Comic 1185 - Ask her some questions
Posted on 16th Apr 2019, 6:54 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 4.67 (3 votes) /
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Author Notes:
"Oh, I don't see why not," the old lady replies. "You did come out all this way, I could take a few more minutes. I'm Helen, and this is Cora and Zed. I've hired them for protection. Though, this bookstore doesn't make much money, so I mostly pay them in interesting things I've collected. I'm sure you understand."
You ask how she knows about you.
"Oh, you know how us old people like to gossip," she says. "I know a few people that like to know things. I think you may be familiar with them. I don't know much about you... maybe just the important bits. My sources have been very stingy about you, if it makes you feel any better."
You ask about her current stance involving things going on in the city.
"Well, I don't pay much attention to politics," the old woman replies. "I can barely keep up, nevermind getting involved in all of that. When I was younger I was a little more adventurous, now I mostly just go where the world takes me. I do hope it all works out for the best, though."
She mentioned she owed it to someone to get rid of her book. What did she mean...?
"Think of it as a very lengthy trade. Our mutual acquaintances decided I should give you this in person, instead of me giving it to them, and they giving it to you. I think they're just being lazy, honestly, but I can't complain. After all these years, I still can't get them to tell me their customer support number."
You ask how she managed to get in touch with your... er... mutual acquaintances in the first place.
"I may have understated how adventurous I was when I was younger."
Does she have any advice for dealing with... individuals... of that variety? Of the more out there variety, that is.
"Just watch yourself," she says a little quieter. "No matter how many favors they do you, they all have their own interests in mind... and no one is untouchable. Not even them."
That... thing with the shotgun. Would she be interested in teaching you how to do that? You do have a few things you could teach her in exchange.
"Oh, I'm very interested," she says with a slight smile. "I'm sure you do have a trick or two I'd like to know. I'm afraid it may have to wait, though--there's been a lot of eyes on this store as of late. Lots of new people in town."
"We ain't cops if that's what you're thinkin'," Caius remarks.
Zed, the larger male bodyguard, speaks up. "These kinda cops, you might not even know if you are."
You pause--does he mean Jury? Specifically? You remember it being said that she had programming, which would automatically kick in if she saw evidence of magic business--even if she didn't want it to. It... should be pretty obvious that none of you are Jury, though.
...Unless
Jury's not the only one. You've seen enough weird science that mental conditioning doesn't sound all that outlandish--are... are there sleeper agents in this city? Is that a thing? Could someone be working for the federal government, watching out for evidence of spellcasting, and not even realize it...?
You get a bit side tracked mulling it over, and quickly shake it off. This might just be full blown paranoia at this point.
You ask the old woman if she and her associates could say the name Patton Thale for you.
"I hope you understand that, with the kind of life I've lived, I'm suspicious of anyone asking me to say anything."
...You know, that's kind of fair.
You ask if she'd like a hug.
"Now that, I'm always ready for."
You hug the old woman, who happily hugs you back.
1.) I've released a new game, Labyrneath II. If you have a Kongregate account and want to show some love, it'd be greatly appreciated.
2.) I'm going to start uploading previews of games I'm working on on my Patreon. I'll still be uploading sprite sheets from the comic and the like, but since those tend to be months in between, I figured my current supporters should be getting a bit more. Hopefully this also adds incentive for new people to join up. If you like what I do and want it to continue, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Thank you very much.
We should definitely offer her a vial of blood in case she needs to get in contact with us or needs to use it as a last resort or something. Our blood isn't technically *magic,* so it shouldn't provoke the anti-magic police. On the one hand, giving someone with her level of power our blood would be really dumb if we were a normal human, but on the other hand, we're *not* a normal human, so I suspect it's safe :P
We also still need to pick up some books for the ghost girls. Maybe Helen has some suggestions :D
Besides, if she doesn't want to say something like Patton Thale, why would she want our blood?
Seems like Helen asked the Tradesmen for something, and the cost of said thing was "deliver that particular spellbook to Mine if-and-when she visits." ...It's probably not our business to ask what the "something" was, and it'd burn some goodwill to pry that hard on our first meeting. Best to let it be, for now.
Instead, let's see if their group has anything they'd like to ask us in return, and maybe also buy a few books so they can pay their more mundane expenses. We'll have to see if Helen and co. are still available after the Carpenter business, to see about exchanging magic info when they're under less heat from Zone 50's Anti-Magic Police.
Kind of fair but leaves me suspicious. Now that's paranoia for you !
I hope it's just paranoia.
(a 40% of being some kind of magic-made person
[like a golem given a soul]
and 10% for "some other thing i haven't thought up yet")
I'm probably putting higher odds on Magic and lower odds on Tube. (Does Helen look like someone who trusts the corporations and governments who print Tube people at all? No she does not.) But similar odds on Mutant, now that you mention it.
My odds are maybe... 40%Mut, 30%Mag, 10%Tube, 20%Other
Also might want to learn how she evaded detection by the feds for so long.
We've otherwise seen things like mutants, cyborgs, hackers, artificial intelligence, and advanced weapons, and DEFINITELY aliens, but no elves, no dwarves, no orcs or goblins, no trolls (except for Carpenter, lol), no vampires, no werewolves, mummies, frankenstein monsters, and so on. Until we've seen how MM's unique world interprets something more fantastical, we can't know how vampires would work.
also Zone 50 had an anti-vampire kit.
(we stole both from Thales warehouse when we picked up Liz)
The rat could not be controlled, the vampire should be safe from our control too.
How it works the other way around, that is the real question here.
wait, was the hole/vent big enough for a person?
Please tell me that is not Macland Row at the end of Labyrneath II?
#2 um, dude, spoilers?
#3 if you REALLY want to talk about it the Blood is Mine Discord has a gaming channel
If we can't find some of it, there's always printing stuff off the net.