2/4 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)00:02 No. 492424 ID: c4e5c2
File 136074252085.gif - (22.61KB , 763x363 , 2.gif )

Sight returns, and Alison is in a room with many of her allies, but only a small fraction of her total force. She can sense the others, and so they are not out of contact. In fact, she knows that she can summon them as needed should she want advice from someone in particular, although the room is already cramped as is.

>"What n..." the Duelist starts to say. "Oh, hello, I can speak."
"Feels weird, huh? I don't know why you can, though."
>"We shouldn't get used to it." says the Recluse. "It might go away once this is over. Now, there are directions on this screen."

3/4 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)00:16 No. 492429 ID: c4e5c2
File 136074341010.png - (15.63KB , 700x700 , 3.png )

Alison moves over to the Recluse to see. It does not seem to even have any input buttons, so this may be the screen's only purpose.

Primary objective: Kill the one known as the Sapphire Emperor.
It is not necessary to directly kill him, however, the cause of death must be directly correlated with something the contestant intentionally performed with the motive of indirect killing, such as sending assassins successfully. The first CAI side to do this will win.

There are two ways to tie this. If the Sapphire Emperor is slain by a contestant's accidental butterfly effect, it will not count. Secondly, if the Sapphire is killed by both players relatively evenly, such as teaming up to fight him and bringing him down as a joint effort. As an addendum to this, if contestant A should bring him from sound body to an inch of his health, and contestant B manages to shoot him one more time, the victor will be A.

Secondary objective: Survive longer than the other contestant.
Should a tie be attained from the primary objective, this will act as the tie breaker. There is no tie for this, even if the same event mortally wounds both contestant A and B, then the one who dies even one picosecond later will be the victor.

Some of the above will be up to judgement calls, however, this is all having to do with extreme edge cases and this is unlikely to have subjective rulings. Lastly, should the Sapphire Emperor be killed because of the intentional actions of contestant A, yet A is killed before the Sapphire Emperor is slain by A's actions, then A will still win via priority.

>"Kill and survive. The same as it always was." the Duelist notes.

4/4 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)00:17 No. 492430 ID: c4e5c2
File 136074343140.gif - (21.96KB , 763x363 , 4.gif )

>"You work your stuff out yet, Loviro?" Alison hears a feminine voice say from the door that lights up with green.
>"I'm getting it! I'll get that spark before the new year's dropoff starts! Come on, come on..."

Zounds! How long have you had idle standing animations?

Ok securing our landing site and gathering info are the first orders of business. So get a few people searching the room while we check the door.

>>492423
Wow this is way more high tech than I'd expect for over 9000 years before warp drive.

Assassination... let's make this a multi-pronged approach if we can. We should consider poison, a gunfight, collapsing the building on him, sniper shot, setting where he is on fire, dropping whatever's being dropped onto him...

Did we get any supplies for this mission? Are we restricted to certain types of weaponry? I see that Duelist and Guardsman have their swords. Can we still use prehensile hair or other fantastical weapon types like that? It looks like our forms were not changed to blend in with the mission... I hope people don't notice how much we stand out. It depends on how much of an abstraction is going on here.

First thing's first, we're in the information gathering stage. We need to find out where he is and how he's being guarded, as well as what the surroundings are. Let's step outside and see what's up. If they react badly to our appearance we may need to restrain whoever it is. We can try diplomacy but we can't waste time talking so we should make our interactions short and to the point.

My guess is those people outside the door are either a plot hook or your first enemy encounter. Prepare for both.

So, first order of business should be... infiltration? We should have all of our Tier 2's disguise themselves as Belenosians and start doing recon work.

Ha! I already thought of a way to make the system make an incredibly hard judgement call.

Get two nukes, strap the emperor precisely in the middle of them. set them to a synchronized countdown from each of us. Drug him to sleep. So he's not to struggle and screw up the measurements.

But I digress, we're not compromising with them. The adwinisitrator is too much of a bitch to side with. It just would have been cool to SAVE everybody again. Maybe we can really fuck the system at the end though, I imagine the old CAI is getting really tired of this bullshit, so cooperation might be a fun alternative.

Even with cooperation there can only be one winner.

...wait, why/how is Arbiter here? I thought Corruptor pulled him out so he could raid one of the nearly empty system zones while we fought the faux-CAI castle battle.

>>492430
Uh-oh. I think some sheep are coming! Assuming we've been inserted in a simulation of the history, we'll probably look our of place.

Pity we left Succubus with Chief. A shapeshifter would have been useful for an infiltration mission! (I don't suppose we have any other shapeshifters on call?).

>first one to assassinate the emperor wins.
So... I'm guessing Sevener's plan will involve an all out frontal attack. And/or trying to kill us before we can do anything.

Can you tell what rules apply here? This place is basically freeroam, right?

>>492451
No, the rules said explicitly that their are two cases that result in a tie (mutual failure or a coordinated joint effort). Granted, I don't expect Sevener to cooperate, and I think we'd rather like to win...

Actually, there's a tiebreaker (offing the other team after the death of the emperor). That's what >>492451 meant. But let's try for the first win condition.

In the meantime, if this is someone else's building, we need a story. Actually, let's test out the natives' response to our appearances, that'll be important info.

Wait for these people to enter, upon their arrival ask them who the Sapphire Emperor is, and where he is.

Actually, can we still contact our outside allies via ghost talk and/or Corruptor cheating? Historian might have found some history or records that might be relevant to this simulation.

ok first deal with the people outside the door and depending on if there hostile or not don't attack unless provoked cause the last thing we need is to be wanted fugitives before we try and kill the Sapphire Emperor. It will also let us see if the people here will see us as one of them or will see us for what we really are (this is a simulation after all so it could work like that). As for long term goals get as much information as you can and also scout out some safe houses incase we have to go down to the tie breaker. never hurts to be prepared

1/2 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)12:48 No. 492496 ID: c4e5c2
File 136078849783.gif - (166.04KB , 763x363 , 5.gif )

Arbiter had left, yes, him being around is an art error.

This area is free roam. In fact, everything seems more tactile than usual.

"I'm going to go through the door. Let's not all show up at once, to try not to startle them. Oh, wait, Historian!" Alison can't summon ghosts as she can in normal areas, but Historian can be summoned in a more plain fashion, and so he shows up. Nonetheless, Alison won't be able to summon Arbiter, Corruptor or so forth. "Do you have any records or anything regarding this area?"
>"I'm sorry. I know I am known as the historian, but there are hardly sufficient enough documents to merit my name. There is only brief mention that they have quite the tech, which I believe can be answered on its own by now. I will, however, pay attention to the length of a day and year and compare it to a galactic form, as no doubt a year here is different from normal lengths of time."
"It's okay. I'm going to head out now."

There does not seem to be much else of note inside the room. Once Alison simply touches the door, she teleports and feels her body dissipate without warning.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)12:50 No. 492497 ID: c4e5c2
File 136078860710.gif - (17.07KB , 800x600 , 6.gif )

And that feeling is replaced by becoming a short robot, just about rendering many of her questions about her form moot. The robot she is in seems far more high tech than she would have imagined.

"There! There it is! Vinyl, get in here, I told you they wouldn't disable my creations! Just needed to warm up after all that dust collecting."
>"Yeah yeah, congrats."

Alison notes that she can return to the first room if she wishes. It seems to act as a lobby in a subdimension for all of her forces, but touching the door she did will bring her out into the belenosian realm.

"Anyways! Welcome to the world. You are my pride and joy, but you could not know that yet. Now, the questions. First, what are you? You are a Jetal, which is mere shorthand reference to Jetal Core AI that powers Jetalium, a particularly malleable metal capable of quite some power. Think of the Core as your brain, and the Jetalium as your body. That body powered by the best Jetal Core I've ever made means you should be quite strong."
"You created me just now, then?"
"Not even close. I made you just around 30 years ago, but Jetal Core development hardly has any improvements let alone breakthroughs. I am not worried about your quality. Make no mistake, I am not supposed to have you, so you are highly illegal. "
"I probably will ask more, but do you know anything about a Sapphire Emperor?"
"... how do you know... an anomaly, you should not know that. Because you should be a blank slate, not because you're not allowed to. Contrary to tradition and perceived definitions, we have 3 emperors. Ruby, Emerald and goddamned Sapphire. They're all insane bastards anyway, fancying themselves leaders of stable nations after leading rebel armies to take down the previous regimes."

Ask why you were made. And why did she activate you now.

Ask if there are more of you, or more chaises, etc. (Changes the nature of the mission if the whole team can only interact through one robot. Or... any computer systems we manage to plug into. We are basically a CAI).

We might want to ask why we're illegal, and if anyone will recognize us as such (ie, the core tech or the AI might be illegal, but little robots aren't- so we can blend in).

How do we want to play this? Do we play along with the scenario, or do we want to risk telling these people the truth? (Playing the game is probably safest- coming off as crazy probably just gets the scientists to mindwipe their robot and start over again for an instant game over).

>>492497
Ask them to wait a moment and report back that you've been placed in a robot body for the simulation. I wonder what's beyond the east door in that entry room? You might also ask someone to try touching the door after you leave again to see if there's more than one robot body or if you wind up sharing it.

Malleable... does that mean we can shapeshift? Ask them about that and what your purpose will be with them now. Also, where are you? Is anything happening nearby?

Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)13:42 No. 492514 ID: c4e5c2
File 136079176607.gif - (19.44KB , 800x600 , 7.gif )

"Why was I made?"
"No reason other than the pursuit of knowledge and better technology. You were to be quite the new model of Jetal Cores, but the Sapphire emperor killed - almost killed? - removed us. I had crucial notes in my head, so that Jetal breakthrough, the last one as far as I know, has been lost. There should be no more than 10 of your kind, barring destruction. Some rivals of mine have one now, in fact. Bastards, all of 'em."
"Then why recover me now?"
"I said you are my pride and joy. I should not be separated from my best work. But for a purpose? What are we, Vinyl? Would it be too clunky to say we are an underground resistance who wants to, quote, 'upset the establishment'?"
>"Close enough. Was hoping you's have something more concrete, since we aren't some two bit conspiracy theorist circle jerk."
"Why am I illegal?"
"You were to be stored for ssss... hm. Where was I. Vinyl stole you fro...."
>"The implants, Loviro."
"Yes. Vinyl recovered you from whereever you were stored. We, at least, hopefully it was us, installed implants in ourselves to prevent certain bad thoughts. I trust myself, of course, so I do not fight it, but we often have our train of logic removed when it would breach a certain topic. Anyways, you were a high grade Jetal core under property of the government, I never legally 'owned' you. Needless to say, all remotely dangerous robots, cyborgs and jetal cores have a whole nexus devoted to closely watching them, with internal and external legal permits and checkups. You do not have any, so while you can't be seen as illegal at a glance, you will be discovered if any police ask to see your core for scanning, or attempt to enter governmential buildings which have security for detecting illegal types."
"So... what if I killed the sapphire emperor?"
>"Hahaha! That would sure leave a big gap for improvement and make me proud, too. Impossible with a frontal attack, of course. He is in the palace of the capital city, right where we are, but they are also bunkered down behind a great deal of military forces. Especially Sapphire, he is the most paranoid of them all."

"I've been placed in a robot, apparently. Alison mentally states.
>"We can hear everything!" Iso reports back.
"Try touching the door, would you?"

Alison feels Iso's presence come into the robot. She still has control over it, but Iso can also control it for her if she wishes for him, or someone else, to take over.

Someone else enters the room.

"The implants! I still want them removed! I've got to know! We were supposed to die 30 years ago, and suddenly we wake up and noth-"
>"Fuck's sake, Yallows, shut it."
"And, young Jetal, this would be Yallows, the third and last in our group. If there is going to be anyone to kill us with curiosity, it is him. Speaking of which, Jetal, what would you like to be called? And, for that matter, despite thatyour Jetalium mass is... subpar, you are able to change your form if you wish to control differently."

So much for not being able to use her snake form, if she wishes for it, that is.

"Call me Babar."

Legion. For we are many.

>>492514
Do some quick movement tests to see how this body handles. Then compare it with snake form. Use whichever seems best. We should also try experimenting with a completely amorphous form for its inherent maneuverability advantages. Basically I'm thinking of a central mass with our sensors on it being moved about by multiple limbs grabbing onto the floor or ceiling or walls or whatever. Think of it as a body made out of prehensile hair.

While we are in charge of the body, it seems to be most likely because we simply entered it first. I think we should name ourselves something that would apply to our entire team... Jettison?

Where can we get more Jetalium? Do we have any other resources at our disposal? Other robot bodies perhaps? Funds? Underground contacts? I'd like a map of the surroundings, please, including the Emperor on it and our rivals.

Try transforming your body to that Yallows guy.
Then say they you are now Yallows, the old Yallows is needed no more.
See if he freaks out.

>>492514
This is actually a simulation. You are all fake. Our name is Alison, and we have another AI in here called Iso, and soon will have many others in here and we are all AI in a game to create a CAI, in quite amount of time, after you are all dead, a race known as humans will invent warp drives and eventually find your planet. You two races will find other races, and technology will improve immensely. In fact, so much so that galactic civilization will produce compilation AI's created with not so ethical means. AI's will kill each other in horrific massacre until three are left. Ours is a special case, for we are creating a CAI in a CAI or something, and in an experiment where we are caught in loops forever blah blah blah.

Explain everything.
EVERYTHING.

>Rival has one
Well, that's Sevener.

>Anyone can take control of the body, shapeshifting
Hmm. Not sure how the multiminds thing might best be applied. If we needed to shift into combat, or exploit any of our competencies (music, sports, etc) we could swap the pilot to someone who was skilled at what we wanted and adjust to their shape.

Or maybe if we needed to multitask? (Different people controlling different parts of the body to do multiple things at once).

Most the time the peanut gallery is gonna for advice, and thinking, though. Or if we can pull a CAI, and plug into any virtual networks and let them run loose... that might be worth exploring.

>name
Hmm. We never thought of a team name, did we?

We don't actually want to call ourself Alison or Snake Queen, though. Makes it easier for Sevener to find us if she hears it in use. We need a pseudonym.

Unity. Sounds like a name, and nicely symbolic of the group as a whole.

>more questions
...what's immediate situation here? Are we secure, or did you just break me out of a lab or something?

And what's with him wanting the implants out? Can we help with that, or hack them or something? Do we have hacking / network access capability?

just call yourself Jet for short
anyway ask what kind of weapons they have what weapons you may have built in to your new body things that might get the local police attention so we know how to avoid them in the future and if there is anyway we could maybe make a false core scan, like a fake ID for us, so we could possibly get into government buildings unnoticed

>>492524
Oooh, Unity. I like it.

>>492523
Dude. No. That will do vast amounts of harm to their psyches and our chances at completing the challenge. It's not like we can take them with us when we leave. I find myself wondering if they are individual AIs, one AI, or the CAI itself controlling the simulation's various NPCs.

>>492523
I an actually against breaking the system for once, as this might have some rather adverse repurcussions for us.
That, or they will think you are going rouge and mad with power, etc. etc.
Avoid explaining the nature of the simulation at this point, bad bad BAD idea.

Memory preventing implants? Unlimited morphing metal? ...

Assume you are still in the simulation. These may be facsimilies of your creators, or just characters, created for you to sympathize with by the ones behind the scenes, for the purposes of the contest.

Play it safe until you manage to get this body out of sight or detection range of any other outside AI. Then... if only you could access Glitcher...

Hmm, questions...

If we were to find an inactive Jetal, what would we have to do to activate it?

Can we absorb any Jetalium we come across to make ourself bigger?

What exactly can we do? Can we interface with electronics or do we have to rely on our physical abilities?

And most importantly... why is only one of the three lights on that pod blinking?

>>492527
>NPCS
Yeah... and we already know they have implant brain clamps preventing them from thinking certain things. The scenario probably won't let them know that this isn't real.

That or they'll think we're crazy (we can't prove anything, after all) and we'll lose what are supposed to be our scenario provided allies.

If they are actual, sentient AIs we can free them along with everyone else if and when we ever break out and get access to the backups where all trillion contestants, all the system people, and everything/everything else are stored.

