[Honestly, at this point she's already pretty suspicious, you might as well just admit how lazy you are. I wouldn't offer up claiming to be a late bloomer for your powers, but if she brings it up, don't bother denying it.]
'Wha- Hey! I'm not that out of shape!'
[Round is a shape. I'm pretty sure the only reason you aren't overweight is purely because of your metabolism, you're going to be in trouble the moment it slows down.]
'HEY!'
[I'm a little impressed the original lived as long as they did without being a supe.]
'You're having way too much fun with this now.'
Jonathan jumped a bit when the real Miss Calculated suddenly scolded Miss Chievous, looking up at her right away. He already had a furrowed brow and was biting his lip while trying to decipher the legal-jargon-packed paperwork, and this expression doesn't lighten in the least bit once his attention is diverted.His attention briefly shifts off to the side where Miss Chievous and Willy are sprawled out nearby on the corner of the carpet, then back up to Miss Calculated who is currently approaching Lucas and Miss Masher. After a few seconds, his expression has melted slightly from confusion to contemplation, turning into an expression of enlightenment after further thought. Whether he figured it out himself, or he needed assistance from 011, is only known by the two of them.Noticing that her attention is on the phone in Lucas'
Once Miss Masher has gained the phone all to herself, she sinks back into the plush velveteen material of the couch and leisurely amuses herself with watching the feats of strength a few more times, cackling occasionally.Lucas's desire to pamper his four-legged friend surpasses his pride, so he goes back over to his original couch and sits down next to Willy, opposite Miss Calculated.As Willy's loyalties are being tested by the continuous stream of salami, pepperoni, chorizo, prosciutto, soppressata, gouda, multiple kinds of cheddar, triple cream brie, blue cheese, and the various assorted cracker to carry it all, it is pulled back on track once Lucas has joined in the procession.For about every three or four snacks that are delivered to Willy's patiently waiting mo
As Miss Chievous realizes the full ramifications of her troll attempt, she still can't bring herself to be mad at Jonathan. As expected of her new rival, after all."What!? Hey! At least leave some for me!?" Finally leaving her parked position in the doorway, Miss Chievous charges over to lay what claims she can upon the remnants of the charcuterie board.If it wasn't for the fact that he had already eaten more than he had any business doing, Jonathan seriously considers using his powers to eat faster. He still stubbornly eats one last piece of soppressata with extra sharp white cheddar on a multi-grain sea salt cracker, all while maintaining eye contact with her, though.Lucas was already leaning back, having eaten his fill, but even still he deliberates taking one fo
Once Lucas's brain has woken up enough to start processing his surroundings, 427 fills him in on what he missed during his little power nap. Noticing that Jonathan is diligently messing around on his phone to make sure all is in order, he reaches out towards him and curls his fingers a few times in a 'give that to me' motion. Jonathan immediately complies without giving it much thought, with a small sigh he gets back to his excessively complex paperwork.Lucas pokes about a little on his phone, but mostly just checks Jonathan's number and goes back to his own phone, finally adding him into his contacts and sending him a text message comprised simply of the number 11. He goes back to Jonathan's phone long enough to use the message to add himself, then tosses it back at its rightful owner.Jonathan catches it at the last moment
[...If you're so eager to see them, you could hurry up with getting all of the paperwork finalized and go take the picture yourself. The more you procrastinate-]As 427 is winding up to lecture Lucas on the benefits of expediency, he is cut off and completely undermined by a single default message notification ping.From dog pix (10:43 AM): Dokkaebi wanted to join in too [Picture Embedded]Without even actually reading the included text, Lucas taps to make the photo full-screen immediately. To Lucas's great delight, the shot features Franz lying down on the floor of Faunahorde, looking straight up at the camera in all of his black, tan, and brown furry glory. His huge tongue is happily lolling out of the side of his mouth and his big ol' ears are perked straight up. Me
[Even if you don't want to account for the unnecessary threat of always having Mikah so close by, I'm sure even with a discount it will be an unnecessary expenditure to rent out an entire floor. If you focus on the orphanage, or at least help support one of the soup kitchens, you'll gain an extra source of GDV with your money.]Lucas poses a counterargument in the form of a high-pitched mental whine, earning a sigh from 427.[Besides, you wouldn't have much reason to spend time at an empty office with just the two of you as the only staff anyway. Also, the two of you should be too busy resolving GDV tasks to spend much time there, even if there was a legitimate reason to be there anyway.]After another, albeit weaker, drawn-out mental whine, Lucas pinches the bridge of
