Private ✪ Finweald Rest and Development

[Brutus Dahlgren]

The city was bustling as Brutus made his way to the MIT headquarters, bumping into the occasional lander as he lumbered about. He was still processing some of the shit he'd just experienced, the Kurungar, the emotional whiplash of Red fever, the death of loved ones, the near death of Toko...

It was enough to make even the mighty mountain that was Brutus pause.

The whole catastrophe had been chasing him into his dreams, both in game and out of game. It wasn't like he could talk to anyone about it, what the fuck would they say? I'm sorry you had a spooky scare in your VRMMO game? Oh it can kill you? Just don't play it you fucking idiot.

He couldn't just not play. This game had introduced him to too many people, given him too much to fight for. It let him be the hero he'd always been acting like in his plays, but this time it was basically real.

No, the only thing he could do was get stronger, strong enough to never let anything like that happen again. But in order to do that, he needed upgrades. A lot of upgrades, among them he needed a new canon for sure, but he needed ways to best utilize his powers.

He needed Askera.

The two had crossed paths in the pursuit of greater knowledge. Askera had been testing all sorts of magiteck gadgets and experiments, surely a man of his caliber could create some of the things he would need. As he entered the MIT headquarters he managed to shuffle his way through the twisting and winding hallways before stopping at his door and knocking to announce himself before entering.

"Afternoon Askera."

The words were blunt but courteous. "Do you have a moment to spare for a friend? I come bearing puzzles worth a might mind such as yourself to ponder."

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

Askera had little issue with seeing his friend Brutus. The man had been a good assistant for all of the time that he had been in this tower, and was even rather polite (for a foreigner, anyway). The reason for his visit was left unsaid, until now, yet Askera had chosen not to pry at the man. He could quite well tell now what he wanted, after all-it was as clear as the little paper that stuck out of the huge and excitable man's pocket that wat titled 'LIST OF COOL BRUTUS GADGETS'.

"...Puzzles, you say! I don't mind such an idea, Brutus-san. What will we be learning today? Perhaps if it leads us to an interesting enough result, you may even see benefit from your visit, would you not?" The researcher asked, making sure to phrase his words in a way that made it sound like he didn't know what the hero of the people was giddy for. Even so, he made sure to lead into the idea that he was okay with making cool gadgets for his friend.

It was common practice to be polite such in such a way-he didn't want to offend Brutus by presuming that he knew what the man really wanted out of him.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"Tell me my friend." The Giant would plop down in the chair across from Askera's desk, marveling at the various works in progress he had laying about. It had been a while since he had participated in one of his tests, in fact it had been a while since he had seen the man. "What do you know about Pyromancy?" He would let the question linger in the air as he opened his palm and cupped a small flame in his hand to demonstrate his point.

"You see, for me I pull a bunch of magical energy and channel it into combustion, to great effect mind you. However, doing this without a focus tends to exhaust me faster. I also have a bit of a problem, observe." He would intensify the flare, containing it into an orb but "flexing" the flame. It would glow brighter and brighter, but so would the giant. His skin would flush red, and beads of sweat would begin to form across his body before he would snuff it out.

"Using it..." he would take a deep breath, exhaling a bit of smoke. "Causes my body temperature to rise. Prolonged intense uses can render me vulnerable to the effects of heat stroke. This, you can imagine, is problematic. I was wondering if you wanted to experiment with me on discovering efficient ways to focus it in and make the process more energy efficient, and perhaps develop ways to combat the side effects. What do you think?"

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

"Several ideas come to mind for the thought of heatstroke," Askera responds, latching onto the idea rather than the need to talk about how he did, in fact, know how energy management worked in the game. For all that it mattered, as well, it was a rather interesting topic. How does one regulate temperature?

Most of his options imagined a curse or a stroke of innovative response. As he didn't want Brutus to test out curses on this very fine day, Askera took to the thought of Magitech. To do that, he needed an idea. To garner an idea, he needed to know what he would be working with.

