Part of your confusion is because the "amateur/professional/expert" classification applies to skills, not to attributes. For attributes, 1@ is "ordinary" and 2@ is "extraordinary". 3@ is superhuman (unattainable by modern methods), with 2@10 being probably the single best person alive, or not more common than the best person in the New York City metropolitan area. I'm surprised, though, that your hand/eye didn't come up at character generation as potentially outstanding--1 in 50, 98th %ile, top two percent, is the rating for 2@1, and you sound like you might be in that niche. If we put a hundred random people in a room, are you one of the two best? If we put a thousand random people in a room, how many are as good as you? More than twenty? Less than ten?
I should give you a 2@1 Bowling skill, also, but at the moment I'm focused on the other. I should also mention (it didn't seem significant before this moment) that one of the previous residents of Umak Tek did build a bowling lane with balls and pins out of plastic steel. There's also a pool table near it.
--M. J. Young
Part of your confusion is because the "amateur/professional/expert" classification applies to skills, not to attributes. For attributes, 1@ is "ordinary" and 2@ is "extraordinary". 3@ is superhuman (unattainable by modern methods), with 2@10 being probably the single best person alive, or not more common than the best person in the New York City metropolitan area. I'm surprised, though, that your hand/eye didn't come up at character generation as potentially outstanding--1 in 50, 98th %ile, top two percent, is the rating for 2@1, and you sound like you might be in that niche. If we put a hundred random people in a room, are you one of the two best? If we put a thousand random people in a room, how many are as good as you? More than twenty? Less than ten?
I should give you a 2@1 Bowling skill, also, but at the moment I'm focused on the other. I should also mention (it didn't seem significant before this moment) that one of the previous residents of Umak Tek did build a bowling lane with balls and pins out of plastic steel. There's also a pool table near it.
--M. J. Young
At Ubercon when I got there (I think I may have been a few minutes late and the table was packed to begin with) I had missed the description of hand/eye vs agility vs flexibility. Because of this it was decided to address it when/if it came up.
Now as to rating myself as 1 out of x number, the only competitive tasks I'd listed were bowling and beer pong, so they seem easiest to rate myself on. When I went to a state level tournament for bowling (this was a few years back however, as college has made it harder for me to continue bowling on a weekly basis, which is needed to enter many tournaments.) I placed 4th for singles in the states if my memory serves me correctly (I know it was top 10, and relatively certain it was 4th). There were 3 weekends, so 6 days of tournament shifts, and 12 lanes of 4 people to a side, 2 sides to a lane. Each day also had morning and afternoon session. So roughly 6*2*2*12*4*2 if I'm keeping this straight in my head (I did try and look up the exact number but I couldn't remember the exact name of where it was/which year).
So that comes out to 4 out of 2304, or .173611 %
As to beer pong I'm not as sure on the number, seeing as I'm often not at my highest state of awareness at parties, but my logic is as follows. Where I part holds roughly 300 people, almost all of whom come to play. I'm regarded as one of the two best players on pretty much any given night. The people who are there over the various weeks varies however, with about 100 being regulars, and the other 200 being random people. If I had to approximate the number of people who I've played against is probably around 500 (I go out almost every night, and drink more than I should most nights, and often games are matched 3v3, so the numbers add up fast). so I'd say I'm safely at first, second or third best out of those, so we'll go with 2/500 so .4%
In recap, as that's a lot of unneeded reading, in bowling I'd say top .173611% and top .4% in beer pong. I have no scale to judge the other things I listed against however, so hope this is enough.
You manage to get a pulse of energy out of the device, but it dents the ground a couple inches to one side of the ball.
--M. J. Young
Cool, glad I got it working at least. I'll take the lump outside and place it on the clay ground so I'm not denting the nice floor again, I'll have to fix that later as it is.
I'll continue practicing until I manage to hit the lump, at which time I'll try and do the same thing with the rifle.
During tank cleaning I'd like to try and shape 3 rectangular pieces. I'm aiming for two that are roughly 4'x6'x6" and one that is 4'x8'x6". I can always modify them with the psionic drill if I screw up, but hoping I don't. (The exact dimensions aren't what I'm aiming for as I don't have a tape measure, but I'll be trying to get the two identical ones as close to each other as possible and the other is an arbitrary length really. I'm hoping to device a shooting range to practice with these a bit more.)
