Chapter 98: Recreational Tinkering

Chapter 98: Recreational Tinkering

Well... shit. And fuck. And fucking shit. I HAVE to be in the capital for this. And honestly, so does Lily-Anne. And... it kind of looks like everyone assumed I remembered and planned it like this... Holy shit, I was THIS close to fucking this up. If I decided to go to Evergreens before going to the estate, for example? Damn, I need to write this shit down. Actually... I wonder if I forgot other things like this... Meh. Recalling stuff is not an issue, I remember everything with photographic clarity, but... the bit that ties memories with timing is wonky. I... Ugh.

As I stand there, family troops into the ship, greets my wives and generally settles in, along with a number of servants. I guess dad remembered what I told him about limits of ship capacity, at least. Sighing, I turn around and troop back in, taking a good look at the circumstances. Everything seems to be in order.

"Everyone settled?" - I ask out loud - "Everyone who departs is on board, everyone who stays is on the ground? Everything necessary loaded?"Th.ê most uptodate novels are published on n(0)velbj)n(.)co/m

As I get a wave of affirmatives and agreements back, my mood plummets further. This is... a problem. For now, I take the airship back into the air, steer it around and set it on the course towards the Parsee.

___

"Well, that just reaffirms what I already told you, dear. You need to take a good long rest." - mother chides gently.

"Indeed." - dad reinforces from his side - "Thankfully, nothing complicated had come out of this, so take heed of this and do better next time. No harm, no foul, as they say."

I sigh. Maybe I shouldn't have told them that I forgot, but this worries me. So far I was winging it, and it's clearly not cutting it anymore. So... What can I do to mitigate the problem? The basic solution is to keep notes. Maybe also hand over a copy of things to someone else so I'd get a reminder if I'm missing something...

"Bridgit?" - I request tiredly - "I have a favor to ask. If I fail to mention something that sounds important to you, can you please remind me? I am going to start writing my plans down, because at this rate, it's not a matter of if I forget something important, but when."

She nods, biting her lip lightly. "Mistress, you really should give more tasks instead of trying to handle everything yourself." - she proffers - "And not just us, you have a whole trading house. Give them the routine to handle, that's what they're for."

Hrm. She's not wrong, but... I need something done first.

"I think I will keep it like this, mom." - she proffers. I see she's taking my speech patterns pretty easily. Good job.

"Fair enough. Now, I'm going to get the stuff out and try to tinker myself a tablet to keep the plans and schedule on. Actually, scratch that, I'm going to make a bunch of tablets with quantum link and give them to everyone in the family... Wait, no. Dad should probably have his networked with mom's, and optional connection to mine... Hrm. Actually, that might also be a basis for next iteration of my copperphones, I really need to introduce the networkable model instead of just handing out hardlocked links, this is getting a bit troublesome." - I muse.

"Don't forget to put Doom on it." - Cy teases.

"And Carmageddon too, I promise. Well, maybe just on yours and mine, for starters. Let the rest of the people get used to the idea of tablet before we throw computer games at them... Hm. Maybe Selene would like... no, nevermind, I just can't see her liking Doom all that much." - I continue, as I split off a second me to work at the worktable, while the first me remains at the chair, idly playing with Cy.

___

"...Alyssa." - this is what dad comes up with, as he turns the ready-made tablet in hands. As it is, everyone present got one. I have the master tablet, for obvious reasons. My harem and Cy get tablets that are networked between themselves, with option to turn on the connection to dad's cluster. Dad, mom and brothers get four tablets that are clustered with each other, dad's having the control bits for other three, just in case. And an optional connection to any of ours. Everyone's poking at them. In the end, I went with tried and true methods. Tablets are a thin span of wood with a stack of thin tin plates set into it with etched formulae that form the illusion mimicking touchscreen. There is a slot in the back of the tablet to stick a stick of copper in, like a battery. One stick should last for about a month of non-stop use, or about ten years of standby mode. Split the difference and replace them each year, easy-peasy. A rounded stick of silver-inlaid oak serves as a stylus, which automatically attaches itself to the tablet if let go entirely. I didn't put in much. There's scheduler, note-taker, which is a rudimentary text redactor with handwriting recognition, a calculator and a bunch of other conveniences, such as magical equivalent of barometer, thermometer, altimeter and a bunch of other meters, including poison detector and magic detector. Sadly, Doom will have to wait, still coding that one. It's stupidly complicated, compared to the rest of the stuff. I wish I could just download me a copy.

Anyway... dad sighs and sets the tablet down. "Alyssa." - he repeats - "While you have, once again, came up with something tremendously useful, this is definitely NOT what I had in mind when I suggested you should relax more."

"Dad, I'm sorry, but this is how I relax. I'm honestly feeling much better now." - I proffer in return.

"Yeah, mom would climb walls if she tried to sit still." - Cy pipes in suddenly, making everyone twirl to her in shock.

"What?" - she asks, taking a look around - "Mom fixed my voice. I'm now eloquent, and can people just fine."

"You certainly people well." - I tease back and we smirk at each other. Some jokes are just between us abominations.