>>492534

Considering the tech level, there could actually be brain chips preventing actual brains from thinking certain thoughts. This could actually be the real world, with no simulation to escape from or glitches to manufacture. We can't tell yet though, until we've successfully experimented/glitched everything to hell. Just assume it's a simulation for now. Do not conclude it's a simulation.

I think we should analyze this simulation.

First of all, we need to keep in mind that this was probably designed with a standard dual CAI result of 8 unique System personnel (3 Hunters, a Judge Lord, a Shopkeeper Baron, a Supervisor, a Watcher, and an Administrator) against 3 Contestants. There are 10 Jetals available, which would normally give the System an advantage in numbers if the others weren't destroyed or hidden to act as backups by the Contestants, but this is not a normal CAI fight, so whoever finds the most will have the widest influence.

The System and Contestants, however, have differences in training. The System is trained to carry out their tasks despite being given minimal resources, both physical and informational, although they end up getting a lot more in later stages. I'm not exactly sure how that'll manifest here yet, but it's something to keep in mind. They are also initially handed a lot more resources than Contestants, though, so since Loviro said they only have one the logical conclusion is that theirs might be legal and have more Jetalium.

The Contestants, on the other hand, are given even fewer resources and then basically thrown to the wolves, effectively being trained to form alliances and find and gather resources to keep themselves on top. CU is notably primarily earned by killing people, and since Jetalium is often used in robots, we're probably expected to at least kill some robots. The System definitely will, once they realize it'll make them stronger, although if they're legal they'll at least have to be very secretive about it and if they're already stronger than us it may not occur to them for a while yet. On the other hand, allies Contestants acquire are normally stronger than what the Contestants start off at, which means the inactive Jetal bodies are likely already stronger than this one.

So, yeah, that's my take on this. Does anyone see any problems or things I missed?

>>492551
I don't know why you'd assume it's meant to be 3 contestants vs 10 system people. The number and distribution of system members per bracket change dramatically each stage (and we don't know the pattern yet), and the CAI battles in our logs all seemed to be between the 3 surviving contestants and the CAI, not the system. And the CAI is made up of an unknown, but presumably large number of individuals.

Also, I don't think numerical advantage matters. Glitcher mentioned last thread that numbers somehow weren't supposed to be an issue in the CAI battle- if each side is confined to working through one body, that makes sense.

I'd agree with your analysis on the strengths / weaknesses / experiences of the contestants vs the system members.

Guys.

I thought of a winning strategy. We focus on killing Sevener's bot first, steal their Jetalium and use it to improve our body to give us better chances. On the other hand that might piss off the rival NPC team so we'd need a plan for killing them safely afterwards.

We should be wary of Sevener attempting the same thing.

>>492564
There's normally only 8 System people, actually, although I'll note that the bracket we just raided was missing a Hunter so it can obviously be less. It's the unique ones that matter, basically, not the collectives or the ghostless Enforcers.

As for why I think numbers matter at least a little? The mention of there being 10 Jetals at least looks like a clear set up for there to be 8 more for either side to claim. Don't forget, Corruptor didn't say numbers don't matter but rather that quality matters more, so in the time it would take one side to hunt down all 8 Jetals the other side might have enough time to complete the objective with their one. Having more bodies also means a single one dying won't take you out of the game.

Thanks for the criticism, by the way, that helped me find the time problem.

Hmm... if we capture an enemy Jetal's core instead of destroying it we might be able to have it wiped so that we can use it for ourselves.

>>492567
Killing the Administration is definitely a priority, but keep in mind that if any of my speculation is true it won't be simple unless we power up a lot and/or find some of the other Jetals.

1/3 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)17:03 No. 492576 ID: c4e5c2
File 136080383475.gif - (17.07KB , 800x450 , 8.gif )

Alison starts moving around to get a feel for it. It isn't terrible, although she is still used to her naga form. She starts changing. It is not quick at all, it might take her an hour to turn into anything meaningful.

"Yes, that's it! Don't push it too much, reawoken cores shouldn't push themselves too much. Plus, your morphability is rated quite low at the moment, so it may take a fair bit of energy. Just hop back in that chamber there to regenerate energy, but you should last a couple weeks without strenuous activity."
"How do I get more jetalium?"
"It isn't easy. Either you have to steal jetalium mass stores, which are heavily guarded and not available on any corner market store, or kill another jetalium and absorb it. Of course, you don't have to kill it, you can always leave the core intact and a bit of jetalium for it to crawl back to its home if you feel generous."
"What about other resources? Other robots? Funds? Underground contacts? I would like a map, too, with the palace and rivals pointed out."
"Haha, we have nothing. It is all I could do to get you, plus a modest sum of money I left in a hideaway. Any contacts I have, I have not spoken to for three decades. A map, however, is doable. Let's see..."

2/3 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)17:04 No. 492577 ID: c4e5c2
File 136080385365.png - (9.91KB , 700x700 , 9.png )

"We're on a peninsula, the murky red is the ocean. We are the in the red sector, with the highway cutting through the capital. The rivals... I do not know where they are. Otherwise, the town has everything a capital has, both the good and the bad. We're all criminals, so the police force might already be after us. If you want to know, you might have to ask them and hope they have loose tongues." Loviro says the last part with a tone of joking.

"Oh, are we secure right now?"
"Whereever we are is as secure as it gets. I don't actually know where we are, due to the implants, but you are free to leave and explore when you want."
"And what about Yallows? Can we help take out the implants?"
"No, and you shouldn't! We put them in there for a damn good reason, I'm sure of it. We're all frustrated there's something we keep concluding that we're prevented doing, but it must be important."
"Well, do we have hacking or network capabilities?"
"Yes, you do, but don't think it's easy. If you are found out at all, you can be immediately taken over and have your memory, motives, everything erased and replaced. It is possible to hack, but not viable. Best rely on physical capability unless you have a surefire crack."

3/3 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)17:05 No. 492578 ID: c4e5c2
File 136080390481.gif - (15.80KB , 800x450 , 10.gif )

Yallows has left, so Alison simply transforms into her naga shape to test instead of mimicking others. She ends up small, but shapeshifting can include clothes. Loviro waits silently while she does so, and it does take at least half an hour in the end. The form is comfortable, although she is sure she could get used to any other forms given enough time in one. An amorphous blob, she feels. would be exceedingly hard to work and move, but she may just transform into Yallows to prevent her current form from tipping off the aggressive Sevener.

"I'll call myself Unity."
"Strange, but very well. That form... ahem, well, the lack of legs could be terribly inconvenient, but at the same time, jetalium is quite heavy. You will do better if you're able to distribute your weight like you are there, especially if you increase your size. You can always simply make yourself more dense as well, to hold more mass over less volume. Always pros and cons."
"I think I'll change it anyway. You think Yallow would mind if I looked like him?"
"Hah. Yes. I wouldn't mind it just to see the look on his face, but he's a wanted criminal. You shouldn't go parading that around."
"What about weapons?"
"None. If nothing else, the new government has done an amazing job of removing guns. All conventional guns require DNA or the robotic equivalent of DNA to fire at all. Pre-empire guns that can be fired by anyone do exist, but are exceedingly rare and worth a fortune. Now, that is one reason why jetals are so dangerous. They can make their own weapons. Of course, you can't just morph jetalium and hope you have yourself a real doomsday cannon, although a sword or other mundane object is certainly possible. You need to gain the jetal data for weapons! To do that, you have to go through government paperwork and trials to download such a thing. Or, once again, you absorb a Jetal who has a weapon. We seem to be going back to that, if you haven't noticed."
"Next! What is that blinking light on the energy restorer there?"
>"Ah, it simply means it is recharging itself. You were just charged to max, after all."

Alison notes that she can sense how well charged she is. It has not gone down at all so far.

"What do you all think about killing Sevener first?" Alison asks the ones still in the lobby.
>"Quick way to win, cause if we do that, the primary objective will either be a tie or in our favor." Atlas says. "Either way, we'd win. Hell, if we just go after the emperor we'd still have a good chance to kill Sevener first, since it would be just like her to chase us and ignore the simulation."
>"Let's fight her!" Guardsman says.

Hmm. The drawback to the naga form is we're recognizable. If Sevener, or any of her NPC allies see us, or we're caught on video feeds somewhere (there's gotta be cameras around in a high tech society) that gives us away. That potentially sets us up for a surprise attack!

Best form would be something that we're comfortable with that allows us to pass for a robot or organic that fits in with the natives. We want to blend. (Unless weird looking shapeshifting robots are the norm?).

>>492571
Hmm. Well, if there are 10 jetals, and we and Sevener each have one, that leaves 8 more either inactive or controlled by NPCs, either to be killed for jetalium or to install allies in.

>killing Sevener first?
Well, sure, if we get the opportunity. Problem is we don't know where she is, and presumably we both start off in similar situations and without the ability to morph weapons. So unless we get an edge (surprise, a weapon, more jetalium...) it would be an even fight. I don't like leaving things at 50/50.

I agree with Atlas' analysis that there's a good chance Sevener will try to win by taking us out first.

Okay, more mechanics speculation.

Whenever we try to hack something, the second door in the lobby will become available and anyone that wants to will be able to go through it. I'm not sure what that means for normal hacking, but in hacking Jetal Cores (of our model?) we'll end up in a room similar to our lobby, and if the Jetal is occupied we'd have to fight the occupants for control using freeroam rules. An occupied core being wiped, of course, means death for all occupants for the remainder of the simulation.

And I just noticed that Twirl is in here. Hrm. That means killing Administration forces in the last fight didn't make a difference. (Unless Lago forgot she's dead?) I have two more questions about the lobby, then. Do the people there have access to their skill lines, and are people that haven't been summoned yet aware of what's already happened? We should summon King, too. He's an ally, not a subject, and he also has a slightly better idea of how the Administrators will act in terms of strategy than we do.

"You mentioned there are eight other cores like mine that are possibly unclaimed. I assume that you can't tell me where they are, but are they all in the same place?"

Hm. Can he tell us the names of anyone in the rival group? Just so we know if we find a lead on them so they can be dealt with.

We seemed to have gained a new bar in the upper right of our HUD. Battery life or something?

What's the difference between the yellow and blue on the map?

>>492594
Yeah, I think that bar's how much power we have left. The yellow area must be the palace, since we asked him to mark it for us.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)18:59 No. 492605 ID: c4e5c2
File 136081074653.png - (14.98KB , 700x700 , 11.png )

>Bar in upper right
That is Alison's battery life. Alison tries to use her hair as prehensile, but all she manages to do is wiggle it weakly while making scrunched up funny faces. She stops when she senses she is wasting battery power.

"Is the yellow-orange on the map the palace?"
>Ah, yes. It is as much as a military base and fortess as much as anything, which is why it takes up such a particularly huge section of town.
"Thank you. Does this form even pass as something everyone would accept?"
"Hm? Oh, yes. Everyone knows a Jetal at a glance. Even if you were to shapeshift into Yallow, we'd be able to tell the difference. It's all in the movement, you see! Us biological types, heavy cybernetics aside, tend to have little jitters and rather tense jerks of the muscle to move us around. You all move... better. More fluidly. Artificially so. As for the form, as a jetal, you are just as apt to fit in as a strange beast as you are as a pretend belenosian."
"Do you know where the other 8 cores could be?"
"No. It was astronomically unlikely that I found as many as two in such a short period after my own reawakening. I imagine they are already in use, or destroyed."
"Okay, I think that's enough. I have to absorb another Jetal, right?"
"That is recommended."
"Where would I find one that I can beat without weapons?"
"No matter what you do, you're going to have to go into town. Dangerous. I'd love to go out and supervise you, but I'm no streetwise crook. Plus, my face will make it more dangerous. Face reconstructions are damn harder to get these days. I bet if you go to a dive bar, some crook's gonna notice you and offer some up. Might sound bad, but the crooks are about as crooked as the authorities. Illegal Jetal bounties can be taken in and delivered anonymously, but vice versa, the authorities are as crooked as the crooks. They might backstab you on the turn in of the core they'd want. Lastly... I don't know. I'm a scientist, not an investigator, but if you ask around with well phrased questions to the right people."
"I'll think about that. Oh, one more thing! Do you have the names of your rivals?"
"Alys, Lopopo, Zyronn. God knows how we managed to enter and exit the same building without murdering each other, heh."

"Okay. Iso, please take over for a second." Alison says before moving back into the lobby.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)18:59 No. 492606 ID: c4e5c2
File 136081075547.gif - (20.71KB , 763x363 , 12.gif )

"If we just go after Sevener as is, we'll be looking at a 50/50 chance. I don't want to go with those odds. Like Atlas says, we'll probably get a chance anyways. It could work to just wait for Sevener to waste her time trying to find us while we go out and get as strong as possible as fast as possible, so that we'll have a great chance when she does find us. If Unity goes out in my image, that could happen quick, but it could happen too quick."
>"Yeahhh." Iso says back. "But if you don't, then Sevener might just give up on finding you and try to go straight to kill the emperor herself."
>"While she is over aggressive..." the Duelist thinks aloud, "I don't believe her to be entirely stupid either. She may not like 50/50 chances either, and may just start swiping Jetals into back alleys and beat them up unless she thinks she can find you without wasting time."

Alison does note Twirl is alive and well. It looks like the false CAI battle from before did not make any difference, although given that they have been put onto one robot, it may have not made any difference anyways.

Stage and Safe Zone mechanics do not appear to apply here. She cannot summon or talk to anyone who did not enter the CAI contest with her.

I'd love to blitz Sevener, but I don't see how we can pull it off with a reasonable success rate. Walking around in Alison-form to try and attract her is just too risky. Unless we have a plan or means in order to turn it into a trap?

Balancing gathering our strength, keeping Sevener from going for the Emperor and/or gather strength, and going for the Emperor ourself, is going to be tricky.

Whatever plan we end up following, our first move needs to be to head into town. We need to gather resources we can use.

I say we just get a form that dosn't scream "HEY SEVENER AM RIGHT HERE' for now and can still use everday tools (aka something with hands)so we can still use tools and such if the need arises. As for goals I say we head out into the city find any jetalium if we can (even if we are just marking were jetalium stores are) and gather as much information as possable about
1) Any thing on the three empires mostly sapphire
2) were our rivals might be hiding
3) anywere we can get jetalium
also if we do go out make sure to watch your back because we are now a illegal AI fueled by something that sounds it weighs more then it's worth in gold.

I suggest we begin exploring, taking note of our surroundings and looking for patterns that may lead to our different goals, with the this being a simulation of actual reality, it will be sporadic, so we should get a feel, and directly go for everything else a bit later.

One option is engineering up a trap (if we have Engineer or someone else with similar skills in here) so we can off Sevener quickly. That's a little risky, but it's an option.

Otherwise, seeking to get stronger is good.

Right now, we take an unassuming form. I'd say our best bet is just to play it straight; gather power, then hit the target ASAP.

Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)19:37 No. 492615 ID: c4e5c2
File 136081306539.gif - (16.68KB , 700x700 , 13.gif )

>Or maybe if we needed to multitask?
After a brief task, this does prove to be possible. A little tricky, but possible.

Alison won't use her own form and try to play it safer until she gets better reasons to try to lead Sevener into a trap.

However, so far, the two other forms proposed have had issues. Yallows is a convicted criminal with a known face, Alison is a red flag to Sevener, and the Jetal is going to require a bit more form than a blob, as for reasons beyond her, she requires things like leverage and more rigid, bone-mimicking masses in places.

She can always just be the default form that was given to her, plus a proper hand or something. Or perhaps a regular belenosian would work. Perhaps she can act like Arbiter is around after all. Minus the 'I'm on Alison's team' horn decorations.

I say we go full-on utilitarian here; six legs for stability and speed, two hands with nimble fingers for delicate work, and a spiked scorpion's tail for stabbing. How's that sound?

...I am amazingly tempted to just walk around as a de-ornamented arbiter. He's Belthosian looking enough, and his coat is perfect for the Cyberpunk and intrigue setting we're apparently running around in. :V

>>492617
Science dude said we're made of heavy stuff. I don't think multiple insect legs would work. And natural weapons (like stingers) are probably disallowed without the weapon patterns we have to find, same as guns and swords and prehensile hair.

>>492615
Sevener will probably assume anything with a tail is you. The advantage to going as a belenosian is that you can blend in with a crowd. So long as nobody really looks at you they won't notice that you move wrong.

