start. When you mentioned that Ruby seemed excited to meet her and you promised to talk to Felicia about making plans. You picked up some really nice prime rib and some asparagus, as well as some ricotta and a few baking odds and ends to make a ricotta cheesecake. A bag of potatoes and some seasonings and some very nice salted butter.
You said goodbye to Ruby on the way out, getting an enthusiastic hug from the snarky but very friendly girl and smiled to yourself about making a new friend for you and Felicia as you headed home, hoping to get there before she woke up. On the walk home the forge triggered again, but you didnt mind the timing, which seemed to be mostly hitting during lulls in your day recently.
Celestial forge accessed: Pym's Protege (The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes) (600CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total banked CP 350.
You slipped into the house and started cooking, shooting a text to Felicia you were downstairs in the kitchen when she woke up if she wanted to come down as you started prepping the meal. You do a nice herb butter crust on the prime rib and slip it into the oven at a low temp so it cooks down with more flavor, before grinning to yourself and slipping your hand into a pocket. You pull free your pocket watch and loop the chain around the oven door before winding it up and letting it go. Getting to work on prepping the asparagus and the potatoes and making the cheesecake as the prime rib slow cooks in accelerated time. If not for your artisan perk you would never have tried to eyeball this without doing thorough testing on the watch first, but the watch came with detailed instructions on how to use it and you were enough of a chef to be comfortable free handing it a bit.
You cooked the asparagus in a frying pan with some butter since you couldn't risk messing with the oven, and added plenty of salt and butter to the potatoes as well as a bit of sour cream for taste and consistency and after you finished assembled the cheesecake in record time just when you needed to take out the prime rib. You pulled it out and checked the temperature, grinning at finding a good use for that pocket watch as you left the perfectly cooked prime rib to rest while you slipped the cheesecake in. That one you didn't use the watch on, setting the timer for an hour as you went to wake up Felicia for dinner. Your girlfriend was already up when you got to your room, though not really awake, but that changed quickly when you mentioned you'd made dinner, your lazy sleepy Kitten bolting awake at the thought of your cooking.
You slipped down to plate everything as she went to clean up, and you could tell she was annoyed you hadn't given her time to go home and get ready but didn't feel like she could say anything without come across as a brat. You had wanted to snag some wine in whole foods but sadly it wasn't to be, but you had grabbed some sparkling apple cider, which honestly you preferred, not being much of a drinker. Alcohol abuse was one of your fathers vices and you made a point to stay away from the stuff for that reason and a few others. Finally Felicia came down, she had somehow managed to clean up enough to look like she'd specifically come here for a nice dinner which was impressive.
You pulled her chair out and gestured for her to sit down. "Your seat mademoiselle. For your dining pleasure tonight we have pan seared asparagus in butter, homemade mashed potatoes, and a slow roasted prime rib with an herb butter crust. Dessert will be a ricotta cheesecake with a caramel drizzle and our pairing for the meal is sparkling cider." As you talked you saw Felicia beam down at the food and up at you, her face flushed with adoration and joy. Going to so much trouble had clearly made her feel special, and you smiled fondly down at her as you took your seat, honestly looking forward to the meal as much as she was. Your cooking skills blew your mind as much as anyone elses.
As you poured the cider into a set of cheap crystal glasses you'd picked up in whole foods Felicia reached over and took your hand, pulling one away from the pouring and drawing my gaze. "Anthony...this...this is amazing. My first time, my first home cooked dinner with my first boyfriend, tonight has been... I feel like a princess. This whole thing has been perfect, YOU have been perfect. And I feel so lucky to have you." She looked right into your eyes, emerald green meeting the sapphire blue you got from your mother, and you kissed her hand gently as you smiled back at her.
