Adaptative Alchemy

[Janick Beauchamp]

One of the main benefits from this trip to Aing-Tii was, well, meeting with a new potential off-world client. Business may be a little slow now, so she could take on one of the more complicated stuff. Often what the Pau'ans and Utai requested from Utai Magic Circle was pretty straightforward: they may ask for good luck charms, but, in practice, what these good-luck charms do, at the cost of having a dark-side aura emanating from them, is often about increasing one passive attribute: enhancing one's memory, enhancing one's cognitive abilities, having short-term precognition being common. While, for the purposes of sanguine transfusions, blood group is important, for alchemy it isn't. So she found herself having to mix human blood with Pau'an or Utai blood so that she could then put the blood mixture in a spray and a fresh coat of paint on the good-luck charms afterward. She then proceeds to type a message in her datapad to that new potential off-world client:

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Dear [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"],

With Utai Magic Circle, you can get a new use out of an item thanks to our proprietary alchemical process. Given the nature of alchemy, the possibilities for customization are endless: we want nothing but your satisfaction. However, the nature of the proprietary process means that processing any order for alchemizing items requires that the client comes in person to the Utapau Alchemy Castle, in the New Barkhesh district on the Fourth Moon of Utapau. Also, it is preferrable that the client supplies the item being alchemized; otherwise additional delays and costs will be incurred, depending on the requested item. Please let me know what works for you.

Best wishes,
Janick Beauchamp
Owner, Utai Magic Circle

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[Nate Phantoms]

Things were better some would say, not exquisitely amazing, but also nowhere nearly as bad like previous times. Moving throughout the dim flat, he made an attempt to tidy up. So he wasn't living in a complete mess. To most is would seem as if the house was kept in very nice shape, just some dishes here and there, a few loads of laundry to do. But he noticed even the smallest of things. OCD wasn't the greatest thing, but it kept him from getting too bored.

It was then he heard the distant chime that indicated he had received a message. Rising from his task, flaming gaze burned through the words, his interest piked.

Spoiler

All seems to be easily accomplished, given that I still have to pick an item for the process. Best bet would be for me to bring all of the items and discuss with you what would work smoothest. Arrangements will be made for my visit soon. I shall remain in touch should the need arise to contact me.

- Nate

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

Suspecting that [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] was, in fact, not a native to the Utapau system, Janick could easily afford to work on some other items already ordered by other Pau'ans, either living in Kessil or on Utapau proper while she waited for him to come with the assortment of the items from which to choose one to alchemize with the proprietary process she talked about earlier. Also she was surprised just how long she could wear this black strapless dress that isn't armorweave, coupled with black jackboots that, well, were. She always wanted to dress nice to be able to receive off-system clients even though she knew her usual dress was often just fine for a wide variety of local clients and was even considered exotic to the Pau'ans as well as the Utai, and especially Utai. To the point where a Pau'an lady even requested to have a custom dress alchemized, patterned after Janick's. A few days later, after said Pau'an lady took delivery of her alchemized dress, alchemized to improve the charming ability of the wearer, Janick realizes that someone is knocking at her door, and realizes it might even be Nate:

"Welcome to Utai Magic Circle: what can I do for you?"

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Her rather decorative establishment had caught his eye, standing it it's Victorian glory. Soon enough he was brought inside, a few workers ushering him into the back, Pointing towards the door he needed to go, he shouldered his duffel bag and proceeded to knock on the door.

Meeting her green eyes with his burning ones, he inclined his head slightly towards the woman. "Hi miss. I have the items I talked about if you still plan on having me as a potential client?"

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

In fact the workers were ad-hoc workers that were there mainly when Janick was away from the Utapau system. On-calls, as she would call them. It just so happened that she overestimated a little bit how long she would be left for Aing-Tii. But now that [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] was brought inside the main turret's ground floor, where she began to look carefully at each item he brought in tow, and thinking of possible enhancements for each of those items that would come in handy, which caused her brain to work a lot harder than before due to her mind being excited. Like short-term precognition on the rifle's trigger, but the saber was perhaps a little complex to her taste unless she wanted only the button to be alchemized on it, in which case it would enhance his use of Art of Movement (which, to her, was a blanket term covering both Force speed/jump as well as other uses of the Force that could directly enhance agility). Yet she preferred to do new things to grow as an alchemist. As for the blood requirements, she has that covered: she had a few dozen 2 ml vacutainers in some basement fridge with her own blood on it, which are pretty standard for her needs.

