#as a tech support unit i shouldn't be surprised

[monstrouscrew]

the more i read ST song analysis, the more i am surprised about how others perceive what I've been considering basic human knowledge. like prot from K-Pax the film, i'm like "everyone knows this about the world we live in", and the reality is something entirely else.

[abronzeagegod]

Eldritch Tech Support 5

more eldritch tech support stories

[Brought to you by a kofi donation. Someone liked this series enough to buy me a kofi and even though they didn't ask for another one, I wrote this in thanks. Please enjoy!]

It was the first time you'd been back to work after the whole calling the Exterminators thing. Your boss gave you an appropriate talk about your mental health and well-being but honestly sitting in your apartment or in Lytha's hospital room was starting to get real boring and wasn't doing you any favors.

"I'm good, really," you say.

"Well I've got something for you, should be pretty easy, but there are some time constraints," you boss' second head says as one of their three arms hands you the job file. "Gotta get it done by sundown so it's a bit of a rush job."

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem."

"You're fine with werewolves and vampires?"

"Yeah, my sister and uncle are lycanthropes."

"Cool. Now go work, be safe, and whatever other platitudes," your boss says as they turn both heads back to their tasks at hand.

You gather you work kit for home visits and take one of the company cars to the address. You grab some of the gear you'll think you'll need and ring the buzzer for the apartment. There's always this weird nervous sinking feeling in your gut whenever you ring a bell. For some reason you're always worried that you're ringing the wrong bell.

"Who is it?"

You give your name and tell them you're with tech support.

"Oh! Great! Uh... Let me buzz you in, might take me a second, hold on."

You wait longer than you thought you'd have to for the door to open. When the door buzzer does finally sound you push in and climb the stairs to the apartment.

You get to the door to the apartment to find it still closed but there's some clawing sounds at the door. The job notes didn't mention anything about any pets, but that generally doesn't concern you. Eventually the door opens and you see a very dishelved man standing before you. His hair looks like he hasn't combed it in more than a decade, he hasn't slept in days, and his beard (which he shouldn't be growing) is very patchy in the worst way.

"Sorry about that, full moon is tonight, and I've been having a stressful day," he says with an awkward wave showing off a partially transformed hand-paw hybrid that would make it very hard to open doors. "My name's Vincent by the way."

You nod in understanding. Your sister had this happen a few times when the full moon landed right around her college finals. The stress made her partially transform before the sun set, which in turn made her more stressed. It was a vicious cycle.

"How can I help you today?" you ask.

Vincent leads you into his apartment that isn't the cleanest but it is a far cry from the worst apartment you've ever been in.

"I have a friend coming over to help me with the transformation. She's a vampire so I wanted to surprise her with the camera-mirror thing, whatever, and it only got delivered today, so I was trying to install it but it comes with all this dumb stuff that I didn't ask for, and the helpline wasn't very helpful, and it stressed me out and this happened," Vincent says as he holds up his hands, "which made it all very hard so I called you."

"I see," you say as you look over his purchase. Pretty standard stuff, also decently pricey. Actually Vincent got one of the highest end things. "What did you not want to get?"

"Well there's this artificial intelligence or something that is apparently always watching or listening, and if I'm putting this in my bathroom, I don't need that."

"I understand. You have two units though, is there somewhere else you wanted to install one? And did you want that one with all of the features or not?"

"No, no, no, I was going to put that one in the bedroom, but uh.... later. And again, not really up on the spying and constantly watching thing."

You nod in understanding. That's not really what this company is known for. They manufacture mirror replacements for vampires and others that might be cursed by mirror-dimension beings or are otherwise reflection compromised. Since the overlap between those beings and the very powerful, spying and keeping data on them would be a fast track to a terrible end, Arctine Industries makes lots of promises to not keep any data on their costumers from their products. But you can tell that Vincent isn't one to debate those points, he doesn't want the camera tracking and automatic features then you won't install those, simple enough.

"I can install these for you, no problem. It will take me a little bit. We can even put in a refund for you with Arctine for the pieces you don't want, but honestly it's mildly annoying and takes a while, so what I can do is have my company buy the tech from you at a reasonable price and you can have the money as early as tomorrow," you explain.

"Oh yeah, I think that would be better."

"Where should I start?"

"Oh... right... bathroom," Vincent says as he leads you to the bathroom. "Let me know if you need anything. I'm going to go... clean up the bedroom real quick."

You grab the equipment and move to the mirror. The tech seems complicated and a lot to people who might not be familiar with the stuff, and from the quick survey of Vincent's place he doesn't seem to be extremely tech savvy. (Funny how that works with werewolves who seem to always have some aversion to modern technology. You can't help but wonder if that's something in their nature. Maybe the moon just hates computers.)

It's simple to mount the few small cameras around the mirror, almost invisible. The hard part is wiring the cameras to the projector and screen that sits behind the mirror. It's very specific and a little technical if you want the projected image to sit on top of the mirror to simulate the reflection properly and everything.

