The Paragamer

Tutorial 1.4

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Risk of possible injury or death? No thanks, I hold my hand over the 'N' just as Julia bumps into me.

Quest Accepted

What? No, fuck no... What the hell?

"You can't just take and hoard all the supplies, people need them." Julia says shouting over my frantic movements.

That gets their attention, as the villains turn to look at us, while others in the crowd scamper off or just look on.

"Well, do we got some wannabe heroes here? We're people, we need them, so we're going to take them. I got friends who need them too. But hey, I gave you options, pay up, one way or another, and take your pick." Rappel says, practically leering through his mask.

"Come on, we don't want any trouble." I say before getting cut off by bandanna man who steps up from the background.

"Fuck them! I saw you two in the water! You didn't help me; let me near fucking drown in there!"

Oh damn that's the sparking dude, that was on the other lift when I was getting hoisted out. Was he the one thrashing about beforehand too? Did he get powers?

"Settle down Sparky—"

"My name is not sparky it's---"

"Nah, zip it… I know you're really new to this and all, but until you pick a cape name, that's what you're stuck with. Don't go revealing your real name or anybody else's. It's against the rules, but even a civvie shoulda known that." The overhead tag over the bandanna wearing man actually updated itself. . Rappel continued talking. "You two do look vaguely familiar though."

"Um, yeah we were in the mall, you saved us in there by getting ropes to us. Thanks for that really, I appreciate what you did for us." I gently nudged Julia.

"Yeah, thanks for saving us."

Rappel takes on a happier tone, even if I can't see his face through the mask, his Observe window updates itself with feeling 'Amused'.

"Well, I'm moved, truly, it's rare for someone in my line of work to receive some heartfelt thanks like that. Heck, in appreciation, I just might give you a discount."

"We don't have money—"

"I don't care how thankful these fuckers are, they left me to fucking drown I'll—"

"What the fuck man? You were clear on the other side of the water; Leviathan was fifty fucking yards away from us. If that was you, then you nearly killed me, if you electrocuted the water." Julia shouts, her face twisted into an angry visage. This is getting out of hand fast.

"Hold your horses' people! Granite, please make sure our new acquaintance doesn't do anything rash. Now, just so I am clear about something. Are y'all saying you know him, or know what he looks like? Cause, that's a problem right there."

"No." I jump in, trying to halt this fiasco. "We don't know him, just some stranger that got fucked over by the giant aquatic Chupacabra like everyone else." Did this guy get powers at the same time as I did? I glanced over at Julia, the implications reeling in my mind, before looking back at Rappel. "You were there, it was dark and raining, we couldn't see shit. Enough to know someone was splashing in the water sure, but hell; if he hadn't said anything just now we wouldn't have even made the connection." Even as I say those words trying to defuse the situation, this wave of aggression towards the guy washes over me, but I hold it in check. Several unread notifications have fired off, but they can wait for now.

"That's all the more reason to get rid of 'em" Sparky says, the electric glow on his hands gets brighter. The rest of the shrunken crowd takes off running, but for some reason Julia just stands there scowling. More notifications fire off, and his overhead tag updates itself from Rogue to Villain.

Rappel turns and moves toward Sparky. "Hey I saved your ass down there too, and got you away from the PRT this morning. You owe me. I'm not about to let you fuck up what we got going here by killing a couple dumb teenagers."

"Damn, Julia we should really leave…quickly" I whisper to her.

"You can't just confiscate supplies, people need them, other sites have already run out..."

Rappel turns to look back at us, after taking over holding Sparky back as Granite steps away. "You're repeating yourself you know. Discount is canceled, shop is closed. There are plenty of stores and houses you can loot, so get lost. Granite, remove these two wannabes from the vicinity."

For such a big dude, Granite moves quickly. I try tugging on Julia with my not broken arm to get her to turn away but my weak self doesn't do much. "We're go-" I try to say but don't even get the chance to finish as Granite has already grabbed Julia with one arm and lifts her up in the air. Julia loses one crutch and smashes Granite in the face with the other one, but it just bounces. She was half on his shoulder now and she kicked him in the nads with her good leg, only to scream in pain.