"I think the black fatigues would provide me with an idea you might like: adaptative camouflage. One caveat however: as with all thjings alchemical, it ceases functioning when in the presence of ysalamiri, void stones or equivalent stuff. If you wish to implement it, however, just be a little patient: the alchemical process requires one measure of blood from its owner and another one from its maker, me"

 

[Nate Phantoms]

"Hm," Raising an eyebrow, he pulled out his fatigues from his bag, her words sparking his interest again. Adaptive camouflage on such a light uniform? You'd have to be insane to say no. "How would I trigger it on an off? And how well would it work?" The would be no point for a camouflage that looked like something out of those cheesy holoflicks, so he hoped she could give hims something that would work for a man of his... expertise.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Adaptative camouflage would be turned on and off with a Force-activated switch: when you feel the need to hide, one way or another, the fatigues will pick that up and adapt to the visual background, both thermal and visual, and electromagnetic as well, around you. The dark side energies inside the fatigues would mesh with the environment. However, due to the nature of the alchemical process, the fatigues will be a little heavier but at most it will weigh as much as a standard-issue First Order or Imperial stormtrooper armor, probably much less, and have the resistance of such. Plus it may make the wearer easier to detect in the Force but I think that's not much of an issue to you"

Fatigues as Janick knows them usually weigh about as much as standard clothing. Yet, because [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] was much more powerful in the Force than Janick herself was, it would be pretty difficult to hide such a dark side signature to a Force-user. By now, however, her brain activity was less intense than it used to be, since the excitement died down somewhat. She prepares a 2ml vacutainer alongside the needle so that she could get ready to get the requisite amount of blood out of him, much as she would have the Pau'an lady who wanted an alchemized dress to enhance her charm, modeled after Janick's own dress. It doesn't take a whole lot of blood for most applications but it's a similar amount to what's in use for medical blood testing.

"If you accept that, I will then proceed to take a little bit of blood from you. Please relax your arm so that the venipuncture doesn't hurt"

 

[Nate Phantoms]

All sounded in order, so he striped the patches of the blouse, emptied the pockets, and unlaced the boots. Tossing the excess things into his bag, he rolled up the arm of his sleeve, nodding at her. He liked the woman, she had a way of making alchemy sound appealing. That surprised him; he'd never been interested in such practices until now. Staying to himself as a teen was more of his hobby, not going out and trying new things. Was that bad? Nah. But was it good?

That much was still left to be seen.

"Sounds good to me, care if I stay to watch or is this a more private operation?"

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I believe it's something that requires more concentration than I can possibly muster if you were there, hence the need for privacy. Before that, however, there is another skill that I believe would be useful to you: Drain Knowledge"

Janick seized the opportunity to get the venipuncture done, taking the right amount of blood from [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] for the alchemy operation. One 2ml dose of blood will be enough for this. Might have caused a little pain in that arm with the rolled sleeve but she took all the precautions not to infect him by inadvertance, while the other employee stored the fatigues somewhere in the basement. Also she made sure to add the price of the Drain Knowledge lesson to the final bill. She may not be that great at using Drain Knowledge, but she knows a bit or two about the different things that goes into its effectiveness: at a given skill level of Drain Knowledge, it's a question of the mental defenses, as well as the mental attributes of both the target and the user, and in many ways rather than just one. Those few who tried using Drain Knowledge on her realized that they could take much more information out of her than they normally would, and probably her memory has something to do with it.

"Drain Knowledge is like slicing into a person's mind using the Force: it's about combing for information inside the person, and then download it from the target's mind to yours. Sometimes you may find that a target with a not-so-good memory may carry the risk of destroying part of the information inside the target, but that's not an issue if you try that on me. Now, is there anything in particular you wish to learn out of me, using Drain Knowledge? Force-fear? Or something else entirely?"

 

[Nate Phantoms]

"Well in that case, I'll be outside should you need me when the time comes." Pulling his sleeve back down, his eyes followed the employee, not exactly a hundred percent okay with such trusted objects being stored away in a random basement. But he didn't voice his discomfort.

Only turning back to look at her at the mention of Force powers and Drain Knowledge. He was surprised at her offer to try and train him, it wasn't expected in the slightest. But it was a appealing offer.

"Come again? You'd be willing to let me try it on you? I mean, I will gladly accept some insight on the art, but I wouldn't attempt to use it on you."