You fire it again, denting the ground. Then you try again, and feel a surge of energy, and the device suddenly goes gray, something like a burned out light bulb. It no longer responds in any way to your mental efforts.
Incidentally, there is a shooting range in the complex. It's on the far side of the houses, over by the gymnastics/exercise area where the tightrope is set up. The targets are made of plastic steel and are designed on rockers to fall down if hit.
--M. J. Young
I'll take the blaster to Paul and explain what happened, apologizing profusely for breaking one of the museums pieces and promising to replace it when I make my trip to the glass city. I'll also ask if it's fixable in any way that he knows about.
Concerning my trip, which I'm going to begin planning so that when I go the least number of things can go wrong as possible, I'll ask whether the spiders are active at night or during the day. I'd hate for a miscommunication to result in me walking into a city of fully armed spiders. Does he have an estimate on how long it takes to get there? I'm trying to figure out how much time I have to get in and out of the city, get the gear, and get out. Will it be a one night trip from leaving to returning, or multiple days and if so does he know of safe places to stay during sunlight hours.
I'll also take unload my backpack, organizing everything in the house (the architects house where I've been sleeping) so that it's close together.
After which I'll go bowling. I'd like to bowl 2 games, just to clear my mind. The blaster probably has me a little flustered, I really dislike breaking things and I should clear my mind before trying the rifle, and bowling always pushes everything out of my mind as I concentrate on all of the variables of bowling (it's one of the things I do when I need to calm down).
After the two games I'll go back to the psionic museum get the rifle and take it to the shooting range. I'll try and hit a target from 10 feet away. How big are these targets by the way? in relation to the plastic steel lumps how big are these targets?
Paul is surprised; he says that he's never heard of that happening before, so he's never heard of anyone trying to fix it. He also comments that he only knows a couple of people who ever dabbled with trying to make psionic devices, and they both blew themselves up trying, so he'd prefer it if you did any such tinkering away from the center of the town.
The spiders are active when the sun shines.
How long it takes to get anywhere depends on how fast you travel. It's sixty miles from Umak Tek to the edge of the Glass City, which is itself twenty-five miles in diameter and a perfect circle, from all reports. Michael's Foxhole is ten miles from here, and the only shelter anyone has mentioned. On the way, the coral bushes are the only serious danger. Creeper Vines are predatory, but unless one somehow gets around your neck it's not a problem. Orange and Yellow Nagas are predatory, but they don't prey on anything as large as people, mostly eating Purple Nagas, although it's probable that the Orange ones also eat creeper vines. Giant Clams are lumbering herbivores, and very skittish--they'll close up for hours if startled--but it would take a real unlikely accident for a person to get swept inside the shell.
The bowling alley has a few imperfections; it was made by an amateur using primitive tools, mostly from plastic steel with a bit of kiln-hardened pottery here and there (mostly for weight). But it is functional, if you're not too serious about your game.
The targets at the shooting range are something like stop signs of various sizes set at varying distances. None are smaller than a foot across, and some are thrice that. Your first shot hits a target comfortably, knocking it back and causing it to rock forward. (Your plastic steel lumps were fist-sized; these present much larger targets.)
--M. J. Young
I have a few followup questions for Paul from the answers I got.
How fast do the creeper vines move?
How common are the coral bushes and how exactly are they dangerous? Is it likely to die from one or is running from one an option? Do they tend to pursue people running away?
Has anyone ever managed to tame and ride one of these animals? I'm going over the numbers in my head and I can't see making it from here to the glass city and back in one night.
Speaking of which, is the foxhole directly on the way to the glass city of does it form a triangle?
That's it for the questions for Paul.
How heavy is the plastic steel? Not asking Paul this, just based on my working with it. Is it close to the density of steel?
Also is there a track field in Umak Tek? I'm going to have to start practicing to make sure I can push myself a little on the upcoming journey.
For the time being however, I'll go back to the psionic museum and try and activate the memorial for a warrior, hoping the information might pertain the the glass city.
Also, I remember Michael saying that versers can sense one another, should I be sensing Eli? I've been trying to act under the assumption that my character doesn't know Eli is coming, but it just occurred to me that my character might know. All of what I posted in this post doesn't change though, but it might change what I do next post whether I know or not.
How fast do the creeper vines move?