"Kitten, you aren't the only one who feels that way. You're my first girlfriend, that was my first time, and I honestly cant think of anyone I would have rather had this day with. I'm lucky to be able to show you how much i care and how much this has all meant to me." You leaned across the table to kiss her gently, smiling at her blissful expression before gesturing to the food. "Now eat, woman, I don't want it to get cold and the cheesecake will be done in about fifteen minutes." You smiled softly up at her "You look gorgeous tonight by the way. How you managed to make that dress look so high class and elegant after we rumpled the hell out of it I have no idea."
You dug into your own plate, and as Felicia did the same you both moaned. Dear god you were an amazing cook. Slow cooking the prime rib had been the right choice, even if you had cheated with time sorcery or whatever. The juices had slowly cooked into the meat, mixing with the herb butter in the crust to create a symphony of flavor on your tongue. The inside was uniformly slightly darker than pink, perfectly cooked without the usual layer of more well done meat that less skilled chefs got with a less even cook. The asparagus was crunchy and hot and the mashed potatoes were perfectly seasoned and both thick enough to hold together and melt in your mouth soft. You finished eating before Felicia, who insisted on seconds which you indulged in yourself, but had to slip off to take out the cheesecake before you had your second helping so it could rest while you both ate. As you finished you felt the forge fire again.
Celestial forge accessed: Soft Physics (Generic Builder) (300CP) Sufficient CP! Purchased: 300 CP. Total remaining CP: 150.
You busied yourself cutting the cheesecake as the knowledge slotted into your mind, so your back was turned to Felicia when you raised your eyebrow at the new ability. Some kind of space warping ability that only worked inside machines you built. That would actually help you streamline the glasses quite a bit, but not in any useful way right now. Duct Tape Master let you accomplish things you shouldn't be able to do with materials that shouldn't quite work for that. Not on the level of completely taking the place of a material or anything, but you could use steel instead of titanium and still make it work, which was the only reason the glasses could even work. Now you could probably figure out more complex ways to make the original materials work which would let you share the design, but only by warping the space inside them which other people couldn't do anyway.
Then again you didn't need other dimensional tech to accomplish things. You could probably build a suit with this power. Better than your fathers in some ways, though you doubted you could manage an arc reactor. Duct tape mastery didn't eliminate the need for parts, just let you use shitty ones, and you had no idea what was used to power the arc reactor or even how the damn reaction worked. You cut a slice of cooled cheesecake for your contentedly purring girlfriend, smiling at the apparent food coma she seemed to shake off to eat her dessert. You could manage a suit right now but you would need to use a ton of lower quality batteries to make it work, and at the lowest levels the perk only let you warp space a bit. No you'd have to wait until you got something else, some key type of tech to base your style on, something to slot into place with your other perks and truly push you into a realm above mortal creation.
You shook of your ambitions and focused on your cheesecake, which really was fantastic. You weren't in a rush you had plenty of time. It's not like anyone was aware of you yet. Once people got a hint of what you could do you'd need to out yourself as a Stark or you'd be at risk, organizations like Hydra and Shield would come out of the woodwork to find you, but you hadn't caught their attention yet. besides you were a genius, you would definitely be smart enough to spot a Hydra agent if you met one, right?
[] Choice 1: You don't need a distribution network, you could do it yourself. Start making a limited amount of the glasses and try to sell them to rich families at a premium, that should get your reputation out there for when you can mass produce them, plus you don't need corporate backing, and its not like anyone can hack or copy them in any case.
[] Choice 2: Call Ruby to show her around and introduce her to Felicia, she seems like a really sweet girl and could use some friends. Plus you're pretty sure Felicia is bi and Ruby is pretty cute, who knows what might happen.
[] Choice 3: You have other ways to make money, with your artisan skills and Legion training even barehanded you're a world class fighter, especially since since you became Named (whatever that means) you've been not just ripped but you think stronger than a human should be. There's an underground fight scene in new york that pays through the nose, go check it out.
[] Choice 4: Like the Lion said, Be Prepared. You could use some firepower just in case. Summon some demons and finally make your Goblinfire, and maybe a few Stabbers (magic sword grenades?)