Thus, his answer was simple. "Show me your Pyromancy. I'll need to look at it for an extended period of time to figure out how you use it." He just needed to watch Brutus burn things (that were lab-safe to burn). Crafting something to cool someone off was possible, but as Askera had found, it always got easier when his mind was considerate to the user-the crafting system sometimes twisted to accommodate his ideas in that case.

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I had a few concepts mocked up too." The giant would pull out a piece of paper from his breast pocket, it wasn't labeled "List of Cool Brutus gadgets" but instead had some rough sketches for what would appear to be a suit of armor, or perhaps, pieces of armor to supplement his own already reinforced jacket. The three main pieces were a pair of heavy looking metal gloves with spikes on the knuckles and what looked like vents for...something. Then there were two large sabatons with crudely drawn flames jetting out of the bottom. Finally, large pauldrons that seemed to...have shaky lines around them? Did he want them to vibrate?

"As for burning things, I can do that easy peasy. The question is where and what are we gonna be burning? Do you want me to so some light work over a long period of time? Or are we trying to see what it looks like when I swing for the faces with hot and fast?"

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

A swift order from Askera caused two people to file in. They were followed by three constructs, the design of which Brutus recognized. They were of Askera's make-probably evasive types, to boot. When he had first sparred with a Fool model, it was irritating to witness how they acted seemingly on instinct (if not prophecy), a mannerism that was not aligned with the usual way in which he aimed to kill.

Brutus had quickly adjusted to it, however. Askera had been left with backlogged repairs on that day.

"I just want to see what it is you do when destroying things with your Pyromancy. If I can find a measure of how you're generating the heat, I'll have an easier time making a solution to your problem... And... Is this..? Why are there-"Do not call them pleasure lines-"vibrations around the armor? Is this related to something you wanted? Did you mean to ask for something related to my second or third entry in the records?" Askera asks the man, referring to the metals he had made when Brutus had come in for his first job as an assistant.

Ah, memories... He thought about them as the three models-protoypes 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7-readied themselves for a combat scenario. It appears that they had already garnered the instinct that this room meant fighting.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

Brutus would crack his neck and knuckles, rolling out his shoulders as he limbered up. He had not expected to jump into this fray on fighting, but Askera worked in mysterious ways. At best, the two of them had a scientific method that could be described as...controlled chaos. "Are you sure you want me letting loose in here? Last thing I need to do is wreck the place and scaring Argent."

Upon hearing it's name, the quicksilver slime would wiggle in a little dance from its enclosure. Recently it'd learned how to turn on its music box by itself. Cranking it a few times, it almost seemed like the creature was trying to set the mood for whatever was about to go down.

Slime approved, Brutus took a deep breath and opened with a gout of flame from his mouth. Exhaling in a cone, like a dragon, the robots all managed to duck back keeping themselves from getting minorly scorched. These things were crafty, but barring any upgrades they could only react to so much. The answer to them was simple really, hit them with so many things to react to that they couldn't process it all.

As they ducked back, the giant would clamp his mouth shut, cutting the breath off mid burst and let out a series of small fireballs with his hands, his cheeks bulging like a chipmunk before releasing his flame once again in a high velocity burst.

He was starting off easy, getting these things to dance a bit, but he could already feel his blood beginning to heat up as smoke sizzled out of his fingers and mouth. He would offer Askera a sideways look as he asked about the vibration.

"I was hoping you could like...strap something like a refrigerator on my shoulders. Something to get real fuck off cold and help keep vital spots of my body cold when I turn it on, you know, kinda like using a wet towel on your neck on a hot summer day."

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

"Given how Pyromancy tends to work, as well as the source of your problem, external cooling was actually on the end of my list of ideas." And given how the flame flew from his body as if from his pores, it was a suggestion that fell further away from his mind. Fans could only do so much for someone who was dealing with an incredible internal heat, for he wasn't about to just implant the man's body with fans like he was a computer tower.

Instead, he decided to write chemical notes under the header of his notebook. If he couldn't cool the man externally (He could, but it was an inefficient backup option), he would find solutions to calm the body itself. His first thought was simple, a pill or shot made to cool off the insides of the body. It would probably take the form of a 'power for stamina' medicine, as Brutus would likely need to constantly keep his pyromancy on in order to avoid the penalties of Cold Environments.

