Looks like I'm going hell-toe express.

Night is just falling as you pass the sign 'Welcome to Chicago'.  It and everything beyond it has been transformed into steel.  You do see a guard shack a quarter mile ahead, as the functional buildings of the city are still five miles ahead.

Next to the sign is letters carved into the four lane highway.  The letters are ten feet tall and a foot deep.  But you can easily pass between them.

"Welcome to Newcago."

Your feet are tired. And you can see the once paint, now steel ripple dotted lines down the center of the highway.

So concrete buildings are changed to steel structures? That's interesting.

Any sign of intelligent life?

Look for some food. After that, try to set up a blacksmithing shoppe, if there's no people around. I want to try to make a Chaos antenna to shoot some of this world's Chaos into outer space.

In the distance you see what used to be a tree, and is now a sculpture, as well.

You walk forward, and two guys in gray, with black trim, uniforms step out of the guard shack.  Both have some sort of energy carbine, held off-angle (not directly at you.)

"Hey, you're in Newcago.  Are you looking to immigrate?"  Said the gray haired one with the bushy mustache. "You need some water?"  He looks vaguely sympathetic, and after so many hours withoout a human face, its nice to see one, and with a Yankee accent, to boot.

"Uh, yeah, I'm looking to immigrate. And I could use some water. You mind telling me what happened here?"

But they're still cops and I'm still on a hair trigger.

"Bill." Says the mustached guy, and the younger one walks back into the guard shack, and comes out with a metal canteen full of iron tasting water.

Stamped on the outside is the following:
Water Canteen Mark 2; Factory 9; Worker 235; 2012 AD/13 AC

The water revives your strength.

"Old Chicago was going to pieces after Calamity.  There was talk of Detroiting by the Lord Mayor, and then Steelheart hit High Epic, and during his transformation turned Chicago into Newcago, and proclaimed his rule." The old guy says.

"I was ten when it happened, and let me tell you its a lot better now. We have water, electricity on alternating hours, safe houses, work, and while we're not cops, we're Protectors of the Peace.  If someone tries to steal or kill you, we can put a stop to that right quick." The younger guy says.

"And with Nightwielder, Firefight, and Sourcefield as his deputies, well Steelheart ain't gong to let some nutball like Obliteration into his town." The old man says, and then like its a war cry, he softly says. "Remember Houston."

"So where do I go to get a place to stay? And where can I get a job? Everything is metal. I'm a metalworker by trade. Where can I go to get a job?"

The old man shrugs.  He was expecting a response, but he seems to see you as potentially weird, and so weird behavior doesn't weird him out.  Weird hunh?

Bill goes back.  He has a clipboard made of steel.  You'll notice most things that can be are made of steel.  If something is mentioned just assume its steel unless its obviously not, like a blooming flower, not that you see anything like that.

You do see a flower, but its steel.

He takes down your name, skills, and asks if you have any relatives in town, or connections with other Epics or the Reckoners.  He makes a few more comments, shows it to Bill, who nods, and signs off on it without showing you the comments.

Its short and sweet.  He seals it in an envelope of steel with a lock.

Then he hands you an etched metal plate. Its a simple map.

"Follow this street, then this, and bow here at Steelheart's fountain, and you can get a drink and a water canteen there if you like, free of charge.  Then go to the right, and here. Anyone hassles you, show them the envelope.  Of course, if you do meet an Epic, do exactly what he or she says.  But, truthfully, its been a solid week since I saw Firefight fly overhead."

"That'll take you to In Processing South Center." Says the older guy.  He offers you his hand. "Best of luck, new citizen."

OOC) I knew I should have said something about this.


"What Calamity would that be? And Detroiting it? What does that mean? And who is Steelheart? Is he the king or something?"

After a while, hearing weird stories like this just kinda rolls off. That's why I didn't say anything. He said a bunch of stuff that didn't really make sense. So what else is new in The Verse?


"So what? Like 1-2 you have power, then 2-3 you don't?"