[] Choice 5: Write in
Ok folks here's the new chapter. To answer a few questions before they're asked yes Ruby is going to be in the harem, she's literally the entire reason this story is set in 2016. As any small amount of wiki research will also tell you, shes Hydra, and fairly high up in it too. She also has a lot of issues and is who has been proven to desperately want connections with someone her own age and is more than willing to betray hydra if she thinks its a good idea.
Soft Physics (Generic Builder) (300CP)
You have a touch of madness in your soul, your creations often make physics cry. Or maybe you're some sort of comic book style super-genius, with a device or invention for seemingly every occasion? Regardless, the things you make have a lot more leeway in just what they can do, thanks to not necessarily needing to obey silly things like 'physical laws', 'thermodynamics', or similar. As with all Builder related powers just how far you can stretch this depends mostly on how skilled you are and how long you've been developing your abilities.
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Mar 5, 2021Report
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Choice 3 is the winner! Let's get ready to rumble! This is going to be a fun chapter to write.
After you finish your dinner you walk Felicia out to her limo. She had been with you all day, though between the sex, the food, and the long nap it didn't really feel like it. She didn't want to stay out too late and worry her father, so you opened her limo door for her with a gentle kiss, waving goodbye as your lady drove off. After that you headed upstairs to shower and change and considered what to do next. You thought about making a few more glasses prototypes, soft physics would make them easier to build even without creating an alternate design, but you weren't really feeling that right now. No, you wanted to make some money, sure, but you wanted to do something physical.
You remembered a kid at MSST named Sawyer talk about some illegal cage match down by the river, he'd invited you to check it out with him once but you hadn't felt like going. You were pretty sure it went down at night and it was around seven now, you could take come cash out of the ATM on the way and bet on yourself. Between your Legion training and fitness and your Artisan perk you must be pretty badass. Should be easy money. Before leaving though you decided to make sure you wouldn't be found out. You were going to have an identity soon, a big name to live up to, and you didn't want it getting out that you could fight so well. Best to keep that in reserve.
You dropped into your chair and pulled a few things together. Using some pliers and a hammer you smashed out a sheet of steel, working it easier than should be possible because of Duct Tape master. Duct tape master was an odd perk, it was both limited and insanely versatile. You couldn't use it to say, replace plutonium or adamantium, you could use it to substitute steel for another common metal, even a much stronger one like titanium. You could even use steel like it was gold, for audio pickups and such, though you needed to use about five times more of it for some reason. With practice you could feel spots where you could abuse the perk, make audio pickups with the conductivity of gold and the strength of steel, or a mask with the softness and flexibility of leather and the strength of steel. You worked the mask into the shape of a face, but rather than eyes, you flattened and shaped the steel near the eyes to resemble glass lenses. One way glass was tricky and making the steel transparent from one side pushed the limits of your perk but you managed.
The mask was beautiful of course, artisan perfecting every line and you felt the two perks synergize in a spark of genius much like the glasses had been, but you weren't done, you sclupted a second mask to lay flat against the first, manipulating the steel to be comfortable and soft against skin and instead of putting them flat together you created a network of circuits against the inside of the first one. Night vision, a rebreather, hell a minor touch cooling system so your face didn't get sweaty, and a contour strap system that would make the damn thing impossible to take off without knowing exactly where to press but would lie flat under your hair. Soft physics allowed the two masks to fit together flush even with the admittedly slim mechanics inside. As you were working you felt another ping off the forge.
Celestial forge accessed:Silken Mountainriver Diagram (Talisman Emperor Mortal Dimension) (600CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total banked CP: 250.
As you finished up your production you felt the mask click together in place and just sort of become...more. Synergy was a special effect you'd noticed. It allowed you to push your perks a bit farther than they normally could go and the finish product came out better than it should. Just using the perks together wasn't enough, you had to strike a spark of brilliance, have an epiphany, and the perks needed to blend together just right. You knew without even trying this mask wasn't something you could make again at your current level. The glasses had been a borderline spark that could be reproduced with enough time and effort, though soft physics made it much easier, but this mask was an object of perfection. It occurred to you that art rarely repeats itself, and that when your artisan perk was involved in boosting an item to truly absurd levels by definition it made that item unique. Something you might need to consider when leaning on artisan in your designs, the perk said with practice you could make things even further beyond the realm of mortal artistry, but you got the feeling such creations weren't meant to be mass produced. The further you pushed them past the limit the less likely you could ever make them again.
