>>433404
Upvoting everything from calling our parents down to the phone stuff, as well as visiting Placid and buying a new car. SUST to talking to Silja about Lyubov – she's not our girlfriend, and we don't want Silja to think she is. SUST to the siren stuff, too – we already know it arrives tomorrow, and Lyubov definitely doesn't need to meet it straight away, given we're just going to be cutting bits off of it and growing them back.

At breakfast, remember to ask Camella to organise a meeting with the Owner about his mysterious island, and to apologise on our behalf for taking to so long to do so, when she sees him next. Also ask if anyone needs our input on any of their projects.

Ask Placid if he's had any progress with the souls, or if he'd like any help.

When we go to buy the car, offer to let Hillevi challenge one of the local combat schools, like she wanted to before we got to Turkey. Talk to her about how she's doing with training Satai and practising with the sniper group, offer to take her out to see a little more of the city or take a daytrip out to the countryside, and ask her whether she'd like to take the opportunity to smash some stuff during the current uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Ask Vlad about the tank and his munitions-making hobby.

>>433472
The Arena is probably something we should dedicate a whole day to, as well as involving the rest of the company – if they get rich betting on us, we can go without paying them for a while.

>>433780
SUST to taking Bagga to meet Placid – two new people is more than enough for one visit. Maybe another time.

>>433873
Upvote to all of this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Whenever possible throughout the day, do the following things:

*Tag your position in Allview for ease of viewing later
*Practice dual orientations with various combinations, particularly
-Sphere Labyrinth and Reinforcement
-Soul Sensing and Stealth
-Shunting chakra energy to both HB and SB, and telling Sake he doesn't get any because he was rubbing himself on our naked fuckbuddy.
*Use Soul Guises and Internal Bindings to get the most out of social interactions
*Make bets with Iron Trick about everything, even trivial things, in an attempt to get information about Rabbit out of him
*Keep an eye out for well-placed apartment buildings to buy – Amen's not the greatest place for the minions' sanity.

>>433927
Unfortunately I'm using my phone and cannot replace my post whole, so I'll just have to add some supplemental things.

I retract my opposition to the arena fighting idea at >>433472 but suggest that rather than hiring a guide, we buy a map of the region, and find our own. Hiring guides just keeps us under SM's power.

I'd also like to add some clarification to the suggestion to use soul guides and bindings to improve social outcomes: soul guises are relatively straightforward, however some examples for bindings to use may include "may only use a soul guise that...", to strengthen a specific soul guise, or "may only speak to those believed to be goblins", for dealing with goblins. Around those who are likely to have soul senses, like goblins, soul guise should hide the binding. Mundanes should be fine to use both on.

Finally, I am retracting my support of >>433873, except for the six numbered points at it's beginning.

Ask Duke for ways to brew beer our of our magical meats. Offer him the first batch in return for the information

>>433873
Whoo boy, going to have to SUST this hard aside from those first 6 points.

For the most part? Enslaving ourselves to Lyubov is an all around BAD IDEA. It limits our diplomatic abilities and makes it so we are no longer truly in control. Even 'pretending' has that problem of people 'believing' it to be true which may very well make it so.

Second? She's not strong. Not yet and not for a while. If we draw too much attention to her and form too much of a public showing, we are likely going to be kidnapped again by people ready to take on a witch and right now Lyubov is at risk of even using her powers.

Third? While she is trust worthy and will continue to grow, groveling at her feet and clinging to her legs is no befitting action of Armas. We'd be sacrificing our growth SO MUCH it's not even funny. Sure she'll grow, but your plan will have us wither and stagnate.

Heck, with her current growth she seems more and more like a friendly rival/fuck buddy than a full on partner. Spark each other's growths, see who can grow faster and 'top' the other, while also be there for one another when one is in a bind. Keep the freedom, keep the friendship, keep the growth, and we still have her by our side in times of need.

Besides, she's immortal and Armas is (sorta) immortal. The average marriage these days barely last 30 years. Don't think a literal eternity is on the menu.

>>433404
>>433405
>>433472
>>433780
A thought occurs as I glance at the clock. It’s 5 p.m. in California, right now. I could call Mom and Dad and be appropriate. Yeah. Think I’ll do that. So I decide the first thing to do with my day is abuse the relation of timezones to have a conversation I've frankly been putting off.
>"It hasn't hurt your ability to avoid it that you effectively never lack for more pressing concerns."
Yeah, but still-gotta talk to them.

I pause for a moment as I try to look them up in my phone’s address book and discover it’s completely empty. I didn’t get a chance to copy it over from my old phone before the dragon destroyed it. Normally, Shadowbro would just remind me, but he’s away, training/playing with Sake, a consolation prize for my weasely little brother letting Lyubov and I have some time without him draped around her neck.

So, instead of calling information or digging up my address book on my computer, I just use Allview to home in on my Mom. It’s a pretty domestic scene: Mom’s working with her sewing machine, taking in a pair of my Dad’s pants. Guess he’s lost some weight? Good for him. She calls him over to try them on before I see both turn toward the kitchen-guess a roast just finished so they'll be sitting down for that. I swiftly change my view to the house phone, make a note of the number and exit Allview.

So I call my parents, catching them just before dinner back home in California.
>[Mom]"Hello?"
"Hi Mom."
>[Mom]"Oh-Armas, is that you?"
"Pretty sure it's me-hold on let me check... yeah, it's me."
>[Mom]"Ha ha dear.... so, how have you been?"
It’s been almost a month since I last talked to her, and we spend some minutes just catching up on her and Dad’s goings-on. Dad got a second-hand piano from a friend, and Mom and Dad both enrolled in a class to learn how to play it. Mom’s been having a fun time with setting up for a spring garden, and Dad’s been finishing up the work on the truck. She tells me about how their new neighbor is usually a nice enough guy, but treasures peace and quiet a bit much- seems Dad was testing his muffler work on the truck and Mr. Grimoire got good and angry about the noise. Moreso than would be reasonable. I file that away and reassure her that the guy was probably just cranky. Mom’s brother, my uncle, stopped by Monday for just a couple of hours; he was in-town on other business but made time to visit. It's a little detail I don't mind knowing, carefully emblazing it in my memories right away-and actually answer the question that led to our small talk.
"I've been well, my companies been doing very well-actually currently there's a bit of a work slump, but we made a whole mess of money prior so it's not a problem."
>[Mom]"Are you worried about not being able to find work?"
"Not particularly-it's the nature of the business to have lulls like this."
>[Mom]"Well, it's good to hear you thought it out."
"Gee thanks."
>[Mom]"Would you like to talk with your father?"
"In a second-actually, I called mostly because I have a request."
>[Mom]"What is it dear?"
"Can you send me my old yearbooks, and maybe a copy of a photo album?"
>[Mom]"Sure I could, but whatever for?"
>[MMM,MMMM Trait auto-activated]
"Well, it's hard to think of Istanbul as a home when I don't have many memories to lay about the place, you know?"
>[Mom]"So you're still enjoying it there?"
"I have become thoroughly enthralled with just how much is going on here. So would you mind?"
>[Mom]"Not a problem. Here, talk to your father while I look for those, okay?"

The sound of slippered feet shuffling and of indistinct conversation drifted through the earpiece before a familiar scratchy voice was heard.
>[Dad]"Boy?"
"Hi dad."
>[Dad]"You're up early, aren't you?"
"Suppose so-I guess the military really did pound some early waker perogatives into me."
>[Dad]"Hah, glad you walked away from that with something, mister 'forever-a-private'."
"Oy oy, I EARNED my 'forever-a-private' title: mock it if you will, but at least PRETEND to show some respect for the effort involved."
>[Dad]"...Well, I suppose anyone that can flip a helicopter without wrecking the thing deserves a bit of respect."
"Just a bit?"
>[Dad]"Well, it's certainly no 'surprise the landscape changed overnight."
"I still want to know what BESIDES a mess of vodka led to your platoon working all night to uproot a few trees and create an artificial hill."
>[Dad]"The anticipation of the look on our CO's face when we convinced him we'd marched in the wrong direction, and then the look on his face after 'correcting' the problem just made it worse."
"And people wonder where I got my love of pranks from."
>[Dad]"There's a key difference between our shenanigans boy-you know I only pranked drunk."
"And I have no such limitation-yes, we're quite clear about me being the superior shit-disturber between us."
>[Dad]"Mm. So? How's work?"
"Put it this way: I'm about to pay someone for 2% of the global annual production of a specific rare material, and I'll still be heavily in the black."
>[Dad]"Since it's you we're talking about, mind giving me some ballpark figures here?"
"Sure, I'll untwist the words a bit: My company has several million dollars at it's disposal."
>[Dad]"Already? Business must be booming."
"Booming might not be a loud enough word-exploding, more like."
>[Dad]"Speaking of money, your mother and I wanted to thank you for-"
"Hey woah, don't worry about it-think of it as a preventative measure to prevent nagging in the case of me NOT assisting you two during 'tight-belt' periods."
>[Dad]"...Mm. ...Say, I've heard that Istanbul's got some pretty old and famous book stores-you been to any?"
"Not as much as I'd like, but I've started something of a collection of unusual tomes-why?"
>[Dad]"Well... no, it's probably nothing-"
"Dad quit making me beg for it, just tell me."
>[Dad]"Fine, but you'll think it's stupid. That new neighbor we mentioned a bit ago- Mr. Grime-More, across the street?"
"What, he got some strange books or something?"
>[Dad]"...Now how was THAT your first thought?"
"Let's see-you lead with a question about books, and his name sounds like grimoire. Seemed as likely as anything."
>[Dad]"Hurm."
"So what about his books?"
>[Dad]"Well... I'm just wondering, is there a... mold, or something like that, that'd interferes with memory?"
My blood runs just a bit colder at the implications.
"Memory problems like what dad?"
>[Dad]"Well, we've been over to his place once-neighborly hello, all that-and we both commented on how many books the man has-but after having left... the funny thing is your mom and I can't remember a single book's title, and we looked at at least a dozen. It's a bit strange, you know?"
>"Books that are effectively warded from observation, and that mundanes, at the least, can't seem to recollect the details of after witnessing them. ...That narrows down what exactly Grimoire's doing, but not enough to really matter."
Well, it's still progress on figuring out who that guy is.
"Well, maybe you could jot down a couple titles and authors next time you're there-or have mom bring her camera and snap a few pics. Should neatly circumvent any spotty memory issues, right?"
>[Dad]"I thought about that, but it just seems a bit... strange."
"Really? You're going to worry about strangeness?"
>[Dad]"...Got me there. Way more irritating to not recollect something than to have a neighbor maybe think we're strange."
"You gonna ask him first or just snap the shots?"
>[Dad]"It's his house, his books-of course we'll ask."
Well, not many supernaturals that would hurt them just for that-should be safe.
>[Dad]"Oh, you're mother's back-well, it was nice talking to you boy. Do you yet have an idea when you'll be out here?"
"Hard to say specifically-but I'm planning a work trip to New Zealand soonish-I'll see if I can swing a trip out to California."
>[Dad]"I'd say don't waste your money, but..."
"Yeah, hard to say when I already copped to having all that moolah."
>[Dad]"Yeah, and... Okay honey -well, looks like it's your mom's turn again-"

Once again, the voices on the other side of the line shift and putter about.
>[Mom]"Well, this is a little embarassing."
"What is?"
>[Mom]"I can't seem to find your old year books."
Warning flags are set off in my mind.
"Really?"
>[Mom]"I don't know what I could have done with them-I know I didn't throw them away, but... well, listen to me making excuses. I'm sorry dear, but all I can send you is a copy of the photo album."
"That's okay-even that helps."
>[Mom]"Is your address still the same?"
"Yeah-still in the middle of downtown Istanbul."
>[Mom]"Isn't the rent expensive?"
"...Didn't I mention I own the place?"
>[Mom]"Oh my, no. Do you need these sent right away, or-"
"You can use snail mail, that's no trouble."
>[Mom]"Well okay dear: I imagine it'll get to you in two weeks or so."
"Thanks mom, you're the best."
Lyubov rather unconveniently snores beside me. My mother immediately picks up on it, and I can practically hear the conspiratorial gleam in her eyes.
>[Mom]"Oh my, who was that?"
"That'd be Lyubov."
>[Mom]"And who's Lyubov, hm?"
"Well, I could half-ass telling you over the phone, or you could meet her and whoever else from the company I bring when I swing through California during a work trip."
>[Mom]"Was that the one to New Zealand I heard you talking with your father about?"
"That'd be the one."
>[Mom]"When you know where specifically in New Zealand you're thinking of going, let me know-we might well have family out that way."
"Sure, I could definitely use some points of reference."
>[Mom]"Okay-well, I'll let you go dear."
Her voice bubbles with suppressed laughter.
>[Mom]"Try not to let Lyubov tire you out~"
"Gee, thanks mom. Have a good evening."
>[Mom]"And you have a good day!"
*CLICK*

I put the phone down, and have a little pow-wow with my Soul Brothers and Spirit Animal.
"So? What do you make of this?"
>[HB]"What is a 'year book'?"
>"It's effectively a physical copy of memories of specific periods of one's formative years-by your parliance, very popular amongst giants, and the fact they can't be found is incredibly suspicious."
"Exactly. Mom's many things, but a poor housekeeper is not one of them. She hardly ever misplaces things, and not being able to find any of my yearbooks is completely out of character for her."
>[HB]"...From this, the assumption seems to be this was not negligence, but a nefarious act related to your memory gap and long-ago mind-editing?"
"Bingo."
Sake dramatically bursts through the doors without making a single sound, wafting over to land on the slumbering Lyubov's bottom, snuggling in smugly as the Witch Saint murmurs in her sleep.
>[Sake]"Do you think this is related to the Grimoire guy?"
"Not sure-maybe. We still don't have enough data to make any concrete theories or anything."
>"So then why are we talking about this?"
"I was kind of hoping SOMEONE was holding out and had some critical data."
>[IT]"I do, but if you want it you'll need to win it from me."
How thoughtful of you.
>[IT]"I try. Also, please do remember to use me now and again-I would hate to be forgotten just because you have a personalized Artifact now."
Well maybe if you were more helpful-
>[IT]"Asking an Artifact crafted by a Trickster God to not be capricious is sadly a worthless endeavor-even if I wanted to, I couldn't change like that."
Oh well....
"Okay-table it?"
>"Sounds appropriate."
>[Sake]"I don't really care, so sure."
>[HB]"Hopefully the secrets needed to find this quest's goal shall be ours soon enough."
"Hopefully..."

I then look over at Lyubov, still asleep, and ply my soul-sensing ability.

Her tesseract-like lightning soul is still perilously overcharged, but does feel a little firmer. I marvel at it for a moment as I spend some time really examining the new structure. The tesseract barely rotates, the fourth-dimensional linkage to Tesla apparently not doing much as she rests. There are analogues on Lyubov’s soul to structures I’ve come to expect in normal souls. I can see the external structure of memories, but most are hard to read at all beyond identifying them as memory. Then again I didn’t expect to really be able to read any. I’ve only had real luck with passively reading soul-memories on vampires. There’s already a meta-pattern to her soul that reminds me of what her soul was like before: a cheery, capricious, mischief-maker who delighted in distraction. That’s a comfort, actually.

I also examine her forcibly-withered chakra gates, which, underwhelming or no, are still letting Tesla’s divine energy spill into her body. Her body looks just fine. It, too, is saturated with divine energy. I can see hints of my own energy, and Sake’s, in her body. It’s barely anything at all compared to the energy already there, but it’s definitely detectable if I’m looking carefully.

I notice, too, that there is a definite difference between the three sorts of divine energy. No, the four sorts. The divine energy that is filtered through her chakra gates is very similar to Tesla’s, but it’s got a signature that’s certainly different from the energy in her soul. Her own signature, then. It feels a little more cheery and warm than Tesla’s cool, rational and- optimistic? I want to say optimistic- divine energy. In contrast, my own energy feels… grand, and covetous, infused with the bombastic quality of my personality. Sake’s weasely divine energies are like a snicker, if I had to put a sound to the sensation I feel from detecting them.

I look at the clock and notice I’ve spent a good half-hour just examining Lyubov. I settle on a quick inspection of the rest of the household, via Allview.

Everyone appears to be in good shape, spiritually. There’s been a small general improvement in soul coherence in everyone, and everyone has more or less grown at the same rate, with the exception of Bagga, Zhenya, Satai, and Matvey.

As expected, Bagga’s soul is looking decidedly more Gloom-y. The sneaky Russian’s soul-based memories appear to be cleanly grafted, a mirror-like surface encasing a core of rock hard determination. …No, perhaps 'cleanly' isn't the correct description of what I sense-the graft is rough and raw, and feels as if it needs some sort of balm, so outside influence to fully settle. I briefly find myself fascinated by the duality of his current soul structure, the Gloom-fragment like a shadow made of reflections poised about his soul, still in the process of fusing.

Zhenya’s soul, too, has an air of determination around it. I notice that it’s a little more coherent than the others, and I’m reminded of how Lyubov’s soul looked right after her near-death experience. There’s a hint of something that’s like how Hillevi’s soul used to look- a fear of breaking things? Odd. There’s a sense of fear of something else too, but I’d need to spend far more time on her to figure it all out. I do notice that her soul's growth seems wholly independent of her chakras-her ability with Reinforcement, if I'm reading her soul emission properly, isn't at all different from the norm established by the rest.

I catch Satai in his room, reading The Last Spelling. He’s got a clear sense of focus to him, not determination but clarity of mind that feels… more thorough, more organized than when I first met him. Were I to liken it to physical objects, where before Satai's purpose could have been a simple bin, it is now a steel filing cabinet, both more durable and more organized. I wonder if that's due to the frankly impressively wide breadth of magical exposure his soul's soaked in. I can also sense that Satai’s undergone at least one near-death experience… Probably more than one- there’s a vivid sense of clinging to consciousness that permeates his coherence gains. Which, to be fair, are actually the best of everyone I’ve examined. Frankly, he'd probably do better with regimented mental Orientations than I would, preferential soul for chakra use or no. His chakra gates, too, appear to have been pushed more than most. I suppose Hillevi’s been working hard with him.

I have to edit the bind on my soul to be able to actually view Matvey’s new transcendent soul. I feel the same sensation of vague pain and disquiet I felt when I looked at Duke’s soul, and I only spend a few moments reassuring myself that Matvey’s recent gains haven’t left him in danger. Which is just as well, as he’s already awake and taking a leak. But before I look away, I absorb a single, pressing sensation, comparing his soul from before to now: Where once there was a paper lantern with a single candle within, now there's a lantern with a miniature sun that sucks in the air around it to keep it's greater brilliance going. It's an oddly pervasive sense of being more… well, more than he was before, from a spiritual standpoint. I'll have to look into what's changed once he's started getting a handle on that-I don't doubt there's much to learn there.

I end my soul exam by giving Svetlana a good look. She’s not awake with the rest of the house yet. I sense a quiet seriousness to her, an implacable dignity, a desire to remain unremarkable, veined with minor streaks of impishness rather reminiscent of the tone Lyubov’s impishness had; though it is not at all a dominant trait like it was in Lyubov’s soul. With her hair down, and no makeup on, I’m struck by how much she and Lyubov look alike physically, in spite of Lyubov’s having a good 40 lbs of muscle on her.

With the frankly surprisingly time-consuming soul-checking done, I decide to do something a bit out of character for me: Have a normal breakfast with everyone. ...Well, a normal person that eats twenty pounds of meat during breakfast. So... not normal at all. I get Boris started on French toasted croissants while I work on grilling up some meaty stuffing for them, and sausages, home fries, fresh squeezed orange juice, coffee black as tar, and other delectable delicious delights. Boris keeps looking at me askance, and I can tell from his body language and soul alike that he's trying to reconcile some rather divergent thoughts with my frankly mundane method of having breakfast today. With my help, fulfilling everyone’s orders fairly quickly is trivial, and soon the whole house is seated and eating before the business of the day really starts in earnest…. after a few bits of trolling. Just to keep the chef on his toes, I have SB feed a few plates from the kitchen to Whaitiri through his Shadow Mere, while HB pitches in by having some energy drinks, doing his best to contribute to the image that the food thief struck again.

I get a few questions about the nature of the upcoming tournament, which I deflect by reminding people to come up with decent boons to ask for if they win. I then mention that I’m going to be doing money transfers for everyone today: pay for the job they completed on Monday. I retire to my room while I do so. Pen in hand, I mull over the finer points of financing as I pre-fill a transfer order from Oyak.

Let’s see, 17 Russians, Camella, Dávgon, B.C., Bagga, Gianni, Sake, and Duke. 24 people total… need to set up a new account for Sake specifically… plus $10,000 each in officer bonuses for Camella and Matvey… and I should probably pay Camella her teaching fee too. What was it, $5,000 for the first 80 hours? And she’s been getting in 8 hours a day the past 23 days…I owe her $11,500 in teaching fees.
PERSONAL FUNDS: _{-$ 631,500} $9,079,910

That will be a chunk of change when I put the transaction through. And I’ve got another bill that’s supposed to come in today, too, from Yavuz. Man. Might be time to rustle up work. Or see if I can talk Tesla into paying the company to help Lyubov on Monday. I wonder what he’s got in mind for her, anyway.

I find myself distracted by the post arriving-or rather, a single letter. Curious at the irregular delivery, I briefly have Amen confirm it's not an attack, scan it myself-then open the thing. Inside, I find a single sheet of paper-containing an account number, a value, a page-fillingly detailed transaction list and a brief note from Yavuz. In the end, it's my bill for acquiring roughly 2% of the annual yield of iridium, plus shipping, smelting, and effectively the entire set of alloy crafting done for the golem's rebuilt weapon system.

It comes out to $6,215,250.00
PERSONAL FUNDS: _{-$6,215,250.00} $2,864,660

…Yeah, really gonna need to start looking for work again-or put some effort into finding some blood buyers, if I want to continue selling off the same stock that is no longer replenished and needed by Amen to function. Well, nothing for it-time to hit the bank, and put these transactions through-no way Oyak's going to let my first truly massive fund transfer go through over the phone or online-their attention to their client's funds is exactly what drew me to them, after all. With Sake remaining behind, I head out, Iron Trick and Mere at my hip, Shadowbro beneath my feet, to make a banking transaction.

[BANKING DISCONTINUITY]

One the way back from the bank, still sighing over the absurdly long line that took two hours to get through and the time-consuming paperwork involved in transferring millions of dollars about, I swing by the phone shop I picked up our satellite phones from, and once again hurry up and wait. It doesn't take as long as the banking did-thank Murphy for that-but it still eats up a whole mess of time to get my old encrypted phone number reassigned, and to get Lyubov a new phone as well as her old number moved. I end up getting a new employee today, and, having nothing truly pressing to do, I amuse myself waiting for him to finish by constantly steping out of his Attention while he helps me-his confused looks for the apparantly invisible customer amuse me deeply.

With the sun moving along and late afternoon becoming early evening, I recall a question I wanted to pose.
"Hey SB-when's that Siren getting here?"
>"Two hours."
"That soon?"
>"Yes. I was going to pick her up and bring her to the mansion myself."
"You know, I think I'd like to take care of that."
>"As you wish."

Upon my return to the mansion, I grab Dmitrii and Vlad and head off to the airport in one of the Vanduras, still chuckling over the idea she's flying in more or less like a mail order bride. On the way, Vlad and Dmitrii have a few questions.
>[Vlad]"So this Siren we are picking up-is she a greek one?"
"I assume so. Honestly, the Winter aspect is what I care about."
>[Dmitrii]"For your gun, right?"
"Yeah, for Silja."
>[Vlad]"So we will be killing this Siren."
"That'd be a waste-we've got fleshcrafters and time, I see no reason we can't safely remove several times her bodyweight in flesh from her without causing her any actual harm."
>[Dmitrii]"Don't take this the wrong way boss, but that sounds pretty cold."
"Eh, we'll find a way to temporarily shut her mind down for it if we can't get her to do it willingly-she'll go to sleep, and wake up, no bits missing."
>[Vlad]"That... sounds okay, actually."
"She DID get her ass-and soul-sold into servitude for doing... something, so really, this is a whole lot better treatment than she might have expected to get. Strictly speaking, we could barbecue her alive and it would be okay-fucked up, I know."
>[Vlad]"...Haven't we had Siren dishes at the house?"
"Pretty sure we have, yeah."
>[Dmitrii]"Do we have a plan for what to do with her afterward?"
"Not a one-that'll kind of be dependent on what she's like."

The rest of the drive is filled with idle banter as Vlad and, to a lesser extent, Dmitrii enjoy a rare moment to shoot the shit with me. We reach the airport with fifteen minutes to spare, and with a silvered tongue I talk one of the gate guards into letting us drive our shady-looking van in without any credentials.

Oh, I do love the perks of having gotten used to talking with supernatural deal-makers.

When we finally reach the designated location-a small landing strip for a tiny plane-I immediatly feel a soul that feels like a frozen song, bound in the largest, most complex Soul Bind I've yet encountered. I instinctually label this soul the purchased Siren-and am not disappointed when she steps off the plane.

At first glance, the leggy brunette looks like a human-but there's a few details that aren't quite right. Her collar bones are a bit too pronounced, and lightly push against the slightly ragged sun dress she's wearing. Her legs are overlong, and have more curve to them than they should, making her almost look bow-legged. Her feet, which I had at first assumed to be clad in heels turn out to be carefully folded and camoflaged talons, able to take a compact shape very similar to a generic pump when the talons are curled up. Her nose is aquiline bordering on beakish-but it's her eyes that explain why her frankly shoddy attempt at looking human even works. Brilliant pits of blue and green, orbs sparking like gems of sapphire and emerald lock with mine-and for the briefest moment I feel the pull of an alluring magic trying to wrap around my mind. Thankfully, I know enough about Gyaketsuote to recognise the attempt, and brush it aside as I step up to the cloak-clad man escorting my purchase, his every inch or skin covered in cloth. His movements are jrky, slipshod, and match perfectly with his soul' looking like nothing more than a facsimile of a human held upright by near invisible strings.

I step up and offer a hand to the smaller-souled being before me as the Siren behind him glares hate at everything she sees.
"Hello there, you are..."
>[???]"Call me Ragdoll. You Armas?"
"I am."
The man pulls a script of paper out of his pocket, it's substance softly exuding a steady thrum of power, too faint to even ping my Item Sense.
>[Ragdoll]"Her Contract. So long as you don't give it to someone, it stays yours, even if lost or stolen. Understand?"
"I do."

I turn from the wrapped figure as he promptly gets back in the tiny jet, eyeing the Siren now tapping her heel-like talons impatiently on the ground with a decidedly indignant look on her face.
>[Siren]"...So what are you looking at, huh?"

Hm. How to respond to that. I do own her now, after all......






What should I say or do?
[It is currently 7:50PM]

I think trolling is the appropriate response for this situation. Give her a Smile, bitches love Smiles.

Seriously though, it's a good idea to convince 'Ragdoll' that our interest in this siren is only for consumption; we have a reputation to uphold on the Smiling One's website.

Beyond that, might want to explain to her what's going to happen to her when we get to the car. It would also probably be a good idea to get her Name, so fleshcrafting and the unconsciousness spell will be easier to apply.

Insert joke about 'using her body' here.

Also, might want to bind her from using her gaze abilities on Dmitrii and Vlad. Doing this after we get in the car has the advantage of not letting 'Ragdoll' know about our capabilities. Should just tell them not to look her in the eye though.

we don't know what kind of behavior is expected in this situation, so lets try to avoid any significant interaction with the siren until she's in the car. then we can explain to her why we bought her.

"in case you are wondering why I bought you, well quite simply I bought you for your body. No not like that, get your mind out of the gutter. I need some winter aligned flesh for a project of mine. with the fleshcrafters I have access to I should be able to harvest a significant amount of flesh from you in a day."

give that a second to sink in and then say

"oh by the way, how do you react to pain killers? between shutting down your mind for the duration and healing you up afterwards it should be more or less painless, but it would be a good idea to have some mundane forms of pain relief ready to go just in case."

SUST on telling her to get painkillers we aren't scaring her.
SUST on giving ragdoll info

>Siren
"follow me" and go to the van. Speak to her while someone drives.
What we do with her is our business not ragdoll's and I would not want to give away info about silja to ragdoll's owner for free. He would just sell it to info merchants, any secret we leak to random strangers is a secret we could have sold an info merchant! Or better yet, kept an ACTUAL SECRET!

"Who, not what; to answer your previous question. Who am I looked at? What is your name?"
Start by plying her for her story. Continue by telling her you plan to "temporarily harvest and then fully regrow your flesh in a painless non damaging manner to provide medical assistance to someone in need; afterwards we will see".

>Siren long term plans, do not mention or execute yet
Don't mention this to her yet, but I think that afterwards we would like to study the binding on her, so that we may replicate it on others in the future as needed.
Then we free her not by ordering her free, but by disassembling and removing her bindings one by one as practice. (ideally with some sort of guidance/teacher)
We put a spin on it all so she volunteers, and when she is freed we have a new friend and possibly and employee.

>Amen
Order amen (after consulting the lane conclave for exact wording):
1. Prioritize amen's usage of blood from least to most magical; if a task cannot be performed with the least magical blood in stock, use the least magical from the blood that is sufficiently magical.
2. Do not use blood for the first year after it has been collected without permission. (he immediately used up Galileo's blood to spite us!)
3. Between non magical human and animal blood, use the animal blood first.
4. Give him a standing permission to use cow, and only cow blood immediately after it is collected (to overcome the 1 year wait period).

Assign a Russian to acquire enough calves for amen to set up for blood harvesting to minimally power amen, plus enough to power all the orders you are giving amen, plus enough to build up large stockpiles.
Tell him to answer truthfully as to how many cows he would need, as a bonus, we could recover and remove the remaining human based blood factories which we have currently left alone.

According to interwebs an adult cow runs close to 1000$ but calves go for about 150$ each. So you can afford as much as are needed.

>Prisoners
We have ordered amen to detain prisoners in the same manner BC was detained a while ago, only the first prisoners we had were made into bio-factories, there are many detainees we never met! MEET THEM! Any argument as to them being dangerous to meet due to amen traps is silly paranoia as:
1. Existing bindings on him to not harm master.
2. He had the bio-factories we dismantled for much longer and it didn't hurt us!
3. We are just asking him to bring them to us, just as we have had him fetch countless other things. No extra risk in merely bringing a prisoner to us.

>Boris
Approach Armas asking to use company funds to set up a full brewery for both private use and resale and as a front business.
Not where he is doing everything but actually buying equipment, hiring employees with prior experience, and buying large quantities of raw materials. Mundane stock for mundane brews (public sale, front). Magic honey and peaches and other magic fruit from smiling one for magic meads and wines.
Will work with Armas later (questdis) to set up exact details including a new Amen definition for workers who are not guests, but mundane workers that are not to see or interact with amen.

>>What should I say or do?
There needs to be a definite change in how we deal with her compared to our other underlings. She is a slave and as such should be dealt with, at least at first, more like Amen than like a Russian. For now, this means giving commands rather than requesting and preferably giving as few of those as possible. She doesn't get free information, she doesn't get any leeway – while the Contract won't allow her to disobey the word of an order, we should cultivate the expectation of her following the spirit of them, too, as well as acting in our best interests at all times. Don't give her attention when she wants it, unless it's to give an unrelated order.

Ignore her question. Just tell her “Follow me.” Don't say anything else yet, just get in the back of the van and direct her to sit. Once everyone's in, head back to the mansion.

Give the Contract a quick read through and try to sort out what it means – how orders works, whether they're permanent like with Amen, how to free her if we ever decide to – with Shadowbro using accelerated thought. If it looks too complicated to comprehend with only a few minutes, set it aside and let SB figure it out using his perfect memory. If the Siren tries to interrupt, just hold up a finger to indicate that she shouldn't talk.

Once the Contract is reasonably well-understood, or ten minutes have passed, tell the Siren to summarise how and why she is soul-bound. Use this opportunity to get a good look at the binding on her soul to help SB figure it out, but remember to listen to what she says – having to tell her to repeat herself isn't particularly useful. Once she's finished with her story, give her the ground rules as orders.

*Do not harm me, my followers, or my associates, directly or indirectly.
*Do not manipulate or coerce me or my associates via magical or mundane means.
*Do not communicate with Amen.
*Do not leave the mansion unless directed to with specific objectives by myself or an officer of my company, and return there on completion of those given objectives.

That should cover most of the trip. Once back at the mansion, have Vlad lead her to Satai to have her details recorded. Make sure she knows that she is to answer all of Satai's questions truthfully and to follow all of his orders for the rest of the day. Don't give Satai any directions with regards to what information to get out of her.

Ask Dávgon about the possibility of mental or spiritual damage to the Siren from repeated flesh harvesting and, if it looks likely, ways to mitigate that damage. Invite him to study her binding with you for your next Soul Manipulation lesson.

Talk to Silja. Ease her into the plan, ensuring she knows that the Siren won't have to die and will be fully returned to health once the procedure's over. Ask her how she's feeling about it, and if she's upset or uncomfortable, reassure her.