I've been in enough worlds where electricity wasn't even invented. Referee Magehammer likes teaching n00bs how to build electrical generators for just that purpose.


"So we got a bunch of Lords of War going at it? Something like that?"


"So what's an Epic? What do they look like?"

Whatever they are, they might want to consider doing what I say, not the other way around. Magehammer was bullied so much as a child, he doesn't take it now that he has the power to fight back.

OOC: I should have mentioned the orange star in the sky earlier. Oops.

He points a finger at a dim orange star in the sky.

"Calamity." The old man frowns, and  you can suddenly see behind his mask, and hear him whisper. "Evil Star" even as the words don't reach his lips. You can feel his hatred for a second, and it feels like this is related to your magics.

"Um, should we put him in the..." Bill asks, and you can see he's wondering if you're crazy.

"Detroiting...well even before Calamity, Detroit was falling apart, people left it to rot basically.  The Lord Mayor was fixing to kick out three fourths of the people and tell them to root hog or die.  At least that's what we hear."

And that undertone that is not spoken, you hear. "And since the Epics say it, it is the truth." There is bitter sarcasm in that tone.

"Steelheart, yes, you could call him the King.  He owns Newcago and everyone who lives in it.  If you ever see a seven foot tall man with steel skin and glowing bright enough to hurt your eyes, thats Steelheart."

Bill the younger guy nods at your electricity example.

"Yeah, its pretty nice. Sweet." He seems sincere. "....after all, most places don't even have electricity, cept maybe Babilar, and..."

Your Lords of War question has them blinking in confusion.

"Oh, he's one of those." Bill laughs.  "You're an Epic Groupie.  Yeah, Firefight is covered in flames, and Nightwielder has living shadow around him and  awhip, and I don't know what Sourcefield looks like, but I think she's a girl."

"Sounds like bags of fun guys. I'll be going now."

Try to find a metalworking shoppe where I can set up.

You were told to go to South In Processing Centre, near Steelheart Fountain, or are you just striking out on your own.

As you walk, you see a dozen kids, all dressed in loose grey pants and t-shirts, all with 'Age 8, School 19' on each kids back of the shirt, and each kid also has a name on the shirt.  They are walking quietly and swiftly, and no one is fat.  A teacher, also dressed similarly, but he has a belt, and a gray vest is guiding them.

You see another pair of Protectors.  No one else seems to have weapons.

You pass a crudely cut staircase down into the roadway.  Lights gleam from down there.

And you've come to Steelheart Square, err fountain.  A Twenty Foot tall man, doing the Captain Morgan (rum drink) leg held up by a crushed car statue in bright...silver?? stands in the midst of the statue.  The water comes from his hand, and fills the large fountain all about.

Several dozen folk nearby are gathering water.

Already, its only a half mile from the guard station, the buildings are 3-4 stories tall, and your feet already ache from the unyielding steel

I'll go to processing, sure. What's there?

Boys and girls, or just one gender?


HEHEHE always good to know.

Also, I'm going to try to turn some of that steel into black iron. Just find a small steel something or other and smack it a few times with the hammer and see if it changes into black iron.

There is a painted sign above a ground floor doorway.

You walk in, and startle two folk.  The young guy is leaning back on two legs, and has his boots on the desk, while the older blonde is studying her hand of cards intently.

Both sit up straight.

"Ah," The guys eyes flash toward the metal envelope.  "We can take that, and 'Welcome to Newcago."  His voice has shifted into a more trained and polished performance mode.  "I'm sure you have questions, and as a gift of Steelheart, your new overlord, Marie here can take your order.  Steak, fish, chicken....?  And my name is Judd. I or Marie will be glad to answer your questions, and get you orientated."

They both have gray uniforms with light yellow stripes down their arms and legs.

======================

The class was all boys.

=================

You were able to find a 'rock', and turn it into black iron after ducking down a narrow alley.  Its now in your pocket.