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I think you have enough insight on the art to use Drain Knowledge at the level of a beginner, given what I told you about it"

And she was but a hair removed from being a beginner in Drain Knowledge: nearly every practitioner of Drain Knowledge in the Utapau system must have tried that on her by now, and she has a feel for their intellectual attributes. While, of course, certain effects required certain conditions, adaptative camouflage needed peace and quiet to imbue to items using alchemy, even though reinforcing fatigues to give them the strength of armor worn by many factions' line infantry across the galaxy would not. Now that [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] has finally stepped outside the mansion, she could begin to mix the blood to put it into a spray, which will be put on every piece of equipment in the fatigues: the boots, the blouse, to name the main pieces of equipment included in those fatigues, taking those in the basement. She has only 4 ml of blood to go around, and once the blood has been spread, she began to meditate and infuse the dark side of the Force into the blouse first, while thinking long and hard about what goes into the adaptative camouflage, and the alchemical process being actually multilayered, with the inner layer being about strengthening the stuff to medium-armor standard and the outer layer being the adaptative camouflage.

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Moving to sit on a bench outside the mansion, he placed his hands behind his head, soaking in up the sun in the peaceful little area. There was a gentle breeze that ruffled his hair occasionally, very few clouds and just an overall happy vibe in the air for once.

That's surprising. Inhaling, he closed his eyes for a brief moment, and before he knew it, he was being pulled into the dream world.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

While [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] was waiting around the mansion, Janick proceeded on to the other components in these fatigues that he brought in tow. Surprisingly the dark side of the Force, with which these fatigues were infused, could hide the smell and color of the blood used in the alchemizing process. But alchemizing that many components with so many different effects proved troublesone, and at the end of it, after spending all that time alchemizing the fatigues, devoting an immense amount of concentration and Force-energy that would take a while to recharge, she would emerge from the basement with the fatigues at hand, with the bill for alchemizing in one of the fatigue's pockets. but with so many headaches that she could barely even function at all. Heck, it took her a while to even find the way out of the mansion because her head was buzzing; luckily she left the main door open, despite the headaches. She would find the client on a bench at the edge of the property, on the sidewalk...

"A poodoo-load of headaches later, and after exhausting my Force-batteries, here are the alchemized fatigues" she told Nate, with obvious clues of exhaustion in her voice. "The bill is in one of the pockets"

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Reaching up to steady her, a smile would break through. She was clearly exhausted and could barely stand, a slightly worrying sign. "Whoa, easy there." Guiding her towards the bench, he sat her down gently, holding her steady.

"You aren't looking too hot miss, will you need further assistance back to your room?" Contemplating his course of action momentarily, he prepared to carry her back should she not be able to answer. "And thank you very much, by the way."

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Ah yes, that would be well-appreciated..."

But if it works, who am I to complain? I'm just a beginner in the art of alchemy, relatively speaking, she thought, while being carried back to the living room by [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"], where she would lie flat on the couch, exhausted from having so many Force-powers. And yet, in the living room, there were crown mouldings, a hearth that was the centerpiece of a foyer, two couches, a loveseat, a coffee table at the center of it all, with the loveseat facing the hearth... typical of the Barkhesh style.

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Moving to kneel beside her, he would smile faintly, looking around at the interior of the room. She seemed to be relatively functional, sightly exhausted but otherwise okay. With his newly acquired fatigues back in his bag, he was ready to go. He just didn't feel obligated to leave her alone like this, she could very well roll of the couch.

"You sure you'll be okay without me? Should I call one of your maids?"

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I think calling for the maid might be a good idea... said maid can bring me to bed" she told Nate, while still reeling in from the fatigue.

The Utai maid was busy processing the payment [member="Nate the Bounty Hunter"] made, while he was tending to Janick in the living room. She was lucky to still be somewhat mentally functional even with all the accrued fatigue, even though she knew that her mental functions are but a fraction of what she knows they are when she is on her game. Big headaches are afoot because she used her brain quite a bit during the alchemical process. Even then she realized that it's also about one's dark-side power as much as it is about one's mental functionality. Now the maid began to take Janick by her neck, guiding her to the bedroom that was actually on top of the storefront in the house's central turret, and it was almost a requirement to use the walk-in closet to even be able to get in there.

 

[Nate Phantoms]

Still at her side, he watched the maid, listening to her before turning to look back down at her. "...Just hod on." Slipping a arm underneath her lightly, he carried her to the back, calling a passing nurse to come help. Setting her back down, he explained what was wrong to the nurse what the situation was, and he soon was being rushed out.

"Oh... Ohkay... thank you though." Giving a mock salute, he slid out the door, picking up his things.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]