"Well, it's not like we've ever had creeper vine races; they don't seem to respond to efforts to control or direct them, and mostly they move at a slow walking speed. They catch nagas mostly by lying in wait, I think. They only bother people if you're stationary and don't notice them. Also, they tend to be lone hunters, so you don't have to worry about them working together, except by accident."
How common are the coral bushes and how exactly are they dangerous? Is it likely to die from one or is running from one an option? Do they tend to pursue people running away?
"There are lots of coral bushes, and in a typical day on the orange plains or even in the hills you'll encounter several, whether you stay in one place or keep moving. We use to get them all the time here, before the Architect figured out first that they couldn't cross a three-inch high strip, and second that the walls would block their shots.
"Their danger is in their laser-like light beams. Michael called it a laser; the Architect, who ripped a few of them apart to figure out what's inside, says it's really just highly focused light--they're the source of those lenses and the shiny bowls, which are actually parabolic mirrors.
"The beam will burn through your clothes on the first shot, and if it hits skin it will leave second degree burns. The creatures are hard to hit with ranged weapons, because they have a lot of open space and not a lot of vital organs, so you wind up chipping off unimportant appendages. They move in lightning-fast short bursts, and appear to triangulate their targets; but they seem to hunt by vibrations, so they can follow you if your run or even try to walk away. Within about thirty yards, they can sense your heartbeat through the ground, or that's the theory. Like the spiders, though, they're completely dormant by night, and they need the sunlight to attack."
Has anyone ever managed to tame and ride one of these animals?
He laughs.
"Which one? The coral bush is only about three feet in any dimension, and made mostly of empty. The creeper vine isn't more than a two or three foot length of thick rope. Nagas are the size of softballs. The clams? Well, they're big enough, but they move by opening their tops, extending their tongue, pulling themselves forward along the ground, ripping up some of the grass, taking it inside the shell and collecting it, and then repeating the process--rather a slow and bumpy way to travel, and if you're sitting on top, they won't open."
Speaking of which, is the foxhole directly on the way to the glass city of does it form a triangle?
Michael's Foxhole, Umak Tek, and the center spire of the Glass City are all directly on the path followed by the sun and the moon.
How heavy is the plastic steel?...Is it close to the density of steel?
It is nowhere near as heavy as steel for the same volume, but it seems to be as solid as rock despite being much lighter.
Also is there a track field in Umak Tek?
There is an acrobatics field, comprised of poles and obstacles including a low tightrope over bales of grass. There isn't a track, but there's still ample open space within the compound and you're not really sharing it with anyone.
try and activate the memorial for a warrior, hoping the information might pertain the the glass city.
Your first attempt to contact this object yields nothing.
Also, I remember Michael saying that versers can sense one another, should I be sensing Eli? I've been trying to act under the assumption that my character doesn't know Eli is coming, but it just occurred to me that my character might know. All of what I posted in this post doesn't change though, but it might change what I do next post whether I know or not.
Well, yes, versers can sense each other, but: it happens when you are relaxed, and you've been pretty busy lately; and you can't distinguish one sense from another, so the presence of Annie and Paul in the compound means you are almost always feeling a couple of such vectors, so you would have to think about it while you were relaxed to realize that there was another.
As to whether you would feel his presence were you to relax and think about it, that's not something I have to decide yet. My intent is indeed to bring him into your world with you and let you work together for a bit, and so in his timeline he is at the Michael's Foxhole that is a mere ten miles from your location, and he detects people that direction; but since I don't know what he's going to do, I'm not going to say that you do detect him, because as long as neither of you necessarily knows the other is present you don't have to be on the same calendar. That means you can burn up ten days to his two or two days to his ten, and as long as it doesn't result in you having been there while he was there I can mesh the calendars in the post in which you discover each other. Once you "sense" him, though, I've got to lock your calendars together, which might hamper play for one or the other of you.
--M. J. Young
Ok, well unless I manage to think of some sort of transport I'll have to start getting in better shape and learn to run long distances better. As such I'd like to do the following routine for 2 months, and see what my progress report with running is at that point.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1-2 Try to activate memorial
2-3 Eat
3-4 Contemplate different approaches to trip to Glass city
4-4.5 Physical training- stretcing
4.5-6.5 Physical training- laps - running
6.5-7 Physical training- laps - walking
7-8 Eat
8-10 Bowl
10-13 Make Clothing - 3 Sleeveless shirts, 3 loose shorts, 3 boxers, Hooded cloak
13-14.5 Physical training - stretching
14.5-16.5 Physical training - laps - running - with loaded pack
16.5-17 Physical training - laps - walking - with loaded pack
17-18 Eat
18-19 Try to activate memorial
19-20 stretch/try to relax muscles
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll continue trying to activate the memorial at the beginning and end of every day until I manage to get it working. I only intend to listen to it, can't imagine a reaction that would be required to it. I'm just hoping it gives helpful information for the upcoming trip I'm planning.
