Turn 87: Upgrades, Scans, And Discoveries

--- Maya Williams ---

"Okay, so what exactly are you trying to do?" Artemis asked her over the phone, the other girl apparently busy drawing out her own 'programming' for her own project.

(You know that's not what she said.) Her inner reason pointed out to her.

(And I'm not referring to it the way she explained it.) She reminded herself.

(Preparing her 'ritual' blah.) Her inner madness groaned. (Why do the hot ones have to be crazy?!)

(The same reason the smart ones are crazy too?) Her inner logic suggested.

(Should I resent that?) She asked herself, feeling a little offended.

(You should totally be offended.) The voice in her head agreed. (Let's kill her and then it'll be just me and you. Things will be so much easier then. We'll have all sorts of fun without her getting in the way. The whole world will be in our hands!)

(...)

(Luckily Maya is smart enough to recognize her crazy.)

(Doesn't mean I can do anything to stop it…)

"You still there?" Artemis's voice asked through the phone.

"Uh, yeah, yeah… Just got distracted with my thoughts." She admitted, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Anyway, uh, I explained how I've got this whole program for processing all of my 'Blaster' programs and effects, right?"

"Smart idea, modularity makes everything easier. It's why I prefer signcraft to Will craft." The Arcane teen told her. "You just need to slot things together, and get what you want from the pieces. Scriptcraft is better, but… it's not adaptable enough for the field. Great for lab work but…"

(Lab work she says…)

(Ignoring you.) "Yeah, well anyway I've got this whole system and I'm trying to figure out how best to get my [Sonic] effects to work better." Maya explained looking over her code.

"Okay, so assuming that by [Sonic] you mean something like a [Concussive] blast of kinetic energy, and that by better you mean that you want it to have a better stun effect…" Artemis checked, with a faint hint of amusement to her voice. "Then what you'll want to do is shift the frequencies of the blasts, depending on how you implement them. That'll let you apply a greater amount of push and disorientation within the target while also minimizing the chance of causing more damage than you actually want."

"So instead of one powerful or sustained push I should use a bunch of micro pushes?" She summarized, already thinking about how best to implement that.

"Yeah, something like that." Artemis confirmed. "You have to remember the trick when using raw force is you need to micromanage it or you risk breaking and or pasting something you didn't mean to. Figuring out the balance is the hard part."

Scene Consequences

-Blaster Protocols upgraded to V1.6

--When using [Sonic] attacks, Crits now apply additional [Knockback] and [Stun] based on closeness to the target.

---

Deciding to take a break from her programming, and having found a fair amount of inspiration in Artemis's advice (despite her being a filthy magic user) (a distinction that is starting to get old) Maya started going through her database hoping to find further inspirations from some of the people she'd fought in the tournament. Namely the one that had actually beaten her in a fight, an opponent she'd tentatively labeled as 'The Urban Druid'.

"So how exactly were her plants moving the way they were?" She asked as she began to go over the genetic scans of the plants she'd taken from the nature Arcane.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

(You're still failing the Biology Check to figure that out on your own.) Her inner Madness noted.

"Well, there's a saying about artists and copying…" She frowned, trying to isolate the part of the plant's genetic code responsible for manipulating auxin cells so as to simulate cell elongation.

(I believe the quote is, Good artists borrow; great artists steal.) Her inner reason reminded her by also adding that. (These plants actually seem to use something closer to turgor pressure to shift the plant walls by moving around… a substance that most definitely is not water…)

(That was a very hard Reality Hacking check, combined with another slightly easier Biology check.) Her inner psychosis added, in a completely unhelpful manner. (It's helpful, just not to you.)

"Okay, how about you actually be helpful and just explain this to me?" She tried.

(I can't do that while you're failing your stat checks!)

She took a very deep breath before letting it out. "Fuck it. I've got enough here that I can probably fake their growth just by mass copying and pasting all of this."

(We'd still need to figure out what she was using as a substitute for water to cause the plant growth and movement.) Her inner logic warned her.

"I know… but hopefully we can figure that out by checking out our scan's of the plant arcane." She told herself as she pulled up a secondary scan file and began to examine its contents for anything relevant. After cautiously peeking to make sure it was still clothed. "Maybe we'll even be able to figure out the real science behind their so-called 'magic'."

(Yeah… even I can't pass that check right now. I really want to, but I can't…)

Ignoring her insanity, she began to run through her scans of the other girl, noting that there was some kind of energy movement that she just could not identify going on. (Warned you.)

An energy that caused a series of chemical reactions in the plants that would allow them to rapidly move for a short time (if you completely ignore the conservation of mass) before suffering rapid cell death.

"Right, so… I am not going to be able to cause any mass plant movements like she could but… I should be able to mimic those slow creeping plants she used to pin me in place. Which should also let me make other plants move… eventually…" She couldn't help but sigh.

She knew she was on the verge of something big here but… there were still enough gaps that she was going to have to do some serious fine tuning to actually develop anything usable in combat. (But at least I have something to start with…)

(Hey, uh, I just realized something…)

"What?" She asked, tiredly massaging her temples.

(Um, this druid she uh, is it me or does she look kind of familiar?)

She frowned before looking not at the data she'd picked up with her scan but the actual image of the urban druid and then taking a moment to zoom in on the other girl's face. "She kind of does but… I don't know where…"

(Oh…)

"What?" She blinked, realizing she was the only one in her mind to not figure it out yet.

(Pull up Elizabeth's case file…)

Continuing to frown she did just that, her screen filling with all of the information she'd picked up in regards to the Deadwoman, from her hospital records, her abusive family, and the few photos she'd gotten of her-

She looked at the screen, before switching back to the previous window. A cycle she repeated for several moments as she confirmed the truth of the matter.

"¡Pinche pendejo, que idiota soy yo!" She yelled before slamming her head into the table.

(So… since she's Artemis's friend… you think she'd introduce us?)

"Bleeeeegh!"

Scene Consequences

-Maya has unlocked the [Combat Plant DNA] for her Biology projects, expanding her current Bio-tree research. Additionally she has unlocked the [Strangle Thorn] plant for growing.

--GM Recommendation: Build the Greenhouse.

-Additionally, Maya has realized the Urban Druid is Audrey Meadows.

---

Wanting to focus on anything other than how much of a (stupid fucking idiot!) she was or the fact that (Audrey was right there and I let her get away!) She pulled out her headset and began rebuilding it from the ground up, hoping to better compartmentalize the various functions she'd added to it over the past couple of months.

Such as rearranging the various attachments she'd haphazardly attached to the face plate and compressing them all into a smaller and much more functional unit. Or cleaning up the various visual functions, sensors, and transmitters that now that she thought about it probably would've resulted in her needing glasses in a couple of years from having so many shifting lights so close to her face.

Little things that had her rethinking how best to reassemble her headset, such as restructuring it to take up a bit more space on her face, making it just a touch harder to identify her while also giving her a bit of extra work room for future add-ons.

Though it did leave her wondering if she should use some of that extra space for some foam padding or armor for better protection of her head. Alternatively, she could also try to restructure it with more electrical components, allowing her to better run and use any other gadgets or programs she might come up with.

(Decisions, decisions…)

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