Chapter Fifty-One - Fashioning a Home
<strong>Chapter Fifty-One - Fashioning a Home</strong>
<em>There has been a noticeable shift in style and fashion. Not to say that fashion wasnt changing rapidly already. By the mid-2000s, internationalmunication, the inte, and the easing of travel restrictions allowed fashion from different cultures toe together and be mixed, asionally homogenized, and often brought to extremes.</em>
<em>Now, this shifting has be so rapid that to stay on top of thetest trends means keeping a constant eye on the fashion feeds and paparazzi rags. A trend can start, flourish, and die in the space of an afternoon.</em>
--Fa-Fa-Fashionista, On The Evolution of Trends, 2057
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I walked over to the other side of the disy and leaned forwards to look at the wire-mesh interior. It showed most of the museum--and wed have to find a better name for our new home soon--in red, with a few sections in green.
Myalis had determined that all of the red sections would need to be reced and reconfigured sometime soon, preferably before anyone moved in.
So, this is the final floor n? Lucy asked.
I nodded along. Yeah, I think so, I said.
The floor n gave us ten double bedrooms, good enough for a pair of kittens each, two bigger dorm-style rooms with a few beds in them for any neers, and a master bedroom one corridor over. Not too far that we couldnt run over, but not right next to the kittens either.
The main museum area would be split into a kitchen and dining space, a yroom that was frankly absurdlyrge, and another little area that could serve as an office or library of sorts for the quieter kittens.
We had one bathroom for every two rooms, with showers in each, and a smaller washroom next to the kitchen. The old vault was right where our bedroom would be, with the rear half of it marked to be reced by a small armoury where I could store stuff.
The outside wasnt going to be touched much. Wed hire someone to remove all the ads and signs and such, and maybe wed add a carport over the parking space for... well, wed have to buy a van or something. Id pick whichever old beater would give Gomorrah the biggest headache.
Lucy nodded. I like it. Well have to see about getting nice furniture too.
I think we can afford that, I said before ncing to the side. We had brought over the Dumbasses, both to guard the museum, and to allow us to bettermunicate with Myalis. It was one of the drones that was projecting the image of the buildings wireframe, and another was sitting nearby, waiting patiently. Have you found any reliable contractors yet?
I have, Myalis said. From looking into their records, I have found three suitably redited teams with ovepping specialties. I would suggest hiring all three.
All three? I repeated.
Indeed. One has done satisfactory plumbing work on past instations, another has an entire team of electricians, and the final constructionpany has experience working with both Vanguards, and ss-fronted skyscrapers. The other twock experience in both.
Ah, I said. So hiring specialists to do the specialist-requiring... stuff. I was so far out of my depth... That sounds reasonable. Do you have an idea of their price range?
Seven, nine, and twelve million credits, respectively. Thats not including the entirety of the material cost, but Im assuming some of that will be defrayed by the use of Vanguard-grade materials.
I held back a wince. That was... twenty-eight million? An insane amount of money. So, for the materials, we cant build this whole ce with samurai-grade stuff, itll take way too many points.
That is urate, Myalis said. To purchase enough material directly to rebuild this entire area would cost--assuming you want to purchase quality materials--something close to nine thousand points.
That was a lot lower than Id guesstimated. Thats just normal materials, or fancier stuff?
Materials that are of a higher quality thanmercially avable, of course. ss that can resist temperatures high enough not to melt on contact with your local sun and able to resist considerable impacts, hardened tes for the walls and floors and ceilings, doors that read a persons bio-signature, temperature regting systems, and a few moremodities of that sort.
Fancy, I said.
Standard for a Vanguards abode, was Myalis reply.
Sounds nice, but kind of expensive, Lucy said.
The Dumbass Myalis was speaking out of shifted, and the wire-frame of the museum changed to a hovering image of some sort of confusing machine. It looked like it was the size of a minivan, with arge hopper on one side and arge screen on the other. This is a Mark Two Creation Engine. It takes in raw materials, sorts them by their atomic structure, then fabricates any needed material,ponents, or items.
Oh! Lucy said. Ive seen something like that! Its a big fancy printer. You toss stuff in, and it makes stuff out of it. They have them in some of the really fancy arcologies.
Whered you see that? I asked.
Media feed, was her quick reply. How much will that cost, Myalis?
Arent I the one supposed to ask that?