Assuming Silja's fine with it, and Dávgon gives the all-clear, round up Sake and whoever else needs or wants to be present, and get harvesting.

>>435355
Upvoting the Amen parts, despite their lack of relevance at the moment.

Read the contract.

Tell the siren to get in the van. Interview her on the ride. Learn her name, her age, her offense, her

Tell the driver to take us to a flower shop. Buy flowers!

Buy a bouquet of mayflowers and plumeria with laurestine for the siren, a bouquet of dark pink roses with pear blossoms and larkspur for Camella, a bouquet of dark pink roses with pear blossoms and a white lily for Hillevi, a bouquet of red and orange roses with calliopsis and apple blossoms for Lyubov, a bouquet of yellow roses and yellow poppy with yellow poplar flowers for Zhenya, a bouquet of lime blossoms and plum blossoms with bellflowers for Gianni, a bouquet of bumblebee orchids and Canterburry bells with cabbage leaves for Satai, a bouquet of mulleins and oak leaves for Zhenya, mayflowers and dark pink roses for Svetlana, and whatever the proprietor suggests will be suitable for saying "good work, friends" for all the others.

>>435366
SUST to buying flowers. That's just stupid.

>>435366

Buy the flowers. Don't buy two bouquets for Zhenya, that's a little silly.

Someone in IRC had the funny, if somewhat cruel, idea of having the siren hand-deliver the flowers to everyone. If we do that, we need to put little notes with the flowers too.

Mayflowers and plumeria with laurestine for the siren (note to read: "Hope this turns that frown upside down.")
Dark pink roses with pear blossoms and larkspur for Camella (note to read: "Sometime I'll tell you how I learned the language of flowers, it's a fun story.")
Dark pink roses with pear blossoms and a white lily for Hillevi (note to read: "A bouquet for my friend, I hope you enjoy them.")
Red and orange roses with calliopsis and apple blossoms for Lyubov (note to read: "I got these for you just because.")
Yellow roses and yellow poppy with yellow poplar flowers for Zhenya (note to read: "I knew you'd work through that turbulent period your soul was going through. I'd like to have a chat with you sometime, how's tomorrow?")
Lime blossoms and plum blossoms with bellflowers for Gianni (note to read: "I know I can't go wrong giving you a bundle of genitals, even if they did come from plants.")
Bumblebee orchids and Canterburry bells with cabbage leaves for Satai (note to read: "You're doing good work, keep it up.")
Mayflowers and dark pink roses for Svetlana (note to read: "I'm looking forward to developing a lasting friendship with you, welcome aboard.")
Plumeria and sunflowers for Placid (note to read: "A little gift to brighten up your day.")
Yellow roses and rue for Matvey (note to read: "Sorry about the arm thing, in hindsight it was excessive.")
Oak leaves and mullein for Bagga (note to read: "Stay strong, kid.")
Peppermint and dragon lily for Dávgon (note to read: "I've been keeping you busy lately, be sure to let me know when you want time for yourself.")
Dark pink and yellow roses for B.C. (note to read: "I'm glad our friendship got past that shakey start.")
Woodbine and phlox for Sake (note to read: "You may speak the language of weasels, but I know the language of flowers! Just try to figure out what this arrangement means!")

>>435359
This is generally good, but it should be made explicitly clear the the siren who in the company is an officer. In fact, it'd be good to spell out what everyone's roles are, just so there is no wiggle room for her to be creative with who she takes direction from.

"Follow me into the van. Buckle up."

"Time for ground rules. Do not harm me, my followers, or my associates. Do not manipulate or coerce me or my associates via magical or mundane means unless directed to by myself or by one of my company's officers. Once we arrive at the mansion, you are to stay in the mansion unless given specific objectives which include permission to leave house grounds granted by myself or by an acknowledge officer of my company. When you complete the specific objective, you are to return to the mansion without delay."

"Do not communicate with the entity known as Amen, also called the Bloodfiend, the All-hater, and my butler."

"What's your name?"

"What's the story behind your soul bind? Tell it as impartially as you can, I want a balanced view of things."

"How old are you, and how long have you been a soul-slave?"

"Do you have any allergies or medical issues?"

"How much combat training and experience have you had? Are you familiar with modern firearms?"

"Explain to me in full the effects you can achieve with your magic."

"How many owners have you had, and in what ways have they employed you?"

"Do you have any kids, any family, any friends who would want to talk to you?"

"In general terms, what do you know about divine magic workings? Divinetech is something I've got an interest in."

"Have you ever worked with a witch saint before?"

"What are your dietary requirements?"

The_Falcon!Z/kS4uKGRU 2012/07/23(Mon)21:52 No. 435607 ID: 722415
File 134310556608.jpg - (82.29KB , 520x346 , Rolls Royce.jpg )

>siren being snippy
aw hell no
Assert dominance

Normal: use the Contract to make her behave
Trickster: completely ignore and go abotu your business while subtly manipulating her with your words so she gives up trying to get a foot ahead. RUN WORD CIRCLES AROUND HER.
Hardball: Orange voice :"SIT"
Nothing else works: Introduce Amen.

>>435584
Downvoting Adding notes and having siren had deliver. WE don't need her mucking about before we have a proper set of ground rules set. And we don't need her running around before being properly introduced, if we even plan to introduce her.
The Notes are just very un armas to me. To much sincerity, not enough trolling. Flowers alone are fine.

>siren apperance
Get her some proper clothes. We may be nto fully human, but we aint no monster. And we don't need to have her walking around in raggedy ass clothes. It doesn't look good.

>vans
HA
Call Satai. Have him order you 2 Rolls royce Phantom's. Immediately if not before. When you get them you can work on getting them magically shielded and armoured and such.(and when we do, I imagine the fact that it's called a PHANTOM, will help with illusion/speed/phasing upgrades) But for now, you can't be trying to court/bang royalty and be seen driving around in a raggedy ass van. WE made initial contact, we probably have at least one person watching us from her side. Keep it classy.

Also, get one of the minions on repairing the vans, it's silly that they still look bad.

>>435366
Downvoting the flowers SO HARD. It's stupid.

>>435359 upvote
>>435607
>Assert dominance
You are a gentleman not a schoolyard bully, let the poor slave her tiny act of defiance.
>Show vans, fix up existing vans
Its not a matter of money, the vans were chosen to look inconspicuous. Fixing them up or replacing them would be counter productive to armas' ninja ways.
We should get a classy car to use when going to openly visit powerful people. Zosimos, Owner, etc... But we should keep the rundowns of the most common van type in turkey for when we are not trying to draw attention to self. Like right now.

Ignore her attitude, just tell her to follow to the car.

While there, engage in small talk. Ask her if she has any hobbies, her favourite type of music, the last play or performance she attended, her most enjoyable kill, you know, normal stuff. No need to needlessly boss the poor thing around. We are the boss, nothing to prove here.

>>435366
>>435584
>flowers
Upvote.
>siren delivered
Downvote.
Armas should deliver the flowers himself. Stealthily. Leave the flowers next to them so they'll notice their presence, but make sure they don't notice Armas doing it.

When we're home and the basic safety orders are in place, we can explain to her what we bought her for.
"Now, as I'm sure you've been wondering, the reason I purchased you was to complete a particular project I have. It requires female winter-aspected flesh and purchasing a renewable source was more efficient than buying it outright. I have a variety of restorative methods on hand to ensure no lasting injury. You may be rendered unconscious for the procedure and/or unable to feel pain, at your discretion. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

Obviously we ask Davgon/Gianni about the risks involved in this sort of flesh harvesting and how to mitigate them, if any. I think for tonight we should take a decent amount, but not a huge amount, feed it to Silja, and then monitor both the siren and Silja for changes. It isn't like we are in a huge hurry, and this represents an opportunity to learn. Rushing and doing it all in one lump means we can't observe the results as finely.

>>435366
SUST to buying flowers.

NO TO FLOWERS!!!

>>435366
lolnoflowers
give that bitch a nothing
bitches love nothing

I think we should give her a nice smile instead of flowers

I could be capricious and/or lackadaisical about this as per my normal flippant self-I could.

But the fact remains that I own this siren as utterly as I'd hoped to own Adelate (and I still find myself wondering if the appropriate label for the strange, inverse-schadenfreude I feel over her continued resistance would be 'villainous satisfaction') conjoins with my desire to be out of such a highly exposed place before I force the siren to start spilling the juicy secrets I so desire.

"Get in the van."

It's not a request-and I watch her oversized Soul Binding pulse with power as her legs begin moving, guiding her towards the van regardless of her opinion. I can see the thinly veiled hate in her eyes-it's not that surprising given the circumstances, and I can't say that I really care that she hates me. She is, after all, my slave.
>"What a novel concept-treating a slave like a slave."
On my shoulder, a certain set of tiny wings is flapped most fiercely.
>[HB]"Is this truly a… just use of the female?"
>"I'll field that one: Imagine her as being a suitable location to build a nest. Its original occupant has elected to trade this ideal nest to others-and it has come into our possession. The fact the nest is, in this case, sapient is largely irrelevant. The metaphor isn't perfect, but does that help explain why there is no issue using her any and every way we want?"
>[HB]"Giants… the behaviors you evoke are, as ever, baffling to me."

I note he doesn't offer any more complaints.

With Ragdoll already back in the plane and starting the engines back up to taxi down the runway and get the hell out of Turkey, I get in the back of the van with the Siren, my ears faintly tingling as I watch Vlad and Dmitri getting back in the front seats. ..Ears tingling, that-
>"Yes, she is attempting to ply a sonically-founded mental influencing magic."
Can't have that.

"Stop that."
If I wasn't watching her soul as well as her face, I might have doubted that I was correct-not a single expression on her face showed surprise beyond that of one being addressed for no reason. Her soul, on the other hand, stormed and churned like a thief caught in the act.
>[Siren]"I do not know-"
"First-don't lie to me."
Her mouth snaps shut with an audible clack.
"Second, you can't use your power on myself or anyone affiliated with me unless I personally give you explicit orders otherwise-is that clear?"
She glares hate at me in silence while I hear Vlad asking Dmitri if he thinks he could pop a wheelie with a tank-I find myself curious when Dmitri's response is 'probably'.
>[Siren]"…I understand."
"Good. What's your name?"
She says nothing-and in a quick review of her binding, I see no facets that innately compel her to answer questions-we'll change that.
"Answer my questions when I ask them. Now, what's your name?"
If looks could kill…
>[Siren]"…It's Stacey."
My shadow speaks up from within the van's gloomy confines as we make our way towards the roads leaving the airport.
>"Is that your birth name?"
>[Stacey]"No-it was given to me after my original name was claimed…"
She looks rather clearly confused that she was compelled to answer that. I COULD explain how SB is effectively me, made of my own soul, and as such no doubt qualifies for any rules I impose on… Stacey… that reference myself. I do not give her the luxury of an explanation. Instead, I stick my head up into the cabin, interjecting myself in Vlad and Dmitri's conversation about tank wheelies.
"Hey-FYI, don't look her in the eye, okay?"
>[Dmitri]"Did you not enact.. precautions from her abilities?"
"I did but I think we all know how 'meticulous' I can be-so, warning you now, probably safest to not even look."
>[Vlad]"Dah-you do not look down gun's barrel, even if sure it is not loaded."
"..Yes, let's go with that metaphor."

>>434833
Deciding that the absolutely wretched feel of her soul is beginning to get bothersome, I elect to offer a limited explanation to her.
"In case you are wondering why I bought you, well quite simply I bought you for your body."
She huddles against the van's wall, reflexively seeking escape that can never be. I'm not exactly surprised by the reaction given the phrasing I used.
"No, not like that; get your mind out of the gutter."
Her body relaxes a shade as confusion wars with resistance.
"I need some winter aligned flesh for a project of mine."
Aaand there she goes trying to melt into the wall again.
"I have no intention of seeing you die in the process, nor do I intend to see you subjected to undue discomfort or maiming in the process: with the fleshcrafters I have access to I should be able to harvest a significant amount of flesh from you in a day without any harm befalling you."
I eye her soul binding, intrigued by how it seems hierarchical, my orders… 'filed' under the overarching binding that forces her to obey me as her Contract Owner. Decidedly fascinating.
"Oh by the way, how do you react to pain killers?"
>[Stacey]"It… depends on the kind. I do not do well with demonically derived sedatives."
"Good to know. Between shutting down your mind for the uncomfortable part and healing you up afterwards it should be more or less painless, but it would be a good idea to have some mundane forms of pain relief ready to go, just in case."
>[Stacey]"I have not-"
She cuts off as if uncertain speaking could be a good idea.
"Go on."
>[Stacey]"I have not tried mortal medications before, so I cannot comment on them."
"I see-a pity."
>>435355
As an awkward silence-made awkward solely by my fellow back-of-the-van passenger's body language-settles over our seating, I stretch, and throw Stacey a question I imagine she did not expect.
"So-tell me about yourself."
Her body evokes surprise even as her mouth moves to obey me.
>[Stacey]"I'm a Siren from the Srenum Scopuli's Anthemoessa, the roving fourth island. At the time of my birth the island was near Sweden-and I, along with my clutch-mates, were attributed with a Winter alignment. I was never as talented at vocal hypnosis as the rest of my clutch were, and I strived to make up for it with guile, having met a traveling sphinx that was willing to instruct me in some riddle-work. I eventually targeted a traveler from the Orient who was able to answer my every riddle, and bound my soul when I could not do the same-and here I am."
I see a bitterly frustrated tear threaten to fall from her eye at the utter powerlessness of her situation. I could ALMOST see myself thinking of freeing her-but that's completely irrelevant until I've used her body to see Silja's reincarnation through to the end. So I table the thought, and decide to utterly ignore it in all its forms until I no longer actually need Stacey's body.

>[RRRRRR Trait activated]
Then something strikes me about the way she worded her answer, and I recall what Sake had said Monday night. It doesn’t quite match what she just told me, so I ask a follow-up question.
“What did you do with the people you targeted and won against?”
Stacey looks at me with utter bafflement, as though there was only ever one answer.
>[Stacey]"I ate them.”
>It’s the traditional sphinx riddling game. The magic inherent in the game’s ritual makes the loser submit to whatever demand the winner has. Being killed and eaten is the usual end for losing mortals, and has the advantage of being fully within the Accords.
Yeah, suddenly, I don’t feel nearly so bad about this. I think she picked up on that, since she shut her yap as soon as she could. But I know there’s more to this.
“Was your binder just a traveler, or was he someone called in specifically to deal with you?”
She hesitates.
>[Stacey]”I’m not certain.”
“Give me your best guess.”
>[Stacey]”I think he heard about me, and came on his own to stop me.”
“Just stop you? Not enslave you, then. This was a contract binding you broke somehow, wasn’t it?”
She looks decidedly perturbed, and resigns herself to a more complete explanation.
>[Stacey]”Yes. I was bound to not challenge humans to riddling games anymore. I made a mistake with one wearing a charm that made her seem to be the favored human form of a shape shifter I knew of.”

As I sit in the van's back with a Siren bound to do absolutely anything I tell her giving me the nine-yard stare, I decide to have a conference with Amen in my head. I lead off with some simple but rather important stuff-I finally order him to always use the lowest magical content blood possible for fueling any of his actions, and to allow blood to sit for a year before being considered 'usable' to prevent future incidents of it using up blood I needed. I feel pretty good about these corrections-and feel I can 'complete' them once I actually start picking up animal blood for Amen to use.

I find myself less impressed when it becomes clear that Amen has sidestepped prior bindings by letting every single prisoner escape in what I can only consider a string of purposefully orchestrated periods of gross ineptitude on Amen's part. From what Shadowbro and I gather, Amen arranged for periods of laxness in its internal security measures while performing some large-scale shuffling in the way the lower levels of the mansion were arranged, ostensibly to accommodate changes in the way Duke’s shit is stored. Amen cited a need to limit its senses when doing so, and volunteered that the s hit is just potent enough that it qualified under pre-existing orders for storing as magic feedstock.

And what's more, Amen was able to burn up all the stored blood samples it had had on hand for every single prisoner in its care. With no way to track them down, I have only Amen’s word that it wiped their memories of the mansion entirely.

If I wasn't used to Amen by now, I'd be surprised at this bullshit-oh well, nothing to do about it now. The only 'people' still in the house that do not work for me are the biofactories producing blood for Amen's continued function.


>>435359
As the silence continues to stretch, I pull out the actual contract for the Siren to look it over….

And have no idea what language it's written in.
>"Nor do I."
>[IT]"I know, but I'm not telling."
Wonderful. Guess that's another thing to look into at some point.

While I can't read the contract just now, I can lay down some basic ground rules to prevent issue: I order Stacey to….
Not harm me, my followers, or my associates, directly or indirectly.
Not manipulate or coerce me or my associates via magical or mundane means.
Not communicate with Amen.
Not leave the mansion unless directed to with specific objectives by myself or an officer of my company, and return there on completion of those given objectives.
Follow Satai's orders and answer his questions where doing so won't come into conflict with any order I've given her.

Sure, it's not ironclad or anything like that-but it should keep her on hand and available at least for the immediate future, while I work out some more concrete bindings. I continue to marvel at how every new order I make gets sucked into the single binding-and am absolutely fascinated at the way the binding itself seems to pick up increased density/coherance as it gets more orders layered into it.

Fucking fascinating, really.
>"I find it interesting that the contract is as magically… present as it mundanely is."
Say that again but make more sense this time.
>"I can actually read the contract, rather than just analyze it's magical content-I hope I do not need to tell you how unusual that is."
Think it's related to why her binding's so complex?
>"While I have no evidence to back my idea, yes, I do find that the most likely explanation-that the Contract is… some form of Restriction that empowers the binding itself."
Well that's some food for thought there.

On the drive back, I briefly find myself thinking about buying flowers for… well, everyone. Then, after a brief check of my Sphere Labyrinth (still active since I'm still dual-Orienting with Soul Sense and Sphere Labyrinth), I detect an exceptionally subtle-by my standards at least-intrusion attempt that lines up perfectly with the thought cropping up. Going out on a limb, I elect to believe that, no matter how real the thought may feel, it's not mine, and as such-no flower power hour.

I almost feel like I hear a falcon weep. Odd.

After the drive home, during which Stacey continues to stare at me like a Chihuahua eyeing a Caucasian Shepherd with a bit too much drool on its lip, we get back to the mansion-and after introducing the Siren to Amen as a guest, I bring her to Satai. Unsurprisingly, I find him going over excel spreadsheets in a room filled with boxes and files, guns and words his only company. On my arrival to the room he gives the most exaggerated acknowledgement of another's presence I've yet seen from the man-he looks up and quirks an eyebrow.

"Hey. So SHE-"
I push the Siren in front of me, inwardly chuckling as she looks patently huffy-
"Is a siren. General gist of her story: From one of the islands of the siren, born when it was way north, that's why she's Winter type, sucks at the normal siren hypnosis and such, and is a people-eater. As you see, she's not purple-I know, we're missing out here. So anyway-you got any questions you want to put her through, go ahead-she's obligated by Contract to answer truthfully."
>[Satai]"I… see. Are there any particular questions you want asked?"
"I hit the big ones for general stuff on the way over-really, I'm looking for you to dig about for anything interesting in her noggin."
>[Satai]"How soon do you need it?"
"Well, I'd like it before I start feeding bits of her to Silja, but that doesn't need to start anytime soon-I'd just prefer it, you know? So don't go losing sleep over it."
>[Satai]"Don't… yes. I wont."
"Excellent. OH, new thing for you to buy."
Satai grabs a notepad and looks at me expectantly.
"A pair of Rolls Royce Phantoms in orange-or at least with orange trim. Or orange seats.
Really, so long as it's clearly got some noticeable orange, I'm happy."
>[Satai]"Are there any particular details you need?"
"Yeah-if you can get them already armored great, but the goal is to make these vehicles properly durable for their investment. I don't really care if that's from a package deal or after market stuff, just so long as it happens. But do tell me before committing the cars to a defense package that would preclude others, okay?"
>[Satai]"That… will be costly."
"Not a problem. In fact…"

Turning every iota of my attention outwards, I linger in that almost-shadowy buzz lingering in the back of my mind, informing me of Einherjar within several miles of me.
"I'm pretty damn sure work will be picking up soon enough."
>[Satai]"Glad to hear it. We need the funds."
His eyes glimmer as a thought occurs to him, and he holds up a hand to stall me as he rummages in one of the boxes.
>[Satai]"…Here we are."

A box radiating magic is tossed to me-and jingles the lovely jangle of bullets when I catch it.
>[Satai]"Sixty Doom rounds for your matebas."
My eyes sparkly like a kid in a candy store.
"Oh man Satai my main man, you are so lucky you don't have a pussy."
I'm treated to the sight of Satai freezing stock still like a machine working through a particularly complicated bit of kid, his eyes blinking rapidly before, in an exceptionally neutral voice, he responds most succinctly.
>[Satai]"…Yes."
I Smile at him as he continues to put up a good poker face.
"You do know I can see your soul, right?"
Behind his poker face, his soul continues to squirm.
"All right, enough messing around-have fun interrogating the Siren, let me know how that goes. And thanks again."
The cautious nod he sends my way, surprisingly, isn't a dismissal. After a bit more rummaging, her pulls out a crate of grenades.
>[Satai]"…Past that, we may want to have a demonstration of these at some point soon. The grenades, at least; we have enough to afford expending a few and I don't think they'll be fully appreciated until we've seen them in action."
"You told me about these-'melt the fuck out of anything' grenades, right?"
>[Satai]"Accurate enough. There's also similarly amplified flash bangs, but we only have six of those."
"Okay-I'll look into a demonstration-maybe as a… precursor to the tournament at the month's end. Should be fun. May or may not throw those stealth or shield charms into the mix too. Now-"
My phone starts ringing. A quick check shows… it's Yavuz Celikaya. I glance at Satai, waving goodbye as I step out of the room.
"Yavuz."
>[YZ]"Mr. Laine. Your order is ready."
"…That fast?"
>[YZ]"I am used to working on restricted deadlines-it was simpler for me."
"Ah-huh. So, can you deliver them up here?"
>[YZ]"Yes-but I would recommend that you come pick up the pieces-none of my vehicles lack the company logo, and Kardemir Steel is fairly well known."
"Right, questions, questions, can't have those."
>[YZ]"Indeed."
"Okay-I'll swing by sometime tomorrow to pick the stuff up-give me a ballpark here, what's the weight?"
>[YZ]"Roughly eight hundred pounds."
"Ah, no problem then. Okay, tomorrow."
*CLICK*

And that's all she wrote.

Feeling that I really shouldn't let myself lapse back into laziness, I spend a solid three hours exhaustively practicing my Dual Orientations, and then wrap up by sitting in on Gianni's night-time modding of Ivan's eyes, once more playing the conduit to his efforts to force my body to learn a bit more fleshcrafting. By the time I'm done, Lyubov's long since asleep, and I hit the sack.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $2,864,660.00
BUSINESS FUNDS: $1,124,984.00
CASH: $6,120.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 95%
WINTER ENERGY: 160/160
SUMMER ENERGY: 50/50

I wake up to a hand on my chest…..


An hour later, I get out of bed to start the day. Eyeballing the clock, I see it's roughly six AM now.






What's my plan for the day?
When am I picking up the parts for my golem project?

>Major action
1. Note-writer bargain requires silja to be our #1 priority. Get on it immediately and fully assign gia, davgon (if he can help, to prevent spiritual injury), sake, and whatever you can contribute using your own energy. Also see if you can convince hilevi to assist with healing the siren too... Not amen though. Ask they siren if she is capable of regenerating if fed magic meats.

>Decisions/realizations/quick conversation with brothers (should take seconds each)
2. The rape joke with siren and sex joke with satai were creepy not funny. Armas should be classier then that in his trolling.

3. When you feel an einher presence immediately inform SB so he can immediately scout it out, and at his discretion converse with the einher in question.
Then the conclave, excepting Armas, should use their judgement on what to tell Armas based on the situation. aka, hunt down and here is what we know or avoid and mention not a word on who they are. I believe we should avoid einher too strong as that will kick our ass, too weak and young, relatives, and those who are politically out of our reach.

4. Don't antagonize the siren. Yes she is bound, but you saw how easy it is to still screw people (ex: amen with prisoners) and you don't want her hating you unnecessarily. Also I am concerned that flesh from a person who utterly loathes you might affect silja negatively. Be manipulative in your conversations with her to minimize her disdain for you... make her think she lucked out as having you as a master and has a chance at freedom.

5. We didn't finish the "practice magic near 0 energy" thing einrik told us about. We just quit midway due to having solved issue with hummingbird. Whatever energy we cannot use for silja we should pour into low energy chakra practice until we DO learn those critical lessons.

>Quick Actions (should take 10-30 min each)
6. Based on the ideas from >>/questdis/57874 discuss the feasibility of those ideas with your brothers and those that don't get you laughed at bring up with gia and davgon. Most important question is on whether a duplicate of armas could be obfusicated and gender swapped for feeding into silja and are there harmful effects for doing so (like a soul mark). Consider it might also be possible to use romanov to heal non fatal injuries to regrow a donated arm rather then just whole bodies (although we yet don't know how to do any of the above).

7. You forget to tell a Russian to get cows. Tell Satai to get started on calf acquisition.
Ask amen (under truthful response order) if he can use mundane cow blood to fuel his abilities and how much mundane cow blood is needed compared to mundane human blood; as well as the amount of mundane cow blood needed to fully power him, and amount he would have needed had he used mundane cow blood to performed the order you gave him about destroying the heart stolen from you.

8. Ask Lo Fang and Mafia if either is interested in buying a Phoenix heart.

>>438165

Actually, for selling body parts and blood and such, we have the Smiling One's website. We can use it for selling as well as for buying.

Our time with the Triad and Mafia is better spent trying to get actual work, even if it's just a bunch of small jobs that the Russians can handle.

Also, I am of the opinion that we should have a Siren dish for dinner tonight.

Working on interesting projects out of the house, while convenient, is starting to pose some problems. We are very obviously connected to the mansion and anything and anyone that arrives or leaves from it. Furthermore, we won't be able to get Placid to work on the golem's laser systems until either we have moved it someplace that isn't under Amen's control, or we have convinced Placid that Amen is sufficiently leashed that entering the mansion isn't as scary as he thinks.

Until we have this issue solved, picking up the order from Kardemir Steel is of secondary concern.

We need a workspace. A warded warehouse, or rented space from a trusty merchant with access to such, or borrowed space from an ally. Keeping the location legally unconnected to us would be a bonus, but is not necessary.

*Lo Fang could provide the workspace we'd need, but then he'd know what we were up to, and we have decided we don't like him enough that we've been looking for assassins to throw at him. In fact, he's a problem we're going to have to address properly since he's our #1 suspect for who tipped off that American dragon about us. If the golem were further along, I'd consider asking Lo Fang for workspace just for the chance to trojan horse it into his compound, but he'd obviously have a killbox set up around the work area as an insurance measure. It's not a viable plan. At least not yet.
*Sometimes Merchant could provide the workspace we need, but then he'd either know what we were up to, or we'd pay a premium for privacy.
*Johaan could facilitate rental of a workspace and privacy from a demon, but he'd be expensive.
*We could deal with a demon ourselves, in Mammon's Market, but then we're dealing with demons directly.
*The mafia would be able to provide space (maybe that storage container, if we don't mind using a place we know Sometimes Merchant knows about), but that would be just another little thing tying us closer to them.
*We could rent or buy (either legitimately or through a straw purchase) an appropriate warehouse. We would need to be prepared to spend a day installing wards, probably with Shadowbro and Dávgon's help (or Placid, or all of them).

That last solution, by the way, seems the safest even if it is the most time consuming. It's what I advocate, at least. Failing that, I'd talk to Rocco. We're already fairly invested in the mafia and their network of contacts.

Another possible problem might be Gianni getting annoyed about the golem being worked on by the very war walker that tried to kill him. The best way to head that problem off would be to introduce them properly, and stress that Placid has free will and his own mind now. Placid's got no reason to try to hurt Gianni, and in fact would probably enjoy talking with a fleshcrafter about their craft. Might be educational for them and Armas, even.

>>438165
>1.
Silja is important, but we need to keep up the momentum on the golem project. A consultation with Gianni and Dávgon will be a good start, but don't pull them off the golem project. Our primary concerns with using Stacey as a source of flesh for Silja are Stacey's physical and spiritual health from the procedure (we do not want any spiritual wounds forming), Stacey's mental condition (thus the need to actually find a way to shut her mind down with a bind or fleshcraft magic, or to experiment with mundane or non-demonic pain killers), and Silja's end-state from what she absorbs. If there's a way to improve her gains, perhaps by empowering Stacey with Hillevi's help (think of those chakra chillers she does for the Russians), then we should go for it.

Using Armas as a source of flesh is another idea fraught with potential for mishap, from an incomplete transistion to female for Silja, to Armas accidentally being absorbed by her as he'll appear to be more like a meal than a friend (as far as I understand it, her eating ability is largely unconscious). I can't advocate it.

We have a deal with the Wyld Goblins where we can trade a delivery of hearts for a delivery of 200 kg of powerful winter female flesh. We should exercise that option this week and see what Silja can get from it, as well.

>>438165
>3.
The implication of an einher in the city isn't just that there's a target for us to attack, but that there's likely to be a lot of trouble soon. Einher only really show up when they know there's going to be a good string of fights.

>>438165
>4.
Don't lead her on with fake ideas of freedom. We're not in the business of emancipation, we're in the business of making a profit.

>>438165
>5.
This shouldn't be done until after we've got the golem running. There's no good reason to run around defenseless.

>>438165
>6.
Sounds great for getting laughed at by the bros. It's largely a risky set of ideas, and we have safer methods on hand already.

>>438165
>8.
Let's instead use our spare phoenix heart (we have four at present, one more than we need for the golem array) to experiment with making magic booze for Duke. A phoenix is associated with heat, with burning, with the idea of renewal and of fire in general. So we could put a heart in a vat of aguardiente (translates to "firey water") or into a vat of brandy ("burnt wine") and get something that would enjoy concept synergy with the phoenix heart. We would want to build the vat like a still, with a waterjacket for capturing alcohol that boils off from the phoenix heart.

ALSO, let's toss those phoenix hearts into Igor's furnace. They can keep there just fine, and he might get a magic furnace out of the deal.

>Finally
When we talk to Sometimes Merchant about switching this Sunday's heart delivery for magic winter woman parts, we should think about what his mask actually is. It's obviously magical, and obviously important to all the Wyld goblins. The summer goblin we met did not use a mask though. In fact, we haven't met any other group who uses masks like that.

This suggests it's something unique, or at least culturally significant, to the wyld goblins. And, why are they called WYLD goblins if they're so civil and urban anyway? Generally the wyld aspect of magic is associated with the wyld hunt and the other non-court aligned traditions/cultures that led to classic mythical stories about weird elves and other stuff in the woods. Circumstancial evidence, sure, but it points to some cultural adaptation that the wyld goblins of Turkey specifically learned and took up to become more successful than the other wyld critters. Including the wyld goblins outside of Turkey (remember that SM could only make the friendship bargain on behalf of the Wyld Goblins of Turkey, and that while that might seem like just a geopolitical limitation, it could be a cultural one).

If it is their masks that give them the power to not act like wyld creatures, then we need to know why. The solution could be of immense help to loup garou, like our friend Lambombard.


Also I still like that flower idea, can we buy flowers for just all the women in the house? Use the list in >>435584

If you can still feel the buzzing that says the einher is within a league, ask Shadowbro to try to find him or her via Allview. If he says it would be impossible due to the size of the area, tell him you have something that should make it easier and change his binding to “While using Allview, can only see einherjar, buildings that einherjar are in, roads, and street signs.” Tell him to try tagging the einher when he finds them as well as getting any information he can about them.

Sneak into Camella's morning training session with the Russians and whisper into her ear a request for her to organise a meeting with the Owner about the coordinates he gave you. Use all of the techniques you use in your spars against her to keep her from seeing you. While you're there, do the same thing to Satai, Dmitrii, Vlad, Grisha, and Rostislav with an order to go pick up the pipes from Yavuz.

Now, on to the main event of the day: harvesting the siren.

The first step is talking to Silja about the plan. It wouldn't do to go through all this just for her to hate us for it. Go sit with her, and put some blood on her blade so she can see you when you talk to her. Tell her that you're ready for the next stage in getting her a body, ask her if she is, and whether she wants to know what's going to happen, given that it looks to be a fairly gruesome project. If she does want to know, tell her how it'll work: the siren will be unconscious and will have its head separated from its body, at which point it will be healed and the cycle will begin again. If she doesn't want to know the details, just assure her that the siren will be left healthy and whole at the end of it. Do this as early as possible in the day, so that she has time to process the information – everything else can happen in the afternoon or even later.

We haven't discussed the matter of long-term spiritual damage from doing this repeatedly with Dàvgon and Gianni and we really, really need to. Otherwise we could accidentally destroy our investment through carelessness, and that just wouldn't be cool.

