Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The 100 Groove

'Some good gains in needed skills, I'm now more confident in my plan, but what's up with gifting me with so many character skills and memories?'

[It makes it easier to upgrade your skills by rewarding you with character memories.]

'Interesting, didn't the system upgrade my skills without memories before?'

[There is a limit to how much knowledge user can currently learn without context and user has reached the limit.]

'Don't the memories add an advantage to the knowledge gained?'

[Mostly in the dimensions the character comes from will the memories have the most use, otherwise they mainly add to stabilizing the increased skill.]

'What about the loss of my personal identity? All these other memories are kind of crowding my thoughts.'

[User already has Iron Will perk which should help firm user's identity.]

'If that's the case then why am I starting to have difficulties with thinking?'

[User hasn't organized their gained memories in their Memory Palace to stabilize issues user must expand and organize their perk.]

'Are you kidding me all I needed to do is organize and expand my Memory Palace? How do I organize and expand my perk?'

[User is correct, to expand Memory Palace Perk user needs to meditate, to sort the memories and add rooms to the Palace. For future stabilization to user's mind, user must either increase intelligence and wisdom or gain a related skill or perk.]

'Well I know how to expand my intelligence and wisdom. (increase knowledge for intelligence, make positive life choices and enact them successfully for wisdom) I figure that the skills I need to learn are memory based, although the ease of learning new skills seem to be age limited. How do I learn a memory skill efficiently or gain a related perk?'

[Users learn skills easier when it's related to their current body's trait. For perks user's access level is too low for answer.]

'Got some pretty good answers, guess I'll need to find time to learn how to meditate and sort my memories and expand my memory palace.'

-On Earth the Camp-

  A monitor and some speakers had been brought out of the dropship, so the 100 could view the proceeding celebration that was occurring on the Ark. As the crowd silently watched, Raven connected the last cord and the screen turned on showing Chancellor Thelonius Jaha who was about to start what might be the last holiday celebration on the Ark. Thelonius smiling serenely said, "My friends, this is a historic Unity Day. Every year, we mark the moment our ancestors of the twelve stations joined to form the Ark, but this is the last time we do so while aboard her. Next year, we'll celebrate on the ground."

  Hearing these words Nathan Miller, a young black male with dark brown eyes, a buzz cut, and a strong build, sarcastically said, "Right. After we did all the work. Someone shut him up." Raven who had been listening intently, trying to enjoy the festivity, barked, "You shut up, Miller. No one's forcing you to watch." Nathan stared in shock at her words, grew silent, and moved back to give her some space. Thelonius passionately continued his speech, "For ninety-seven years, we have eked out an existence, hoping that someday our descendants would return to Earth."

  Finn had been standing further back from the crowd barely hearing the words the Chancellor was speaking, when Clarke who had noticed that he wasn't next to Raven to share in listening to the festivities, said teasingly, "Don't tell me you don't like Unity Day." Finn scowled in her direction and said, "Unity Day is a lie. The Ark only came together after the thirteenth station was blown out of the sky. Just not the version of history we like to tell each other at parties." Clarke winced at his words and attempting to smooth his obviously disturbed emotions, said, "The Unity Day story gives people hope, though, and peace came out of that violence." Staring sadly into her eyes Finn asked, "Yeah, but did there need to be violence at all?"

  Thinking about an appropriate response, Jasper interrupted their somber atmosphere, carrying out from his makeshift chemical lab, a small keg, shouting, "Whoo! Yeah! Jasper and Monty strikes again! Hey! Call this batch Unity Juice! Who's thirsty? There you go." As he spoke he was pouring the makeshift alcohol that he and Monty had made using harvested parts from the escape pod and who knew what mystery science, into makeshift cups for everyone to enjoy. As the crowd surrounding Jasper cheered at receiving the beverage Monty called out, "Hey. Save me some." Jasper smiling handed Monty a full cup and walked up to Finn and Clarke handed them a cup each smiling broadly, said, "Happy Unity Day. Pass it around." They accepted the cups smiled awkwardly to each other clinked the cups together and drank some.

