TEOTWAWKI
#109: Daniel Freemartin -What to do?
A few days later Daniel approached the Banana Slug
He didn’t need to moor since he was more or less swimming. After talking to Carl he’d had the Avatar eat everything plastic except for the Glock, some food and the WaterFilter, and turn it into SSmoke so he could upgrade his OmniSuit. When he transformed the Omni-suit into clothing upon arrival at the Bannana Slug he had some bling left over and that was IT.
It gave new meaning to the term ‘traveling light’.
Carl (or Karl, he never knew which one he was talking to) helped him settle in. Karl/Carl demonstrated flying too. Daniel discovered that it was intuitive. He practiced a bit then they flew to “Ernie’s Restaurant”, for breakfast. Daniel gazed idly about while chatted with Karl/Carl and ate his omelette.
Kind of amazing actually. The restaurant was a nice place on the inside but the habitat it was in, the Banana Slug, looked like Houston after Katrina. It appeared to be undergoing deconstruction. It did have it’s bright points though. Below was a swimming pool with a deck, chairs and tables. After he finished eating maybe he’d fly there, if it wasn’t dismantled too much. This whole place looked like everyone in it was moving.
Somehow it looked like real sunlight inside the Banana Slug. It’d been a while since he’d seen any sun. Outside it was foggy and raining all the time. Perhaps they used lamps. He didn’t care, he might actually get some rays, even if they were from a lamp.
Karl/Carl, such a nice young man, even if he was a smart ass, had to go. Other business he said. Something about cows and a fox. Before he left though he had explained the concept of the omni-suit that Daniel was wearing in greater detail. Clothes make the man and Daniel could be any kind of man he wanted to be with the right programing and enough SSmoke. Interesting... so Daniel bought a stack of programs.
Hell he might even go for a swim. He might even select a suit option that gave him full blown aquatic........er. Perhaps he’d just calm down a little bit and acclimate.
He’d do that and try to figure out what the hell to do.
sarcasm-on It wasn’t like there had been any big changes in his life lately or anything. A few months ago he’d been a janitor at a factory. sarcasm-off
Then he’d fallen down the rabbit hole.
Daniel signaled the waitress. A cute little gal flew to his table.
“Do you serve on the sundeck?” he asked
“We certainly do” she replied.
“Thank you.” he said.
When he attempted to pay for his meal a “popup” appeared before him.

FloodSurvivors
We’re Happy you’re alive.
Eat for the First Week FREE
at The Three Amigos
No Charge
(later)
Daniel lay on a chaise lounge on the sundeck, soaked up (artificial) rays and used his neuro-link to tie into the local wifi. He perused the local network jobs pages on the local mesh-net
“What to do, what to do.” he thought.
He had a few Groats left in the Virtual Coin Wallet thing. Karl/Carl had explained (kinda sorta) how it worked. He had the FloodRefugeeGrant. How much was it worth actually? It couldn’t be a lot. Then he remembered the pendant hanging from the chain around his neck. He was no jeweler but he was glad he had his glock. The jewel alone must be 20 carats, big as a damn robin egg, not to mention the heavy gold chain. It was just begging to be robbed.
They just given it to him and walked away. Figuratively that is.
How much did it cost him to eat? How long before he had to find a job? He hadn’t a clue.
There were a bucket load of tele-operator jobs going begging. “pay negotiable” they all said. No help there.
He had no idea what would be good or bad pay, he had no ‘feel’ for Groats yet.
He kept looking. He finally found some prices..hmm..this was very interesting.
The Market
goat milk - $ .10 -> quart
WheatFlour - 2.00 -> hundred pounds
animal protein - .10 -> lb
potatoes - 1.00 -> 50 lbs.
Sugar - .50 -> lb
butter - .20 -> lb
cheese - .25 -> lb
eggs - .35 -> doz
A little bit of digging uncovered what the cost of eating was at Ernie's (funny...it was called The Three Amigo’s sometimes and Ernie’s other times, odd that.)
Meal - $1.00 (av)
Beer - .15 -> mug
Coffee - .05 -> bottomless cup
He did some calculations in his head. The Neuro-loop certainly helped. All he had to do was subvocalize a question and the answer appeared in his mind. Pretty cool.
He did some more data mining, more digging, hmm. He revised his idea about finding trash to feed to his Avatar, there warn’t none. This place and the area around it was unnaturally free of trash, even if it was undergoing deconstruction. It was the neatest wreck he’d ever seen..
Imagine that.
More digging, some calculations, and he discovered that the cost of living here turned out to be insanely cheap.
He had enough to last for quite a while. He wasn’t going to be homeless anytime soon.
That gave him some time to think. What did he want to do?
What COULD he do?
He didn’t have to be a tele-operator. He could be a carbon prospector. Diamonds were a girl’s best friend and SSCrystals were too. They seemed to be in high demand. He could go back out upon the water and look for oil, plastic bags and all kinds of other trash made from petroleum. He could then sell that. They’d give him Groats and he’d be rich.
Maybe not rich but comfortable. He’d do that.
He did some more calculating and some more research. He decided that he needed a fabricator. He checked the price .
WOW! That was pretty steep, and that was just to lease! It seemed that Fabricators were NOT for sale. Even if he wasn’t familiar with the new money he recognized zeros when he saw them.
What the hell. He’d check it out anyway. A VR call was free.
The Next Episode Is
#110: Melvin: No one can multitask…
The Previous Episode was
#108: Melvin: 'We have a problem’…
The First Episode was
# 1 : Prologue…
..............
Book One: SoulStone
..................................................
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My advice for Daniel is to take the tele-operation job till he is able to get a better job that befits is reputation. Great work
Well, after a tragedy of the magnitude lived with this flood, the truth that the Banana Slug, offers a lot of options to victims that they feel good and are able to start a new life, particularly with the use of the virtual currency Groat ... Surely some work will get ... "This place and the area around it was unnaturally free of trash, even if it was undergoing deconstruction. It was the neatest wreck he'd ever seen .. "Beware of environmentalists! Maybe they want to invade Banana Slug.
the environmentalists are most likely dead. the environment wasn't kind to them.
A carbon miner, like old time miners, set off, find a motherload, kick back and watch a fluffy work.
miner forty niner...those old californians never had it so good.