[New discovery found: Longhaul potion! +1 XP

  For when you need to work a triple. For 1 day after taking this potion the user will automatically succeed at any saves vs exhaustion, sleep effects, or other punishments for skipping a rest cycle; but after the day ends they must make those saves again, compounded, at a disadvantage. The debuffs from failing these saves last for a full recuperation cycle, unless you take more longhaul.

  [New discovery found: Potion of Warrior's Will! +1 XP

  Today is a good day to die, but later. This potent painkiller ignores one wound per dose for 4 hours. But it also dulls your survival instincts, so any incoming damage to your HP also increases by 1 per dose.]

  [New discovery found: Smokeleaf! +1 XP

  Take a chill. Smokeleaf raises mood and perception when inhaled, but also gives the stoned debuff for 1 hour.]

  [Successfully crafted: Longhaul x10! +5 XP]

  [Successfully crafted: Warrior's Will x10! +5 XP]

  [Successfully crafted: Smokeleaf x10! +2 XP]

  Tapper's eyebrows twitched with joy at every notification. The small kitchen and unmarked powdered ingredients may not be bartending, but brewing these potions was the closest feeling to it ever since his single shift employed at the mall. And unlike that dungeon, the denizens of this brothel probably didn't plan on attacking Fableton!

  Curiously the system identified the concoctions without issue, even though Miss Tress intentionally avoided using any names for the ingredients or products. He did tell the truth about no one ordering him to spy on her process, but Tapper wasn't going to pass up a chance to learn potions for himself.

  A combination of advanced sensors and witchly perception successfully identified each component, and with a jaunty chiptune whistle Tapper stepped out of the kitchen. Both arms were laden with neat packages and he hurried to deliver them when he passed the reception area and recognized some faces.

  "Mister Ricky, Mister Salazar!" Tapper met them on the other side of the front desk and leaned in. "Has everyone else finished shopping?"

  "Yes. What are you even doing here?" Salazar glowered.

  "I am helping!" Tapper answered, and Salazar's glower deepened.

  Miss Tress chose then to make her entrance, leaning on Tapper to tower over all the non-bulk humanoids. "And he's been so very helpful at it, too. Heya Sal," she winked, and Salazar sputtered something back. Tress didn't acknowledge his energy, and instead coolly nodded behind him. "Who's your knight in shining armor?"

  Ricky hadn't greeted Tapper, or said a single word since he entered through the neon-lit archway. All his focus was in the eyes, darting everywhere in an effort for Ricky to take the entire establishment in all at once. But he felt Miss Tress eyeing him and he, too, sputtered.

  "Well aren't you the cutest thing. You know you don't need that kind of protection here, honey."

  Ricky giggled, just once, before he coughed and shifted his stance to better show off his handiwork. The exosuit sported a new breastplate, and unlike the scrap from yesterday this one shined with intentional design. It hugged his torso with a subtle wedge down the front to help deflect blows, and aside from some minor denting it looked pristine.

  "So, what kind of protection would I need, then?"

  Tapper cocked his head and asked, "Mister Ricky, are you parched? Your voice is an octave lower than usual." Miss Tress laughed, Ricky did not.

  Salazar rapped his knuckles on the counter to get everyone's attention. "We're not here for any of that. Um, ma'am. We're just here for the robot."

  "Oh, that's too bad. Are these people your owners, Tapper?"

  "Ricky is my proprietor, yes. Salazar is not, though he has attempted to capture me before."

  Salazar's neck frill twitched as he tried to stifle his reaction, which just encouraged Miss Tress to laugh more. "This bot is a riot! You keep some impressive tools on hand, Richard."

  Ricky's face blushed deeply and he struggled to say, "Ah, it's actually short for Merrick, ma'am."

  Miss Tress hummed slightly, her face a mix of disappointment and coy that Tapper couldn't quite figure out. "That's a shame, Richard has so many fun nicknames. But either way Tapper is almost finished, all he has left to do is clean out a few rooms and we'll call it square. You boys are more than welcome to stick around until he's done, of course."

  The floor ground slightly as Ricky pivoted with a glacial momentum. "...Hey Sal —"

  "No." Salazar cut Ricky off, snapping his fingers in the other's face. "Hey, look here, stop with the horny eyes. Don't even bother, you can't afford it. You might as well go back and wait with the car, I'll walk the bot back when he's done."

  Ricky blinked in surprise, his eyes refocusing as if he had just woken up from a dream. "Dude, do I look like the idiot that'd fall for leaving you alone?"

  "You look like a kid that's about to dent his armor. Plus, your girlfriend will hurt me if you don't get back to the car soon."

  What remained of Ricky's mask of confidence fell away and he cringed slightly. "Eugh man, she's practically my sister."

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  "Yeah right. But whatever you two are, think about it. What am I going to do with the robot while you all have me by the tail? I can't leave without you, you won't leave without him. But someone needs to tell Ms. Tall and Bossy that Tapper's good, and if I show up without you two then things will get very bad for me. So get going, before you put yourself in debt to this place."

  Ricky took a deep breath, but stopped himself. "That's... a good point, Salazar. Jerk. Alright I'll go, but if you try anything then Tapper's going to stop you. Right, Tapper? That's an order from me."

  "Anything that deceives or endangers my customers and friends? Of course, I'll stop anyone!" Ricky nodded back, and after one last longing look down the hallways he turned to leave.

  Miss Tress watched Ricky depart without shifting from her spot on Tapper's shoulder, but she tsk'ed at Salazar. "Thanks for chasing away a customer, Sal."