"I'll take steak and mashed potatoes with gravy. You got salads? A nice salad with ranch dressing would be great."

I'll pay with a diamond from my last world.

Keep my eyes open. I'm looking around to see what's what. Ask them if they know of any metal shoppes that are open.

And I can make black iron here. That's always a plus.

So the schools are segregated. Not sure why that's significant, it just is.

OOC) IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!
This message was last edited by the player at 06:00, Fri 13 Mar 2015.

The steak is large, if a bit tough.  The potatoes are good, and the gravy is runny and bland.  The salad has one grape tomato holding pride of place. There is plenty.  They get the same.

They shrug off your attempts at payment implying is a new citizen thing, but then their eyes grow wide at the diamond.

"Certainly, I know of four, uh, no three in th'e immediate area, and i'm sure there is, oh, ten more in the South Area.  I can take you around.  New citizens get lost easily around here." Judd says, making a note on a metal board.

OOC: Happy birthday.

Put a smattering of Order into the steak, make it nice and tender. Put a smattering of Chaos into the gravy, make it spicy.


"Keep it. I got a bunch of them."

Seriously, I'm giving them a diamond. A few days ago, that was a lump of coal. And I've got like 50 pounds of them.


"Yeah, do that. And show me where the boys' and girls' schools are. I might just apply to teach metalworking at one of the schools. I'm also an accomplished leather worker. That might be more appropriate for a girls' school. Either way, I'd like to see where they are."

Haven't you ever wanted to be a teacher?

You try that, but it makes things worse.  Curious, you try the reverse, Chaos in the steak, which breaks down the tough, connective tissues, and ages the meat makes it quite decent.  And Order in the gravy revives some of the broken down and overcooked molecules of beef fat so they actually taste like beef.  Its less runny, and still bland, but at least it tastes like beef gravy.  What it really needs is salt and black pepper.

+1@ Order/Chaos Use.

They look at each other, and then the two nod.  You can see they've agreed to this, and to keep it on the downlow.  They look back at you, and smile, and you realize you've just added two new 'friends' for certain values of that word.

It seems this place is more than a bit corrupt, but not hugely so.

Judd takes you around, and you see what he means.  Without trees (there are very few in potted beer barrels) and fabric awninss, and a lot of the other stuff, this city is like a steel skeleton almost, and its hard to decide if you're on 34th or 32nd.

In talking with Judd, you realize he has no idea of a leatherworking shoppe.  There are no cows or foxes, etc. in Newcago.

He shows you one shoppe, which used to be a kid's playground, and is now an open pit mine with a shopped on the side.  The pit goes down eighty feet, and is still steel.  The owner is dressed in gray with purple and blue stripes.

"Ian McGregor. I run this place according to the Laws. I can use strong backs to cut out steel, and I have several lathes and customizable presses if you are skilled at that.  I'll be straight with you.  I don't pay much.  Also, I don't expect you to risk life and limb like Campbell over on 29th, either.  And Stews...well, he's for the palace trade."

**FACEPALM** I should have known that!!!!!!




One constant in The Multiverse. Money talks!!! Good to know.



Add some Order to the trees as I pass them. Make them stronger and more sturdy. With so few, they should at least be strong.




"I think I'll pass on the job, thanks. That's not what I was looking for."

But ask my escorts to take me around to the schools. Both the boys and girls schools. Maybe I could teach metalworking at one of those.

Two Posts

Something I have often wondered. Order is things not moving. Chaos is things moving fast. So could I freeze or accelerate time? Freeze time for everyone else, so only I can move? Or fast forward through a day so it goes more quickly? Try that when I get a few. Try to freeze time for everyone but myself.

You see the trees darken in your Order sight, and new strength courses through them.  You stumble a bit after the third one, but quickly recover from the energy expenditure.

Ian shrugs, and turns back to his work.  Judd nods, and takes  you to a boys' school.