  Finn then made his way to Raven as Thelonius continued his speech, "To our sons and daughters on Earth listening to this message, we will see you soon. The first two Exodus ships will launch soon, carrying the families and friends you've been waiting for to help, so stay strong. Help is on the way. Without further ado, I present the story of us." As Thelonius moved to the side a young girl moved up and began to recite, "Long ago when the Earth was on fire, through space all alone. Then one day, Mir floated by Shenzhen, and they realized life would be better together. The other stations saw this, and they wanted to be together, too. When all the stations were formed, they called themselves the Ark."

  As the little girl said the speech, 12 children had moved in a choreographed pattern symbolizing the 12 stations circling the Earth, joining hands slowly in a stylized manner showing the complex work of joining stations together. In the background a famous Stanley Kubrick movie orchestral song was being played, as the song reached the climax the circling children met up and joined hands. The watching crowd broke into applause and as the children disengaged and bowed to the audience, Thelonius Jaha walked back up and announced, "Thank you children for your wonderful performance." After pausing a little for the applause to die down once more he continued, "One last thing before we begin the festivities, as we send people back to Earth, all contraceptive implants will be removed."

  Even the partying teens who had been enjoying their drinks stop upon hearing this, Thelonius continued somberly, "The one child rule was only ever to be implemented on the Ark because of our limited resources, once down on the surface population control will no longer be an issue, and since the transition to the surface will leave us short on the higher level medical technology, we will need to be doing any last minute medical procedures now." As the crowd began to murmur amongst themselves in confusion, Vera Kane, the religious leader of the Ark stepped up, and spoke with passion, "As the Earth has become fruitful once more so shall we all. The Earth will welcome us all with open arms and we must be in the best condition to be worthy of it's bounty." With those words much of the murmuring ended, but there was an atmosphere of discontent from all the unwanted changes to come.

  Finn had finally made his way to Raven and commented on what Vera said, "Be fruitful, nice metaphor, care to join me in some fruit making?" Raven laughed and replied sadly, "I don't think any of us had those implants removed, I know I didn't. Still let me get a cup of Jasper's Unity juice and we can still give it a shot." With that while most of the teenagers danced and enjoyed the music being broadcast from the Ark many couples began to drift and slip away to their own private areas to enjoy their own sense of unity.

-On the Ark-

  As everyone dispersed to enjoy the rest of the festivities and shake off the revelations of their Chancellor, Diana walked up to Thelonius and said with fake warmth, "Chancellor that was an interesting way to introduce change that my administration wasn't ready for." He grinned and replied softly, "Just giving you a hand with kick-starting the changing rules of our society and conserving the resources needed to be sent down to earth, as I said higher tier medical technology will be unavailable for some time while on the ground." Diana replied somewhat coolly, "I was unaware that resources would be so scarce on the ground."

  Thelonius' grin dimmed, moving closer he whispered, "Based on what I could glean from the grounder called Lincoln, Mount Weather is not an option for resources, apparently it is occupied by some truly terrible people called the Mountain Men and Reavers. He refused to go into details till the deal is struck, but whatever is going on there we want to avoid." Diana nodded in response and said, "Thank you for your concern and the assistance, I believe we need to communicate more on the decisions you make that will affect us on the ground, so I can plan accordingly, alright?" With that she made her way out of the party area, stopping occasionally to make small talk with various people, reassuring them that everything would go well in the transition to the ground.

  Marcus Kane walked up too the bemused Thelonius and asked, "I'm guessing she was less than pleased with you changing her plans?" Thelonius shook his head grinning once more and said, "If we are to have a future on the ground we need to make sure that the people have more freedom, and it seems that our Chancellor of Earth doesn't see that yet. Luckily she'll have you and Abby to advise her." Marcus smiled wanly and replied, "I'm honored that you feel that way Thelonius, I will try my best to meet your expectations." Thelonius embraced Marcus and said, "We all strive to make the best decisions in moments of crisis, and I can say that all we can do is try." Marcus hugging back, replied, "I'll do the best I can with Abby, just make sure that you make it safely down as well."