As far as pain mitigation goes, a number of possibilities present themselves. A simple chokehold or knock to the head would probably suffice, though healing Stacey with Sake means that it'll have to be done each time and she might not like that. Anaesthetics might work, but since she's never had them used on her it might be something of a gamble. Gianni might be able to turn her sensory nerves off, though given his specialisation he'd probably be more used to turning their sensitivity up. The most comfortable option for all involved would be ordering Stacey to sleep or be unconscious for the length of the process. Given how aggressive her binding is, this should work rather effectively. An hour should be enough, and if we need longer than that we can always give her the same order again.

When we get to the actual process itself, we should consider that the head can generally live for 10-15 seconds after being cut off, with just the oxygen in the blood. Given that timeframe, as long as we're efficient we don't really need to involve Gianni, it should just be as simple as Armas using a really sharp implement - potentially Silja's blade itself, since it's very good at slashing, though any knife would do - with Sake healing the head immediately after it's been severed. We should be able to manage repeating it about ten times before Sake runs out of heals, but he should probably keep a buffer – say three or four heals – just in case.

Once we've harvested all we can, we should feed it and the meat from Sometimes Merchant to Silja all at once and watch what happens.

>>438165
Downvote to 6 and 8. Upvote to 7.

>>440259
Upvote to the workspace idea, specifically the idea to buy a property and then have it warded. I'd alter it slightly to be an apartment building with a large basement rather than a warehouse, as then it covers the need we have for housing external to the mansion, for the minions who don't like living in a house where everything's made from people.

Also upvoting both phoenix heart ideas, though whiskey would probably work just as well for the base spirit given its nickname of “firewater”, and the idea to trade a heart delivery for winter woman meat.

>>440371
That should take us to around mid-morning at the very latest. Once that's all done, and assuming Silja doesn't have a complete body and Shadowbro hasn't found the einher, there is a vast list of things we could do:

Organise Lo Fang/Meng Yun/Li Zhou/Jet Fang training sessions for the week (5-10min)
Call Go Ping to ask about jobs (10min)
Call Rocco to ask about jobs (10min)
Call Hamlet to congratulate him on his new job (10min)
Organise the meeting with Baki Yamada (10min)
Call Otso and see what antics he's been up to (30min)
Practice fleshcrafting with Gianni (1-6hr)
Practice soul sculpting with Davgon (1-6hr)
Practice any of the various facets of chakra (1-6hr)
Sort out a price list with H&H for the Doonongaes parts (1hr+)
Ask Amen what that rotting old book you bought ages ago was about (5min)
Visit Ito (2hr+)
Visit Placid (2hr+)
Visit Cookie Lady (1hr)
Talk to Camella (30min+)
Talk to Big Crazy (30min+)
Fight someone (30min+, depending on who and how many fights)
Cook something (30min-2hr)
Wander around the bazaar (1-6hr)
Read the clipping service (1hr+)
Go motorcycling with Lyubov and Feodor (1hr+)
Buy souls from Last Chance to put in Allview (1hr)
Use Allview to spy on the Triads (???)
Go “hunting” for supernatural creatures/bloodline practitioners/vampires/weres to sell on the slave market/for parts/for ransom (all day)

..and many others, though I'll not include any more as there's quite enough choice already.


My personal vote is for the following:

>Call Hamlet to congratulate him on his new job (10min)
There's not a lot more to say, though I expect he'll spend a few minutes thanking Armas.
>Organise the meeting with Baki Yamada (10min)
Have Hafaz organise something appropriate for Sunday.
>Call Otso and see what antics he's been up to (30min)
>Ask Amen what that rotting old book you bought ages ago was about (5min)
I'm just curious about what was in it. The so-called “Decay Tome” interests me too, and we haven't done anything with it.
>Read the clipping service (1hr)
Catch up on the major new of the last couple of weeks.
>Talk to Camella (30min+)
See what's up, how she's enjoying her parrot, what Owner's like in be- not that last one.
>Talk to Big Crazy (30min+)
We haven't really spoken to him since he got back. Ask him what he's been up to since returning to the city and if he has any plans for the immediate future.
>Practice fleshcrafting with Gianni (rest of the day)
Getting proper control over those Doonongaes poison glands should be a priority, one which should itself require that we improve our epithelial control in general. Do whatever tasks Gianni feels best provide that improvement.

Let's go bug Satai about what he's learned from Stacey. If he's written up a report or taken notes, that's fine instead.
I'm not sure when everyone eats breakfast exactly, but we should drop by Stacey beforehand with some Kelpie Crisps. We don't really know what she likes, but we've consistently found it to be a dish others enjoy. She should be eating alone for the time being.

Now, the pseudo rape jokes are somewhat crass. I personally feel they are below us in terms of humour, and they spread a negative image of us besides. I think we can have some fun "fixing" the situation, however. During breakfast we make a short announcement.
"It has recently come to my attention that certain elements of the company have been making inappropriate comments of a sexual nature. I'm not going to point fingers or name names. I just want to make it clear that that sort of behaviour is unacceptable among my staff and that if anyone is doing or saying something that makes you uncomfortable you are free to inform one of the officers, I personally suggest Camella, and they will handle the situation, in her case most likely by beating the perpetrator to within an inch of their life, though perhaps simply axing them to stop instead."
Satai, in particular, should find the announcement to be... odd.

After breakfast, we should pick up the golem parts from Yavuz Celikaya. We can manage the weight by ourselves easily, no reason for an escort. And heck, he showed up at our place without grunts, we'd be lowering ourselves to not extend the same courtesy to him. Chat with him a bit, dude seems like he could be pretty fun when not trying not to be.
On the way back home, drop by Placid, see how he's doing and whether he needs anything.

It shouldn't even be noon at this point, so we have plenty of time to work on stuff. Silja is a very high priority, but there is no need to rush things. Talking to Davgon, Gianni, SB, and Sake about physical, spiritual, and mental risks to Stacey from repeated flesh harvesting is vital. SB mentioned something about our learning divine magic would help smooth out issues with Silja's restoration, we should ask about that in further detail. We only get one shot at this, we need to do it as well as possible. If the contribution of such is significant, we should delay major harvesting/feeding until such a time as we have basic competency.
We should explain to Stacey that our project is essentially a medical procedure. The patient is a very unique case, and requires a large quantity of graft material and she matches the ideal profile for said material.

If we have any spare time in the day, we should really ask HB what he can do now that he's had time to get used to having so much energy on hand, and it isn't killing him anymore. Also what he can do with that entirely new powerset we gave him.

>>438165
>6.
Sust.
>>440259
>Acquiring off-grounds workspace
>Phoenix heart ideas
>Flowers
Upvotes to all three.

Phone Oggmum again. It's the 25th, we need to get Camella checked out in the next three days. Taking the risk that we're annoying her is something we have to do. Hopefully, by demonstrating we are willing to slightly harass a Witch for the sake of our friends, it will advance our progress on the Labombard front as well.

>>441352
upvote but talk to camella first! We need to have a oggmum trace her home dimension and time of departure. Even if it takes her decades to pay oggmum enough for the trip, she can always get a youth rubdown from sake and just port back to the exact moment she left.

>>438292 SUST on eating siren. see discussion @ >>/questdis/58050 (he conceded the point but can't erase the post).

>>438165 To clarify confusion.
#1 Contribute Armas own energy as in let gia work through armas to use armas' impressive energy pool to heal the siren for more flesh harvest. Shunt winter energy to sake to heal her more times a day. No armas flesh used.
#6 says that using armas' own flesh has myriad uses (beyond just silja) but also dangers so we need to _ask_ some people in the know about those. It does not say to do anything, merely to discuss the possibilities. And every single sust for that included warning about dangerous which I explicitly mentioned myself.

>>440371
>Sneak into Camella's morning training session with the Russians and whisper into her ear a request for her to organise a meeting with the Owner about the coordinates he gave you...

Sorry, I have to SUST this. It's not a major faux pas, but to request a meeting before Owner is ready is probably a bad idea. I'm pretty sure Owner won't want to have a meeting with us until he's learned who sold Armas out, and resolved the matter to his own satisfaction.

Now, if we wanted to mention to Camella that it'd be ok to mention to Owner that we've made some progress looking into that island, that's fine. It leaves her with discretion on the matter.

[Silja Boogie]
Well-I should focus on something rather important that's been stalling out for one reason of another again and again: Silja's resurrection. And it's right now, in the wee hours of the morning, just before a dose of Brain Coffee that I realize I never really discussed the plan with Silja herself. She's a gentle soul-if I don't want to be a flagrant dick about this, I'll need to avoid abrasive and blunt phrasing. Let's see…

After putting on some pajamas, I split my palm open with a shallow slice and rub a thin layer of my blood on each side of Këihas' bayonet, laying the unwounded hand on the rifle's side.
"Hey Silja."
>[Silja]"Armas, hello! …Oh, that's a nice sunrise outside, isn't it?"
I glance out the window, noting the gentle amber and mauve glow on the clouds.
"Yes, it is at that."
>[Silja]"…I get the feeling there was something you wanted to talk to me about."
"Got it in one Silja: I've got a rather major update for you about your reincarnation, if you've got a moment."
The rifle in my hand shivers in a way I've come to recognize as laughter.
>[Silja]"I think you have my attention, yes-what is it?"
"Well, I've got pretty much an ideal source of material to see you regenerate. We're ready to go… and while I could explain the specifcs, the method itself is a bit gruesome sounding, even if the end results are fine, so if possible I'd rather avoid simply disturbing you."
>[Silja]"…Oh. Well. …Is it okay if I ask a few questions about it, without you telling me the whole thing?"
"Of course, fire away."
>[Silja]"Do you need to kill anyone to do it?"
"Nope."
>[Silja]"Oh…. how about cripple or curse?"
"No and no-it's just temporary unpleasantness."
>[Silja]"Then… then I suppose I can live with not knowing."
The rifle in my hand begins to twist about.
>[Silja]"So! How… how far along reincarnation will this get me?"
"I'm hopeful it can get you the whole way-"
>[Silja]"Eeee!"
"-BUT I can't promise that so don't count on it working perfectly, okay?"
The rifle seems to both wilt and… become huffy in my hands.
>[Silja]"Fiiine, Armas."

All right-she's on boad, now it's time to get this under way.

I find which room the Siren's currently in, collect her, Gianni, Dávgon and Sake. I give everyone involved a quick recap of what the goal is, and feel out how they best think they could work together. Turns out my gut was right: Having Gianni sustain the head so brain death never occurs, Sake regenerate the siren post-body seperation with a rubbing, and Dávgon to Bind the soulmatter within the siren's seperated body to be edible only by Silja to optimize it's magical yield. …Okay I lied-Dávgon surprised me with that last one, and again reminds me why soul binding is awesome.

And that's just what we do as the world around us goes about their lives: We take a room deep in the mansion, we set the Siren up in an enforced coma state-and get to work. Eighteen times, we cut off her head. Eighteen times, Gianni keeps her mind and soul within her skull preserved while Sake regenerates her. Eighteen times, Dávgon engorges the spiritual energy of the flesh we're feeding her-and thirty six times, I act as a conduit for human effort, letting my magic learn from their efforts. In the end, We feed Silja for scarcely an hour before Sake runs out of healing charges, and we call it a day. Gianni and Dávgon get back to their work on the golem and bringing it together into a (mostly) working first-run prototype-and I look at Silja.

The efforts leveraged on her have most certainly had results, and… I don't know that I can use her in combat anymore.

Her forestock ribcage has sprouted skeletal arms, and the pelvis stock has similarly grown legs, all the limbs fetally curled up-but all of it already laden with whisps of tendon and ligament tying everything together. Her spinal ribbing along the barrel's now fully covered in muscle-and I see hints of nerves tracing out through her system. As it is, she's doubled in bulk-and I don't doubt at this rate we'll have her good to go soon enough.

I grab hold of Këihas and speak.
"So-like I thought, not perfect news. It's working, but we're going to need to repeat the process a few more times to finish this. Hopefully we'll be done soon-I'm guessing something like a week, maybe two."
>[Silja]"I think I can wait-but…."
"Yes?"
>[Silja]"If you're repeating the process, does it still not hurt anyone in the long-term?"
"It doesn't."
>[Silja]"Then… then it's okay! Thanks Armas!"
"Oh-we aren't QUITE done yet: I got one more thing to give you for reincarnation, but I have to get it. Back in a bit."

After a brief sojourn to the sewers and a meet with Sometimes Merchant, I once again trade away one week's supply of hearts for 200 more kilograms of female winter magic flesh, and on returning to the room feed Silja again. Her arm and leg protrusions develop extremities, and the muscle spreads over more of the system. It's not a massive change-but it definitely sped the process up.
"Okay-NOW, that's all I can give you for the day."
>[Silja]"Oh, it's going to be so nice to have a body again…"

[Siren's Silence]
After I replace the rifle in my room, I return to the chamber and speak to the insensate Siren.
"Wake up, Stacey."
With a gasp she sits up, suddenly awake.
…That IS a good binding.
>[Stacey]"I… yes?"
"Thank you for your help today."
>[Stacey]"That… was it?"
"What was it?"
>[Stacey]"I… I'm not really sure. I can't tell if they were dreams or not. …Did you harvest my flesh by cutting off my body and regenerating me?"
"I did. Did it cause you pain?"
>[Stacey]"No…"
"You sound hesitant: Is there an alternative harvesting method you'd prefer?"
>[Stacey]"I-no, that's not it. …Is there anything more you need from me today?"
"That will be all. Feel free to wander the mansion as you will-oh, and when you feel hungry just let Amen know, he'll make sure you are fed."
And you'll feed her only things that don't impinge on prior rules presented, won't harm her, and won't ostracize her from my workforce, is that understood?
>[Amen]"It is, it is, it is-this one understands quite well."

The Siren watches me leave, and I decide I'm about 70% sure that behind her confusion and torpor I did leave her with a more positive impression of me going off her soul.

After that encounter I seek out Satai, and have a chat with him. I get a breakdown of how thorough Stacey's binding is, and learn that effectively, anyone I-or Satai now-order her to obey, she will not just obey the commands of, but obey indirect suggestions. For example: When Satai fed her a cookie and verbally estimated it would make her feel better, her binding compelled her to feel better to meet that expectation. Such a pervasive binding can certainly be useful-but it's critical I remember it will interpret as many things spoken as orders as is possible. I also learn she's familiar with most of the general flow of aquatic and, to a lesser extent, seafaring flying magical communities, and how they generally function and interact. If I want to get broad-spectrum information about either, I should probably ask her.

[Inane Ideas]
With that done, I keep up my tradition of using the morning for me-time whenever I can, and decide to poll my selves and advisors on a few ideas I've got rumbling around.
“I have an idea I want to run by you guys-Shadowbro, you in particular. …Okay, several, actually, so please hear me out. I want to try voluntarily pushing my soul out of my body, and then letting my Romanov ability trip so my winter energy is used to build me a new one. So, I build a new body with the Romanov ability, and then I voluntarily push my soul out of the new body and hook myself back up to this body.”
>"Even assuming that you can mimic Gleb’s trick so that you can get your soul entirely out of your body before the Romanov function tripped, you’d still suffer a significant amount of spiritual damage. And then you’d just have a spare body that’s essentially dead flesh."
“Flesh that I could use for projects, like-“
>"I know where you’re going with this, and it’s not safe for Silja. Feeding her flesh that’s gone through a fleshcrafter treatment to be female won’t work well. The soul bits associated with the corpus will still be heavily male. For this to work the way you intend, you’d need to be a woman for a significant period of time first, or you’d need to be able to sculpt the very subtle changes to your soul that constitute the meta-pattern of a female identity."
“What do you mean ‘very subtle’ though? Lyubov and Camella are the two women I’ve studied best and they’ve both got souls that feel feminine.“
>"There are hints and suggestions to their gender on their souls, especially if you look at the self-images they have of themselves, but can you point out a single structure anywhere on either of their souls that is specifically built to be ‘female’?"

I consider Shadowbro’s point.

“Well, now that you mention it, no. Just that their femininity is part of their soul.”
>"Gender identity is, essentially, a large number of belief tweaks to all aspects of a soul. The body and mind influence those tweaks, but there are no gender-specific structures on a soul. It is essentially a corruption of the soul from its default state. Remember that Belief plays into gender role in people. Most cultures clearly have one set of expectations for men and another for women."
>[HB] “Sir Shadow, I understand manliness to be a concept akin to my natural splendor. You say such is belief-based. Does that mean a paragon of manliness will possess a divine aspect?”
>"It’s external belief-pressure that shapes the soul, not an internalization of belief to power the effect. Barring extremes, no matter how manly a man may be, or however splendid a bird may be, he won’t spontaneously become divine from it. That said, I suppose edge cases are possible. In your case though it’s a moot point, you’ve got divine corruption from being connected to Armas."
“Right. So, I’d need to have enough skill to be able to re-shape the soul bits left in my spare body to be feminine, and I’d have to do it completely enough that Silja wouldn’t have any more trouble than she’s already going to have from her previous male meals.”
>"That, or live as woman in the spare body long enough that you identify as female down to your soul. Incidentally, I had expected you to figure this all out on your own. You had all the pieces. Didn’t it strike you as weird that there was no gender-specific structures on any of the souls you’ve looked at?"
“Anyway, that’s not my only idea for what I could do with a spare body. I know my flesh is delicious, and that we still need an ‘in’ with Whaitiri.”
>"No, don’t go there. Offering personal flesh to gods is fraught with all sorts of belief, and most of it amounts to being a good servant for the god in question. That’s not the relationship we want."
>[IT]"Paradoxically, offering just soul slivers doesn’t have much of any sort of belief associated with it. Humans have a lot of rituals built on flesh, but not nearly so many based on soul. It's a detail I've always found fascinatingly contrary about your race, and why I've enjoyed my service to Rabbit, such as it is."
“I was planning on stripping the flesh and magic in it of my identity.”
>"Which would just insult her, instead of make you her devoted servant."
“Alright, what about if we built a protosoul-seed for it and made it possessable by you?”
>"I know you like having a body, and all the urges and sexual escapades that go with it, but I’m content to be me. At best it would be highly situational. I just don’t think that the risk represented by having a possession-ready copy of your body available to be stolen is outweighed by the utility of giving me access to soul manipulation powers. And, as an aside, it would completely spoil the experiment we’ve been running with divergent education."
“What if we made it so my soul occupied it and my current body simultaneously?”
>"How?"
“I don’t know. Isn’t my soul connected to the NeverNever through you? Isn’t the Dark connected to everything? I know you can do teleporting through it, seems to me there should be something to work with here.”
>"You’re suggesting using me to coordinate simultaneous connections between elements of a multi-body soul, making the connection through the Dark. That’s risky-no, that's not adequate verbiage for the scale of risk involved. That's absurdly dangerous. An experienced member of the dark could break the connection between me and one of the satellite bodies without outright killing me or you. And then we’d be in the situation of having a competitor who is you."
“Would binding it to the company heart work for stopping that problem?”
>"That depends entirely on how the heart is made. You really need to start thinking through your ideas."
“Yeah, but new ones are just so fun. How about this then: what if we used it to craft magic servitors?”
>"You don’t need to vacate your body for that. Gianni can teach you golemcraft, the normal, sane way instead of you killing yourself."
What’s with him? Why’s he copping an attitude now?
“Fine. One last idea. How about if I leave my original body in stasis and use the new body to adventure in. That way the brain I used to make my deals with Sometimes Merchant can’t ever be killed, even if I die.”
>"…"
>[IT]"There are a whole heap of problems with that, and I am going to have so much fun listening to your brother list them off."
>"I don’t think I can fully quantify them all without berating you, and I… don’t feel like doing that. It won’t make you any better, and it won’t make me feel any better. I’m going to go take care of other business."
And with that parting piece of discouraged sounding pragmatism, Shadowbro’s attention is elsewhere again.
>[HB]"Would not one’s brain be inactive, and so be considered to be dead, as soon as the connection to the soul were severed? Perchance all that need happen is for the seat of the mind to have no activity in it once, ever, and then ongoing transaction with the Sometimes Merchant would qualify to end?"
“That’s… logical.”
>[IT]"Should have kept my mouth shut, I think your brother reacted to what I said. Damnit, you need to be less boring. How about you wear me to bed tonight?"
“What possible interest could that hold for you?”
>[Iron Trick]"Seeing how Lyubov reacts would be the fun part."
>[HB]"It is, in a word, baffling. Neither of them even have proper cloacae."
“Alright, that’s enough, if you two want to chat about my sex life you’ll have to do it without me.”
>[Iron Trick]"You know you’re the only one who can hear me."
“Then I guess that’s the end of that conversation.”

Okay-not as rewarding as I'd hoped, but at least I now know that the multi-body idea, at least for now, just isn't happening.

[Puny Power Practice]
I spend three more hours on low-energy training by dint of cycling between the most aggressive overcharging and chakra-flushing exercises I can perform just to see if I can overwhelm my binding-derived magical regeneration. It's tricky, but I find a way to get around it and keep working on that zero-energy practice, looking for the payoff Einrik hinted at. This time, I'm going for Soul Sensing and Sphere Labyrinth, giving Reinforcement a break. In truth, a full hour of that time was spent just trying to keep myself low enough to do low-energy practice, a fact that fills me with no small amount of pride over the wellspring of power I've become. Near the end of the practice session, with my chakra's feeling out of sorts and no breakthrough presenting itself, I get on with my day proper at eleven AM.

I estimate I'll be back to full power in… an hour.

MAN, I love these preferentially edited magic regeneration bindings.

[Allview Ascertainment]
As my senses continue to buzz on and off with Einher ghosting through the outer reaches of my weakest but farthest reaching form of detection, I decide that I should have SB scout out each detected Einher, to see if I should engage-
>"No."
"No?"
>"No. The number of Einher pings that have been detected recently, in addition to the variable difficulty of tracking them as well as the risk of them being able to and inclined to harm shadows, I simply won't sink the time and take the risk just to make one aspect of your life marginally more automated and easy."
>[Sake]"Oh come on, stop being a wuss!"
>"You do it then."
>[Sake]"They could SEE me!"
>"And they couldn't see me? Difficulty being detected by conventional means does not equate to undetectable."
"FINE, find them with Allview then."
>"I'll devote up to one-minute, real-time, to finding each Einher. That equates to more than a day's effort on my part, relatively speaking-I would find it unlikely I'd find someone past looking for that long."
"Hey, that works for me. So-"
>"I'll tell you in a minute."

[Owner Obligations]
Seeing Camella coming through the front door, I slow her down and pull her aside.
>[Camella]"Armas-what's up?"
"Hey-can you tell the Owner I've made progress on that pet project he sort of assigned me?"
>[Camella]"That island thing right?"
"Yup."
>[Camella]"Sure-let me call him."
"Great-hey, you want to talk to Oggmum? I know, total curveball right now, but do you?"
Camella closes her eyes for a brief moment and I can see her wrestling her soul into retaining stillness when it wanted to be a tad more calamitous in reaction to that.
>[Camella]"…I think so, yes."
"Great-you call Owner, I'll call Oggmum."

Ten minutes later, I'm sitting pretty with an appointment for TUESDAY AT FOUR PM to see the Owner who very much so wants to discuss my findings, and Camella's got a consult for WEDNESDAY AT THREE PM with Oggmum, which I am obligated to be present for. Cool cool.

"Hey, thanks Camella."
>[Camella]"No problem-thanks to you too."
"Say Camella, how's the parrot working out?"
>[Camella]"It… won't stop randomly trying to make an ass of itself whenever I'm busy."
She looks at me like that's my fault somehow.
>[Camella]"Anyway, for now I'm keeping it in my room."
"Ahuh. Oh-how's Owner in bed?"
>[Camella]"Excuse me?"
"Well he's a Dragon-a Ruling Dragon, at that-and as such a masterful fleshcrafter. So I'm wondering what he's picked up over the years-he just good, or redefine the game for you?"
>[Camella]"I think I'll let you stew in your perverted little fantasies."
"Sounds good to me-nice talking, Camella."
>[Camella]"See you around."

[Phone Palaver]
After Camella leaves I start to get back into the swing of low-energy practice, feeling like I might have been onto something that morning-and get interrupted barely twenty minutes in. It's Hamlet Hanson, the undergrad that got a job at Holland and Holland. Seems he's absolutely in love with his new job, and eminently thankful for me providing him the opportunity to get looked at by such a company. It's nice to hear he's absolutely in love with the job, and I don't have to fake my interest when he promises to help me out whenever, wherever so long as it doesn't mess with his job or put him in danger.

With my phone still out, I decide I might as well get on with some other phone business I have: Specifically, Calling Baki Yamada, the masseuse with the Yakuza that I'm looking to meet with.
"Am I speaking to Baki?"
>[Baki]"…Who is this?"
"A Mr. Laine."
I can practically hear generic suspicion giving way to abrupt focus over the line.
>[Baki]"I see."
"I was wondering if there was time Sunday for a meeting to… discuss things."
>[Baki]"…Yes, time could be made. Be at my parlor at noon. Come alone-that's a request, not a condition."
"I see. And who will I be meeting?"
>[Baki]"People with things that they need to talk to you about, that's all that really matters."
"Very well. Until Sunday."
*CLICK*
And with that, I have an appointment for the weekend to keep me busy-I imagine a talk with Yakuza officials could take quite a chunk of the day, so I should probably write Sunday afternoon and evening off here and now.

With Baki's appointment made and my mind cycling along phone-centric thoughts, I decide to call up little Osto and see how the other magical Laine is doing. He picks up on the eighth ring, his voice groggy but clearly cognizant of who's calling.
>[Osto][In Finnish]"…Hello?"
[In Finnish]"Hey Osto. Happen to have any updates or accolades of note from your burgeoning career?"
I hear a sound not unlike a slap before Osto speaks with far more enthusiasm.
>[Osto]"Most definitely! Whoever told you was completely right-see, there's runes, and I don't understand them that much yet except one of them, but you can use them to command the Einher magic in your body!"
>"The child has my undivided attention."
>[HB]"Mastering his own power-how avian of a giant. I approve of his attempt to emulate perfection, futile as it is."
"And what have you learned to make it do so far?"
>[Osto]"Well, so far I've just figured out how to make it make me heal faster, but it burns a bunch of calories, I have to practically eat a bucket of chocolate to make it back up if I… uh, nevermind."
>[MMM,MMMM Trait auto-activated]
"Now now Osto-I can hardly help you if you aren't honest with me."
>[Osto]"…Sorry. Okay, so, I kind of got my arm ripped off by a Werebear-it's okay though, I totally killed it! But… yeah, that's where I had to put the idea I'd come up with so far to work and… yay, got my arm back. Still pretty scrawny looking though-it's gonna take a while to bulk it up. If it weren't for the strength I get I might have trouble hiding what happened."
"So what runes specifically did you use, and how did you use them?"
>[Osto]"Okay, so first I looked up runes because I figured hey, big stuff for Odin, he's the guy that made this, so, maybe it's like, the code or something right? So I tried all sorts of stuff with standard Medieval Runes, like spelling out commands in assorted languages, either with blood, stone and/or actual bone-not mine though, didn't want to risk it. I was really confident writing runes in my own blood on my body would work, but no dice. Anyway, I couldn't exactly go home no arm, so I was kind of stuck at that point. But then I wondered, maybe I was using too recent of runes, right? So I went back to Younger Futhark."
>[IT]"This kid has either been wiki bingeing or actually likes to study runes."
>[Osto]"So when I used commands spelled in my blood on my flesh with Younger Futhark, I finally got a reaction. Only-it was a stunted one. Like, there'd be some light around the runes, and they'd glow and evaporate into sparkling vapor-it was really weird. I could sort of feel something trying to happen, but it was like… something was stopping me. I kind of abandoned the project for a bit since I had no ideas where to go, but then I wondered if it might be kind of like a regular user trying to do admin stuff, and being denied for having the wrong access-it seemed kind of like that, right? So, I figured, if Younger Futhark worked when Medieval didn't, that if I went back even further, I might get around the restricted use. So I went back to Elder Futhark, thinking a germanic source rune alphabet might slip behind the newer scandinavian runic alphabet-"
>[IT]"Definitely wikipedia."
>[Osto]"And it worked! If I write 'heal me' on my arm-or anywhere on me, I guess-it uses up my energy to perform regeneration. I'm not sure if I can control the speed, and I don't really know what I'm drawing on to power it, but-"
"I might be able to help there. In all likelihood, it's directly drawing energy from the Einher bloodline construct, which is itself attached to your soul."
>[Osto]"Wait, I'm using up my soul to heal myself? Oh MAN THAT WAS DUMB, I-"
"Hold on. It's more probably it's just consuming the energy your soul-based bloodline produces, rather than your actual soul. I can't guarantee that, but usually that's how that works."
>[Osto]"Really? WHEW, had me worried there Uncle Laine!"
"So writing 'heal me' on your arm encouraged the bloodline to produce a non-automated function based off the command…. that does sound like you've hit on the programming code of the bloodline."
>[Osto]"Wait so magic DOES work that way, it's kind of like computer stuff?"
"I have yet to see anything that outright disproves that association, though it is a realm fraught with untold numbers of custom built operating systems and frequently unique hardware to boot, never mind the applications themselves. …Of course, if you empty that, there's really nothing left but your soul for it to drain, so…."
>[Osto]"…Okay, I get you. …Wow, that answers, like, a bajillion questions I had."
"So why'd the werebear rip your arm off, and what happened after that?"
>[Osto]"Well, I KIND of pissed some Weres off with that werewolf I killed a while back, and then I kiiiiind of got attacked at the pool and didn't have my armor so-"
"You left it behind?"
>[Osto]"I know, it was totally stupid, I carry it in a duffle like everywhere I go now-anyway, arm got ripped off, ran like a bitch but definitely not towards home, tried out those ideas for like, twenty hours straight on the run, finally got one to work, robbed a chocolatier to feed my new arm growth, suited up, beat werebear's face in. IN THE END, it all worked out, and that's what matters, right?"
"I've heard some say that 'the ends justifies the means' as a negative phrase, but in your case I'd say it's true enough."
>[Osto]"…Really? Great, awesome! …Uh, I was kind of up till six because of stuff, so I'm kind of tired-"
"I won't keep you then. Congratulations, on hacking your bloodline."
>[Osto]"Heh, thanks Uncle Armas!"
*CLICK*

Spying a name in my contacts, I decide to go knock on Big Crazy's door, see what he's up to-only to find that he's out: He even left a sign on his door, detailing how Rostislav hired him to hunt down a specific wolverine to be his spirit animal, and he thought it'd be a fun job. …I also see he left his cell behind, with a card on it saying 'This is an 'inna woods' scenario, don't want to be bugged.' …Welp. Okay then.