Seeing that Lucas has more or less locked up after the offer, instead of giving any sort of audible response, Jonathan decides to show some spine."We'll, we'll take it. We were just, uh, worried before that it would cost too much for a, um, whole floor. Tha-thank you. Ehehe, you should see Lucas's face." As Jonathan attempts to lock in the bargain, he can't help chuckling when Lucas's blank expression gains a bit of surprise from Jonathan's words rather than from Mark's offer.Rather than being disappointed by the offer being claimed, Miss Calculated simply nods her head a few times, all is as it should be."Ahem, yeah, exactly. Since you're being so... Generous, maybe once we've grown and start actually using a bunch of electricity and have lots of people coming and
While the overall energy of the room makes it feel like someone is going to pull out a bottle of champagne any moment now while Jonathan should start giving an acceptance speech, Lucas suddenly claps twice to get everyone's attention."All right, enough of that. Those bastards don't deserve any more of our time, even for this." As Lucas cuts the celebratory atmosphere short, Jonathan's expression sobers up a bit, but he does nod repeatedly in agreement."Ri-right. It's great that it's done, bu-but it's not like it really changes anything..." As Jonathan backs Lucas up, he sinks into the cushy couch he is seated on, completely undoing the prim and proper upright posture he was temporarily maintaining. Having fallen back into a neutral expression, there are no remaining traces of the bright enthusiasm he had mere moments before
Lucas and Jonathan—dressed decently but nowhere near as fancy as yesterday—are most of the way to Cat’s Paw Cafe, pointedly not utilizing the stinky subway station to get there.‘Ya know, it’s been surprisingly peaceful, yeah? Though, not havin’ people gawk as much as yesterday is kinda nice. All that attention was gettin’ old fast.’[Ahem, well, fortunately, Boss System approved my long-term task priority filtering proposal.]‘Oh? Whassat?’[Compared to before, now it requires an opt-in before being bombarded with every single task in range. Before receiving alerts—and therefore penalties for ignoring them—we’ll run the calculations of the tasks’ estimated impact vs. potential unwanted attention. This effectively weeds out a majority of minor tasks—plus some moderate ones—by accounting for how suspicious it would be for you to know the event was taking place, let alone be believably compelled to interfere. I knew there was no need to ask if you were interested in activating it immedi
Once the allotted thirty minutes have passed—precisely down to the second—427 tentatively undeafens Lucas. At first, all he can hear is a booklet’s pages being flipped through, followed by Lucas grumbling.Hesitantly removing the remaining sensory suppressions one at a time, 427 nearly sighs with relief upon discovering that Lucas is standing in the kitchenette by the new automatic drip coffee maker—thankfully dressed—in the midst of poorly attempting to demystify its instruction manual.‘How the hell is this so complicated?’[Ah, making good on your promise to Jonathan?]‘Oh, thank fuck; yer back. Took ya long enough.’[…Hello, again, to you, too.]‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. So, anywho, can ya scan through this or somethin’ and tell me how to use it?’[…I already looked up the instructions from everything’s model numbers earlier. First, measure out—]427 guides Lucas through measuring and grinding a serving’s worth of coffee beans and setting it up in the machine with such in-d
For a few peaceful minutes, Lucas delights in demolishing the delicious delicatessen delivery. As Jonathan reaches for his coffee cup to gauge if it’s cool enough for a sane person to drink, he ends up cutting himself off with a yawn, earning a side-eye from Lucas.“Hey, ya barely got any sleep, yeah? Instead of havin’ caffeine, shouldn’t ya go take a nap?” Upon Lucas’s question, Jonathan pauses, looking at the contents of his mug with an obvious longing. “I’ll make ya a fresh one in like half an hour; I’m sure 427 can figure out howta use whatever newfangled machine ya got,” Lucas continues, his eyes also fixed on the beverage.[…I suppose I appreciate your vote of confidence.]Jonathan’s gaze lingers on the coveted coffee for a moment before he sets it back on the table. As soon as he lets go of it, Lucas lays his claim upon it.“Um, o-okay, yeah. I just, um, sh-should take a shower first,” Jonathan stammers as he stands.Lucas hums an agreement around a mouthful of coffee.[Did y
Thankfully, there are no further interruptions during the rest of this round of deliveries. Or even during the next one, either.Once Jonathan finally has the fourth and final load of freight, he makes a detour to a delicatessen. More specifically, the one where he previously purchased yesterday’s breakfast.After equally uneventfully acquiring milk, third breakfast for himself, and first breakfast for Lucas—since he’d totally only eat sugary baked goods if real food wasn’t conveniently available—he makes his way home.With his back to the recently re-locked front door, Jonathan reclaims the last armload of supplies as he looks at Lucas’s still-shut bedroom door.‘…Our food will still be too hot to eat for a little while; I’ll make some coffee first.’Jonathan may or may not be making up excuses to keep putting off waking up Lucas in the hopes that he’ll do so on his own, knowing full well that he probably won’t.While taking longer than necessary to decide which appliance to christen
