Shaper of Metal Post-Apoc Progression LitRPG

Ira had a piece of casserole paused at her lips when Augur dropped the accusation. She raised an eyebrow at him cooly and took the bite silently, staring back unblinkingly as she chewed. Augur just maintained a shit-eating grin, quite pleased with himself.

"I believe he is indeed a brat," Ira declared in Jack's mind.

Jack hid a smile behind his hand as he chewed his pancakes. He was actually impressed with Neex, though — her pupils had not done anything weird through the process of the convo.

Poised, eyes heavy-lidded, Ira finally replied, "Your doubts about my authenticity are noted, Junior Agent Augur. I do hope I can fit in better with everyone over the course of time. That's another goal of my studies, so your observations are appreciated, though I'm sorry, in that the specific nature of my abilities and origin remain classified, as I'm sure has been related."

Augur's grin faltered at this, as his eyes flitted around. He ate more pudding and mused. "Well, that does fit… and I do know what you mean about fitting in." He seemed to perk up. "I'd be happy to help!" He took a drink and fidgeted, clearing his throat behind a hand. "And… sorry if I was rude?" He said it uncertainly.

Ira inclined her head graciously. "Not at all. As they say: 'Water through the bridge,' hmm?"

Augur blinked as his eyes flickered to Jack and back to Ira. "Under the bridge."

"Yes. Under the bridge as well." Ira took another bite of egg-stuff and nodded confidently.

Jack winced slightly at that, but, truthfully, she'd done a remarkable job hitting Augur right in his soft spot, changing his tune on a dime. No way was he going to pass up the chance to show off his skill at something. The only question was how useful his 'information' would be, colored as it was through the unique lens that only Augur had.

As Inkblot had not joined the convo, merely listening as he ate slowly and silently, Jack caught his eye and asked, "So, how are things going in Inkblot's world?"

Inkblot shrugged. "They're going." After a pause, he added, "I see you're keeping busy."

"Actually, I recently mostly slept and ate for almost a day straight. Granted, it was from exhaustion."

"Living the dream."

"All too true."

"If I may," Ira cut in, looking at Inkblot curiously, "unless I'm mistaken, you seem around the age of maturity. How close are you to graduation?"

Inkblot shook his head. "I'm not deeply concerned about the coat, ma'am. If it happens, it happens, when it happens."

Ira nodded slowly. "Most have more urgency, do they not?"

"Most. I have my reasons. One being, as a Stalker, I can build a case for solo graduation. Or even remaining a Consultant." He shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me."

"Even a solo artist needs to show some teamwork," Augur muttered, with the slightly exasperated, yet defeated tone of an old argumentative position.

Inkblot ignored him entirely.

Jack knew some of the other reasons. Black marks for prior bad behavior made him both sneered at by big swaths of his peers and defeatist about how the leadership saw him. Being around for Augur was the unspoken one, he all but knew. On top of all that, he just had a low-key, slower philosophy in general and preferred to take his time. In short, he was not a gung-ho type.

"A Stalker," Ira mused as she nibbled on some more food. The extended pause suddenly made Jack sure she was getting info on them right then and there. "So your unusual tattoos are involved in close-range attacks, limited defense mechanisms, and stealth?"

Inkblot met her eyes blankly. "Something like that, ma'am. I understand you outrank me, but if you require my intel, you should go through your existing channels. I reserve the right not to blab about it in public. Otherwise, you have to arrange a private consultation. With all due respect, Agent."

Ira had a brief moment of forgetting her 'role,' her eyes widening. "Oh, sorry!" She soon regained her composure, though. "I understand, Junior Agent. I will not press on the issue."

Inkblot nodded simply. "Thank you, ma'am."

Jack generated an exaggerated mental sigh in Neex's head. "Now I'm feeling put out that you outrank me. You haven't put in nearly enough work, Soldier! No fair!"

Ira's face twitched slightly. The mental response was one of exasperated, half-amused rebuke, showing she'd successfully identified him teasing her. "Oh, hush, you! You know it's untrue, and all for the purposes of the disguised alias of trickery!"

Jack nearly broke into laughter as the oddity of her overblown word choice tickled him, his shoulders shaking as he tried not to choke on his food. Inkblot noticed this but didn't comment on it.