The rest of the day gets a bit busier from there.
-First, I take all four of the pheonix hearts to my name, make my way over to Igor's forge, note that the bugger's still perfecting the fine and subtle art of riveting to an almost unhealthy level, bless his strange soul, and even lets the forge keep going while he's out on class. I find myself smiling at the unsafe practice and dump the hearts in. All three beat with far more life and vigor than before, and I instantly feel this was a good idea.
-That is, until I hear Duke grumbling about 'liquid fire' while shuffling about in search of booze. This gets me off on an idea that had flashed through my mind before-and I decide to leave Vlad a treat. I fish one of the four hearts back out of the forge, and make my way to Vlad's room, adding it into his still, so that all the spirits he makes flow around and through that still-beating heart of fire.
-Next, I find Satai, currently talking with Stacey about the types of aquatic monster communities one can encounter around Istanbul-currently, they're focusing on the Southern Ika-Turso herds that Mermaids tend deep undersea and their excellent trade in livestock-when I ask him to order up some cows for blood purposes. He doesn't even bother asking for more of an explanation, and says he'll get on that.
-My next concern is getting Placid a place he can work on the golem. I think about a bunch of ways to get him one-Lo Fang, the Mafia, Sometimes Merchant, Johann, Demon Summoning-but none really feel… guarded enough to trust my beast to. So instead, I elect to find the nearest company that rents out storage sheds, verify with Allview that they don't have magic warding to begin with, and rent the place out at $35 by-the month. I ask Placid to set up runes to his satisfaction-and he erects runes that, according to SB, are FILLED with swastikas. Still, I'm assured they're quite robust, so whenever I want to let Placid work on the golem, I have a place I can send it-but while it's there, Gianni and Dávgon have to choose between working on it, and all their other projects. For now, they're still fine-tuning the initial hookup of the tubing and the emitters.
-I ask Dmitrii to make privace charms for the van we'll use to transport the golem to and from the warehouse. He gets on that, and by tomorrow our car should be perfectly kitted out for discreet transport.
-I have a chat with Hummingbird about his studies on fleshcrafting, and during that have a decidedly interesting exchange about his abilities.
>[HB]"You ask what I can do, and there are many answers a pinnacle of birddom could give-but I think what would interest you most, giant, is this: I believe I can now render your entire body down into hummingbirds, and reassemble it at will. It has the minor detail of requiring your permission, but I am confident in the execution."
"What-like a swarm of hummingbirds?"
>[HB]"Indeed. As I would not expect your feeble giant brain to comprehend how to be a hummingbird, let alone a swarm. I will control their movement for you, until such time as I can school you in some of the basics of how to live as a superior lifeform."
"I see-but you could make me that, huh? How fast do you reckon?"
>[HB]"I estimate I could do it within one second."
"That's impressive as hell."
The bird on my shoulder preens.
>[HB]"I am aware."
"What else can you do?"
>[HB]"I can attempt to heal your body for you, should your magic systems become compromised. Otherwise, most of what I've learned is not directly applicable to you, and therefore not worth wasting words on."
-Somehow, my attempts to ponder a floral idea seem to sputter out, as if the thoughts were vanishing into a shadow of my mind. How odd.
-I spend four hours apiece with Gianni and Dávgon on external Soul and Flesh crafting, and finally start to feel I'm getting something resembling competence for my weight range going. I'm no longer restricted to just eating what I touch with cannibalistic fleshcrafting-I've got enough examples of fine and restorative magic that I could at least pass as a generic external fleshcrafter now. Certainly, still below my total power pool-but added to the cannibal magic and the direct line to Whaitiri and paired Artifact, I'm looking okay. For Soul-crafting, I've FINALLY had enough examples working on Dávgon's soul-seed and pseudo-soul assembly that I think I could actually craft up my own soul-facsimiles to serve as magical, spiritual AI for complex magical systems. The applications of such a skill in direct combat are limited, but I'm rather certain that's not where it's meant to shine. Still, I know I'm rough in both areas, and more time and practice can only help. I also fear I'm drawing closer to my two teacher's limits as I brute-force learn their methods by being their conduit, and wonder where I should turn afterwards…
-After my eight hour cumulative lesson, I find the golem's had the piping for the weapon embedded within it's arms, to wholly fall beneath the planned armor. Speaking of which, it's flesh-fused armor has finally had all the no longer necessary parts shorn off, and the golem, while certainly not complete, no longer looks like it might belong in a scrap heap. Similarly, Gianni tells me it will be ready to implant the Pheonix hearts soon enough.
-Most importantly of all, before the day's ended I've had time to call Go Ping of the Triads, Rocco Armani of the Mafia, Sometimes Merchant, Cornelius of the Zosimus Clan and even the Leprechaun of that magic bar looking for the work situation, and found myself an interesting set of options.
Go Ping:
---Will pay a full week of specialized training in any subject he knows if Armas will help him put down a flesh golem made of May Lee by an enemy of the Triads looking to enrage them. Asks for Armas specifically.
---Will pay $430,000 for someone that can obtain the ward schematics to a give safehouse from one Elwen Embla, and thereafter crack the combination Magitech/Divinitech warded and sensor-equipped warehouse. The fulfiller of this contract gets their choice of the first three items from the warehouse, not counting a single, pre-designated object of Lo Fang's choosing.
---Will pay $175,000 for someone to find Labombard for them.
---Will pay $10,000 for every confirmed Yakuza head brought to them.
Rocco:
---Will pay $850,000 for Armas to commit his company to seeing a town officially under mafia control has no 'rock-the-boat' issues for the month it takes to get new mafia members out to it and resolve their general manpower shortage. The location has nothing of sufficient worth to draw any considerable magical threat, and at best would run afoul of human criminals, magical or otherwise, looking to claim the modest income the town can provide to its 'protectors'
---Will pay $270,000 for anyone to find out who learned Elwen Embla was carrying the ward key to a warehouse in the city. There are no clues to the case, except that it was someone that knows Elwen.
---Will pay $52,000 for a quartet of escorts of a magical persuasion to advise and scout for taking out a non-magical nazi remnant base with minimal property damage. They are not expected to fight.
---Will pay $2,000 per Soul Binding for someone to insure loyalty in new emergency recruits.
Zosimus:
---Has put out a contract with 'name your boon' as the listed reward, to anyone that can kill a werelion that's armed with, get this, a Conceptual Magical Construct-a Sword of such Swordly nature it's no longer physical-just like Matvey's. The Contract's open to all, and seems to have… quite a few reported failures already. Seems the Werelion's quite the talented urban fighter as well as being an exceptional swordsman. Mission also notes he can cut automatic fire out of the air…. I wonder how many bullets at once he can do that to…
---Will pay $120,000 for someone to guard a recently turned Conceptual Bloodliner for two weeks, as her vampirism corrupts her initial bloodline. This job has two guard positions open.
---Will pay $57,000 for anyone that can resolve their issues with one of the Turkish Blood Banks no longer wanting to give their due. Details available on request, but it seems they really want someone quite socially mobile.
---Will pay $55,000 for anyone that can figure out whatever happened to one of the ambulances Zosimus Ghouls ran and lifted blood from. So far, it's been verified to be a surface-level problem, and not involve the Undersewers-otherwise, they know nothing.
---Will pay $40,000 for anyone that can permanently make a nosy reporting poking about the Zosimus clan permanently halt her inquiries. The reporter is a family woman, and would be noticed if made to vanish.
---Will pay $35,000 a head for three separate rogue vampires, one from Ibruhem, one from Yorgin, and one from Zosimus. They have no relation and none have a known location. True names are available for those accepting any of the three contracts.
Leprechaun Bonzi:
---He will pay me ten pounds of gold if I can get him a first edition copy of Flash Comics #1, the comic book. It must be in mint condition.
---He will pay in a set (I variable setting thermal/kinetic/electric Shield Charm, 1 Blade Charm, 1 Arrow Charm, 1 Mind Charm, 1 Curse Charm, all rechargable) of grade-A Leprechaun-craft charms for anyone that can remove an infestation in his Pot.
---He will pay me by assigning a section of his pot as mine to store things in and sign a Soul Contract to deal honestly and promptly with me regarding item storage, should I find a way to remove the Giant from the Undersewers beneath his shop that keeps stealing his shipments of Magma Dwarven Beer. This storage space will let me store three items, and the Leprechaun agrees to be bound such that he's incapable of knowing what the items are outside of when I'm actively discussing them with him-it sounds like a rather potent and secretive storage system, and there's no mention of needing to kill the Giant, merely to resolve the situation.
---Offers a vintage Semetic Clay Golem complete with its original order-papers for anyone that can find the thieves that broke into a Triad van while it was parked outside, broke one of their terracotta soldiers, and stole something from inside of it. The customers refused to give details on what was lost, beyond it being 'very red, and very pole-like'.
---He will teach the fundamental principles of Leprechaun footwork to anyone that can both calm down an angered Kronknar, and suitably, but nonlethally, chastise a prominent Were's child that robbed Kronknar's shop on a dare. This job is warned to be difficult.
---The Minotaur Kronknar of the bar will pay a hammer that hardens metals it shapes to be present on spiritual and shadow planes as well as the corporeal for anyone that can help him bust up a game some Devils are running where they hunt and kill a Minotaur in a maze. The devils are all known to be no stronger than five bloodliners, each, and no more in number than six.
Sometimes Merchant:
---He will pay a year's use of a private time-bubble with an environment (but not inhabitants) tailored to the contract fulfiller's specifications, for anyone that can assassinate a Dwarven general based in the sewers beneath Eastern Turkey.
---He will let my shadow drink of the Shadowwell (something SB tells me is not that unlike a fountain of power for shadows and allows shadows to consume corporeal matter rather than just shadow) if he and I can help him claim a shadow that is owed to him, that of an old, long-dead god, currently held in slumber by a cadre of Spring Elves based in a subterrainean city beneath the Bosphorus. He says it requires both a shadow and corporeal being, and for the two to share a soul-making the job uniquely suited to me.
----He will pay two rechargable Blade Charms and one rechargable Arrow Charm, svartelf make, each, for up to five warriors willing to fight a horde of hobgoblins. He's confirmed they won't have artifacts or outright spellcasters to their name, but can have basic magical implements in their number.
---He will pay a dragon's tooth for someone to attack two groups, and to do so with the other group's weapons, without being caught in the attack. The dragon tooth is guaranteed to come from a long-dead dragon from a now-defunct continent and sufficiently removed from memory that there are no active vendettas against the possessor of this particular dragon's corpseparts.
---He will owe me a Favor of negotiable nature if I can 'teach a lesson' to the heir of a local Bloodline family that besmirched his pride. I'm not allowed to kill or harm the kid-merely to annoy, shame, frighten and general troll him.

After compiling my job list and verifying none of them will vanish overnight-I go to sleep.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $2,864,660.00
BUSINESS FUNDS: $1,124,984.00
CASH: $6,120.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 90%
WINTER ENERGY: 160/160
SUMMER ENERGY: 50/50

I wake up with a dose of brain coffee, see that it's five thirty and wonder:





What shall I do with this day?

I vote for taking these jobs



Sometimes Merchant:
---He will let my shadow drink of the Shadowwell (something SB tells me is not that unlike a fountain of power for shadows and allows shadows to consume corporeal matter rather than just shadow) if he and I can help him claim a shadow that is owed to him, that of an old, long-dead god, currently held in slumber by a cadre of Spring Elves based in a subterrainean city beneath the Bosphorus. He says it requires both a shadow and corporeal being, and for the two to share a soul-making the job uniquely suited to me.
----He will pay two rechargable Blade Charms and one rechargable Arrow Charm, svartelf make, each, for up to five warriors willing to fight a horde of hobgoblins. He's confirmed they won't have artifacts or outright spellcasters to their name, but can have basic magical implements in their number.
---He will pay a dragon's tooth for someone to attack two groups, and to do so with the other group's weapons, without being caught in the attack. The dragon tooth is guaranteed to come from a long-dead dragon from a now-defunct continent and sufficiently removed from memory that there are no active vendettas against the possessor of this particular dragon's corpseparts.
---He will owe me a Favor of negotiable nature if I can 'teach a lesson' to the heir of a local Bloodline family that besmirched his pride. I'm not allowed to kill or harm the kid-merely to annoy, shame, frighten and general troll him.

Leprechaun Bonzi:
---He will pay in a set (I variable setting thermal/kinetic/electric Shield Charm, 1 Blade Charm, 1 Arrow Charm, 1 Mind Charm, 1 Curse Charm, all rechargable) of grade-A Leprechaun-craft charms for anyone that can remove an infestation in his Pot.
---Offers a vintage Semetic Clay Golem complete with its original order-papers for anyone that can find the thieves that broke into a Triad van while it was parked outside, broke one of their terracotta soldiers, and stole something from inside of it. The customers refused to give details on what was lost, beyond it being 'very red, and very pole-like'.
---He will teach the fundamental principles of Leprechaun footwork to anyone that can both calm down an angered Kronknar, and suitably, but nonlethally, chastise a prominent Were's child that robbed Kronknar's shop on a dare. This job is warned to be difficult.
---The Minotaur Kronknar of the bar will pay a hammer that hardens metals it shapes to be present on spiritual and shadow planes as well as the corporeal for anyone that can help him bust up a game some Devils are running where they hunt and kill a Minotaur in a maze. The devils are all known to be no stronger than five bloodliners, each, and no more in number than six.

Go Ping:
---Will pay a full week of specialized training in any subject he knows if Armas will help him put down a flesh golem made of May Lee by an enemy of the Triads looking to enrage them. Asks for Armas specifically.

First order of business is to get the job board up with all the missions on it aside the ones we want personally. Maybe with a few warnings here and there involving the very dangerous ones(The were-lion for example).

As for what we should take? Well, we definitely want to take the May Lee mission. That is a dick move and she was one of the first buddies we lost. The reward is decent as well. I'd say do that mission first.

The SM merchant missions all seem nice for various reasons, but several of them may take us a few day to complete. The hob goblins sound easy enough, especially if we bring four minions with us and the dragon's tooth Mission would likely work best with a partner. One silently attacks the one side, while the other attacks the other side. That way, they cannot assume it is one attacker.

Long term missions will also be troublesome, especially if there can only be those initial people. Stay away from the Lion, and maybe Elwin Elba missions. Best not to have Lo Fang get what he wants after all.

But yeah, the money missions for the most part seem like minion level stuff. Just need to make sure they are properly equipped.

>Boris
>>/questdis/58713
Boris has made some headway on his vamp and were research. Based on this info he approaches armas & camella and points out the security risk of baggha, and suggests if we could find his sire and assist him in consuming him it would restore his free will.

>Armas - Owner meeting
Armas and SB should create a 3d representation of the tunnel network and the creature residing in them.
If The Owner meant for us to find out info rather then just see what we do with that, or seems disappointed in our findings, we can give him / show him the model we created.

>Armas - Work
There is a solid plan in place to get a wide array of those jobs taken care of. One point of order is that it includes passing on SM's best paying jobs yet still taking some of the jobs he offers which suffer from the same critical drawback that prompted not taking the others.
We should not take any of this round of jobs until we have spent some time understanding the situation better. We need info on sewer politics, military situation, and social info on goblins and their competitors.
Then we could play the field as we do overground, or press for a partnership where we give advantage and dominance now for an ongoing source of power.
See full explanation and reasoning here: >>/questdis/58719

Of note is that the one mission people are calling for from SM right now is the hobgoblin one. Yes it is not liable to make him a massive amount of power (bob clarified in IRC that its only about a dozen hobgoblins not the large amounts suggested in the update text).
It would probably make us permanent enemies of the local hobgoblins and maybe their allies and further isolate out from potential partners. Also of note is the goblins being assassins while our men being highly visible.

>missions
Right, these are a pretty good opportunity for your company to make some cash. There are some issues with assisting our rivals in their tasks, but the potential for our own growth shouldn't be ignored.

Tell your captains about the missions and be sure to explain the levels of danger involved in each one(especially the were lion).

Go Ping:
---Will pay a full week of specialized training in any subject he knows if Armas will help him put down a flesh golem made of May Lee by an enemy of the Triads looking to enrage them. Asks for Armas specifically. ARMAS

---Will pay $10,000 for every confirmed Yakuza head brought to them. (if the situation comes around where we have a dead Yakuza on our hands, we can cash in but otherwise no attempts are to be made to go on this as it's too much of a clusterbomb)


Rocco:
---Will pay $850,000 for Armas to commit his company to seeing a town officially under mafia control has no 'rock-the-boat' issues for the month it takes to get new mafia members out to it and resolve their general manpower shortage. The location has nothing of sufficient worth to draw any considerable magical threat, and at best would run afoul of human criminals, magical or otherwise, looking to claim the modest income the town can provide to its 'protectors' - BORIS, NIKIFOR, LEV, GRISHA, MATVEY, ANDREI, DMITRII, VLAD

---Will pay $52,000 for a quartet of escorts of a magical persuasion to advise and scout for taking out a non-magical nazi remnant base with minimal property damage. They are not expected to fight. – MATVEY, BAGGA, DAVGON, SHADOWBRO,

---Will pay $2,000 per Soul Binding for someone to insure loyalty in new emergency recruits. - ARMAS



Zosimus:
---Will pay $120,000 for someone to guard a recently turned Conceptual Bloodliner for two weeks, as her vampirism corrupts her initial bloodline. This job has two guard positions open. – TITUS, ROSTISLAV

---Will pay $57,000 for anyone that can resolve their issues with one of the Turkish Blood Banks no longer wanting to give their due. Details available on request, but it seems they really want someone quite socially mobile. - SATAI

---Will pay $55,000 for anyone that can figure out whatever happened to one of the ambulances Zosimus Ghouls ran and lifted blood from. So far, it's been verified to be a surface-level problem, and not involve the Undersewers-otherwise, they know nothing. - NIKIFOR, BAGGA, IVAN

---Will pay $40,000 for anyone that can permanently make a nosy reporting poking about the Zosimus clan permanently halt her inquiries. The reporter is a family woman, and would be noticed if made to vanish. - SHADOWBRO, SAKE(?)

---Will pay $35,000 a head for three separate rogue vampires, one from Ibruhem, one from Yorgin, and one from Zosimus. They have no relation and none have a known location. True names are available for those accepting any of the three contracts. - BAGGA


Leprechaun Bonzi:

---He will pay me ten pounds of gold if I can get him a first edition copy of Flash Comics #1, the comic book. It must be in mint condition. - Svetlana (then other operatives for acquisition, Satai coordiate maybe?)

---He will pay in a set (I variable setting thermal/kinetic/electric Shield Charm, 1 Blade Charm, 1 Arrow Charm, 1 Mind Charm, 1 Curse Charm, all rechargable) of grade-A Leprechaun-craft charms for anyone that can remove an infestation in his Pot. - ARMAS

---He will pay me by assigning a section of his pot as mine to store things in and sign a Soul Contract to deal honestly and promptly with me regarding item storage, should I find a way to remove the Giant from the Undersewers beneath his shop that keeps stealing his shipments of Magma Dwarven Beer. This storage space will let me store three items, and the Leprechaun agrees to be bound such that he's incapable of knowing what the items are outside of when I'm actively discussing them with him-it sounds like a rather potent and secretive storage system, and there's no mention of needing to kill the Giant, merely to resolve the situation. - Cammella (she can request assistance)

---Offers a vintage Semetic Clay Golem complete with its original order-papers for anyone that can find the thieves that broke into a Triad van while it was parked outside, broke one of their terracotta soldiers, and stole something from inside of it. The customers refused to give details on what was lost, beyond it being 'very red, and very pole-like'. - FEODOR, ANDREI

---He will teach the fundamental principles of Leprechaun footwork to anyone that can both calm down an angered Kronknar, and suitably, but nonlethally, chastise a prominent Were's child that robbed Kronknar's shop on a dare. This job is warned to be difficult. SATAI, ZHENYA

---The Minotaur Kronknar of the bar will pay a hammer that hardens metals it shapes to be present on spiritual and shadow planes as well as the corporeal for anyone that can help him bust up a game some Devils are running where they hunt and kill a Minotaur in a maze. The devils are all known to be no stronger than five bloodliners, each, and no more in number than six. ARMAS, HILLEVI


Sometimes Merchant:
----He will pay two rechargable Blade Charms and one rechargable Arrow Charm, svartelf make, each, for up to five warriors willing to fight a horde of hobgoblins. He's confirmed they won't have artifacts or outright spellcasters to their name, but can have basic magical implements in their number. – ZHENYA, MATVEY, SATAI, BAGGA, ROSTISLAV

---He will owe me a Favor of negotiable nature if I can 'teach a lesson' to the heir of a local Bloodline family that besmirched his pride. I'm not allowed to kill or harm the kid-merely to annoy, shame, frighten and general troll him. - ARMAS


These are the suggested missions to take along with people who could work on them. In the case of people being assigned multiple missions, they should do the short term ones first and the join up with the longer term (e.g. Matvey is doing scouting and Mafia town work, he would do the scout day first and then join up with the rest of the town group)

In the case of the Mission for you and Hillevi, you should discuss payment options with her first. I suggest having the hammer valued and paying her equal value while you keep the hammer, or sharing it somehow. We could really use that thing.


>what do today
Get right back on Silja stuff and harvesting the siren. I don't suggest allowing her to see yet cause she might catch a glimpse of her half formed body >_>.
Have a chat with her anyway though.

With Gianni/Davgon supervision, try and make a golem using a troll heart as the base. A tiny servitor the size of a rat. (or a hummingbird hint hint). This is mostly for practice and I don't expect this to do anything but walk around and eat food and do things like fetch slippers on command. Name it Hosef.

Start working on your assigned missions. I suggest talking with Go Ping about the May lee golem thing first and if it can't be done today go troll the kid that messed with SM and if time allows, end the day with a meeting with the minotaur bar owner to discuss specifics(and maybe just do the damn thing).

Have a bottle of red wine, it's good for you.

A few possible alterations:
I really think one of the standard russians could scare off a single reporter, no matter how much SB and Sake might enjoy the work. That'd free up SB and Sake for more work. Perhaps Sake would like to stretch his trolling muscles on the local heir?

Bagga should take a sniper as backup for hunting the three rogue vamps; Iosef and Igor don't have anything to do, right? Nobody should take a job alone unless they have to. Likewise Satai with the blood bank- it's probable nothing will happen, but Titus would be willing to play the muscle for the meeting, having fulfilled that role before.

For that matter, Iosef would go better on the hobgoblin extermination mission than Satai.

Should we offer Duke the werelion job? Maybe with Sake or Shadowbro backup? He's probably our hardest hitter outside Placid, and Corny's boon being used for 'all your alcohol and drugs' would be pretty funny.

I rather like the idea of SM's Shadowwell being used in conjunction (before, during, or immediately after) with Ogrimmir's shadow-winter teaching favor. Plus, yes, shadow of a god is probably pretty awesome for SM, but we get to sift through a village of Spring Elves' crap. Bet we could find some nice enchanted armor and weapons there. Or depending on their relative power, if we could intimidate them into taking a Contract in exchange for their lives... I still remember Castelletti's elf, that guy was one bad dude. Can we keep it on the books for when Armas has worked through some of this caseload?

Going though some jobs, with suggested resource allocation.

Go Ping:
---Will pay $430,000 for someone that can obtain the ward schematics to a give safehouse from one Elwen Embla, and thereafter crack the combination Magitech/Divinitech warded and sensor-equipped warehouse. The fulfiller of this contract gets their choice of the first three items from the warehouse, not counting a single, pre-designated object of Lo Fang's choosing.

Putting a couple of the Russians on this one seems an adequate use of resources. Andrei in particular springs to mind as someone who could hack through the security.

Rocco:
---Will pay $270,000 for anyone to find out who learned Elwen Embla was carrying the ward key to a warehouse in the city. There are no clues to the case, except that it was someone that knows Elwen.

I just laugh a little bit about this contract. We have the Russians working on getting into the warehouse find this out.

---Will pay $2,000 per Soul Binding for someone to insure loyalty in new emergency recruits.

Doing this job should be easy, and not take up too much time. Putting down Armas as a resource is barely worth mentioning.

Zosimus:
---Has put out a contract with 'name your boon' as the listed reward, to anyone that can kill a werelion that's armed with, get this, a Conceptual Magical Construct-a Sword of such Swordly nature it's no longer physical-just like Matvey's. The Contract's open to all, and seems to have… quite a few reported failures already. Seems the Werelion's quite the talented urban fighter as well as being an exceptional swordsman. Mission also notes he can cut automatic fire out of the air…. I wonder how many bullets at once he can do that to…

I agree fully with putting Duke on this one. He came along with us for good fights, booze and drugs. Might as well get him the one that lets us afford the other two.

---Will pay $120,000 for someone to guard a recently turned Conceptual Bloodliner for two weeks, as her vampirism corrupts her initial bloodline. This job has two guard positions open.

Two Russians, $240,000. Whoever wants it.

---Will pay $40,000 for anyone that can permanently make a nosy reporting poking about the Zosimus clan permanently halt her inquiries. The reporter is a family woman, and would be noticed if made to vanish.

Two Russians for this job is probably ideal. Keeping reporters out of the know is everyone's responsibility, after all.

Standard: Go up, pretend to be a lawyer representing the company she is investigating, let her know nothing is going on, that everything is fine, ect.
Trickster: Put her on a different line of inquiry, have her investigate the Nazis or something.
Hard: Just threaten her. Sudden Russians telling her to halt this line of questioning usually works.
Escape: Front door, make sure not to use any real identification, be traceable to some other corporation, like the Nazis, remember weapons, just in case.

Leprechaun Bonzi:
---He will pay in a set (I variable setting thermal/kinetic/electric Shield Charm, 1 Blade Charm, 1 Arrow Charm, 1 Mind Charm, 1 Curse Charm, all rechargable) of grade-A Leprechaun-craft charms for anyone that can remove an infestation in his Pot.

This Pot appears to be an extra-dimensional space of indeterminate size, infested by 'something' with indeterminate lethality, survivability, and area coverage. I recommend at least three Russians with flamethrowers and grenades.
Recommend Vladimir, Iosef, Grisha

--He will teach the fundamental principles of Leprechaun footwork to anyone that can both calm down an angered Kronknar, and suitably, but nonlethally, chastise a prominent Were's child that robbed Kronknar's shop on a dare. This job is warned to be difficult.

Letting Hillevi handle this one sounds good. She can probably stand up to the Minatour and get him to calm down. Also, she gets practice with non-lethal, not to mention she will probably be able to put the footwork thing to very good use.

---He will pay me by assigning a section of his pot as mine to store things in and sign a Soul Contract to deal honestly and promptly with me regarding item storage, should I find a way to remove the Giant from the Undersewers beneath his shop that keeps stealing his shipments of Magma Dwarven Beer. This storage space will let me store three items, and the Leprechaun agrees to be bound such that he's incapable of knowing what the items are outside of when I'm actively discussing them with him-it sounds like a rather potent and secretive storage system, and there's no mention of needing to kill the Giant, merely to resolve the situation.

This seems like an Armas Job.

Standard: Going in and talking to the guy, maybe getting him to work for us, (exceedingly powerful beings in our service for alcohol has precedence)
Trickster: Just convincing him to leave, since there's now a contract out on his head
Hard: Soul binding him to not be able to steal the beer
Escape: Leave

Sometimes Merchant:
---He will let my shadow drink of the Shadowwell (something SB tells me is not that unlike a fountain of power for shadows and allows shadows to consume corporeal matter rather than just shadow) if he and I can help him claim a shadow that is owed to him, that of an old, long-dead god, currently held in slumber by a cadre of Spring Elves based in a subterranean city beneath the Bosphorus. He says it requires both a shadow and corporeal being, and for the two to share a soul-making the job uniquely suited to me.

Harder job than the Giant. This would need Armas, and oh, three Russians for backup. Make one of them Lybov, and probably bring Placid along. There is no such thing as overkill, and having the war walker helping out here might make those Elves more manageable.

----He will pay two rechargeable Blade Charms and one rechargeable Arrow Charm, svartelf make, each, for up to five warriors willing to fight a horde of hobgoblins. He's confirmed they won't have artifacts or outright spellcasters to their name, but can have basic magical implements in their number.

Five Russians, and that's all of them with jobs. And Russians can take care of themselves, I'm not worried. Placid could also go here; WAR walker.

---He will owe me a Favor of negotiable nature if I can 'teach a lesson' to the heir of a local Bloodline family that besmirched his pride. I'm not allowed to kill or harm the kid-merely to annoy, shame, frighten and general troll him.

Sake. Just Sake. Let him go wild. THIS WILL BE SO MUCH FUN FOR HIM.

Out of the missions that people have more or less agreed Armas should handle personally we should start planning out an order for him to tackle them in. A lot of these require preparation work. Our morning should be spent making sure we've prepared for the more immediately relevant missions and have all the intel we could need on hand. A meeting with Go Ping bright and early would be ideal, somewhere on neutral ground but private where we can discuss who did this to May Lee's remains, where these people are and where they are keeping the flesh golem, and what they've done to get ready. Then we can ruminate on that a bit and come up with a proper plan later one. Then I would arrange for Rocco to send any men that need bindings to come around at night, maybe late-ish around 12:00. Have him make a confirmation call a couple hours beforehand, if he doesn't answer he can send his new shipments of men elsewhere, if we're in we'll do all the guys he has before we sleep that night.

One of his jobs however does not seem to have the luxury of time, the minotaur being hunted by the devils in a maze seems like it could slip out of our grasp at any moment. I think we should consult Hillevi, explain the job to her, and ask if she wants to accompany us (the answer is almost certainly yes, she must be terribly bored with how much we take her out for fun things). I'd ask her about minotaurs and magical mazes too, just so we don't have our head completely up our ass when we go to the bar to later that day to meet with Kronknar. When we meet the big guy he'll probably be floored by Hillevi coming along, it may unbalance him with what excellent resources we're putting up, use this to try and haggle your way into acquiring rights to as many Devil corpses as possible so Hillevi has some pay and we get rights to the hammer. If all is well and good on his end and he's prepared to go that very day and the mission won't be doing crazy timey wimey warping stuff on us I say we go.

>>443619
Upvote, Matvey would request to be swapped off of the town guarding job though. I would swap him out for Camella, who is our only other capable leader. Stick him on the boozy Giant job with some people and the notably difficult Kronknar calming and child were chastising instead.

>>444237
And upvote sans the portions regarding alternative deployment options for the mission to shut up the nosy reporter and the hobgoblin mission.

>>444359
Downvote.

>>444359
I think you've got the wrong idea about Lyubov's abilities. If anyone's ideal for that ward cracking job, it would Lyubov. She has innate powers that let her read divinetech and electronics with ease. Have Shadowbro help her on the magitech part and they'd have it done.

I asked Bob about how long the Triads would give us for cracking the warehouse, and he said two weeks. Whatever Tesla is going to have Lyubov do will not take her more than four and a half days. Given that, and her measures to get her overcharged soul back into the safe zone, she should be ready to work on the warehouse with time to spare.

>>444359
SUST, because I don't like your name
While all this talk about what jobs to do is good and all, there doesn't seem to be any suggestions as to what to actually do today!
So, I say we spend time dicking around with the swarm of hummingbirds trick, learning how to actually use one of our escape abilities is a good thing.
Also, we would be shiny. Oh so shiny...

I think we should call up the dunters we know, and hit them up for more jobs and info on the political situation underground.

If doing soul binding to ensure loyalty mission, make sure to not reveal our ability to edit binds.

I see no reason to not harvest Stacey this morning as well. Only use 14 of Sake's charges though, we should keep some in reserve since we're starting missions up again. And make sure there was no conflict between our "don't talk to Amen" and "Just ask Amen for food" orders.

We should find out if Kronknar knows exactly where the devils are or not. If we can get the job done before noon Sunday, we should go for it. Also phone Go Ping to find out if he knows where the May Lee flesh golem is, and to tell him we're generally onboard.

Spend spare time trying to figure out that Wall Walking orientation instead of practicing dual orientations, which we're pretty good at right now. It'd be nice for missions in tight spaces.

>>444359
SUST.
One or two decent ideas, but sending Placid on missions, bringing Russians as backup on missions where they virtually can't be of assistance, sending a hacker to decode magical ward systems. Those are all silly things.

>>444386
>Out of the missions that people have more or less agreed Armas should handle personally we should start planning out an order for him to tackle them in
Okay.

May Lee mission: I'm still a little unsure on how All View works. We can 'tag' people we find in All View, can we 'tag' the May Lee? Preferrably while we're get that Yakuza meeting done. Then we could just roll up and say 'Hey Ping, get your shit, I found her.' Incidentally, the tack to take for that meeting is, I think, to get all indignant - make it clear you consider Long Wang, Diao, Ping and May Lee friends. Whether we do or not with what the Triad has pulled on us, acting the part costs us nothing and might keep Go Ping unsure on his loyalties.

The minotaur-inna-maze mission is pretty time critical, should hit that swiftly. Will we be deposited in the maze and have to track them down? Cuz our hummingbird swarm would make short work of that, and might just impress Hillevi. Play it cool- 'yeah, you know, just haven't had the right situation where being three hundred hummingbirds would help-'. Placate Hummingbird with 'sorry, Hummingbird, but its the truth. You don't use buckshot to swat a mosquito, right?'

The soul binding can also be fit in around larger jobs - binding to 'be loyal to the Mafia' with our ability to change bindings (to, say, 'be loyal to the Armas'?) would be delightful.

The Pot infestation and chastising the heir I'm not sold on being Armas's thing, but I suppose we can pick them up later depending on how well and quickly we work through the other 3. Though really, if we're going to have extra time to do another mission from the list, I still prefer the god's shadow and the spring elves.

We should go into the Yakuza meeting with a clear idea of what we want. Mostly, that's information, for me. We don't know which yakuza group we're dealing with, here, for one. Yamaguchi or Sumiyoshi, or some smaller family? The Golden Death Gods and the Oni clan I would rate above the local Mafia's forces and the Triad (when not counting Lammy and Lo Fang) but below the Nazis- but that could change if the heads are anywhere close to Lo Fang's insane level of skill. We have NO info on these guys besides Baki. That could be a problem, so a meet n' greet like with the vamp sire dynasties is going to be very good.

I don't particularly want to work for these guys, but an amicable arrangement wouldn't be a bad thing- live and let live, that sort of thing. Feel them out on if they plan to withdraw their forces now that they recognize their former friends were playing them.

We can fleshcraft and soulguise ourselves into literally anything. We could walk into the meeting with a soul shaped as a yakuza crest, or a Hello Kitty.

A few other things: they don't actually call themselves yakuza, they use 'ninkyou dantai'. Just a thought. And if it turns south, remember that $10k a head bounty.

>Changing the topic slightly here, but I was thinking of setting up a proper chakra tournament for like the 26th or 27th, putting up either a specific prize or a boon with the stipulation that it be within reason.
Well, apparently the tournament is today or tommorow- we actually talked to a couple of minions about it. Thing is, with all this work we took, we might not have time to do it properly. Regardless, this pretty much means Lyubov can't do it because of her witch-sainthood and her sudden overbloated soul. Armas knows lyubov enough to know that girl is a go-getter, and having his very own witch-saint being petulant wouldn't do. Armas should make an effort to find a thoughtful something for her. Luckily, her mother arrived recently. He should ask her of any particular..Weaknesses...of lyubov (Food, Films, other ideas).

