Chapter Fifty-Two - Fab

“Fandoms are an interesting social phenomena. People who enjoy a piece of media or a celebrity congregate together to discuss the things they like. At the onset, this is completely normal human behaviour.

What makes the phenomena more interesting is how modern society’s trend towards mass communication allows this communication to spawn new artwork, new memes, and new sub-groups. It turns into an echo chamber, where ideas are reinforced and repeated and reiterated upon.

It isn’t terribly uncommon for early fandoms to focus on something entirely new, for example a freshly emerged Samurai. They will find, research, and dissect any bit of information they can about the new object for their obsession.

This can come as a shock to some Samurai. For example, Hairumas, a Samurai interviewed in 2034 said, “I didn’t expect it. All of a sudden these guys and girls with afros just kept asking me to sign stuff. It was wild!”

--Excerpt from a Scientific Yesterday paper, 2036

***

“Okay,” I said as we reached the vault. It was in about the same condition as I remembered, minus the dead bodies. The floor had little pock-marks as if something had eaten away at it, mostly round where I remembered the corpses being. That felt like it had been months ago. “We’ll start by paying the corps their due, I guess.”

“Huh?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, Myalis gave me the list of shit the building sellers want. It’s all blueprints except for a bunch of nano-regen things,” I said. “Think there’s a box around here we could dump them in?”

The Dumbass following up piped up at that. “The containers most items come in are stackable. Shall I inform the broker that the thirty-five Nano-Regenerative Suites are ready for pick-up?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said. “We can leave them at the door I guess, with one of the Dumbasses.”

“What else did they buy? And what’s those nano-whatsit do?”

“They inject these little bots in you that un-messes you up. I think that’s what I gave you for your MS, right? Crap, I can’t remember. Anyway, I guess some rich dudes just want to live longer or whatever.”

“Nano Regenerative Suites can alleviate a lot of the ills caused by aging. Issues with joints, with eyesight, minor stress issues in musculature and in the cardio-vascular system. Even an outwardly healthy human has hundreds of very minor issues that can be repaired,” Myalis said.

“As for the other stuff they bought...” I looked over the list again. “Just blueprints. A lot of clothing stuff from my decoy catalogue, some cyberwarfare stuff. Uh, mostly looks like protection stuff.”

“I limited the offensive options,” Myalis said. “Giving offensive electronic warfare packages to just anyone seemed like a bad idea.”

“No shit,” I muttered.

Lucy shrugged, “Alright then. So we’re buying that big machine that makes stuff?”

“Yup,” I said. “Blueprints and nano stuff first though. Can you not swarm my augs with messages though? That little chiming noise is a bit annoying.”

“Very well.”

New Purchases: Blueprints x 8 - Various. Nano-Regenerative Suit x 35

Points Reduced to... 3420!

I winced at seeing my points total dropping so low.

“The blueprints have been sent. You also retain a copy for yourself, of course.”

“Ohh, so we can make stuff!” Lucy said. “Can I see the list?”

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

Lucy grinned. “Okay so.. Boring, boring, creepy, ohh, is a Clothing Creation Fabricator a thing that makes clothes?”

“Based on a template, yes. I suspect that the corporations purchasing it will be stymied, at least temporarily, by the complexity of the models required to get the machine to function.”

“But we have a you,” Lucy said. “Could I show you pics of cute things then have you make them with this thing?”

“Certainly,” Myalis said.

I rubbed at my temples. “So, let’s change up the design of our room a little,” I said. “We’re going to need, like, a walk-in closet.”

“Does it make shoes?” Lucy asked.

“The Clothing Creation Fabricator can, yes.”

“A big walk-in closet,” I muttered.

We moved over towards the back of the room and where I imagined the armoury would be. I never fancied myself much of a gun-nut or anything like that. But the idea of having a room in my house entirely dedicated to weapons was kinda hot.

“Right, Myalis, can you place the creation engine right here.” I gestured, raising and lowering both arms as if dropping a big box on the ground.

“Certainly. Let me just verify that the structure can support its weight.”

“How big is this thing?” I asked.

