Scott Frees the Oppressed, Scott Horton's Game Continues

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Scott Frees the Oppressed, Scott Horton's Game Continues

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Started 4 years ago by M. J. Young
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WilliamTWodium
Member

Add that to my $36/night at Mel's minus my $40/week contribution to the grocery bill, and I've profited $275 this week in total.

(Out of curiosity, am I more frequently accepting exact change from my customers or making change for them? I only ask because up to now, I've been able to track my exact inventory of bills by denomination. I suppose this new endeavor will inevitably result in my having to abandon that level of accuracy on my inventory sheets. Ah, well.)

An excellent beginning! Of course there are ceiling effects limiting how many new customers I can acquire by stalking the same location at the same hours every day, but there is no cap to word of mouth beyond the population of the nearby areas of the city, and as my customer base shifts to being predominantly returning customers, my per-transaction revenue will increase.

I'll keep this up. No change is necessary yet. If there ever comes a single day in which I perform six treatments, I'll give Mel my two weeks' notice.

Oh, and of course I monitor Alice over the course of this week. I suppose I notice that she doesn't "come down" until the fifth day?

Also, I'll attempt to get feedback from the returning customer. I'm hoping to get an idea of how long this effect lasts before fading. Alice's results could be typical, minimal, superlative, or anything else, and I won't know which without more data points.

I'm tempted to keep skipping time, but I just know that at the end of this week V-me will start doing something to advance one of his other agendas - the psi defenses, maybe, or Alice's magic - so it might be best to hold off until I know what he's doing, which will be next post.

Tue May 25 2010 4:50 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I expect that three out of four people would give you the larger bill and expect change back for it; you can decide whether the full price patron paid with exact change or not and since it's not a number of patrons evenly divisible by four you can decide your exact bills as you like within those approximations.

Since you're watching, you would notice when the effects wear off for Alice.

The customer is the first one you treated after the old man, and thus the one from the first of these five days. She says it wore off just an hour or so ago, and she thought it would be worth doing it again to feel that good. She smiles a bit coquettishly as she says this; she's near forty, but prim and handsome, probably a business woman.

The next five days also produce seven customers, this time two returning and two referrals, but not so many from the park area itself.

--M. J. Young

Tue May 25 2010 10:50 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

I can barely believe it's been three months. Fixing that now. I see from above that the reason we're not skipping time by the month* yet (instead of by the week) is that I'm tracking two projects with botch-potential: developing psi defenses by experimentation and teaching Alice magic via a glacially-paced lesson plan.

At some point "this week," I'm want to bring back up with Alice the topic we discussed here, in particular the idea of designing for her a fetish - she mentioned at one point that childhood trips to the mountains have left her with a sense of wonder or of connection to the ineffible, and the idea would be to envision a physical object which would hold similar significance for her and that would thereby ease the task of slipping back into that state of mind (which I have claimed is important for the performance of magic).

At first, I'm just interested in her initial thoughts as to what such an item might be, include, or entail.

___
* in-game, I mean

Fri Sep 3 2010 8:02 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

It might take me a couple posts to get up to speed again, for which I apologize; it's good to have you active again.

Her initial thoughts are that there are a lot of things in the mountains, like rocks and pine needles and birds and trees (well, more of those things than there are in The Big Tomato); but none of them really capture the grandeur or the memory of being there. The other thing she remembers about the mountains, though, is the smell--the fresh air and nature smell that you don't have, maybe can't have, in the city. She doesn't know what can be made of that, but that's the thought.

--M. J. Young

Sat Sep 4 2010 2:40 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

And an excellent thought it is. If we can find something that can capture that scent - something fresh from the scene, perhaps - then the only question becomes how to preserve the scent permanently without ruining it.

(I actually have a few ideas in that regard - I'm hoping that odor preservation can be classed as a Cantrip* type effect, making it a 0th level spell and thus likely available to me given the magical power levels here).

Perhaps we should plan a day trip to mountains, see what inspiration strikes us?

___
* Moving, soiling, coloring, flavoring . . . seems about on par. Permanency makes me uncertain, but there's little harm in trying, right?

Sat Sep 4 2010 6:36 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

On the "cantrip" question, I know what those are in D&D, but I think in Multiverser they're really spells that are highly bonused with very little power. 0@ and @0 magic skills do not tap magical power.

On the other hand, the back of my mind is telling me that Harry has an @1 purify skill that he uses to freshen spoiled food or prevent food from spoiling (might be two skills), and something like that might be what you've got in mind.

"A day trip to the mountains sounds like fun. The Watchungs and Palisades aren't far, but they're not that much like mountains. The Catskills and Ramapos are a bit farther but a bit better, but I think we want to head west to the Poconos if we want something mountain-like and unspoiled. There're probably places like that in the Ramapos, but not anywhere you can get by bus.

"And we'll probably need to go somewhere we can go by bus, and plan to stay overnight and return the next day, which means it has to be when both of us have two days off. Unless you have some other way to get there and back? And won't it cut into your business?"

You can tell she's excited at the idea.

--M. J. Young

Sun Sep 5 2010 7:58 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

"No, the bus is fine with me. I work pretty much every night unless I switch shifts with somebody; they're six-hour shifts, but still. You find out when you've got two days off together and I'll call my boss and see if I can shift some hours around.

"And don't worry about my business. I'll just put the word out that I won't be there for those two days - once I know when we're going, at any rate. If my customer base is growing by word of mouth, word of mouth will have to be good enough for my vacation notice."