>-I ask Dmitrii to make privace charms for the van we'll use to transport the golem to and from the warehouse. He gets on that, and by tomorrow our car should be perfectly kitted out for discreet transport.
If Armas wants to see Placid going googly-eyed at our Golem, he should be there for the first meeting. Likewise, talking to Placid a bit, giving him encouragement about the work he is doing on the souls, watching it and trying to see what he is doing, are all good. Remember we promised to one day take care of his bindings, and as such we may try to analyze Placid as deeply as we are currently capable.

>>444237
>>442436
Sust to any SM jobs but the Hobgoblin one, because they seem to hasten SM's take over too much. SM is a great contact, but we must be wary of his sudden increase of power here. Also, if we do take the Hobgob job, we must make sure the minions sent there are adequately camouflaged/illusioned/fleshcrafted so that we don't incur unecessary bad blood with hobgonlins.

>>443619
Upvote the job section, as that's a really thorough job everyone did together.
>Get right back on Silja stuff and harvesting the siren. I don't suggest allowing her to see yet cause she might catch a glimpse of her half formed body >_>.
Upvote. While on the topic of Silja, it was good to see how the meat gained by exchanging all those hearts compares to what she gains from the Siren, but now that we did it's pretty clear that, at least for this stage, it's probably not really needed to do that again.

>>444532
This does seem like a perfect job for Lyubov. Upvoting, though make sure that she is not alone in case her contract with Tesla make it impossible for her to finish that mission in a profitable way for the company.
>>444386
Upvoting this pretty hard
Details:
+May Lee was someone we lost in a mission, and she was, however shortly, a teammate. While meeting Go Ping, we should adjust our soul guise so that we not only hide our imperial and divine nature, but also give our soul an appearance of well-contained wrath. Make it clear we won't let that stand.
For the Devils jobs, we want to try to get the Devil bodies. They are in the 'really good and safe to eat' range, as long as Devil doesn't inherently conflict with divine. Do not forget to take the mere with us, as well as a spear- the Amazon spear could help here. For this, we need to either negociate looting rights, or else use cannabilizing fleshcrafting on the devils while they are alive.

[General Training Tips]
Chakra:
+Reinforcement: When we train in our reinforcement, we should aim to polish and understand our ability a bit more. As such, trying to use flexibility so that we can choose to concentrate all our reinforcement into a specific body part would be a good step. Trying to time ourself from going 'full body reinforcement' to 'reinforcement in my legs', for example, would help us improve our response time, and make it easier to counter and attack ourself. We should be wary of the winter chakra/Summer body conflict, however, and begin slowly. Especially if we try to use specific-body when amplifying reinforcement.
+'Stealth ': While our stealth orientation is kinda a joke (and we definitely need a better one soon), we should likewise improve our flexibility with it, let's say by trying to only provide energy for SB, instead of it being only 50% of the orientation. It would also be interesting to learn how much energy we can give him until it becomes unhealthy for SB, because with our regeneration rates we can definitely give him a ridiculous amount.
+Open Orientation: this would be much like the stealth orientation training, except trying to give the energy to the mere. We could, likewise, give some really nice amounts of energy to Whaitiri, and it can't hurt to be nice to her before our next meeting.
+Sphere Labyrinth: Dávgon has a mind bound spirit animal, and Satai has been looking quite a bit into the mind side of things. Talk to them, try to see if you can practice against them or they have advices. If not, look at your soul a bit more. It might be interesting to have a clearer idea of 'self' while doing mental training.
+Spirit sensing : We have learnt about undercharging last month, and we should train our spirit sensing orientation with it. Talking to people (or looking them in allview) whose soul baffled or interested us while doing so will probably help. Dmitrii, Matvey, Duke, Lyubov would all be good candidates for this. Changing our bind to 'can only use spirit sensing orientation in february' or 'can only use spirit sensing in february' could help if we can't see anything, or if we want to try for progressive progress.

Fleshcrafting:
>So, I say we spend time dicking around with the swarm of hummingbirds trick, learning how to actually use one of our escape abilities is a good thing.
Upvote

+Cannibalism: We have the ability to 'eat' things through our magic, or eating them the normal way, which also seem to be amplified by magic (or at least our taste buds are). We have never tried to quantify if there was any difference between the two, be it efficiency or any such things. As such, we should do a number of tests. First, on the meat in our fridge: If we have two non-phoenix hearts, use some of your summer energy, put yourself to spirit sensing orientation with appropriate binds, eat one with the cannibalism magic, and then eat one the 'normal' way. See if there is any differences between the gains of either, and truly try to analyze what those gains are- there could be something beyond the spiritual regeneration, as well as the summer energy gain. Worse come to worse, try to get a glimpse of how it works. Being as it is a Cannibalist magic, a second step is required: do the same with two tiny bit of flesh from one of the minions (after asking, of course): there may be secondary effects when it comes from either living or human stock (possibly both).

>With Gianni/Davgon supervision, try and make a golem using a troll heart as the base. A tiny servitor the size of a rat. (or a hummingbird hint hint). This is mostly for practice and I don't expect this to do anything but walk around and eat food and do things like fetch slippers on command. Name it Hosef.
Upvote trying to learn some golemcraft, though we should talk to Gianni first before deciding on using a troll heart.

Soul Manipulation
+Soul-Guise: Armas has realized that Bagga could feel something divine about him. This should mean the extra-speciliazed vampiric blood-sensing needs Armas to be able to find a soul-guise that counters it. Talk about it with your brothers, and change the default soulguise as needed. Furthermore, hides the presence of our soul bind in our soulguise. We should then train to be able to change our binding while continuing to appear that we have none.
+Bindings: Do not forget to change your bindings approprietely with the date (February is soon over). Bindings are an incridibly versatile tool, and Armas should not hesitate to abuse this as much as possible. A Simple binds like 'can only communicate with people Armas thinks are Triads' could be, for example, extrmeley useful for our meeting with Go Ping. Likewise, binds could be used to maximize our trainings, and so on.

>>445642
>>444991
>>443619
>>444386
Well, one of those jobs looked… exceedingly easy. There's a May Lee golem here in the city, and Go Ping wants to find it. I got Accelerated thought and the Allview-not to mention my brothers.
>"We're helping you with this?"
Are you actually balking at further indebting Go Ping to us?
>"No, just verifying you're still doling out orders."
Well I am.
>"As I see."

It takes us all of, real time, eight minutes to find her. To us, it was nearly a full day of combing the city before I finally found her, lurking in the meatpacking district. I give Go Ping a call as I start getting dressed.
>[Go Ping]"Mr. Laine."
"Hey Go. So-I found May Lee, and-"
The eminently zen Go Ping's voice rasps with cold focus.
>[Go Ping]"Where."
"Meat packing district near the place that imports mollinari meats, the-"
>[Go Ping]"I know which one that is-how accurate is this information?"
"Well I'm not there now, but effectively I'm looking right at her-and that's her."
I hear muffled orders and the sound of industry from Go Ping's side of the line.
>[Go Ping]"…Thank you Mr. Laine. As it happens, we are near the meat packing district today."
A quick swivel of the Allview shows that's so: Go Ping and a bunch of triads are in a van.
"It'll take me a bit to get there, hold-"
>[Go Ping]"The assistence you've already provided is sufficient: We will end this, and not allow this to carry on any longer. And before you ask, Mr. Laine, of course I will honor my end of the request-you more than fulfilled your portion. If you'll excuse me."
*CLICK*
ACQUIRED 1 WEEK OF GO PING LESSONS

…Well that was easy.
>"Easy can be good. Even if it does leave a few unanswered questions."
Eh, gives me more time to prioritize the jobs I think most transient. That said…. I'm going to have to talk to Hillevi about that mission for Kronknar. Wel… first though, I have to gather up a few people for that mafia town job…. I think I know who to grab.

After knocking on some doors and gathering up eight people, I give them a rundown. There's a town in Italy-they'll get transportation gratis, obviously-and they'll need to keep things running smoothly for a month. No number crunching or law-making, just keeping things from getting messy. Population of 400, give or take, and no bloodliners present. Other than a longstanding fued between two non-magical families in the town, it's about as quiet as it gets-so I want them to try doing a long-term group mission. Camella, Boris, Nikifor, Lev, Grisha, Andrei, Dmitrii and Vlad look at one another before nodding-they'll take the mission. Camella asks who will lead the chakra and general fitness lessons in her absence-I tell her it'll get taken care of. Just like that, eight people are packing up, and after a quick call ahead Rocco's on board with my offer, and the contract's mine. The sun still hasn't come up yet.

While I have Rocco on the line, I tell him to send over the Soul Bind people tonight-at midnight-after doing a confirmation call an hour or two beforehand, as well as telling him I have an ideal set of personel in mind for his scouting job. After a quick conversation, I ask SB to round up Matvey, Bagga and Dávgon for a consulting job. My Shadow Soul leaves promptly, one of his shade whispering that currently Matvey is not in the house, but that he seems to be en route back via the undersewers. They'll leave on his return, it seems.

That done I hang up-and call a different person.
>[Zosimus]"Armas, how are you-it's rather late."
"I know. I hoped to catch you in time to discuss those jobs of yours."
>[Zosimus]"Oh?"
"I have an excellent pair to offer for the bloodliner guard job."
>[Zosimus]"And you will personally vouch for them?"
"That I will."
>[Zosimus]"Excellent. What of the rest?"
[smallTitus, Rostislav offered[/small]
"I have a rather fastidious employee that would no doubt be excellent at addressing your troubles with the Blood Bank."
>[Zosimus]"Excellent. I hope he is well versed in dealing with the inept."
"I think that won't be a problem.
Satai offered
"I also think I can handle that ambulance problem of yours."
>[Zosimus]"That will be paid on resolution, so I won't be closing the contract just because you said that. That said, I look forward to hearing about it."
Iosef, Bagga, Ivan offered
"I assume, then, that just because I tell you I have someone on the job for those rogues you mentioned-"
>[Zosimus]"Correct, I will not close the contracts."
"I see."
Bagga offered
Hey, one of SB's shade still around?
>"There is one present-what is it brother of our master?"
I want you and Sake to kill the reporter Zosimus wants shut up, and to make it look like an accident.
Sake wiggles happily.
>[Sake]"I bet we can be done before Kuvey even gets back!"
And with a gust of wind they're gone.
"I also recommend keeping an ear out for good new on the public interest front."
>[Zosimus]"I will be alert. Was there anything else?"
"I think that's it."
>[Zosimus]"Well, despite the irregular hour, I suppose I should thank you for taking a number of issues off my shoulders-or at least, promising to."
"We'll talk later?"
>[Zosimus]"I imagine so."
*CLICK*

I spend some time tapping the people I just committed to work and verifying they're up for it-surprise surprise, they all are-and then make my way on to a new set of calls-this time to the Leprechaun Bonzi.
>[Bonzi]"Who's this?"
"Mr. Laine. I wanted to discuss some of the problems you want resolved."
>[Bonzi]"That so. Oh-should tell you, won of your boys came through here a bit ago-guy with a sword, bioarmor, chimera guardian and all that. Thought I should let you know in case you were looking for him."
That would be Matvey-but what's this about a Bioarmor and a chimeric guardian?
"Well, I effectively want to take all of your problems and make them go away-but I feel like Kronknar's problems take priority."
>[Bonzi]"You want to do all of them, huh? How you gonna deal with the infestation?"
"External Soulcrafting and soul binding."
>[Bonzi]"Hmph. The Comic?"
"Bureaucratic finesse."
Satai, Svetlana Offered
>[Bonzi]"The Giant?"
"Worst case scenario I'll see to it myself."
>[Bonzi]"Heh, sure. The prick that pissed off my cook?"
"How about some unbloodlined Mortals taking him down a peg?"
Satai, Zhenya offered
>[Bonzi]"Now that'd work just fine. And the maze issue?"
"I'll be over shortly, with a Valkonen to assist-that is, if we can get the devil's bones. You know those Valkonens and their collecting."
>[Bonzi]"A Valk? …Yeah all right, I'll talk to Kronknar-he'll have to live with not having any bones for making devil soup stock. …Well, got to say it sounds like you got this under control. How long until you're here?"
"Is there a timeframe I need to be there by?"
>[Bonzi]"Not specifically."
"Does noon work?"
>[Bonzi]"That'd be fine."
"Noon it is."
>[Bonzi]"Until then."
*CLICK*

I make one last call while idly reviewing the status of all those already leaving on missions.
>[SM]"Armas Laine. What can this merchant do for you?"
"It's more what I can do for you. I have a group that can tackle that Hobgoblin job for you."
>[SM]"Do you? Excellent."
Matvey, Zhenya, Satai, Bagga, Rostislav offered
"I'd also love to hear more about this heir you need trolled."
>[SM]"It's nothing much, just the Aksoy Families heir, Yilmar, a boy of… singular arrogance. One suspects that he would make for a passable Pride Fragment-but that's beside the point. He frequently can be found in downtown Istanbul."
Amen appears at my side, handing me a picture of a young, cocky looking guy with a narrow jaw.
>[Amen]"This one was provided with this by the Sometimes Merchant for Master."
"Anything of note before I set off on this?"
>[SM]"Only that he has a fondness for USSR-era music and rabidly defends its quality."
I Smile.
"That should be plenty."
>[SM]"Excellent. I hope to hear good news soon."
*CLICK*

My glut of phone conversations over with, I finally get to actually starting my day-or I will, after I listen to Sake giggle about the sordid car accident he and SB's shade-member orchestrated, a fatal affair of plain bad luck-or so it was made to appear. Well, once Zosimus sees the news, that job should be done. Even better, Sake recorded it with his backpack cam!
+$40,000 on confirmation by EOD on Zosimus' part.
Just as I get Sake to calm down, I get a call from Matvey-seems he went straight to the mission on being contacted, and they already finished their scouting job-and just got paid.
+$52,000
BUSINESS FUNDS: +(52,000-25%)=$1,163,984.00
While I have Matvey on the line I tell him I'd like a report on what he gained in his venture-specifically, about his new armor and guardian-but that I expect mission completion to be his priority. He acknowledges my request-and I hang up with a smile. Already, three jobs completed. Not too shabby.

As I exit my room, Satai catches me-well, more accurately I let him catch me, given I see his soul headed my way. He seems… disturbed, but to have his agitation on a tight leash. Better hear what he has to say.
"Satai, what is it?"
He doesn't hesitate a beat when I step out from my room just as he's about to knock.
>[Satai]"Armas, did you order the siren to tell Amen when she is hungry- and then order him to feed her?"
"I did."
>"…Oh, I know where he's going with this, this will be good…"
Satai's spiritual agitation grows even as his face remains rigidly controlled.
>[Satai]"In that case, I must ask if you have some form of plan for her mental and emotional molding which requires that she be subjected to the most horrifying method of feeding that Amen can devise while abiding by whatever your exact wording was. If you want to play games with her head that's up to you, but I'd appreciate a briefing on it seeing as you set me up as her handler."
I could, I suppose, spin this as being on purpose-I could. But… every now and then, when I think about it, I wonder just how I can keep myself human-by my standards, at least. And the answer I always come back to is to have someone to call me on it. So…. why not Satai?
>"Oh, this will throw him for a loop."
"You're right Satai."
>[Satai]"Please save… what?"
Satai looks at me like I've grown a second head.
"You're right: I didn't think about the scope of her binding in relation to Amen's character. Do you have an altenative order to replace that with at this time or does one need to be thought up?"
His soul looking positively frazzled, Satai's ever-calm face spits out some words to me.
>[Satai]"…Just withdraw the order to Stacey and she can go back to eating magical flesh out of the kitchen like I told her to before."
"Certainly. In fact-"
Spotting Stacey's soul on the lower level-
"I'll tell her now-care to tag along?"

As if he doesn't quite believe I would so bold-facedly own up to a mistake, Satai follows me like a wary guard dog, and listens in silence as I rescind my order to Stacey.
"So, was that all?"
>[Satai]"…No. I've cut a deal with Johan on a way to improve our kodoku jars- it should drastically improve survival rates and quality fairly inexpensively, but requires a few hours of your time and some memory transfers. Dàvgon has the details; please coordinate with the two of them."
"I see-I guess I'll be talking to him then."
Satai also hands me a report, with details on a pair of Rolls Royce Phantoms.
>[Satai]"And here, your Phantoms are ready for order. Just call this and give them your account number- the company account does not have the funds to spend almost a million on fancy cars right now. They should fit your requirements."
"Excellent, thank you Satai. Oh, you may have noticed some people leaving on jobs this morning."
>[Satai]"There were armory visits, yes."
"Yes-I've got one particular job I'd like you to handle wholly yourself."
>[Satai]"That being?"
"Clearing up what sounds to be a political issue keeping the Zosimus clan from getting their regular contributions from a particular Blood Bank. Shouldn't involve anyone shooting at you-and if it does, you are of course free to call me or the rest of the company for support."
>[Satai]"…I see. Is there a number I call, or-"
I give him the number.
>[Satai]"….I will call them."
With nothing more than a bow of his head, Satai departs, visually the same as always. Were it not for my soul sensing I might have missed the riot transpiring in his spirit. My admitting to wrongdoing really shook something in him.
>"I have to admit-an impressive bit of trolling."
>[Sake]"I still like slapstick the best."
"I know you do Sake."
>[IT]"While I care most for things just like this-trolling with honesty and kindness."

I head off to Hillevi's room, and explain to her that I have a job she might be interested in. She's already on board before I explain anything-and the moment I mention a maze and Devils I think I'd have to kill her to keep her from going. Okay-guess she's on board. Even better-the idea of getting devil bones sounds like an awesome reward to her. Means I get to have uncontested access to that hammer-perfect. After flitting about and talking with everyone I committed to a mission about what they've got on their plates, I head back into my room-and find someone what was curiously absent from it last night.

Lyubov’s in my room again, writing by hand in a notebook. She’s laying on her stomach on the bed, while Sake’s curled up on her butt, a green fuzzy sleeping slinky. She has the stereo system hooked up to her MP3 player, slow music in the background. She looks up at me when I enter, and speaks with a lazy yet curiously eager smile. [Lyubov]“Hey. Sorry I didn’t come to bed last night. I’d talked to Dávgon yesterday, while you were off with Gianni I guess, and he asked me some questions that got me really looking at myself and what I am now and I was pretty upset by the end of it and you were already asleep and so I ended up talking with my mom and anyway there’s stuff we need to talk about. You and me.”

Whilst my body tenses in wariness at her wording, Shadowbro, having discreetly rejoined me after the mafia mission, speaks aloud, in his gravely ‘I’m a creepy shadow’ affectation. His words are, as ever, decidedly unflowery.
>“You want privacy?”
A shaken head is Lyubov's response.
[Lyubov]”No, you should stay, some of it is important to you, too, and uh, you’re a part of Armas as much as he is a part of you. So, yeah, you’re both important to me. But, um. I know it’s obvious to anyone with spiritual senses that I’ve got a multidimensional part to my soul now, the conduit to Tesla, and that’s just part of being what I am now. But there is a multidimensional aspect to my mind now, too, and it is not so obvious. Not even to me, at first.”

Well this sounds interesting.

She scoops Sake up and deposits him on one of the pillows. Then she sits up.
[Lyubov]”I’ve got memories of- from. From my other selves. My, um. Sister Lyubovs, from other dimensions. Most of them follow my life very closely. The only real differences are in, uh, mistakes they made that I did not. Fatal mistakes, like when I nearly drowned except I remembered to let the water pressure in the car cabin equalize and then I escaped, but one of my sister-Lyubovs didn’t and she ended up drowning, and I remember it like it happened to me.”
>A multidimensional memory grave? That is fascinating.
He voice starts to get thicker with emotion, and I wonder if it's coincidence or SB's crassly analytical comment bothered her.
[Lyubov]“And like when I was in the metro and slipped and managed to grab my friend instead of falling down on the metro tracks, but for some Lyubovs in other dimensions, they didn’t manage to- and, and they ended up on the tracks and- they just knocked their heads the wrong way, or the train hit me- I mean, them, or-
SB whispers a comment from within my ear's shadow.
>I’m glad Dávgon talked to her. I’ve asked around in the Dark about witch saints, and most of what I’ve learned has been rumors and speculation.
Really not the time.

She starts tearing up, and I can tell she’s going to be really weeping in a moment. So, I sit on the bed beside her. She leans against me, and I put my arm around her, just holding her for a bit. I can feel her sobbing both physically and spiritually and all I can really do is hold her. Irrationally, I want to yell at Dávgon for making her cry but-

>It’s not his fault, she would have realized even without his questions. That, and she's overly emotional.
I know it’s not his fault. It’s not really anyone’s fault. And you know we are both TERRIBLE judges of emotional stability!
>"An arbitrary detail."
See now you're just being a dick.
>"Yes-and just how does that feel, I wonder?"

Tuning out my soul shadow, eventually I venture, “Sounds pretty morbid.”
She nods against my shoulder.
[Lyubov]”I thought I got all of this out last night. I’m sorry, I just-“
I cut her off. Tears are still not something I do well dealing with.
“No, it’s fine. Take what time you need. If you ever want to talk about any of it, I’m here for you.”
Sake, woken by her crying-and her shifting position knocking him off her rump-crawls into her lap as she composes herself. She reflexively strokes him. Gathering herself, she wipes her nose and starts gain.
[Lyubov]“Anyway, it’s like that for just about every potentially fatal situation I have ever been in.”
“Any silver lining to it?”
She nods.
[Lyubov]”One. A big one, actually. Dávgon thinks that being a memory graveyard for my other selves is just a side-effect of being multidimensional now. But there’s a set of memories that do not terminate- that are from a Lyubov that just said something a little different, and- and do you remember that boy, Sergei? The one I told you and Tesla about, who went to San Diego? Well, the other Lyubov, she made a different choice and won the scholarship instead of him, and so I went to San Diego and enrolled in the state university and got into the engineering program there. And I remember meeting you- I mean, I remember her meeting your, um, counterpart. In September, last year.”
>[Sake]”The problem though is that I’m not part of that alternate reality. Neither is Hummingbird, or even Kuvey. So obviously it's a boring reality.”
A smile forces itself onto her face as she continues.
[Lyubov]”And you- I mean, the other Armas. He acts somewhat differently. More serious? Like, he’s a bit more reserved and he’s got more restraint, and he was a Sergeant First Class when he left the Rangers, but he still likes pulling pranks and he’s still you, just- kinda different. And, he and the other Lyubov, they are involved, like we are, and he’s told her things, and he does remember his childhood stories. And I am sure that he has no magic. And neither does that Lyubov.”

My attention stops attempting to idly wander as I gravitate towards this detail: This means something, related to that missing month, the bloodlines-all of it.
>I don’t need to tell either of you just how valuable having a control to compare against, even from another dimension, will be.
>[Sake]Yet you just did.
I barely hear my brothers quibbling.

“They’re both still alive?”
[Lyubov]”Yes. And when I think about them and try to remember things, I can see what she has been up to. Yesterday they had a ballroom dancing class together.”
She smiles at that. A happy memory, I guess, even if it isn’t hers.
>Her mind is a gate of self. That’s extraordinarily rare. I might be able to learn how to make some of your ideas about multiple bodies more robust, if we studied this. A pity the furball is averse to the idea of serving a god: If Tesla can grant that, much could be accomplished under his guidance.
>[Sake]"Moot point, he's already got his avatar here."
>"True."
“Was that the only memory chain that’s different from all the others?”
Lyubov nods.
[Lyubov]”It is. And it’s funny, I remember meeting that other Armas’s parents. They seem very like a sweet couple.”
“Did they have a weird neighbor? Across the street, a book guy?”

That just draws a blank look from her. She thinks about it, and finally declares, [Lyubov]“Nope.”
>Either a low-magic world, or Grim Moire is only interested in the magical you.
That's what it sounds like, yes.
Shadowbro finally speaks aloud once more.
>“Why do you have access to that San Diego Lyubov’s ongoing memories?”
[Lyubov]”Dávgon thinks it might be an example Tesla would like me to follow, or a boon, or something like that.”
Shadowbro and I end up speaking at the same time. “You haven’t asked Tesla?”
She looks a bit flummoxed at the suggestion.
[Lyubov]”I- no.”
From her lap, a wiggling weasel offers his own squeaky comment.
>[Sake]”You could just call him up and ask, you know.”
[Lyubov]”You think I should?”
>[Sake]”The worst he’ll do is just tell you he’s too busy to talk right now. You’re his Witch Saint.”

Lyubov doesn’t waste any time setting her phone to speakerphone mode. The “ritual” she uses for getting Tesla’s attention consists of her asking on an open line if he’s there.
[Tesla]”Yes, Lyubov?”
[Lyubov]”So, um. Hi Nikola. Is it ok for me to call you that?”
[Tesla]”I see no issue with it, in private. If you have to call me by name in front of people who are not your loved ones, please address me as Tesla.”
[Lyubov]”Ok. So. I called because I found the memories from my counterparts in other dimensions. Both the ah, ‘terminal dimensions’ and the student. And, I would like to know, why? Pretty much no one I’ve talked to knows much more than rumors about witch saints.”
[Tesla]”That’s not surprising. The requirements for making them are rarely met, and they’ve become even rarer due to artificial restrictions from the God Wars treaty, which AORB and other signatories enforce on each other.”
[Lyubov]”So there’s no ‘How to be a Witch Saint’ textbook huh?”
[Tesla]”No. We’re both going to have to learn about this. I’ve made many saints before, but you are the first Witch Saint I have empowered.”
[Lyubov]”Wouldn’t AORB know?”
[Tesla]”They do, but they will not share that information as I never asked their permission. I didn’t need to, since I was never subject to their treaty. I’m one of a handful of gods capable of sustaining a witch saint properly who was born post-God Wars. But do not mistake my action for antagonism. It is simply that while I cooperate with AORB sometimes, I do not answer to them. And likewise they are under no obligation to help me with this, and as a point of fact they have already reminded the signatories to the God Wars treaty that they cannot share information about Witch and Wizard Saints.”

At this point I interject, looking for more information about the shadowy American group. “But why would AORB even care?”
[Tesla]”Lyubov, have you considered the implications of your existing magic, your chakra orientations, being converted to a divine format by being made into a divine spell seated in your soul?”
I can practically feel the smugness rolling off of my shadow.
>If she hasn’t, I have.
Well what is it?
>Let’s see if she gets it, first.

[Tesla]”Uh- I can learn how to emulate anything?”
[Tesla]”Be precise. You should be capable of learning how to emulate any Divine-format magic a mortal, a practitioner, or a contract holder could exercise be it spell, ritual or rune, in addition to your native divine powers or replicating wholly inhuman Divine magics. Based on this, I see no reason you could not eventually learn to emulate Mortal Magics-or so I hypothesize. Though the practical methods a Witch Saint uses to build her emulation packages are unknown to me at the moment, I am confident you will learn.”
He sounds like a proud father.
>It very neatly explains why making new witch saints is restricted for most gods. A fully developed one is more versatile than the god she’s connected to.
>[Sake]”That’s interesting and sounds like it’s going to be more fun than the Christian Hell, but you never answered her original question.”
[Tesla]”The multidimensional nature of a Witch Saint is well known, though the rumors have been partially discredited by a misinformation campaign. What is not widely known, and what I did not know until I observed Lyubov’s transformation, is that it naturally finds divergence points within a rather short metaphysical range. I had to work to make sure that Lyubov achieved a link to her living counterpart Lyubov, the student as you have titled her.”
“Are you saying that naturally, the dimensions closest to this one have her dying a lot?”

[Tesla]”Yes. I have done some checking, to be sure that she is not under a curse, or affected by bad luck. It appears to be entirely natural phenomena. Statistically speaking, someone must be on the far ends of the curve. A normal distribution demands that there be someone who is deceased in most dimensions. In her case I estimate it to be one surviving counterpart Lyubov for every one thousand three hundred deceased.”
[Lyubov]”That’s. That’s really sad.”
[Tesla]”There’s a practical advantage to it, besides making it hard for enemies to construct extradimensional models of your behavior. If you had been synched with a large number of living counterparts your personality would have been lost, overwritten by a barrage of memories that did not happen to you. Instead, you enjoy one active connection, and more importantly are still quite sane. I gather it was a problem for some historic Witch and Wizard Saints who were empowered without account for the potential backlash their minds would receive.”

Her transdimensional bad luck with survival turns out to be good luck for this specific Lyubov… okay. Huh. That's certainly something.
“How rare are Witch and Wizard saints?”
[Tesla]”I did a little research and have determined that there are 60 confirmed Witch and Wizard saints, including Lyubov. I must note in the interest of accuracy that given their value, it's entirely possible this number underrepresents the total, given many would try to hide such a commodity. In comparison, I have estimated there to be some 760 extant Wizards and Witches-I say estimated as at any given time they can create more of their number, chose to die out of boredom, or leave for another dimension. In the pre-God Wars era, I estimate there were usually 400 to 600 Witch and Wizard Saints at any time. Interestingly, while the gender difference between Witches and Wizards is nearly an even split, there are significantly more Witch Saints than Wizard Saints at present.”
[Lyubov]”Hey, about that invention thing. Um. I’ve been playing with different ideas, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a stretch for me to have anything finished before Monday.”
[Tesla]”I will take your spiritual condition into account when I give you your assignment Monday. It may be several short jobs instead of a long one. I will talk to you about it later. Goodbye, Lyubov and Laines.”
The magical aura about the phone I was only just beginning to identify and properly observe winks out.

>That was a fascinating conversation.
He sounded way less prissy compared to Wednesday.
>I know. I can’t help but wonder… well, it will keep. Just make sure you get some of those stories the other Armas related to the other Lyubov. They might be of use.
You were wondering if he's getting altered by the connection to Lyubov just like she is.
>"It is always gladdening when I am reminded you are merely impulsive, and not dimwitted."
Love you too.

Lyubov smiles wryly at the phone, and sets it on the nightstand. She stands, Sake scrambling up to her neck as she does so, and pulls on my hand.
[Lyubov]”Come on.”
“What are we doing?”
[Tesla]”I want to dance with you.”
"I'd love to but I've got a job to go on-"
The pouts at me, clearly for appearances and not from any genuine irritation as her soul remains unruffled.
[Lyubov]”Come back safe then, both you and Hillevi. I'll just. Keep busy with my project here, I guess.”
I smile at her-and for once, it's not a face-breaker.
"I'll see you when I get back."

My shadow and Weasel alike currently unoccupied and trailing me, I get ready for the mission. After arming up with Iron Trick, my Mere, the Matebas, the Lonesome Judge, the Taste o. Ruin and the South American Spear, adorning myself in one of the remaining Amen-make full-body kevlar suits and taking a shield charm-because why not-I stand alongside Hillevi as we head out for our job. She can hardly contain her excitement on the way over, and is frankly drawing attention more for her childish exuberance than for the muscled appearance of her glamoured form. At a bit before eleven, we reach Bonzi's bar-and the Leprechaun welcomes us.
>[Bonzi]"Right, there you are-Valkonen…"
He nods at Hillevi before continuing-
>[Bonzi]"Kronknar's already left-here', I'll send you along."
The iron pot the leprechaun sits on abruptly dances into the air, growing wide-and promptly swallowing us both. Before the darkness surrounds us, I see HB indignantly ruffling his feathers on my shoulder.

[DISCONTINUITY]

The darkness recedes-and we are outside of a massive maze floating in a sea of nothing. I can't detect any soul near us-save one. The Minotaur before us, his soul stained with the taint of cannibalism, grunts, shifting the maul on his shoulder (a weapon that emenates a magic involving vibration manipulation) as he greets us.
>[Kronknar]"[b]Finally. I've got a rough sense of where the minotaur is, but I don't know where the Devils are. You got a magic that'd make it easier to try to hunt down the devils beforehand, or do you just want to try and brute strength them when they go for the minotaur by just going directly to the scent I located?"
"So, hunting, or defense?"
>[Kronknar]"More or less."
I look to Hillevi.
>[Hillevi]"Both sound exciting!"
>[Sake]"I think we should do the defense."
>"I think we should stalk them."
>[IT]"I think you should screw up in a hilarious fashion for my amusement."






Well-what's my call here-do we go straight to the minotaur and defend, or try to hunt isolated devils down first, before they potentially group up on the target?
What's going to be my general method to approaching the devils-force, wordplay, or something else? I mean, I do need them dead, but… plenty of ways to approach that.
Once we get back, is there any reason I wouldn't next address the Leprechaun's pot infestation first thing?
Past that, what else is my plan for the day as minions buzz about their many missions?

Slip and break your face on a rock.

Standard: Head for the minotaur but try to run into any Devils between these two points. If we find one and take it out without a tremendous battle, I bet we could take its form and soulguise for further fun. Perhaps by Sake hitting it with a tripping wind, SB's Nazinaut shadow holding it down, and us hitting it with the mere from behind while Hillevi blasts it with ice magic from the front? We're the one most likely to survive a misaimed ice blast (our fleshcraft healing + winter resistance), so it falls to us to work around Hillevi rather than vice versa. Kroknar can pitch in as he sees fit.

Trickster: If we pull that off, we'd have the option of leaving Hillevi, Sake and Kronkar as one team and join the hunt as one of the competitors. Using that to prey on the tendency for Devilish backstabbing could be useful, albeit personally dangerous.