"Fuck man put her do---hurk.." Seconds later Granite has his other arm around me, and I feel pain in my broken arm and feel myself lifted up as well. Both of us are now slung over each. Granite is steadily walking away without even showing any signs of slowing as he carries us. I see my HP bar drop every two or three steps as he jostles me painfully. Julia keeps hitting Granite in the back with her other crutch.

"Stop fighting, my skin is made of rock, you're just going to hurt yourself more."

I place the hand of my uninjured arm on Julia's shoulder. "We'd be dead already if they wanted to kill us." I say, and then this weird sensation comes over me for a good minute as he carries us further away. I manage to keep Julia from uselessly trying to hit the living statue, which is carting us off as easily as a couple of sacks of flour.

Several moments later Granite throws both of us a good ten feet away from him. I desperately try to roll to avoid landing on my arm and smack my head and back in the ground instead. More HP loss, almost the entire bar was red. The only consolation was that we were tossed onto relatively soft grass.

"Ow, fuck, fuck." I say as I sit up and rub my head. Julia is likewise cursing.

Julia remains laying in the grass for a moment. "Oh, that was really, really fucking weird..." she says.

"Weird? No offense, but stupid and dangerous are better descriptions. Seriously, what the hell was that?"

"I dunno, I couldn't just do nothing and for some reason I was really, really angry at that sparky guy."

"I was too but, I sure as hell didn't want to get into a fight with capes." I look over at her. "You kicked what was effectively a rock statue while not even wearing any shoes. Both your feet are injured, can you even walk now?"

Julia sits up, "Damn don't know, my other foot hurts pretty bad now too. Jesus, I broke my big toenail on that guy."

I stand up and walk over to where Julia dropped the crutch she ineffectively beat Granite with, bring it back to her, and help her to her feet. "Your other crutch is back by the supplies and those capes. So you'll understand if—"

"Actually there it is," Julia says as she points in the air. I turn around and see it sailing through the air then crash down into the grass thirty feet away. It bounced.

I walk over to where it lands. It was made of good sturdy aluminum so it was still in good shape despite several scuff marks. The rubber armpit pad came off when it landed, but I find it in the grass and put it back on. I bring the other crutch back to Julia.

"Oh shit, I lost the water jug." I say as I realize I wasn't carrying it anymore. A quick pat down of my pockets reveals the medicines are still there, including that weird shower in a can thing. "You still have your meds?"

"Yeah, um your scalp is bleeding a bit."

I reach up and pat my head until I find the fresh cut. "God damn it"

"Just bend down and let me see." I comply; Julia runs one of her hands through my hair. "It's not that bad, pretty minor."

"My back hurts a lot worse, bad landing just trying to avoid hitting the ground with my broken arm, I think I was only partially successful." I start fumbling with the pain pill bottle.

"Let me help." Again I comply as she opens the thing. "We don't have any water."

"I don't care." I take the pill and dry swallow the sucker.

Julia's staring at the bottle. "Should you have taken one again that soon?" she asks while handing it back to me.

"Still don't care." I shove the bottle back into my pocket. "Now what do we do?"

"We still need some clothes. My shirt has gotten almost as bad as yours did."

"Yeah I noticed." It was hard not to. The other strap had also broken, and at some point she had converted it into an ill-fitting tied around halter top thing.

"I've noticed that you've noticed."

My cheeks flush red with embarrassment. "Um I need to pee."

"You'll have to do that one handed on your own."

"Um, yeah I'll manage. Be right back."

I find a secluded spot between two overturned, wrecked cars, and do my business, even using a liberal amount of the antibacterial cream. I can still see Julia in the reflection of a dangling side view mirror where I left her at.

"Notifications" I whisper, though no one is probably nearby enough to hear me. There are still people wandering about though so we weren't entirely alone. I scan through the list of unread notifications. I dismiss all the HP loss and the few new bruised and lacerated status effect notifications. My current HP was at a frightening value of 3, I was boned.

Notifications:

-50 relationship with Sparky

Sparky has gone from stranger to annoyance

+10 relationship with Rappel.

