Milliways' guide for first-time patrons

[herr_bookman]

Autor's been a bit busy recently. He posts his Milliways' Guide for First-time Patrons up on the bulletin board, spreading out the maps.

He also posts the following note:

Attention: I, Autor, am writing this guide for first-time patrons, and require help finishing it. If you see anything missing, please let me know either via note or in person. I'll be sitting by the bulletin board until I finish a pot of tea.

The boy acquires his libation and seats himself at the table nearest the board to wait.

Comments

[runningred]

"They're just a bracelet with an arrow pointing in the right direction. I can program them to point to anywhere you need to get to." He drums his fingers on the table. "No reason I couldn't build more complex ones with multiple tracking points."

[herr_bookman]

"Could you program them to track each other?" Autor says, blinking. "It would be interesting if you could make a sort of hide-and-go seek game out of a bunch of them depending on the inputs you'd place."

[runningred]

Jay grins and moves his hand. Without seeming to reach into this pocket or sleeve, he has a tiny tracker between his fingertips. Something about the size and thickness of a fingernail. "Autor, with the right programming, I can track anything or anyone."

"But yeah, that could be fun. Set up a game of tag that way. Could make life interesting as a sparing exercise."

[herr_bookman]

"Ooh," Autor says, leaning forward to get a look at the tracker. "Neat. I envy your skills--and I'll have to come up with something challenging for you to build someday."

He doesn't know what it will be or how he'd afford it, but Jay's skills shouldn't go to waste. "You could even make a scavenger hunt," he says, sipping his tea. "Or have a demon bunny be a target."

[runningred]

"I'm always looking for a new challenge." He offers with a smile.

Jay laughs at that. "Yeah, that sounds like great fun. I've been playing with pheromones to create demon bunny flash mods. They make a great distraction."

[herr_bookman]

"Bunny fla--wait, what? That sounds incredibly dangerous," Autor says. Of course he's grinning about it. "Who needs a herd of demon bunnies? I wish I'd thought about that when I bred them."

[runningred]

Jay grins back. "They makes a useful distraction and they muddy up a scent trail."

[herr_bookman]

Autor raises his brows. "You expect to be tracked by scent, then? With dogs or...?"

[runningred]

"I was playing tag against a vampire. Gotta to be ready for anything." Jay grins.

[herr_bookman]

"Shiva wept, Jay," Autor says, shaking his head. "How long did you last?"

[runningred]

Jay grins and shrugs. "38 minutes and nearly eight miles. Technically I won. I tagged him with a paintball before he took me down."

[herr_bookman]

"Uh-huh," Autor says, folding his arms at the easy, 'took me down'. "You weren't hurt, were you?" And then, after a huff, "Thirty-six minutes is impressive. It's a lot better than I could do, that's for sure. Congrats on your win."

[runningred]

Jay shakes his head. "It was a friendly match. I have a few bruises and a lot of repairs to do on my bike but it was worth the game to work the kinks out of my tactics."

[herr_bookman]

"Oh, you had your bike as well! I'd thought you were on foot, but having the bike makes a lot more sense," Autor says, nodding along. "I bet the game was useful to you. Aside from scent redirection, what else did you employ?"

[runningred]

"The bike was mostly for misdirection. That's how it got mangled. And I had a second decoy with my scent makers on it. And the suit had it's own decoy features."

[herr_bookman]

"Did you do anything to mess with the vampire's vision? Flashbangs, that sort of thing?" Autor says, sipping his tea. "Where and when did this take place?"

[runningred]

"The suit is rigged to give off different light and heat signatures but flashbangs could be very useful!" Jay looks thoughtful, tapping his fingers on the bar. "Yeah, that could be very useful."

He shrugs. "We had a test game a couple of days ago out in the forest here. The next game will be in my world, probably a European city. Prague's a good place for it. Lots of good climbable buildings."

[herr_bookman]

Autor's tempted to offer to make some flashbangs for him, but he figures Jay is enterprising enough to make his own--and they're probably much more powerful, too. "Your suit sounds amazing."

The boy nods. "Ah, hence the demon bunnies," he says. "Will the authorities of your world get involved, or does that just add to the chase? I doubt they could catch you, if a vampire can't."

[runningred]

"95% of the tech I learn about here either goes into improving the suit or the bike." Or his tools and weapons. "It's pretty damn impressive the things I can bounce back from in that suit."

"We'll negotiate the rule before we play but back home, standard rules involve instant disqualification the minute you turn up on an official police scanner. Hell, the local cops in the city I grew up in use to take bets on us!"

[herr_bookman]

"That makes sense," Autor says, nodding along. "Take advantage of whatever you learn at the end of the universe. What sorts of things do you have on your suit?"

He tilts his head. "I'll be surprised if a vampire turns up on a police scanner. I'd think they wouldn't be able to track him."

[runningred]

He pulls up the specs on his palmtop computer, running through the features. "Thermoptic camouflage, non-Newtonian fluid armour around the joints and spine, impact activated neck protection, heads up guidance and tracking systems." He shrugs. "Just a few little tweaks."

"Probably not. I may need to call in a friend to adjudicate."

[herr_bookman]

Autor blinks, stunned at the computer. "Oh, wow. I understood about half that. What does 'thermoptic' mean? Something to camouflage your heat signature?" he says, tilting his head. "And I have no idea how non-Newtonian armors work. The rest of it sounds amazing, though."

He points to the palmtop. "Is that a computer? It's tiny!"

[runningred]

Jay nods and spins it towards Autor, letting him play with the palmtop. "It is, do you want me to build you one? That's easy enough done."

"Thermoptics reflect heat and light signatures. Really powerful thermoptic can effectively make you invisible. non-Newtonian fluids are what really good bulletproof armour is made of. It's a gel until it's exposed to pressure then it becomes a solid. Top of the line."

[herr_bookman]

Autor doesn't touch the palmtop, merely watches. "Wait, really? You'd build me one?" he says. "I don't know what I'd do with it. I've searched inside a book once on a computer and that was really useful."

He also approved of the paint program.

The boy listens to the description of the armor, and shakes his head in amazement. "That's incredible. Technology is fantastic, isn't it? Does your invisibility work for vampires, too?"

[runningred]

"I can build you one with enough storage to carry a small library in your pocket if you like?" Jay offers.

"It really is." Autor's enthusiasm makes him smile. "I don't know yet. I've only tested the suit in the forest so I wasn't getting close enough to be seen."