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]

"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."

[herr_bookman]

Autor's getting excited about the prospect of a laptop of his own. He can write on it, and even make his own fonts! "I've got that with my sylladex," Autor says, patting his pocket, "but a library on one device would be stupidly useful. How much will it cost? And can I pay you in tab or some other manner?"

He's just as enthusiastic about the description of the suit. "Ah, I see. Does it work in the sunlight or just shadowed areas?"

[runningred]

"I'll get onto that tonight. You can pay whatever you think it's worth off my tab when you can." He shrugs, unconcerned. It's been a while since Jay worries about money.

"I don't know. Haven't finished testing it. Wanna head out and have a play with it?"

[herr_bookman]

"I have no idea how much a computer is worth," Autor admits, furrowing his brow. "Don't rush on my account."

He lights up at the offer, though. "Would I? Yes, I'd love to see."

[runningred]

"Won't cost me much in parts, or take me long." Jay shrugs.

He grins brightly. "Give me a few minutes to grab my gear and I'll meet you out in the garden."

[herr_bookman]

Autor nods, sending his tea kettle off with the rats. "See you there."

In a few minutes, he's sitting on his carpet in the garden, low to the ground and reading a book to wait for Jay.

[runningred]

Jay kits up fully, pulling his hood down before he heads outside. With the thermoptic on, he's able to walk right up to Autor, his armour only slightly displacing the light as he moves.

[herr_bookman]

Unfortunately for Autor, he doesn't see Jay at all. He licks his thumb to turn a page in his book, not really reading it as he waits.

[runningred]

Jay leans over and turns the next page for him, grinning under his helmet as he turns the thermoptic armour off. "Hi."

[herr_bookman]

"Shiva wept!" Autor shrieks, dropping the book and skittering backwards off the edge of the carpet. "Oww... Double Carthaginean hell, Jay, warn me before you do that!"

He pops his head over the edge, kneeling awkwardly as he rests his elbows on it. His face looks like he has spent some time out in the sun, but his scowl quickly melts into an amazed smile. "I couldn't even seen you! I guess it works in the sunlight because you were basically undetectable--and you move so silently, too! Wow."

[runningred]

"I told you I was coming up to meet you." Jay grins and steps back, vanishing again. He's visible but only when he moves. There's a very slightly lag as the armour bends the light, almost unnoticeable if he moves slowly. And despite the heaviness of his suit, Jay's very light on his feet.

[herr_bookman]

Autor stands, trying to find him. He thinks he spots him once or twice, but can't be sure.

"Well, yes, but you were invisible, and..." Autor has the survival instincts of a tadpole out of water, and he knows it. Still. No point in admitting the obvious. "That's still quite impressive. If you run and dodge about, does it become easier to see you?"

[runningred]

Jay moves slowly and silently around Autor, using a stone skipped off a leaf on the other side of him to act as a decoy for his movement.

And then he taps Autor on the shoulder. From behind.

[herr_bookman]

Predictably, Autor turns his head towards the sound. And then he jumps three feet in the air. "Ohh! You scared me again!" he says, and whirls around, trying to see if he can spot Jay. "I have got to get one of these suits."

[runningred]

"And what would you do with it?" Jay teases, pushing back the helmet and turning off the camo.

[herr_bookman]

"Scare the stuffing out of you, hopefully," Autor says, taking a playful swing at him. "Or turn it on and spend some time reading without anyone bothering me. What sorts of missions do you use it for?"

[runningred]

Jay chuckles and parries Autor's fist with the obvious gentleness of someone who could break an arm in exactly any spot he wanted to. "Ah but why would I design something that could be used against me without having countermeasures."

He offers the helmet, tilted forward to Autor can see the heads up display in the visor.

He considers the answer to that with some care, his voice soft and slightly sad. "I use to be a vigilante but that got me killed. Took up with a group of assassins to work off my debt for bring brought back but that didn't works out so well. Now... I don't know. Sometimes things just need to be done and I'm someone who can do it so I do." He shrugs.

