Chase had a sip of his handiwork, and if it was closer to a wine? Well, there's something to be said about pacing. That they were playing Hold'em, that he needed a sharp mind - that the ole' casino atmosphere had a way of slipping into a man's thoughts -

"It's just a proper thing to do for a Man to take care of his Ma." Hickory said, "Ma just don't like to be tended to, she likes to do the tendin' and I've been scratching my ass trying to come up with something she'd fancy."

Hickory looked stumped - hardly peaked at his cards before he raised the ante, it was already fifty marbles to stay in. A low stakes hand for him -

Chase didn't peak at his cards, it was an excellent deal, a pair of Kings. Six percent chance of being dealt a pocket pair, and being that only aces beat kings? There was less than half a percent chance somebody had a better draw than him. But poker wasn't about just stats - still - he called the bet.

"That's tough, Hick, I mean, we all love her like our own, that we know how stubborn she is, it's where ya got it."

Hickory nodded proudly.

"But you're right, with them folk moving out here it's bound to get dangerous at some point, how we've not had the crime Weston's place is dealing with when we've got all this wildness, I don't know."

Weston shook his head, "We pay for laws, for police, for guards." He called as well, taking a peak at his cards, "It's...ridiculous, but - I think it's because of the wild things, even the hookers, the casino, it keeps people busy."

"The weapons, too." Gage said, matching the bet, "Here people are more, I don't know, defensively aggressive? They know they won't get in trouble for defending themselves. It's that law. Why don't you just build a compound around her, a fortress, Hunter will set you up."

"I'll build you anything ya want, I'm getting a system down but you don't need all that for walls, just do a contract, just keep it simple and they'll do it just to be able to say they built for Hick." Hunter said then nodded at the casino around them as he tossed his cards in to fold - you wouldn't think he was rich, "This was just all tearing walls down, hiring people to decorate but I'm close to being able to do something solid I think, the question is where. That land from the expansion is going to waste I say we start pushing that way, start laying the groundwork, cross the river, put her a mansion right there on the bank."

Weston frowned at that, shook his head - not a lot you could do, it was like trying to build around landmines, Chase knew. That there had been a lot of abandoned land that nobody lived in that went to Hickory...

Hickory nodded as the dealer turned over three cards called the Flop - No kings, a three, a six, and a seven. Possible straight but who would have stayed in with a four and five?

Hickory tossed in a green chip - fuck.

"This sounds like something for May." Chase said, frowning. A pair of Kings was a great hand - but, he was still getting things going, his marble flow wasn't like the others, not yet, he couldn't produce it fast enough - that booze was rare enough that he could even sit down at the table with the rest of them? Still..."Though I saw that last flag she did and maybe now might not be the time to go introducing her to your Ma. Call."

Chase couldn't help but eye Hickory, as he tossed his bet in. He wasn't the type of guy that would look at another man's cards, but you had to wonder when it came to poker. He glanced at Weston, too - who hadn't seemed upset, though from the look of things, he had a pretty good hand himself.

Both him and Gage threw their bets in together. Of course that was none of Chase's business -

"What was it this time?" Hunter laughed as Hickory ordered a drink by waving his glass, the server poured, shook the mixed drink, a Whiskey Sour. Chase hadn't been able to do a proper Whiskey yet - nothing you'd drink straight up, but he was getting closer - "Don't tell me it's better then the rooster?"

The card flipped. A nine. Double fuck - and of course Hickory bet again, tossing in a black chip - 100 marbles. Chase sighed and folded.

"That rooster was the worst of 'em." Hickory said, shaking his head and giving the waitress a black chip, "Don't know where May found such a fat chicken, that it looked about to burst out of the seams, like it wouldn't even fit on the flag!"

Weston coughed at this, seeming to try to read Gage before deciding, then called - Gage raised it, a blue chip, Hunter watched each as they matched, eye'd the pot, his hands empty -

The last card? The River? King. Fuck.

"Why not set her up with a business?" Chase almost said restaurant, "Maybe a charity? Ain't that what rich folk usually do to keep their women folk busy, Weston?"

Weston paused, but nodded.

Hickory raised the bet again, another black chip - just tossed it like it wasn't a week of wages for regular folk - "She gives to the Church and I thought about that, but there was this one time she gave somebody a dollar and they went and got in a nice car an drove off, she ain't given anything sense, and we ain't got no orphans or anything."

Weston looked at his cards again, played with a stack of black chips, looked around the table - "There's really only one thing, and it's only a matter of time before we have an Envoy showing up." He seemed to taste each word, shake his head, looked at his cards again and tossed them - Hickory grinned at the fold, "Women's work. There needs to be customs, courtesies, history. There needs to be a Queen Mother."