  Diana Sydney had finally made her way out of the party and with that the smile she had been painfully maintaining slid off her face as she made her way to where Jacapo had been last reported to be working. As she made her way to the dropship location, Commander Shumway joined her and said, "Our other spies report that Jacapo has been diligently making all the modifications the Council has requested of him, in fact he has even been using all his remaining resources to push the scheduled changes faster. It's almost as if he thinks that the Ark is going to fall out of the sky when we leave." Diana snorted and said, "He's not wrong, my loyal engineers claim that any repairs not done personally by Jacapo on the Ark are failing, it's almost like we're past a warranty date. We need to be heading to the surface soon and I'm displeased with the time Thelonius is taking, trying to negotiate with these grounders."

  While airing her displeasure with Shumway they made their way around a corner leading to Factory Station where they saw Jacapo taking a break from repairing something in a panel to share a tender moment with his wife in celebration of Unity day. Noticing that he now had an audience, Jacapo gently parted from his wife and remarked, "Is the last celebration done so soon Chancellor Sydney?" At his words, his wife nodded to him in understanding and quickly made her escape from the area to continue with her own tasks. Diana barely glanced at her back and scowling slightly said, "I want to make further changes to my dropship, I want more weaponry for my personnel and I want to continue with the plan with sending us to Mount Weather."

  Jacapo hearing her words grinned internally, but frowned slightly, "Chancellor, is that wise to change the trajectory? I was under the impression from the groun...." Diana cut him off and said roughly, "I'm aware of what the grounder said and I don't believe a word of what he said. I want a secure site for myself and my people. I want more weaponry to make that happen, can you do that?" Diana didn't have to continue with any threats, Jacapo hurriedly replied, "I can program the dropship to land anywhere you want it too, but if you want anymore weapons, that is a different matter. I've optimized it to the best of my abilities, the only way you're getting anymore equipment let alone weaponry is to decrease the amount of people coming with you." Diana didn't even flinch at his words and asked immediately, "How many people for enough weaponry and ammunition to equip my guard detail?"

  Commander Shumway spoke up at that moment to say, "Just to clarify we'll be taking 25 Ark guards and we'll want to fully arm them, not just shock batons, but full ordinance." Jacapo pulled out a pen and a sheet of paper and after asking for clarification on what full ordinance meant and if they wanted any first aid supplies as well. They did want some so after making some calculations he said, "You will have to drop ten people from the former 140 person roster the Council requested. With their removal, I can remove their seating and place the requested ordinance in their place. I can begin making those changes as soon as I finish the repair I was making here. Is there anything else you need of me Chancellor?" Diana thought a moment, smiled in satisfaction and replied, "No, I'll handle figuring out who to remove from my roster with Shumway, just make sure what I ordered goes through... and Jacapo have a great Unity Day." With that she and Shumway left Jacapo to finish repairs and handle the increased workload they had given him.

-On Earth the Camp-

  The sky was beginning to lighten and as Clarke disentangled herself from Wells' arms she stretched barely feeling the hangover from the couple of cups of alcohol she consumed the previous night. Wells having felt her leaving the cot woke up, yawned and said, "Morning, how was the celebration last night, after all, I had to skip the drama, because it was my turn to be on night-watch." Clarke smiled and replied, "An essential duty for protection against the night critters and from what Lincoln said the Reavers. Anyway the party on the Ark was a small success and the biggest news I heard was the Chancellor's edict of the removal of the contraceptive implants from those being sent to the surface." Wells' happy expression turned to shock and he replied, "Are you saying my father authorized unplanned births for those going to the surface?" Clarke smiling sadly, replied, "Apparently he wants the rest of the people being sent down to have more freedom of choice in their life."

  Wells' wordlessly made his way to Clarke and in an attempt to comfort her embraced Clarke. After some time Murphy interrupted their moment by knocking on the entryway to their makeshift tent, calling out, "I hope you guys are decent because Lincoln is back." Hearing his words Wells released Clarke allowing her to finish getting dressed. once ready they joined Murphy to meet up with Lincoln at the dropship, where the rest of the camp leadership was waiting.