You looked down at your mask in wonder. You would think a contoured face mask of steel would look boring or basic but this one didn't. The metal was somehow both darker and shinier than it should have been, and Soft Physics had subtly warped the way the features sat, you couldn't stare at any one part of it, like your eyes were sliding off the contours of the metal, and your focus slipped outward to take in the mask as a whole. The metal was somehow reminiscent of a funeral shroud, the alien contours of the facial structure speaking of a great dark king in a horrible tomb, anything but peaceful in his hungry repose. You decided a unique item like this needed a name. You decided to call it... Glory.
Celestial Artifact created! Glory: Rank D! Congratulations, you have created a true artifact of the celestial forge! By synergizing three perks and catalyzing it with your natural Spark of Genius you have created a wonder of the world. Your connection to the universe grows deeper! Continue to create wonders to understand more about what this means. Synergize more perks to create higher ranked wonders, and deepen your connection even faster! Celestial artifacts are a part of the forge and cannot be recreated, but they also can't be destroyed. If damaged or broken Glory will reappear in its complete form in your workshop after forty eight hours.
Your eyes snap open wide. What...the actual fuck was that? Your power had spoken to you. Not just about a new perk but about itself. You felt...different. That deeper connection to the universe thing wasn't bullshit, you could feel it. Feel like you were closer to...something. A door? A path? You shook you head to dismiss the thoughts. Didn't matter. You fastened Glory over your face and slipped out of the house, heading toward the riverside spot where Sawyer had told you the fights would be. It only took about twenty minutes to get there. And when you did you were a bit intimidated.
You had you Legion memories, but they were less immediate than your real ones, you knew the Legion training changed you, but they were small changes mostly, you were still the same person, and Anthony Taylor had never been to a place like this. Thinking of your last name made you think of your mother. She and Tony had obviously never been married, since he din't even know you existed, so you never got the Stark name. You knew she had always regretted denying you that, but it hadn't bothered you. You were proud to be a Taylor. You didn't know much about your mothers family, she kept you away from them because she said she didn't approve of how they lived their lives, but it was your moms name. It was all you had left of her. Even once you came out to the media you weren't going to get rid of it. You didn't need your fathers name.
You had stopped on the way to take out four hundred dollars, you daily limit, and slipped up next to the announcer by the side of the huge cage to place your bet. Odds for new fighters were variable, but they weighted them by size, and being only five foot eight or so and fairly slim even with the legion training you managed to negotiate ten to one odds if you were willing to fight a ringer. You handed over the four hundred and stepped off to the side to get ready, telling the announcer he could introduce you as Archimedes when it was your turn to fight. The current bout was a nasty thing. The large man with a scar was brutalizing his opponent, a red haired freckled guy with a high and tight haircut that made you think he might be former military. Or hell current military who knew. As you watched you felt the forge fire again, a second time tonight, and somehow after making Glory you felt like you could sense the flow of energy better.
Celestial forge accessed: Forge and Ore (Silmarillion) (600CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP Banked. Total Banked CP:350.
Another miss. Shame, but probably for the best, you didn't need to be distracted. You started stretching as you waited. Then you began to run some drills. The Legion didn't focus on hand to hand, the style they taught was basic and pretty brutal. You weren't supposed to lose your shield or sword, and if you did you were supposed toput the enemy down fast so you could get them back. That said you were a Named member of the Legion, and aside from apparently making you a bit stronger and tougher than someone your size ought to be that meant you were good. Experienced. The moves were basic sure, but you knew them like the back of your hand, and they were a martial art. Artisan honed them, perfected them. You weren't stupid enough to think that made you unbeatable, there were too many factors in battle for something like artistry to make the final difference, even if you were perfect, the world wouldn't be. You weren't a mind reader. But you should do ok.