When the Fools had kneeled, their master brought this idea up for Brutus to see.
"What do you think? I know you-you have plenty of energy to spare with your stats. If you're really going for as much burst as you can get, this might very well be the most efficient option."

---

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"So your idea is...to take a pill to counteract the heat?" He would raise an eyebrow, blotting some sweat from his brow. "So what, I pop it and it...force drops my body temp? Isn't that exceptionally dangerous? And...possibly riddled with potential side effects?" Taking a seat at the usual spot across his desk he would pull out his waterskin and take a sip.

The idea of popping pills to use his pyromancy raised several concerns, and he could only imagine the flack that others would give him if they saw it. He could hear the scandal now, Brutus Dahlgren Platinum Rank Adventurer using performance enhancing drugs.

"Any ideas on ways to help me focus the flames more effectively? In theory if I get more efficient with the fire I won't have to worry about my body temp getting too high because I won't have to be cranking it too hard."

In theory, both methods could be used for extreme efficiency, allowing him to push his powers beyond what they were currently limited. Both would allow him to fight harder and longer than before, creating greater and greater power for him to protect what her cared about.

"I'm not opposed to the idea of using medicine, but you'll need to make it like...a potion of sorts so I can tell people it's just another form of magical buff and not...extreme substance use."

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

He could hear reasonable worries on the side of his idea. Askera allowed the man to have them, as he wasn't exactly wrong. Should he not have his pyromancy active, he could be in danger from the medicine's effects. He also had no issue with making a liquid-in fact, it would be easier that way for this sort of mixture. One point alone was something he felt the need to address.

"This is a game, as hard as it is for me to remember this at times. I have yet to make any sort of alchemical remedy that has impactful side-effects. I have seen some that warned me of them within the recipe, and the UI will tell me this if so. However, Brutus-san, at least feel no worry on that front. As for your idea... Yes, I happen to be thinking of such an idea, as well."

He pulled out a paper from his suitcase, the one with ominous vibes that came from within. It appeared to be a diagram from some other machine, one that Brutus recognized to be related to the healing spray device.

"Focusing flame is something that is easier said than done, unlike the thought of other elements. Fire must be made on the spot, Brutus-san-it cannot be held captive. In such a case, I could take this two directions-I could either make it easier for you to light a fire, or I could bring weight to your flame." Perhaps it sounded as if he would just make the fire hotter. That was not Askera's intent. Fire could be given force in many methods, most of which were explosive. Everyone's heard of the Fireball spell nowadays.

The idea he had was sort of like that.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I see."

The giants eyes would dance from the diagram presented and then to the scientist, his mind working on what he meant by weight still. "I think you'd need to elaborate on what you mean by weight." He would adjust his posture in the chair learning forward. "I've been doing a lot of manipulation through use of pressure. One of my more potent moves is by creating a ball of flame, manipulating it into a high pressure environment, and then releasing it through a small opening to create a stream of high heat flame in a tight stream to act almost like a laser." He would let that rest in the air. "Though if we use designs from the sprayer, we could use the negative pressure curse you've built into it to create a similar vacuum"

His hand shot to his chin as he stroked his beard, deep in thought.

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

"Hai. I felt that your strengths lie inside of precision, though not for a want for firepower. I feel that it would be good to first bring an ease to that trump card of yours, and to do this..." A nod escaped him, simply confirming what Brutus had in mind rather than taking the time to explain it all again. He had the right of it, so why elaborate?

"However, this wasn't quite what I had meant by weight. It is one meaning, yes, but you are hardly an aeromancer and I don't have the care to make something so volatile so close to your hands. Rather, there was another idea I held in my mind. Curses... Several, in fact, but others aren't for this purpose. What I had in mind, though it may be absurd..."

A, utterance of 'allow me to demonstrate' could be heard as Askera pulled out a simple piece of silver from his pocket. The shape was quite distinct-one of a pair of knuckle dusters. Bruce's careful eyes could make out the ominous engravings that were left without color, presumably so that one wouldn't have to look at them.