“Ah! Um…” Jonathan’s face scrunches up a bit as he looks over his pending purchases.‘Can we at least turn off tasks while my hands are full? I really don’t want to drop everything and have it get broken or stolen by the time I get back to it… It will be annoying enough having to run back and forth a bunch.’[Requesting temporary task suppression… Permission granted; disregarding minor tasks for one hour at no penalty, effective immediately.]Jonathan barely represses his urge to sigh with relief.Before Ji Soo works up the nerve to express concern over Jonathan’s vacant stare at the wall behind the service bot, Jonathan’s attention returns to reality and redirects to said bot.“Um, c-could you hold some of it for a few minutes once I’m done paying? I-I won’t take long… Like, five minutes?” Before fidgety Jonathan even finishes asking his question, the bot is already nodding.“Certainly. Do you wish to use a private scanning kiosk to complete your order?”‘I’m surprised it’s even an
Jonathan, however, doesn’t hear the utterance of recognition. Unaware, he continues his quest for a coffee maker.A short time later, Jonathan stands--while quietly grumbling--before a row of two-in-one coffee/espresso machines.Behind him is a sea of drip coffee machines, with cold press equipment further off to the side. Alongside the arrangement of two-in-ones sits a selection of espresso machines, both automatic and semi-automatic.‘How are there so many!? What even are the differences? Wait, no, don’t answer that. The technical details will probably just be even more confusing.’[Understood.]Although Jonathan notices movement in his peripheral vision, he doesn’t outwardly react to the recent arrival at the end of the aisle. Instead, he pulls out one of the two-in-one machines set at eye level, rotating it so he can read the back of the box.“Ah! Don’t get one of those! That entire line is overpriced trash,” the newcomer blurts out, muffled by the layers of carbon-filter fabric f
After the harrowing--see also; totally normal--experience of getting his hair professionally cut, Jonathan blinks a few times as he looks himself over in the mirror. ‘Oh, wow. That’s way better.’ He’s now sporting a long-top, backswept, tapered hairstyle with a rounded back. Given how clearly tense he was throughout the entire cutting process, a trendy skin fade would have fairly obviously been too much for his liking. After giving Jonathan a few moments to make his mental evaluations, one of the hairdresser’s dreadlocks uses a soft-bristle brush to clear away the loose hair clippings around the collar of the barber cape. A few other coils of his hair organize the various tools he used, setting them aside for cleaning. Meanwhile, he quickly sweeps aside the bulk of the rogue tufts of hair on the ground in a much more conventional hands-on-broom method as he uses the mirror to make eye contact with Jonathan again. “Lookin’ good, mon. Well? Whaddya tink?” His question pulls Jonath
Once Jonathan is finally en route to the hairdresser...[Safe distance from Mikah’s power detected. Alert; you have exceeded 10 GDV. You have one enhancement available.]‘Oh! Um, you said before that rank three vision should be good enough to see through Maria’s powers, right?’[Correct, rank three should be sufficient as long as her target is in motion. Rank four would be necessary to see anything stationary, given the current strength of her powers. Please be aware that going beyond rank three for any individual enhancement has additional requirements.]‘Three should be good enough to avoid most of her pranks... Use my upgrade on vision.’[Please confirm that you would like rank two vision.]‘Yeah.’[Understood. Please close your eyes during calibrations to avoid nausea.]Jonathan slows from running at enhanced speed into a normal-paced jog for a few steps, then stops and shuts his eyes.[Bzzt... Calibrations complete.]He opens his eyes and looks around, blinking several times.‘Wo
The duo’s fiery funnel further forces the growing multi-car pile-up towards the middle of the street for a few seconds longer. Finally, the flames falter and fade. After a short delay, the wind wanes as well.‘Oh, I shouldn’t give them any extra reasons to think I’m a threat.’Jonathan swiftly shuts and pockets his switchblade as he follows the sidewalk. While doing so, his attention flicks between the ongoing chaos in the street and the front door of Howling Cartographer’s HQ lobby.Ashley steps through the door with Jason right behind her. They both take a moment to appreciate their destructive handiwork with smug expressions. Considering that Jonathan is conspicuously the only person still in the immediate vicinity, they quickly focus on him.Before either of them manage anything beyond a glare, Jonathan raises both hands in a submissive gesture, showing that he isn't wielding a weapon. "I-I just wanted his gun!"Ashley's exposed eye squints with amusement, the not hair-hidden cor