By the time you're done Vincent has come back, possibly from cleaning up his bedroom. You're just testing out the cameras to make sure that they are working.

"Did I get some good stuff?" Vincent asks.

"You got the top of the line tech," you say as your reflection looks back at you.

"Oh good, I was worried I got some stuff that wasn't going to work," he says with a nervous little smile.

"Your friend will thank you," you tell him. "Here, you push here on the mirror to turn on the cameras or turn them off."

"Ok, good to know."

"Now, I can get started on the other mirror, and I should be done before sundown."

"Thanks! I really hope she likes this. Do you think she'll like it?" Vincent asks as he shows you to the bedroom.

"I think so," you say. You can kind of tell where this is going but you hope it stops before it gets there.

"I've never really tried to make any moves on a vampire or woman really," Vincent says as you start unboxing all the stuff for the mirror in the bedroom. Your face is starting to get flush. Is he really going to be divulging his sex life to you? "Sorry, this is probably too much, but I'm nervous and a little stressed as you can tell. And my last partner tried to use my wolf to kill people so I'm a little worried. Also my last two partners have been men so I'm a little out of practice when it comes to women."

Wow. He's just going right for it. Giving you all of his information and trauma. You've been in his apartment for an hour.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with relationships in general," you say. You feel like you have to share a little bit since he's standing there, watching you work (you hate it when people watch you work), with his sad wolf paws and sad demeanor. "My last relationship kind of fizzled out when they faked their death. They said it was to commit insurance fraud but I have a feeling like they mostly wanted to get away from me." Oh crap, now that you've started you can't stop yourself. "And there's someone that I like at work but it's all complicated and stuff."

"Oh, that's terrible. I feel your pain," Vincent says.

"But I think the trick to dating women is to not really think of them as any different than anyone else you want to date."

Vincent covers his face for a moment. "Yes, obviously. You're right, I'm being very dumb."

"You clearly care for them a great deal, and they are coming here to help you through the full moon so that has to mean something," you offer as you try to remount the mirror on the wall.

"Yeah, Ivory is something special. But she's only coming over because she doesn't have any clients." Vincent helps you lift the mirror.

You almost drop your side when he says the name. You know Lady Ivory, well know of her. She's one of the most influential vampires in the city. Her campaign to get elected to the Night Shore was something else, and that election was extremely bitter. You couldn't even vote in it (since you're not a vampire or are in any affiliated with the Night Shore) but you know the candidates and their ads. And Lady Ivory was a commanding, intimidating, powerful figure which is all before you take into account her vampire abilities.

And your sister had to stay with Lady Ivory for her Flensing Moon. You saw the vampire being calm, collected, and utterly in control after hosting a borderline feral werewolf during the height of their lycanthrope ritual. If he's trying to date that Lady Ivory then... well... you've got nothing.

"Well... uh... if Lady Ivory is coming here, for you, then I think... uh... not to presume too much but... she must like you enough to come here and help out," you say.

Vincent, after a few seconds to listen to what you had to say, visibly relaxes. "You're right. Thanks!"

"Is there anything else I can do for you?" you ask. You now really want to get out of here before Lady Ivory shows up to her almost-boyfriend's house. While it would make a great story around the water cooler, somehow you fear the Night Shore Vampire more than some of the old gods you've done jobs for. Lady Ivory is more... immediate.

"No, you've been a great help, thank you!"

You hastily gather your things. "We'll issue you a rebate soon, and we'll email you a survey if you could fill it out when you have a moment to let us know how our service was it would really help."

Vincent nodded as he followed you to the door. "Might not have time until after the full moon."

"Of course," you say as you let yourself out to save Vincent the struggle with the doorknob.

"And hey, these relationship problems are only as complicated as you make them."

You nod, thank Vincent, and leave the apartment.

As you leave the building a pale woman in jean shorts a tank top and a massive sun hat and sunglasses walks by. You feel a cold shiver as the Vampire Lady walked by you straight to Vincent's door. You can't believe you saw Lady Ivory dressed down. Holy shit.

You pack up the car and start heading back to the office when you get a phone call.

It was Lytha.

"Hey, I need you to come get me out of this stupid hospital bed," she says. Even though you saw her yesterday it's so nice to hear her voice. "It's been a week, I'm fine, and if I don't get a patty melt soon I'm going to jump out a window."

You promise to rescue her soon. Hopefully it won't be too complicated.

More of Vincent and Lady Ivory as side characters

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[crystalelemental]

New Masters update, so it's that time once again, lads.

EX & 20/20 Current 5* powerups: 205 Current spirits: 800 5* powerups available: 27? (20 exchange, 4 CS, 3 event?) Spirits available: 340 (85 *4) Total powerups: 232 Total spirits: 1140 Total that can EX: 5-ish.