Before Askera was a Fool that stood at the ready. Before the Fool was the scrawny (abeit healthy) Japanese man.

"From entry 10-3: The Curse of Repellant."

Askera's single blow drove the construct flying into the sturdy wall at a blurred speed. Brutus could hear the sound of concrete chipping and steel scraping. The researcher had good form in the punch, as if he had practiced how to do a right hook in a boxing ring. Even so, Brutus estimated that thing to weigh half a ton of steel.

The researcher slipped off the dusters, presumably before his fingers could bruise. Bruce could see the redness on them already, not to mention how his health had dropped from the mere act of throwing a right hook.

"As you can see, not air pressure--explosive force, Brutus-san. We could create weight carried by fire itself. The same results come at a further range and without the danger of keeping a can of deodorant next to a lighter. The only thing I need do is make a kick-safe absorption mechanism, and I feel as if I have a lot of room to work with such... large gauntlets as you wish for.

I'm thinking we could make your fire jets shatter walls where you would otherwise want them melted faster than you could safely heat yourself up to do. After all, if a problem is a nail..." A soft chuckle escaped him. His other hand, the dominant one, was still writing out overviews of ideas on a note for his assistant to see.

-Repel to create impact
-Emnity to cause tracking and sticking
-Immolation, turn on to cause chain attacks and fast spreads
-Erosi
The last was left crossed out. That one was simple but dangerous-he needed to be sure it could work.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"So then the fire generated by the gauntlets would have more oomph because the runes repel them at a greater force? Am I getting that right?" Quirking an eyebrow the giant would continue to rub his beard in contemplation. Such blasts could almost render the need for a canon obsolete.

Almost.

Rising to his feet, Brutus would begin to pace as he though about it. "Plus if you slapped some of that oomph curse on the knuckles of my gauntlets I could use them to beat people back if they got too close. With the right bracing you could almost negate most of the blowback..."

Pausing, the giant would snap his fingers and turn back to Askera.

"Could something along those lines be done to the boots I was planning as well? I've been practicing a form of flight via thrust generated from flames shot from my feet. As of now it's difficult to keep up long forms of flight due to the energy strain and overheat, but if we could create more thrust in a...controlled manner like that it would also simply be more efficient no?"

He'd already hit the limit of what he could physically do it would seem, progress had come quickly to him, but now he'd plateau'd. Barring any strange sudden breaks in his own limitations, divine of magical limitations, or strange bugs, he would need to focus on becoming more efficient with what he had in order to get stronger.

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

Brutus almost had the right of it, and so Askera felt little need to elaborate on it whilst still in the developmental stage. Bruce could eventually see the difference-fire, as energy, did not carry force on its' own. The curse itself would be used to give it force, akin to giving a wildfire a pair of boxing gloves.

Far more intent was the researcher to understand what sort of black magic was behind the witchcraft that his assistant had just suggested to him. He was rocket jumping?! That sounded so dangerous. He needed a way to get Bruce what he wanted before the big guy somehow managed to hurt himself. Somehow. The man was in equal measures a rock and a force, and Askera didn't know which half of him would win out should he be pit against himself in the event that he thrusts the 'super cool jet boots' too hard.

"H-hai, Brutus-san. I would definitely be willing to try. I even think that we have a good base underneath the curse of Repulsion."

Askera worked fast to design an even slicker pair of jet boots... oh my god?! He needed to come up with something before it was too late.

---

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"If you need a better demonstration I can try to show you outside if you would like." Pausing, the giant would scratch his chin and then muse. "Actually, are you familiar with the super hero Ironman? I've been kinda doing something like that. Fire out of my hands and feet to create like...upward thrust? Though sometimes like if I'm carrying a passenger or something big I only use my feet which makes the whole thing a lot harder to do but still manageable."

He would let his pacing take him back to the table. "Lastly, before we get too elbow deep in any of the other two projects. I would like your help with one last thing. I understand how thoroughly you work so I know how much work I am dumping on you, but I honestly can't think of anyone else to work on this."