On catrips - yes, I'm aware. It's only that V-me doesn't have much to go on in the way of magical theory (particularly what's more complex/powerful than what) besides various incarnations of D&D. It's worked well enough for him so far.

I'm confident that a 3@1 Preserve Food/Drink variant will do what I want. I'm just hoping my in-game justification for trying it and having thought of it is good enough to assuage my player's conscience.

Mon Sep 6 2010 2:13 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

"Let me see--" She pulls a sheet of paper out of her pocketbook. "Hmmm--it looks like this week and next my days are split--Sally is going to be out having her baby, so the week after is going to be hectic, too, what with not knowing when she'll return or how much she can work. So I'm supposed to be off Wednesday and Thursday of that week, but I'd better not plan anything, because I really don't think she'll be back that soon. It looks like--it'll be a month from now." She gives you dates about a month away for two days mid-week. (I know you've been keeping calendars of some sort, so I'll let you sort out when that is rather than dig back through the thread to figure it out myself.)

"Does that work?"

--M. J. Young

Wed Sep 8 2010 2:58 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

"Absolutely. With a month's notice, I can probably move a mountain. Shifting my work schedule in that time should be cake."

That gives us another week of practice and business before I start telling the folks who visit me that I'll be gone on a particular two days next month.

Next post I'll have figured out the dates, and possibly which psionic defense I attempt to develop and how.

Wed Sep 8 2010 8:20 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Alice seems particularly upbeat over the next few days, apparently looking forward to an overnight outing to the mountains.

--M. J. Young

Thu Sep 9 2010 2:36 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

It's been two weeks since my Thursday, September 6th conversation with Gorton's of Gloucester, making my discussion of the fetish with Alice Thursday, September 20th - which, incidentally, is exactly one month after my most recent round of SAL increases due to practice. Just tossing that detail out for future reference.

By my journal calendar, it's Setting Orange the 32nd of Discord, Year A.

I'm heading out presently, but I'm confident I'll be back before you get to the board. If I'm right, I'll edit this message out when I post again.

Thu Sep 9 2010 6:29 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

(Second post.)

We'll say that the outing will be the seventeenth and eighteenth of October, 2007 (a Wednesday and Thursday), and that after a week passes (so, starting 9/27) I'll start informing my customers of this.

The previous two weeks of business are covered in these two posts, each yielding $63 cash profit; I'm hoping this third weeks sees growth of my customer base.

On Thursday, September 27th, I consider myself ready to develop my next psionic defense. This one will be intense confrontations, where my opponent has already found me and I need stouter protection than Mind Blank provides. Referring to my list, I decide I like the look of Tower of Iron Will.

As I recall this one was expensive to use, which I imagine will translate into 'taxing' or 'tiring' in the real world. I also recall it could cover an area - allies within five feet were also protected. This suggests a sort of projection of psionic power beyond the self - a wall of psionic force actively opposing outside intrusion, preventing attacks from even reaching the mind by intercepting them (with a 'tower of iron will').

This would be easier to test and verify if I had a companion to attack me while I had it up, but I'll attempt to develop the technique all the same. First I will cast my Deflect Notice spells - both of them, long first, then short - with the target activity being the development of the Tower technique. I will not check to see if the spells worked; either they worked or they didn't.

Here's hoping I don't melt my brain.

I'm expecting this to be difficult, tiring, but very effective. If you need anything more from me, I'll be happy to provide it.

Thu Sep 9 2010 9:56 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I'm looking at a P2@3 Barred Mind, and thinking that at a -10 sit-mod you can extend it to a five foot radius (that is, it will always be -10 to use and always extend to five feet); that is a wall across which any psionic power must exceed the power of the wall to work. (RS creates a threshold: attack rolls not greater than the threshold fail, but those which exceed the threshold are not penalized.) It would not be a protection against non-telepathic psionics as I understand it; if you want something that protects against telekinetics and such, that would be a different skill. If you abandon the area protection you can eliminate the sit-mod penalty. I know I didn't ask a question, but the whole statement should be construed as asking.

You cast the spells.

--M. J. Young

Fri Sep 10 2010 1:35 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Works for me. It would be really cool if it protected against retrocognitives like Read Person as well, but it seems doubtful that it would work that way unless the particular skill in question was also somehow telepathic.

I wouldn't expect to be able to maintain this and Mind Blank at the same time. I'm leaving that your call.

I'm also expecting, in character, that my own telepathics would not be blocked by this - that is, it's a one-way wall.

Also, is a side effect of the radius that a person within five feet of me would not need to overcome the threshold?

In any case, proceed.

Fri Sep 10 2010 2:59 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator
Works for me. It would be really cool if it protected against retrocognitives like Read Person as well, but it seems doubtful that it would work that way unless the particular skill in question was also somehow telepathic.

Agreed: it would protect you from retrocognitive mind reading and empathic skills, but not from scrying of any sort.

I wouldn't expect to be able to maintain this and Mind Blank at the same time. I'm leaving that your call.

I would not have any objection to maintaining both of these at once. It is not as if you have to be thinking rational thoughts to maintain the block. I might penalize one, though, as I consider the block to be a high concentration skill.

I'm also expecting, in character, that my own telepathics would not be blocked by this - that is, it's a one-way wall.

That's interesting and worth discussing. My recollection of Tower of Iron Will (admittedly from a long time ago and rare uses) is that it blocks all telepathics, but that might be wrong--after all, although we rarely had psi combat in my games, it must have been possible to maintain the defense and launch an attack. My vision of the shield would have said it could not be crossed from either direction, and that's what the book suggests--it notes that telepathic links through the shield would be gaps in the armor. I can think of a couple resolutions to the conflict.