I overextended a bit last month, and now we have very little to work with.  Especially with Grass High Score, which I do want to have serious effort in.  The guarantees are NY Clair and Iono.  I'm still on the fence regarding Grusha.  I don't even strictly dislike him, I just think his synergy with Ice isn't good.  But I do love field effects, so we'll see.  As for others, we can get maybe two before hitting the threshold of savings I like to keep.

Selene - High Score event.  There's a Ghost-weak stage and she's like tailor made for that.  I'll try it out without EX first, but if we need to in order to score better, I might invest.

Lucas - He's apparently already 10/20, which must have been a Gauntlet thing at one point.  Pretty sure it was Moltres HP bar OHKO range.  Anyway, Dialga is my favorite Celestial Dragon, and I don't have Lucas, so maybe.

Lorelei - I backed down super hard, and will likely continue to for a long time because she's so bad.

Relevant Support Roundup

Lana - good, but underappreciated

BP Morty - probably not necessary but is funny

BP Surge - would really help his survival

Lodge Blue - not necessary, but Grass HS

Lodge Elesa - not necessary

Lodge Raihan - don't use often enough

Lodge Acerola - seen rarely, but is nice when she's there.

Lodge Adaman - Not actually good, but Eeveelution and Hisui.

CANDY SITUATION Strike (6)

Rose - 2.  He gets a lot stronger with it.

SS Ethan - 2.  Full sync privileges, if that's a thing we care about now.

NC Nate - 1.  Gets to 3/5.

SS Cynthia - 2.  While I don't think it's exceptional, I do play favorites relentlessly, so I'm willing to go 5/5 grid for Cynthia on this.  Not like I have much to work with on Strike.

Tech (4)

BT Leon - 2.  I did EX him, and Dragapult has grown on me tremendously.  No new Tech this month, so this might be a good time, actually.

SS Steven - 2.  I always want to, but then am given no reason to actually do it.  He's fine already at 1/5.

Support (2)

V!Lorelei - 1.  I really want that built-in Vigilance.  But...

There are three new supports, and one of them will go wrong.  Guaranteed.  Support always pulls shit.  In fact, I'm willing to dip into the General candy on this one.  This is an unusually dire month for Support candy stocks.

General (13) Rei - 2.  He's really strong, so this is a fairly sane investment overall.

CAKE SITUATION Already caked NC Leaf and NC Nate.  Considering Iono for the comedy of it all.  Also considering Clair, but solely because I play favorites.  She really shouldn't be given it.

LEVEL 150

NY Clair - Obvious favoritism.

Iono - Needs the bulk to take hits more reliably, especially when we fail to get her 4/5.

BT Leon - I just like Dragapult a lot.

SS Diantha - Diancie stocks.

SS Cynthia - Now that she's relevant as a warrior, we can invest a bit more.

SC Rosa - I'm kinda surprised I haven't. I love this Rosa alt.

MC Mesprit - Mesprit is one of my favorite legendary Pokemon, and I make good use of this.

Bede - Sees a lot of use, worth the investment.

SC Diantha - Doesn't see as much use anymore, but definitely worth it as an alt I really like.

Clair - There's like no justification for it, but try and stop me.

Iris - Actually has legitimate use with NC Nate now, as a real DPS unit supporting his own pressure. I'm very proud of her.

[crystalelemental]

The saddest thing in the world is how even when Flareon is good, it's bad.

Lodge Irida has been given everything. EX, level 150, even 5/5 because I play favorites real hard with Flareon. There is no Fire-weak stage, so we get to see how off-type goes!

Bad. It goes fucking bad. Irida's damage isn't the worst there's ever been, but it's far from clean either. SS Morty is a solid partner at 3/5, where he can actually take first sync and cap her attack stat, but the problem is Irida has no spread damage for CS and won't land a denial. In fact, denials are particularly brutal for Irida specifically. Her sync deals with center alright, although 40k after an EX support sync is likely missing the KO if she takes two in a row, so DPS has to focus on center. While it leaves one side, you have to get lucky with 50% flinch rates to not run the risk of getting blasted. There's also the issue of burn as her condition. Rarely, if ever, is the left side going to be burned by Irida in time for first sync. You're too busy either buffing, or trying to delay an action with Fire Fang. Which, related, better not flinch left, or you run the risk of not getting to perform a denial at all.

Irida's success comes largely from defense. When her team is solidly defensive, they're able to succeed. The flinch rate does work in her favor in this regard, even if it cuts into her DPS through Flare Blitz. Without Sun, she does feel more reliant on sync anyway, so it's not the worst trade, but it's at least mildly disheartening. The only one that went cleanly is the Sinnoh stacking with Adaman. You don't need me to tell you he wildly outperforms her. Her other compositions just don't have the same staying power. They try, but H!Caitlin can get bowled over, and a lot of stages this run ignore accuracy or boost accuracy, so there wasn't a good workaround with Colress, sadly. Drake's even spamming a super-effective move that just kills him, so that's just great.

I dunno. I shouldn't be surprised that a Lodge Tech unit struggles a bit in CS, but it's still somewhat sad, you know?