We Sons Of Daley [Manhattan Blues]

Start loosening as much stuff as you can, but stay alert of anything that's approaching down the street. If there's any innate slots remaining, fill 'em them with Physical Increases. Both to make the job easier and to respond better to suddenly: predator.

How exactly does crafting work in post-bloom?

Done. You'll be done getting the fixtures out of the way soon enough; though with your ki mostly replenished it shouldn't be too difficult to take something out if it decides to show.

You start to think of the factories back in CHICAGO. As far as you're aware, those factories and their power plants are the ONLY ONES IN THE WORLD THAT RUN. Cobbled together out of parts and duct tape and hope, they're what lets Chicago have its NATURAL ADVANTAGE in TECHNOLOGY over the REST OF THE CONTINENT.

If ALICE is anything to go by, you figure, those that don't SCROUNGE FOR WEAPONRY have to MACHINE EVERYTHING BY HAND. Which means that REVOLVERS are about as high as you can get- you know that INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS and MACHINING are required to MASS PRODUCE the weapons you use- the semi-automatic M-4 and COLT .45 1911 and, of course, the CHICAGO TYPEWRITER.

Those are going to be a bitch to find parts for outside of Chicago territory, and even inside it the TYPEWRITER in particular is a symbol of the GRAND ARMY, being the chosen AUTOMATIC WEAPON of that group.

ADVANCED MATERIALS have to be mined out of RUINED BUILDINGS- especially STEEL is wanted, but MORTAR, HI-POLYMER RESINS, GLASS FOR RECYCLING, LEAD of course... Even back home in Gary the main way to get raw materials was to DISASSEMBLE THE TALL BUILDINGS, TOP DOWN. It helped prevent unexpected COLLAPSE and, if you did it right, ALMOST EVERYTHING WAS USABLE.

>Alice: Look around. What were you doing again?

Alice looks at the cache she's found, and wonders both how it wasn't found, and how the hell this guy- WHOEVER HE WAS- didn't survive. A closer look discovers the second reason- turns out whoever it was had a PACEMAKER. Poor guy's HEART must have gone DEAD in the BLOOM when its TRANSISTOR went HAYWIRE.

But damn, if it weren't for that going DEAD, his guy could have lived in here for a month before his CHELATION ran out... And he has more weapons than even Alice knows what to do with! 6 GENERATION FIVE G21s, a PAIR OF BATTLE RIFLES that, on closer inspection, turn out to be MODIFIED TO MILSPEC, a few GRENADES that are obviously home-made and PATENTLY ILLEGAL... She's almost afraid to look in the MULTIPLE AMMO CANS to find all that LOVELY AMMUNITION is FOULED, which will make everything but the pistols USELESS to her; although Alice can always use more BRASS and LEAD.

And then of course there's the CANNED FOOD, and the TACTICAL ARMOR. She's only HEARD about this stuff. It's a little DEGRADED from LACK OF MAINTENANCE, but it seems such a shame... She decides to cheat a little and REMAKE THEM WITH MAGIC later, if she can get all this stuff back.

It seems like he's got almost two of everything that had parts IN CASE ONE BROKE. Even then the SIX G21s seem a little EXCESSIVE.

He might have been a little PAIRANOID, but no use crying over spilt milk now. The problem is, Alice knows she can't quite carry this much stuff at once. What to prioritize...

>_