Gage looked at Weston, nodded, gave him a reassuring pat on the back like Weston couldn't afford to piss away a few black chips - then Gage called Hickory's bet.

"Ah, she won't go for all that." Hickory said laughing, shaking his head, but did he also look scared? "And I ain't gonna be a - I don't know, like poor Pierson having to wear all those skinny jeans, talking to people all day."

Hickory flipped his cards over - a 10 and a 2 -

"Nothing!" Hunter shouted, Gage scooped in the pot after showing a pair of Jacks - "Not even an ace! Don't even grin, Gage, you're cheating, that ain't even cards you're just reading Hick and then bluffing the rest of us!"

Gage nodded - grinning, holding up his own drink and ignoring Weston's sour-puss expression - "This is gonna be good, Ma in the palace cooking up catfish, swatting Prince Hickory with a spoon!"

"I guess it makes sense." Chase agreed, grinning, "She's the only one you'll listen to."

"Ya'll are betrayers!" Hickory shouted, "And I buried that damn spoon, I hated that thing, how it didn't break no way it was made of just plain ole wood it had a demon in it or something."

"Think about it, Hickory." Hunter said, "We told you how awkward it was with the Chief, nobody knew what to do, everybody was waiting for each other to talk. It just makes sense, you know she'll be having everyone in line, minding their manners, and all them important people being nice to her, bringing her presents? She'd love it!"

Hickory still didn't look convinced, but what wouldn't he do to make his Ma happy? Chase knew from the moment Weston mentioned it that it was a foregone conclusion - knew that Hickory would finally start to build up the Chapel...

He finished his drink, played a bit more and left with far more money then what he came with. Not because of cards - even if he was the best at stats, Gage was too good at reading everyone, Hickory couldn't be bluffed, Hunter was too tight that if he bet almost everyone folded - it was still a lot of fun...

Chase came out ahead because the Casino bought every drop of booze, as fast as he could make it...

Chase walked into his Laboratory. Alright - it was just a shed. But it was a nice shed. Hunter had done him right, expanded his structure, and even if it looked like nothing more then a tangle of pipes and pots and jugs and jars?

He was working on it - it was getting better. As the town got better. He still brewed, but his job on the booze side was looking over things, writing out directions for his workers. He didn't have to do everything - not on his own.

This was just plain hooch, just for drinking and distilling, and he wasn't even running at capacity. Once the crops start coming in? Everything would change -

In fact, he wouldn't even have this - if it wasn't for him being able to Trade with the Tribe, and Hunter, of course, and Blackberries.

It was actually a lot more complicated than even that, apparently, that Chase had only met Eh'Koh, and only because Hunter hired him as a consultant for the Casino, and he had nothing to do with trading...trying to figure out how he got access to Blackberries was like watching a pinball machine - Chase knew it had to do with a marble bouncing all over the place, going to natives along with dried fish, with cloth, bows coming here, forged arrowheads going back, and somehow Blackberries - while they were in season, because the natives were willing to give up some luxuries for more basics that they still needed -

It was dangerous work, the trade caravans, but the Tribe had no problem doing it on foot - which is why it actually came to him as a syrup, which wasn't optimal - it gave him less control over the process, but...this was just for sipping, it wasn't for anything special.

Just Blackberry Wine and a Blackberry Brandy. He reconstituted the syrup by adding water and his yeast mix, letting it ferment. He was hoping to get some magic help - something that sped it up, or let him make more like Hunter did, but so far he hadn't been so lucky.

Which is why Chase had started letting other people in his space -

"This is amazing!"

"Holy shit, you're making potions!"

It was the Dungeonists, of course, and Chase had been using them as his secret weapon of inspiration, his ace in the hole. Their job was to basically explain. To make sense of all this crazy shit and put it down in a way for normal people to understand it.

"Now I don't want you putting my secrets in the Tutorial." Chase said.

"No, no we won't man, even if we hadn't signed a contract, but...holy Azoroth this is insane! Why is it so complicated though?"

"This ain't it." Chase laughed - leading them into his actual lab. The cellar -

"Fireflies!" One of them said, "But why not - oh shit, this stuff's explosive?"

"Of course, it's alcohol." Chase said, "But there's precautions, but everything matters, so I'm testing what's best before I expand, got to decide what I'm doing for lighting."

The fireflies had gotten better - ever since the Insecterrariam they were brighter, their asses stayed lit longer. It was it's own industry, now. 100 fireflies in four corners of a room lit it with a consistent soft light, enough to work with and even read. People had started selling jars of the larger bugs at the market as fish bait and it picked up from there.