You can use telepathic skills as long as you beat your own threshold.

You can use telepathic skills without penalty, but to do so lowers the threshold by weakening the wall.

You can take another -10 penalty on the skill to include that you can use telepathy that would be blocked from others. I'm hesitant about this, because I keep thinking that if you can read minds or open a two-way link you're getting information coming in, which is what you're trying to block otherwise. I would be more inclined to say that at a -10 penalty you can have

outgoing telepathy--project thought, illusion, suggestion, mental attacks--but not incoming. But I don't really want to penalize you -20 for the ability to read minds across your own shield, so I'm swithering in this.Thoughts?

Also, is a side effect of the radius that a person within five feet of me would not need to overcome the threshold?

Yeah, I wondered this, too. You described it much as a bubble, that there is a wall around you that can't be penetrated. I was actually going to make it a 10' radius, but then I realized that that would give a lot more room for people to be inside it, and controlling the radius would be taking control of another variable--although I don't know that a ten point penalty would be necessary for doing that in psionics, I would have to hit you for a couple points for that. But to prevent someone inside the bubble from succeeding it would have to be a field, not a shield, and I'm not unhappy with a field--no particular reason to prefer one model over the other success-wise, since the advantage of a shield is that your friends inside it can communicate with you and the disadvantage is your enemies can, too.

Thoughts?

--M. J. Young
Sat Sep 11 2010 2:11 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

I would not have any objection to maintaining both of these at once. It is not as if you have to be thinking rational thoughts to maintain the block. I might penalize one, though, as I consider the block to be a high concentration skill.

I would prefer the Blank Mind be penalized in this event, as my expectations in this area stem from 2nd Edition AD&D, wherein Blank Mind was the sort of default defense, and you only had one defense raised at any given time (which determined which row on the matrix you checked for the bonus or penalty to your opponent's roll, with the column determined by his attack mode). I would be in the mindset of "switching" from one to the other.

Still, it doesn't matter enough to me that I would say even a word about it were you to decide differently during a combat, and I agree with the decision to allow both but penalize one due to high concentration.

I can think of a couple resolutions to the conflict.

I think (1) is simplest, but I like (2) best. Let's go with (2). I'm curious as to how much the threshold would be weakened and how that would be determined. Would the weakening be lesser (or perhaps more fleeting) for instantaneous telepathics as opposed to continuous ones? I'm thinking particularly of attacks launched from within vs. telepathic connections maintained. (How much of a security hazard is an arrow slit? Or would that analogy push us towards (3)?)

Also - and this question is related to the idea of weakening the threshold - would the Tower be rolled once a combat, like a martial arts style, or once a minute, like an evasive tumbling skill? The initial cost / maintenance cost structure of AD&D psionics suggests the former, but I get the impression that most psi defenses are the latter - and it's only inspired by AD&D, after all, not imported from that world.

But to prevent someone inside the bubble from succeeding it would have to be a field, not a shield, and I'm not unhappy with a field--no particular reason to prefer one model over the other success-wise, since the advantage of a shield is that your friends inside it can communicate with you and the disadvantage is your enemies can, too.

I think a field would be more advantageous for my purposes - the point of the area is to protect allies, who in my case are likely to be non-psionic - but I think I'll still stick with a shield. It's a tower, not a cloud, and in-game I'm still using gaming source books as a crutch.

And yes, definitely prefer 5' to 10'.

Sat Sep 11 2010 5:58 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I would prefer the Blank Mind be penalized in this event,...

Unfortunately, the vagaries of play are such that it almost has to be that the second one activated gets the penalty; but then, I am indeed less likely to penalize an attempt to raise the greater while the lesser is in force than I am to penalize raising the lesser while the greater is in force--as long as I don't think you're abusing the mechanics but doing what the character finds naturally logical.

I'm curious as to how much the threshold would be weakened and how that would be determined.

The thing in my mind is that short-burst telepathic contacts tend to be high-powered while long-lasting ones tend to be low powered, so the differences sort of cancel each other. It is also mechanically easier to treat them all the same. My inclination is to say that every roll of a telepathic skill that has to cross the barrier reduces the threshold by 10% of the roll, rounded (down?). That way you can maintain a long-term telepathic or mind reading connection with only one penalty, and you can fire attacks through the wall, but each such attack or connection produces a penalty commensurate with the amount of psionic energy expended, as it were.

That also causes me to think that if you have existing connections at the moment you raise the shield, you will have to reroll those skills to maintain them and those rolls will be the bases of the penalties.

would the Tower be rolled once a combat, like a martial arts style, or once a minute, like an evasive tumbling skill?

I would use more of a relative success application of the type appropriate to psionic skills more generally: the skill lasts for RS minutes, but if desired you can reroll in the hope of getting a higher defense number without risking losing what you already have (e.g., like psionic flight, but not additive). A botch would cost, of course, undoubtedly crashing the defense(s?) and bonusing the opponent's attack.

I have a really stupid question: how do expect to know whether it's working?

--M. J. Young

Sun Sep 12 2010 9:01 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

I don't, unless I have a detect psi tucked away somewhere that I've forgotten about. Does it, uh, feel like it's working?

If I can't tell, I might have Alice try to use that language tap on me - but no, that's not likely to tell me much since she's not so good at it. (Neither am I, for that matter.) Unless I could somehow sense psi attacks being deflected by the Tower? Hmm.

Well, all that's a matter for later experimentation. Probably during our camping trip, come to think of it; less chance of detection that way.