[herr_bookman]

Autor's fully aware that Jay could snap him like a twig. "Ooh, point. And that display tells you everything you need to know? Heat signatures and everything? Why is the helmet red?" Well, shoot. Ah, well, he'll startle Jay someday. Somehow.

He nods when Jay's tone changes. "I see. Well, I hope you find productive, challenging work. In the meantime, you've acquired some ridiculous skills and gear."

[runningred]

"One of the sensors tracks movement via air displacement. It's useless in a crowd but it's great for spotting something that is there even when it can't be seen. Other settings track heat, light through the spectrum, things like that. I'm still working on biometrics to track a single target by their face shape or height and gait."

He turns the helmet in his hand and looks at the skull like faceplate. "Red Hood was the name I took for myself when I can back. Partly to distance myself from who I had been but partly because it's a name that has history with me. It was an alias used by someone else a long time ago. Someone who became a monster because of other people's choices. I use it to remind me of the line in need to walk."

He snorts and looks up. "Fuck, you've got me talking serious today. What else did you want to know about the suit?"

[herr_bookman]

"That's pretty incredible," Autor says, blinking. "Can you size up someone by height and weight just by looking at them then? You really can track everything!"

Autor nods somberly at the description of Red Hood, but he's startled into a smile by Jay's snort and swearing.

"That's a tough line to walk," Autor says, and then drops it to ask about the suit. "Do you have anything to augment your speed? Do all the thermoptics make the suit hot to wear?"

[runningred]

"Not all at once. Too much data all at once becomes hard to track and use. Height's easy but weight's harder and the measurement is usually an approximation. It's the gait that's more trackable; the way someone moves is ingrained and takes effort to change or hide."

"It has been." He concedes. "No, I can't move any faster than I can run naturally. I've known Speedsters and they abilities are a whole level of different you need to be a meta to understand. The suit has some pretty complex cooling systems and air exchanges to keep it cool. Which is part of what's tripping me up against a vampire. It doesn't mask my scent at all, in fact makes me easier to sniff out."

[herr_bookman]

"Oh, neat," Autor says. "How do you track the gait?"

He tilts his head. "Meta? What does that mean, in this context?" Autor asks. He furrows his brow, thinking. "Which is why you need scent maskers. Hm. You don't want to interfere with the cooling systems, I suspect. That's an interesting challenge. Are you looking to conceal your scent or change it? Could you ingest something to change it?"

He's thinking of Dr. Lecter, and his ability to pick out whether or not Autor has eaten latkes from across the room.

[runningred]

"Tell you what, I'll show you." He puts the helmet on and with movements of his jaw and glove, he sets the scanner. "Already, walk away from me and then back. About ten paces should do. Don't think, just walk normally."

"Changing my diet wouldn't be enough, not against this vampire. He knows my scent too well for that." Right down to the smell of adrenalin and arousal. "But it's a very interesting idea. I was thinking for finding ways to conceal it, or filter the air in such a way that the parts that carry scent are captured before they leave the system. It couldn't be very efficient in the long term and small scale, like for the length of a game it might work."

[herr_bookman]

"Wait, what? Ooh, interesting," Autor says. It takes him a moment to walk normally--of course he overthinks it--but he eventually does get it right, walking to and fro, and back to Jay.

It occurs to Autor that "he knows me too well" might include blood drinking as well, and then he recalls Sunshine's concerns about Jay. Ah, so it is Eric Northman. "That'd be neat. I hope it works. Masking it with something like demon bunny pheromones probably wouldn't work, but that'd be hilarious."

[runningred]

Jay takes the helmet off and plugs it into his palmpilot. "So, here is the way you walk." He brings up a series of spaced lines with time to the hundredth of a second marked between them. "Now that I have that info, I could track you, even in the biggest crowd. And especially from above."

Jay laughs. "Yeah, I've thought about how I could use demon bunny pheromones as an offensive weapon but I think that would count as assault here."