So, to stay undercover, a belenosian is the way to go. Hrm. Also, considering this is freeroam and you won't have your most comfortable form available, we might want to have Duelist control the body for combat. He has a LOT of freeroam combat experience. Well, him or someone else that had to fight all those dudes in the Corrupted Sanctuary.

It might be a good idea to manipulate the body to have denser material in key places, but that will also screw up its center of gravity so it would have to be done carefully. Hey, how does one kill a Jetal anyway?

We may want to destroy other robots to assume their mass, and similarly they to our robot. We need to find the most effective way to manipulate Jetalium, so that we can develop an offensive and defensive strategy. Does it melt? Conduct electricity? Can it be dissolved by anything and subsequently reconstituted? How much pressure would be needed to deform it, assuming the lack of a core with energy to provide counterbalance.

>>492615
Make tiny hairs that can help you stick to surfaces! Four arms! Be a biped!

Ornament-less Arbiter, go!

1/2 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)21:27 No. 492652 ID: c4e5c2
File 136081962184.gif - (17.27KB , 800x450 , 14.gif )

>Make tiny hairs that can help you stick to surfaces! Four arms! Be a biped!
>I say we go full-on utilitarian here; six legs for stability and speed...
Alison will consider looking freakish when she feels like she has to do such things. Also, she can hardly move tiny hairs enough to tap on things, let alone crawl on surfaces with them. Alison returns to take control from Iso and starts morphing into Ornamentless-Arbiter.

"Going for that, hm?" Loviro says.
>"Cute." states Vinyl.
"How does one kill a jetal, anyways?"
"Kill? Simply do damage to the core. It is relatively fragile. Once you are able to either absorb or destroy the jetalium protecting it, they are vulnerable."

>Does it melt? Conduct electricity? Can it be dissolved by anything and subsequently reconstituted? How much pressure would be needed to deform it, assuming the lack of a core with energy to provide counterbalance.
Alison asks these questions, but Loviro shakes his head. He explains that while it can conduct electricity, most Jetals have built in reflexes to discharge the electricity. Melting temperature is too high to realistically employ in a wieldable weapon. While there is a concoction that is capable of dissolving jetalium, it is not instant death by any means and can be shaken off. Hence, squirt guns with the anti jetalium liquid are not useless, but it is easier to just try and hit their core with a high powered laser.
"And, what about deforming non-powered Jetalium?"
>"Jetalium needs to be powered either by a core or a mundane power supply that resembles a core. It has biological properties, you see, and will die off. Dead jetalium is nothing but a weak metal, like brittle bone or rubber depending on how it was last formed from a core. It takes awhile, though, so if you run into more jetalium than you can absorb, you can simply leave some to be absorbed up to a week or so later."
"Alright. I'm going to head out."
"Good! I hope for the best, as you are carrying a great deal of my life's work in there, so be careful."
"I know."
"And remember, if you do find out where we are, don't bother telling us. We won't listen if we know what's good for us. There's some guards out on the street, but they won't bug you. They've got one track minds."
"Okay."
"Lastly, you will be able to change your morphability, density and a couple other things at will, but having reawoken, you are a tad unstable for that! Have a good walk around and loosen yourself up, and I will tell you what you can do when you get back after seeing some sights. Only get in a fight if you know you can win!"
"Alright."

2/2 Alison 2013/02/13(Wed)21:27 No. 492653 ID: c4e5c2
File 136081963224.gif - (19.13KB , 800x600 , 15.gif )

Unity/Arbiter is pointed to the exit once Lovira finally lets her, and Alison takes him up the stairway. Outside, Alison can sense it is very cold, even if it does not bug her. The city appears to be subject to a thick, red mist freely floating through it.

Even the homeless belenos has a respirator.

>>492653
Circle the block for a quick check to see what's nearby.

Better scoot back into the door and make our own respirator so we don't stand out.

So our friends are under a kind of house arrest?

>respirators
Hmm. Well, that's one way to tell the organics from the mechanicals. Robots don't need to breathe. Depending on how toxic the air is, damaging or removing the respirator might be a good idea if we get into a fight with someone living.

Hmm. Regrettably, I doubt we can kill the Emperor just my damaging the palace's environmental systems, or punching a hole in the wall.

Anyways... not much here. Time to explore.

>>492655
We're gonna stand out anyways. Science dude said sheep can recognize robits at a glance. The way we move gives us away.

Well, that explains why all the equipment and the counter-top height in that room appeared to be made for someone about half-again as tall as you and your 'creators'

Homeless people are often unnoticed or glanced over. Try to copy his outfit while still being mostly concealed. THink you can mimic dirt n grime?

>>492663

I'm fairly sure the body is obviously metallic i.e. reflective. Making it rough might be possible, but coloring or complex texture not. We certainly don't want it flaking off! It's easy enough to make yourself dirty and grimy, should a disguise be needed. Mimicking organic movement would be necessary for that though.

I think our outfit is fine. We'll be recognized as a Jetal no matter what, so the only person we have to remain unrecognizable to is Sevener.

While your body movements would give you away, they won't at a glance. May as well mimic as best you can so you don't give yourself away as a robot right away.

Slip back inside and either grab a respirator or form a respirator on, as well as form some homeless garb over yourself. In fact, pile on the ratty clothing, since that's what a homeless person would do when it's so cold, and if there's a lot of it it'll hide our unnatural movement somewhat. Put on a hood or other head covering as well, to match the homeless outfit, and maybe add goggles to the respirator as well.

While checking out the area around here, use a slow shuffling gait, since that's what a tired homeless person in the cold would use, and it also will hide your odd movement better. Watch how others move out of the corner of your eye to get an idea of how you should move. Also, pay attention to how they breath as well. Even with a respirator on, you should act like you're breathing through it, especially if you have to talk to someone. Get some breathing and talking practice in by mumbling to yourself as you go, since that's what's expected of a crazy homeless person.

Hmm, your still fairly recognizable as Arbiter to Sevener, even without the fair decor. Chip off part of a horn, add circles to the design.

>Homeless disguise
...I thought we wanted to be taken seriously for plot hooks, taking quests and bounties, talking to people and stuff? Plus, it really restricts the areas we can walk around in. I don't see this as a good idea at all.

>>492672
Sevener's never met Arbiter, though. The only people who would recognize him are either our allies, from corruption, or outside in the system zone he just attacked.

>>492675
We're just putting on the disguise to check out the nearby area and get a feel for moving in this body. We'll put on something more appropriate when the time is right for it.

Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)12:02 No. 492875 ID: c4e5c2
File 136087215772.gif - (27.43KB , 800x600 , 16.gif )

>Think you can mimic dirt and grime?
Alison thinks there is no dirt or grime to mimic or actually put on herself. She wouldn't even think of him as homeless if not for his establishment on the sidewalk. He is surprisingly clean, clothes and all.

A respirator, at least, won't hurt anything, so she gets one of those from Vinyl so that she'll fit in at least at a distance.

She moves away from the big guards to around the block. There is an electronic shop, food plus liquor store and a laundromat that Alison can see on her side of the building. She could probably find just about any generic commercial store if she walked around, but the buildings rise higher than the smog allows her to see what's above. She moves in front of the electronic shop where people appear to have respirators that allow for cigarette smoking and contributing to the smoke levels. It looks like the news is playing on the television sets.

Observe the news for a few moments and then start moving towards a place that might have jetal cores. A military district might be good.

How fine a wire can you make? Might be useful for a discrete takedown.

Smoking and gasmasks. That's all kinds of amusing.

Those guys past the smokers look like security or police. You don't want to do anything to get their attention, or to go talk to them. Can't risk being found out as an illegal unlicensed terminator.

Anything interesting playing on the news?

>>492875
Start breakdancing for money

1/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)12:44 No. 492887 ID: c4e5c2
File 136087464189.png - (21.82KB , 700x700 , 17.png )

>How fine of a wire can you make?
This seemed to be successful. She's sure it won't slice through flesh like a knife through hot butter, but if she needs to do something drastic to a living person, this may do the trick with a bit of effort. She can't be sure if it would work on other jetalium.

>Start breakdancing
Alison feels like this might compromise her ideals of fitting in. She will refrain from breakdancing until finding evidence that spontaneously bringing out the sick moves is a thing that is both common and acceptable in ancient, high tech belenosian society.

>Watch the news
>"And that's the end of the two happy newlyweds. Next up, our leading story... Toya babies! The mother was stricken months ago with a terrible case of jonj, but not just has she recovered fully, her offspring are well and healthy as can be."

This goes on for some time. Each story is short, and it's always one feel-good story after the next. If the news isn't biased toward happy things, then murders and thefts apparently don't happen.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)12:44 No. 492888 ID: c4e5c2
File 136087466659.png - (90.85KB , 700x700 , 18.png )

>"Hey pretty boy! Looks like you're tryin' to fool around in our style on our block. Got anythin' to say about that?" one of the gang members goes up to Alison. He moves strangely, not like living biological belenosians, and not like herself. She believes he may be robotic.

Raise your hands and say you don't want no trouble.

"I don't want no trabble!"

>saccharin news
Jebus, that's adorable. Why isn't our news like that? Still, I suppose it tells us something about the culture and/or power structure we're currently dealing with.

>>492888
Being involved in any kind of fight right in front of those police and/or security officers is a bad idea. They'll almost certainly scan IDs and stuff, which will get us in mondo trouble.

"Why are you smoking when you're wearing a gas mask. You look ridiculous."

>>492887
Oh god, that thing is so fluffy and adorable. I really wish I could pet it.

Say you want no trouble.

Say that you're not from around here, and point out that if you WERE trying to copy them, you'd probably try a little harder. You're not even wearing the same trenchcoat OR smoking, you've only got 2 horns, and you don't look at all intimidating.

Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)13:32 No. 492898 ID: c4e5c2
File 136087753148.gif - (27.16KB , 800x600 , 17.gif )

"I don't want no trouble."
>"Haha, that's pretty cute. But we don't much like people acting like they're part of our gang, so the way we see it, you were lookin' for trouble the moment you put on that trenchcoat. And I don't think we take in wimpy lookin' dudes."
"Why are you smoking through your gas mask? That looks ridiculous."
>"Real cool. 'Don't want no trouble' he says, then says we look ridiculous. What do we say about that behavior, buddies?"
>"Shitty."
>"Real shitty."

The gang members start walking towards Unity. The police or security are not intervening, although they look like they're prepared to.

>"Your muncher better start sounding off one good reason why I don't serve you up a cold helping of concrete."
"I'm not from around here If I were trying to copy you, I'd try harder. I don't have the same trenchcoat, I'm not smoking, only have two horns and I'm not looking intimidating."
>"Yeah? Well it ain't us you gotta convince of that, it's everyone else. Don't want every citizen around here thinkin' we're lettin' just anyone in. Let's make a bet. You do us a favor and go into this electronic store after these cops get bored and leave. Any minute now, their shift should be up. Tell 'em your part of the Dead Battery gang and you're here to pick up some minerals. The clerk'll know what you mean. If he lets you get the packages, you just walk back out and hand 'em off to us and we'll forgive you. If he doesn't know what you're talkin' about, then I guess that would make us wrong, and just let you go on your way."

Might as well. We probably can get some information from them afterwords. Maybe ask the storekeeper where we could get some jetalium \ form upgrades as well.

:I there is actually a music group named dead battery ha. I don't really think we should be doing little odd crap like this, we need to keep exploring, however going in there would give us an idea of some of the tech they use, I guess we could do this? Yeah, it shouldn't cause that much harm.

...this sounds like a bad idea. They want us to prove we're not a member of their gang... by pretending to be a member of their gang?

Besides, if the storekeep sees the gang send us in, he'll probably assume we're with them.

Are they all robots? Or are some of them sheep?

>>492905
Jetalum isn't available in the shop. We might be able to get some by using these guys as a criminal contact, though. After all, Vinyl suggested we get some bounties for other Jetals via criminal contacts.

Let's do the favor.

Go in and get the packages, make a point of checking what's inside the packages. We might get some electronics to integrate into our body. Mind you we'll need a rear exit before Sunglasses catches on that we're not in the store.

no no NO no NO NO NO no NO.
We are not going to be suckered into a drug deal are you all fucking RETARDED?
if we do that they will just blackmail us into doing more and more favors until we are in so deep it HURTS.
No sir that is not how we win this game, slither as fast as you can away from these losers before they even realize you are able to MOVE that fast
my GOD no

>>492914
Well, we could hand them off to the police instead. Granted, we have no idea what's in them.

Also like I said we have no connections. What do you plan to do in the long term? Where are we going to get jetalium and contacts to do obviously illegal things?

We're going to ASSASSINATE someone goddamn it.

We can change our appearance at will. No one is blackmailing us unless we want them to. Getting caught up in some minor gangs stuff might help us get some contacts.

No way. This is obviously a set up.

"Nah. I'm outtie."

Then walk away.

Well shit. These aren't just robots. These are robots with dying batteries. They'll die if they don't get any! Or, the rough equivalent of death. They must be collecting electrolytes with which to make batteries (aka 'minerals'), but since they have no money all they can do is steal them!

This isn't a gang stealing recreational drugs. This is a gang stealing life support. Seems there's a crucial difference there.

On an unrelated note it seems your Jetal robot is more morphable than I thought, as you clearly managed to fashion a passable trench coat. At least enough to fool robots!

Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)17:01 No. 492946 ID: c4e5c2
File 136089008853.png - (19.57KB , 700x700 , 19.png )

>Fashioned a passable trench coat
She did do so, but it does feel a little funny compared to most clothes, and many sections of it are directly attached to her. Only the outer folds are loose. In other words, if anyone touches or pulls on it, it will behave differently than an actual trenchcoat.

Alison is pretty split, but decides to go for the favor. She gets Duelist to help control Unity in case things go bad, as he does have the most practice in freeroam combat and being bipedal. She lets the gang know she wants to shop anyway, but she'll do the favor after a moment. The gang says that's cool, but they'll be watching her carefully.

Once inside, the clerk also watches Unity intently, like she might try to steal something. Overall the tech is expected and most things are recognizeable. Computers, cell phones that are basically small computers, tvs that are basically computer monitors, that kind of stuff. What is different are basic robots and cybernetic implants for sale.

They seem to each have their own rating between class D, C and B, but Alison doesn't see any A ranked bots or cybernetics. In each case, class C and up robots, and class B cybernetics are held behind locked glass that are quite obviously alarmed, and may require licenses or some paperwork to attain. Otherwise, it looks like cybernetics that modestly improve performance, and cybernetics that help repair eyesight and organs or artificial organ replacements are sold freely. Likewise, cleaning droids or camera bots also appear to be sold without need for documentation or licenses.

Alison moves de-horned Arbiterbody near the front, where the clerk speaks up.

>"Needing anything?" Alison has no money on her, so she gets straight to the favor.
"Yes. I'm part of the dead Batteries. I'm here to pick up the minerals."
>"....... you've got some balls, kid. Inform your business associates outside that I don't owe shit to them anymore, or we're going to have a... shit, you a jetal?"

Nod, tell him you were recently wiped and then given permission to explore. You got the impression they were eccentric. You're not expected back till late so you are indulging the bots outta curiousity more then anything.

Ask what minerals are.

No. *smile meekly, but on the inside.*

"No, I thought they were illegal."

...wait. I'm confused by the lingo now. Are jetals the robots that are apparently common and everywhere, or the small subset of said robots that are illegal?

>shit, you a jetal?
...would that change your answer?

A Jetal? "I thought those were horribly dangerous illegal death machines". Then just stare at him.

Jetals aren't illegal in of themselves. Unlicensed ones are! So just say yes. I mean, it should be obvious, really. Ask him why that matters. Also, what exactly his business with the Dead Batteries is, and how big a gang they are.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)18:05 No. 492964 ID: c4e5c2
File 136089394344.gif - (22.09KB , 177x196 , 20.gif )

"Can anyone refresh me on whether Jetals are illegal?"
>"Yes." the Engineer answers. "Normal robots are different, I suppose, but Jetals are robots except powered by a jetal core instead of mundane mechanics and AI chips. Jetals are rare, but not necessarily illegal. All Jetals need licenses to be legal, while it appears lower class normal robots do not."