The rhythm of the familiar moves felt good, practiced and soothing, and you felt Artisan adjust the patterns your body knew so well. Extending a punch here, shifting your footing there, turning your simple, brutal style into a flowing, rolling thing. Not like water, heavier and more solid than that. Like an avalanche, a rockslide of efficiency and death. Before you knew it your name was being called, and you were on the way up to the cage. Your heart was racing and you could feel yourself bouncing on the balls of your feet as you walked, like the up and down motion was a bellows pumping fire into your heart. When you finally reached the cage though, that fire dwindled, to be replaced by ice. Because you knew the person on the other side of the ring.
Colleen Wing stood across from you. Hair pulled back, dressed in white. The announcer introduced her as the "Daughter of the Dragon" but you were frozen. This was a bad place. You were here to hurt someone. That may not be the point of the fight but it WOULD be a side effect and you didn't want to hurt Colleen. But you had already put the money up, and just because you didn't want to hurt her didn't mean she would share that view. Between Glory and the completely different musculature and bearing from the Legion training there was a less than zero chance she would recognize you, which meant a less than zero chance of her holding back. Shit.
Before you could think more the announcer finished calling the fight, and the battle was on. Your bouncing ceased. Legion fighting wasn't bouncy, that had just been to hype you up. The Legion style was grounded and heavy. Your feet were solidly planted and your knees bent to lower your center of gravity. Colleen was...gone. Wait what? You were lucky to be wearing Glory, because it soaked some of the impact of her heel as it smashed against the side of your face. Instinct before the Legion would have had you reel back, but your training took over now, and you surged forward smashing into the lightning fast woman with your shoulder to put her off balance and stomping down on her instep with a hard downward kick. Colleen hissed in pain and leapt backward, putting distance between you and you sunk back into your guard to take stock of the situation.
Your fucking face hurt. She had dropped right into your blind spot for that first kick, and you realized the issue with Legion fighting. You were trained to fight soldiers using similar methods of combat or mindless goblins. The legion didn't fight martial artists, and though artisan was helping you compensate that just meant you were making the wrong moves perfectly. Not to mention Colleen was FAST. You had muscle and training but you were also sixteen. Your body wasn't fully developed and the Legion combat style was stationary by design to maximize shieldwall efficiency. This was a really bad match for you. That said it wasn't hopeless. You felt yourself adjusting as you fought, artisan helping you improve in the art of combat as a whole. You had slowed her down with that stomp so she should be coming in more carefully, and careful meant slow enough to pummel.
Hopefully the injury would stop her from doing that weird houdini vanishing blindspot crap she pulled at the beginning of the fight. Looking back you're pretty sure she went limp and used the falling motion to roll under your line of sight. You shifted your gaze to her center of gravity. Legion combat was mostly stand up, so they taught you to watch the eyes for tells. A good policy when fighting someone with a sword or throwing a punch, but less useful for acrobatic roundhouse kicks and shit. She shuffled closer as you watched, waiting, for the moment she would strike. This time you saw the shift in her center as she wound up and had your guard up when she kicked. Which was way less useful than it sounded since her blow felt like it was seconds from snapping your fucking arm. Dear god her hits were heavy. You felt a subtle build up in the back of your head and paled, fuck the forge was going to trigger again in a second, becoming closer to the universe or whatever gave you a sense of when it would happen, you needed to throw her off balance before it did or you would be wide open when the roll hit. You bullrushed her again, your full weight charging forward just as the forge triggered.
Celestial forge accessed: Hammer And Anvil | Gimmick and Trick | Fire and Ice (The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild - TG) (700CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total banked CP: 450.
