And now for something completely different
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So what she's doing is a spell, kind of. It's not a Skill, and it couldn't be, since it's not really standardised and she needs to make it work with her specific device. And she's not a spellcaster but this kind of thing is part and parcel of the kind of artificing that she's been apprenticing for years to do.

Still, it's more complicated than anything she's done before, and she'll definitely need that paper and those pencils to maths it all out. 

And she keeps talking.


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It takes her hours, but she barely sees them pass. There's only the project in front for her, and Gonie.

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The others come and go, getting tired or bored, but Gonie stays. Different people show up, too, curious to see what this whole thing is about, but they all, also, eventually leave.

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At some point food appears near her, and she guesses it must've been Gonie, but she didn't see it happen. She eats, because she knows that she'll forget otherwise and she's long mastered the skill of eating while working. And she works.

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And at about 11PM she has a locked array of crystals. Grabbing one of them lifts the other five up like they're connected by solid metal, and when she pulses mana into the array like so it stays in the air even without her having to hold it there.

She looks extremely smug.

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Gonie thinks it's time to go grab the others so they can see the end of the saga.

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As soon as he's back she has instructions for him because she needs to actually embed this into the chair, but she's already got most of the infrastructure for that, it just needs some adjustments. And, since there's still enough time before it's no longer "today", she indulges in a complicated spell her master taught her that draws a thin sliver of melted ori from the solid bar she has and snakes it up from the crystal array to the right arm of her chair, then solidifies there. That way, she'll be able to recharge the crystals.

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And after that... Lucky's pretty sure she's done.

She gets Gonie to help her screw everything shut, then eeps and giggles when he lifts her bridal style to place her on the chair. Once there, she asks him to step back, touches some controls and, with a trumphant soft hum, the chair rises four inches off the floor.

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...and then falls back down onto the floor with a metallic thunk after two seconds. "Oh, what? No, come on, I did everything right, what did I mess up, the crystals stayed up—"

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"Girl. Don't worry about it. We've seen enough," says Ridsh, sounding genuinely impressed. She stifles a yawn then continues, "I'm sure you'll be able to fix it in the morning, but you really should sleep. We all should."

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"—oh, Hel, I have to work tomorrow—"

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"We sent Jon a message, don't worry, he won't be expecting you."

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"Oh. Okay." ...and now that she's done all of her energy drains from her all at once and she slumps in her chair.

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"Gonie, why don't you find a room for her?" says Dien, amused.

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He nods and walks around Lucky's chair to start pushing her out of the workshop and lead her to a room where she can sleep.

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"Thank you, Gonie," she says, tiredly, and finding herself having... a lot of trouble keeping her eyes open. "I need to use the bathroom..."

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There's one attached to the room he's taking her to, so she can use that one.

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Good, good. Then she rolls over to the bed, pulls her shoes off—

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Gonie lifts her up again into his arms and gently places her on the bed.

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She doesn't even have it in her to protest. She's exhausted.

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That's okay. He tucks her in, turns the lights off, and leaves.


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Lucky's very confused when she wakes up. She's somewhere that's not her master's attic, and she remembers a bunch of things about being in a secret Rebellion compound but that sounds so unlikely that she spends several minutes trying to figure out if it was a dream. After examining her memories (and waking up further), she concludes that it wasn't a dream, which means she has to contend with the implication that she's in a secret compound owned by the Rebellion.

It occurs to her, belatedly, that she's not sure what exactly they're Rebelling against, and why. The government? The Rekenber Corporation? Why? What did they do?

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It occurs to her, after another moment, that she didn't finish her chair and with the benefit of a good night's sleep she knows what she did wrong. She drags herself out of bed (who decided it'd be a good idea to make such a tall bed?) and up onto her chair, uses the bathroom (an individual bathroom connected to a single room, these people live in the height of luxury), and then starts to make her way back to the workshop.

Unfortunately she was 90% asleep last night when Gonie was taking her to that bedroom and the compound is very big and so she ends up quite lost.

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"Hey, girl! Lucky? Is that your name?"

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Lucky turns her chair around and sees the girl from yesterday, who had been at the counter of the fake secret weapons store. "Oh, hi, good—morning?" Is it still morning?

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