2/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)18:06 No. 492966 ID: c4e5c2
File 136089401278.png - (36.76KB , 700x700 , 21.png )

"I am. Why does it matter?"
>"... don't know how they got a jetal to play for their team. Fine."
"What exactly is your business with the Dead Batteries?"
>"Not a goddamn thing! I cleared my business with them long enough ago."
"What ARE the minerals?"
>"Keep your voice down! Bullets. No weapons. Just the ammo. Keep them under your coat, don't let any cops see you with them." Alison did wait for the cops to leave, which as the gang said, didn't take long.
"I'm new with them. How big are the dead batteries?"
>"The fuck are you asking me for? Big enough to muscle in on bad business kind of big."

Hmm, I wonder if Engi could make a gun outta jetal. I mean if all we need is the schematics thats supposedly built into military grade cores maybe engy can make one out of memory.

>>492966
Big, but a single Jetal makes enough of a difference to convince this guy to pay up after deciding to break ties? Sounds like they might be small enough to topple with the right application of force. I don't think we have enough force yet, though. Very, very quietly mention that you are merely under minor threat, but are looking for underground contacts. We would be willing to let him keep the bullets if it means we get on his side of things.

Keep in mind guys, we can just go back out and say he didn't believe us when we said we were with the Dead Batteries.

>>492966
Cool, thank him for his time. Compliment his large, curvy horns.

Thank him and leave. Try to befriend the dead batteries.

>>492966

You've got to be shitting me. Not anything electronic? Not batteries? All this for weaponry? I say you make the leader outside accept the bullets with his FACE

>>492966
Check the package on the way out to see what sort of ammo it is. If it's just metallic cartridges, it'd be extremely easy to make a firearm that can use them.

Alright. Thank hi, take stuff outside. Apologize to the gang. Apparently you do seem to be able to pass for them. There are two ways we can fix that. Either we can walk away and change our appearance... or we can work with them.

(Obviously, the later option is what we want. Working with a connected crime syndicate is a good way to get the resources we need).

>>492967
>>492974
Science dude explicitly said we can't just form weapons. We gotta have the patterns to make them.

>>492974
The package is sealed. I don't think we should open it.

Walk out the back door wearing a different shape, the street punks don't strike me as trustworthy especially given that we're a baseline jetal. Think you can mimic the beggar we saw earlier?

1/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)19:32 No. 492994 ID: c4e5c2
File 136089912503.png - (13.42KB , 700x700 , 22.png )

"Do you think you could make a weapon for us, engineer?"
>"I might be able to if I had access to tools and material that would allow that level of fine tuning metal. Not from jetalium, though. Such a metal may have existed in the past, but there is nothing like that in the current real world. Therefore, the simulation must be abstracting it to some degree since it would be lost technology, so I would be working with what is effectively magic."

Unity leans in a bit to talk quieter.
"Aren't bullets a little underwhelming?"
>"Whoa, you got a short circuit in there? Do you know bullets mean? Anyone who wants bullets wants bullets for their gun, and do you know how guns are? Any non-police or military officer without a gun is killed on sight, questions later."
"How good would this be on another jetal?"
>"That ammo? Like trying to break a brick with a fork. Doesn't matter what gun is used." With that, Alison will head out to the gang, since it doesn't seem like they would pose much of a threat to her without police intervention.
"Alright, thank you for the info. You have nicely curved, large horns, by the way."

The clerk gives Unity a weird, unpleasant look when that is said, but Alison goes to move out.

The box is opened after Alison decides to go back, making sure to keep it discreet and quick. The bullets look mundane and metallic, though Engineer did not give the impression that it would be 'extremely easy' to make a firearm.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)19:32 No. 492995 ID: c4e5c2
File 136089913587.gif - (23.28KB , 800x600 , 23.gif )

"It looks like you were right." Unity says.
>"Good stuff. You're not so bad, you made it smooth. What's your name?"
"Unity." It gets some chuckles, not nice ones, from the gang.
>"You're not from around here, alright. But whaaatever, you did well, newbie!"
"Uh, newbie?"
>"Well yeah. Ya did a job for us, and the only one who does jobs for us, is us. That gonna be a problem? You gotta hand us the box either way."

Hmm. So, apparently Jetalium is mostly bulletproof? And these guys have guns that wouldn't work on us.

Tell them that you'll take jobs from them if the pay is right. Speaking of which, they owe you a fee for this first job, and it's not cheap to hire a Jetal.

Hand them a box, and reply that no, that's not a problem at all.

Illegal allies, get. Hopefully now we can set about scoring some of the resources we need.

>bullets don't work
I'm not sure how we are supposed to kill other jetals. Conventional weapons won't do much to the liquid metal. The cores are fragile, but you gotta get to them first, and we won't know where the core is. (Actually, where in the body are we hiding our core?).

That seemed excessively easy, let's do another job and start working out a way to get our other business done.

say your in as long as there is some kind of reward for doing future missions (like cash, info, weapons, or hell maybe even a favor you can call in at a later time) and give them the bullets, there useless to us for the most part because they can't do crap against another Jetalium, we don't even have a gun, even if we found a gun the bullets could be the wrong caliber, and if we don't give them the bullets we just turned some potential allies into enemies and it will only help to hurt us in our goals

1/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)20:45 No. 493019 ID: c4e5c2
File 136090350562.png - (143.82KB , 700x700 , 24.png )

>Where in the body are we hiding our core?
Until alison has a better idea, in the center of her mass, a bit below where her heart would be.

"If I'm going to be in your gang, then I imagine that I'm owed a fee for this job. It's not cheap to hire a Jetal." They pause.
"A jetal?!" the leader touches one of Unity's horns. "For real! Haha, goddamn, it's a good thing we were gonna turn in these bullets to the proper authorities, isn't that right, you guys?"
>"Yeah, good thing!"
>"Right to the cops like good citizens!"
"Give the guy some dough for his trouble, Jab!"

2/2 Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)20:46 No. 493022 ID: c4e5c2
File 136090357354.gif - (23.41KB , 800x600 , 25.gif )

One of them gives Alison 10 paper bills, each at 1,000 empire dollars. She has no idea if 10,000 empire dollars makes her filthy rich, or if she is only in competition with the bum's mug. Either way, they keep their distance now.

"Uhm... I'm willing to take additional jobs from you guys. If the pay is right." They pause again, but unfreeze when Alison hands them the bullets.
"Yeah? A tune that sounds too good to be anything but a fantasy, there. You're spelling out undercover all over our faces, cause if you were doing jobs for the likes of us, you'd be an illegal jetal. And that's too good."
"If you know of any legal jetals that are bugging you guys, I might be able to take care of them if I'm shown how. Would that prove I'm not undercover?"
>"I don't think this one's undercover, boss."
"Hmmmmm. Then what's with the respirator, huh?"
>"You got one too, boss."
"... Point. Well, ain't gonna let you see the bossman till I know you're not under EIN."
"...Ein?"
"That's the spirit. Wait, you might not actually know. Keeps you robots in check, cept illegals like... unlike me. Think of it like the great robot god in the sky who does like to intervene. Now, there's no small number of jetal in the force, so the bossman might have somethin' for you there. Let me call him up."
"I have no weapons for it, though." the leader just waves that sentence off as he makes the call, and Alison waits for it to finish. He turns back to Alison.
"Yeah, we got a hookup. We'll get you a weapon download. Got 2 jetal problems. One weaker bodyguard to some investigator who likes to hang out in bars all day, and one stronger jetal acting as a security guard to someplace. Either one'll get you in good with the bossman, the stronger one moreso if you couldn't guess. Either way, we'll get you set up so you're alone with the jetal, don't need to worry about anyone else. Otherwise, no bio cop killing. We don't need that shit. Robots are fine to take down, biologicals aren't."

>"Jetals don't sound as uncommon as Loviro has implied." says the Duelist.

>>493022
Weaker.

Don't tell these guys why. Why? Well, we're still working the kinks out and also that 'someplace' that they're working at could be relevant for our overall mission.

...I'm wondering if we could contact that investigator at some point and buy their help for something. Might be a good idea to ask for more info about them.

Also, I bet they didn't recognize you as a Jetal because they're robots and don't have an inherent feel for what organic movement is. This means we can probably reliably pass as Belenosian in front of robots.

Alright. So we gotta prove we're not an undercover legal jetal by taking out some other legal jetal. Seems legit. Gets us a weapon to work with, and more jetalium. Plus, we're getting cred with an organization we may be able to use in our assassination plans.

It kind of sucks that we're being forced into the old killing people for power model we've been fighting against. But none of the lives these people are leading are real anyways. And this whole simulation is going to end as soon we or Sevener wins.

>Jetals don't sound as uncommon as Loviro has implied
Hmm. Well, his data is mostly 30 years out of date, and subject to having holes poked in it without warning.

New objective: take out EIN.

Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)21:41 No. 493042 ID: c4e5c2
File 136090689903.png - (52.38KB , 700x700 , 26.png )

"The weaker one, please."
"Yeah, not a bad move for a jetal who sounds like they were just made. Alright. Let's roll."

Everyone gets into a nearby car. A whirring noise pops up as the smog in the car starts to dissipate, and the leader retracts his horns. Alison hopes her shapeshifting can improve to the point where she can do that without making it look like grass grow in reverse. She could actually treat them as joints, and have them bend and wave around, but now she is losing focus.

"Alright. We're gonna make a pickup, first. Get you a weapon." the leader says, texting on his phone. "What kind do you want? We don't have the regular ammo you'd need to kill a jetal, so don't bother with a kinetic. We got laser weapons and laser melee. Melee drains your battery power damn quick, but can be kept on and available. Laser weapons don't drain battery power so much, but needs a buncha energy per shot, so its got cooldown. Think about it like this, you can only spend so much battery power at one point, or you'll blow yourself out. With lasers, you can put out a certain amount of battery power into a single shot, but if you keep firing at max, you'll blow yourself up if you don't cool yourself off. Damn powerful, but long reload. Melee laser beam, you only need to spend a surge to fire it up, then you're good to keep it going. So long as the fight doesn't last forever and drain your whole battery."
"How long would I have to wait between shots, if I fired a laser at max energy?"
"Dunno. Depends on the weapon and jetal. You're gonna get a low grade one, but one jetal might have to wait 10 seconds before firing again, another Jetal could do it every 2 seconds with the same weapon."
"Also, do we know anything about the investigator?"
"Not much. He keeps on the clock all day. Half that clocktime is spent in the bar messin around and getting drunk by himself. Taxpayer dollars at hard work, there. But that doesn't match up, cause the other half of his on-duty involves him being the epitome of Officer Hardass. Real tough on crime. Out of nowhere, one of the cops that gives a shit. That sort."

>>493042
Do we have anyone with experience with guns, or at least a gun weapon type so they're skilled with them? Might want to go with the beam sword otherwise. Duelist would likely be rather frightening with it.

Maybe he's fueled by alcohol?

Alison 2013/02/14(Thu)22:32 No. 493053 ID: c4e5c2
File 136090994598.gif - (8.99KB , 304x203 , 27-a.gif )

"Do you know how to use a gun, Duelist?"
>"I do not."
>"I can teach you the basic jist of it, if I just use a rod and a couple pieces of cardboard for a scope." the engineer says. "It is not as easy as point and shoot, but I think you can become competent enough to make that weapon at least viable till you can get more practice in."

Duelist will go into the lobby for the lesson, as a gun may be needed or optimal later on even if a melee weapon is chosen now.

Well, if you had your druthers, you'd take both, but since you only get one, go with the laser-sword for now since it's what you've got experience in. Let the boss know your choice, your near inexperience with guns, and that when you complete this mission you'd like to get in some training with them; Both the integrated Jetal one and freehand ones.

Ask... Uh, you don't know boss' name, so ask what you should call him. Just "Boss?" Anyway, ask about the possibility of field recharging yourself. Are there power cells that are Jetal compatible, and if so, how common are they? It'd be useful to either strap some cells to yourself if you ever need a top-off. Perhaps even keep them in an internal cavity, if you could make one.

Also, is there armor you could wear that'd absorb some or all of the punch from a Jetal-damaging shot? Ablative armor to soak laser hits, and stuff like that. Either over yourself, or maybe even as plates absorbed under the skin. You'd kinda like to have something more protecting your core than just your metal, no matter how tough it is.

It'd be a good idea to get regular clothes at some point as well, so you're not spending what precious Jetalium you have on them. Plus, they could be pulled off without giving you away, or ripped off without losing metal.

You know, we are a computer simulation too. Murdering simulants is the same as murdering your compatriots. We won again and again by being diplomatic, that's what we should be doing with other jetal now.

>>493057
Yes, but this time they have absolutely no reason to cooperate with us. Any Jetal in the police force is not going to go "Kill the Emperor? Well okay!". At best we can get them to take out other criminals, but also keep in mind if they find out we're unlicensed they will try to kill us and not listen to a damn thing we say.

This is a drastically different situation.

>>493053
Get the sword for now, then.

well since it seems duelist is gonna be our disignated fighter and is used to using a sword I think the beam sword would be best for right now. also ask how long it takes to 'unsheath' (power up) the blade because if the sword just comes out instantly it could make for an easy kill, just walk up to the target ask for something like "were can if find such and such" then when you get into range SLICE.

>>493057

You know, if we are in a computer simulation, the other Jetals are simulated. So are the other non-Jetalium robots. So are the organics. Murdering other Jetals is more along the lines of murdering administrative staff in the game. Not ideal, and we'd like to win their hearts, but ultimately reticence on their part results in either our death or theirs.

If we can murder EIN, then all those Jetals won't have any administrative duties. Then they can actually choose to help.

Is it possible to access Dreamspace from this lobby?

If we could prove this was a simulation, we might be able to recruit people across faction lines on the basis of "clearly someone copied you into this simulation without your consent, let's fuck it up for them" or similar.

Um, considering they compare EIN to God, I don't think we have any chance of killing it. Also, you're both still missing the point. Nobody here is faced with death if they fail an arbitrary task, unlike the System members and Contestants. In actuality, the simulation here would be prolonged the most if both Alison and Sevener were captured. The Emperor doesn't die, and neither competitors die, so it's a stalemate that lasts as long as the CAI lets it. That would be the optimal scenario for this simulated city, and one of the worst situations we could get stuck in. We'd have to rely on Glitcher to somehow pull us out, assuming he realized something was wrong.

Also the legal Jetals we know of aren't directly serving EIN. One was a bodyguard, the other a security officer. Not administrative duties. Those that ARE directly serving under EIN would likely have some loyalty to it and would be more likely to be hostile than cooperative.

If we can somehow prove that this city is a simulation then maaaaaaybe we could get someone to help us, but we'd have to spin it as the Sapphire Emperor being behind it somehow and killing him would set the AIs free. That's the only way I see that strategy working.

>drunk with a heart of gold
>Belenosian
Hooooo boy.

>>493086
Itcher?

...I'd say go with the blade, for now. It's more what we're used too, and the energy margins are more generous.

Although, with our illegal and and special core, we are probably pretty tough. I bet we have a better fire rate than a lot of jetals.

>but if you keep firing at max, you'll blow yourself up if you don't cool yourself off.
So if we wanted to do continuous firing, we'd need to morph some kind of cooling structures?

...Arbiter's ornamentation doesn't sound quite so frivolous anymore!

>Gun training
Hmm. We got thousands of people in here, right? None of the chose to make a gun? ...although I suppose the experience isn't very useful if they haven't practiced it in freeroam.

> the epitome of Officer Hardass. Real tough on crime. Out of nowhere, one of the cops that gives a shit.
...that's a possible suspect for Sevener! Taking a position of power in the existing power system is kind of a logical role for her. And being tough on crime gives her a good excuse to hunt down other jetals for the resources she'll need to complete the mission! If she just assumed the role too, it would explain the shift in behavior.

Only odd thing is that an unlicensed jetal would be able to work for the cops. Unless she found a way to fake the credentials she needs, or the simulation started her in a slightly different situation from us.

>>493057
The big difference is everyone here is living a lie. Even if they're all real beings, they're living fake lives in a fake world with fake memories.

A fake world that is going to disappear as soon as we or Sevener wins. Everyone here is basically already dead.

We have no way to stop that. Even if we convinced everyone in here or the truth, we have no way to help them escape this simulation into the larger one we know.

The only real hope for these people is that if and when we reach the system's hidden backups where every contestant and system member is stored in our efforts to save everybody, that they're there too.