Your shoulder connected and shoved her back even as you lost focus for a second, but momentum carried you through and kept her on the back foot. Better still you had her pushed back against the chain link, and with brutal efficiency started raining blows down on her smaller form. The didn't all hit. More than half she managed to slip, but your footing was solid and your blows were backed by Named strength and decades of experience sharpened through artisans corrections. The blows that landed were heavy, and each one slowed her a little more, boxed her in a bit more as your slowly learned more about the art of combat. Not to say it was free, as she got more cornered she fought harder, and she was good. You felt a rib break under a brutal inside knee to the body, a fist smash into your ear behind where your mask was and you felt things go hazy but you kept going.
You were trading blows like a hailstorm, no defense, just a maelstrom of violence and pain as you hammered each other, and you could see her face split in the same manic grin yours was. You were loving this. The pain was a focus, a sharpening stone against the razors edge of your consciousness as you threw everything you had at her and she gave it back just as good. You felt artisan blending all the pain and experience and adjustments together into a burning heat, bringing the edge of your skills to a white hot blaze as her blows hammered your instincts into shape. It was beautiful. It was almost a shame when your fist clipped her temple and she dropped like a stone, but you caught her, slinging her arm over a shoulder to hold her up rather than let her fall to the disgusting ring floor, and turned to the audience, lifting her unconscious fist in the air with yours to the screaming cheers of the fans, You grinned under your mask at the roars. This had been a good decision, though you should probably get yourself and Colleen to a hospital. Or actually maybe separate hospitals. Your fucking ribs were killing you. After that though? You wondered what the hell you should do tomorrow.
[] Choice 1: Call Ruby to hang out with you and Felicia, you could use some time relaxing while you heal. You're pretty sure being Named means you'll recover faster. Hopefully.
[] Choice 2: Glory opens up your options a bit, rely on your new mask to make contact with Shield. They're underground now but you should have no trouble getting in touch through some of the more obscure channels you've seen on some of your hacking forums and arranging a meeting..
[] Choice 3: A mask will keep you anonymous, take Glory to the queens market to hunt around for interesting tech and artifacts.
[] Choice 4: Write in
Hey there folks, a few things. First off, the artifact system is an original creation of mine, and I made it for a few reasons. I like the trance production style tinkers get sometimes and wanted an element of that and a way it could improve crafting without making the normal work obsolete. Second theres no method in the forge for world jumps, the artifact system is going to serve as a point system. Anthony can jump at 100 points, D rank items are 1 point, C are 5, B are 10, A are 25, and S rank artifacts are worth 50 points. Considering you need to synergize seven perks perfectly to create an S rank they wont be common , since artifacts are epiphanies for me as much as for the character I dont control when they happen lol. Second I dont know much about the Named but I'm including a healing factor because he got his ass kicked and writing him injured for five chapters would be annoying. Anyway let me know what you think! I'm excited about the direction this is going!
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Mar 6, 2021Report
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Choice 3 is our winner! Looks like we're heading to the market. Cant wait to see some of the neat stuff we find. By the way, I have a definite date for this chapter. February 17th, 2106. Colleens second cage fight of the series was on the 16th. Her first was the 14th and I didn't want to have to explain why I didn't acknowledge valentines lol. As it is, lets say Felicia and Anthony didnt acknowledge it because they weren't officially together and it would have put pressure on them as a couple.
You got home a few hours later. You had taken your mask off and slipped into a crowded emergency room to have your ribs set and wounds cleaned. The staff was so exhausted they were barely awake and between that and the fifty other people there you doubted anyone noticed you. After showing up you decided even the small amount of paranoia you did show was unwarranted, there were ALOT of beat up teenagers, some from fights themselves, Plus anyone who saw you fight would have figured you for a veteran, so they wouldn't have been looking for a teenager anyway. Still you tried to be careful and doubled back a few times on the way home. You'd won a solid chunk of money, and being followed would be a bad thing. You made sure to have them drop Colleen off at a different hospital first, and watched her go in, so she would be fine.
