TLDR; Vel learns to drive from their brother, and talks about the other things Vel has been trying to learn and improve at.

Blake: "okay, so the top is park, then reverse, neutral..."
Vel: "I'm a new driver not an idiot."
Blake: "Okay, then let's try backing up"
Vel tries to move the gear shift, to no avail. They try shifting it left and right, before giving out a frustrated huff.
Blake reaches over Vel, and turns the key in the ignition, starting his car

The siblings share a look that conveyed a thousand previous arguments.

With a huff Vel put the car in reverse and backed out of the parking spot.

Blake: "I don't get why you think you need to learn to drive now. You take the bus everywhere, and Chicago has pretty good transit. You don't even own a car"
Vel: "It's just in case. Maybe for emergencies."

Blake gave a non-committal grunt.

Blake: "Thats a stop sign."

The car comes to a sudden halt, flinging Vel's necklace forward. It's a silver Caduseus. 

Blake: "That's new, finally want to start accessorizing? I thought you weren't into Jewelry. What was it you called it? A 'Shallow attempt to prove to others that you can also waste money' ?"

Vel: " Eyes on the road please".

Blake: "I'm serious. You've been dead set on who you are, and who you're going to be since you were 14. Now all of a sudden, you're changing. The driving, the new books, the practice conversations. I've only seen you focus this hard when you are talking med school things"

Blake: "Slow down here, sometimes people cross".

Vel: "I think I just... I became aware that there are some area's I'm weak in. I'm trying to expand."

Blake: "Yeah... I think it's good. I'm proud of you"

Vel punches Blakes shoulder with all their force. As usual, he barely notices.

It took 4 years to get to this point. Lots of late nights, and extra work. I'll finally be able to cross the stage. Get a well-paying residency at a good hospital. The cumulation of a particular path.

It feels hollow.

I experimented with the Caduceus, and the differences with it on and off. I'm pretty sure with it, anyone trained in first aid can do as well as I can after 4 years of med school. As well as I could in a surgical suite, when they just have a first aid kid.  I could make a lot more artifacts with the Caduceus effect. They don't seem to wear out. I make 1 of these and give it to a hospital, and they'll save more in a year than I could working for them. If I sold it, I'm pretty sure I could get more than I could in a year too. I learned to make it in a month and could make several a month if that is what I decided to devote all my resources to.

So much of what I was before matters less now. And I fucking love it. I'm going to be able to do so much more than I thought.

Blake is taking me to the gun range later. If I'm in this life, I got to be in it. Scruples about guns aren't worth the chance of failure it brings.

Was concerned after a few emails didn't get a response for a bit. Turns out she died mysteriously. On a contract almost certainly.

Fuck I did what I could. That necklace should have ensured that any doctor would be able to put her back together. Now it's who knows where.

That's gonna be me one day. Gone mysteriously, hopefully leaving behind a lot of tools. Tools that will save lives, and make the world better. Way better than I can.

I've done the math. Under reasonable assumptions, it makes sense to focus on making sure I can survive. And to be fair, Diana wasn't the most focused.

No, that's the bad way to think about it. It's a matter of odds. If you win 80% of the time, there is a 30% chance you won't fail once if you try 5 times. That's what contracts are, a gamble. And every time the gamble will make sense for the world. I can make the odds better, and that is my focus for the next few missions. If it increases my chance of surviving, it increases the expected good I can do.

I should do more. I'm gonna die too. I need to delay that as much as possible.

I'm gonna get Blake to give me some combat training.

And get some emergency first responder training.

I have a unique opportunity, I need to get every skill I can if it will keep me alive.

I need to talk to people a lot on contracts. I haven't really needed to much before this point in my life. But now, it's not just useful, it can literally be a matter of life or death. So I've taken up some improv.

Xem has been doing it for years, so I join her meetings (when I have time). I've also been reading books, and attending hospital trainings. Also attending some toast masters/ other miscellaneous. I've really been going all out, and I think it's been working. Turns out most of what you need to do in order to navigate the social world is to be nice, and pretend that things are fine. If I need to do this, I can learn it.

I need to learn it. But yeah, I've been doing some improv. Might join a Table top game that Xem is in. It feels silly, but I need to practice somehow, and this feels like it's working.

It's also a bit of a chance to relax. Pretend the world isn't relying on me.

I can type normally again finally. Dr. Laz built a tool for fixing missing body parts , scars etc. He gave me a copy after I sent him some of the armor I’ve been working on. Now I’m good as new!

There is some real synergy here. I’ve met some really powerful people, each with skills beyond almost anyone else. 

I need to think of ways to leverage that.

All the extra copies of my armor that I made turned out to be more useful than I thought!

Dr. Laz built me a disguise tool which he added on to my bracer, and Iktan (the person who saved my life in Indiana after a contract) built me a necklace that can summon a skeleton warrior. 

I think I'm beginning to have a team that I can count on. Don't know if their ultimate goals will conflict with mine, but for now, helping each other has made us all much better off.

Gotta think about what to make next with that in mind. I'm part of a small community now, and what I do is going to be a big part of if that community moves up the way I'd like it too. 