"Only men can teach mean, and so forth." He says as you walk through Street 33, School #8's doorway.  A guard is waiting, but he checks Judd's id, and hears the explanation, and lets you both in.

"Do not disturb the classes, but you can go where you want, and talk to who you want for an hour."

There are four classes, and six classrooms, all cut out of the steel below.  So you go down a flight of stairs to enter the school.

Electric lights blaze on the ceilings.

"Schools have light all the day. No brownouts." Judd says, noting our glance twoard the lgiths.  You see electric cable, which looks to your eyes as poor quality, and poorly done.

The classes teach basic math, English "Diagram the sentence 'Steelheart is our ruler.'", a weird kind of soccer which uses the walls and the ceilings, and requires padding partially from the bruising thumps and partially from the steel walls, and basic science.

There are eighty some kids in the school.

You consider the notiomn of freezing or acelerating time.  Theoretically, it seesm possible, but you'd need something to grab on to  to direct the energy of chaos or order.  Like when you create a tornado, you're hooking the energy onto the wind moleculres.

"There's steel everywhere, is there any copper? I actually know how to build electrical generators. I can convert the steel into magnets easily enough. Magnetic field running through a copper coil generates electricity. Maybe I could help with your electricity problem."

2@1 electronics.

To stop time, you need something to grab onto...... I somehow doubt staring at a clock would work. Go outside and try to grab sun shadows. You can see those move as time passes. Order them to stop moving. That's all I can think of. But I'd love to stop time. That's been a dream since I was a kid.

"I don't know." Judd says.  "I mean steel is free for the taking as long as you don't take it from some place people are using."

He leads you over to Stews, who has a clearly nicer operation than Ian's.  Stew also has a gold thread in his purple stripes.

"The purple stripes mean, he's one of the Thousand.  The gold wire means, one of the Two Hundred.  But you can be say a doctor and have a gold wire, and not have purple stripes.  Generally, if someone with purple or black stripes tells you to do something you should, as black is Protector or th elike, and Purple is the Thousand."  Judd explains soto voce as you both walk up to Stew.

"My friend wants to know about copper, sir."
"Eh, he does?" The man is very tall, kind of shaggy, and at least in his seventies.  Still he walks around on his own amongst the lathes and the well-fed and skilled workers, albeit a bit slowly.
"Why does he have a hidden supply?  When Steelheart transformed the place, he didn't get every bit of metal, sometimes we get theese nodules formed.  And I can always use more copper.  Its the in thing among the PYT's tis year."
He then deliberately focuses on you.

============================

Later, you try the sun shadows, after Judd is gone.  he does tell you that you can sleep for a week at the South Centre.

After a bit, you realize you're grabbing at the symbol of the thing, not the thing itself.  With a tornado, you attach Order and Chaos to the wind molecules, not to a drawing of a windy day.

You also get the feeling of great depths and vastnesses of Order and Chaos that you were not aware of before.  And some of this could possibly be channelled, and you would not need to privide all the energy for a spell on your own, but merely the pipe for it.  But even with this deeper awareness, time control seems fvery far away.

"So no copper? Thanks then."

I can stay in a room for a week. Go there and think about my time freezing problem.



That's precisely why I didn't think staring at a clock would work. It's a symbol of time, not time itself. I thought that shadows might be more a tangible representation than a clock though.

Focus on the moment. I want to drop an Order anchor into the moment. Problem is the moment keeps changing whilst I'm focusing on it. Drop an Order anchor into a moment. That's all I can think of. But I want to stop time for everyone but myself.

The room is a ten foot cube with an air vent, and tie down holes for the winter timedoor blankets.  The bed is a corn husk bag.

There is a chair of steel cut into an interior wall as is a small table.

You try but the anchor chain frays in your mind, and nothing happens.

And the next time, you almost have it.  The anchor holds, but you didn't consider what would happen with all that chaos.  It flows rapidly t hrough the area right around you.

Something happened, but you're not quire sure what.  Its not what you wanted.