Rappel has gone from stranger to acquaintance

-25 relationship with Sparky

-25 relationship with Sparky

Sparky has gone from annoyance to enemy

-20 relationship with Rappel. Rappel has gone from acquaintance to annoyance

-10 relationship with Granite, Granite has gone from stranger to annoyance

+3 relationship with Julia Mendez

"Relationships"

There is a page of pictures of each person in my list, Julia, Lifeline, Rappel, Granite and Sparky. Each image has two bars under it. It was reminiscent of images of some Earth Aleph game I recall from somewhere. I don't know what the second bar does; it's still at a zero for everyone. The top bars have green toward the right or red values toward the left. Only Julia and Lifeline have positive green bars.

Hmm, hit -100 and they become an enemy, or at some value between -75 and -100? Lifeline is still listed as stranger at a 5, so that wasn't enough to change status. It seems things happen at +10, -10 and I assume -100, so probably also at +100 as well. What the hell is up with that Sparky guy anyway? Why was he so incredibly hostile at the outset before we even talked? -50 right off the bat, and -25 twice more soon after? At least I was at +30 with Julia now. Sparky's -100 looks to only fill about 20% of the bar toward the left. Does that mean -500 and +500 is the maximum? I don't know if the gain rate is linear. It's been difficult to gain much with Julia after the first 10-15, yet incredibly fast to lose some with Sparky. A bigger, scarier question is whether or not this represents some kind of Master power effect, or just a thinker one which quantifies something that is already there.

I scroll through the rest of the unread notifications. Yes I know I lost the water jug, and had more HP loss... Hmm, the meds modified my 'Severe Pain' and 'Infection' status effects; the latter even has a timer now. Guess that means they're working.

I'm avoiding the bigger question. Everyone on my list so far is a cape, except Julia. Or is she? Does that confirm she is one? Can non-capes appear on my list? I haven't really interacted with any known non-capes in any meaningful way, for them to appear, except Julia, if she isn't one. I don't think I can use that as a sufficient cue. She has double question marks next to her level, just like all the other capes do. That might not be exclusive though, so did those PRT officers, and a few people that were idling about in the tent. That's not a good enough indicator either. Do I just straight up ask her? Umm, no not yet at least, that could be bad. She hasn't done anything obvious yet, but neither have I. Then again, what the hell was that Null Resistance thing? I should probably wait until after I'm her 'friend' or something unavoidably obvious happens.

I go back to my unread notifications and look at the last one.

Due to shard connection hack, you may gain the 'Create Mana Golem' skill.

There that is again. What in the utter fuck is a 'shard connection hack'?

"Skills"

Create Mana Golem (None) (Active/Passive): Level: 1 (0.00%)

This skill allows you to create and awaken a golem from stone or clay materials that you have crafted by your own hand, and bring it to life under your direct mental control.

Active: Expend Mana to imbue a crafted golem. Once imbued, a golem is dormant, and costs 0 MP per minute to maintain.

MP Cost: 600 + (1 per pound of mass)

Active: Expend Mana to awaken a previously created golem.

MP Cost 10% of total imbuement cost.

Passive: Maintain an awakened golem.

MP Cost: 3 per minute.

Limits: 10 pounds per level. Currently: 10 lbs.

Do you wish to accept this skill? Y/N

Whoa, where the hell did that come from? Hell yes, me want. I tap the accept button immediately.

You do not currently meet the requirements to learn the skill 'Create Mana Golem'.

Requirements:

Access to a Mana pool: Met

Artistry level 5: Not Met

Crafting (Stone & Pottery) level 5: Not Met

You have 7 days to meet the requirements for this skill before it becomes unavailable. It will not become available again unless the conditions for acquisition are repeated.

God damn it. Why am I even offered the chance to accept it if I don't meet the pre-reqs? I have the artistry skill; it's just not high enough. How do I get the other skill?

"Hey are you done yet? Or did you lose something?" Julia shouts.

Right, I dismiss all the windows and walk back over to her.

"The Palais Royal shopping area is not far from here."