"So, you're particularly interested in powers, huh?" Augur asked her, oblivious to Jack's amusement.

"It's certainly intriguing to see such variety," Ira began, but Jack had a sudden request for a mem-link come through — a combined one from InSite and Lighthouse. No way was he not going to answer it, so he knuckled his head in the universal sign of 'answering a brain-call' and approved the link. Eyes averted to the side, he nonetheless kept eating.

"Nice to hear from you two," Jack sent immediately. "What's up?"

"Hey," Lighthouse sent amiably enough, though she sounded dog-tired.

Insite was nearly simultaneous with her. "Hey. We finally got out of the mission hole around the same time, bumped into each other, and mentioned you. Figured I'd see if I could hit you up instead of itching your ears from afar. Before I pass out from my fourth hell level of exhaustion, I did want to personally apologize for almost fraggin' things up with the little girl. Already did with Sato, but you were out by that time. Anyway, yeah. Sorry. I was stretched thinner than a pre-cat barely-there at that time, and didn't get to the damned double-check."

"A pre-cat what?!" Lighthouse demanded, mystified.

"It turned out all right, thankfully," Jack replied dismissively. "Don't worry about it. We can only do so much, right? But damn, guys. You were still working until just now?"

"Yeah, some of us didn't get the princess treatment," Lighthouse teased. "I tip my hat to you, though. I should've thought of fainting, myself. Instead, I was running on fumes, bored out of my mind on maybe-something-will-happen duty until the cows came home. And even that level of excitement was robbed from us."

"Holy jumping butts," Insite exclaimed in exasperation, though his voice barely raised. "You're envious of him, and I'm envious of you. My brain is melted slush right now. I had three juice-ups and endless micro-breaks, riding powers fatigue to surely the greatest limits ever known. I wish I had been bored. All I see when I close my eyes is endless drab rooms and walls running together superimposed over each other."

"That sounds unpleasant," Jack offered in sympathy. "Juice-ups?"

"Agent Switchback. He juices you with multi-layered stamina aids. Rejuvenation, fatigue resistance, persistent wakefulness. Only the specialest of special boys and girls get it. The biggest priority folk on persistent missions. Lucky me."

"Hell," Lighthouse muttered, "Wish I got one of those. Might've yawned a hundred less times, at least."

InSite scoffed bitterly. "No, you don't wish that, rook. You'd go nuts with the hypercharge with nothing to do. And, understand, the charge is great and all to get shit done, but that many juice-ups are draining. It squeezes you. I lost a tick off of Inner Energy, for frag's sake. It'll take me weeks to get it back, and I'll have to go hard to do it. Meanwhile, I'll feel the consequences for days. Granted, I'm about to have a very satisfying hibernation for a while, but after that? Take my life and shit on it."

"Okay, I take it back. And if it's any consolation, you look like hell, too."

InSite snickered. "What would I do without you around to tell me like it is?"

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"Talk to yourself. But then things would get less cheery."

"You're my bundle of gaiety and sunshine, it's true." A pause. "Wrapped in razor wire."

"I can't believe this. You've really boiled me down and exposed me, Ins."

"Well, good to know, thanks," Jack offered a bit lamely amidst their banter. "I guess Memoria considered my day full and complete, or maybe I'd have gotten juiced myself."

"Shreddy was something of a long shot that hit home," InSite replied. "The potential was there, but the probability of him having something, and also having something reliable, and also having it be reliably and quickly extracted? You and Scaper defied the odds and punched way above expectations there. The odds either of you would repeat that anytime soon thereafter were beyond negligible. I'm sure that's only part of it. Be glad you didn't get juiced. You're still building your energy up, right?"

"Yeah. Inner Energy zero-point-five."

"Even one juice up from a high fatigue drain would set you back at that grade. I'd call that emergency-only level."

"More like pre-teen level," Lighthouse added, tone a bit dismissive.

"Sorry, but I haven't been building it my whole life like most of you, thanks," Jack replied defensively.

