Start up the sex simulator the AM provided in the VR system.
Oh dear. Well, you know what to do.
Ask Steve for an explanation on the VR machines; more importantly, how to operate them.
>Put on the gloves and the goggles, then stick the iv drip in your arm. It should bring up a menu screen for you.
Grab the guy with the painthing by the shoulder.
"You. You're the one with that painting. What. Did. You. Do? What kind of psychotropic did you mix into those paints?"
If he has the painting with him, demand that he puts it down, image facing the floor (his action had him leave the painting, but apparently I noticed it somewhere).
(yeah, it's on the ground, facing the wall.)
Climb up the pillar.
[dex:4+1]
You strap your rifle to your back and start climbing, using your memory of the handholds to ease the way. You reach the top a few minutes later and lay down, catching your breath.
Collateral? It makes sense. After all, distrust is a core part of society. Where would we be without it? Nowhere, I say, and I say it with great conviction! Chemically-and-mechanically-induced levels of great conviction!
Hand in two tokens as collateral. If that doesn't work, hand in the MFM as well.
If I don't get a camera:
Take the tokens and MFM back and just try to upload the painting to VR straight-up.
If I do get a camera:
Get a tarp as well. Take multiple pictures of the painting with the camera, upload them to VR. See if I can't upload the painting straight-up anyway.
Somewhere during all that, Stacy faces Gorat and says "Sorry, talking hurts. Will talk short. Throat slit. Happens. Used regular paint. Drank Xeno Spit before, though. Drew what was seen. Afraid painting just that awful. Don't slit throat again, please. If you want painting, I will give after taking picture."
You trade two tokens to get a camera and take a few dozen pictures, all without actually looking at the painting. That done, you cover the painting in a tarp and then upload the picture data onto your wristpad before returning the camera.
Save project under Mark 2 Kinetic Lockpick, with a note attached saying "Slightly loud, wear earplugs".
De-summon wall, doors and simulcrums. Make self better (ie: be fully healed and suit have full integrity). Save current weapons layout setup and all projects under a file with the password "Ivegotabiggun".
Exit tinker.
Enter duel.
Arena: large warehouse with brick walls. 30mx30m.
Own weapon: Mark 1 Kinetic Lockpick. Mark 1 suit.
Opponents: 2 simulcrums of huggy guy. One armed with a monatomic razor. One armed with a Kinetic Amp. Both in mark 1 suits.
Opponents set to melee combat, aggressive. 10m away from both me and each other.
Go!
I turn on my Lockpick and I charge combatant number one, swinging my Lockpick at his chest.
"Let's see what this bloody thing's like at hitting moving targets. Cuddle me will ya?"
(Who was the guy that hugged you again?)
Strip out all of the other programming from the MkI computer and remove all superfluous pieces of suit. Add additional processors, memory, etc. until it can run the one program, shifting the computer to a back-mount if needed.
Still not enough room. Now, if you had some sort of computer backpack...
(The tinker addiction grows.)
((I thought he mentioned dropping it or similar. Oh well, simpler for everyone I suppose.
And yeah, if anything, I'm surprised the on-ship thread is just now catching up to the mission thread. If we were still running 5-man teams I doubt it would've taken even this long.))
Return to Tinker.
Examine properties of medi-foam, in particular what it's made of and how hard it is to produce.
Search for electric-powered propulsion systems that work in a vacuum.
((Also now I can't remember just what was doing before being tackled by May. Something about battlesuits...))
Medi-foam seems to be a type of quick expanding foam with a low exothermic rating, and a titanium like ability not to provoke autoimmue responses. Your attempts to look at what it's made fail,, bringing up only a warning about infringing on proprietary chemical formulas.
((I thought he mentioned dropping it or similar. Oh well, simpler for everyone I suppose.))
((I did mention leaving it in the corner of the barracks. So no, Stacy doesn't have it right now.))
Oh...I read that as you leaving it in the corner of the armory as you talked to the AM. OH WELL.
"The very night, Jim."
She giggled as she noticed his nervousness, "And it's normal to be nervous. To tell you the truth, I am, especially when we...kissed, but I'm not showing it...much. It's normal as people get nervous in their first try. Don't you worry." Somehow, accepting that you were nervous helped calm your own feelings. She slowly opened her hand at Jim's touch.
"Just relax and calm down, I won't hurt you. But...could I ask you a favor? Please don't tell anyone else on the Ship about my past, or on anything else we said. I want them to still think I'm as random as hell, please?" She wondered if he was alright with her asking to keep this confidential, about her past, but decided to lay it off until later.
How did it feel to be Jim at this time?