After you got a few hours of sleep you woke up feeling refreshed and ready to start the day. The absolute ass kicking you had suffered had healed mostly over the night and was now just minor soreness. Even your broken rib had healed in place, which made you damn glad you'd had someone set it for you. You shot a text off to Felicia wishing her good morning and asking if she wanted to do something after school. You weren't planning on going back. With the money in your account plus your winnings you had around ten grand, and you'd only be making more as you went. Today you were planning to hit the midnight market. The midnight market, counter to what its name and similarity to the Queens night market may suggest, was always open. It had started as a few booths from the night market that weren't really for public consumption, and then sort of spiraled. The market had everything from bootleg DVDs to alien tech, and you could get nearly anything there if you knew where to look.
You stashed your winnings from the night before in your shoe (almost impossible to steal money from under someones feet and no one checks anyway) and after a quick scrambling of some eggs you headed out for the market. The Midnight Market may have been open all the time but it was always in the dark. They set the booths back under a bridge by the river in the older part of town having moved it away from Queens when it got too big and too illegal. It was suspected someone big was bankrolling the Market, because cops never came around the place, even if someone called. Almost everyone left each other alone there despite the lack of police presence though, Never know who was packing an alien laser gun or something at the Market.
The weather was biting as you came into sight of the booths. You wandered around for about twenty minuted before spotting something interesting at a table nearby. You pull your hoodie around you trying to get warm as you step up next to the table of broken alien tech. Mid February is cold everywhere but especially in New York. Luckily the radiant temperature system in Glory goes either way so at least your face isn't getting numb. You discover when speaking to the vendors that the unusual dimensions of the mask evens distorts and alters your voice. You browse through the table of goods, looking for anything you can use, you consider getting a metal sample but anything metallic is way out of your price range, even scrap. You scowl at the prices and move on from the alien table, ignoring the table with the supposed super heroin where two men are going on about the heir to Rand Enterprises being alive after his plane crash. You sympathize with the guy a bit, and wonder if people will be talking about you like that once your identity comes out. After fifteen minutes or so of searching you feel the forge trigger again.
Celestial forge accessed: Environmental Tolerance IV (Essential Body Modification Supplement) (400CP) Sufficient CP! Purchased: 400 CP. Remaining CP 150.
You blinked as your body suddenly adjusted to the cold. Well, that was convenient. Kind of a letdown to be honest but hey you could think of worse abilities to get. If nothing else this should make experiments with new tech you may get easier to deal with. No longer needing it you decided to strip off your hoodie and tie it around your waist. The t shirt you wore would normally be untenable for February but now you felt like you were spending time in a room temperature board room. Hell you were pretty sure you were even fireproof up to a certain point and even magic wouldn't work well. Unfortunately the environmental part meant targeted attacks would still do full damage.
Starting to feel like this entire trip had been a waste of time you headed to the next table when you saw something interesting. On a booth off to the side of you you spot a set of beads. You had been flexing Duct Tape master since you got here, it gave you a vague idea of the value of materials so you knew what kind of conversion rate you could get with other mats. The unassuming beads at the jewelry stand were made of something REALLY rare. Making sure not to tip your hand at all by seeming too interested you went up to the jewelry counter. Acting casually you picked a few things (a pretty emerald and gold cuff bracelet for Felicia that ran you a few hundred bucks and a matching set of earrings) and then casually grabbed the bracelet. You relied heavily on artisan as you snagged all of the objects and headed out of the market being careful not to move too fast, acting like none of this was a big deal.
You had held gold on multiple occasions and even handled platinum in small amounts when stripping components. Rarity and value were kind of subjective with Duct Tape master since it was a crafting power. Gold was rare and high value and diamonds were considered basically garbage, so there was a few quirks, but the stuff these beads were made of was RARE. You wandered down a few streets before slipping into a warehouse and through your archway into your lab. You have multiple scanning and testing machines in here and you run a full battery of tests on the beads, getting more and more excited as you do. These things are fucking crazy. You've never even seen tech like this. First of all the metal you sensed is...weird. It sucks up any vibrations it touches. Second of all the beads seem to be some kind of ultra long range comm unit and even a medical device. After about an hour of research you find hidden files on the things with massive amounts of medicine related files and you get so excited you accidentally do something potentially...stupid.