"Welp," Insite said with a yawn (which caused Lighthouse to yawn and curse him under her breath), "I need to go. I feel the fatigue coming back, and once it hits full force, I'll pass out wherever I happen to be. Just wanted to touch base, Jack. Congratulations, by the way. Banger of a first-time run."

"Much appreciated. Will you keep that gestalt chat running, by the way?"

"Not sure. I'll probably close it and make new ones as my situation warrants. Missions vary too much for me. This one could be long-term, though. We'll see. Later, Jack." He disconnected.

Lighthouse was still there. "Hey, after chatting with Bo, I kinda get the feeling you're thinking of teaming with them, though she didn't say it outright. Am I off-base here?"

Jack chuckled. One of them is a bit too dense or humble to see it, one too subtle and independence-focused to mention it, and one sees and goes direct for it right off the bat. What a crew. "I dunno, can you keep a secret?"

"Uh, sure? Whether you'll tell me or not, let me just say that judging from your performance already, your powerset, and so on, I'd be over the moon for you to do it."

"Is that right? Pre-teen stamina and all?"

"Yep. You can only go up from that, after all."

"I'd like to hear about that 'so on,' though."

Lighthouse scoffed, half in amusement. "You want me to sing Jack's praises?"

"It's one of my favorite things."

"Then get a girlfriend."

"Working on it. Life is busy. Anyway, this isn't a romantic request, now is it? If you think I'm a fit, I'm curious as to why."

Lighthouse made an annoyed exhale, with a feel of rolling her eyes. "Ever heard of intuition? Not everything can be explained in pat data for ro-bot braain!" The last was in a mock, stereotypical 'robot' voice. "You're probably good for them, you can help them, they're my friends. That's as much as I can articulate."

Jack remained quite amused at her response. "You do a good robot. Well, fair enough, I guess. Yes, I was thinking about joining."

"Good. I won't tell them. Tryouts are after lunch today, so you know. Three or four hours. Same spot as staffball that one time. We pooled our credits and got a killer deal for a lot of hours in a protected zone, split into as little as ten-minute blocks, so less wasted time will be involved. I say 'we,' but I won't be there. Gonna go sleep forever, now. Later." She disconnected.

Tryouts. Good timing, but I have a make-up class I have to do. Prof. Petahi wouldn't be happy if I skipped it and delayed mutual classes with Highfive again. Gonna need to show up midway.

Jack returned his attention to the table and saw Augur nodding thoughtfully to something Ira said. Ira glanced his way and raised an eyebrow in concern, but Jack waved it off. He checked the time and quickly finished off his pancakes. "Need to run. Physical training, and then literal running." He looked at Ira. "You'll be alright for a while, then?"

Ira nodded. She was still eating, apparently savoring her last array of samples. "Observations shall continue, regardless. You are training later?"

"Yeah. After physical training. A little bit solo to stretch my new wings out, so to speak. Not sure yet about my plans after lunch."

The Neexiness inside of Ira tried not to perk up too much as she tilted her head and pushed her glasses back on her nose. "Excellent. I shall observe your powers in action when it is time."

Jack nodded, then waited. Nothing. He shifted his eyes at her general body and raised his eyebrows. Ira only blinked and looked at him in confusion, eyeing him in return — which made him chuckle. He said, "You've got to let me out of the booth so I can leave."

Ira's eyes widened, and her pupils warped as she hurriedly bounced up out of her seat. "Sorry!" She quickly cleared her throat and stood to the side, arms clasping behind her back, regaining her composure once again. She nodded primly as Jack rose. "Junior Agent Laker."

Jack nodded back. "Agent Ira." Mentally, he sent, "Real smooth, Neex."

"Be quiet, you!" she sent back, together with the image of her sticking her tongue out and full-on doing a raspberry with her eyes closed.

He managed not to crack a smile before turning around. Neex was completely sus and adorable in her disguise, and with her constantly fumbling behavior. Proof that learning and emulating an entirely alien culture wasn't easy. All things considered, she was probably doing a pretty stellar job adapting. He was fairly certain she was a sheltered nerd type in her culture, on top of it. A specialist of her people would likely be an order of magnitude better at infiltration. If they had them, at least.

I'm just happy she's around. And even happier that she seems happy she's around. You really dole out the rewards for those who perform well, don't you, Mother?