Myalis bobbed the Dumbass up and down. The first tier catalogue--matter reconfiguration machines, will cost a mere seventy-five points. The second tier costs one of your tokens, as well as an additional four hundred points. The device itself will cost two-thousand six-hundred points.
Yikes, I said. But I can make anything with it, right?
Not quite. The device defaults to allowing you to only make anything from a blue-print you have purchased, as well as a host of items that would be considered tier-zero. That is, items that require no catalogue to make, such as simple tools and basic materials. That extends to things such as cement mixtures, metal structures, ss panels, and other such devices. Basically, it would allow the contractors to make all the materials they need.
I crossed my arms and thought about it. It was a damned big purchase. At the same time, if I got blueprints in the future, which were usually a bit cheaper than outright buying something, I could have... basically infinite stuff from those blueprints. Bullets and ammo and things that Id be reusing a lot were a no-brainer. Id recover those three-thousand points in... well,st time Id spent maybe a hundred points in all on ammo, so in thirty more incursions.
That didnt quite seem worth it. But I could also get guns and maybe it could be used to make stuff the kittens would need. If I died out in the field, Lucy could use the machine to mass produce things. Maybe. Anyone can use it, then? I asked.
Anyone you whitelist. I can monitor the machine and only allow the contractors to pull materials they need.
And can you whitelist Lucy and the kittens?
Myalis bobbed the Dumbass up and down. That can easily be done. Perhaps a ban on the purchase of weapons for the children.
Thats reasonable, I said. I opened a text file and sent a message to Myalis. <em>Can it run even after I die?</em>
<em>Are you worried about your charges being able to care for themselves? In either case, yes, it can. I will ensure that Lucy and your kittens are always whitelisted by your security protocols, even if you die.</em>
That sounds cool. Maybe we can ce it where the armoury would be?
Well need another way to get to it, then, Lucy said. We dont need people walking through the bedroom just to get a hammer or whatever.
We can add a door to the armoury linking back to the main room.
Shall we continue with the purchase then? Myalis asked.
Uh, yeah, I guess, I said. Lets... I looked around, we were still in the main museum room. Lets move over to where the armoury will be, that way we wont have to move anything. Also, well have a bunch of cash left over, right?
A significant amount, though less than half your initial amount.
Right, lets set some of that aside for decorations and furniture and stuff. Well need tables and chairs and... wait, we can just fabricate those, right?
With the correct blueprints, yes.
I rubbed at my nose. That was annoying. Itll probably be cheaper to just buy normal things then. Dont need to get a blueprint for a dozen beds.
Not even our bed? Lucy asked.
I considered that. A samurai bed... Okay, so we get one bed, but the kittens can sleep on whatever we can afford for a few million.
Speaking of mary concerns, the list of requests frompanies who sold you this location hase in.
Oh? Can I see it?
Myalis connected with my augs and I soon had a list hovering before one eye.
<strong>Purchase Cost</strong><strong>Quantity or Type</strong><strong>Name</strong><strong>Details</strong>
45<em>Blueprint</em> Anti-Adware Suite Basic Cyberwarfare Catalogue - Protects simple devices from non-whitelisted ad intrusion
75<em>Blueprint</em> Anti-Spyware Suite Basic Cyberwarfare Catalogue - Protects simple devices from non-whitelisted spyware intrusion
25<em>Blueprint</em> Micro Acoustic Listening Device Stealth Catalogue - Miniature listening and recording device
1275<em>Blueprint</em> Clothing Creation Fabricator Decoy Catalogue - System to create clothes from modelled temte
720<em>Blueprint</em> Hard Light Projector Decoy Catalogue - Miniaturized hard light projector for small cosmetic items
260<em>Blueprint</em> Decoy Super Aug Decoy Catalogue - A false version of the Vanguard customizable eye gear
525<em>Item x 35</em> Nano- Regenerative Suite Medical Utilities Catalogue - A suite of nano machines that circte through a person''s body and fixes it rapidly
290<em>Blueprint</em> Feline Cat Reflex Augmentation Sunwatcher Technologies - Reflex enhancing brain imnt
285<em>Blueprint</em> Prosthetic Ears Sunwatcher Technologies - Ear Augmentation
<em><strong>Total:</strong></em><em><strong>3500</strong></em>
Nearly all blueprints, which, alright, and... lots of decoy stuff.
From the bickering I was listening in on, it seems that somepanies came together and desperately wanted to buy a clothing fabricator system. I suspect you might cause a bit of a fluctuation in some global markets. Congrattions.
Wonderful.
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