The contemplating the different approaches for 3-4 is really I just can't think of something to fill in there, and it's what most of my days are going to consist of, I like to over prepare.
For running/walking I'll have my path be around the outsider perimeter of Umak Tek. My goal is to be able to run at my top speed for the entire two hours (not something I expect to be able to do, but it's the goal I'm striving towards, not necessarily moving faster but just being able to maintain my max speed longer.)
The walking afterward is just to cool down.
Bowling is mainly to relax, and I'll skip that on days when I'm physically too tired from the previous physical training.
Paul had mentioned earlier that there was material to make clothing out of, I'd like to make 3 sleeveless shirts, 3 loose shorts, 3 pairs of boxers, and a hooded cloak. I'm not looking to make these all at one time, but to make comfortable pieces of clothing, when they get made over the time period isn't terribly important to me.
The second physical training session is the same as the first except with my backpack loaded, to simulate the possible return back with psionic devices.
During the 18-19 block after I manage to get the memorial working I'll dedicate that time to doing wash when need be, otherwise just an empty hour.
The 19-20 hour is to stretch and relax my muscles so that I sleep better, sleeping tense leaves me grouchy for the next day.
Second Post
The 20 hours are the 20 hours of dark, I'll sleep as much as I can during the light hours.
I have lots of questions.
My first question is, how are you measuring a month?I'd like to do the following routine for 2 months....
There is the possibility of measuring it by the phases of the moon; but you've been here long enough to know that the moon in this world doesn't have phases--it rises at sunset and sets at sunrise, and is always full.
You could mean anything from twenty-eight to thirty-one days, using NagaWorld days as your reference.
However, it is certainly worth noting that a NagaWorld day is forty hours--nearly twice what an Earth day is. You could be counting anything from fourteen to sixteen NagaWorld days as the equivalent of a month.
Similarly, thirty earth days is seven hundred twenty hours, which is eighteen NagaWorld days; thus you could be thinking anything from seventeen to nineteen and a half NagaWorld days as the equivalent of a month.
Yeah, alien worlds do make such statements at the least interesting.
Make Clothing - 3 Sleeveless shirts, 3 loose shorts, 3 boxers, Hooded cloak
There is material for making clothing here. The questions are, do you have any skills at this, and how much of the "making" are you going to do?
I'll work backwards.
Cloth is made on a loom, five feet wide and capable of making bolts of considerable length, if you've the patience. This is made from thread or twine or yarn, the yard or cord twisted from the thread. The thread is spun on a spinning wheel from fibers. The fibers are obtained by soaking and smashing the plentiful grass or the rarer creeper vines.
Fiber from the creeper vine tends to be coarse and absorbent. Cloth is similar to burlap; paper (there is also a paper making system) is akin to grocery bags; rope is twine-like or like hemp rope when wound heavier. Grass fiber is smooth and synthetic in feel. Cloth from it is like nylon, tending to shed water; "paper" is more like plastic sheeting, like a camper's ground cloth; rope is like nylon rope, tending to stretch and being very smooth in the hands.
There is a push-type lawnmower apparently made from the plastic steel for "harvesting" grass. In the areas surrounding Umak Tek there is in addition to the orange grass a much redder orange grass, which grows that color from being fertilized with the sewage from the truck. Materials made from that grass are more resilient and have more of those "synthetic" qualities. The people in the compound use the designation "improved" for plastic steel, cloth, or "paper" made from the reddish grass.
So, what's your intention for these clothes of yours, and what skills do you already have in the field of making cloth and clothing?
1-2 Try to activate memorial....
18-19 Try to activate memorial
Your effort that morning goes wrong, and you wind up contacting the psionic computer instead. Anything you'd like to do while you're in there?