1/3 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)13:39 No. 493172 ID: c4e5c2
File 136096437412.png - (79.93KB , 700x700 , 28.png )

"Maybe he's fuelied by alcohol." That gets a laugh. "So, boss, what do I call you?"
"Boss's fine till we get to my superiors. Then, the name's Polatt."
"Alright. Also, do you know anything about field battery charges?"
"Eh, not really. Jetalium works. I hear you can just kill off a chunk of your mass for a quick pick-me-up if you gotta. Or someone else's mass."
"Also, uh, I'd like to get some clothes."
"Your trench doin' you no good?"
"My current one is jetalium."
"You're naked? Whatever. Yeah. We'll get you some."
"Any armor I could wear that would absorb some damage from a jetal damaging punch?"
"Huh? Some yeah, if you can get armor. That one's gonna be harder to get. Already pushing my brownie points for materials on this sudden mission we have going, so don't even bother yet."
"Alright. I'll choose the melee weapon then."
"Great."
"Also, you compared EIN to god. But it does have a physical form, right?"
"Yeah. Somewhere out there, that great pie in the sky EIN is just a mainframe in a warehouse. Probably guarded by half the world military, miles underground."

>Internal cavity for power cells (or regular items)
She can absorb objects into her mass, although it feels a bit weird and uncomfortable, so she'll try to make an actual internal cavity for small objects in case it comes up.

>Won by being diplomatic, ethics on killing
Diplomacy has worked well in her own world, but she was always in a better negotiating spot with confused, desperate people. Or, after awhile, with superpowered stats and a large following already. While she would like to continue the trend, she is in a worse off position for it here, and trying to be a diplomat in a risky situation would be placing nearly her entire following at risk.

>Is it possible to access Dreamspace from this lobby?
It isn't.

The rest of the drive is more or less in silence, before one of the others sticks his hand out of the car. One of the pedestrians tosses a suitcase up as the car passes, which is promptly snagged and pulled into the car. They seem well practiced at this.

"And there we are. Let's go to the bar before it starts getting too crowded."

Weapon Downloaded: Plasma Beam D
Clothes equipped: Dead Battery Trenchcoat

Duelist can tell right away that it is possible instantly charge up and flare the beam out, therefore it can effectively be used as a surprise attack or the equivalent of holding a knife to ones throat without draining battery power until necessary. Soon, Polatt drives through a building entrance and parks, where everyone gets out to walk the rest of the way.

2/3 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)13:39 No. 493173 ID: c4e5c2
File 136096439353.gif - (28.17KB , 600x600 , 29.gif )

"Alright, newbie, here we are. We're still inside dead battery territory. We know the staff well. We also know the police well, and we have understandings. We don't kill the investigator. Just rough him up a bit. Make it clear we don't appreciate his snooping around. Course, all that is after you successfully take out the jetal and show that we have the muscle to back up that unappreciation."

The bar is only partially populated, and the female staff seems flirty for reasons beyond Alison. The guards also look the exact same as the ones above Loviro's hideaway. The only customers around are drunk, and trading small items that are eaten. Alison might guess that food is are nothing more than innocent, wholesome candybars. The ones that make people put on funny faces and wiggle around after being eaten. She wonders if this is really what the stages and safe zones were supposed to lead up to, because they didn't prepare her for weird stuff like this at all.

>"Welcome, boys!" one of the staff says. "Go ahead and help yourselves to a table, we'll be with you right away. Most of us are setting up for the lunch rush. Oh, and we'll keep your respirators safe till you have to leave."

3/3 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)13:40 No. 493174 ID: c4e5c2
File 136096440690.gif - (45.75KB , 1000x600 , 30.gif )

Polatt leads everyone down and gets a table, giving the waitress their orders.

"That's our man, in the corner of the bar counter. Been tolerating him for awhile now, but the last couple of days he's been on fire through our territory. We'll give you one guess which of those guys is the jetal. Anyway, like I say, we know the staff. They'll look the other way if we pick a fight. They aren't stupid. Same with the customers. Basic plan is you go up and whack the jetal. We'll get up afterward, don't wanna tip 'em off if we all get up at once. But we got your back to make sure the investigator doesn't get in your way." Polatt texts into his phone, and Alison hears one of the girl's phone beep. "So, newbie, any questions or comments on how we're gonna handle this? We're counting on you after that electric clerk business, so take your time, we got a bit to enjoy ourselves."

>>493174
how well do you think this particular jetal is able to fight? Any ideas what we should be looking out for?

Oh gods, the dancers' standing animation is butt flexes. XD

>one guess which of those guys is the jetal.
The spiky lizardish dude, of course.

I don't suppose they've seen him in action before? If they know what kinds of weapon(s) he may have?

Obviously we should be going with some kind of ambush plan, here. I don't suppose we could slip away and morph to look like one of the serving girls to get close? Sure, we won't pass for organic if he pays attention, but if they come here often, he won't see the staff as a threat. And if he's distracted or looking the other way at a more apparently threatening gangster as we approach, he won't be looking closely.

I spent a long ass time thinking the lizard was too obvious and looking at all the samey sprites for weird movement animations (since jetals move weird and thought that was a real visual gameplay factor for determining jetals), then realized this world wouldn't have lizard people on them.

Then I'm like ffffffuck the most obvious answer is the right one.
>>493177
>Turn into a dancer
I'm having a tough time figuring out the logic of this. The dancers normally would simply be able to tell something's up due to an unreconized face, but then I realized they all have the same sprites. So they're just copy-paste unimportant NPC's I think. Or not, and this is a simple abstraction of the simulation and the dancers will immediately out us. This is thinking beyond the unique jetal movement issue, because no one could tell we weren't normal very quickly until we pointed it out.

I suggest becoming a guard/bouncer. Faceless, uniform, very little flesh is shown. The only way to become unreconized is if everyone is keeping tabs on who's on the clock and how many should be on the clock. Keep an eye on nametags of the bouncers as you leave for the bathroom.

ask what weapons the other jetal has and weather or not we could take them for ourselves after we get rid of the jetal also how tough the jetal is.
As for a way to take the other jetal down I say walk up to it casually as if your just going to sit down on one of the bar stools next to him and when you get in range use the beam sword to stab him in the gut then immediately swing the blade up practically spliting it in two. even if the jetal lives after that it will still be badly hurt

Only problem with the ambush plan is we don't know where he keeps his core. Could possibly hinder him enough by lopping off a limb that we could just sort of dig around and find it. Seems too risky.

I wonder what would happen if we just grabbed him and absorbed him into us, core and all?

>then realized this world wouldn't have lizard people on them.
Well, barring elaborate and expensive reconstructive surgery. (Which our scientist bud said was becoming harder to get). It should be within the available level of tech here though. Although I don't see many people wanting that- especially as it would lead to getting mistaken for a jetal (which apparently have less legal protections and rights than organics). We can probably pretty safely assume anything that doesn't look belonosian is a robot.

>becoming guard/bouncer
The problem with shifting to look like muscle is, well, we look like muscle. Any half decent bodyguard pays attention to muscle in the vicinity, or getting close to them. The idea behind turning into one of the dancers/wait staff isn't just about blending in / anonymity, it's about not appearing to be a threat until it's too late.

>>493180
...I think the way jetal combat works is you hurt and/or disable them, and then you keep doing that until you separate the core from the body and/or destroy it. Possibly cutting off limbs and things and absorbing them as we go? I mean, we're basically fighting a mobile pile of play-doh with a hot knife.

Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)14:35 No. 493187 ID: c4e5c2
File 136096774254.png - (12.20KB , 700x700 , 31.png )

>How well do you think this particular jetal is able to fight?
At a glance, Alison has no idea.

>Change into bouncer
Alison could get their image down and normally that could be best, but she doesn't think she can fit their size. She would be conspicuously smaller.

>I wonder what would happen if we just grabbed him and absorbed him into us, core and all?
Alison doesn't think Loviro implied it was possible to absorb another core, but she does wonder if it is possible to try and absorb another Jetal's jetalium while they're still attached to it.

Before making a move, Alison will get more info.

"Do you know how well this jetal fights, or what weapons he has?"
"Nah, we're kinda in the dark. Supposedly his core is a pretty ancient model though, it's no good."
"And do you mind if I take the jetal for myself, that is, after I subdue it?"
"Yeah, knock yourself out, you get to absorb him completely. Do what you want with the core itself, we don't care."
"I might be able to slip away and then shapeshift into one of the girls in 20 minutes or so maybe to get close to him without him suspecting anything, but the girls would probably notice that I'm not one of the staff." The girls do look samey from a distance, but up close they have some differences.
"Eh? That's perfect. And yeah they'd know, I'd tell them that's what you're doing so they know not to ask funny questions and to just play along. Hell, I'm tellin' them to keep a finger over the door lock so the investigator can't scram when you do your thing. Hell, with the sword you might be able to oneshot him if you know where the core was. A shame we have no jetal x-rays, but one good swipe or lucky stab would do."

Alright, girl ambush plan is a go. (It should take us less time to shift into this shape, since we're doing a smaller transformation. We're changing into a similar bodyshape, not doing drastic reconstructions like lizard-bot to naga to mock-Arbiter).

A lucky stab to the core might do it. It not that, we stab or slash to keep him down and prevent counterattacks until we remove or break the core, while possibly using our off hand to try and hack jetolium off of him (if his core is older than ours, he probably won't be able to compete with our theft attacks. Especially if core to core processor warfar is carried out by the 3 or 4 thousand strong AI army we're carrying).

If we can get ahold of it, it might be interesting to see if we can board other cores. Will their be a little room with the controlling AI in it?

you think if we just decapitate the other jetal it would stay down because if so I say we go for a decapitation

Melt the jetal's face off first then remove each limb starting with the arms. Hopefully destroying his sensors will give you the split seconds needed to kill him.

>>493199
...well, that would at least deprive him of sensory organs, giving us a brief window where he's blind / deaf before growing eyes and ears elsewhere.

>>493187
You know, we never found out how we can absorb a Jetal without killing them. That might be a good question to ask. I think if we can avoid that we might be able to get some useful info from the core, or maybe persuade them into cooperating with us in exchange for their life.

Maybe we can just... sortof... envelop them after cutting them down to size?

Definitely start the fight by cutting a large portion of their body away.

Sounds like the disguise and ambush plan is alright, but it could use something more. Could the boss arrange for a ruckus in or near the entryway to go off on cue while you're approaching for the hit? Something just enough to get the bodyguard Jetal to look away for a moment?

Oh, and could the waitresses put up the "closed" sign to keep out the lunch rush as well? You know this is the Dead Batteries' turf, but having more bystanders around just adds to the chance of things going sideways.

Watch the way the waitress that's doing table rounds moves and acts for a few minutes so you can try to mimic it later; It won't fool a biological, but the Jetal probably won't catch on. Do so out of the corner of your eye so you don't look like a complete perv by staring.

Take the form of the waitress that's doing rounds, that way the boss can send her to the back and you can take her place to bring a tray back to the table and the bodyguard won't get suspicious. In fact, could the waitress behind the bar act like she's out of whatever the cop drinks up front, and she'll send the other waitress around to get another bottle? That way you can walk up to him without obviously bee-lining towards him.

When it comes time to slice up the bodyguard Jetal, start by chopping off the head and grabbing it to absorb. Follow by slicing off the arms, letting them fall, then a horizontal slice below the midsection. You're aiming to whittle down the Jetal until only a small piece remains around its core. That way you can capture it for interrogation or experimentation.

Just how ancient is an "ancient" Jetal core in this case? 'Cause you are in what sounded like a prototype core that's at least thirty years old. That just might substantially predate this bodyguard's "ancient" core.

disguise and ambush.

Since we don't know where the core is, lop off the legs and steal them, as a battle opener. Or the entire lower body, if you can cut a torso.

It might take awhile to absorb new material. I would not count on being able to instantly absorb new jetal until we have learned to use this body more.

>>493224
Well, in that case we'll just toss it away as we carve it off so the bodyguard can't use it either.

I certainly hope this beam saber is as capable of cleaving through Jetalium as everyone is assuming.

1/3 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)20:16 No. 493320 ID: c4e5c2
File 136098821293.gif - (31.07KB , 700x600 , 32.gif )

"Is it possible for the staff to put up the closed sign?"
"Yeah, just don't ruin business for 'em by taking forever."
"Okay. When I come back out and approach the jetal, please make a distraction away from me."
"Sure."
"How ancient is 'ancient'?"
"Dunno."
"And... how does a jetal absorb another jetal without killing them?"
"Dunno. Hell, I don't even know how jetals absorb one another. Instinct or something."
"Okay. Just make a distraction for me when I come how to get him to look away."

With that new lack of insight, Alison moves off to the back when she can do so subtly, and the staff ignores her while she morphs. The bouncer behind the counter moves into the back as well. Nothing else changes as she strides out, but Polatt brings one of the other gang members to the side forcibly like they were in an argument. Duelist takes over to get the hang of the body, which no one is used to, and starts walking toward the entry like that was his destination while he hopes for a better distraction. It comes in the form of Polatt exploding at his fellow gangmember in a convincingly furious act. Duelist jumps back so he is behind the jetal, who snaps his attention to the scene. It would only last a second before he realizes it's just someone elses quarrel, but that is enough for the Duelist.

Some of the girls back away and prepare to duck behind the counter.

2/3 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)20:17 No. 493321 ID: c4e5c2
File 136098822028.png - (22.20KB , 700x700 , 33.png )

Duelist has a clear first strike. The blade handle which fires the plasma was stored in Unity's wrist. In one motion, he brings it out, grabs it, swings his harm to decapitate the jetal, and powers it on right in time to hit his neck without giving the jetal any warning. The head rolls right off.

>"In case anyone else was thinking of fighting in high heels, I don't recommend it." Duelist shares.

3/3 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)20:17 No. 493323 ID: c4e5c2
File 136098825643.png - (27.62KB , 700x700 , 34.png )

A backup eye camera pops out from the jetal's right hand. His other turns into a plasma gun in one blink as he swings around, and gets a blinding shot off in two blins. Either he was disoriented too badly or he just had bad aim, as the duelist is able to dodge the shot while bringing the sword back around. With a swipe, he takes off both legs and the arm armed with the plasma shot. One of the drug addled belenosians just barely starts noticing.

"Alright, investigator! You're ours for the next 2 minutes! Newbie, absorb that guy quick, I'd bet money he alerted EIN, so we gotta get the hell out the backdoor when we're done."

That is something Alison would have liked to know before.

start absorbing.

>>493323
Running in high heels is difficult. Better bend/shorten the heels out of the way while you absorb the guy.

As for how to absorb, I dunno. Just grab his disconnected weapon arm and try enveloping it or forcing your own Jetalium into it. Do so with successively larger pieces until we find the core.

>no one is used to the body
>I don't recommend fighting in high heels
...dang, we really could have used Succubus. :V

>absorb him quick
Right, get down to it. Careful, one of those hunks we chopped him into still a core in it, and might be able to fight back and/or form limbs / weapons.

If possible, let's try to capture the core instead of destroying it. I'd be interested in poking around in it (can we hack it? Access the AI inside?).

If possible, we want to steal his weapon pattern along with his body mass. (Although we might need to hack the core for that).

Sorry Alison. We thought it was obvious. You should still be in the clear if you can get away before anything recognizes you.

The Dead Batteries may not have anticipated that you can't really do further work for them though, as everyone now knows they are harboring an unmonitored Jetal. Whereas your secret might be preserved, theirs is quite obviously compromised. They're going to have to go deep into hiding if they want to survive unscrapped.

Now that you have begun the attack on the monitored Jetals they will be more on alert for unmonitored ones, but there are four of you last I checked, so perhaps another will end up taking the fall. Anyway like with any extremely illegal activity, you should find somewhere to hide, and stay there until the heat has blown over. You'll have to balance caution with the chance someone could take a hit on the Sapphire Emperor while you wait, but he'll likely be even harder to kill while the heat is on so hiding is a safe bet.

Two Jetals worth of Jetalium should get you up to the size of most of these Belenosians (big guys excepted). More and you might have to worry about being identified purely from size alone. In fact a way to preserve Jetalium without incorporating it into your superstructure might be important...