"You actually want to loot someplace like Rappel suggested?" I ask.

"Well, I don't want to. There at least ought to be a bathroom over there, I'm not squatting by a bush."

"Pretty sure the water won't be working."

"I don't care"

It takes us a bit to walk over, but was pretty easy to get into the department store when we got there. We are clearly not the first people to break in. The electronics store on the other side of the central parking lot has a lot more activity. Even at this distance I could see blurry figures holding big black rectangles over their heads, which I assume are flat screen TVs. Where are they even going to put those or get them off the island? Guy on the TV said the island might get condemned, then everyone would need to evacuate, and the bridge is down.

I scrounge up some newspaper and soft trash and throw it on the floor inside the already broken window and we step through. We apparently startle someone because some woman runs off from the inside of the store towards a broken window on the far side carrying a big bundle of stuff. At least she has shoes to run in. The store is a mess so we went 'shopping'.

I find a shirt in my size and put it on immediately, then go searching for pants, underwear, socks and shoes that fit. I don't feel too bad about it, nothing is a high end designer label, though why should that matter? I meet back up with Julia again, who has her own bundle of stuff and we both head toward the bathrooms. She has the right idea at least, I don't want to use some bush either.

I put on the new clothes. As soon as I did, I got a DING, and several new notifications. I open them.

Tutorial Quest: The Basic Necessities completed.

Bonus Condition successful, shared some of the essentials with Julia Mendez.

Quest XP gained: 50

Bonus XP gained: 50

Notifications:

You have gained a level! You are now level 2.

You have unlocked level progress. You are 0% of the way toward level 3.

You have 4 unallocated stat points to spend.

You have gained 150 MP

Your Gamer's Mind skill has increased by 1

Your Gamer's Interface skill has increased by 1

You have unlocked the Custom Themes feature

Your Gamer's Body skill has increased by 1

You have gained 1 HP

You have gained 1 SP

Awesome, finally. There was no mention of any relationship gains with Julia, that the bonus implied. Or was that already accounted for in the gains I received from giving her stuff earlier?

I dismiss the windows. I'll have to look at them in more detail later. I take the opportunity to use some soap dispensers to clean up some, but I was right, there is no running water. I check for toilet tank water to rinse off, but they are those tankless wall mount units so that won't work. I settle for lots of paper towels. I'm out before Julia is, so I go to the beauty section to grab some soaps and shampoos. I realize I don't have a bag or anything to carry all this crap so go behind a register to get a shopping bag. I grab some sunglasses and a Dallas Cowboys cap from the impulse purchase area in the checkout line.

As I fish for a shopping bag I hear something behind me, stand up and spin around.

"Give me the cash!"

"What? I don't have—" he throws a punch at me.

****​

Your Gamer's Body skill has increased by 1

Your Gamer's Body skill has increased by 1

You have gained 1 HP

"Simon, Simon? Are you okay? Wake up."

My head is spinning and I can't see out of one eye. Everything is blurry, but eventually Julia comes into focus, behind a pop-up that is obscuring most of my vision. I move it out of the way.

"Thank God, I thought that guy killed you."

"mmm, wha--, what happened?" I struggle to speak, I taste blood in my mouth, I think I bit my tongue.

"Came out of the bathroom and looked for you, saw you lying on the floor by the register and that guy behind the cash register trying to open it. I snuck up behind him and… hit him across the head with my crutch. He wasn't made of rock, so it actually worked this time."

"Thanks… you took him out?"

"Uhh, I had to hit him more than once, but yeah. Your eye looks pretty bad, and your face is cut."

I put my hand up and felt my face which was beginning to swell where he had punched me. "Damn, is that guy alive?" I open my swollen eye, it hurts a lot, but I can see with it. It was blurry though, so I shut it again.

"He's breathing"

"What happens when he wakes up?"

"Can we tie him up?"

"With what?"

We're both silent for a moment, so I try to stand up, I'm dizzy. There's another slew of unread notifications. My HP bar looked almost entirely red and was flashing.

"Panty hose!" Julia says, then hobbles off on her crutches.

"What do I do if he wakes up?"

"Hit him again!"