  Upon entering the dropship the three saw that Bellamy was in a heated debate with Lincoln, Bellamy loudly said, "That is disrespectful to our representative, how are we supposed to negotiate peacefully if your leader won't show any trust in us." Before Lincoln could respond, Clarke asked, "What's going on, is there something wrong with the negotiations?" Bellamy turned to Clarke, his face red from anger as he exclaimed, "You're damn right that something's wrong, the grounder leader wants you to go there alone and unarmed." Before he could continue with his rant Finn spoke up, "This is a chance at peace and we need to be the ones to take the first step in it. Us, not the people on the Ark, us the ones they sent down here to die."

  Taking a breathe Finn looks at everyone in the room and continues, "We all know the rules on the Ark, it is about survival at any cost, and they'll kill people who fall out of line. When those people get down here if they feel threatened, they will start a war, and I don't want that. Neither should any of you. Once the soldiers get here, it will be too late, and we'll have no power to stop them, but if they see that we're at peace, then maybe we'll have a chance for things to stay that way. In order for that to happen we need to show Trikru that we can be reasoned with."

  After a moment of silence Murphy clapped and said, "Why don't we send you to represent us that was a truly inspiring sermon, I almost wanted to shout amen at the end of that." Finn having caught his breath replied, "I'm not exactly good at negotiating, I could end up agreeing to some pretty bad conditions, I also don't think Bellamy would work as well because he is still too short tempered." Before Finn could continue to tick off reasons as to why everyone else wasn't qualified to represent them, Murphy interrupted, "Alright I get it Clarke is the best pick because she is always trying to fix everything, and is still tough enough to force her agenda across. With that out of the way let's see if Mr. Lincoln here can give us a good reason to send our best representative to possible death."

  At his words the group turned to Lincoln and he nodded towards them, then spoke softly, "The person Clarke is meeting is my direct superior and the leader of a unit of Trikru warriors, she was also the mentor of the current Commander and holds great sway with her. If negotiations go well with her your camp and the rest of the Sky people's safety is assured from all tribes of the coalition. If things go wrong, war." Wells remarked, "Well then when and where is this meeting being held and can anyone come with Clarke?" Lincoln shook his head and said, "You came from the sky and wield forbidden weaponry, trust will not be earned so easily. Only Clarke can come with me to negotiate peace, she can bring a second to witness the proceedings, but if anyone else is spotted following, you will be considered dishonorable warriors and no deals will ever be honored with you by Trikru."

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  Raven asked quietly, "What are the responsibilities of a second in these negotiations?" Lincoln turned to her and replied, "As I said, to witness the proceedings and return to the camp if things go wrong. Otherwise nothing." Octavia stepped forward and said, "I volunteer to go." Bellamy shouted, "No, I should be the one to take that risk, I promised to always protect you." Octavia turned to him and sadly said, "That's why it should be me, you're likely to cause this negotiation to fail right now, with how much hostility you're broadcasting." As he tried to calm down to respond in a convincing manner, Octavia stepped next to Lincoln and continued, "Besides I feel a strong connection to the ways of Trikru and believe that I can find a place to belong."

  Deflating Bellamy replied sadly, "If they hurt you, war will be the least of their worries." Finn then interjected, "Can we at least come part of the way?" Lincoln shook his head and said, "No, you would be tempted to follow and our tracking skills would reveal your lack of faith." Raven replied, "Fair enough, but can they take these radios? That way they can let us know if things went well." Lincoln thought for a moment and then said, "They aren't weapons so it should be alright." Clarke turned to Raven and asked, "Wait you were able to make something that could fight through the interference?" Raven shrugged and said, "Not exactly, whatever was interfering with the signal has ceased for the moment so these radios should work fine for now."

  With that the group spent a little bit of time sharing brief farewells and wished luck to Clarke. Octavia bent down and spoke softly to Charlotte, "I'm going to need you to look out for my brother and prevent him from doing something stupid, alright." Charlotte quickly hugged Octavia and said loudly, "Don't worry Octavia, I'll protect Bellamy from himself, you be careful too and come back please." Everyone there laughed except Lincoln and they left to make their way to the meeting point.