I'd tell you to take the other core with you for analysis, but it's probably got some sort of position tracker in it too thanks to EIN. Best to just let it get away I suppose. Don't kill it on the spot, as that would keep other Jetals unmotivated to support our efforts.

tl;dr get that Jetalium and go hide with the robots and see how this blows over. Slap them if they get cocky.

>>493339

Oh, if it has an obvious communication antenna you could break that and keep the core. Otherwise you'll have to assume for now that communication with EIN is merely a game abstraction, not anything physical you can disable. Wouldn't it be great if we could free the other Jetals from being monitored though?

We have no idea how such things work. Until we do I'm gonna say capture the core. If we can hack it we get all sorts of benefits. The rewards outweigh the risks.

Before turning the sword off, slice off the remaining arm on the bodyguard's torso. Then gather up all the loose bits and feel around on them to see if you can interface with them to absorb, before moving on to attempting to engulf them.

Leave the torso for last, since it most likely has the core in it. Absorb it until you reach the core, then try to interface with it. Have everyone in the mind-lobby ready to "repel boarders" if it tries to invade your core.

Whatever you do, do not take the core with you out of here. It likely has a hardware level tracker that cannot be disabled without destroying the core. Strip all the Jetalium off of it you can and then ditch it.

>>493327
In addition to changing your footwear to flats, start morphing street clothes over your body as well, since you're not going to have time to do a complete change before fleeing. Otherwise it'll look odd for a gal to be in that waitress getup on the street.

>>493352
The clothes change isn't a bad idea.

Might be a idea to actually multitask for that- have one person focused on making sure our target stays subdued and harvesting jetal, while the other makes the cosmetic adjustments we need to run and not stick out on the street (we can shift back into full Arbiter-form later).

>>493339
I think you might be overreacting a bit. We'll see how bad the police response is, but I doubt the crackdown will prevent our illegal allies from operating.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)21:18 No. 493366 ID: c4e5c2
File 136099192365.png - (16.18KB , 700x700 , 35.png )

>Better bend/shorten the heels out of the way
Duelist may have done that, but he simply used the staff uniform that was handed to him for the same reasons as getting a new trenchcoat. His feet are jetalium, however, so he could just drop the high heels and run barefoot.

>Start absorbing
It does not appear to be self explanatory.

>Break antenna for EIN
Alison doesn't know if it is a game abstraction, but if there was a means to disconnect the jetal from EIN, it was more subtle than antenna wire.

"Uh... Duelist? Slice the remaining arm off, then... do we touch it or something?"
>"It's trying to morph into something else, so we'd better try."

He cuts off the arm, and puts Unity's hands on a chunk of small jetal.

>"Yeah. Yeah, I think that's about it, I guess it is instinctive after all. It almost like it..."

2/2 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)21:21 No. 493369 ID: c4e5c2
File 136099207918.png - (16.97KB , 700x700 , 36.png )

Alison and Duelist lose control of Unity for a second, as Unity falls straight down on top of the biggest chunk of the jetal instead and starts absorbing. It seems like surface area contact helps a lot, but more alarmingly, Alison didn't realize that Unity was starving. Enough to lose that control for that second. And jetalium is delicious, as it turns out. It's an odd feature, Alison thinks, and seems like the sort of thing that would encourage jetals to absorb each other. Either that or it's just like eating regular food, and other jetals happen to be food too.

It is also maybe not something that should be done in public if it can be helped, as it looks inappropriate. It feels inappropriate. After about a minute of unwittingly shutting off the outside world, Alison finds the other Jetal core. It's trying to absorb Unity back as the enemy core hits Unity's jetalium, but Alison is thinking that losing a lot of jetalium at once might weaken the jetal on the whole. He's not able to overpower Unity, and Alison now has access to the unharmed core. She could take it, but will probably just leave it. Once she stops eating, anyway. It does not seem like the other core is hackable in the regular sense, but it feels like the core bleeds into Alison. It would have been alarming, until she figures out that's just her absorbing the abilities as well.

Weapon gained! Plasma Shot F
Auxiliary Function found. Explosive shedding. Unity is able to shed off a certain amount of mass normally. This ability optionally allows that jetalium mass to become highly unstable, and explode between 20 seconds and 3 minutes after being completely detached.

Alison's absorption efficiency is currently at 43%. Out of 100% of the jetalium available, it will take 15% of it to recover her battery from 92% to 100%, or she can simply take all of the available jetalium and recover herself back at Loviro's hideaway.

>>493369
Oh. My. That was kind of unexpected.

Right, kick off heels, equipped trenchcoat, and move out. We can adjust shape later.

Leave the core, I guess. We got what we needed from it. Nice that we now have a ranged weapon (although lower rank than our blade) and the ability to make timed bombs / grenades at the cost of some jetalium mass.

>how absorb?
I'd take all the jetalium, for now. We don't need to waste the 15% of the loot to recharge the 8% of the battery we're down.

>>493369
Absorption efficiency? How on earth does that work? Does the extra metal just sortof vanish? Hell, I don't understand how we're consuming metal to recover battery power. Unless I guess some of the metal just becomes inert?

I think we shouldn't spend metal if we can't recover it by merely recharging. Also, note to self: Activating the laser sword drains less than 8% battery. Probably more like 5%.

It's almost time to go. Get your trenchcoat back on and see if you can morph back into your previous form, or at least what parts are visible while wearing the trenchcoat. Ask for your fee, and if they have another job set up for later. We need to report back to home base first.

I'm tempted to go back to home base in Snake Queen form, after they drop us off near the electronics shop where we met them. See if we can attract Sevener's eye and take her out. Speaking of forms, we should act on this guy's example and put backup ears/eyes here and there on our body and limbs.

recover back at Loviro's hideaway for now, we are still well above half of our battery life so I think we shouldn't use the jetalium like that unless we really need to. also ask if there is a way to 'hack' a core or if it can be traced if it's untraceable take it, we can hack it later maybe and might be able to get some info on the sapphire empire and if not we might be able to sale it or maybe Loviro might have a use for it. if it can be trace just leave it.

>>493377

Lets avoid Sevener's attention for now. On the bright side with that new ability we can create our own distraction for when we take on the stronger jetal. If you can't figure out if that core can be traced or not just drop it and go.

>>493388
Seconding not wanting to try and draw Sevener out, just yet. We had our first somewhat lucky battle- don't get overconfident.

That, and the cops are gonna be looking for an illegal jetal. That means they'll be checking identifications and credentials on any obvious jetals they encounter. So we want to keep posing as belosian, and not using exotic forms in public.

Being clothed is probably not helping with the absorption process, so shed them if you can, but it's probably too late to do so by now.

Absorb the whole thing, since you're nowhere near the power level that would justify burning jetalium to charge. If you ever get to that point, you can burn it then.

Strip the core of all its jetalium, then hold it up to Polatt before leaving and simply ask if he knows if it has an irremovable tracer. If he says it does, or he doesn't know, ditch it. If he says it doesn't, take it with you. If he says it can be disabled or removed, ditch it if you're not taking a car out of here; Otherwise keep it with you to work on for a few minutes, before chucking it out the car window.

Check with Dualist how long he had the blade on and compare it to your charge level to get an estimate of how much juice it took to light it up and run it.

Considering the amount of heat that's about to descend on this area, you might not be able to go back to Loviro's hideout for awhile. Just go along with Polatt and the Dead Batteries' escape plan for now, since they know much more about getting away and hiding than you do.

>Loviro's hideout
Be nice to recharge later, but we were driven here, and we don't necessarily know the way back! (Unless our map automatically tracks where we've been, and where we are?).

I also kind of think in the immediate moment we're kind of dependent on our adopted gang for a getaway plan. And they're probably going to bring us to meet their boss next, now that we've passed our initiation and proved we aren't an undercover cop.

>>493399
True. We should probably meet their boss next. Our home base will be quite fine; my understanding is that the people there don't really go out much if at all and while we'd be making them worry by staying out for longer than they expect, our progress with the Dead Batteries is more important.

So yeah, let's just leave our battery as it is now, and see if we can make any more progress with these guys.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)22:34 No. 493404 ID: c4e5c2
File 136099647280.png - (23.26KB , 700x700 , 37.png )

>Being clothed is probably not helping with the absorption process, so shed them if you can
Alison feels that this has been awkward enough as is. It's about finished anyway.

It would seem that everyone felt that event in the lobby, and the silence is quite uncomfortable before Atlas breaks it.

>"Just think of how that would have gone if we were fighting Sevener instead."

Alison will not. She can think of better ways the silence could have been broken.

>Absorption efficiency?
It seems that the raw jetalium is gained and incorporated into Alison's mass, and the rest of the jetalium turns inert and... leaves some kind of sticky, disgusting metal in its place. Loviro did say that it had some kind of biological properties, so it makes sense it would have energy stored in it even if it needs a core to be kept alive.

>How long did duelist have the blade on?
Barely a couple of seconds, nearly all of the energy used was just turning it on.

Alison goes ahead and takes the rest of the mass. She feels like she can get bigger, but she can also simply increase density instead and keep her volume. She will do that for now before she becomes a huge arbiter.

Back in the real world, the investigator seems to be taking his punches in stride. Others are staring at her while she kicks off the heels and puts the trenchcoat on, and Unity begins to morph back to Arbiter.

"Can the core be traced?"
"Yeah, if we don't destroy it, we leave it. Alright, let's get out of here!" Polatt says.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/15(Fri)22:35 No. 493405 ID: c4e5c2
File 136099650075.png - (43.77KB , 700x700 , 38.png )

Everyone piles into the car frantically, and pulls out of the parking lot as casual as perfectly legal occupants with no legal messes would. Alison sinks alarmingly far into her cushion.

>"Good show, guy! Or, girl, or.." the driver says.

Alison is still morphing and right now is a very effiminate Arbiter.

"Yeah, damn good job! Officer Hardass can back up his words, though. Didn't look like he gave a shit, but we still took out a jetal. You couldn't have used up much battery, so you're gold, right? How about you come back to our place and we'll have a celebratory initiation? Hell, we'll show you a place you can stay, too."

>>493405
Did we seriously just leave a pile of Jetal poop behind? This just gets more and more awkward for us.

A secondary homebase would be nice, sure. Also, can we eat regular food? I forget. Maybe we should do that too to supplement the Jetalium we just consumed. However, we need to spend our time wisely. Ask how long the initiation would take, and if it would result in us getting knocked out or something for a long period of time.

Also, tell the Dead Batteries that you are very interested in any information about any other new Jetals that show up out of the blue. There is one specific one that you wish to kill.

Man, that inspector almost looks like he's pleasantly enjoying his beating.

>Just think of how that would have gone if we were fighting Sevener instead.
...well, her core would have put up more of a fight. It wouldn't have been as one sided. Still, if we'd caught her by surprise like that...

We have to at least assume Sevener's found a weapon by this point, though. And she's going to be hunting (for resources, us, and eventually her target) not waiting around like that guy was.

>guy! Or, girl, or
...whoops. We just accidentally made rule36 Arbiter canon. XD I see no problem with using effeminate Arbiter for a bit though. It's not like gender really matters to a shapeshifting robot. (Although if we're trying to blend in with the gang in public, male is probably better. And I suppose Sevener might suspect stand-out females as being us).

>back to their place?
A formal initiation couldn't hurt, and having more than one place to crash or hide out could be useful. I wouldn't waste much time with celebrations, though. We are on a clock (more than one, even).

Yeah, ladyarbiter works. Why not.

And do we have a reason to not go along to this initiation? I mean, our goal IS to join/use this gang, right? Do as much as is required of you, then get going at your earliest convenience to recharge and plot.

It can never hurt to have more then one fall back point so i say we should go with it, maybe see if we can't get some information about the world around us at the party and maybe some more missions for more jetalium, weapons, cash, or just plain info.
Also at some point we should try and use our new gun to get use to it so we would at least have an idea on how to use it in a fight (maybe when we know we can easily make it back to Loviro's hideaway so we can recharge), and that we talk to everyone inside the 'lobby' as our little feeding time seem to kind of scare them a little. so it could help to try and bring there moral up a bit

>>493405
this is the point where I'm getting paranoid and don't want to go to their home base and celebrate.
We'd be too well surrounded and too valuable. Even with how useful we are, how long before the popo going to crack down their place for that jetal? Word's going to get out, no matter how much the batteries told you they had control of situation, and they know that. They're going to salvage what they can take. This wasn't a test for you, this was a trust building exercise that you build on them and so they can collect information on you and how you fight, to assess the risk on taking you in and somehow profiting from you.

Face it, their winning option with the least risk whether you were illegal or legal would be to try and make a quick buck. Win-win either way. Win-lose from their perspective if they take you in, pretending to be an illegal jetal when you a legal jetal and that's a big fat loss on their part. Look at what you saw, what you done. Big loss.

The Dead Batteries seem to be loose cannons if that shopkeep was right, but they've escaped/divorced themselves from EIN which certainly puts them in the same danger we started out in. I say roll with them, but do not under any circumstances let them know where your charging station is. We'll need an inconspicuous shape for returning there too, which we use nowhere else. How about that homeless one we saw at the start?

Nice swordsmanship Duelist, by the way. Sorry about the high heels.

>>493432
I think jetals are uncommon and useful enough that having one working for/with them is worth more to the Dead Batteries than the heat they might pick up being associated with us.

And I'm not sure how bad the heat will even be. After learning how desperate jetals are to feed, and how pleasurable it is, as well as discovering they aren't quite as rare as we were initially told... jetal on jetal crime has to be somewhat common. You got illegal jetals hunting others, and legal jetals taking bounties to hunt them. Sure, the feds/cops would like to take us down, but I don't think we've sounded the kind of supermutant hyperevil copkiller alarm.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)10:08 No. 493495 ID: c4e5c2
File 136103809447.png - (13.92KB , 700x700 , 39.png )

>Can we eat regular food?
Alison... doesn't actually know.

"Sure." Alison can't think of sufficient reason to hurry back to Loviro.
"Already texted the boss. He'll be seeing you right away."

Alison is also sure to get a backup eye camera in a couple spots around internally so that she can also see after being beheaded should it happen, and hopefully fare better than the other jetal.

>Our little feeding time seem to kind of scare them a little
She didn't get the impression it scared them, as much as it was just a terribly sudden point of awkwardness that caught everyone by surprise. In any case, she doesn't believe Unity is starving anymore, and she knows what absorbing is like, so she doubts it may be such an issue in the future.

They drive for around 10 minutes or so before entering another building and parking. Polatt tells Alison they won't need to worry about appearances and respirators here.

"Just remember to keep your mouth clean around the boss, give him respect and all that. I'd tell you more, but you've already got candy words."

2/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)10:09 No. 493496 ID: c4e5c2
File 136103814081.gif - (127.00KB , 800x600 , 40.gif )

Alison ends up taking an elevator upwards. Somewhere on around the 130th floor, the elevator finally dings.

She moves forward through a couple of rooms until she approaches what must be the main boss. Once again, she can't help notice those guards or bouncers are around.

"Welcome to the dead battery, Unity." His voice is artificial. "I expect it has been a turbulent day for you. Waking up and suddenly here. But no worries, exactly because you're here. In good hands. Do us well, we do you well. Gaus, give our new jetal recruit an opening gift, since it was so kind as to do the same for us twice over today." The one known as Gaus, the wiry belenosian, gives her a stack of cash. For all she knows she just got pennies, but of course doesn't act that way.
"That's quite a lot, thank you very much, uh, boss?"
"Yeah. Welcome. Now, make yourself at home. Things might get messy soon. We don't eliminate jetals too often. Not often enough. Police will come. Pester us. But that gives us more excuse to pester them, back. Might cool down, might not. We might not want things to cool off. We play it by ear. Now, Unity, as our honored recruit, is there anything that we can help you with?"

Alison will possibly ask about that body armor.

>Ask the dead battery to keep a lookout for sevener/a special new jetal wandering around
Alison might be afraid that may give rise to some questions about why she wants to kill or seek out a particular jetal, but the benefits may outweigh awkward questions.

Well since we're here lets ask if they have any contacts inside the Emerald Emperor's Palace. Someone to smuggle us inside would be great. Even if it takes more favors to do so

Ask whats up with that smog

>>493500
Hmm. I ...wouldn't think we're ready for that, just yet. We just joined this group, and they're considering pushing the police force harder. I'm not sure we can play the rebellion or regicide cards yet. Maybe when they trust us more. That, and even if they went along with it, I don't think we're prepared for the assassination mission just yet.