I took the metal and plastic display column thing that held all the sunglasses, knocked them all off and held it aloft at the ready. Fortunately the guy never moves by the time Julia gets back.

"His head is bleeding, you hit him pretty hard."

"I think that was from his head hitting the floor."

Julia opens several packages of panty hose and uses a couple to tie the guy's hands together behind his back, ties his feet together, and then ties the two ties together. The guy starts to wake up, I notice that his tag says . Why can I see his level now and not previously?

"You fucking tazy-bitch I'll kill you." The looter says before Julia stuffs a wad of pantyhose in his mouth.

I smack him on the head with the display column. It sounds rather hollow, it seems it was mostly plastic and only a little metal. Part of it broke off. My choice of weapon was very poor.

"Ow. Foo Hoo."

"Lift his head." Julia says, I do and she ties the gag in place with more pantyhose around his head. The guy swears several times before he is sufficiently muffled and squirming.

"Damn have you done this before?"

"No. Why were you at the cash register anyway?"

"Too much stuff to carry. I wanted a shopping bag."

"They sell backpacks here, you know." I noticed she had one sitting on the ground, partially filled.

"Oh. I don't think those are gonna hold him for long. Stop moving asshole."

"MURK HOO!"

"I'll get you a backpack and stuff, watch him." Then Julia hobbles off again.

"Uhh…" I look around, it seems the guy had managed to get the cash register open, there is a paperclip stuck in the drawer lock. The guy moves again so I kick him in the thigh. It must have been pretty weak, because he just laughs behind the gag.

"Okay fucker let's try this again." I shoved the cash register until it’s halfway off the counter and then moved him underneath it. It was heavy. "If you move or speak again, I am going to pull this cash register off the counter and onto your head." That got him quiet so I rifled his pockets and pull out his wallet. It was pretty fat with cash, and I look at his driver's license. His overhead tag updates itself.

I stuff his cash into my pocket, and toss his wallet aside. There are still some bill stacks in the open register, so I take them as well.

"You stole his wallet?" Julia asks, holding a backpack.

"We just looted a store, so why should this matter?" She didn't respond. "He punched me in the face, it's probably gonna cost money to get this treated. So he's gonna pay for it."

Julia throws the backpack to me. "Get what you need and let's get out of here quickly."

I glanced at her tag as well, it didn't say Refugee anymore. It had changed to Looter. Are we the bad guys here now? I want to check my stats but we're in a rush. I stuff the soap and stuff in the backpack; grab some spare clothes from where I found my sizes before. I pass the jewelry section, I could grab a lot of stuff, but I just want a damn digital watch, a watch and a new wallet. I'm tired of not knowing what time it is. I hear a loud whack and look over at Julia again. She's in the midst of standing up, one crutch held up over her head again.

"I'm done, let's go."

We hear a very close helicopter hovering overhead as we make our way over to the window and step over the sill out of the store. It's twilight now. The helicopter's spotlight is shining down on the front of the electronics store. I put my shades on and lower my hat.

"Let's definitely get out of here quick."

****​

It's dark when we make it back to the shelter. They've completed some basic showers and porta-potties while we were out. There is already a long line for both. Julia gives me some toilet paper rolls she swiped from the ladies restroom at the department store. Grabbing some of those totally slipped my mind. Julia watches my stuff while I'm in line to see a doctor again. I finally catch up on my unread notifications and the pop-up window I ignored earlier. I look at the pop-up first.

You have reached 0 HP.

There is no longer any buffer toward preventing temporary or permanent stat damage, including damage to your Constitution attribute. When your CON score reaches zero for any reason, you die.

God damn, my HP is currently at one, one fucking point. A look through my notifications implies that I gained that as a consequence of merely waking up from being knocked out. My modified CON score is a 4.70 and I have new status effects, 'Minor Concussion' and 'Swollen Eyeball'. An actual concussion? Not just what people thought I had earlier due to amnesia? I assume I got them after getting punched in the face by Carlos. Minor Concussion has a whopping -1 penalty to my CON. The rest was the broken arm, and minor fractional values spread across the various bruise and laceration effects. I was seriously close to death since falling on my ass this morning took 3 HP off me. I felt dead and exhausted, even though my stamina bar was full; my fatigue bar is mostly gone.