“It’s approximately two meters long, two high, and three wide.”

“Damn, that’s big,” I said. “We need like, a couple of feet of clearance all around, right? Where’s the bit where you dump stuff in?”

“The front, as is the area where materials and items can be picked up.”

“Ah, alright,” I said. “We can squeeze it in a bit more.”

“I have modified the blueprints to your armoury and room in accordance with the room required to fit everything in. Is this suitable?” Myalis asked as a wire-frame hologram appeared over the Dumbass she was using. Our bedroom was a bit smaller, with a long, narrow room added to the side that was no doubt the walk-in closet. It wouldn’t be as big as the penthouse bedroom, but still, it was bigger than any room back at the orphanage.

“That looks great!” Lucy cheered.

I nodded. “That’ll do. Okay. Big machine time!”

New Purchase: Mark Two Creation Engine

Points Reduced to... 335!

The machine took a moment to appear, longer than when I’d summoned... anything else. When it did appear, the pause made sense. It was a big, lumbering thing. It reminded me a bit of the front-end of one of those moving vans, the ones with a flat front. A large screen took up a decent portion of the front, currently running through some idle animations. To the side was a heavy-looking door and below that a sort of hopper thing with little coasters. It looked a bit like the place where toys would fall out from one of those old coin-operated gacha machines.

“Shiny,” Lucy said.

It was pretty shiny, all chrome and rivets and brass-coloured knobs.

“To utilize the machine, tap the screen. It will verify your identity, then bring you to the main controls. From there, you can pick the thing you wish to build. The Creation Engine’s matter content is currently at optimal levels. In the future, you will either need to add items to be reclaimed, or purchase more raw matter through point expenditure.”

Lucy stepped up and poked the screen. A digital kitten ran after a rolling ball of digital yarn.

“Did you customize the loading screen?” I asked.

“I may have,” Myalis admitted. “I also added a loading screen. It’s quite unnecessary.”

I rolled my eyes and refocused on the screen. There was a list of options for Lucy to pick from. All of the blueprints I’d just bought to buy the museum, and one labelled ‘generic materials.’

Lucy picked the ‘Prosthetic Ears’ option and scrolled through that for a bit. There were some two dozen options, and the ability to customize those further. From adding colour to tweaking how the prosthetic worked. “Do you think I’d look cool with cat ears?” she asked. “Yours are really cute.”

“They’re embarrassing,” I said. I couldn’t help but flick them back.

“They wiggle a bunch when you’re about to get off,” Lucy said without even glancing back.

My more human ears felt warm. “They what?”

“It’s cute!”

“Dammit Lucy,” I groaned. “You should have told me.”

She shook her head, then pointed to the screen. “Pink?” The ears on display were an ear-searingly bright pink, like someone had gone nuts with a radioactive high-lighter.

“That’s a bit much,” I said.

“Yeah, I should go for something that matches my hair,” she said before tapping a colour-wheel option.

I shook my head. “Are you really getting cat-ears?”

“Do you not want me to?” Lucy asked.

I huffed. Me telling Lucy not to do something had never prevented Lucy from doing something she already wanted to do. I couldn’t see how that would change now. “It’s up to you, I guess. Don’t see why you’d want that, your ears work fine.”

“So do yours,” Lucy said. “I just wanna be on-theme.”

“On theme?”

“Well, yeah, there’s you, Stray Cat, with the tail and the ears and the cat-themed jacket. And then there are the kittens, then there’s me. I’m the only part of the equation that’s not cat-themed.”

I stepped up and hugged Lucy from behind. “You’re such a moron,” I said.

“I am not,” she protested. Not that she tried to move out of the hug.

I was enjoying the moment when Myalis twitched. “Catherine, you have a visitor.”

“One of the contractors?” I asked. Already?

“No. It’s Deus Ex.”

“Oh, fuck,” I said.

“The little laser girl?” Lucy asked as she pulled out of the hug. “Did you have business with her?”

“No, but she’s the sort to dump some trouble on me. Come on, let’s go see what the pipsqueak wants.”

***