That evening you manage to contact the Kraal memorial. You get a great deal of information about this kraal's brave deeds in battle on three other worlds, but nothing about NagaWorld. One of those worlds is described as having powerful creatures made of metal used as riding beasts that were able to throw metal and fire great distances. The second indicates that most of the population were powerless but that there were a few who had great power, and that somehow the powers of the kraal were stifled so that the few powerful beings among the locals were able to throw fire and ice and to warp time and space, while the kraal were considerably more limited and won the day mostly by prowess in hand-to-hand combat and overwhelming numbers. The third indicates that the kraal fought with very powerful psionic abilities against an inferior foe.
In no case did the kraal use so much as a spear; the only weapons used were psionic.
--M. J. Young
I'll go with 60 Nagaworld days. So 2400 hours.
For the clothes, I'll make all of it from the reddish grass so that it's the "improved" cloth.
As to the extent to what I do with making the clothes, I'll do every part of the creation, from mowing the reddish grass down to the final production of the clothing. I have no preexisting skills in clothing creation, but with 60 days to learn/make the clothing I'll hopefully be able to pick it up and make a suitably comfortable/fitting set of clothing.
For the psionic computer I may as well make use of the mishap and check out number 3, ordering information for additional computers.
Not sure whether the information from the memorial will be useful currently, but perhaps it'll prove useful in the future.
I'll continue with the routine I laid out, but with the two hours a day that are now opened up since I've learned what I can from the memorial I'll dedicate them to the production of my clothing, in case it proves more difficult than I anticipate.
Your first day of effort you gather a significant amount of the reddish grass, smash it and wash it and repeat the process, and then manage to operate the spinning wheel to create thread. You create several large spools of the stuff in your efforts.
You can of course weave with thread, which gives you a very fine tight-mesh thin cloth; or you can twist the thread into something heavier, a yard, and weave with that. It uses more thread to make the yarn, but the cloth is thicker and you spend much less time weaving.
The third level of the computer goes into a sales pitch, assuring you that your chosen computer will be provided and delivered by kraal supply in and from the glass city. It then begins describing various types of computers. Yours appears to be a home entertainment version; there are military versions, versions for aiding in construction/engineering, educational versions for the young, and several others; they appear to be color-coded.
--M. J. Young
I'll go with the tight-mesh thin cloth for everything except the hooded cloak, which I'll make from the yarn.
Also, if I can add an item I'd like to also produce I'd like to make 3 pairs of socks (so 6 individual socks) out of the tight-mesh thin cloth
So 3 tight-mesh thin cloth shirts, shorts and boxers, and 1 yarn hooded cloak and 3 pairs of tight-mesh thin cloth socks.
Good to note that there are other types of computers in the glass city. I may try and find one, the construction/engineering one would be very interesting.
Other than that I'll continue with the schedule I laid out.
Everything seems difficult in this place. At first you catch on easily enough, but then the routine performance of what you've learned just does not come as easily as you think it should.
Converting thread into yarn involves twisting several strands together through a machine that seems to braid and twist them as it turns. It consumes a significant quantity of thread, so you are constantly gathering more grass to make more thread to make more yarn.
You also turn your attention to weaving with the thread on the loom, making a fine almost plastic-like woven cloth. Over the course of the first fifteen days you produce several yards of this cloth, enough to make the shirts.
You then reset the loom for the use of the yarn. It has to be strung along the large spool which feeds the warp and then a single spool fed to the shuttlecock to create the weft. You spend the several hours setting it up, and then start the process, passing the shuttlecock through, reversing the warp arms, passing it back, and repeating the process, keeping the weft tight with each row--until you manage to flip the warp arms with your arm in the warp, and the lines reverse, grabbing your arm and crushing it hard enough to hurt, holding it fast.
--M. J. Young
I'll try and reverse the warp arm to get my arm out. If this doesn't work I'll try prying on the warp arm that's holding my arm with my other hand to try and get it out.
I'm not really focusing on saving the current yarn, but I don't want to damage the loom itself.
As to the cloth that I already made, so I made enough for the shirts, but will still need to make more for the shorts/socks/boxers? Just want to make sure I'm on the same page.
And how is my physical training going up to this point? Or are we going to cover that after the clothes making?
It will take several weeks for the physical training to show "observable results"; cloth is being made daily, so that's easier to describe.
Your efforts to operate the loom and shift the arms don't work; the gears seem to have jammed.