Unfortunately, the vagaries of play are such that it almost has to be that the second one activated gets the penalty; but then, I am indeed less likely to penalize an attempt to raise the greater while the lesser is in force than I am to penalize raising the lesser while the greater is in force--as long as I don't think you're abusing the mechanics but doing what the character finds naturally logical.

That's fine. Actually, it provides mechanical incentive to do what I would probably do anyway out of slavish devotion to the Complete Psionics Handbook, which is drop the Blank Mind just before activating the Tower.

How did business go this week?

Mon Sep 13 2010 12:20 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Well, you feel like you are doing something, and as far as you can tell nothing bad is happening, so it might be working. That is, you're putting a lot of concentration into what feels like a wall around you, but whether there is such a wall or what its properties might be are not apparent.

It was an average week in terms of business--about a five percent increase over what you made last week, owing to new clients keeping you slightly busier.

--M. J. Young

Tue Sep 14 2010 2:15 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

After extensive review* of prior posts, I have revised my profit subtotals.

Week 1: $84 (8 new, 2 returning)
Week 2: $91 (unspecified) (possibly 9 2)
Week 3: $91 (9 new, 2 returning)

Accordingly, I'm adding $266 to my character sheet for services rendered and the usual (36x7-40=) $212/week to my sheet for my work at Mel's for Weeks One-Three (ending on Saturday, September 29th, 2007 / Prickle-Prickle the 41st of Year A). There follows an excerpt from my note on additional equipment from this world:

[Total PsOrwell Money]
[ 67 x $20
[ 90 x $10
[ 100 x $5
[ 98 x $1
[ 3 x ¢25
[ 1 x ¢10
[ 1 x ¢5
[ 4 x ¢1
[Total = $2,838.49]

No rent + no car + no utilities + two jobs = mad savings. This is from eighty-one days. I wonder if I should disclose to Alice how much cash I have stashed in my backpack that sits in her bedroom. These are local funds only, and do not include my leftovers from Columbus.

___
*Review revealed that you had been reporting income in five day increments while I tracked time in seven day increments. Four days of Week 2 are projected income from the first ten days' trends; I rounded a projected fifty dollars plus cents to an even $49. Client makeup for that week is officially unspecified because nothing was directly reported by you regarding the latter half of that week. Week 3 is rounded ever-so-slightly down from 105% of average revenue from the first two weeks, with client makeup inferred from descriptive text.

Sun Apr 24 2011 5:25 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Several of my questions have been adequately answered by your post, and the others I've not yet recognized, so let's move to the obvious one: what's your plan now? I know you've got your business running, and your work, and there's a scheduled camping trip of sorts for which I'm thinking you and Alice will both be taking off from work, but I'm not sure when that happens or for how long.

I'm also thinking that to this point you've managed to conceal your existence from the authorities fairly well, but I'm not certain what steps you've taken to conceal your business from them, and that might matter.

--M. J. Young

Tue Apr 26 2011 12:55 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

The camping trip is scheduled as follows.

From you:

She gives you dates about a month away for two days mid-week. (I know you've been keeping calendars of some sort, so I'll let you sort out when that is rather than dig back through the thread to figure it out myself.)

From me:

We'll say that the outing will be the seventeenth and eighteenth of October, 2007 (a Wednesday and Thursday), and that after a week passes (so, starting 9/27) I'll start informing my customers of this.

We see, then, that I have just begun notifying my customers of the trip beginning on the day I pioneer Tower of Iron Will - that is, Thursday of Week 3 from my previous post. Today (for now) is the penultimate day of September, and the trip will take place in the third week of October.

I do have things to say in response to the rest of your post, but this part was easy and now I'm tired.

Tue Apr 26 2011 6:30 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

O.K., I look forward to what else. My recollection on your routine includes that you work the fairly regular schedule you've listed, always on the late shift, and during the day you hang at the park to give your magic backrubs to clients. I also recall vaguely that you've got a practice/exercise routine of some sort for skills and maybe attributes, but I'm not sure what that is or when the next update comes.

--M. J. Young

Tue Apr 26 2011 11:30 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

My recollection is that I work six hour shifts Monday through Sunday (yes, every day) for a total of 42 hours a week (midnight to 6 AM). A man named Mel owns the bar at which I work, and a different man also named Mel cooks at the diner at which Alice works. She works the night shift, too, but longer shifts on a more variable schedule that allows for time off now and again. She tends to go to work a few hours before me and be asleep by the time I come back.

I would have no qualms about retconning those two men's names to be different, if you were so inclined. Maybe Moe and Malcom, respectively? Not a suggestion, just a thought.

At work, I am practicing:
2@ cooking (Pizza Chef) (Is this one, two, or four marks per 100 days?)
1@ Spanish (with the dishwashers, who are practicing English)

At the apartment, I am practicing:
1@10 cooking (slow marks toward a second specialty, as yet unnamed but to include home-style cooking; discussion somewhere on page three of this thread)

At the park, I am practicing:
1@ skateboarding,
1@ Tur Ki Foo basic style,
1@ Tur Ki Foo feint ("Gobble-Gobble What?"),
1@ fall impact absorption (I climb a tree and fall out)

I purchased a weight set, but never stuck to a regimen. No attribute programs I can recall.

All skills most recently advanced a mark on August 20th, 2007 - sixty days into the skill program due to a rules glitch peculiar to your games. This was handwaved (something about getting credit for time spent in Columbus, despite the fact that my stay in that world was less than a fortnight all told), and the next mark in all skills should be gained one hundred days from that date: that is, November 28th, 2007, the Wednesday after Thanksgiving.