  Hours later they reached a decaying bridge that spanned across a wider portion of a river, once there they see that on the other side of the river, there are three people on horses, obviously armed with bows and makeshift swords. Clarke turned to Lincoln and said, "Oh, my God. Horses! Hey, you said no weapons." Lincoln replied, "I was told there wouldn't be." Octavia hugged Clarke said, "This is the ground we need to earn their trust first, you have got this in the bag. Now go on and make history." Clarke snorted, stepped out of the embrace, and replied, "The best negotiations never make history, the only time they do is when they go wrong or impact huge areas." Octavia giggled, "Okay, okay, smartypants, then go make sure this goes unrecorded then."

  Having had her tension eased through sarcasm, Clarke made her way to the center of the bridge, on the other side of the bridge, the rider in the center got off the horse and handed their weaponry to one of the other riders. As Clarke reached the center she noticed that the person was an asian woman with braided dark blonde hair with black roots, hazel, almond-shaped eyes, and wore black war paint on her face. The woman made her way to Clarke and asked in a serious tone, "Your name is Clarke?" Clarke responded, "Yes." and reached out to shake the woman's hand. The woman took Clarke's outstretched hand, gripped Clarke's arm firmly, and replied, "I'm Anya kum Trikru. I am here to begin the peace talks between our two tribes. Lincoln said there are more of you coming down, warriors."

  Clarke had felt great relief when Anya had returned the handshake and replied in relief, "The guard, yes, but also farmers, doctors, engineers. We can help each other grow and earn back what once was lost, but not if we're at war." Anya replied sternly, "Can you promise that these new arrivals won't attack us, that they'll respect the terms you and I agree on?" Clarke nodded her head and replied, "My leader, the Chancellor of the Ark, has imbued me with the authority to negotiate and make binding any terms we can agree on. If any citizen breaks our agreement they will face our strictest punishments. Of course we'll have to come to an agreement first on what those terms will be, after all this is for peace and if the agreement is too one sided we'll end up with conflict anyway. Let's make sure that we can make peace the better option." Anya's stern expression lightened somewhat and said, "Some backbone, good let us begin the process of mutual peace."

  As the two began to negotiate, Octavia turned to Lincoln and asked, "Do you think this can work?" Lincoln replied, "As long as your leaders follow the terms negotiated then yes." Octavia laughed, "We'll be lucky if this agreement lasts a year then." Lincoln turned to her in confusion and asked, "What do you mean?" Octavia asked, "Lincoln, how does your tribe choose a leader?" He thought a bit and said, "Our leader is the best warrior in the tribe who had been trained by the previous leader. There is more nuance to this, but this is the shortest explanation." Octavia said sadly, "On the Ark our leaders are elected by the citizens so if the mood changes at the next election the Chancellor is replaced with someone else. You can see where this could lead to issues right?"

  Lincoln pondered her words in silence for a period of time and asked, "That isn't necessarily the end of peace though is it? Do these newly elected leaders overturn everything the previous leader did? I know that when we get a new Commander things change, but many of the past Commander's rulings are honored." Octavia replied, "Sure the new Chancellor continues the previous' rules, they also try to renegotiate and change things to what got them elected." Lincoln nodded at this and replied, "That is troubling, but from what I've seen of your current ruler everything should be fine, unless your people are morons and elect someone that wants war, things should be fine." Octavia began to laugh once more and after embracing Lincoln, she quietly said, "Here's to some hope." They shared a passionate kiss and then after reigning in their passions, turned to observe the negotiations between Clarke and Anya, which looked to go on for some time.

-On the Ark-

  Jacapo had just finished checking the fourth dropship to see if the repairs and updates were going well, now that the news was out on returning to the ground all available resources and personnel had been redirected to preparing for the Exodus. They were making good time and it looked like all six remaining dropships would be ready to launch at the same time which would make it both easier and harder for Jacapo to program the landing sites of each ship. As he signed off that this ship was ready to be fueled he heard a ding.

[Ding reached the unlocking point for directly and indirectly preventing the deaths of 1,512+ people reward dispensing, +5 to all stats and gain the knowledge and skills of 3 different people; Susan Fletcher from Digital Fortress, increase skill in Mathematics, Learn skills Hacking I and Computer Science H; Najika Kazami from Kitchen Princess, increase skill in Cooking and gain skill Enhanced Taste H; Bill Carstairs from Mrs. Pollifax, increase skills Acting, Basic Language, Body Language, CQC, Fatigue Resistance, Investigation, Lockpick, Shooting, and Teamwork. Karma already awarded. Anya shakes Clarke's hand +1 Charisma, +2 Karma. There is no one to sabotage negotiations to cause the first official major grounder conflict +2 Luck, +15 Karma. Further rewards will become available as the story develops.]

