“... I still want it…” after a good hour of my ramming my rod into her, and who knows how many earthquakes we both go through during (yes, I still get them, technically I still have that equipment too), Linda seems to be catching on to one of the reasons why I don't really like pushing people so far down Patricia's path.
I chuckle, “Yes, you may want to get a Restoration to take the edge off of that… a bit pricey, but we can afford it. Ocean was a bit put off after, though, so… fair warning.”
“That's why you hesitate so much on using your power, isn't it?” She’s licking her lips as she looks at my crotch. I didn't make myself as big as Ocean did, but I'm well above average.
“One of the big reasons, yes,” I admit as I get dressed, “there's also a price I pay directly with new people that I prefer to avoid… although it matters a lot less now.”
“So what price do you pay, exactly?” Linda's… prying? Huh. Odd… as she dresses.
Well, little reason to hide it, “A lesser version of the same. I get progressively further along the path of that particular fantasy,” physically, anyway, “but in my case… I can't just reset it by buying two spells, so…” I shrug.
“Ah. Well… at least it feels really good, no?” Linda gives her chest pillows a loving rub, and moans.
I cringe, “It does, but did the pleasure your body brought you sometimes make you okay with having one you weren't comfortable in before I fixed that for you?”
She considers, “No, it did not. This is your solution, then?”
I shrug, “Such as it is. I'm making use of an Accelerated Datajack, so I have full sensation; better than any bodysuit from home. I'll need to be wary of antitech effects, but I figure… this is me now.”
Linda nods, “Well, my goddess, until you find something better, you have my support.”
“Thank you,” my Charmed minion, “but… work to do, so….”
“Yes my goddess,” she acknowledges.
We part ways, and I get to work (we long since landed): I cast Create Demiplane, get my summoned minions started on the Keyhomes, wiring, and routers.
Meanwhile, everyone else takes off: The Twins head to The Sun (yes, there’s a colony in the star in the middle of the Pact Worlds, and the twins can take the heat and pressure thanks to my buffs… although it shouldn't be necessary, as there's a channel that opens up if they get close), Euler takes The Brute back to Amran (it’s a tech paradise, she'll fit in fine), Linda takes The Rustbucket to Stopgap (it’s a pretty lawless place, a system of nothing but asteroids that thrives on mining, but it is safe enough… and as ex-mafia, she'll be fine), while Stephanie heads to Absalom Station (her remote can't do orbital speeds, and she's too big to land, so she has to dock). We station Cowbird in the new demiplane to keep an eye on things there (make sure the summons are guarding it, watch the solar panels in the eternal bright daylight of that plane, confirm traffic matches our client list, and so on); I stay on Eox with Patricia (I'm hardly stuck: I can use the Keyhome network, fly interstellar by myself, or Gate to the middle of the Keyhome network… I'm avoiding Plane Shift for now).
It takes four days of real-time for the summons to finish; they can make twelve grand in progress per day of real time, but each Keyhome has a market price of forty grand, hence four days… but I can have as many summons as I want working on them, so I have a hundred waiting for me when they're done… and the delay is fine: it will take up to six days for folks to reach their various destinations.
In the meanwhile, I tour Eox… which is a mistake. The world is DEAD. There is no fresh air. The living are the minority (and are largely limited to a handful of relatively small zones, because what little air exists is toxic). There is wildlife… but it's all hostile, not cute, and most of the wastes are populated by hungry undead… which act as buffer zones between warring factions of the “civilized” undead. Not exactly fun, especially considering I'm still nervous about combat. They do have some entertainment channels, but bloodsports aren't my thing (they import living people for the purpose, so yes, they bleed). I eventually settle on using the downtime to purchase and load cargo.
So I'm quite happy when it's time for me to do my part again… which doesn't take long, but I do it without my male body to keep from contaminating it. I collect the keys, and despite the number of spell effects involved, setting each up merely takes about half a minute: Pull out a Keyhome (standard action), step inside (a move action), cast Guding Star (Swift: It's a 3rd level Pathfinder spell that makes a spot count as “Very Familiar”), cast a dozen wall spells on the entrance (Wall of Iron, ten Prismatic Walls, another Wall of Iron; twelve swift actions, and I can use Standard actions to do those, and it makes the door VERY blocked), cast Mythic Dimension Lock (swift: Blocks Planar Travel for anyone but me), step outside (move action), cast Greater Create Demiplane (Swift) to link the demiplane to the area within the Keyhome, pick up the cabling (move), walk through the portal and wall (another move), drop the cabling (free), close the Keyhome, and start over with the next. Seventeen Swift or Standard actions plus a few move actions: Due to my action economy abuse, each takes less than thirty seconds, so I'm done in less than an hour. Connecting the cabling I can pawn off on summons.
I mean, all the iron walls are pink, but eh, I can live with that, as I don't need to see them very often.