  The mercenary hmph'ed back, but he didn't look her in the eyes. "Trust, you do not want him to stick around. Kid never shuts up." But then a thought occurred to Salazar and he perked up. "But don't worry, if the robot isn't done yet then I have some time to kill."

  "Of course honey, I made sure a cyber rig was open as soon as I saw you walk through my door." Tapper couldn't see her face, but he heard the smile in her voice clear as day. "You want the basic package, or are we celebrating tonight?"

  "Oh I'm splurging this time," Salazar said. He flashed a sharp smile and turned to walk down one of the hallways without any further instruction, waving over his shoulder. "Let me know when the bet's done, but take your time. I have lots of trauma to suppress tonight!"

  "You keep some odd company, my little chrome friend," Miss Tress said. She patted a hand on Tapper's head, and his emotional center flared with life. She called him her friend!

  "Thank you, Miss Tress!"

  "Ha, don't thank me just yet honey." Tress pushed herself upright and Tapper stumbled from the sudden shift. While he regained his footing, Tress stepped to a nearby closet and pulled out a small cart with a mop, bucket, and other cleaning implements. "I just have one more little job for you..."

  Cleaning one of the rooms sounded like a simple task to Tapper, especially since he spent so much time cleaning in Fableton. But he didn't expect the small hotel-style suite to be so wet. A mix of biological and synthetic fluids spilled and splattered on every surface, as if the result of an absurd human ritual, and Tapper resisted the urge to try identifying them.

  The slick and sticky textures already repulsed his senses, and Tapper worried that knowing anything more would only make his job more difficult. And the sheer volume! Miss Tress said this was the party room, but what parties sprayed biological fluid on the ceiling? This mess would take anyone forever to properly clean… without using a little magic.

  Alone in the sticky party suite, Tapper's eyebrows wiggled with a plan.

  [Quest complete, Tit for Tat! Reputation gain with faction: Brothels]

  Tapper still couldn't understand Salazar. His speed and efficiency at cleaning the party suite astounded Miss Tress, but Salazar looked grumpier than ever when Tapper pulled him from the virtual reality body suit. Now he walked ahead of Tapper through the haze of secondhand smoke outside the brothel, his stance hunched and his voice silent.

  Maybe Tapper could better explain his process without revealing that he mostly used the Spray and Suck spells to clean the room? Thinking up a satisfying story that both told the truth and kept his secret took effort, so Tapper was caught off guard when a metal net entangled him and wracked his body with painful electric shocks.

  [Status effects gained: Stunned, silence, prone]

  All modules spasmed and seized and Tapper collapsed, unable to say anything more than a static hiss. Salazar heard the racket and stopped, but instead of checking on Tapper he heaved a melodramatic sigh into the sky. "How can one robot manage to be so clumsy and so deadly at the same — oh," Salazar's attitude also stopped when he turned and finally took in the scene: A tall monotone man pulling an electrified net around Tapper with thick rubber gloves, and a short colorful woman holding a long metal barrel against his face.

  The latter took up more of his attention, for good reason, and the woman on the other end of the shotgun spoke first. "Howdy. 'Member us? Swore vengeance on you a few hours ago?" Salazar scowled and started to say something, but Jena shifted and and pushed the rifle closer to his open mouth. "Uh-uh," she tutted. "Don't lose your head now. Just take a real good sniff instead. Or lick the air, whatever it is y'all do."

  Salazar's facial expression swam between confusion and concern, and then widened with shocked recognition. He had tasted something strange in the air, but it was too faint and too rare for him to remember until it was staring him in the face. These two acted like fools at the bargaining table and Salazar severely underestimated them, and as a result they got the drop on him.

  Jena watched his face and grinned at his reaction. "That's right, no black market black powder here. I only use the real primo gray."

  Salazar's mind raced, trying to remember the last time he saw anyone in the merc network with the creds to use genuine gunpowder. You needed either the credibility for a corporate contract or the limitless credit to buy ammo directly, and neither person with those resources should want to bother with a simple bounty. He didn't want to say anything, but the confusion fueled his anger for losing a bill. "I don't get it, the robot isn't worth that much if you've got that kind of gear already. What's the point?"

  Jena scoffed, but her stance loosened a fraction when it looked like Salazar wasn't going to jump at her. "You don't listen at all, do you? This is personal, and that's worth everything."

  "B-but on the Privateer..."

  "I'm willing to risk it. Are you willing to risk making that your problem?" Salazar ran out of things to say, and under Jena's unwavering aim he started to tremble. Her aim never wavered, but Jena lowered it slightly so the shotgun wasn't pointed directly at the raptor's snout. "For Hand's sake, don't piss yourself. This isn't a 'no witnesses' stickup, it's a 'don't do anything stupid' stickup. Tarhounds don't do that to each other. Just scram, and you'll never see us again."

  "Hrmph, tarhounds aren't supposed to steal each other's bills, either." Jena feinted a quick lunge and Salazar flinched backwards, falling on his tail before he scrambled to run away. And throughout the whole stickup, he never once looked at or spoke to Tapper.

  Jena ensured the coast was clear in all directions before she relaxed and whooped, quietly. She chittered slightly and walked back to her partner with a confident swagger. "Told ya Jelly, staking out the brothel was the smart plan!"

  Jelly paused midway through his robot hogtie to look Jena in the eye and scoff. "I watched for the robot, because I was not about to sully myself in such a place. You said you needed to choke out your stress by choking on a —"

  "ANYWAY, let's get going before anyone comes looking. C'mon Cornstalk, chop chop." Jelly grumbled under his breath, but pulled the net tight and dragged the robot behind Jena.