Alternatively, we could try claiming we brought the others as slaves to assist in the hunt (who better to hunt a minotaur than another minotaur?) The Devils would likely see this as cheating though, even if we claim (lying) that we own their souls so they are naught but tools in our hand.

Muscle: Bust through and find the minotaur, then take him with you as you track down Devils and murder them loudly and showily. It'll be a bonding experience!

Escape: Kill one devil, fleshcraft/soulguise his shape, find minotaur, declare self winner.

rolled 17, 14, 19, 8, 87, 53 = 198

---

>What's going to be my general method to approaching the devils-force, wordplay, or something else? I mean, I do need them dead, but… plenty of ways to approach that.
While wordplay is great, wordplay with five different devils would definitely not be something Hillevi could easily follow, and she is being so excited here that letting her down is unecessarily cruel. Let's try to kill them.

>Well-what's my call here-do we go straight to the minotaur and defend, or try to hunt isolated devils down first, before they potentially group up on the target?
These are Devils here, not Demons. Remember that the odds of them working together, here, is really, really low. As for the plan- Killing the Devils is worthless if the minotaur is dead. As such, making sure it's protected should be part of the plan. As such, here is what I propose:

Now, here is the tricky part- we have bene a bit rough on SB this morning, so we must be sure to show him we still consider him an equal partner. We should have two conversations here: One with our Bro, one with Kronknar. The one with kronknar is in case we are somehow being listened to. Obviously, Hillevi should be informed of the real plan, and we should ask SB nicely if he can do that:
“Let's split up- I will go hunting the devils, while you, Hillevi and Sake will rush to the Minotaur's help. There, Hillevi can ascertain the situation and, provide what defenses and traps she can- I am certain she knows perfectly well how to defend and trap out a place. From there, I would suggest she and Sake go and hunt the devil as a second team, while you protect the other Minotaur.”
To our brothers: “to be more precise, I was thinking of doing a secondary, perimeter guard around our group. This way, twe will be able to stalk any devils that realizes that resinforcement would be coming and decided to use that reinforcement to find the Minotaur” (this should be close enough to 'hunting the devils, and as such we don't say any lies). “Once Hillevi and Sake leaves the two minotaur, you should play as bait, with me and SB ready to hunt any would be hunters”.

Details on how to execute the plan: When we are sure we are unwatched, switch our Soul-guise to 'Mindnumblingy boring thing” (make sure it has the standard no-imperial, no-divine, no-binds attached), and ask SB whether he prefers to be within our body or not. Regardless, put on the stealth and the soul sensing orientation if you can manage that dual orientation, and amplify to 100% the stealth one (or as close as possible). Make sure to ask SB if a too large input of energy will harm him, though.
If we do find a Devil following our group, or taking the later 'Hillevi and Sake as bait”, it would be a good time to practice our back-shooting ability. As long as the enemy doesn't hide/protect his shadow as well as having a Armor, shoot with IT(adjusting the type of shots used if, say, it's a enormous beast-like devil). If not, use Taste of Ruins' heavier armament.

>Once we get back, is there any reason I wouldn't next address the Leprechaun's pot infestation first thing?
No, we should do that.

>Past that, what else is my plan for the day as minions buzz about their many missions?
Armas should talk to Matvey as well as the people gone with him during that time. Get as much details as possible, and likewise follow the [General Training Tips] for spirit sensing orientation training when talking to them. Then, do the 'Cannibalism' part of that training, asking Matevey whose minion he thinks would agree for the later parts (make sure they are aware it should be perfeclty safe). Any Cannibalism training should be done in a way that doesn't alert people as to what we are doing. Luckily, there is enough 'graft everywhere' in fleshcrafting that asking for samples makes perfect sense. However, we should eat the samples in secret. After that, any other kind of training could be done, but it might be time for Armas to ask again any of the available minions whose soul matured enough if they want some soul binds, soul quirks, or other such improvements. Do mention that, if Hillevi is willing, you could use a sieve to 'block' the divine tainting.

>>445949
SUST lying

>>445782
SUST.

>Well-what's my call here-do we go straight to the minotaur and defend, or try to hunt isolated devils down first, before they potentially group up on the target?
Both, kind of. Send Hillevi and Kronknar straight to the minotaur, where Hillevi can set up defences like ice walls or her crystal mines. Follow them at a reasonable distance until they’re there, to make sure they don’t get ambushed. Then you, Sake, and Shadowbro are going to have some fun with the devils. Head back out into the labyrinth, searching for the devils if you’re able to, or else just wandering. If you find one, feel free to try to take them out if they’re alone, but more importantly (a) delay them until Hillevi has set herself up and (b) goad them into attacking Hillevi’s now fortified location by giving them some of that good ol’ Kyrpa Peikko action (without the nudity). Remember to switch to the energy shunt orientation if either Sake or Shadowbro are getting low on power, but otherwise ply soul sensing and Sphere Labyrinth.

>Once we get back, is there any reason I wouldn't next address the Leprechaun's pot infestation first thing?
If it seems within your abilities, do so.

>Past that, what else is my plan for the day as minions buzz about their many missions?
Any or all of the following:
-Harvest Stacey for Silja again.
-Ask Satai to find price comparisons for the Doonongaes parts we have, as well as get an inventory of it, so we can decide how much to sell to H&H, and how much we'll sell it for. Call Arkvad, ask him to email a list of monster bits that are in high demand over there while you’re at it.
-Practice soul manipulation with Davgon. Try to form a soul in one of the Kodoku bugs - if Davgon starts to run low on soul-bits (or you’re just bored), see if you can substitute your soul-derived Winter energy for some.
-Ask SB if he found any einher yesterday.
-Put the golem in the van, take it to the newly warded storage. Bring Davgon and Gianni, and watch Placid work on setting up the eye-laser.
-Ask Sake for a flesh sample. If he agrees, take it then heal him. Eat the flesh sample to see if you can figure anything out about it.

>>445949
>>445957
>>446516
All post-maze duties for day logged for maze completion
If the Minotaur dies, that's that-so no matter what, I have to head for the minotaur Kronknar hired me to help him get to. With Hillevi, SB and Sake to back me up, two Artifacts to my name and the client himself… well, let's say I don't feel underarmed.
"Lead the way to the minotaur then-and if we can hit some Devils on the way…"
The smile Kronknar shoots me is as black as sin-and filled with camaraderie.
>[Kronknar]"Then follow."
The minotaur sets off-and there's really nothing much to do but follow his nose.

As Kronknar leads us, I briefly try the Allview, just on the off chance that it can see within the demiplane… no such luck. I'm forced to analyze the maze exclusively from a first hand perspective-and find it, frankly, top notch. The walls are utterly featureless and wholly uniform in appearance, and the pathways can actually be seen to shift-slowly, to be sure, but shift all the same. Given how gargantuan the maze looked from the outside, such insidiously slow shifts could lead one to be trapped indefinitely, if one were not careful. The ground was oddly soft and too-silent beneath my feet-

That is, until I stepped in something wet with a quiet splash. Looking down, I see the faintest outline of a puddle of nearly dried, mud-like blood.
>[SB]"No magical signature…"
Seeing the blood, Kronknar speeds up. The five of you round a final corner and find….

A minotaur, smaller, less coarsely furred and lighter toned is on the ground, bleeding and rasping.
Standing above it, pulling a strip of flesh from the fallen bull-man's chest with glee is a Devil crafted out of thorns and brambles, a mockery of the human form. The moment I see both they bloom to my soul senses-and I realize with a start that these walls utterly block my soul sensing from passing through. The Devil's head snaps about to glare at us-as SB probides me running sensory data on magical buildup in our first of six targets.
>[AAE Trait activated]
Not one to waste a perfect moment to test out what I read about the Mere, or the shadow-filled nature of the Maze…
>"Very well-"
[DISCONTINUITY]
I'm shadowported less than forty feet, right behind the Devil, ludicrously close to a no doubt physically overwhelming foe-but more specifically, I'm shadowported with mere in hand. And so, as limbs as felly potent as any that I've seen rush towards my form, I stab.
>[SOTG Trait activated]
And….

…And the body sags lifelessly against me the moment I slammed the blade into where the devil's heart should have been. Kronknar, who had been building up speed to charge across the small intervening space slowed, his shaggy eyebrows climbing as he turns his attention to the wounded Minotaur. Me? I'm busy dealing with a familiar mental presence that cropped up the moment I stabbed the Devil.
>[Whaitiri]"So, my cannibalistic catechumen, it would seem you have something rather tasty placed atop your gate… but your dear Soul Shadow mentioned something about you needing something from the body before I should feed?"
That's so-and thank you SB-I need to preserve the bones-Valkonen traditions, all of that.
>[Whaitiri]"I grasp why he stopped me now-it is good to respect tradition."
With that the Maori Cannibal Goddess recedes from my mind like a wave rolling out to sea-

And perfectly timed to her exodus, the bark-like skin, the sap-like blood and gnarled, root-like muscle of the devil I just slew with such ease simply flows into the Mere like water down a drain, leaving the curiously shaped, delicate-looking bones behind.
>[Hillevi]"Oh that's lovely looking!"
Kronknar looks askance at Hillevi's comment before a look of understanding passes over his face.
>[Kronknar]"…Didn't know you had a melee Artifact."
"I suppose I'm full of surprises."
>[Sake]""So lucky you stabbed him before he could get into the groove."
>[HB]"Victory by dint of overwhelming speed and properly plied power is just as honorable as a drawn out battle of whittling. The decisive nature of the conquest does add much to it's worth that it's lack of tension may take away."
"Knew I could count on you to phrase it right HB."

I shake off my internal dialogue and refocus on Kronknar.
>[Kronknar]"I need to take care of this guy-and there's still the other five. You want to take care of them? I'm sure I can keep this guy out of their hands myself."
"Hey-you're the client, no prob."
>[Hillevi]"Oh!"
She lets the skeleton drop back to the ground as she bounds over to participate in the conversation, her earlier intense scrutiny of the brambled bone utterly forgotten.
>[Hillevi]"We should make it a contest-first one to kill three more wins!"
I look at my brothers.
"That hardly seems fair-I've got a bit of a team here."
My feet promptly slip out from under me-before I can hit the ground, shadow flickers over my senses and I'm once more upright. I see Sake has abandoned my side, and now loops himself around Hillevi's bull-neck. With a paw-obscured snigger, he speaks.
>[Sake]"Hah, team Storm's gonna kick your butt, outnumbered or no!

At my hip, the revolver speaks to me alone.
>"Does that make us Team Armas, or team Soul?"
>[IT]"Is this…. a Team Death Match? …I do believe it is, by a less… standard definition. How delightful. I wonder who shall win?"

I draw Iron Trick in my off hand as I give Hillevi a lazy smile.
"You ready then?"
Her 'answer' is to immediately turn and dash off in pursuit of targets with a jubilant look on her face, Sake sniggering from her shoulders as she forms a protective ice shell around him. For my part, HB simply lands on my shoulder-and merges with my neck.
"Wait-"
>[HB]"No time for such prattle, giant: A challenge has been issued, and must be met. I shall swarm your body across this maze in search of targets!"
"What about my delicious guns and the mere?"
>[HB]"I shall carry them in a soul bubble-you have the power to do it."
"Okay fine, let's-"

I don't get to finish before the most intricate and intimate fleshcrafting I've ever experienced is unleashed the very instant I give my body-bound Hummingbird permission. My flesh doesn't shift or flow-there is no sinuous shifting, no wild warping. I simply disintegrate, my crumbling pieces slamming together into a vast cloud of tiny replicas of HB in the space of one second. In that one second, I experienced more wholly alien sensations than in my entire magical career up to this point-and I found myself immensely gratified that SB was there through it all, copying the memories for later review. Disoriented and so broken up that focus was difficult I began to adapt to my current status enough I could pay attention to external stimuli. So. What's… HB doing with my body here.

Okay. Swarm's mostly together, more or less around the Soul Bubble of my gear. Okay. I can work with that. The swarm's… not moving. Why am I not moving? …Ah, there are birds away from the swarm-well, little packs of birds-that are racing out through the maze. They're all me-so I'm getting all of their sensory data. Or I would be, if I could actually handle however many thousands of iterations of input this is. Realistically speaking, I'm just grasping at a few bird's perceptions like a man looking through binoculars in reverse, grossly limited from the whole picture.

HB though, is handling it like a champ. I can tell, instantly, which bird he is-it's the only one that I can't grasp snippets of perception from-and he's guiding the divided colony like a maestro, hunting devils without the slightest sloppiness or uncertainty, no matter the monumental strain he must no doubt feel. As HB sits atop the Soul Bubble in silence, I begin to lose myself into the wonder of exploring my manifold form, marvelling at what my spirit animal can transform me into-when my little buddies eyes snap open.
>[HB]"Team Storm is proximal to three of the remaining devils, while we are proximal to two. Shall I move to engage one of the devils nearest your ward to assure us victory?"

I wonder about that….




Ward-raising decision time: Do I go for victory over Hillevi, or do I let her have the win?
More importantly-this one job's gotten her more excited than anything else has for a while. Do I maybe have some advice for her at it's completion?

Go for the two that are close to you, if you manage to finish yours before she is done with her's then kill the third.

>Ward-raising decision time: Do I go for victory over Hillevi, or do I let her have the win?
Hillevi has been the most excited on this mission we have seen her in a awful lot of time. Moreover, she actually directed term of a challenge that puts her in advantages, as well as ran just after, not really waiting for an answer. Our girl is growing up, and it's every parental figure's role to take one for his little ones every so often. Just concentrate on the two in front of you, and only go to Hillevi once those are done.

>More importantly-this one job's gotten her more excited than anything else has for a while. Do I maybe have some advice for her at it's completion?
Congratulate her for her wording of the challenge, and take her out for a treat afterward-ice creams and cake!

It is a friendly competition, no need to interfere with eachother, especially not so early in the game.

We should definitely congratulate her on the wording of her challenge. She neatly deprived us of the advantage having already killed one devil would have provided us in a purely numerical contest and the number of devils total made the move easily excused as a measure to avoid any ties. Very clever, keep up the good work. Many is the contest that is won before it begins.

As for us, we should try to pay as much attention to the structure of the maze and how it shifts as possible. It should be incredibly helpful as a referance for our mental defence orienation.

Hillevi would hate it if we make it even slightly easy for her.
Go for the victory!

>>446850
Seconding this. It's a matter of honor; a victory is meaningless if you don't earn it after all.

Besides, it's not even interfering, kill stealing, or any other kind of cheap trick outside the spirit of the game. It's utilizing one of our information-gathering strengths.

Maybe re-enforcing the concept that information is one of a warriors greatest assets on the battlefield?

Yeah, go for the win. Take out the third one from Hillevi's side that's closest to you before going after the two on your side.

Fight to win.

Also bet to win with Trick.

>>446839
Yes, we (particularly HB) like a challenge, we like winning, and fighting cheaply would teach Hillevi a lesson abou the world. It's also the wrong choice; our stated goal is to teach Hillevi about the world. Our ACTUAL goal is to get her (and by extension, her family) to like us. So we play this clean, and yeah, we give her a small advantage (to combat the fact that we know where every devil IS thanks to HB).

We fight the two closest to us, and if Hillevi still hasn't cleaned up the three closest to her, THEN we go for the win. Preserve the sense of friendly competition. And it's not even like this means we're throwing the fight, just giving her a chance.

>>446976
I agree with this post. There is no advantage for us to win here. It would simply be a dick-move out of greed. It would most likely make Hillevi sad or at least not happy which is contrary to our goals. We should not let her win either but she needs a chance. We already have HB and SB helping us, killing that devil first would be bullying her and nothing else.

>>446976
I honestly don't see us approaching this tactically as being somehow dirty. Why should we give her an advantage when we can pull ahead with a simple choice of who to go after first? If she has any sense, she'll have decided the same way and it becomes a race, if she doesn't, she will learn a lesson in choosing targets. Just because we're fighting against our protege doesn't mean we have to fight STUPID or somehow handicap ourselves. The point here isn't if she wins or loses: it's how she plays the game. Regardless of the outcome, good performance should be rewarded and poor performance corrected.

>Ward-raising decision time: Do I go for victory over Hillevi, or do I let her have the win?

First find out if Sake is using the information that the Hummingswarm discovered. It shouldn't be hard to verify. If he is, Team Storm will move toward the devil in their group of three which is closest to you.

While waiting to see what they do, go for one of the two near you.

If Team Storm isn't going for the 'right' devil, kill the other one near you. Then move toward whatever are left. She is probably just as fast as you are at killing them, but I really have to wonder at how fast she is at locating them. So in that case give her a sporting chance.

Sell it to Hummingbird as "Since she's my ward, it's part of my duty to give her chances to grow."

If Team Storm is going toward the 'right' devil, go for one of the other ones proximal to them. Turn it into a race where you are using Shadowports to skip large portions of maze geometry so that you're able to outpace her. Let this be a fair attempt.

>More importantly-this one job's gotten her more excited than anything else has for a while. Do I maybe have some advice for her at it's completion?

"Well, that was fun. You brought a bag for those bones, right?"

If Team Storm did appear to use your sensory data: "Was it your idea or Sake's to piggyback on my intelligence gathering trick? Either way, nicely done. If the intel is reliable there's no reason to not use it, right?"

If Team Storm says they did all the detecting work on their own, and in fact Hillevi did the brunt of it: "Very nicely done indeed, I'll have to tell your brother that you took his sensory lessons seriously. If you ever want to trade technique just let me know. I've got a really neat chakra orientation, you've probably seen me using it."

If they did not appear to use your sensory data: "Did Shadowbro lock you guys out of my intelligence gathering trick? Might be a good idea to work on your senses some more, I know your brother was working with you on that, and if you like I'd be willing to dedicate an hour or two a day to helping you with it."

If Team Storm did everything right and you still won because of the shadowports: "You did everything right, you know, it's just that I've got a mobility advantage in terrain like this thanks to Shadowbro. If the targets had been clumped up closer you probably would have won. Think about ways you would want to improve your own mobility and let me know. I'll help you work on what you come up with."

Attack the devils by flying the mere at them.

>>447178
SUST. Port and heartstab don't toss your weapon.

>>446976
Agreed.

Swarm and reform around targets, stab em and get the bones. Try not to lose too many bodyparts.

The urge to show her exactly how to play competitively properly-especially after she waited for me to make a kill AND went for a head start-is quite potent. Not to mention how much I love winning: Being able to scratch that itch and show her how to properly win a contest cheaply could be an excellent lesson-

>>446808
>>446824
>>446839
>>446976
>>446977

I also have to accept that objectively, it's the wrong lesson to prioritize as her guardian. No matter how many lessons I want to teach her about the world, I have to remember that the original reason I even accepted her as a ward was so I could get the Valkonens to like me, and establish strong ties to the family. And crushing her spirit like kicking a puppy, while potentially an excellent life lesson, is not the best answer-not for me, at least.
>"Ah, coming to the right answer for the wrong reasons-wonderful"
>[HB]"You… would not choose to dominate her?"[/i]"
Sure I COULD, but that only makes me feel good and teaches her a lesson. If I lose properly though, she still learns a lesson, it's easier to ensure that on returning her to her family that I get the strong bonds I'm looking for-and THAT knowledge also makes me feel good. It's two versus three, in terms of perks here.
My gaze continuing to flicker between the myriad of eyes I have to choose from, I note HB reluctantly coming around to my way of thinking.[
>[HB]"…It is a curious thing, for losing a contest to be the greater win."
But you see why that's so.
>[HB]"Aye. …Very well. We shall start with the most distant one-AVAUNT!"

Before I can tease the fiesty avian about his curious word choice, the swarm moves.

This is a wholly different 'newness' to my experiences every bit as alien and disorienting as… well, being some several thousand hummingbirds. The critical difference here is that all of the birds are in motion-none hover in place, none provide me a sensory reprieve from the data storm of the flock in motion.
>[SB]"Jarring, isn't it."
I don't even have the attention to spare for snark with my brother: I'm too busy not losing myself in the massed collective-

Or that's what I WAS doing, until I am, suddenly and gloriously, me again. Yes, I'm naked-but that's a small detail, compared to having my gun and mere in hand, and a devil before me. The particular devil in question is both similar and wildly different from those I've seen before. Once again, it holds a humanoid form. Once again, it's a mish-mash of bits and pieces that have no business being a moving body. In this case though, it's body seems to be comprised of shattered shards of aged records.

I realize the Devil is, in fact, quite aware of me when it rips my arm from my shoulder, it's free hand pulling back to stab me through the heart. I Dunter-step aside, analyzing the pain that could be crippling my mobility right now-

And drive my mere into the devil's side. I miss the heart-having one arm's throwing off my balance-but with a heave the blade cleaves through the devil's 'flesh' with ease, bisecting the heart on it's upward path-and as it does, I see the hellish fire of life in the creature's eyes fade. Once more, all but the bones of the beast are sucked into the blade-and I get a strange feeling as if someone smacked my lips for me.

Looking down at my missing arm I sigh, grab the limb and hold it to the stump and-
[HYBRID HEALING]
Aaaand good as new. I wrench the arm about experimentally, making sure I didn't miss anything before nodding in satisfaction. As I shake it off… my world becomes feathered, once again.

HB wastes no time in re-transitioning me into a one-man swarm of hummingbirds. I find myself moderately pleased that I manage to keep hold of a semblance of coherance as my mind is split a thousand ways. Granted, I only just adjust before I'm reverted to human form and we reach the second devil on our exodus-which is where things got a bit curious.

This devil, unlike the other two I'd found, was not merely wandering about. It stands amidst an array of runes carved into the obdurate floor underfoot, frowning as it studies small flickers of magic about it's person. Unlike it's brethren, this one's not truly humanoid-it's lower body is nothing more than a mass of hooked tentacles, it's arms a mad cross between a bat's wing and a monkey's tail, slender fingers writhing in the air.

As I try to adjust to once more being human (what a thought THAT is) I see the Devil….

Vanish within its ritual circle, not even leaving a puff of smoke in it's wake.

>[HB]"The coward would not face a warrior's death."
I can live with that. Hillevi?"
The bird says nothing as he shifts me back into a swarm that swiftly disperses under his will. As each clump heads off in different directions, I find my tenuous grasp of sensory data slip away. I drift on a sea of buzzing wings and blistering movement-before an aggravated sound blares through my head.
>[HB]"The last.. has fallen."
I try to see what HB's talking about-and finally find a sub-swarm of hummingbirds that isn't moving, currently fluttering above a frozen devil. My charge leans against it, looking pleased as punch as she giddily chats with Sake about the takedown. Less than a minute in, HB's remaining swarms rejoin with the one watching Team Storm, and out of the massive horde-I emerge.

Too bad I'm naked and can't stick the landing, but that's a detail.

I stand up with a back-popping stretch to find Hillevi already proudly thrusting her victory in my face.
>[Hillevi]"Heh-heh~, I totally beat you!"
"Seems you did-well done. Was Sake any help?"
>[Hillevi]"Only the BEST help! He trips them-"
>[Sake]"And she freezes them-I gotta say, like the combo."
"Excellent. Well, the devils seem to have been dealt with-shall we fetch Kronknar?"
Sake nods enthusiastically as Hillevi finally notices I am, in fact, naked. A most familiar blue sheen rises to her cheeks, something I ignore as I begin walking back to Kronknar. After all, that's where my clothes still are.

When we reach Kronknar though things are… sticky. Literally.

There is exactly one minotaur waiting for us, his hands and mouth covered in gore and blood. Mid-way through licking his hands clean, Kronknar waves at us, tilting his head questioningly.
>"Hm. Well, not like we didn't know he's a cannibal."
I answer the client's unasked question.
"Yeah, they're done. If you'd mind waiting while my Valkonen compatriot collects her bone totems, we can be on our way."
>[Kronknar]"Mm, I see."
Hillevi jogs off, looking somewhat perturbed at the fate of the one we 'saved'. In my ward's wake, Kronknar eyes me.
>[Kronknar]"You're one too, aren't you."
"I am many things-please be spe-"
>[Kronknar]"Cannibal."
"I see no reason to deny the truth: what of it?"
>[Kronknar]"You are rather lightly touched by the magic."
"Is that so? I choose to interpret that as a compliment. Was your meal worthwhile to you?"
The minotaur sucks a finger dry.
>[Kronknar]"Completely."
"Excellent. Perhaps we can do business on that front again."
>[Kronknar]"Mmph."
"Actually, I have a question about a different job while we're waiting on the Valkonen."
>[Kronknar]"Yeah?"
"What's the name of the were that pissed you off?"
>[Kronknar]"The runt. Name's Otto, of the Mubarek. Old werewolf clan. Bonzi's got a picture and address."
"Any preferences on the chastisement?"
>[Kronknar]"If you can make him rob other, bigger name vendors so his clan can't protect him, that'd be ideal: I don't require that though, only that he be outed as a thief and publically shamed."
I stroke my chine.
"I see."

Hillevi, a block of ice with bones tetris'd into its core, comes galloping around a corner with an easy smile, and Kronkner levers himself upright.
>[Kronknar]"Ready?"
>[Hillevi]"Yup!"
"I am."
The minotaur grunts-and tilts its head back to roar at the heavens.
>[Kronknar]"BONZI"

With a thunderous clap, a giant iron pot hovers in the air above us, the pot-bellied, stick-limbed Leprechaun in question hovering over them all.
>[Bonzi]"Oh FINALLY you wee beastie, you ate. Right then!"
The pot tips-and balloons up large enough to swallow the entire realm we inhabit in a sea of darkness.

[DISCONTINUITY]

We are back in the bar.

Based on ambient light levels, it's early evening-we were in the maze for… six hours?
>"Time dilation can work both ways."
Hm. Well, what's done is done.

The Leprechaun plucks a hammer that sings to my Item Sense of it's multidimensional ability from its pot and lobs the implement my way.
>[Bonzi]"Well, you finished up that job. You still got time to work on another job tonight?"
"The pot?"
>[Bonzi]"Yeah, the pot. From what I saw of you in the demiplane, it'd take you all evening and night to do-I'm betting some fifteen hours, all told. You want to do that now or later?"
"From that, I assume you can tolerate waiting."
>[Bonzi]"Sure, though I'd prefer to do it now."
I hum a bit in contemplation as I look at the puppy dog eyes Hillevi's shooting me-clearly, she wants to spend some time talking about how fun the mission was for her, but by the same token… getting the job done faster seems pretty important for my business reputation.




What's my final plan for the day:
Am I going to prioritize Hillevi's personal gratification and head back to the mansion, listen to her talk about the mission and most likely spar with her for the night?
Or
Do I try to show her how important professional work is and get another job for Bonzi done before leaving his shop?

>>447490
Well shit, if we're going for being close to her we might as well actually BE CLOSE TO HER, instead of just gimping ourselves deliberately to let her win a friendly contest against us which does nothing to that effect. Go to the mansion.

>>447528
Agreed. Should probably explain that you have a job pending for tonight at midnight; and that you can do this in the morning.

i say go for hillevi

>Do I try to show her how important professional work is and get another job for Bonzi done before leaving his shop?
No, because that's totally unprofessional- we have an appointment at midnight with Rocco, and another with Baki tomorrow at noon. It's evening, and working on the pot for 15 hours or so mean we would finish around noon tomorrow, and missing a meet plus making ourself exhausted for the next (if we even can make it) just in order to look good to bonzi is utterly unprofessional.

>Am I going to prioritize Hillevi's personal gratification and head back to the mansion, listen to her talk about the mission and most likely spar with her for the night?
Don't forget to buy ice cream on the way back, and to really congratulate her about how she both made sure that our first kill was discounted and that she went first. Then ask her if she also thought of tapping into our senses via Sake, or if she managed to find the Devils by herself. Congratulate her on how damn fast she killed three of them- it took her, what, half a minute for all three kills?

On the way back home, take a minute to think about our recent improvement in regeneration. Even with a less efficient bind, it took us something like a full night to get most of our energy back, not all. However, we now can regenerate all of it in less than an hour. Ask SB if it's the effect of his shade leaking energy or some such. Ask SB if when we are at full, our regeneration leaking to him is efficient, or if he would profit more from Armas actively giving him that energy, be it via shunting chakra orientation or direct soul manipulation.

When we get back and spar with Hillevi or even better Matvey or Rosti as we aren't too used to fighting them. A free for all between us would be best (we should do a couple of experimentation: look at our soul while fighting and using soul manipulation (we haven't use our soul bubble for a while. Armas using as much of our usual skills like Gyaketsuote, our various mobility aids, Chakra reinforcement and soul-sensing as possible is also good.), and try to determine what in our soul is regenerating, and how it works. Then change our bind (still while fighting) to non-binding and try to determine what changes (make sure to keep some energy left though). There is the possibility that the binding-induced boost to winter energy regeneration hasn't increased, but that it is in fact our base regeneration that has increased (which would increase the result of the multiplier so much more). Maybe regenerating so fast for so long has 'unclogged' it, or taught ourself passively how to maximize it.

Talk to Hillevi a bit more- ask her if she would mind working as a sieve when we bind the mafia people tonight, as we might not wish to let our godling nature known, and it's possible that the binds would show up as divine-tainted magic. If she agrees and is capable, thank her. Furthermore, it's very important to check sooner than later if binds made with a sieve can be changed (we should do that with the world eye when no one is around the mook in question that could detect it, and quickly put it back to what it was after).

Then call up Dávgon (while Hillevi is still here), and tell them about how our regeneration of winter line has improved even after we got the binding (going from regenerating most of our pool in one night with binding to regeenrating all of it within an hour), tell them about the experiment we just did to try to determine why it was, and what we think we saw. Then ask them for their opinion, and if there is any other tests they can think of, especially with their supervision. Furthermore, ask Dávgon again if he wants us to change his binding to a similar one we have for regeneratin energy, and ask them both about the dangers of a bind like 'can only experience soul growth in “month”' or 'can only improve in soul manipulation in “month”'.

Once all of this is done and if we still have some time before Rocco's men arrive for soulbinding, we should ask Dávgon and HB about trying out to make offensive use with our Soul-manipulation. Maybe enhance our punches directly with soul in a way similar to the soul-bubble, or even create a weapon- like a Soul-spear?

>>448058
Upvotan all dis

Tell Bonzi with regret that we'll have to schedule for monday or tuesday. Cite previous job/engagement.

Then hang with Hillevi. It's no more than the truth (we have Rocco's job later tonight), but she ought to be pleased we seem to be deferring Bonzi's job in favor of her.

I think some modest feasting and boasting is appropriate here - allowing the victors to do the lion's share of both. Get the guys from the hobgoblin job to join in, if they're around. Best debriefing ever: around the dinner table.

Do a couple hours of sparring after dinner has settled. Switch teams up regularly; Armas/SB/HB and Sake/Hillevi, Armas/Sake/HB and Hillevi/SB, that sort of thing. We're looking for which combinations work the best and getting everyone used to working with each other.

If Matvey and Rosti are interested, sure, get them in on it. Three teams at once requires more strategy and thinking on a strategic level versus a tactical one.

Rocco's job: Has Rocco told them they're getting a soulbind? If not, probably best to do it on the downlow; this may be illegal, I forget how the law regarding soulbinding goes. Dress up Jagda-like; professorily (tweed with orange elbow patches, maybe?). Ask them some background questions, or tell them you're the Mafia's counselor (Psychology degree from the college of Why the Fuck Are You Asking), or hell, tell them you're checking them for STDs. Whatever.

Then try and soulbind them without them noticing - maybe we could make one inside another soulbind, so the outer 'bind (of something harmless) obscures the inner ('Do not betray the Mafia').

>>448058
Upvoting.

Several minor items:

Speak to Dàvgon about the kodoku improvements Satai mentioned, and do whatever he needs for that.

Recharge all our rechargeable items in the armory, which shouldn't take too long given our energy recovery rates... and while we're at it, look at the armory records and figure out just who's been doing what with our things. They've certainly seen a lot more use than our official missions can possibly account for, and we'd better remain informed about what our minions are doing.

Harvest the siren for Silja sometime today, before Sake's healing supply resets again at dawn tomorrow.

Talk with Lyubov about the differences between our childhood and the other Armas'; see if we can pick out anything interesting. Reference with Shadowbro as he shares our memories. Also, it's fucking bizarre that the one other life she's got, we appear in. They met here by what's basically a chain of freak coincidences- it should have taken millions upon millions of lives for the two of us to meet in another universe, let alone shack up there as well. Twisted probabilities like that almost always mean something.

SUSTing everything that has nothing to do with either Hillevi or Rocco's job. We need to focus here, dammit, and actually pay attention to Hillevi and strengthen the bond between us!

>>449112
Tasks not involving Rocco's job or bonding with Hillevi will take minutes. Lyubov is the only one who will take longer, because everything with Lyubov takes longer. That is logical, since she is Armas's girlfriend and they like to spend time with each other, so it is best if Armas plans ahead for spending time with her as well.

If it is 7 now, then Armas can spend 4 hours with Hillevi, a half hour with Davgon, and a half hour buffer for other things. He will talk to Lyubov so they can spend the rest of his free time after the binding job together.