When I'm done, I take two Keyhome transmitters to each of Stephanie, the Twins (they share a pool, as they need to stick together), Euler, and Linda; I keep two for myself, and we store the rest in the central area. The idea is that we'll travel around, run demonstrations for telcom companies at the bigger settlements, and get buy-ins from them for the linkages… and if one of us gets pickpocketed along the way, it's a small percentage that we'll need to retrieve.
The sales plan is simple: Hook each up to the local infosphere wherever we end up ‘normally’, find the provider, have them do a demo call, sell it to them as a free service for six months while we set up full linkages with other telcoms, and charge for the service after that, assuring them that as long as people keep buying our services, we'll keep expanding the network… which should be quite believable, as it's easy to see we want the ever expanding rental income.
That's the planned pitch, anyway.
Now, the price we're charging is not exactly trivial; it works out to an inexpensive starship every year, for every telcom. But! Current communications past the level of an individual planet currently are… painfully slow. They work by way of using the Drift beacons (the same ones used for navigation) as signal relays. It's still far better than pointing a radio telescope at where a planet will be and starting to broadcast, but it takes a few days to get a message around the local system, a week or so to get to a destination in Near Space, and weeks to get anywhere in The Vast. If you know someone with a Drift engine better than Signal Basic, it's faster to have them deliver a letter (or a secure data module) than it is to use an unlimited range comm unit to send it. In comparison, ours is essentially instantaneous transmission…but limited to locations where we've cut a deal with the local telcoms.
I'm pretty sure they’ll consider it worthwhile: It is a bit of a game changer, after all: With the existing setup, if you want to negotiate with someone on another world, you pretty much need to go to them (or have them come to you) for a face to face meeting… or at least get close enough that ships’ comms can do the job (at least in orbit around the same planet, which still means interstellar travel) unless you're willing to deal with negotiating by e-mail where each one takes days or weeks to go each way. My setup makes interstellar teleconferencing possible, aas well as messaging and ordering… it should save a lot of Drift travel, and give many kinds of businesses a huge time savings.
Which is to say: I can sell it to the telcoms for serious bank, and they STILL stand to make a hefty profit selling bandwidth to the folks who will use it directly.
Of course, I have my own side of this to set up. So I setup one of the gates, hook it in to a personal com set to give access… and Eox is actually one of the ideal sources, as they broadcast their blood sports all over… which of course means anyone getting a demo can verify by way of watching a “game” and then waiting for the same “game” to come through standard channels however many days later.
And for now, I have a gate set up in a hotel room on which I've extended the rental for another month.
That done, I disconnect from my body so I don't contaminate it, buff up, and identify who I need to contact….
“... I still want it…” after a good hour of my ramming my rod into her, and who knows how many earthquakes we both go through during (yes, I still get them, technically I still have that equipment too), Linda seems to be catching on to one of the reasons why I don't really like pushing people so far down Patricia's path.
I chuckle, “Yes, you may want to get a Restoration to take the edge off of that… a bit pricey, but we can afford it. Ocean was a bit put off after, though, so… fair warning.”
“That's why you hesitate so much on using your power, isn't it?” She’s licking her lips as she looks at my crotch. I didn't make myself as big as Ocean did, but I'm well above average.
“One of the big reasons, yes,” I admit as I get dressed, “there's also a price I pay directly with new people that I prefer to avoid… although it matters a lot less now.”
“So what price do you pay, exactly?” Linda's… prying? Huh. Odd… as she dresses.
Well, little reason to hide it, “A lesser version of the same. I get progressively further along the path of that particular fantasy,” physically, anyway, “but in my case… I can't just reset it by buying two spells, so…” I shrug.
“Ah. Well… at least it feels really good, no?” Linda gives her chest pillows a loving rub, and moans.
I cringe, “It does, but did the pleasure your body brought you sometimes make you okay with having one you weren't comfortable in before I fixed that for you?”
She considers, “No, it did not. This is your solution, then?”
I shrug, “Such as it is. I'm making use of an Accelerated Datajack, so I have full sensation; better than any bodysuit from home. I'll need to be wary of antitech effects, but I figure… this is me now.”
Linda nods, “Well, my goddess, until you find something better, you have my support.”
“Thank you,” my Charmed minion, “but… work to do, so….”
“Yes my goddess,” she acknowledges.
We part ways, and I get to work (we long since landed): I cast Create Demiplane, get my summoned minions started on the Keyhomes, wiring, and routers.
Meanwhile, everyone else takes off: The Twins head to The Sun (yes, there’s a colony in the star in the middle of the Pact Worlds, and the twins can take the heat and pressure thanks to my buffs… although it shouldn't be necessary, as there's a channel that opens up if they get close), Euler takes The Brute back to Amran (it’s a tech paradise, she'll fit in fine), Linda takes The Rustbucket to Stopgap (it’s a pretty lawless place, a system of nothing but asteroids that thrives on mining, but it is safe enough… and as ex-mafia, she'll be fine), while Stephanie heads to Absalom Station (her remote can't do orbital speeds, and she's too big to land, so she has to dock). We station Cowbird in the new demiplane to keep an eye on things there (make sure the summons are guarding it, watch the solar panels in the eternal bright daylight of that plane, confirm traffic matches our client list, and so on); I stay on Eox with Patricia (I'm hardly stuck: I can use the Keyhome network, fly interstellar by myself, or Gate to the middle of the Keyhome network… I'm avoiding Plane Shift for now).