A slight white lie. Had Corsair been around he would be pestering her with some of this, but the Dame in Gundame had been MIA since the Red Fever Fiasco. Probably busy with her real life which he got the sneaking suspicion was very busy.

Setting a piece of paper on the table, he would motion for the researcher to take a look at what seemed to be rather fleshed out schematics for a triple barreled canon. "I call it the Cerberus Canon, and it's going to triple my usual firepower hopefully, allowing me to push the shots out faster without stressing out any individual barrel out too much to fail like the last one did..."

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

"You want a gatling cannon?" His voice was questioning, and for good reason. A gatling gun fired quickly and with many little bullets, whilst a cannon and similar artilleries fired slowly due to the large payload. How was he even going to load such a thing? Even if it was instead just a few extra loaded chambers for utility...

"Brutus-san, with all due respect, why not try to make a flamethrower if you want a faster-paced weapon? I could still give the fire 'weight'. You know how heavy such a cannon would be, wouldn't you..?" A pause. On second thought, after looking at Brutus' stats in the UI, he revised the statement he was about to make of how it would be impossible to instead say, "It would be inconvenient to lug around such an artillery, surely?"

The more that Askera spoke, the more that his words fell off. The man was unfortunately thinking of ideas, some of which were being written down on paper for Bruce to see. For instance, he had already written down a diagram of a modified version of the armor that his assistant had suggested, one that integrated the cannon onto it with a rail so as to better distribute the burden. Oh, how his creativity betrayed him!

And also, shoulder-mounted cannons awoke something nerdy in him. Askera tried really hard to not think about Gundams-this was supposed to be a practical exercise.

@Brutus Dahlgren

 

[Brutus Dahlgren]

"I mean, the Canon has always been bulky. I used to use one before remember? All I have to do is toggle it in and out of my UI when not in use and it weighs nothing on me." The Giant would counter. "And a flamethrower, while still rad, doesn't have the range nor the stopping power of slamming someone with a shell. Plus," he would motion to the part on his design with a firing pin. "If we make that out of say...a fire elemental's core I could use the whole thing to focus my pyromancy and shoot fire out of it if I wanted."

Crossing mental swords, he would do his best to counter and assuage the mans worries, and watched with eyes twinkling with excitement as Askera put pen to paper and took his flights of fancy and transformed them into fancy methods of flight. The entire thing looked...absurd-ly cool and he couldn't help as a grin slowly overtook his face.

"Sounds like you've got the knowhow and the skills Doctor, what else could we be missing? Field tests? I can gather up the materials you need of course, no need to go burdening your budget or putting any local merchants out by hogging their rare reagents. Lemme know what you need and we'll make this thing work!"

@Askera Question

 

[Askera Question]

"I'll need a few things to make it better than I could right now."

This was the beginning of a long treasure hunt. Brutus had all of the ability and willingness in the world, and this took the man many a place. The primary thing that Askera wanted was lined along the Razor Edge-a kind of quartz was found often there on the sheer rock-face. Askera hadn't gone in a while, soured to the thought of traveling towards the Hylands after his previous unfortunate accident there.

It was a rock that he wanted powdered, so he had no qualms with how Brutus got it-this included dropping via live cannon-fire.

Another thing the researcher wished for involved blood and brimstone. Brutus' blood and brimstone from the edge of the bloodstar's realm to be exact-it was needed for a bonding process that would key the armor to Brutus like no other would.

This was how the 'contained blast gauntlets' came to be. Able to be summoned from Brutus' inventory onto his fists at will, they did many things at once-they made the difficult techniques more easily accessed with less power, and they stored the paragon's excess magic over time to be used for later.

It was like they were a part of him, more or less-lungs to contain the great wildfire of a dragon. The way that a palm-sized ball of fire felt like it weighed several pounds (so long as a switch of his choice was flipped) only helped cement the power behind the tool he had been given.

"...It's almost better than I had expected it to be. I wonder if you could employ your Crush Mastery if the flames weighed enough..."

@Brutus Dahlgren