[Basic Science E+ absorbs Computer Science H. Basic Science E+>D+]

[From absorbing 15 unique individuals experiences you gain the perk Premeditation user's learning speed of mental arts increased 5% and increases the capacity of users mind an additional 15 people. Memory Palace Perk absorbs Premeditation Perk, it rises a rank, but isn't ready to evolve yet. Memory Palace++]

'Interesting, Status.'

User 01010111

Age 46 Level 47 (exp 32400/47000)

Condition: Normal

Stats

Strength 64H>69H

Dexterity 92H>98H

Constitution 116G>121G

Intelligence 107G>115G

Wisdom 104G>112G

Charisma 77H>84H

Luck 49H>56H

Skills

Acting D+, Astronaut H, Basic Blades I, Basic Explosives H, Basic Languages A+, Basic Science E+>D+, Bedroom Arts I, Body Language B+>A, Camping H+, Car Mechanics F+, Cleaning E+, Cold Resistance D, Cooking E+, CQC D+>C, Disease Resistance H+, Dive B, Driving E+, Enhanced Hearing C+, Enhanced Smell B+, Enhanced Swimming A, Enhanced Touch E+, Enhanced Vision D+, Fatigue Resistance I+>H, Fire Resistance H+, Heat Resistance F+, Investigation I+>H, Lockpick I+, Night Vision G+, Maintenance D+, Mathematics D+>C, Medicine C+, Mining F+, Parallel Thinking E+, Poison Resistance G, Rad Resistance H, Sailing G, Shooting E+>D, Stealth D, Surgery E+, Taming H+, Teaching G, Teamwork I+, Telepathy Resistance I, Tracking I+>H, Volleyball F+, Woodcraft G, Writing G+, New Skills (Enhanced Taste H, Hacking I)

Perks

Ambidextrous, Awareness, Bodyguard, Chief Engineer, Contortionist, Entomorph: (Fall Armyworm), Explorer's Map, Fashion Sense, Iron Will, Lachrymose Leech, Leadership, Medusoid Mycelium, Memory Palace++, Mentor, Plantamorph: (Birch, Elm, Evergreen, Maple), Pupa, Secret Smasher, Snow Gnat, Stoic, Toughness, Uncommon Physical Growth, Zoomorph: (Anchovy, Bass, Blue Wildebeest, Camel, Carp, Chicken, Cod, Crow, Cow, Crab, Deer, Eel, Goat, Goose, Hare, Horse, Impala, Kangaroo, Llama, Lobster, Mackerel, Mole, Mouse, Mussel, Nile Tilapia, Octopus, Oyster, Pig, Pigeon, Pollock, Possom, Prawn, Rabbit, Raccoon, Rat, Red Mullet, Reindeer, Salmon, Sardine, Seagull, Sheep, Shrimp, Squid, Trout, Tuna, Turkey, Vole, Zebra), World Compass

Sealed(Nightblood, Flame Implant)

Corpse Absorption Progress

Ant (.08932), Aphid (.01257), Bedbug (.00174), Bee (.00605), Centipede (.00115), Cockroach (.01725), Dandelion (.00127), Earwigs (.00186), Flea (.00146), Fly (.11812), Ivy (.169), Jellyfish (.00122), Lice (.00155), Mosquito (.08904), Moth (.00669), Pill Bug (.00689), Slug (.01504), Spider (.00259), Wasp (.01411), Worm (.00265)

Abilities:Tutorial Pocket(100 Karma Coupon)

Limited(Minor Identify F)

Sealed (Flight G+, Ink Squirt, Mild Poison Bite, Rally, Photosynthesis)

Achievements: A Sailors Life For Me, Family Man, For The Family!, Fungicide, Globetrotter, Guardian Angel, Happily Ever After, No Stone Unturned, Survivor

Karma: 630 Total Positive

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