Just to be clear, your arm is pinned by the warp itself--that is, the cords that run the length of the loom--and not by any material part of the loom. The warp is kept taught between rollers at each end, one of which feeds the warp and the other rolls the bolt. Between the two each strand of the warp passes through an eyehook, the eyehooks alternately affixed to the warp arms such that half the threads are up and the other half down as the shuttlecock passes between them, then the woof is tamped to keep it snug, the warp arms reverse so that the warp threads are in opposite positions, and the shuttlecock passes through in the opposite direction and is again tamped. Your arm passed into the space between the upper and lower warp threads, and then the warp arms reversed position bringing the upper down and the lower up and wrapping your arm tightly in the warp threads.
For reference, it is your right arm.
And your assessment of the amount of cloth you have is correct. You have perhaps a yard or so of the thicker cloth you are currently weaving.
--M. J. Young
What I try is somewhat dependent on which time block this is in.
Currently I have the 1-2 10-13 and 18-19 blocks dedicated to creating clothing.
I'd prefer if it were the 18-19 block because this is after my physical training with my pack, so I would probably have that lying close by. If this is the case I'll try and get my pocket knife from the pack and cut the warp threads holding my arm.
If its either the 1-2 or 10-13 time blocks, I'll try and use my keys to fray the thread enough to snap it or at least enough that I can stretch it and get my arm out.
When I manage to get free I'll return to my routine, although skipping the clothing creation for the rest of the day, I can return to that tomorrow. As of the next day I'll continue the normal schedule
If I don't succeed in either of these cases I'll try shouting hoping that Annie or Paul hear me, I'll try shouting every 10 minutes for 2 hours. If I get help I'll ask if they can cut me out or bring my my knife so I can cut myself out or have another idea for how to get my arm loose.
You did bring your pack, but you set it a good eight feet from where you currently are. You can't reach it with your foot, and the loom is anchored (probably to prevent it from shifting when it is running).
Do you have any thoughts on how to get it, or are you going to call for help now?
--M. J. Young
I can't think of any way I have of getting it, so I'll just call for help.
Immediately Paul and Annie appear. They look over the situation, and then suddenly the main gear shudders and the latch releases, the arms moving in reverse direction.
"You all right?" Annie asks with some concern. "Maybe we should treat that arm."
The arm is a bit cut up from the threads, which were considerably stronger than you'd realized.
--M. J. Young
"Thank you, and that might be a good idea, any suggestions on how to speed its recovery along? I've never managed to hurt myself this way before. Also, how did you manage to get the latch to release? I struggled with it a bit but it seemed firmly locked in place there."
This is the first time I've heard Annie talk right? Also what was the state of my arm? Do I still have full motion and it stings sometimes, constant pain, or impaired motion?
If Annie seems to be willing to either help or treat my arm I'll gladly accept and watch what she does to treat it carefully. Perhaps I can learn something from this.
Either way, I'll follow Annie's advice about treating my arm in whichever when she says is best, and I'll skip the bowling and thread making for a 4 days to allow it to heal some. I'm going to continue the physical exercise however, since that shouldn't be strenuous on my arm.
I'm sure you've heard Annie talk at meals and such; it just wasn't mentioned. She communicates telepathically with Paul quite a bit, but when the three of you are together she speaks.
The arm is cut up quite a bit, but fully functional.
In answer to your question, Paul says, "I took the tension off the flywheel then picked up the anti-reverse ratchet catch and gave the flywheel a push in the opposite direction to get the arms to go backwards." Of course, you never saw him touch anything, but that's his explanation.
Annie leads you toward the truck and tells you to sit in one of the chairs by the table where you eat (outside). She grabs a bucket and heads over to the water tower, opening a tap to fill the bucket with fresh water. Meanwhile she's calling "Nerfy! Where are you, boy? Come here, Nerfy." She then sings, "Bill Grogan's goat," a four note line from a song. "He can't resist that," she says conspiratorially. "Bill Grogan's goat," she sings again, and Nerfy bounces into view, singing "boop boop boop boop" on the same four notes. "There you are," she says, and catches him gently, placing him on the table. He sings the four notes again.
I believe you have met Nerfy. In any case, he's a six inch diameter purple ball that appears to be made of foam rubber but that it has cartoonish eyes that look to be drawn on it but are animated, and a mouth that is a hole that appears and disappears beneath the eyes. He always sings those four notes when he sees anyone.