Once your eyes adjusted to the light it was actually sort of nice -

"You're here to give me some ideas, ways to - I don't know, make it more magical, unlock my Abilities." Chase said.

The Dungeonists stared, wide eyed at his convoluted systems of copper pipe, mason jars, funnels and burners -

"This is already fucking nuts."

Chase nodded - and there were a lot of nuts. Ground nuts, just the shells crushed, whole nuts - nut hulls. He was doing an entire product test on them since they would be a ready resources once Hunter's trees started producing.

Just like eggs and egg shells -

"You're making empty eggs into bottles? It's...so obvious -"

Chase nodded, why waste? Poke a hole in the top and bottom of an egg, blow out the yolk, bit of bee's wax to seal - of course he was no pitcher, but he was adapting. Once he found out what worked to kill them shadows?

It wasn't just that, of course, but also about expenses, production. About consistent sizes and doses. That the glass works was just limping along was also a part of it.

And Chase was also noticing things -

"It works better than glass from before. That's what I think should go in the Tutorial, that it's not like we were thinking that it's just hand made, the hand blown glass they do adds about the same potency as the egg capping out at 4%. Before glass adds nothing. But even if I have the chicken sit on 'em again for a week it only adds another 4% percent."

"Wait...you give them -"

"Hold on, how are you even testing this? To have such accurate numbers, are you just drinking..."

"No! I'd pop." Chase said, laughing, "I'd be drunk or pissing so much I wouldn't get any work done."

"And you're doing more then strength, you're increasing Reservoir, I know -"

"Na, I just do one potion right now until I figure it out, I had to go back to basics cause it wasn't making no sense, see I can make a potion out of powdered eggshell and water that give one strength and turns blue."

Their eyes widened and all their mouths opened -

"Hold on."

They closed, but not all the way -

"Hold on and let me explain it and if I've done it wrong you can tell me." Chase heard their teeth click - they were worse then Weston - that Dungeonist was a good name for them cause they all looked like they were bout to lock him up and torture him for answers.

"My potion turns colors, so I made a strength potion and found the exact minimum amount needed for the effect, the dose. I did it by looking in the gym mirror, taking the dose until my stat goes up - that's a dose - just measure how much I'd drank and I know. And before you ask, no - I don't know if it's different for different people, but I think so. I also know that it changes for the person, as I got stronger I needed less of a dose to go up a point."

They were turning purple. Purple as his Armor Potion -

"It don't matter because I based everything off strength and one days testing to make the baseline, that's the whole measurement system. So what I did from there is I made a color chart, by diluting a single dose one increment at a time then I can see potency."

Chase pointed at the wall, where 101 empty spice bottles hung, all with a blue liquid, almost clear on the far left, a deep navy blue on the far right.

"The middle is a dose. To the left it's less, to the right it's more. So I took that - "

"This is!"

"I know!"

"It's just -"

"Hey! Ya'll, chill. Ya got me acting like Hickory trying to tell a story." Chase said, "You should be acting like this when we score, not yawning on the bench, now chill for I can finish."

It took another minute -

"The point I'm making is I can measure how different things effect the potency, then compare it to other potions. Storage effects all potions consistently. So does equipment and water quality. It don't change the effects, just makes them weaker or stronger."

They nodded.

"So that's what I want help with. There's other factors I'm finding, too, that don't make it perfect. Things effect how long it lasts, why I can't go up more then a point even if I condense it further, or drink ten doses. It don't make it last longer there's rules to it that don't make sense -"

They nodded, seemed to be holding each other back, but also pushing each other back in order to see who would get to speak first -

"So we're gonna put these ideas in the Tutorial, that maybe other people find a power, maybe they can do it with cooking, use a gold spoon or something, but also come up with ideas I can test."

That's what it was about really, just finding ways to make it better. And to share, not the secrets. Just like how putting the eggshells in a blender vs crushing them by hand was a difference - 10%, 14% if you used a marble.

Chase was figuring it out. And as badly as he wanted to make a bunch of different potions, he needed at least a rough idea of how it worked before he went wasting a bunch of stuff. Potion ingredients were going to be expensive - that was obvious, if special fish scales right now offered the most potent effects?

Yeah, Chase wasn't going to waste, even if he could get away with it, even if he could afford it. He gave his buddies each a large bottle of his potion to try for themselves as they walked back to School - where he didn't just read anymore, he'd finished those books, that didn't mean he didn't still have stuff to learn, to share, to teach...

That was next, right? A College? The next level...