🌑 🌒 🌓 🌔 🌕

Jack went hard into his physical conditioning, muscle-building, and cardio. It felt good to get back into the grind of routine after the relative break of the day before. The complete drain of fatigue in stressful toil, and the ensuing totality of rest, did not appear to be a bad thing. When he went through his rest-and-hydration phase after a shower, he got another gains notification.

That much closer to 1.0.

It had no particular special value; it was just a goal he wanted to reach. Power use would certainly drain him less in that range.

Leading up to hearing about the tryouts, Jack was going to touch base with Highfive, but he decided to just surprise his friend on-site after lunch and Jack's brief, solo class session. He had no doubt it would be packed with ensuing study and homework, but he could do that later on.

Jack contacted Ira to meet him at Power Park for his solo training session she wanted to watch. As they were walking down the pathway together, not far inside, Ira suddenly jumped, yelped, and grabbed Jack's arm, moving slightly behind him, as a figure materialized in front of them, stopping them in their tracks. Lifeguard.

Hands on her hips, Lifeguard looked Ira up and down with a slightly perplexed look on her face. "Who's your friend, Jack? She's, like, totally an oddball. Pretty radical, bro!"

Ira stepped forward again quickly, face cast in confusion. "Memoria?! But you know who I am! Is this a game?! Why is your voice different? Why are you in a swimsuit? Is it higher-status attire than I realized?!"

Chuckling, Jack met Ira's eyes and shook his head. "This is not Memoria. A game? Well, kinda. This is Lifeguard, a separate program of sorts that looks after beginning users and keeps them safe to experiment and frag things up. She's in a swimsuit for the sake of the, ah, character style."

"Ah! A Daemon! Endaiamona." At Jack's puzzled look, Ira's lips twisted, and she ventured, "Divine spooling? Ah. System angels? I suppose it's hard to translate, sorry." She turned back to Lifeguard suddenly and threw her hand up. "Hi!" Her eyes shifted side-to-side, and she bent a hand at her lips to whisper, "I'm undercover?"

Lifeguard had a hand up, mouth open to respond with a 'hi' in kind, but the ensuing admittance of Ira made her mouth hang open as she furrowed her brows. "Um. Right. Totally. So. Why are you here?"

"To observe."

Lifeguard seemed to puzzle over this, and over Ira in general, tapping a finger on her lips. Then, like a sudden eureka, she thrust a finger up. "Oh, I know what you are, girl! A cheerleader! Rad!" She held out her hands, and purple pom-poms appeared, which she promptly handed to Ira with a big grin.

Ira took them reluctantly, eyes flitting between Jack and Lifeguard. "I… am not so sure about this…"

"Nonsense, chickity! You can totes cheer Jack on with those!" She wore a big, bright, expectant smile.

Ira, mouth hanging open, shook her head helplessly and met Jack's eyes. Jack shrugged. Mentally, he added, "I think maybe Lifeguard just can't process you. No frame of reference, so she's glitching. Needs her damn firmware updated or something."

Ira protested immediately. "I can't blow my cover doing something silly like acting as a cheerleader, Jack! I've seen these on your video shows, and they are silly. Ah, no offense meant to human culture, that is. But. But it's not Ira-like at all!"

"Just humor her for now. No one said you have to be a good cheerleader."

Still uncertain, Ira nonetheless returned Lifeguard's smile. "Thank you, Lifeguard. I certainly shall lead the cheers!" Looking around briefly, she put on the pom-poms and thrust them up briefly. "Yaaaay, Jaack!" The stiff, half-hearted attempt was further spoiled by her looking around in paranoia repeatedly, as well as by her quickly taking them off afterward.

Lifeguard, still smiling, nodded slowly. "Yeah. Work on that." Glancing between both of them, she added, "Welp! Have fun, then, kids!" She did her trademark hand sign and then vanished.

Ira breathed a sigh of relief as she stuffed the pom-poms into the inside of her hoodie. "Yes, what a great first impression," she muttered, exasperated. "Let's proceed, please."

Grinning, Jack nodded and led the way. It was time to show off to Neex- er, to train! Yeah, train, definitely. Training was super important stuff!