Annie tells you to take the shirt off. "Nagajuice stains," she says, "and the purple will wear off your skin soon enough, but might never come out of your clothes." She dons a pair of rubber gloves.
Drawing your arm out by the fingers over the grass with her left hand, she picks up Nerfy in her right, and squeezes him gently. Purple liquid oozes out of him and drips onto your arm, and she rolls the arm and spreads the liquid over the injured portions. You feel blood rushing into the arm, and you can actually feel the cuts knitting and healing over. She works quickly, and as soon as she has coated the entire area she tosses Nerfy on the table, picks up the bucket, and rinses your arm with the cold water--probably not a moment too soon, as you were starting to get faint and are certainly light-headed. The skin is stained purple, the color of grape juice stains, but the flesh is completely healed with no sign of scars or scabs.
"Thank you, Nerfy," she says, rinsing the gloves in what remains of the water, removing them, and dumping the bucket on the grass. She heads to the water tower to rinse out the bucket.
--M. J. Young
I haven't met nerfy before actually, or at least it wasn't mentioned.
"Thank you Annie. So nagas create nagajuice which has healing properties? Or is it just purple nagas? And do the other color nagas produce other types of nagajuice?Also they seem very friendly, is it easy to train one to be a pet or are they more wild by nature?
Either way thank you very much for taking care of my arm, I think I'm going to call it a day and get some sleep"
Based on the fact the backpack was in the same room I'm assuming it was in the last section of the night hours so sleep would be coming soon. Even if its not I'll take it easy for the rest of the day and get back on track tomorrow. I'll make sure to keep my pocket knife in my pocket from here on out though.
Oh, sorry. Nerfy is a Naga. He's about six inches in diameter, a purple ball that looks like foam rubber with cartoonish eyes. He wanders around the compound mostly at night "booping" a four-note melody which happens to be the tune to the first line of a camp song called "Bill Grogan's Goat", one of those songs in which the leader sings a line and everyone sings it back to him.
"I don't know that you can train a naga. Nerfy is the second smartest naga I've ever known, and the smartest one, Oscar, got that way because Whisp put a lot of magic into enhancing him--and he's still an idiot. Nagas generally are smart as rocks, and I'm not sure how the Architect managed to find this one and teach him to sing.
"Yellow and orange nagas are vicious. The yellow ones get their color from high sulfur content, and they burn, but they're rare and not much use for anything else, as far as I know. The orange ones are even more rare, we don't much about them but that if they latch onto you you're going to want that knife to remove them. The skin is thicker and not so porous.
"I'm told that the purple nagajuice is a potent neurotransmitter, which is why it promotes rapid healing. You don't want to drink it, because it is highly addictive and offers diminishing returns on its effects. I washed it off your arm for much the same reason--it gets into your blood pretty quickly, and is very powerful."
As an incidental, none of the equipment is inside rooms or buildings. Since it never rains no one ever saw a need for roofs. The houses have roofs for privacy, and there is a roof atop the watch tower (not far from the water tower, which is covered to contain the water), mostly because it was designed on the model of fire watch towers.
Presumably with the next day you'll return to your routine, and try again to make some of that heavier cloth.
--M. J. Young
I'll thank Annie and get some rest, Nothing special I really want to do, just got about my schedule.
Also is it ok if I form a thread with some questions on practicing skills?
It is always okay to form a thread with questions. That's the primary purpose of the forum, with the games secondary (justified as teaching aids). Please do.
The routine continues as, well, routine, for several days. Are you attempting to make more of that thicker cloth?
--M. J. Young
Made a mistake while posting/couldn't see the post at first. Post is below
Yeah, I'll continue making the thicker cloth until I have enough to make the hooded cloak. After which I'll switch back to making more of the tight mesh thin cloth from the reddish grass until I think I have enough for the items on my list. Once I do I'll shift towards production.
My order of production is:
all 3 shirts
all 3 shorts
all 3 boxers
all 3 pairs of socks
finally the hooded cloak
My reasoning for doing everything in this process is once I successfully make an item I'd like to roll with it. I tend to do things in sets.
The next night you return to making the thinner cloth to make your other clothes.
A few hours before daylight, Paul calls you.
"Hey, Mike, we've got company--someone coming, should be here in about ten minutes. Want to meet him at the gate with us?"
He doesn't wait for an answer, but you can give your answer in the new thread, Eli and Michael Gathering</i>