It takes four days of real-time for the summons to finish; they can make twelve grand in progress per day of real time, but each Keyhome has a market price of forty grand, hence four days… but I can have as many summons as I want working on them, so I have a hundred waiting for me when they're done… and the delay is fine: it will take up to six days for folks to reach their various destinations.
In the meanwhile, I tour Eox… which is a mistake. The world is DEAD. There is no fresh air. The living are the minority (and are largely limited to a handful of relatively small zones, because what little air exists is toxic). There is wildlife… but it's all hostile, not cute, and most of the wastes are populated by hungry undead… which act as buffer zones between warring factions of the “civilized” undead. Not exactly fun, especially considering I'm still nervous about combat. They do have some entertainment channels, but bloodsports aren't my thing (they import living people for the purpose, so yes, they bleed). I eventually settle on using the downtime to purchase and load cargo.
So I'm quite happy when it's time for me to do my part again… which doesn't take long, but I do it without my male body to keep from contaminating it. I collect the keys, and despite the number of spell effects involved, setting each up merely takes about half a minute: Pull out a Keyhome (standard action), step inside (a move action), cast Guding Star (Swift: It's a 3rd level Pathfinder spell that makes a spot count as “Very Familiar”), cast a dozen wall spells on the entrance (Wall of Iron, ten Prismatic Walls, another Wall of Iron; twelve swift actions, and I can use Standard actions to do those, and it makes the door VERY blocked), cast Mythic Dimension Lock (swift: Blocks Planar Travel for anyone but me), step outside (move action), cast Greater Create Demiplane (Swift) to link the demiplane to the area within the Keyhome, pick up the cabling (move), walk through the portal and wall (another move), drop the cabling (free), close the Keyhome, and start over with the next. Seventeen Swift or Standard actions plus a few move actions: Due to my action economy abuse, each takes less than thirty seconds, so I'm done in less than an hour. Connecting the cabling I can pawn off on summons.
I mean, all the iron walls are pink, but eh, I can live with that, as I don't need to see them very often.
When I'm done, I take two Keyhome transmitters to each of Stephanie, the Twins (they share a pool, as they need to stick together), Euler, and Linda; I keep two for myself, and we store the rest in the central area. The idea is that we'll travel around, run demonstrations for telcom companies at the bigger settlements, and get buy-ins from them for the linkages… and if one of us gets pickpocketed along the way, it's a small percentage that we'll need to retrieve.
The sales plan is simple: Hook each up to the local infosphere wherever we end up ‘normally’, find the provider, have them do a demo call, sell it to them as a free service for six months while we set up full linkages with other telcoms, and charge for the service after that, assuring them that as long as people keep buying our services, we'll keep expanding the network… which should be quite believable, as it's easy to see we want the ever expanding rental income.
That's the planned pitch, anyway.
Now, the price we're charging is not exactly trivial; it works out to an inexpensive starship every year, for every telcom. But! Current communications past the level of an individual planet currently are… painfully slow. They work by way of using the Drift beacons (the same ones used for navigation) as signal relays. It's still far better than pointing a radio telescope at where a planet will be and starting to broadcast, but it takes a few days to get a message around the local system, a week or so to get to a destination in Near Space, and weeks to get anywhere in The Vast. If you know someone with a Drift engine better than Signal Basic, it's faster to have them deliver a letter (or a secure data module) than it is to use an unlimited range comm unit to send it. In comparison, ours is essentially instantaneous transmission…but limited to locations where we've cut a deal with the local telcoms.
I'm pretty sure they’ll consider it worthwhile: It is a bit of a game changer, after all: With the existing setup, if you want to negotiate with someone on another world, you pretty much need to go to them (or have them come to you) for a face to face meeting… or at least get close enough that ships’ comms can do the job (at least in orbit around the same planet, which still means interstellar travel) unless you're willing to deal with negotiating by e-mail where each one takes days or weeks to go each way. My setup makes interstellar teleconferencing possible, aas well as messaging and ordering… it should save a lot of Drift travel, and give many kinds of businesses a huge time savings.
Which is to say: I can sell it to the telcoms for serious bank, and they STILL stand to make a hefty profit selling bandwidth to the folks who will use it directly.
Of course, I have my own side of this to set up. So I setup one of the gates, hook it in to a personal com set to give access… and Eox is actually one of the ideal sources, as they broadcast their blood sports all over… which of course means anyone getting a demo can verify by way of watching a “game” and then waiting for the same “game” to come through standard channels however many days later.
And for now, I have a gate set up in a hotel room on which I've extended the rental for another month.
That done, I disconnect from my body so I don't contaminate it, buff up, and identify who I need to contact….