Assuming, of course, that I am still free to practice those skills through that time.

Wed Apr 27 2011 5:15 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Second post:

As far as avoiding the authorities notice with regard to my service, I have taken no active steps; however, nothing is written down and the only items changing hands so far have been units of currency (which do that often). I figure this cuts down on my Read Object exposure considerably.

Then again, I'm already doing katas in the park and jumping out of trees; all I've added to that is poking people who ask and taking money for it. I can see how that last could be a crime (setting aside the tax evasion, which I would argue I haven't actually committed yet since I haven't had a change to file), but all it's really added to my exposure is the fact that I'm interacting with more people, which means the chances that a random Read Minds scan for suspicious activity has a somewhat elevated chance of yielding a thought about me, potentially doing something suspicious. Keep in mind that I have served a grand total of twenty-six customers, though come to think of it, I have no idea how many I've approached who have turned me down. I got the impression not many? But it's never been mentioned.

Actually, the numbers are somewhat anemic compared to Gorton's of Glouster's perhaps rosy initial assessment*. I'm in the park three hours a day, but I haven't seen growth as quickly as I might have expected. That's life, though, and there's plenty of time for once-a-month customers to start recurring.

(And the hope is that everyone who's come back is also a long-term recurring customer, such that if, of the six repeats I've had, if three are the same weekly customer returning three times, two are a biweekly customer returning twice and the last is a biweekly customer returning once, I should expect to continue to receive two recurring visits a week from these established customers. Additionally, my trend would in that case prove to have been eight or nine new customers per week, one of whom proves to be recurring on a weekly or biweekly basis; thus, in this particular hypothetical (one recurring customer per week, 1:3 chance weekly, 2:3 chance biweekly), I would expect to add two recurring visits per week for as long as trends continued (Wk3: 9n 2r, W4: 8n 4r, W5 8n 6r, etc).

Of course, saying "if current trends continue" is often like saying "if I keep drawing the King of Spades," but the hypothetical is fun and useful to consider.)

I realize I haven't addressed the current plan, but perhaps I've given you enough to chew on for now.

____
* Posted April 18th, 2010. Never know when the links will stop working.

Wed Apr 27 2011 5:18 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

2@ cooking (Pizza Chef) (Is this one, two, or four marks per 100 days?)
If you're the cook 42 hours a week, even on the night shift, I'd give you a double doubled program there, so you're getting four marks every hundred days.

Having lived on Cape Ann, I feel obliged to tell you that the city in which Gorton's is located is spelled "Gloucester".

I'm noting that your induce pleasure/comfort skill has an 89% chance of success (unless I missed something?) which means a 1% chance to botch; I'm also noting that it takes only two minutes, so you could get a lot of clients into a three hour window. I've been assuming that your business spreads by word of mouth--that you started with one person you approached, and it's been going by recommendations since then rather than by you approaching people. That reduces the chance of hitting an undercover cop, although that might not be too great anyway.

If you have the customer stats from the last week--number of new, number of returning--I can work with that, I think. This week you have a sixteen percent increase, rounded up, in both categories.

--M. J. Young

Fri Apr 29 2011 5:04 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

95% -6 for the minimum-SAL atheism of my subjects. Yes, that seems right. (1@4 SAL + 2@6 BRA + 0 bias + 11 religion + 49 SM = 100% +/- 5 for affiliation, so 99% for a minimum SAL atheist if the world is neutral or 89% for the same target if the world is alliance or anarch.)

I'm good with word of mouth. I've sold contraband at school before (Skittles), and this was my mode of operation; you retain more deniability if you eschew solicitation.

Customer stats for Sunday, September 30th through Saturday, October 6th (week 4): 10 new, 3 returning; $112 gross. Total net revenue including Mel's and grocery expenses: $324.

[Total PsOrwell Money]
[ 73 x $20
[ 102 x $10
[ 114 x $5
[ 112 x $1
[ 3 x ¢25
[ 1 x ¢10
[ 1 x ¢5
[ 4 x ¢1
[Total = $3,162.49]

All of said money except what I'm carrying around in my pockets (to make change with, for example) resides in an envelope separate from the remaining Columbus money. This envelope is labeled:

To Alice,
in the event of my confirmed disappearance, I leave the proceeds of my honest labor during the time I resided in her home, enclosed herein.
SWTWH

This envelope is hidden in my pack somewhere, but my hope is that this stated intention will allow me to leave behind both the envelope and its contents in the event that I verse out without having made other arrangements. (Forty dollars a week to cover food is about the cheapest arrangement I can think of that isn't outright freeloading, but I want to hang on to my cash as long as I'm here in case I need it for something righteous. Solution: write her into my will!)

Also, I'll let Mel know that in about a month's time, I might want to transition to working part-time - maybe thirty hours a week, which translates to five night shifts instead of seven. Maybe there's someone else on his day staff looking for extra hours who wouldn't mind picking up extra shifts? Anyway, I'm giving him plenty of advance warning, so hopefully this won't present any difficulty.

Next week (that is, on the 13th of October), I think I'll invent Thought Shield. Still contemplating how I want it work.

Tue May 3 2011 5:19 pm #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I'm not sure about the envelope trick; after all, you're not actually disowning the money, you're stating an intention to disown it in the future, while retaining ownership and control of it in the present. But maybe we'll give you a roll for it if that happens. (After all, there's also at least a chance that you'll take Alice with you, and then the question of who owns the worthless pretty paper becomes somewhat moot.)

