Save Scumming Chapter One Hundred and Forty - Working Hard or

Chapter One Hundred and Forty - Working Hard or...

I spent Sunday doing... not too much, really. I did a few longer loops practicing with my guitar, then so doing so French exercises, but I mostly took the day off and fit in three days worth of relaxing into just one day. It was very unproductive. I did call up Becky to see if we could go et with Jane, but she was 'hella busy' so we had to put it off for Monday. As it turned out, that was a better ti for Jane too, so it was all good.

So, the next morning, on Monday, I left the house only sowhat reluctantly, and headed out to work for another boring day.

"Yo, boss," I said to Eldur. It was... ten sothing in the morning, so too early to really start thinking about lunch, and I was currently tangled in a torture device that was claiming to be an exercise machine.

It wasn't all bad. The Luna Corp gym had so pretty nice machines, and this was probably one of them. I just wasn't feeling very charitable to it since I'd set the machine to 'D' on the scale and now I could barely keep up with it.

"Morning," he said. "Working hard?"

"Yeah, you could say that," I replied. I let go of a handle, letting so weight clink back down, then I grabbed a towel and rubbed my face free of sweat. The one nice thing was that... well, I needed this?

If I wanted to increase my capabilities, then I'd need to keep working out. As it was, I was a little, teeny-bit, lazy about it.

Look, no one wanted to wake up at god-no o' clock in the morning to do push ups and situps on the floor.

At the sa ti, if I expected to get stronger, then I needed to push myself, work on my musculature and cardio, and actually, physically, get stronger. I still had a bit of flab around my stomach, which was especially visible if I bent forwards a little, and my arms had a bit of dangly skin, and my thighs weren't thick enough to snap soone's neck. The less said about the flatness of my ass the better.

Basically, I had an unrealistic ntal image of what I could be, and I'd never reach it if I didn't do an unreasonable amount of work to get there.

"Hey, Eldur," I called out before he could head out. "Uh, what's the plan for the rest of the week?"

"We're on workout duty today. So training tomorrow, and then Wednesday to Friday we're the squad on quick-response. There are two or three portals that might re-appear in that ti."

"Cool," I said. "Uh, hey, let's say I had an operation scheduled for new cyberware, how would I go about asking for a day off?"

Eldur stared, then sighed. "When's the operation?"

"Wednesday night," I said.

"And the cyberware?"

"Nothing too special," I replied. "So ear augs. To keep the tinnitus at bay. New eyes. And I'm getting a little biomod too."

"That's a lot," he said.

"Nah, it's three small things," I said. "But... a day off to recoup wouldn't hurt?"

Eldur rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Fine," he said. "I'll see if I can't get you scheduled dical leave for Thursday. But next ti, two week's warning."

"Two weeks?" I asked. "That's not much."

"How quickly did you get your operation scheduled? Usually there are month-long waits."

"Oh, uh, yeah, I had a minor op planned. Just tacked on the rest. Maintenance, you know?" I lied on the spot. I wasn't a very good liar, but it was believable enough. All cyberware needed maintenance, and it wasn't impossible to get sothing new installed at the sa ti as one was checking out their other stuff for firmware updates or whatever.

Eldur frowned. "Fine, whatever. Don't make a habit of this, alright?"

I saluted. "Promise not to, boss," I said.

I went back to self-torturing myself with the weight machine. That occupied most of the rest of the day for , though there were a few breaks and so chatting with others. I even got a few minutes to talk to Dharti and get so advice on the spells I knew. She seed pretty happy for , and said that maybe tomorrow, which was more of a calm training day, we could go over so options for new Nature spells.

That'd be nice. I was very much down to improve my repertoire. Soothe Minor Pain was a go-to for at the mont, and while I didn't use Restore Stamina very often, it wasn't a bad cantrip to have. I was ready for sothing better, though.

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Work ended with more of a whimper than a bang. Five rolled around, and I stepped out of the Luna Corp HQ fresh out of the training room showers, dressed in casual clothes with my biker jacket slung over one shoulder.

I paused a little as I saw Louise by the lobby. Could I go say hi? Only... she was busy, talking with soone else, and what would I even do? Walk up to her like a puppy starved for attention and make eyes at her?

What would Louise think of Deadline? Not , the that ca in to work every morning and took that corporate cheque, but the in a cool costu, fighting for love and justice and to line my pockets?

Well, I wouldn't be finding out today.

I got on my bike, started it up, then headed out. I rode pretty much straight to Full-Auto Stranger Danger, parking my bike out of the way before climbing off and simply walking through the fast food place out front to go right in.

Jane was there, sitting up on her counter, one hand behind her, the other tapping away on a phone.

"Hey," I said as I ca up to her. How had she gotten up there? I didn't see a stool.

She looked up to , then grinned. "Beanstalk! You're early."

"Only by a few minutes," I said. "How are ya?"

"Not bad, love, better now that I see ya. You been good?"

I smiled. "Yeah. I've been alright. I'm assuming you got my ssage about today?"

"Yup! You're outfitting another mber of your secretive little group." She leaned back, one leg folding up so that she could hug her knee. It made the long skirt she was wearing bunch up and I found myself fighting not to stare at the shadowed outline of her thigh. I think she knew, because her grin beca shit-eating quick. "If we have ti to wait, I can think of a few things we could do."

"In ten minutes?" I asked.

"I'll make them feel longer," she replied smoothly.

I fought back a blush. Dammit, Jane. "Maybe hold off until you've t Becky. I'm... genuinely afraid of what will happen when your energy ets hers."

"Oh? She's a fun sort?"

"You might like her. Or hate her. She'd got style but no... direction with it? It's frustratingly casual for her."

"Beanstalk, you do know how to pick 'em, don't you? First the princess, now the Becky character. Are we going for the sa style of outfit?"

"More or less, yeah," I said. "Sothing to help cover her ID, maybe make her look like she's part of the group, you know?"

"I can do that, easy," Jane said. "By the way, don't you think that it's ti for an update?"

"On my existing costu?" I asked.

"Yeah. You ca in here with a budget of fuck and all, and I worked miracles, but I've got the impression that you have a little more in the bank now. Give a budget and I can probably work on sothing real cool. There's magical materials out there that are wild, you know? Cut-proof leathers and magic-reactive tals and shit like that."

"That... might be interesting, yeah," I said. "But how big of a budget are we talking, here?"

"I don't know. A thousand bucks and I'll get you a better cut and tailored version of what you have already. Ten and I can slip in so decent magic materials in, but nothing too special. That'll at least cover my ti and effort. Five tis that, and I'll make you sothing real aweso. The kind of shit that you only usually see B-rankers strutting around in."

"For that kind of money I could get plate armour... like, really top-end stuff."

"Sure, off the shelf. I'm talking bespoke, usable, high fashion, probably enchanted, definitely magical, and unlike all those prudes who make that shit high-ranking corpos wear, I know that there should be gaps to show off so skin."

"I feel like armour very much shouldn't?" I tried.

Jane glared. "Then you're only protecting yourself from people who want to ogle! That's the opposite of what you want to do! No one will know that you're hot if you're covering up too much! You need to tantalize, to hint! To show off so sexy, sexy skin!"

Right... this is why Jane was... Jane.

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