Armas will also change clothes before the binding mission and will have Bagga dress as the fetish nurse again, to help with the bindings.

>>449322
Sust all of this- both the 'Lyubov is Armas' girlfriend' when the relation between Armas and Lyubov is verbally established as a friend with benefits one, and the 'Bagga fetish nurse' one because this is humilating a member of our company in order to... look stupid in front of our employers. Yeah, no.

Also, Armas should remember that he doesn't need to touch or talk or be near the mafia mooks while he binds them, and he might even want to pretend someone else is doing the binding, just for mindscrew.
>>448642
auto-upvote Ironybot's post. (and manually upvote especially the bits about the Kodoku talk with Dávgon and recharging the various items to recharge. Armas should be careful about not overcharging them, though. Baby steps.)

>>449520
>'Lyubov is Armas' girlfriend' when the relation between Armas and Lyubov is verbally established as a friend with benefits one
Whats the difference?

I think we should give Hillevi all our time. Although we shouldn't start neglecting contracts for it.

No reason to neglect scheduled contracts, but some time spent with Hillevi, boosting her ego, seems in order. It will keep her happy and inclined to our cause.

>>448642
I support this course of action but I suggest Armas buy a bouquet of roses for Lyubov. Buying flowers for everyone else may be verboten, but Armas can buy flowers for Lyubov. She is his girlfriend.

Got to have to agree with doing the pot mission later. Hillevi did a good job and deserves the gratification. The work will be there for a bit, but this is a good time to give Hillevi some proper one on one before pursuing anything else.

On the whole Lyubov issue, we SHOULD cut back at the moment. It's nice and all, but we should pay attention to more than just her when it comes to minions. This includes SUSTing any and all 'romantic' actions with her. I am fine with talking with her about 'other universe Armas' and professional knowledge, but NO flowers, lovers stuff, or the like. Keep her a friend with benefits.

Other than that, I agree with >>448642,>>448383, and >>448058 and SUST >>450520 and >>449322.

>>447528
>>447569
>>447849
>>449618
I find myself enjoying my deliberation over how to handle this.

I COULD let greed rule me-I could prioritize speedy mission completion over other activities in the name of professionalism. That said... I'd be lying to myself if I did so. If I'm here, working on Bonzi's pot, then I'm not going to be available for Rocco's call tonight, nor will I be available to do the Soul Binding he wants. It's not exactly altruism or kindness that guides me to it, but pragmatic or no, I find I have to value my Ward's time over trying to squeeze in more work.
>"I find the pragmatic justification superior to the emotional one."
Yes yes, you've made your disdain for emotion in general and emotionally motivated decisions in particular abundantly clear to me.
>[HB]"I hold a differing view-to follow one's heart without doubt or regret is a sublime thing, and the mark of a true warrior."
>Until they die from a stupid, hot-headed decision."
>[HB]"A warrior's death is not to be feared."

I tune out their resultant debate as I refocus my eyes on Bonzi with an easy smile and a friendly Soul Guise.
"I'll be back later for the pot-I've already got other work duties lined up for the rest of my time today."
The Leprechaun scratches his scraggly rust-red beard festooning his jutting chin before nodding reluctantly.
>[Bonzi]"Aye, I ken. When will ye be back ta finish?"
"Within the next couple days."
>[Bonzi]"So long as ye don't leave me waitin' for a week or summat, I can stomach it."
"Excellent. I'll see you soon."
>[Bonzi]"Aye."

Our business-for now-concluded, I take my new magic hammer, and start making my way back home only AFTER Hillevi's verified she can carry the bone and keep it obscured with her glamor. Our walk starts off, briefly, unexpectedly quiet. This doesn't last, as within the span of a block the teen titan's begun her bubbly diatribe.
[Hillevi][In Finnish]"Well that was fun!"
[In Finnish]"I hope you thought of it as more than fun."
She pouts at me for daring to not be as enthused as her.
[Hillevi]"You nearly sounded like dad there."
"I will attempt to avoid that where possible-so? I have to admit I'm curious why there was no leftover material from the devils you fought."
At this, Hillevi blushes-her glamored form unable to express the blue tint through the disguise-as she tries to explain.
[Hillevi]"Um. I may have gotten a bit too... excited?"
"I would appreciate a more thorough explanation than that."
She looks a bit frazzled as she tries to cast her mishap in the best light possible.
[Hillevi]"Weeellll... I was really looking forward to beating you-"
Her cheeks darken with the admission even as she continues-
[Hillevi]"And I kind of used the quicker, more... damaging.. ice."
"I see. And that prevented any harvesting outside of your own?"
[Hillevi]"Yeah-only bone does okay with that kind of Ice. ...Sorry."
"Don't apologize: You acted within the confines of the defined contest."
She smiles in relief at the easy forgiveness.
"That said, in the future do attempt to avoid using that kind of ice where possible if I'm on the job with you, okay?"
She nods vigorously.
[Hillevi]"Roger-Roger!"
I quirk an eyebrow at her chosen response format. Unsurprisingly, her easily triggered blush resurges.
[Hillevi]"Uuuummm... was that not right? I heard it during some viewings on the telo-vision box, and thought... sorry."
>[IT]"Oh, her awkwardness is quite delightful. You should tease her more."
I ignore my garulous gun.
"For future reference, the particular movies you watched-and I'm pretty sure they were movies-aren't exactly accurate by any means. If you want to reference it, just say Roger once, okay?"
She nods contemplatively, filing the factoid away-then smiles, throwing me a theatrical salute.
[Hillevi]"Roger!"

I can't help but smile at that.

>>448058
>>448064
>>448383
>>448629
On the way back, an idea occurs to me. And for once, SB's not giving me shit about it being stupid.
>"I begrudgingly admit the concept you ponder seems based on sound reasoning."
I suppress my mocking incredulity… partly… and do what seems like a good idea: I get Hillevi some ice cream. I admit, she surprises me a bit with her flavor choice.
[Hillevi]"So all of these are different flavors of ice cream, yes? "
"Yep. So what flavor do you want?"
[Hillevi]"All of them. "
"…You did see the size chart for how big a scoop is, right?"
[Hillevi]"Aw… are you doubting I can eat it?"
"…No, I suppose you CAN eat three liters of ice cream. ..Okay, one scoop of everything it is."
[Hillevi]"Yay! "
As she looks pleased with her post-victory treat selection, I decide to broach a subject while awaiting her confection's construction.
"So-did you use Sake when doing your tracking?"
[Hillevi]"Huh? No, I just layered the air with soul-frozen ice flakes, and just went where the flakes melted! They can't stand up to other souls besides my own, heheh!"
…She has a workaround to soul detection. Once again: Valkonens, you impress the crap out of me.
"I see-and why didn't you use Sake as well? He did, after all, have access to my own data through our bond."
[Hillevi]"Yeah… but I figured, since I already waited 'till you knocked one down, and it was just for fun, that I didn't need to try that hard… and I didn't know if maybe you wanted to teach me a lesson about aggressive cheating or something."
On my shoulder, the Hummingbird inclines his beak towards her in respect for her train of thought. She giggles at the gesture-which promptly causes the little fellow to fluff up at the indignity of it all. I try to ignore that as I move on with the conversation.
"You know, I have to say-I'm really proud of how you handled that bet-it was creative, done swiftly, and orchestrated with confidence."
Her giggles get strangled by her entire head turning blue beneath her glamor.
[Hillevi]"U-um… thank you! "
She busies herself eating the ice cream-and I let her have her moment-it's clear the praise flustered her a bit more than she wanted.

Once we're back en route to the mansion, I voice a question to SB, along with a hypothesis. …Oy, SB you listening or-
>"Why not just coalesce your idea rather than expecting me to read it out of your mind?""
FINE. So, my energy regeneration, even with the change to it only regenerating, per the edited binding, on 'Today', has increased-quite a bit. Is that some bleed over from your shade or something? I mean, your shade has gotten a bunch bigger, right?
>"I…. your perception of the change is accurate, but your reasoning for it's cause is wholly backwards. It's not that energy from the Dark, or from my Shade, or from me personally has made you more apt at regenerating. It's that… you've adjusted."
…To what, the increased energy flow?
>"Hardly: You adjusted to handling a workaround to Conceptual magic as being the founding force driving your soul binding boost. I imagine that, with your passive regeneration abilities, you didn't even notice the repeat brain damage-or, in fact, minor soul degradation-as you automatically regenerated the damage before it could build to perceivable levels. And yes, to save you time: I was wholly aware of it, but given it was clear the acclimatization process would not genuinely harm you, I saw no point to mention it. Now that you have unwittingly brute force learned how to handle it, you are now able to use the Conceptual Binding properly, and that is the reason your regeneration has grown."
No shit-so I can do Conceptual Magic now?
>"Let me preface this with the statement that, as of yet, I know relatively little about the overarching field of Conceptual Magic. That said, I think you would be more able to learn other Conceptual magic-but for now, I'm quite confident you can only use this one form of it."
Am I getting the feeling you're implying the binding, as is, is about the best regeneration I could hope for-that about right?
>"Insofar as I've concretely verified options, yes, that's correct."
Huh… shit, if I hadn't gotten HB double-bound-
>"His life would have for certain ended the moment you placed the binding of 'Today'-just your passive radiation is allowing Sake and I to… well, explore new options.""
>[HB]"I must confess, the sheer inexhaustible nature of what radiates from out bond-let alone what can be willingly drawn-is the reason I've finally gotten the swarm to work: I no longer need to overcome the energy issues that plagued the notion previously."
Well shucks-what can I say, I'm your battery.
From around Hillevi's neck, a snigger promising trouble precedes his own two bits.
>[Sake]"Oh man, this new trick I can do? Slow as all crap, but so fun. Bring me next time you need to put a hole in some fortifications, yeah?"
I'll do what I can.

[ARMAS NOW EFFECTIVELY HAS INFINITE MAGICAL REGEN FOR HIS SOUL AND THE WINTER BLOODLINE WITHIN RELATIVE TO IT'S ENERGY CAP, AND NEEDS TO PURSUE PURPOSEFULLY INEFFICIENT POWER CONSUMPTION TO EVEN BRIEFLY BE RENDERED WITHOUT POWER WHILE THE SOUL BINDING IS IN PLACE]

[ARMAS'S MAGICAL REGEN HAS ADVANCED SUFFICIENTLY IN ONE FIELD TO ALLOW ALL MAGICAL REGEN TO BE APPRECIABLY BOOSTED]

The rest of the walk back is filled with Hillevi animated enthusiasm over a properly fun job, and her giggling in glee as she tries-and frequently fails-to avoid being tripped by the fey Sake, as always eager to catch a few laughs. By the time we get back to the mansion, I'm no longer worried about having been very hands-off with Hillevi: The rapport she's built with my entire company is, frankly, heartening, and likely more important to her father than any attempt on my part to train her.
>"Such is your suspicion, at least. Though in fairness, it seems a logical conclusion given the mercurial attitude the Valkonens seem to take when gallivanting outside of their home."
Raising a teen amongst mercenaries, several of them cannibalistic, inhuman and/or psychotic seems to be more or less exactly what Markku wanted. ...Good thing, too.
>"You could call him and verify that your assertion is accurate."
...Naw, I'm pretty confident.
>"So long as she doesn't sleep with one of them I would venture your confidence is wholly acceptable."
...On that note, I recall how much attention Hillevi's been paying to Matvey-particularly after he picked up that sword and became, in her eyes, a 'proper' warrior.

I'll need to keep an eye on that.

While Hillevi promptly goes to bother Matvey and Satai about her outing, Sake and I meet up with Dávgon and Gianni… and we gather up Stacey. She's not resistive at all-and while she does look sad about what use she's being put to, the resignation in her face makes me wonder if she'd resist even without the binding. After today's harvesting and feeding, Silja's form begins, oddly, developing something not unlike a leathery eggshell around her form. The shell itself seems to take the bodies the same as the rifle-but oddly, Silja sounds, well, sleepy after being encapsulated: like it's slowly putting her to sleep. She doesn't seem concerned, neither does Dávgon, Gianni, Sake or SB, so I feel reasonably safe letting this happen. Maybe it's something like a metamorphic reincarnation? Well, all of Sake's heals for the day doesn't see Silja's resurrection finish-but progress, undoubtedly, is made.

After that, I briefly call in to Zosimus with the sun having set-and find he did indeed get confirmation the nosy reporter had an unfortunate, but wholly mundane looking accident.
BUSINESS FUNDS: +$40,000 $1,216,984.00

After taking care of business, I have an all-hands feast of a meal, and give Hillevi a chance to properly boast and brag about her recent mission. She gets a chance to talk more thoroughly with some of the more introverted minions-Iosef and Andrei alike unable to avoid being amused at the idea of her pulling a fast one on me-and surprisingly, she doesn't even mention our employer was a cannibal, leaving them all with a decidedly lighter-hearted impression of the mission. Though, her idly summoning Tartalo into the house to ferry her harvested bones back to the family estate for placement in the boneyard does impress more than a few-for one, I think Satai's soul did a riot in Accelerated Thought timeframes at the sighting-I don't doubt he hadn't been aware of this particular trick of hers. Honestly, she comports herself well, and I wonder if she might have surprised herself with how well she did-or if it's me that's surprised.

During the meal, I'm brought up to speed on the mission completions while I was out: For one, seems the Hob Gob mission was completed with great ease, in no small part due to the use of overwhelming force-excellent. There were no casualties, just some use of expendable magical munitions that Satai carefully documented in the Armory logbooks. I do find myself curious about something that was noted during the mission: There was a magically masked river of what appeared to be solidified shadow, that the Wyld Goblin fighters did not warn them about-nor was it's presence or nature explained. Curious. Still, the job pays well, so I choose to focus on what was gained, rather than stress over new questions.
+10 Rechargable Blade Charms (Svartelf Make)
+5 Rechargable Arrow Charms (Svartelf Make)
+2kg Uncut Garnet Gems

As the meal's winding down, I bring up what I hope will be the cherry to my day of tending to my ward:
"Hey Hillevi: How about a spar where you can hit me as hard as you want?"
The way her eyes just sparkle at that make me glad I waited until I didn't need to worry about dying in the slightest. Because during the feast, HB reminded me about the Swarm being comprised of my purposefully fragmented soul-and how HB himself, as a part of that swarm, perforce has had to take into his form a small sliver of my own soul as an anchor and control mechanism. Most importantly, this means that my soul sustains uninterrupted, non-ruptured existence even if I'm physically and spiritually slain, so long as HB is alive. So…. is Hillevi freezes my soul or some shit, it's fine, I can finish regenerating from HB, my goblin deals, amen ownership, eye possession, everything uninterrupted.

The fight's straightforward, and frankly watched by pretty much everyone after how I phrased the invitation: No weapons, she tries to put me down, I try to not be put down-and HB lends a hand. With a Soul Bubble formed around me and visible only to those with Soul Sensing, I square off with the girl a decade my junior-and our spar begins. With Reinforcement, Hummer's Momentum, Attention Sense and Dunter Step working in concert, I my feet and constant shifts in weight and directional momentum make me flutter like a leaf before the larger, faster foe, as her fists fly like cannons in nothing by near misses. Just when I think this will be easy, having gotten to her back, she shoulder checks me with an ice-plated flank…. to no real effect. HB, looking as proud as I've ever seen, puffs up without lifting a single feather, swelling with silent smugness alone as the Soul Bubble he crafted around me tanks Hillevi's full force impact.

So when the Soul bubble freezes over and shatters from the prolonged contact-which I realize was Hillevi's goal from the start, given she had to know I was registering spiritually well beyond the limits of my physical body-I have to suppress the urge to snicker at the schadenfreude of the look of startled loss-of-face on his beak. Thankfully, he has no problem restoring the bubble with my ever-gushing spiritual energy-and I keep fighting. As the battle progresses though, the differences in our talent start to show-my tricks, varied as they may be, unravel before the born and bred warrior, all the while ice building up around her body as she hits her stride. She no longer gets in the odd solid shot to the soul bubble-but regularly shatters it with her soul-chilling cold. She can't break them faster than I can restore them… but she's penetrating farther past the bubble with each success. Soon enough-

An ice covered fist shatters HB's soul bubble and rushes past to slam into my side, a genuinely serious Hillevi getting me dead to rights within half an hour. The blow is like a cluster of artillery shells vaporizing my side-and half of my torso is frozen solid and instantly shattered in the hit-my spine included.

My body sags dangerously to the side, the flap of muscle that's the sole remaining connection between my upper and lower bodies laughably inadequate to hold me upright…

Before I grab the bottom of the wound-
>[GGG Trait activated]
And hold myself upright, much to the varied exclamatory reaction of the crowd.
"Huh. Painful, but not QUITE as bad as I expected."
Hillevi grins nervously as she slowly pulls back her fist, a few frozen shards of my guts stuck to it.
[Hillevi]"Ehehe… that's, um… the soul damage. "
"Is it?"
With some focus, I ply my summer line to reject the bits of frozen biomatter still stuck to me-watching as Matvey's puppy happily eats the ice candy delights I've sewn across the ground-and then ply my best healing trick.
[HYBRID HEALING
I go from half a torso to a full torso in one second flat. The amount of envy I feel from Rostislav at my recuperation is delicious, and sets a cocky smile on my face as I get back into the fight.

Hillevi and I fight without much in the way of pause for some two hours, with her constantly punching holes in my body and soul alike as I… just keep repairing it, getting used to a higher class of melee damage. Even when I lose my entire head-with a jarring moment of existing within HB's body, I am still wholly able to regenerate and get back in the fight. Thankfully, she seems to eventually hit a cap in her adjustment to my style eventually-and, with the rules as they are, our battle effectively becomes… predictable. Both of us, after yet more time, simply stop, because the contest as it is… isn't really that exciting anymore.

Our audience might disagree.

After that, I WANT to talk with Hillevi-but Duke has other plans. What follows is roughly three hours of the Heavenly Spirit, Doubly Transcendant Black Whirlwind tearing me apart, bellowing with joy as he gets to cut loose. I become intimately familiar with the utterly unblockable nature of his axes and fists alike, and through the prolonged bout, I get exposed to enough of his attack patterns I get two back to back, in-depth and first hand looks at how super strength, melee-inclined warriors fight. I find it positively enlightening, and am far more quiet than usual as I process all the little details I took in. Thankfully, Duke is, as ever, Duke-and gets bored soon enough-and I'm freed from my surprise match.

While Hillevi gets showered with praise for beating the hell out of me-no matter how unharmed I am currently-and Duke gets a proper showing of respect, my phone ends up ringing… ah, Rocco, the confirmation call. Yeah-guess it is time. Man, how long were we even sparring-or, beforehand, feasting? I ate… a whole mess… ah, whatever.
>[Rocco]"You still on?"
"Count on it-how many?"
>[Rocco]"Eighty nine."
"Not a problem."
>[Rocco]"Excellent. They'll be there at the arranged time."
*CLICK*
With that, I turn to Hillevi-
"Hey-you willing to be a soul-channel for binding others?"
[Hillevi]"If… Dávgon's on hand to moderate, then yup! "
"Perfect."

I look away from Hillevi with an expectant smile as a bevy of souls approach me: Matvey, with his sword audibly grumping at him, Rostislav with his now passively magical body that feels more golem now than man, and the now positively titanic Vlad who has to be near eight feet and seven hundred pounds. All three of them are armed-Matvey even sporting his BioArmor.
"…Well, this should work for an excellent first-hand look at how all three of you have changed, won't it?"
>[Rosti]"I wouldn't mind the chance to see how you take what I now think of as a proper beating."
>[Vlad]"Da: I wish to see if my hugeness can compete with the ice princess there."
>[Matvey]"You did accept my offer to spar with you sir."
"So I did. One moment though-"
I retrieve my mere, letting it sit lazily in my hand, fitting perfectly.
"Got to have something for the sword, after all. Now-"
HB reforms the soul bubble around me that Hillevi and Duke alike made short work of time and again.
"Shall we?"

My hour-long fight with the three Russians lets me learn exactly why the others have been acting like these three are physically the strongest right now. Rostislav and Vlad are both hitting with enough force that, were it not for the Soul Bubble, they would easily be breaking my still more or less humanly durable body like it was wet cardboard. However, lacking magic like Hillevi's to go the extra mile, they can't get around the ablating Soul Bubble. Still, the durability they show against the few experimental punches, elbows, knees and kicks I throw their way suggests I could think of them as being legitimate magical bruisers now. Good to know.

Matvey on the other hand, is something different. Maybe it's because dealing with the other two keeps me boxed in a bit more than I'd like, but whereas I can dance around the other, slower Russians, Matvey matches me step for step-literally, as it happens. I realize rather swiftly he's plying his own rendition of Dunter Footwork with Ricky's fingerprints all over it-and his sword's able to cut through the soul bubble with laughable ease. What it does NOT cut through, however, is the mere. I can feel the respect-frayed as it is-within Matvey being reinforced as I turn his opening blow aside with a single handed swing. Gyaketsuote-which Hillevi was able to somehow freeze and shatter, while Duke was able to throw something not unlike Drunk Goggles back at me isn't able to reach Matvey in his suit-but it can reach Rostislav and Vlad alike-and after I start properly confusing them with magical feints, I get enough breathing room to go fully mobile. It's at that point that I finally, concretely get to see that Matvey's… wholly able to keep up with me, even when I'm not constrained.
>"Not that he could keep up with shadowporting."
>[HB]"Though his suit's ability to amplify is impressive if it lets him neutralize your weight control."
Yeah, I'm impressed with the guy-a damned fine bit of improvement.

Eventually though, there is a knock at the door-and, hastily dressed in a new leisure suit, I let just shy of a hundred people into the house. Using Hillevi as a filter and Dávgon buffering the transfer, I push external Soul Binds into eighty nine souls, each bearing the same structure, word for word: 'I shall be loyal to the Mafia'. Simple and crude, but I have to assume it's functionally effective.

Half an hour past midnight, we're done-and I just finished making the company a chunk of change.
BUSINESS FUNDS: +$178,000 $1,394,984.00

>>448642
I try to ask Dávgon about the Kudoku improvements-but it seems that ensuring Hillevi's safety through all those binds really took it out of the guy, and he asks that I hold off until tomorrow with the questions. I have no issue complying.

After that little event, I spend a few minutes going through the armory, and recharging every renewable charm and magic item we've got. Really, this amounts to little more than topping off the shield charms-but hey, can't hurt. After that, I spend the last dregs of the already late night talking with Lyubov, and comparing my own childhood recollections with the ones the Armas her other self knows. We… don't really get very far tonight, but it's a start-and I have the feeling there has to be something here. …Ah, if only I hadn't lost the original physical brain I was born with the first time I was made a swarm of hummingbirds, I'd feel more certain I'm not missing any more memories than I already know about. In short order we call it quits-and retire.

We get to sleep a couple hours after.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $2,864,660.00
BUSINESS FUNDS: $1,394,984.00
CASH: $6,120.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 90%
WINTER ENERGY: 160
SUMMER ENERGY: 50/50
I wake up, as usual, rather energetic. I snicker at Lyubov's rather exhausted state with such comparatively little sleep as I indulge in some Brain Coffee. Now……








What should I do today?
What jobs should I do today?
Don’t I have some meeting to go to?
REMINDER: Minion orders for the week are submitted today. If you are unsure how the new format works, please ask in discussion thread or on IRC, on #golemquest on rizon

>What should I do today?
First thing to do today is to switch our soulbind to “Can only use spiritual senses on 'Today'” (or 'February' if not possible). If we could make such a binding conceptual too it would be highly useful. Make sure Armas switch his Chakra Orientation to soul sensing, likewise. Then, Armas should think a bit about his spars the previous day:
While reinforcement with chakra is really useful, and Armas should definitely follow the general training tips to learn how to amplify it and then use flexibility to move it to only a single body part for attack/defense, there arise the problem that Armas still hasn't truly tried to be able to use inner fleshcrafting as well as chakra that enhances the body in a way that doesn't explode him, and Fleshcrafting is definitely very good at making one stronger, faster, more agile and so on.
Given his recent durability boost, Armas should try to learn how to use both inner-fleshcrafting and reinforcement or other body-chakra abilities. Learning “how much” energy is needed for there to be a conflict and then an explosion could be a first test. Obviously, Armas/SB/Sake would observe what's happening there with with their differing magical senses and try to brainstorm a way to correct the problem. for example:

+Variance a: 1°) flushing the body of chakra and winter energy, 2°) use under-powered reinforcement, 3°) use some inner fleshcrafting on a finger or something slight to check how big the damage is. Test this until we can pinpoint how much energy is needed for the conflict to make an explosion, as well as determine how it happens.
+Variance b: do the same but with a single Armas-hummingbird while in swarm hummingbird mode. This could actually be 'safer', as well as be a way for Armas to fight offensively against some pretty potent enemies. We could also test this to see how big the explosion is with different amount of power.
+Variance ab: In either Variance a or b, try to reinforce one part while fleshcrafting another (in variance a, while the body was previously flushed of winter energy, reinforce arms while fleshcrafting legs (for example); in variance b, do it on two different hummingbird).
Don't hesitate to switch back the bind to the magical regeneration one if we are running almost empty.

Because every hummingbird is basically a tiny bit of our body, if we can Reinforce one hummingbird and fleshcraft another without a problem, then we should be able to reinforce any 1/5500th of our body while fleshcrafting another 1/5500th and not have problems. [M7]

Regardless, Armas should now practice his inner-fleshcrafting more advanced abilities as much as possible (mostly when he is using soul-sensing orientation and with his body flushed of winter energy, obviously) so that until he can use both body-chakra/soul-manip and inner-fleshcrafting at once, he will at least be able to switch his combat style to inner-fleshcrafting +soul bubble + various other boosts ('okay step' could even be used and improved!).

Speaking of mobility boosts, it's known that hummingbird spirit animals have a secondary ability where the spirit shaman can, at the price of constant body damage during use, move 'at the speed of hummingbird thought'. We should talk about it to HB, as Matvey having equal or better mobility than us just won't do for our ego. Hillevi is one thing, our minion another.

Otherwise, follow 'General Training tips' as >>445642 when it comes to training.

Now that we have switched our binding to a “spiritual sensing” enhancing one, our magical regeneration should have plummeted. It should still be worthwhile to check if it's not higher than it used to be, though. Likewise, we should have a talk with SB- ask him if he will need us to spend acouple hours a day, when we switch back our binding to the magical regeneration one (hopefully after the spirit sensing one has turned conceptual), shunting energy off to him. Maybe he has over-extended himself with all that extra energy and we should make sure he doesn't appear to run dry. Likewise, we should ask him what he thinks of proposing to Whaitiri to feed her energy through the mere in exchange for boons. A last question to SB should be about Doony flashcrafting: if we were to give him more energy soon, would he be willing to use more of his effort toward getting that info/package?

After this, Armas should go and talk to Dávgon about the Kodoku bug method he hinted at. Also talk to him about bindings. The dangers of using bindings for things like “can only have soul growth 'this month'”, “Can only learn “x” 'month x'”, and so on. Also ask about conceptual bindings. Another important question would be that, Since we now have stupidly high energy regeneration, I wonder if it's possible for us to stretch out magical actions over time. For example, instead of throwing all our energy at a soul bind and then regenerating, could we place a many-thousand-point soul bind by laying it onto his target over the course of many seconds?

Look at the armory records and figure out just who's been doing what with our things.They've certainly seen a lot more use than our official missions can possibly account for, and we'd better remain informed about what our minions are doing.

>Don’t I have some meeting to go to?
We have a meeting with Baki at noon, no telling when it will end. This should be a simple greet and meet, and but we should still make sure to be adequately prepared. Make sure:
+To first speak to Sake about the Yakuza, as he is our resident japanese expert. Likewise, check with SB, he might have learned things in his own ways.
+To have our soul-guise hiding the fact that we have a soulbind as well as hiding we are a godling and a cannibal and have a imperial winter bloodline.
+that we can switch our soulbind without disturbing our soulguise
+Our soul-guise should be of a dual-bloodliner of middling power, of a “mercenary”, a eccentric but truly honest one.
It could be a decent idea to switch our soul-bind to “Can only manipulate people on 'Today'” (or 'February' if not possible) once we have looked over their souls thoroughly. A variant could be “Can only talk to people on” too.

>What jobs should I do today?
Once we have talked to Baki, we should call Bonzi and ask him if he is free for us to take care of his pot infestation problem. With our spirit-sensing bind and orientation, we should be able to do that work in a much more delicate manner than usual.

>>451597
SUST using more than one binding on Armas.
SUST bothering Oggmum before her meeting with her. One thing at her time with her, baby step.

Its amazing how strong our minions have been getting. But why are you always the last to know? Its kinda obvious they avoid talking to you, despite you being the boss. So, in order to get them back for not telling you stuff they really should, lets ruin all their plans for the next week by having a mandatory company wide vacation!

>>452038
Upvote!

Vlad:
-Clear all prior orders.
-Keep working with Tidus Atmor the gunsmith. Attempt to develop system of nonverbal communication if such seems feasible.
-Continue widening range of resistance.
--Query Hillevi for assistance with cold exposure, express gratitude with kind words and assorted vodka if assistance is rendered.
--Find source of acid for corrosive exposure.
--Get repeatedly electrocuted in some fashion for energy exposure. Ask Titus about getting tasered.
--Seek means of exposure to being blown up. Ask Sake if wind attacks could be focused enough to mimic concussive shocks from explosions, so as to avoid large amounts of collateral damage/deplete the armory's stock/not annoy the neighbors.
--Attempt to increase resistance to pain. Recruit Grisha and Amen for this. Have "Fun™" and try not to rupture larynx.
--PRIORITY: Ensure a means of healing is available before commencing exposure due to interest in not dying if things go wrong.
-Continue developing new forms of vodka infusions. Attempt to secure small amount of magic blood and shave bits off a regenerator heart for use in new experimental healing vodka idea.
-Acquire a second giant mug and have Sake's name etched into the side, leave it out for the weasel as a present with a fresh bottle of meat vodka.

First of all, SUST to all the boring experimentation above me and upvote all the experimentation that is involved in creating a flock of soul-exploding hummingbirds, because that is the best idea Armas has ever had.

Other morning plans
*Have another Silja-feeding session, but only use half of Sake’s heals.
*Practice soul manipulation with Davgon. Try to form a soul in one of the Kodoku bugs and see if you can substitute your soul-derived Winter energy for some. This might make a nice gift for someone, if you can do it.

Now, we have a meeting with Baki at noon today, so we should prepare beforehand just in case they pull something funny, or to pre-empt it if possible. A list of preparations:
>Research Japan and it’s magical culture before you go. Seriously, your brother is from there and he can communicate with you near-instantly. This is a no-brainer (perfect for Armas, ZING).
*On a similar topic, go over Baki Yamada’s file again.
>Consider leaving “non-godling” out of the soul guise. It’s already out of the bag anyway - that dragon knew it, SM knows it, and anyone who saw our soul before we finished our bloodline knows that we at least have a connection to a god, so being a godling isn’t that much of a leap from there. This is beneficial due to how much power divine beings have in Japan, which may instil some inherent respect for us within the Yakuza.
*Wear something professional. No crazy eye-bleach-needing fluorescent orange kimono, no suit made of live hummingbirds (even if I do want to try that one day), no going naked with a “I’m not naked” soul guise. Just a suit. If something eccentric is required, wear that suit that had ‘orange’ embroidered all over it.
>Be polite and bring a gift (a pair would be better) for Baki. Make sure to follow correct Japanese gift-giving procedures - wrapped in modest colours, given in private, hold it out with two hands, “tsumarani mon”, let him refuse at least once but continue offering, etc. Remember to make the gift appropriate, such as not giving the vegan Baki a pile of magic meat.
*Leave at least one hummingbird behind, preferably with Svetlana, who can’t magically interact with it - just hand it to her and say, “Look after this for me, will you?” then wander off. Expressly deny Lyubov permission to use her divine domination powers on it, even if it is a tempting target.
>Don’t bring any armaments other than IT and the mere. We can get away with those because they’re Artifacts and we can’t have anyone else getting their hands on them. In fact, hiding the mere inside our stomach might be even better.

After the meeting, take Hillevi, Dávgon, Gianni, and a bunch of the minions to Bonzi’s magic bar. Let them hang out there, eating, drinking, and being merry, while we go fix Bonzi’s problem. Tell them not to wait for us.

>>452038
>experimenting
Don't do it in your own body and no need to go full swarm mode if he can just make one bird for the test. All that would do is make him have to look through a billion different eyes and try to make sense of shit.

>Swarm mode
Mentioning that, you should ask SB how that affects him, with him having all these new 'anchors'. With his evidenced mobility, shade and super power battery(in the form of armas) it may hardly matter to him anymore, but with hummingswarm(tm) he may be able to get 'start points' anywhere, effectively moving battle stations.

We shouldn't abuse this skill, save it for special times.

>Wat do today
You have a meeting with the yakuza in the evening. Prepare suitable flashy gear. Something orange and eastern. Bring Sake and Lyubov with you. They should both be useful for knowledge of the culture of the people you are to meet and respect points for divine beings.
Lets hope these guy's still keep to the old ways, and as magic aware types, it's likely they do.