Mel says he'll have to talk to some of the others, and maybe you'll have to show someone the ropes; and there's certainly the possibility that he can't do it, since if he has to hire another cook he might have to promise the guy at least thirty-six hours. But ask him again next week, to keep him thinking about it,* and he'll see what he can do.

*Me, too.

--M. J. Young

Wed May 4 2011 2:41 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

My last few posts are actually pretty good summaries of where we were, because I came back for just long enough to summarize everything before vanishing again. Points for this week:

1) One week's progress in profits. The penultimate and antepenultimate paragraphs of my last post on April 27th sum up my optimistic business projections nicely, though I get the feeling things might not be going quite that way on your side of the screen.

2) Remind Mel (on the 12th of October) that in about three weeks' time I'm hoping to dial back my hours and go part-time.

3) Invent Thought Shield on the 13th of October.

I imagine point 3 will involve more than one post, so it's quite alright with me if the other two points aren't instantly resolved, either. In fact, I'll leave Thought Shield for next post, so I can ponder details.

Sat Oct 22 2011 4:52 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Wow--antepenultimate? That's a good word. I immediately knew what it meant, but I had so never heard it that I checked to make sure it was a real word. Impressive use of your vocabulary, sir.

Business increases by another 5% this week (I've lost track of the numbers, but suspect you've got them handy somewhere, so I'll trust you to calculate it).

Mel has found someone who worked for him a couple years ago and is looking to pick up part-time work now, so he says it's just a matter of working out your schedules. When can you work, and when can't you, or is it a matter of having chunks of time free (e.g., can work three days a week in a row, any three, as long as you're off four in a row) or maybe having every other day off--he'll need to know what kind of schedule you want so he can work with the other guy and see if it's possible.

So, how does a Thought Shield work?

--M. J. Young

Mon Oct 24 2011 2:42 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Thank you. I did the same thing from the other side - I was sure it was the word I wanted when I wrote it, but afterward I had to look it up on the off chance I had only imagined it was a word.

Here's business so far, this week being the fifth:

Week 1: $84 (8 new, 2 returning)
Week 2: $91 (unspecified) (possibly 9 2)
Week 3: $91 (9 new, 2 returning)
Week 4: $112 (10 new, 3 returning)
Week 5: $119

My minimum increment of increase is $7 (+6.25% from Week 4), but that could be one additional new customer, or one returning customer in place of a new customer. Which seems more likely to you - 9 new and 4 returning, or 11 new and 3 returning?

I'm still not quite to the point where I'm averaging two treatments a day. I suppose this is what happens when you don't advertise.
_

I'll let Mel know that there aren't particular days that I can or can't work; it's just a matter of needing more time free for my other projects. I'd prefer work time and off time to be chunked, as opposed to alternating days, but I am flexible. Mel can tell the other guy I'll likely be open to swapping shifts if he needs to, whatever the official schedule turns out to be.

I'll also make sure to mention that I appreciate Mel working this out for me.

I'm sure a half-week schedule will still allow time for practicing language with the dishwashers, but will I still have the benefit of a double-doubled short-order cooking program?
_

I've got to stop letting myself get distracted in the middle of a post. Have the skill worked out, will post it later.

Mon Oct 24 2011 9:31 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

I would go with more returning. Certainly you want new customers, but the benefit is from repeats, and so I'm thinking that you see returns as part of your expansion, as long as you're still also seeing new clients.

I also note that 9 new and 4 returning is 13 clients, and given that you've been working the full-time job also you are averaging almost two clients a day and probably doing three or even four on some days, because it's not going to be a simple program.

Chunks works for the other guy, too, so starting next week you're on a three-day schedule. You're going to have to find another way to maintain your double-doubled language training, though.

--M. J. Young

Tue Oct 25 2011 2:45 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

On the clients: I was hoping you'd say that. Yes, a "new customer" who goes for the cheap trial, decides it isn't for him, and never comes back is a seven-dollar dud. Someone who comes back willing to pay twice what he did the first time is liable to keep coming back, a regular cash dynamo.

On the training, we have either a mistyping or a misunderstanding. Two of my trainings are done through the workplace. One is a double-doubled level 2 cooking program, and the other is a simple amateur language program. Which of these is affected, and to what extent?

On Thought Shield:

This will be a quick-and-dirty active defense against obvious, simple, or straightforward attacks. Where Tower of Iron Will was all-encompassing and required significant effort and attention, Thought Shield will be more limited in scope but capable of being employed without distracting from other things - used left-handed, as it were.

Thought Shield will defend the mind via a psychic construct composed of resilient, persistent, inane, and circular thoughts (e.g., "a blue trip slip for an eight cent fare . . .", the Song that Never Ends, etc). Metaphorically, these circular thoughts are linked together like chain mail and stapled to a backing of "la la la I can't hear you." This shield is then interposed between the attacker's mind and the sensitive portions of my own, blocking or deflecting his assaults. Once the shield is called forth, it should take little effort to maintain.

Trying this while Alice is not at home, of course. As with the Tower, I expect to only have my own intuition to go on as to whether or not it's working.

Tue Oct 25 2011 7:25 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Yes, that was a miscommunication. I thought you meant that you had a double-doubled language program, and a simple cooking program--and at the time I thought it odd that you weren't working at professional level with the cooking. Three nights a week is ample practice for your 1@ language skill.

For the cooking, I guess I'll have to ask if you remember the details (or we'll have to unbury them). But I think probably twenty-four hours of practice per week is sufficient practice for a double-doubled program, unless I've forgotten some detail.

You manage to do what you've described, and maintain it for almost ten minutes; what effect it might have on psionic attacks or mind reading efforts is at this point speculation, but you'd think anyone trying to read your mind would become bored very quickly.