When running a current through the beads you accidentally hit a redundancy protocol in the comm unit and the beads start to...glow. And before you can even blink a girl appears above them. Which is a fucking problem. Because since you're in your workshop you took your damn mask off. You freeze in place. The pretty dark skinned girl in the hologram seems just as shocked as you are, and both of us stare open mouthed at each other for about thirty seconds before she breaks the silence, asking the obvious question "Who the hell are you?" Her voice is accented with something you don't recognize, maybe an african accent of some kind, you don't have much experience with that kind of thing.
You blink for a few more seconds before answering without thinking "I'm Anthony. Why, who are you?" You wince as soon as it's out of your mouth. You shouldn't have said that. At the very least you know whoever this person is can't track you to your lab. The pocket dimension your workshop is in doesn't really exist anywhere on earth as far as you can tell, and if it does it's definitely not anywhere near where you entered the archway an hour or two ago. That said, with a face and a name anyone that could build WHATEVER this was could definitely use facial recognition to find you. You weren't in any databases or anything that you knew of but traffic cams would have you running all over new york. Fuck.
The girl doesn't seem angry though. Just curious. being able to make something this complicated at what looked to be around your age makes her one of the smartest people you've ever even talked to. She squints at you suspiciously as if deciding how much to say before huffing out a sigh and rolling her eyes "I am Shuri. Where did you find these beads? From your accent I take it you are american, but your location isn't showing up on our scanners, and those should not be in the possession of anyone but our people." You notice she is being very careful not to mention who exactly those people are but you don't begrudge her a little op sec. The resources needed to design something this complex must be immense, and you would be cagy about an operation on that scale too if you were part of it. Before you could answer though you felt the forge fire again.
Celestial forge accessed: Magic is the Mother of Invention (The Magicians - TV Show) (600CP) Insufficient CP: 100 CP banked. Total banked CP: 250.
Using Artisan you act like nothing happened, although you're somewhat annoyed about the absolute lack of any advanced tech you're getting. You still feel like you're missing a key part of your future engineering style. Regardless you push past the flash of irritation and consider how to respond tot he question.
[] Choice 1: Tell the truth, with a bit of trust you may get Shuri on your side, and she seems like a good ally to have, besides new york is a big city and admitting your general location isnt that huge of deal when she can probably find you on traffic cams within minutes.
[] Choice 2: Change the subject, try to find out more about whatever organization Shuri belongs to, maybe they need a mechanical genius Legionnaire.
[] Choice 3: Tell her you'll tell her later and try to steer the topic toward science, comparing notes with another genius could really benefit you.
[] Choice 4: Try to recruit her, you had been meaning to create your own faction, but so far you only have Felicia in it. A mysterious genius with amazing resources would be a good start to making your own crew.
[] Choice 5: write in
Bit of a crazy random happenstance but I had a bit of inspiration and it seemed like a neat idea. 2016 IS the year of Black Panther after all. Once again we get shafted on getting some kind of foundational tech system to base our style on. Cant wait for that to finally roll.
Environmental Tolerance IV (Essential Body Modification Supplement) (400CP)
You are not damaged by hazardous environments, though this does not provide you a method of propulsion.
I: You no longer need to breathe and do not suffer from temperatures between -100C and +100C (-150F to +200F). You are immune to most radiation (up to about 1,000 mSv; the amount experienced during unshielded exposure to space).
II: As tier I, plus you do not suffer from temperatures below 1500C (+2700F) or the effects of pressure lower than 1000 atmospheres (including the effects of vacuum). You are immune to the effects of radiation at all levels.
III: As tier II, but the protection extends to any non-magical environmental source.
IV: As tier III, but the protection extends to magical environments such as energy planes.
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Mar 7, 2021Report
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