In the morning however, it wouldn't hurt to find out why the hell everyone is so different now. Go hit up Matvey to get a report of their abilities. You need to have this properly documented so you can have them work on new teamwork styles as the older ones, based on humans with guns, are likely now obsolete, unable to fully utilize their new abilities.

-----
>Zhenya
-Wonder how so much happened to you in the past week
-Enjoy new, yet unnamed, magic pistol and other gear
-Spend more time with Matvey
-Acclimatize to Ogre strength use so that you can operate at normal levels even with it on.
-Move out.
-Keep training in general.
-Go to the Arena with Matvey.

>Lev
-Go to the Arena with matvey
-Talk to Matvey again about killing your father
-Work on ways to find mother
-Practice with knives
-Try and find interesting women and magical things in Italy.
-Have fun.

Ivan
*Have a one-sided conversation with Lyubov about souls after she catches a glimpse of herself in a memory of an internal noir monologue.
*Unsure of what to do with all the free time in the morning, try some meditation, using Hawk the rifle as a mental focus. Lay down in a sniping position and still your body. Try to alter your level of Reinforcement and feel not just its effects on your body, but how your soul reacts to it as well. Try to notice ‘movement’ in your chakras and your soul. Stoically stick with it all morning, just to fill up the empty hours.
*On the way to Ito’s on Monday morning, buy a pair of polarised sunglasses [-$50] to reduce the impact of ultraviolet vision in the sunlight. Begin wearing them everywhere. Notice that this makes people-watching habits much harder for others to notice.
*Ask Ito if he needs some more help with Camella gone for a month.
*When Armas isn't around to notice it, take the family's Mosin-Nagant out, unwrap it, and give it a good clean. Try and fail to get some of the stains out of the stock. After thinking about the rifle and the family back in Russia, write a letter to older brother Abram: let him know that the news, of death and treason, they’ve received is false.
*Notice the company's ammunition facilities sitting unused after Vlad has left for Italy and decide to waste some time making some custom ammo. Figure that silver bullets are used often enough in folklore to be useful, and buy some silver bullion to try melting down into bullets [-$3000 for a 100oz bar]. Read up on bullet-making techniques and try out the machinery with the newly-bought silver.
*On Thursday, head to Dávgon and ask for a soul quirk.

Feodor
*Hand out gifts and receive gratitude from all except Sake who, through a series of unfortunate coincidences, repeatedly misses out on his gift.
*Spend Sunday night working on Ivanovich while the mannequin-man sings. After a strenuous weekend without Sake-healing, be put to sleep by such a lullaby. Hear from Lyubov later that Ivanovich was seen, singing and with a belly full of surgical tools, carrying a certain sleepy medic back to bed.
*Attend the psych appointment, let everything out to the man who can't reveal it: everything from the accidental cannibalism and the reaction to it from self and others to guilt over still not having found anything out about Alexei, not speaking to Mother for three years, and having let so many people die over the years. Schedule another appointment afterwards, then head to Rostislav's fight.
*On Wednesday morning, head into Mohammed's Discount pet shit and buy a Vampire Squid and a pressurised transport container for it for $14,000. Take it back to the mansion and gather Dávgon and Gianni, and spend the next few minutes taking part in a strange ritual that involves eating the squid alive, while it's wriggling and flopping tentacles all over the place. Use up most of the rest of the day having Gianni pull a fully formed and annoyed squid out until how to manifest the familiar clicks. Afterwards, make a deal with Gianni where he gets the use of Ivanovich for a project in return for teaching magical anatomy.
*During free time, practice a little with the squid's conferred abilities, especially the regeneration. Cut self and time the wounds healing, etc. When Sake-healing time arrives and Sake demands a piece of liver for his trouble, get curious. Climb on the operating table and cut a piece out for him while he watches. Have a strange time sensing people's blood, and wonder how odd sensing Elder magic is going to be.
*Having spent the week finishing off M.A.P. cross-referencing, be prepared to use chakra at Finnigan's to lower the surgical workload a little. See how he reacts. Remember to take notes on patients and procedures, still.

Rostislav
*Head to the Zosimus mansion with Titus for a guard mission, meeting the head Zosimus vamp; the charge, a teenaged girl; and the other two guards on the job: a German juggler in a Nazi uniform by the name of Armin and what looks like a tattooed zombie, that turns out to be a man named Radu Hagi. Chat with Titus and the others for the evening, stab Radu repeatedly with a memory-thief knife (receiving the wounds, and the memory loss that goes with them), and set up a shift rotation for the mostly silent girl.
*Using the first night off from the guard job, fight Adib at the late night Fight Club. Take a lot of damage during the fight, but win by stabbing the black guy in the eye with a chewed off finger. Learn after the fight, while Gianni's healing the two barely-conscious combatants, that Adib is a two thousand year old flesh golem. Spend the rest of the night drinking.
*After spending a shift and a half being cursed by Radu for fun, get bored and try reading an old journal from the guard room bookcase. Fail to see parallels between self and the magical-blooded golem-man hunted by vamps from the journal. Get bored and, tempting fate, ask Radu if anything's going to happen. What do you know, Radu replies with, “Well, there IS the gentleman mind-locking the vampires in the house while Zosimus and his fellow elders are out.” Follow Radu's lead, opening the door for the intruder, up to the point where Radu, slack-jawed and blank-eyed, is mind-locked himself. Try fighting the obviously dangerous intruder, and be thrown about, have limbs dislocated and arms flayed for the trouble. Eventually rage so hard that skinless arms tear themselves apart, becoming flailing bone-filled tentacles, whereupon the red-caped intruder remarks that a shoggoth is too much trouble and leaves. Spend the next ten minutes trying and failing to get a drink with extraordinarily damaging tentacle arms before passing out as Radu wakes up. Come to in time to give a report to the vampire elder, while Armin's Masterful Hands put tentacles back in place, and receive a pair of sizeable black diamonds as a bonus payment. Spend the rest of the shift talking to Radu about rituals and make a deal with Titus to buy some of his divine lightning gems [-$50k] to pay for curse ritual training.
*Wednesday night, for the off-shift, head to the mansion for a nice calming magic beer. Upon arriving, encounter an irregularly irate Big Crazy clutching an almost rabid wolverine. Become instantly gleeful. When BC demands more money for what was an obviously more difficult than he expected mission, offer him an extra $100,000 and swap him an armful of magic beer bottles [-8L magic beer, -$150k] for the wolverine. Note his immediately calmer disposition on drinking the beer. Race to Davgon to have him bind the wolverine, where he remarks that the beast requires an additional binding beforehand as it's essentially a Hate Fragment.
*Trade a promise to Titus for his surplus lightning gems, then trade the gems to Radu Hagi for teaching. Spend the rest of the week's uneventful hours eating, drinking, and learning curse rituals from Radu. Remember to keep the blood production and blood iron charms on to speed the process of making the blood iron knife.

Titus:
-Do the guard job for the next two weeks. Hang out with Rosti and the other two guards, try not to get dead from either enemies or employer.
-Spend free time building the mk.IV taser glove. Use the opalised wood for backing on the backs of the hands and knuckles. Opals for capacitor banks and the Lightning Ridge opal and twice-struck flash stone for primary supercapacitors. Raiju hide (2/4 remaining) outputs a constant charge to charge the capacitors and electrify the opalised wood. The usual nomex-P155-kevlar mix for the glove, possibly supplemented with the dryad-blood rubber if Titus doesn't need it for the wiring (it seems Tesla coils can be used for wireless electrical transmission; since Titus is sorta pals with Tesla's Witch Saint, it seems almost polite to use his technology). There'll be energy bleed-off, but with the rubber protecting Titus and the hefty (and free) energy output from the pelt, he ought to be all right.

Armas:
We should go into the Yakuza meeting with a clear idea of what we want. Mostly, that's information, for me. We don't know which yakuza group we're dealing with, here, for one. Yamaguchi or Sumiyoshi, or some smaller family? Or something without a real-world analogue, like... Iunno, a Family of kamitachi yakuza. The Golden Death Gods and the Oni clan I would rate above the local Mafia's forces and the Triad (when not counting Lammy and Lo Fang) but below the Nazis- but that could change if the heads are anywhere close to Lo Fang's insane level of skill. We have NO info on these guys besides Baki. That could be a problem, so a meet n' greet like with the vamp sire dynasties is going to be very good.

Unless this is all a ruse to get us to a certain meeting spot on time for an ambush. But hey, no plan is perfect.

I don't particularly want to work for these guys, but an amicable arrangement wouldn't be a bad thing- live and let live, that sort of thing. Feel them out on if they plan to withdraw their forces now that they recognize their former friends were playing them.

We can fleshcraft and soulguise ourselves into literally anything. We could walk into the meeting with a soul shaped as a yakuza crest, or a Hello Kitty. I kind of want to get one of those giant yakuza back/arm tattoos, of a hummingbird coring through a dragon, or a kamaitachi battling an ice giant. I bet we could hit Gianni up for installing chromatophores in us- then not only could we do the chameleon thing, we could have tattoos of WHATEVER we want, WHENEVER we want.

A few other things: they don't actually call themselves yakuza, they use 'ninkyou dantai' (chivalrous groups). So they at least consider themselves to be respectable and honorable men. Just a thought. And if it turns south, remember that $10k a head bounty.

Well, in terms of outfit for the meeting, we have several options. Orange leather coat with a styled humming bird and weasel fighting, maybe dress ourselves like a Bancho(and have our hair done up in a pompadour.). After all, got to go with the theme of the day. Other than that, I agree with >>452270 other than the clothes, and >>452312. Everyone is growing rather fast after all. Maybe some time poking around the others might be a good idea. Of course, taking them to Bonzi while Armas does his job is also a good idea.

>Bagga
>Considering the missions he has been on so far, it's obvious Bagga has much to learn. Try looking for a super natural boxing club to hone and test his boxing skills.
>Talk to Gianni about the body mods and enhancements. Look into some additional lessons about the body as well. He does seem to know a lot about it.
>Go shopping for gear! Some enhancements for the gauntlets would be good,along with some basic, multi purpose gear..
>With the gain of Igne(his pet cactus) ponder the thought of running a company herb garden that can focus on various healing and boosting plants. Probably will have to talk to the higher ups about this.
>Continue with the Ito lessons per usual and check up on his fellow orphan vamps. Just because he's working doesn't mean he should forget about them.
>Continue the vampire lessons. Try to learn some advanced techniques and find out a bit about the vampire scene. Can't skip on that.
>Prep for the Arena with Matvey, Zhenya, and the others.
>Finish ALL his missions!

LYUBOV WEEKLY GOALS
L*~Tesla’s jobs, whatever they are, take priority.
L*~Daily Lessons in divine magic fundamentals with Sake as long as he is willing.
L*~Make sure Svetlana is settling in well (drag her into interacting with people if required).
L*~As many lessons with Armas as time permits and as he is willing to give (divine-based flesh and soul magic demonstrations, essentially).
L*~Finish the Mk I Plasma Wing and work on a wearable MkII Plasma Wing ready for Sake.
L*~Visit the magic electronics shop, ask after local magic electronics clubs/associations, and buy parts required for the Mk II Plasma Wing (magic superconducting wire if available and affordable, magic rectifiers, quartz crystals, batteries, resistors, and other parts).
L*~Visit Placid at least three times during the course of the week, either alone or with Sake and/or Armas. Deliver his textbooks and talk to him about whatever strikes his fancy. It’s always intellectually engaging and fun talking with him. Show him the Mk I Plasma Wing!
L*~Talk to Hyougo at least three times this week. Be sure to hit topics like “how do you feel about witch saints? There's a new one in my city,” and “I’ve been working on a new project, look at this cool Plasma Wing thing!” and “I really pissed off my friend, what do you suggest I do to apologize?”
L*~Apologize to Zhenya and Matvey for video recording their unfortunate incident with the gift to Duke. Turn the original video discs in to Matvey, have a good cry with Zhenya after explaining what a witch saint actually is in greater depth. Still not over the death memories thing…
L*~Talk to Andrei and Hillevi in depth about being a witch saint, ask what she’s heard of them, explain most of what is known in general, omitting only the details of the deal with Tesla. Agree to help Andrei with getting in contact with mortal hacker contacts who know magic hacking of mundane systems (in exchange for him owing her or Tesla a favor). Make it clear to Andrei that he’ll be expected to pay these people for his education, and suggest he ask Armas for a budget for it. Make the call to Tesla about it.
L*~Go out to the Leprechaun bar with Dávgon, Hillevi, Armas, possibly others for a few drinks, broach the idea of a betting parlor with Bonzi (simulcast video of arena fights, a secure interface with mortal banking systems, betting booths, first access and direct input in what would be a pilot program).
L*~If Bonzi likes the idea, and there are no issues that would scupper it, research companies that do electronic gambling (Quixant looks good, relatively low cost solutions with established secure protocols...). Plan on requesting a meeting with the Hobgoblin arena owners.
L*~Read up on wireless cave communication systems.
L*~Remind Armas that Dávgon needs a research budget for monster anatomy and divine magic.
L*~After the unfortunate incident with Sake, have a talk with Kuvey and resolve to be more mature and less meddlesome (except when the situation actually merits meddling, which really amounts a resolution to get more information before meddling).
L*~Look into a charm for Sake which will prevent the Punning issue from being catastrophic for him again.
L*~Get some Ferret Tubes for Sake. Those things are awesome to play in. ($200)
L*~Borrow Matvey’s bracer and really analyze it, figure out what is failing and what could be repaired. Make this a joint project with Armas. Practice possible solutions in the plasma container.
L*~Talk to Hillevi about spin ice monopoles and superconductors, with an eye toward using the everice spell matrix to make both of those products practical. Contact Furukawa Electric about their high temperature superconductors, and buy dysprosium titanate from a chemical supplier (500 grams for $1,400) for the spin ice project.
L*~In either case if Hillevi is reluctant, point out that a complete manufacturing process would probably be of value to her clan, if nothing else as a process that they can license to other ice manipulators who are interested in manufacturing products that will be in demand. Though what they do with it ultimately would be up to the clan head, he could probably be convinced it is valuable.
L*~Continue the research into Armas’s past as time permits.

>>452312
I like Falcon's post here and generally endorse it.

Additionally, I think we should use most of the suggestions in >>452270 with the exception of letting the Godling part of the guise down. If we simply must do so though, we should make a show of removing something mundane (like a pair of sunglasses or something) once we're in the parlor and matching dropping the Godling part of the guise to that action. The obvious conclusion is that the sunglasses were a charm to hide the Godling aspect of our soul.

>>452127
I wish we could just up and duck out on our obligations but we really can't. It would have been funny though.

>>450607
If time permits today look into what is left of the Doononges' corpse, namely how much meat and organs we have. Before the mere broke we wanted to sacrifice it's meat to Whaitiri to earn a boon from her, well now it's fixed and we have that opportunity again, checking on how much we have left after our other ventures using it is a good first step. Ask Gianni how much we need to set aside for future golem building and confer with Shadowbro on if we have enough to please Whaitiri. We can handle the specifics and all the tradition involved with feeding a venerated god on a less busy day, but doing inventory is a good first step.

A bit of a check up on its organs would be worthwhile too, everything we've taken so far (brain, heart, poison glands) has been very useful to us in some respect or another. There could be hidden treasures in say what remains of say it's eyes, liver, or kidney's we've yet to tap.

Oh and set aside the Doononges' jawbone so you can make it into a kantele latter, Hillevi will love it.

>>452038
Upvote
>>452127
There's a bit too much going on today, SUST for now, maybe later.
>>452270
Upvoting except for the suggestions to no proceed with the boring experimentation and altering our default guise to no longer hide that Armas is a godling.
>>452413
Upvote.

Matvey Orders
/\/\-Hand Armas the report he asked for with full details on the trip, relevant news you've picked up, reports on other's ability gains, and compensation to the tune of 25% of your winnings ($386,125) for using several of the disposable charms and a promise to keep him personally informed of future arena ventures and your or other's use of company gear so that he can get a proper cut.
/\/\-Undergo concentration training to prepare your mind for using Conceptual magic at least once per day, finding a soundproof room or secluded spot away from prying eyes when possible.
/\/\-At some point accede to Zhenya's request to go out for dinner and dancing, have a good time and get to know her.
/\/\-Witness Armas' hummingbird instructing Ohotnik in 'how to be a proper warrior' at breakfast, request that he allow you to watch and assist as you are Ohotnik's master and trainer. Suddenly be taken to a very odd void with only wind, the hummingbird, Ohotnik, the Nothern Night Soldier bioarmor, and yourself as occupants and participate in a bizarre exercise where the hummingbird educates Ohotnik with an obviously hummingbird inclined, but correct worldview, assisting and elaborating yourself when possible. Come out from subjective hours of training with breakfast still in progress.
/\/\-Meet a nice couple at the dog park who breed Kangals who inquire about Ohotnik (having been recently trained to disguise himself as one for ease of movement through cities). Have a pleasant chat with them and receive contact information and the offer to come and socialize Ohotnik with their young dogs.
/\/\-On the way back from the park see a very curious sight, a dog barking at Ohotnik in a way that somehow cowed him. After following the strange dog see it disappear into a tree. The bioarmor revealing after the fact it was likely a hound of the Erking and the tree was acting as a divine portal.
/\/\-At night classes find two strange men, both transcendents of different stripes than yourself challenging you to face them in the arenas because you defeated a woman they both wanted to face in your last match at SugarSkull's arena. They both offer the same challenge with the same stakes-Shuhadaku Zayin against their swords and one of their arms. Choose to face the transcendent body known as Samson Aegis in one month.
/\/\-Stay after that night, until even the other Russians and students who join in drinking after classes leave, and talk to Ito about a very disturbing thing you learned through Shuhadaku Zayin about his past in the military and things he was made to do in his service. Talk to him and ask his advice on how to stay sane and free in this life. Stumble back home in a drunken haze after one too many drinks are shared over the subject.
/\/\-Pass a note on to Armas regarding the Erking hound you spotted, a proposal for what to do with Iskander's rather unique aerial abilities, and a brief description of the challenge you accepted.
/\/\-Get Hillevi to carefully freeze the Northern Night Soldier bioarmor so that it gains greater defenses to cold and have Titus shock it with his latest iteration of glove for greater resistances to each respective attack type next molting
/\/\-Clear some time for a brief venture to SugarSkull's arena to acquire the additional funds needed hopefully for a house outside the city proper.
/\/\-Train in Dunter Footwork under Ricky and Lucy as they are available.
/\/\-Take a visit to Das Bones', the magical diner owned by a powerful golem that Bagga invited everyone to to celebrate your return home. Ask Das Bones for assistance and learn about the nature of conceptual cutting while washing dishes. Acquire permission to return and help around the kitchen for more pointers on conceptual cutting.
/\/\-Enter the armory and have Satai print off a couple orientations one for adhering to surfaces and one that repels you from them.
/\/\-Watch Rostislav's bout at the fight club, a very brutal affair. Assist in helping Rostislav and the other Russians get out of the aftermath okay and join in celebratory drinks with everyone afterwards.
/\/\-When the opportunities arise throughout the week go to Das Bones' at the usual lull periods for advice while assisting him with basic kitchen chores.
/\/\-Go with Zhenya to offer Duke a gift she purchased for him with her winnings only to have to suffer through an incident you would rather not mention to anyone. Ever.
/\/\-Spend more time with Zhenya afterwards and eventually ask her if she would like to come with you to live outside of the mansion and find she accepts. Tease her about the specifics of the house you've been spotting out for days after.
/\/\-Find Lyubov knocking on your door after the incident, offering up the tapes of it she and Andrei took. Be appreciative Lyubov decided not to do terrible things with the discs like she seemed so inclined and after she leaves feel less aggravated with her in general.
/\/\-Talk with Davgon likewise after the incident and fall into some much needed good cheer when he convinces you to laugh at yourself a little. Fall asleep that night knowing you have a good friend.
/\/\-Be visited by a Valkyrie late in the night with an offer to become an Einher, refuse and be surprised when a second, much different offer is made in a voice unmistakeably belonging to Odin himself for a future task he will give to you should you acquire Body Transcendance. The voice offering a token of advice for the future as it cut out and the Valkyrie disappeared.
/\/\-Talk to Armas in the morning, asking if he is willing to allow you to live outside of the mansion and have some vacation time in the next few days. Fight the uphill battle that is that of an officer trying to live off-site, offering $350,00 if he allows you to do so and gives you the vacation time. Regardless pay for the damages Ohotnik has recently caused to the house playing with Ohotnik that cost blood to repair ($19,000).
/\/\-If plans for moving out and a vacation go through give Armas the address of your new residence and provide contact information if it were already known to anyone who may need you. Provide select friends the address so that they may visit.
/\/\-Enjoy quality time with Zhenya and Ohotnik at the new place.

Iosef Orders
>Complete any missions asked of you.
>Go find things to do with your newly found muscles.
>Ask Ito if he has anything you could do now that Camella is gone and you have free time again, see if you can't test out your new muscles at rival gyms.
>Ask Satai if you can get some copies of pages from the chakra book for orientations that help with the weird ritual things you do at Johan's shop.
>Continue making visits to mister Johan's shop to help him clear out his backlog of rituals so he'll teach you things.
>Invite Karma over to the mansion to hang out, not having paid attention to the time Camella mentioned the rules about guests, but also not know Karma was cleared the potential problem solves itself all without being thought about.
>Ask Karma about all that demon name, ritual magic, runing stuff mister Johan mentioned he accepted as payment.
>Call that one waitress from the ambulance mission.
>Now that Boris is gone all the delicious food is too, find this unacceptable and look for places you can eat out. Look for places that offer free food and glory for eating large meals, grin at what a deal you're getting every time and at your growing collection of awesome souvenir shirts.

Svetlana:
-Track down Armas and ask him how much he will be paying her. Also ask him to please not read her soul memories, as it makes her uncomfortable.
-Ask about the risks and consequences of recieving language grafts. Ask for a graft of Turkish so she can do her job properly.
-Work with Satai on comic book job.
-Handle purchasing legal, nonmagical, nonweapon goods for Satai.
-Attempt to fulfill the requests of her superiors quickly and efficiently. This takes priority over everything else, she needs to make a good impression after all.
-Make company letterhead that meets with Armas's approval.
-Start gathering company records and copying them for the archive she will be maintaining. Roughly split the archive into financial, administrative, and field sections to start with. Ask superiors how they want access to the archive to be handled. Free access to company members, graduated access levels depending on position in the company, no access below officer level, or some other way?
-Set up and run a message centre for company use. Members of the company can leave messages with her for others and she'll make sure they get to them.
-Be available to take calls and messages for anyone who wants her to.
-Spend some time during the week with Cookie Lady, who Lyubov introduced her to before church on Sunday. Enjoy the company of someone normal. Make a mental note to get her name again, it isn't like her to forget.
-Lend a hand in the kitchen since Boris is in Italy. Avoid eating any magical food herself.
-Be open to suggestions on what other members of the company want her to do. They have a better idea of the needs of the company.
-Try to get to know her new coworkers and socialize.

Igor:
-Be happy that he's good enough at chakra to not have to worry about metabolizing magic anymore. Camella went to Italy so everyone is OBVIOUSLY in the clear, right?
-Be very excited about having a magical hammer to work with, but worry he isn't good enough to do it justice.
-Experiment with the hammer's effects to ensure future projects are as good as they can be.
-Work on any projects SB gives him to do with the hammer, in exchange for help and advice on other projects he uses the hammer for and information on shadows in general.
-Work on making smithing tools using the hammer. Hopefully tools that can interact with shadow/soul will afford him finer control over the final form of things he shapes with the hammer.
-Offer to make something for Ito, as way of thanks for the training he's provided. Mention he's got a magic hammer now but warn he's not very good yet.... (Someone in IRC suggested a bumper for Ito's Car)
-Tell Armas he's finished the golem's pair of gauntlets and he'll upgrade them with the hammer once he gets the hang of it. Offer to start working on armouring the rest of it, if Armas wants to pay him for it. Bluntly mention he wishes he had a way to see the soul/shadow planes for smithing with the new hammer. And more money. And metal, or he can't make the armour.
-Begin smithing armour for himself. A set of Almain rivet, to be exact. Supposed to be relatively simple to construct. Perfect for a first attempt.
-If asked to do projects warn that he has somewhat busy with the projects he's working on already. If what they want done is for company use, tell them to go through Satai. If they want personal work done, tell them it isn't his magic hammer so they'll need company permission if they want magic gear.
-Get back to tinkering with his watches now that he has the time. It's been a while.

>Bindings
If i understand it right. armas binding himself to "only regenerate on X" has caused him to subconsciously learn via experimentation a specific form of conceptual magic to do so. The process of which caused a bunch of brain and soul damage which was being healed as fast as it happened by our passive healing powers (lucky thing we have Romanov and the soul graft or such an attempt would have permanently crippled us!)
From that I take:
A. don't use such a bind on someone else! unless they have a passive soul and body regen that is of sufficient power they could be ruined.
B. could armas not use the same method to learn more conceptual magic by binding himself?
Such as to learn how to make mind maze chakra orientation conceptual or consciously perform our current conceptual magic so that it does not "use up" our existing bind to do.

>Experiment, what is conceptual?
A point of contention, there has been some argument on whether the binding forced armas to subconsciously use conceptual magic in of itself, conceptual self soul sculpting powers from winter bloodline, or if the bindings themselves have been rendered conceptual bindings.
Poll the conclave... furthermore, turn on sensing array and look at own soul carefully examining bind and soul as well as having conclave looking; and actually, any competent sensor in the house. While doing that alter bind to do nothing and then back to what they are right now and observe changes. Include flushing energy and repeat if necessary.

>Unnoticed ongoing damage
Make a habit of spending 10 minutes every night before going to sleep of examining your soul and brain for anomalies to the best of your abilities.

>Chakra
Take chakra training to the next level by using your massive energy regen and try to achieve 24/7 duel orientation. Whenever duel orientation collapses immediately reenter it. Go around with sensor + mind-shield on simultaneously at all times.
Make a note to find someone to teach you more specialized sensor orientations so you could attempt rapid cycling between different sensor orientations.
Make a note to find someone to teach you combat speed boosting orientations for even more speed hax.

>Silja
Its a new day, don't forget to get today's work on silja. But wait until Gia and Davgon wake up on their own.

>Sleep?
Ask gia and davgon if there are flesh/soul craft abilities that eliminate or reduce the need to sleep without causing mental degradation or other such issues. The fact they bother sleeping could indicate there isn't, but could also be because its prohibitively expensive in terms of energy which is unlikely to be a problem (and if it is... well its excellent practice).
Rami healing seems to do the trick so maybe it can be replicated via soul and flesh manip.

>Lyubov
Let lyubov know she is broadcasting her words magically.

>Placid
Visit him.

>Hummingbro
Offer him the heart of a phoenix to study.

>Boris
When he returns to mansion after mafia town job, look in 7777 book for for sleep reduction / replacement chakra orientations.

On mafia town:
1. Get as much chakra training as possible under Camella while there.
2. Ask Camella about this whole "natural ascension" thing.
3. Ask around with locals (in pub?) about "interesting" local things (ancient ruins, haunted caves, etc). Investigate with fellows.
4. Feel somewhat left behind, small an insignificant, at how fast some of his fellows are growing in power.
5. Bake lots of delicious cookies, share with co-workers.

>>452038
upvote

SUST on intentionally revealing armas is a godling, owner and some dragons know. but imperfectly kept secret is better then making it public to all.
SUST on revealing our ability to mask our soul by wearing an obvious guise like a hello kitty or yakuza crest shaped soul.

Andrei:
-Work towards developing remote control armored stationary turrets that can fit motors and mounts strong enough for miniguns. Install cameras, both regular and IR.
-Program tracking and facial recognition software for turrets for autonomy. Buy and cannibalize kinects for help and inspiration with sensors and body and facial recognition, look through other already available solutions as well.
-After these are done, work towards getting turrets mobile with some treads.
-Build three redundant IFF systems for company to avoid friendly fire with automated targeting: Buy cheap phones, alter them so that they query -> answer through bluetooth automatically, ask to spray paint a glyph on mission suits in IR reflective see-through shellack, and hook up an IR leds on suits on a separate system, set to light at query. Hand these out.
-Decide you want to magic up your speciality. Find Lyubov. Ask if Tesla would be willing to help him along the way of finding a teacher. Be told she'll ask.
-Decide to go after other venues for now. Go to The FUTURE Shop. Inquire after someone who could teach the magical side of hacking. Get told the name of a rather expensive group that can teach him personally, lessons to some measure of functional confidence would cost ~250k. For instructional material, he can get a collection of DVDs for 40k, or an actual book for 85k, and if he's looking for examples of magical hacking code to purchase and pick apart, each instance usually runs 5-15k.
-Go ahead and buy the book.
-Start learning magical hacking from book.
-Start making 3D map of Istanbul that would let him translate where the company is on the map and send data on enemy and friendly positions to helmet HUDs. Hook up a GPS, a transmitter and three 3D surface imagers on a large RC car, on pointing straight ahead, two pointing to the sides.
-Try to find Dmitrii to ask after a stealth charm for said RC car.
-Drive around in car when bored of reading and coding and no urgent tasks, always make sure to roll it back in the house. Shamelessly rip off Google Maps for pictures, driving around with a camera rig occasionally to see that it's accurate.
-Talk to Armas about compensation for editing work. Also ask whether he has ideas for venues of selling finished videos.
-Go to the psychiatrist once per week. Complain how living in murderous house and being surrounded by constant magical radiation makes him a dick and gives him cancer.

Summary of Guns for Hire Corporate Acquisitions and Expenditures
Since February 11, 2011
Including Both In-Thread and IRC Information

+ 46 demonic anti-tank grenades
+ 18 demonic flashbangs
+ 6 lightning devil crossbows
+ 80 cubic yards of high-quality enchantable leather
+ 80 giant japanese hornet queens
+ 245 kodoku
+ 25 kodoku meat jars
+ 1 kodoku spirit jar
+ 1 100-kodoku jar excretion amplifying matrix
+ 1 satellite phone
+ 1 Spirit-Shadow Forge Hammer
+ 2 stasis charms (auto-activate immediately prior to brain failure)
+ 41 blade charms
+ 1 light aspected aura charm
+ 1 flawed lesser wrath fragment
+ 10 Rechargable Blade Charms (Svartelf Make)
+ 5 Rechargable Arrow Charms (Svartelf Make)
+ 1 mere artifact (repaired)
+ 1 Ensouled anti-tank rifle (returned from Astrid)
+ 1 Adelat contract
+ 50 cattle
+ 1 7777 chakra alignments book
+ 2kg Uncut Garnet Gems
+ 200 pounds mid-tier wrath demon flesh/week
+ 50 pounds mid-tier pride demon flesh/week
+ 50 pounds mid-tier envy demon flesh/week
+ 50 pounds mid-tier gluttony demon flesh/week
+ 20 liters of magical spring-aligned blood/week

- 1,000 12 gauge slug rounds
- 5,100 .50 BMG rounds
- 15,300 7.62x51 NATO rounds
- 1 40x46mm Grenade
- 6 flashbangs
- 1 smoke grenade
- 11 arrow charms
- 1 hellfire 105mm thermobaric rocket
- 1 demonic 105mm thermobaric rocket
- $1,368,300
- $43,900/week ($87,800 thus far, included above)
- $3,000/month ($1,500 thus far, included above)


Satai Orders
$ - Complete assigned company jobs
$ - Murder a certain gargoyle in retribution
$ - Focus relentlessly on improving control and understanding of mindscape
$ - Attempt to learn to separate, recognize, and manipulate mental inputs
$ - Work on building useful mental constructs
$ - Discuss mind manipulation with potentially well-informed parties
$ - Examine others' minds if and when possible
$ - Seek additional sources of information on magic, particularly mind magic and rituals
$ - Read through all available written resources on magic-related topics
$ - Keep sniping; attempt more rapid target acquisition and precise shots
$ - Keep training with Hillevi, using new perceptions to improve chakra skill
$ - Seize opportunities for personal profit which present themselves
$ - Continue looking after Stacey
$ - Go out with Verusha and/or friends to magical night spots when possible; build contacts and enjoy self
$ - Take careful, measured steps toward resuming habitual magically-oriented promiscuity


Grisha Orders
G - Go to the Arena with Lev, and have fun!
G - Have some Fun™ with Vlad and Amen before leaving for Italy, since he asks so nicely~ Invite Anguisher.
G - Introduce Anguisher to Amen, get opinion.
G - Go to Italy, bringing Anguisher and some motorcycles for planned biking adventures with Lev.
G - Study under Anguisher in the arts of pain and villainy!
G - Study on top of Lev in the arts of fun and Fun™!
G - Keep the town in line and take frequent day trips to really enjoy Italian life. Bring Sake when possible!
G - Don't neglect martial arts training- see if Camella will help since there's no more dojo to use.

Link to Sixth thread:
http://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/453740.html