--M. J. Young

Tue Oct 25 2011 10:19 pm #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Nice. We'll test that on our getaway in . . . wait, this week? The camp-out is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday the 17th and 18th of October, and today was Sunday the 13th. I guess so. Well, I've been warning my customers I won't be in town those days since the 27th of September, so hopefully no one's put out. (This paragraph brought to you by this post.)

I trust that Alice has made appropriate arrangements as far as travel plans, seeing as she's the one who knows the local mountain scene. My equipment list is camping themed, so I'm planning on bringing most everything except for the weight set and -

oh, gosh, Iggy. Will he be alright left alone for a day and a night? I solicit Alice's opinion.

Wed Oct 26 2011 4:51 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Alice thinks that if you leave fruit for him, he tends to eat what he needs and not (like some animals) overindulge; and he's generally good otherwise. He'll miss you--and there's probably no reason you couldn't take him on the bus if you wanted to bring him along.

I'm noticing that I do not appear to have a character sheet on Iggy. It's been a long time, but I'm guessing that you got him in this world and therefore you do not have a "scriff sense" that points to him?

--M. J. Young

Thu Oct 27 2011 2:32 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Nope! Bought him in B-Movie Columbus. He's either an associate or gear, I forget which. I suspect that any information on him that you had posted would be in the old old forum, the one with the gather thread. No actual modifications have yet been made to him, save that I have a bit of telepathic familiarity with him by this point, and his skin is probably healthier than it was in the pet shop.

I have a physical description of him, though:

Iguana named Ignominious or "Iggy", three feet from nose to tip, maybe three inches in diameter in the middle, probably twenty-five to thirty pounds. It probably does have distinctive markings, telepathic contact made

The bit about distinctive markings is in there because I asked if he had any and you replied "probably," which wasn't really the answer I was looking for but is consistent with your general refereeing style.

Edit: Aha - your behind-the-screens post for my verse-out states, "the iguana will have gone with him as equipment, I think." Which settles that question rather nicely.

Thu Oct 27 2011 4:44 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Second post (forgot to actually play)

First, composite earnings and total aggregate money through Week 5, which ended October 13th. Forty-two hours at a tax-free $6/hr yields $252 -$40 for groceries, plus $119 from the park, likely my most lucrative week for a while at $331 total net, all in small bills (16 ones, 15 fives, 12 tens, and 6 twenties).

[Total PsOrwell Money]
[ 79 x $20
[ 114 x $10
[ 129 x $5
[ 128 x $1
[ 3 x ¢25
[ 1 x ¢10
[ 1 x ¢5
[ 4 x ¢1
[Total = $3,493.49]

We won't worry about Week 6 of my business venture yet, because I could very well blow us all into another universe by Thursday.

__

With regard to the trip, is Alice prepared with gear of her own, or will we need to go shopping for her? Also, were we planning on sleeping in a hotel, or camping out? I have a preference for camping out, but do not mind at all springing for a hotel if that's what Alice would prefer. I also have a preference for bringing Iggy, which will be easier to do on a campout than at a hotel.

If we are camping, I notice I have a sleeping bag but no tent. If we are getting a hotel, I assume Alice may want to call ahead to make arrangements.

In any case, I will want to purchase something, between Sunday and Wednesday, that comes in a small glass bottle (a Coke bottle would be far too large) with a cork, of the kind that could be re-corked after opening. I will also want to visit a craft store to inquire about

1) what sort of paints are best used on glass (and do you carry them?), and
2) what sort of tools are best used to etch glass.

I would say "etch glass," but a quick Google search tells me the thing I want is more properly called "engraving glass" - scratching the design into the glass rather than using a sandblaster. I imagine I would discover this in conversation.

Thu Oct 27 2011 7:23 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator
Alice has a nice nylon walk-in tent with frame and floor, mosquito netting, zippered netting and velcro flaps, large enough for three comfortably and six without serious crowding, although you can only stand straight if you're very near the center. She also has a two-burner propane camp stove and a few cylinders of propane (last maybe two to three hours each), a fluorescent battery lamp (rechargeable, lasts about sixteen hours on a charge), camp cook gear, sleeping bag, and a duffel. She says staying in hotels leaves more of a trail for the police to observe, and they get curious about people in low-paying jobs spending money on such luxuries.

Things that come in small resealable bottles include:
- Vanilla, usually brown, 1z and 3z bottles common, 5z and 8z bottles available if you hunt. Also, almond extract and several others are available in this form, but vanilla is the most common and comes in the most sizes.
- Liquors, e.g., vodka, rum, whiskey, often in small bottles I estimate at 2z, usually "white" (which means clear or clouded) or green glass, sometimes brown.
- Ipecac, typically in brown 2z bottles.
- Other OTC meds such as castor oil, usually in white or brown glass bottles, sometimes in fancy colors such as red, blue, or opaque glass (which can be any color), but they're harder to find.
- Paint thinner for craft paints, usually in 2z, 4z, and 8z bottles.
Any of those take your fancy?

{Yeah, we can put that down to the fact that I'm a generalist. It strikes me strange that I can identify all those unrelated products and estimate bottle sizes for them.)

They make two different kinds of craft paint specifically for glass, one which is thin for creating transparent/translucent stained glass work without using colored glass and another which is thicker and opaque for painting images on glass surfaces. And (since I, too, would have said "etching" for that) they make no comment on your misuse of the word and show you glass engraving products. Since the best of these have diamond tips they're rather expensive, but there are some steel tipped ones that don't last as long but cost considerably less. Diamond tipped tools are the best.