I look over the rest of the notifications. I gained an additional two levels in Gamer's Body? From what, getting the crap kicked out of me? I gained 80 XP from assisting in 'defeating Looter', another +2 relationship with Julia, and a total of -66 relationship with 'Carlos Ortega'. I don't think he is a cape so that is one question answered. Also I bet he finds me to be more than an 'Annoyance' as the game descriptor implies.

Doctor or nurse or whatever sees me. They stitch up the cut near my eye. Got a glimpse in a mirror, I have a nice black eye now and some broken blood vessels in my sclera. He says I'm really lucky that my retina didn't become detached. He gives me an ice pack and says it will be better in a few days. He checks my concussion too. I really do have one this time around, just like the status effect says. There isn't much to be done though, I already have pain meds and took a third. They were supposed to be twice a day, but damn do I hurt. I'll hold off on another till morning.

I get back to the cots and watch Julia's stuff while she stands in line for the showers. I go back over all my stats and that Golem skill. Even if I met the pre-reqs, I can't use it. I don't have 600 mana. I don't want to miss out on it either though. Gaining a level doubled what I had, could I gain enough levels in 7 days to meet that? Actually, having enough mana isn't part of its pre-reqs, just the skill levels are. Getting enough mana could come later. To get it I just need to up those skills.

That answers my other question, how to spend these stat points. INT? I think that helps me gain mana, but I could do that later too, and by itself it would not be enough for a golem thing, nor do I know when I could get around to 'making one by hand'. No, I was way too close to death today. Even though, as far as I understand, stats can be trained, I am putting all of them into CON. I read the corresponding notifications but I already know what they are.

You have gained 41 HP

You have gained 40 SP

That makes me feel a lot better, and saner. I finally get my turn in the shower. I should save that shower in a can thing, since I looted some soap and shampoo already. Showers were supposed to be relaxing. I was shivering and it's not because there's no hot water. Under the falling water, my mind wanders back to the rain, getting submerged, and swept around by Leviathan's waves. Hold it together man; get out as soon as my hygiene bar is full. At least the 'Soiled' status effect is gone now. I don't talk to Julia on my way back other than to get my backpack. I blow all my mana on observing everything and everyone around me, but there's nothing interesting. I curl up under my FEMA blanket and go to sleep.

Simon's Character Sheet:

Name: Simon Anderson

Gender: Male

Age: 15

Race: Parahuman

Class: Refugee / Looter

Faction: None

Money: $240.00

Title: Endbringer Survivor

Level: 2 (34.16%)

XP: 180

Primary Attributes

STR: 5 (-0.85) 4.15

AGI: 4 (-1.25) 2.75

CON: 9 (-1.40) 7.60

INT: 15 (-4.50) 10.50

PER: 9 (-3.00) 6.00

WIS: 17 (-4.50) 12.50

CHA: 10 (-2.40) 7.60

LUC: 8 (0.00) 8.00

Unspent Points: 0

Secondary Attributes

Health Pool: 54/153

Stamina Pool: 142/142

Mana Pool: 0/300

Stress Pool: 45/320

Attack: 4.75

Speed: 2.63

Dodge: 6.18

Armor: 0.20

Carry: 41.50

Allure: 2.00

Skills

Max Slots: 27

Free Skill Slots: 12

Artistry: 3 (32.75%)

Basic Academics: 8 (10.22%)

Computers: 5 (11.09%)

Empathy: 1 (78.65%)

Gamer's Body: 4 (11.34%)

Gamer's Interface: 5 (42.45%)

Gamer's Mind: 4 (15.78%)

Language-English: MAX (0.00%)

Meditation: 1 (0.00%)

Null Resistance: 1 (0.00%)

Observe: 2 (76.76%)

Programming: 2 (67.45%)

Psychology: 1 (25.00%)

Strategy: 1 (0.00%)

Video Games: 25 (63.73%)

Unspent Skill Points: 10