I've been working out more. I had given up on it a while back given my size, but with how fast I've been improving in other areas, I figured I'd give it a shot.

Turns out that being a contractor is a fantastic way to get fit. My muscles have grown a bit, I don't need to ask people to lift things for me anymore, and I'm feeling more like a normal person, and not an unusually small person. I've gotten maybe an inch or two of height as well. That has to be some magical shenanigans. 

That's been my main focus for the last while. I've been having trouble sleeping. The stress of the contracts, and the responsibility that I'm holding how was weighing me down. The stress and trauma of the contracts building up. Working out helped clear my mind some. It made thinking about what I was going to build next harder. I could feel my gift, waiting to be spent and expand my capabilities, but my brain couldn't focus.

Finally one night the stress made me sick. I spent the evening vomiting, and talking to my mirror about it, trying to pull myself out of the funk. At some point my gift was spent, and now my mirror is magic. It's good magic. I was able to use it to help out Dr. Laz and Iktan with similar issues they had.

A little bit feels like a waste, but I'm sleeping easier, and talking to folks easier. I suppose I'm just emotionally weak enough that I need something like this. Whatever. It will keep me going, so I can do my good work.

I've made it. The thing I've prepared for my entire time as a contractor. A cure for cancer, any disease. Probably dementia and a few others, although I haven't tested everything yet. The testing will come soon.

Give me a few contracts and I could probably make 10 more of them. Spread out through the world, have a team of 20 some people, maybe more rotating through, and every day that's 200 people per day saved from terminal illness. Get something like 200 people per device, and it's 2000. Have the individual themself or a family member, and the only limitation is how quickly people can move through a center holding them. A reasonably efficient center could get through 100 per hour each, operating 24 hours a day, saving 2400 lives per rod. With the 3 that I have, focusing on just cancer would end cancer. If we were paid $100 to $1000 per, we'd get multiple millions of dollars per day.

But people will disrupt the center. And steal the rod, hoarding it. Too many people.

I need to get secure enough that people won't be able to do that.

I've spent some time talking with other contractors I know. Making some deals, trades, and making plans.

I've been able to project myself more. I think accomplishing what I have has helped me relax some. All the sacrifices I've made are worth it.

I was back for maybe a few days, when someone tracked me down. Approached me at work. 

Used a name which Dr. Laz was familiar with, but I can already think of a dozen ways for someone malicious to get access to that information. Give me a few wins, and a goal, and I could get access to that information.


Anyway, I'm fleeing the country. Bye everyone! Xem is going to be hard to not see anymore. Maybe when I'm powerful enough/ have enough friends I'll be able to find a way to get her, and her partner out too.


But. Mission comes first. I've given up a lot of myself for this, what's one more thing.


Fuck this is going to suck.

4 or 5 people every few days. It can be so much more. That's what I'm working towards.

I think I was pretty confident in my abilities before the last contract. In general, it went pretty well. But it was still dangerous, and we got lucky. 

I've been working on my driving and considering looking into getting some training to be a pilot. Planes come up surprisingly often in contracts, it would be good to learn how to use them. Tooks some basic wilderness survival courses as well. I have nothing but time now that I'm out here with Dr. Laz and the others.

Also spent some time doing some research helping him and a few others out. Turns out I'm reasonably good at that.  

I'm getting used to life in hiding. My creations are out in the world, saving people better than I ever could. I just need to keep making them, and not die.


I made a deal with a Bankston Battles. Got a method to contact him in the case of emergency, and some information on an organization he is in. All this in exchange for one of my prototype rods.

Seems like a worthwhile exchange. I'll be making a bunch of these soon.

Made a connection with one of the contractors from the last mission.

He had the ability to make some wings, an ability to make an extra arm, and was working on an ability to see into the past.

I gave him some potions of tongues and am going to add a Hippocratic armor enchantment to a suit of his.


There are so many people with strong magical gifts. I can trade with them to get nearly anything it feels like.

I think it's time for me to specialize. Even more than I have.

If I have the best in the world in a few things, I can trade for everything else, and do better than I can on my own.

Even now, most of my artifact's value comes from other people adding what they have made to it. 

If I can become the best at what I made, then trade it to everyone else ...

Making things is what I do. I need to take full advantage of that, and what I can get with it.

I reforged my bracer. Took a bit to get it to a forge, and the metal is tough to work. But I got it.

I don't have much in my life any more other than preparing for the next contract.

This month, that means taking more piloting classes and working in my workshop. 

I've done a little bit of work with my training, but at this point.... it doesn't really matter if I'm a doctor, or not a doctor. My job has been done, and everything significant in my life will come from attending contracts. 

I'm already to the point where each win will save more lives than I could have with my entire life on the normal path.

So. I learn to pilot. In case we need to use a plane again. So that I don't die, so that I can keep doing contracts, and keep saving lives.

I also spent a bit of time making some things for Laz, and a few others. It's been a bit since I made my first creation and doing it now... it's nice. 

I thought it would make the world so much better, and it's just a fraction of what I can do now.