>Ask about Sevener
...I think the potential gains from asking them to keep an eye out for another new jetal out there making waves is worth it.

As for the why... she's from the same place we were. Where-ever it was you were made. You knew her before you really woke up the first time. And you know she wants to kill you. So you'd sorta like to find her first.

Unfortunately you don't know what name or shape she'll be wearing. Just that she would have started out sometime today, like you.

>>493505
We can phrase it like all the best Jetal will be there. It doesn't necessarily have to be 'oh we want to kill one of your head honchos. Lead us to 'em!'

just be vague with your questions. don't ask about just the sapphire empire but ask about all three (we might be able to use that somehow) and if your ask why you want to know about them just say you heard they run things but it wasn't explaned futher and you're curious.
Ask about other Jetal in the area/city and if they're any we should make it a point to avoid or any new up and coming Jetal besides us
Ask Were we could get some better weapons now that we have cash and maybe somewhere to practice our new gun
Last one, ask were our new home is

Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)11:05 No. 493513 ID: c4e5c2
File 136104150438.gif - (123.90KB , 800x600 , 41.gif )

"I would like to have body armor over my jetalium, is that possible?"
"Armor is difficult. Not gun difficult, but difficult. We we can do is direct you to someone who can get you armor. You saw the receptionist on your way in. Ask her for the Undertool. That's our third party man, our black dealer, so forth."
"Thank you. Also, a short question. What is with the smog?"
"No intriguing story behind it. Belenosians need power. We get power from power plants. Best, most efficient power happens to have a smokey biproduct. Boom. Town's painted in red soot, but we can power our air fresheners to get rid of it and cool our food to boot."
"Ah. Okay, then the last thing, there's a jetal that made along with me. She wants to kill me, and I'd like to know where she is and possibly find her first. Is it possible to keep an eye out for any jetals that awoke today? I don't know what she will look like or what name she'll go by, but she probably will make a scene."
"It isn't much to go on. Jetals come and go. We won't like to make a promise to you that we will find her, but we will make a promise that if we can find her, then we will. And you will know all we know. Now. Why would this jetal want to kill you?"
"She's terribly aggressive and just doesn't like me. That's.. not a very good reason, but that's it." That may be somewhat of a lie by omission in the current situation, but on the whole, that seems to have been exactly what sparked sevener trying to beat Alison. Boss doesn't ask more, so she continues. "Thank you very much. I got a new gun module from the jetal I did absorb, is there anywhere I could practice it?"
"Absolutely. Polatt can show you around while he shows you to your new quarters."
"Thanks! Another question, since I don't know much... is there anything I should know about the three emperors?"
"Not offhand. They're about as secure on their throne as it has ever been. We used to have 20 or so emperors, but all but the three were killed, assassinated, backstabbed and so forth within their first decade as emperors. These three have been around for over 25 years. But no one wants to kill 'em. Can't say for sure, but I bet each emperor would take out the other 2 in a heartbeat if they knew what to expect."
"What do you mean?"
"Reason why they haven't been killed yet is cause they all have deadman triggers. Old Diamond Emperor said he had his back in '69. Said everyone'd better leave him alone. Some emperor thought he was bluffing, killed him anyway. Next thing everyone knows, top brass Diamond authorities try and assassinate every single other emperor. Course, only 4 succeeded, but that left a hole. A big one. Created a huge mess. The current three have something like that. No one knows what. But, no one thinks they're bluffing."

Oh dear. We kill this guy and the entire civlization goes down in chaos. We aren't going to get much support on this.

>>493519

Or, we kill this guy and the simulation ends, pronouncing us winners of the whatever it is, leaving nothing to fall into chaos. Convincing other people of that might not be easy though. I still say we should try hacking the system, somewhere covert.

>>493519
The criminal underworld would love the ensuing chaos as it is a chance to seize power.

It'd be an even better deal since if we co-ordinate with them now, they're going to know exactly what to expect and have a plan for it whereas nobody else in this town will.

Hmm. Deadman switches make it complicated. I suggest we wait until the dead batteries have riled things up with the cops- that they've decided they like taking advantage of chaos.

Although, if the simulation ends when the emperor dies, the deadman switch is moot.

Of course the deadman switches could work in our favor. Kill one of the less well gaurded emperor's... and reap the rewards via whatever revenge he had.

>>493524
unless of course we have to go to the tie breaking 'survive' but hey at least we now know what to expect if it comes to that
Oh and if we have to leave to get to the fireing range/ our new hideout/home don't forget to ask about undertool and maybe see if we can get weapons from him as well

Deadman switches actually give us more options since we could actually go after one of the emperors with weaker security and use the chaos resulting from that to cover our own attempt to kill the target. There are two main flaws with this. Sevener might exploit that chaos the same way we would and beat us to the kill. The target might also end up under even higher security to deal with the chaos, forcing us to hunt down Sevener if we can't break the higher security.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)12:44 No. 493543 ID: c4e5c2
File 136104745746.png - (11.41KB , 700x700 , 42.png )

"I think that will be all that I need, thank you once again for your assistance." Alison will have to think about how to breach the topic of actual assassination at a later time. For winning against sevener, Alison supposes it might not matter too much if she causes the downfall of society as a result, although that will not be a good way to convince people to help her.
"Welcome. Polatt, show Unity around. Ask for me through the receptionist if you need anything else."

So Polatt does. The firing range turns out to be an arcade with a focus on shooters, in which virtual guns are used with virtual ammo, due to the fact that even if one had a gun, using bullets would be prohibitively expensive to just use to train. While arcades are not illegal, the training simulations are. Nonetheless, the simulation inside the simulation is convincing, and the duelist gets some good practice in. It even has worldly simulations of real gunfights. Duelist does shoot the real plasma shot once to know how it feels and to pick the right settings in the arcade. It takes about 5% off the battery power per shot at max power, and has about 70 to 80% of the punching power compared to just stabbing once with the plasma sword.

Polatt convinces Alison to spend some leisure time on the gamey parts of the arcade, which she amuses for a little while.

Otherwise, the building is largely office and residential with some commercial, seeming to be nearly all belonging under the direct ownership of the dead battery.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)12:45 No. 493544 ID: c4e5c2
File 136104755014.png - (15.78KB , 700x700 , 43.png )

The next stop is the receptionist for the body armor.

"I would like to see the Undertool, please."
>"Very well. Let me see... his next available appointment is on the 401st at 70 o' clock." That was, in fact, 'seventy' o' clock. "Shall I make the appointment? Unfortunately he is a third party and does charge, so it will cost 15,000 empire dollars." Alison thinks she has almost a hundred thousand crammed in her coat.

...how far in the future is the appointment she's offering? It doesn't help us much if that's too far away.

But otherwise, yeah, go for it. Don't go and flash all your cash at once, though. Just pay what's necessary.

Man, why these backwards moocows not use kilotime like the rest of space future?

>>493552
It's not their fault. They won't make first contact with the human species and the metric system for nine thousand years. :V

It was 08:45 when the simulation started. Was that a one time thing, or do we happen to come with a clock?

I miss shopkeep. So convenient.

sure why not, just ask what time it is right now and see how much time you have to kill. If you have a lot of time, like a day or two go back to Loviro's hideout to recharge (after we find out were our new home is)
If we have a few hours before we have to go, check out our new hideout the dead batteries gave us and get a feel for the place.
If we don't have much time at all, well then just head for undertool's place

>>493544
Tell her you don't know how the calendar or clocks work yet, and would like an explanation before we make any appointments. Also, what's the current date and time?

Are you currently morphed as regular or lady arbiter?
Or actually i doesn't matter, you should try wooing or charming the receptionist.
I bet she will be willing to move some people to get us a better appointment if we get her to like us.

>>493573
That.. is probably a good idea. Since Alison DOES seem to have Charisma since she can attract followers and friends pretty easily (its the biggest reason she is a major player compared to the bigshots who have all sorts of other advantages)

>>493573
...I don't think any of our thousand odd AIs have any experience with that kind of thing!

Besides, it's not like we need to fastrack this meeting. We can work on other things if it's going to take a bit.

Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)14:07 No. 493586 ID: c4e5c2
File 136105245184.png - (11.89KB , 700x700 , 44.png )

>Are you currently morphed as regular or lady arbiter?
Alison may have kept a slightly feminine face, but the body is male. It is still ambiguous arbiter.

>Charm the receptionist
She has no idea how to do something like that! Despite that she isn't sure that would help, she is still surprised at how much so far would have been up the succubus's alley.

Alison instead resorts to asking potentially stupid questions.

"What is the date and time right now?"
>"It is currently 18:74, day 398. Of year 99."
"... How many hours are in a day?"
>"... one hundred, miss..ter."
"And minutes in an hour?"
>"100."
".... what time does the sun usually rise?"
>"These days, around 5. Sets around 60.
"... days in a year?"
>"421."

She pays for the appointment, which is in three days.

>"Uh..." mathematician starts. "Okay, I've been keeping time since here, and, uh... hold on... it's been about 3 hours 30 minutes galactic time, and around... 10 hours 29 minutes belenos. So just shy of 3 belenos hours is 1 regular, or galactic time hour. Which means one belenos day is around 33 and a third regular hours. Which means.. geez... about 1.4 belenosian days is 1 galactic day, or 1 belenos day is about .72 regular days. Then... 3 belenos hours, one regular... 300 belenos minutes, 60 regular, which means, if I'm not mistaken here, one minute we think passes will be 5 belenosian minutes? And finally, 421 belenos days is about 589 regular days, or about 1.61 years compared to 1 galactic year.

What Alison is gleaning from this is that time sucks. She wants a watch. Also, maybe a future-map. In fact, there were shops in this building, Alison might just want to go shopping for stuff, with her giant wad of cash.

Yes, lets go get a map and a watch. We might also get a snack \ drink to test out eating.

While our crew might seem like they know there stuff we have no real world experience at all. Alisons reaction to the bar was so innocent and confused. All our old simulations with were other Ai's. Now we are dealing with stuff that's simulating real people. So sex drugs and all the odd bullshit real people have running through there heads all day. Should be interesting to see just how accurate this simulation is.

To make the time situation even more confusing: time inside this simulation is almost certainly passing much faster for us than it is for the allies we left outside (if things haven't slowed to a stop all together). And even then, we know time for all of inside whatever we're in passes quicker than it does in the real world (each loop is only 3 days long- even non counting Corruption cheating time, we've been going longer than that).

...a watch isn't a bad idea at all, especially if we're going to need to coordinate with people. We're limited in how much in the way of mundane tools we can carry though, if we want to maintain the ability to shapeshift as needed (unless we resort to carrying things inside ourself).

>she is still surprised at how much so far would have been up the succubus's alley.
Surprise MVP character of the year. She even had practice with shapeshifting!

Let's get a map, a watch, a utility knife, and a pocket flashlight.

Get the watch first and then the map.

1/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)16:25 No. 493618 ID: c4e5c2
File 136106074261.png - (17.73KB , 700x700 , 45.png )

Alison purchases a watch, a map which simply comes in the form of a handheld minicomputer with other applications that happen to include a map, a utility knife and a flashlight. While walking, she thinks she is using more battery power to lug around more weight, but she could be wrong. It's hard to tell, because it's still an extremely low amount. Still, soon enough she thinks she might be able to get concrete numbers like she did while absorbing, that way math can crunch numbers that matter to her.

Next on the to-do list, is to try to get something to eat. She doesn't think it'll hurt. Some kind of steak thing is purchased, and she goes to sit down with Polatt.

"It... doesn't taste like much of anything."
>"You need tastebuds, Alison." Engineer says.
Oh, right... oh, this jetalium can make them? Yes. That's convenient, and apparently instinctive too.

Alison can also feel the jetalium digest the food as she makes a stomach cavity inside her, thankfully this time making digestion an internal process. Soon, her tastebuds inform her that the steak is also delicious, although weakly, so she keeps on creating tastebuds.

2/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)16:27 No. 493620 ID: c4e5c2
File 136106081975.png - (13.16KB , 700x700 , 46.png )

Alison soon discovers the reason why a stomach does not have taste buds.

Also, the chair makes a menacing crack under her weight.

None of this simulation has been very kind to her dignity so far.

Tastebuds at the mouth entrance alone, Alison! Sweet in the front, bitter in the back, salty/savory on the sides.

This weight thing is getting very silly. It appears absorbing Jetalium has its own problems that may hinder our efforts to get to EIN or the Sapphire Emperor. We really need to enlist the aid of other Jetals, further complicated because we're so delicious, if we want to carry around a lot of Jetalium. That or figure how to create more cores and populate them with our team members.

Say

This body doesn't have an instinctive reproductive function, does it?

>tastebuds in stomach
Um.... yeah. Not such a good idea. Poor Alibiter. Try to avoid breaking from biological designs unless you can think of a good reason to do so.

So... did that experiment do anything? What kind of energy returns are we getting on breaking down organic food?

Actually, what are our energy reserves at now?

Where do we think we stand with planning for our mission, now? We have allies, and basic weaponry. We have some excess jetalium, but we don't know how much we'll need. We don't have a way to get at our target yet. We will eventually have armor.

So... what do we do next? Do we need more jetalium? More weapons? Start looking for an angle to get at the emperor?

>>493620
Density seems to be a big problem. Try shifting some weight around to our legs/feet or returning to the naga form for a weight distribution that doesn't focus so much weight on the chair. We could also 'eat' some of our metal to recharge and also reduce our weight, but then what would we do with the waste? We can't just leave a sticky pile of disgusting metal on the floor.

Also yeah we should keep tastebuds isolated to the mouth where we do our chewing. Also, I would like to raise a second concern. You're gonna have to go to the bathroom later after digesting all this.

Ask Polatt what sort of trouble the Dead Batteries get up to, anyway. Mainly weapons dealing?

>>493624
Well, considering the dead man's switch, we can contemplate taking out one of the other emperors if they're easy to get to, and using the resulting wave of assassins for our own benefit.

>>493620
ok, time to spread our weight a little. Try to focus our density into the legs for now, that way we don't put any uneeded strain on the furniture, yo.
We should also try and see about finding a way to change faster, as I can see GREAT VALUE in being able to easily and quickly shift our bodies. Nothing ridiculous, I am just thinking perhaps making it so that we can put more weight into our fists mid-fight, or maybe put more density into our arms for blocking at a moment's notice.

We need to be well prepared for the big boss battle, so let's try and get our abilities as refined as we possibly can.

Also, we need more jetalium. If we focus on spreading the weight around effectively, the weight issues shouldn't be much of an issue for us.

>>493629
Adjusting our density distribution so there's more mass in our legs when sitting is reasonable. For moving around / fighting we may want it more evenly distributed (otherwise we have less material to work with in other areas for adaptive shapeshifting, toolmaking, weapons forming, and we take a disproportionate loss if we lose a leg).

1/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)17:59 No. 493660 ID: c4e5c2
File 136106639694.png - (18.45KB , 700x700 , 47.png )

>Results of food experiment
Aside from being able to eat food and enjoy it, the jetalium is able to recharge its battery. Alison thinks that she might have eliminated the battery loss or so, as right now it does not seem like battery usage is going up or down at all, so she may have struck equilibrium. There doesn't seem to be much, if any, downside. If there is, it is so minute that she doesn't think it would be a problem.

>This body doesn't have an instinctive reproductive function,
Alison thinks that she has had enough awkward moments to avoid testing this out in front of a virtual audience of thousands.

>We could also 'eat' some of our metal to recharge and also reduce our weight, but then what would we do with the waste?
She can probably dispose of it better next time. The first time was, well, the first time.

>You're gonna have to go to the bathroom later after digesting all this.
The hindsight in this is powerful, and she is going to have to do that in front of an audience as well. Maybe she can delegate that.

>Actually, what are our energy reserves at now?
87%, after shooting the plasma gun once.

For now, she makes Arbiter's feet bigger and leaves some weight off the chair. She might just be able to grow in volume in general, in fact. It won't make her lighter, but it will make her less of a bowling ball.