"Right, right," Jim said, attempting to relax. "Don't worry. You can trust me. I won't even tell Milno about it." Milno had - to Jim's eyes, anyway - proven himself the most capable non-personnel person on the Sword so far. At the very least he had been on as many missions as Jim had, and he was still mostly in one piece... so that was as good a promise as Jim felt he could make. Finding that Feyri had opened her hand for him, he took it in his and laced his fingers through hers. This... nerve simulation program is quite good. Her hand is very warm and soft to the touch... He'd almost forgotten what either concept was, locked up as he was in a cold, hard, steel body.
"Let's walk for awhile. I want to look around some more," Jim said. He led her off toward the east.
Jim change the settings to spawn in random low hills and trees, as well as a tall plateau blocking off the southern side of the field. A waterfall comes off of the plateau, and from it a wide, shallow river divides the field in half.
You change the VR simulation, enjoying every sensation that you had been missing. You hope to be enjoying some new ones soon too. BAM.
"Uhhhhh. Steve? What are these? Alien bits? Former test subjects? Are they for the treatment?"
Ask about the bits of tissue.
>Samples, I believe. Not sure of their origin.
A personal servant with unwavering loyalty. Not unlike when I used to play games....seems so long ago now.
"Alright, bot. I am Travis Stratnin, and I am your master. Your name shall be....Buckler. Unless told to "Stand Down" beforehand, you are to attack anyone that causes moderate to severe damage to me. Your default mode of operation is to follow and protect me"
With his new servant/body guard, Travis heads back to the Armory Master and poses a question.
"AM, how does the gunner bot imprint? Should I be worried about losing its loyalty if my form changes?
"Only if your dna changes rather radically. It samples your image voice, smell and, by sucking up some air around you, your dna via dead skin cells. It knows you. "
Maurice blinked at the Doctor, then realised he was still holding the Instrument. How come?.. Didn't I drop it?.. Dozens other questions sprang to his mind, as he started processing the situation.
Three heartbeats later he understood that, of all those questions, only two mattered: Before Mistress Medicine, is he an abomination, or a saint? And... should I be allowed to live?
...We'll see.
Stand up. Put my helmet on if I still have it.
A microwave field manipulator, if that is acceptable. Otherwise I have all I need.
(( Shit. Well... Anyone cares to bet? ))
"Brining high science to a knife fight." The doctor says, hurling you a MFM before walking toward the door. "Anyways. You," He points at Renen, "Kill him. You can leave his brain intact if you want. And you," He points at Lukas, "Come with me." He opens the door and gestures for Lukas to follow.
((All in on Doc.))
((It is Renen vs Maurice.))
Check if the Melee mode loses any armor at all and if it is possible to install the electricity system on it or if it would be too complex.
((@sambojin: I say we should just cut a little on the OOC and multi-posting.))
Melee loses a bit of armor, nothing massive. And he electrical shock system is a bit too complex to switch in and out without some major refitting.
(( Actually, I support the creation of a dedicated Tinker thread. Tinker actions are usually more complex and often require more effort on GM's part, so it can be justified to process them a little less frequently ('tinkering takes time'), thus freeing our GM's time for other threads/non-ER activities.
It might get a bit tricky with switching between the threads, though. And, as IronyOwl has once pointed out,
((Needing three threads is probably the point where you're going to need a fourth and fifth eventually. Might as well just ask Toady for our own subforum at that point. o_O
Which we might or might not want to avoid. ))
I almost dread to see how large this will all get by the end. One day we may need three threads, but as for now I'm ok with it for now. But yeah, I can see it easily growing into OOC thread, a tinker thread, a vr thread, etc.
(When you say the original brain dies, do you mean permadeath or the same kind of revivable death as everyone else who's decapitated?)
Start over, stab myself in the heart. Restart, shoot myself in the heart. After that, shoot myself in the brain.
Just temp death. Heart stab is fine as long as the knife is removed. Shot to the heart is fine, as long as it's not a cannon ball or something. Shot to the brain causes memory loss but is survivable.
((Pretty sure at some point PW said two threads was his limit. Otherwise, we'd eventually have a mission thread, a ship thread, a tinker thread, a VR thread, a Doctor thread, a sex thread, and so on.))
Well now. Maurice was beyond his reach... time to call upon a higher power.
"Oh great Steve, is Maurice okay? What happened back there?"
Ask.
>He's okay for now at least. His continued health, however, relies on how bad Renen is with a sword.
((a sex thread))
((We need moderation for this?! [/missingthejoke]
Does anyone know if we can tinker for our DROPSHIPS//PODS? Just asking as I've an idea on how to help our survival rate.))
Way Feyri and Jim's date is going, they may need that thread.