There's also a question of what kind of work you're looking to do. For very fine work, there are setups that hold the work and help hold the tools, so that you're doing the etching more by slowly turning the knobs which move the tool over the intended line. Larger sorts of work, what might be called glass sculpture, uses tools more like chisels, although smaller and sharper than stone chisels and pressed by hand, not by hammer.*

--M. J. Young

*I am going to confess my ignorance of glass carving, engraving, and etching techniques; these are my own best guesses on the subject, and should not be taken by any reader as authoritative information about it.
Fri Oct 28 2011 6:22 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

I can pick 'em, huh? Writes, camps, owns better gear than mine . . . and is about half again as old as I am. Next I'll find out she sings.

It's been a little while since I planned and executed a trip like this, but I imagine it'll be fun. It sounds like the only shopping we'll need to do will be for a day's meals for two - between the two of us, we have all the equipment we need.
_

For the bottle, I'd like something I can turn into something like a phylactery for Alice's aromatic memories, so I want something I can get the scent out of without too much trouble. Everything on that list seems pretty . . . pungent. I'd prefer something with an actual cork if I can get it, but I realize that's probably rare.

I guess one of the liquors is my best bet on the scent-neutral front? But I have no ID. Again I turn to Alice, asking which of the products I surveyed seems least likely to be impossible to purge the odor from.

_

I think we'll go with diamond tips for the tools. I'll be alive for a good long time, so I should use long-lasting tools. (Also, I'm dealing in cash, so unless the police are digging through trash cans for receipts or trolling the minds of craft store employees at random, they're not likely to notice that a low-wage dishwasher is splurging on his hobbies.)

As for the kind of work, I'll mention that I'm thinking of starting with simple decorations on handheld glass objects and see what they recommend. My inclination is toward using the hand-held chisels if at all possible; there are factors at work here besides ease of use and quality of result. Still, I'm not so foolish as to use tools so wrong for the work I'm doing that I'm liable to hurt myself, which is why I'm asking.

For the paints, I'll get a bit of everything, both kinds. I'm uncertain what we'll end up wanting, so I'm securing a variety.

I may end up having to dash home for more cash, but that is acceptable.

Fri Oct 28 2011 7:04 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Cork corks are generally used for liquors and rarely medicines. I realized that I missed the fact that makeup also comes in small bottles, although these usually have applicators built into the caps, such as nail polish. You can probably also get relatively small bottles of acetone, but not smaller than about six ounces. It's sold as nail polish remover, but is fairly pure in that form. One advantage of acetone as that it is cohesive rather than adhesive, so it leaves no residue in the bottle when it is poured out--kind of like a cross between the clear colorless properties of water and the material properties of mercury. But no corks there. Vodka is probably the alcoholic beverage that has the lightest smell (and taste), although it will leave an alcohol smell behind. Corks are rare in the smaller bottles, partly because they are mostly used for wine, which doesn't sell in small bottles, although I think also for things like brandies and schnapps, which if my memory is correct are in essence distilled fruit wines and so come in smaller bottles with corks, but also have strong lingering smells.

If you're working on something large and flat, like doing engraving on the surface of a window, it's probably safe to put the work on a table and do it freehand--particularly if you're not too worried about accuracy. But if, for example, you were trying to engrave a statuette, you could cut yourself pretty seriously and ruin the work with a single slip. So for something like that they suggest putting the work in a soft clamp and working the tools remotely. The entire device would fit in half a standard lunchbox; it's not a big deal to carry or anything. But if you've got steady hands from doing other kinds of craftwork, you can probably do freehand. (Stuff like X-acto knife carving requires similar control.)

Alice will certainly buy what you need at the liquor store. She didn't know you were a drinker, and asks if a bigger bottle might be more economical.

--M. J. Young

Sat Oct 29 2011 3:09 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

I'll tell Alice, "I'm not a drinker, and it's really the bottle I'm after. I think I'll go with nail polish remover instead, actually. I'd prefer something with a cork, but I'm more concerned with avoiding any odiferous residue."

But if you've got steady hands from doing other kinds of craftwork, you can probably do freehand.

I am most definitely an amateur craftsman, if that. Le sigh. We'll go with the device-based approach, but I still want diamond tips. What kind of prices are we looking at?

* 6 oz. bottle acetone
* Opaque glass paints, sampling of colors
* Translucent glass paints, sampling of colors
* Glass engraving tools for fine work (including soft clamp), diamond tips

Sat Oct 29 2011 7:17 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

* 6 oz. bottle acetone, $4
* Opaque glass paints, sampling of colors, $15
* Translucent glass paints, sampling of colors $15
* Glass engraving tools for fine work (including soft clamp), diamond tips $90
* Weekend camping out of sight of psi cops.....

(O.K., everyone knows the punchline.)

--M. J. Young

Mon Oct 31 2011 2:13 am #
WilliamTWodium
Member

Purchased with cash.

Actually, do you mind if I treat that as $123.50 + d00¢? The coin section of my money table is looking awfully sparse and lonely.

"Hey, Alice, you need any nail polish removed? Like, a lot of it, possibly all over your body? Because if not, I'm just going to pour this out."

(Posting this much for now to test the cents sign. More is probably to come.)

Mon Oct 31 2011 3:37 am #
M. J. Young
Moderator

Alice has nail polish remover, which she rarely uses because working the late shift she doesn't really need to do her nails for work.

It does not appear that the cents sign works on this board.

--M. J. Young

Let's try ¢ or ¢ and see if they work....

Wed Nov 2 2011 2:51 am #

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