"So... what do the dead batteries do for business anyway? Arms, weapon dealings?"
>"Nah, like you saw, a lot of that is 3rd party involvement. Think of us as a sort of mini-government. We get protection money from certain establishments, and they get a bit of insurangce. Take for instance the damages caused in the bar, from our enemy's plasma shot. We'll pay for repairs, and they'll continue their cooperation. Other times, we take bounties from the police themselves to fight other crime syndicates. The way the police see it, is that if they just have to spend a little cash to get the crime to fight itself, then why not? Everyone wins. That's just a couple ways. Now, I didn't know you jetals could eat after all, so let me take you around the food courts. My treat."

2/2 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)18:03 No. 493662 ID: c4e5c2
File 136106660854.gif - (21.57KB , 763x363 , 48.gif )

Alison will enjoy the food from the lobby and let Iso or whoever wants to take over, as she wishes to ask for other input.

"So what should we do, now? We could always use more alliances, jetalium, or even just basic weaponry. We might have enough jetalium, actually, we're pretty heavy up there, but getting abilities from stronger jetals could be good."
>"There is that stronger, security jetal that was originally mentioned."
>"We could use some statistics." engineer thinks. "We've got almost no data on our performances other than having an easy time taking out a weak jetal, but not much we can use. Loviro told us almost nothing, and I think we should pay him a visit."
"Yes, we'll be heading back there anyway, but perhaps we could do it faster. Also, being able to shapeshift faster would help."
>"I do believe that, actually, may be instinctive as well." Duelist says. "We may be able to simply increase our morphability, as for some reason I got the impression it was far slower than it needs to be. At the same time, if we were set to low morphability, then I wonder if there are shortcomings of having a high morphability.

You should totally start pimping yourself out for cash...

>high/low morphability
Hmm. If there's a toggle we can throw for that, we might want to experiment with how the body functions differently at the high setting.

If I had to guess at the drawbacks, there's probably less structure and looser forms. In exchange for fast swapping, we may lose some of the integrity of whatever form we're actually occupying, putting us in a slight disadvantage in combat, and when disguised.

Setting aside time to chat with Loviro again (and recharge at the same time) is probably good, as is looking into going after the stronger jetal who was giving the dead batteries trouble.

Idea for future trouble: if we're in a situation where we need to be dodging deathtraps / incoming fire? We might want to turn to Gambler. His success rate in that area has been uncanny.

>>493659
At least we can decide to emit waste in whatever manner we wish. Doesn't have to be a conventional digestive tract and opening.

The morphability question seems to be something to ask Loviro. If it's possible to just switch to high morphability while we need to shapeshift, then switch back to low to reduce any side effects, that would be optimal.

Also, let's uh... make our form a little bigger in general. Make the body's shape a bit more similar to the big guards we've been seeing. Keep the distinctive horn style though so we're still recognizable to our allies.

Is there really nothing out of that other door in the Lobby? To the right, there? Is anything at all visible out the window? I wonder if Sevener is like, right next door to us behind one of these walls. That would be interesting. It would introduce the possibility of a direct assault, but because of the limited space here and free summoning that would be a huge clusterfuck. A better thing to do would be to spy on her, and listen in on what she's doing, while ensuring we aren't spied on ourselves.

Hey, just out of curiosity, ask Polatt what's up with all the same looking giant guards. Are they all made in the same place or what?

Better get a read on how much Unity weighs pretty soon. We don't want to put any elevators and such over-limit just 'cause we didn't know that. Ask Polatt where there'd be a large scale you could use, since a normal bathroom scale would be crushed (and that'd be embarrassing.) Once we've got a number, we can ask how that compares to various belenosians, either bio, borg, or bot, and choose a body based on that.

We'll hold off on testing high-morphability until we're back at Loviro's hideout, and choosing a new body shape. On the way there, morph into a belenosian form you haven't used yet, but isn't anyone you've seen so far. A plain looking female with a non-distinctive random set of horns will do.

Before leaving the Dead Batteries' tower, ask Polatt about the possibility of getting a jetalium charging station at a separate safe house for yourself. Either by them buying or stealing the whole thing, or the parts to build one.

The density of jetalium also brings up an additional way we could be detected: Seismic and weight sensors embedded in floors. Those, coupled with cameras to read our general volume, would raise a red flag. So we should expect that in in at least the highest security locations.

Also, start collecting what documents on culture, history, science, engineering, biology and so on you can get here. Then during down-time Historian, Engineer, and Mathematician can take turns driving Unity and reading up on this setting; Heck, you could create a form with a whole mess of eyes so everyone in here can read a different thing each. You'll want them to soak that knowledge up so it'll be available when you need it. The culture, history, and biology part'll help avoiding social screw-ups, at least.

1/3 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)19:43 No. 493689 ID: c4e5c2
File 136107258719.png - (8.09KB , 700x700 , 48.png )

>Also, start collecting what documents on culture, history, science, engineering, biology and so on you can get here
A stop at a bookstore will be made.

Alison moves back to Unity, but asks questions about the lobby.

"So what's outside the normal door in there?"
>"Uh... sorta close copy to your house, funny enough." Strongarm says. "Plus outer fields. Sorta like the dreamland, cept not. Most of everyone's in the fields, since the house is still only so big."

"Hey, Polatt, what's with those big guys I keep seeing around?"
"Oh, them? B class security robots. Just about anyone can purchase them, cause they're all under EIN. Or, you know, supposed to be. They're simple brute bots, and one of the easier ones to crack."
"Also... is there a large scale somewhere?"
"Huh. I'm sure we can find one, let's take a look."
"While we do, is there any way we could get a jetalium charge station?"
"Uh... maybe in the far future, but we never really had much for jetals, you know. So we'll just have to keep you fed and hunting, and try to keep your battery use at minimum. Till then, we'll put that on the shopping list. Definitely not something easy to come by."


Soon enough Alison gets into a shop that has a larger weight scale. It looks like it's a novelty sort of thing, but it's said to be accurate. 415 kilos. Most elevators support that, due to having things like those security bots move around, but she will have to pay mind still. Polatt weighs about 120, and he is mostly robotic by this point. The average belenos weighs 65 kilos, and the B class security bots weigh around 380.

2/3 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)19:53 No. 493693 ID: c4e5c2
File 136107321362.png - (20.84KB , 700x700 , 49.png )

While Alison and the others join in to what turns into a modest party with the gang members, Unity starts increasing morphability. Not much, but she does need to get a feel for it sometime. It's somewhat of a slow process getting it up there, but as it goes it is easier to mold as expected. She is not at max, but she can make a few estimations about what it would be at max. For one thing, shifting from low morph to high morph would take around 2 or 3 hours normal time, 6 to 9 hours belenos hours. But, she thinks that at its max, she could completely change forms in around 5 minutes, and from, say, arbiter to the dancer within a couple.

The downsides start showing up, though not in ways that harm her now. For one thing, her surge value appears weaker, and at maximum morphability she doesn't even know if she'd be able to use the beam sword, or if so, then it would be cutting it close. Also, her battery usage starts going up substantially, perhaps upwards of quadruple battery power just to exist. Numbers are still proving too hard to catch, but she's getting there. She moves back down to her original state, and will cease further experiments until she's back around Loviro.

But first, with the morphability, she increases her size to a bit bigger than the average belenos. Some people notice, but as it is no secret here that she is a jetal, no one's jaw is slackening.

She's distracted by a stranger coming up to her between all the eating and drinking.

>"Hey, have a joining up present! It'll keep your face hidden from upper building security globes, actually fits your horns, and it's still in style in some areas. Welcome to the family!" the stranger says.

3/3 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)19:53 No. 493694 ID: c4e5c2
File 136107322592.png - (12.54KB , 700x700 , 50.png )

Although Alison was obviously aware of everything up to this point, it just now truly dawned on her that she just joined the mafia.

>>493691
Oh. My. Gods.

We made rule36 Arbiter and Mafia Alison canon.

Alison: swap control off to someone else and hold a small internal freakout with Iso.

>weight
Hmmm. I'm not sure we could handle much more jetalium, then. It would make us stand out, a lot (...although for all we know Sevener is gonna go full on super battle tank with all the mass she can).

>morphability modes
Yeah... for now I think low is better. We need to be effective in the forms we're in more than we need to be able to quickly swap forms. We may find circumstances where things are otherwise, but we haven't, yet.

>house and fields
Do the people out there get to watch what's going on with unity too? I know we can't have everybody in the main room, but if the people out there have a good idea, they should be able to pass it along.

This is awesome, we should be honored to be in the family, enjoy the part, we did great today. :3

Mafia Quest is go. It might be a good idea to look into ways we could get more battery power out of food. Switching to high morph for combat will likely become a necessity when we take on smarter jetals. In addition we may want to investigate if it's possible to switch the sword over to an external power source so we can use it in tandem with the high morph mode.

High morph mode seems mostly just for quick disguises and such. Maybe sneaking through tight spaces as well. Valuable when we need it but probably not the best for combat. Will have to test things out more later.

>>493695
Rule 63 is gender-swap.

>>493694
Let's spend a token amount of time at the party, then say we really should get back home to talk to our scientist buddies. They must be getting worried by now.

Great. They're calling it a family. Crooks only do that so they can squeeze more out of you than if you were just a worker or a friend. Free labor for the family and all. I suggest you make yourself scarce right now. Get back to your charging station and wait there a day or so. If these guys aren't a smoking ruin by then because everyone targets them trying to get to you, then maybe we can rely on them. As-is we should probably scoot before the police stop ignoring this "hidden" base and start EMPing it.

>>493700
...whoops. If it exists, someone will accidentally get it backwards. Twice. >_<

Checking back with the scientists as a next step seems reasonable. Although I still think over-worrying about the police response is silly for now.

Well, you sorta felt it'd happen at some point. May as well be now, when there's a whole mafia organization to help you out.

Thank the delivery man for the hat, and keep wearing it while you're in the Dead Batteries' tower. However, stash it when you're outside their territory. It'll likely mark you as a member of some crime organization, and hiding your face from security monitoring is only really helpful to those who can't just change their face.

Shift back to as low a morphability as you can for now to conserve energy. You won't need high morphability unless you're in a situation where changing forms to disguise yourself is needed.

Pass on the eating for now, and move on to exclusively drinking; Specifically really high proof cheap booze. See if burning ethanol will give you the same energy as food, without the waste issues. Grab a few bottles for testing later, when there isn't a mix of food and drink in you.

Is that 380 kilos for the brute bots with or without all the gear they wear? 'Cause if it's about 415 kilos with, you could completely pass as one by morphing into one with the gear. Even if it's with the gear, you can morph into one with a particularly heavy piece of gear, such as some heavy armor or a heavy riot shield. Ask Polatt if they carry that kind of stuff without it being illegal.

For now, morphing into the form of a big, beefy male belenos would be a decent compromise; Something on the high end of the bio-belenos scale. Or perhaps a beefy female belenos, just to change things up. Also, get some regular clothes to match whatever form you get.

>>493701
This seems like being overly paranoid, but you don't know. The Dead Batteries may be overconfident in the authorities either not knowing they have an unbound jetal, or them not caring if they do. Better ask Polatt if he's honestly REALLY sure that the police or government or something won't come down on here like ton of bricks. That there's no moles or hidden surveillance or any shit like that in here. 'Cause you'd rather not your downfall be from overconfidence.

Even if they are sure in their security, you'd rather be at a separate safe house that's completely separate from any known Dead Batteries organization. You just happen to have one, in the form of the Loviro's hideout, you just need them to discreetly get you near there. You can get the rest of the way on your own.

A thought just hit me
Right now we are basicly playing GTA 'in SPAAAACE'
anyway see if you can find out where your new hideout is and maybe stop by if it's on the way back to Loviro's Hideout if not we can swing by before or after the meating with undertool depending on how much time we have

1/3 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)21:40 No. 493721 ID: c4e5c2
File 136107965818.png - (12.71KB , 700x700 , 51.png )

>Is that 380 kilos for the brute bots with or without all the gear they wear?
Alison believes it included the gear, since the gear was standard.

"Thank you for the hat. And Polatt, do the security bots carry that gear around legally?"
"Yea. The guns only work to their specific model name, and if EIN detects they've been destroyed or are under attack or something, they'll send other bots to try and pick up the remains."
"And... are you sure the police won't come down on here hard?"
"We can't be sure, but it's gonna take a little more than that event to get them to do something like declare war. Watch your back, though, if they want to take care of illegal jetals, they'll probably be trying to come directly for you first."
"Then, if they come for me, and find me in your hideout, they'd have an excuse to mess with you guys. I do have another hideaway from just before I met all of you, so you can just show the police I'm not around here."
"Wasn't planning on kicking you out on the street. We set you up a room and everything."
"And that is very nice, and I would like to be able to use that room, but I do think it's best if I keep some distance. What if a mole or security bot comes by and sees me?"
"They probly already know you're here... so if you're suddenly not, that could work. Alright, why not. You bought a pad, so we'll keep in touch. Till then, I'll drop you off. Where's it at?"
"Nearby the electronic shop, actually."
"Alright."

Alison keeps them company for a bit longer, before purchasing some bigger clothes in case she shapeshifts to something larger. With that, Polatt drives Alison back.

2/3 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)21:42 No. 493723 ID: c4e5c2
File 136107974677.gif - (3.23KB , 137x149 , 52.gif )

During this time, Alison gives Iso some hugs. Duelist morphs into the homeless guy to come back, but turns back into Arbiter quickly enough.

3/3 Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)21:48 No. 493726 ID: c4e5c2
File 136108013839.gif - (16.93KB , 800x600 , 53.gif )

Loviro is about as excited as he gets when Alison returns. It is currently only around 30:00. Her sense of time is going to take awhile to get used to this.

"Excellent! You did not get yourself killed, so I expect this was successful. Not to mention you have grown."
"It was sort of sink or swim out there."
"Yes, but I've set your model out to sea like this before. They float, they always float, and it seems the times haven't changed much! A good thing, too, as I have no time to waste."
"Where are Vinyl and Yallows?"
"Yallows did something with his implant. I don't know what. But he ran off, and Vinyl went to chase him. Nevermind. You've been busy shopping. Tell me everything that happened. Spare no detail."
So Alison does, and there are quite a few details to share.
"Haha! You go out into a foreign world and manage to get yourself into trouble by midday. We can use this, I believe. And already getting a jetal. It does sound as though they have become more common. It is a shame I don't know what that model was that you defeated."
"Speaking of which, are there numbers we can get? It would be nice to know."
"Yes. You have a couple of weapons now, and have had time to stretch, so to speak, so our numbers will be fine. We can worry about Yallows later."

Alison does various rote exercises that take a few hours of data collection, along with recharging. Between her info and that, she gets a far more concrete idea of what her specs are.

Vinyls and Yallows are still missing.

Available stats will be at:
http://tgchan.org/wiki/Unnatural_Selection_Stats#Temperary_Belenosian_CAI_statistics

Alison 2013/02/16(Sat)21:59 No. 493730 ID: c4e5c2
File 136108079758.png - (2.53KB , 200x177 , whoops.png )

It sure is a good thing Alison waited till entering the hideaway before changing back, because she sure did accidentally bring his decorations back too.

Oh hey. We went full on Arbiter, ornaments and everything. Those work at all as cooling structures for faster shooting? :V (Otherwise they aren't very useful- they make us stand out and it's easily severed jetalium).

Hmm. I think we have to investigate the missing NPCs, for now. They're a liability- if Sevener gets ahold of them and discovers the location of our charging station, we're boned.

>>493726
I think we'd better go looking for them. Maybe use our Dead Batteries contacts to get extra eyes out for them.

She said she has no time to waste- what are her plans, exactly?

Ask him if he could make use of that jetal core off the one we killed, or any future cores of jetals we kill.

ok so how much time do we have untill we have to meet undertool, because if we have some time we should ask Loviro if it might be a good idea to look for Vinyls and Yallows. If we do go look for them I say we go with some kind of generic looking Belenosian so we don't draw to much attion to ourselves

>>493735

Those missing folk's are quite a liability. Find out if you can quickly disconnect that recharger unit for relocation if you suspect this safehouse is compromised.

>>493735

How about not let some robot goons know about our beneficient creators and saviors or simulacrum thereof.

Ask about Jetal cores. Can they be disconnected from EIN, if nothing else voluntarily? The Dead Batteries sure managed it though they're not Jetal. For all you know there could be a bunch of unmonitored Jetal running around.