"You do understand I could make things quite uncomfortable for you and your companions, yes?" he asked and I chuckled.
"And I could level this entire tower with you in it and you couldn't do squat about it. My sticks bigger than yours. Good try though." I said casually.
"Bold of you to say while quite literally surrounded by my securitrons." he said as the bots all set their big weapons to lock on me.
"This armor is designed to walk away from an artillery shell making direct impact. Their little peashooters wouldn't even scratch it. You would however ruin my coat and I rather like it so can we move past this futile dick measuring contest and get down to the brass tacks?" I said casually.
"Very well then. The brass tacks as you so eloquently put it are that I want to know what exactly the nature of your ..... ability is. And apart from that perhaps convince you to work with me. I would be a very poor businessman indeed if I passed up such a possibly lucrative ally." he said simply.
Before I could reply the system chimed in with a new quest.
{New chain quest generated}
{Quest: Fate of the land
Description: You sit upon a crossroad where each step further will change the fate of New Vegas forever, which way will you go?
Objectives: Join Mr. House's faction(optional), Join the NCR's faction(optional), Join Yes man's faction(optional), Join the Legion's faction(Ineligible)
Rewards: New set unlock, 1x pack opening token}
'Ah fuck. The system really wants me to get more directly involved it seems. A chain quest. Time to toss off the kid gloves I guess.' I thought after reading the whole thing.
"Alright listen up because if you for some reason double cross me later I want it understood you knew exactly what you were doing. If we are partnering up and yes I do mean PARTNERING here, I have a few ground rules that need to be clear right away." I say seriously.
"This should be enlightening. By all means do make your demands." he said almost amused.
"First is if there's a conflict in opinion on something we talk it out. This is not a tyranny, we work it out democratically. Second you need to restore your body. Brain swap yourself into a clone, I don't care how you do it. Talking to a computer screen is hella impersonal and you are currently far enough from the human experience that theres good reason to believe you might be tainted by that fact. Finally, What I am about to tell you does not get spread out without my explicit consent." I say firmly.
"The first and final demand are perfectly reasonable and can be accepted but if it were so easy to restore my body do you believe I wouldn't have already done so? Additionally my mind is perfectly lucid and optimally functioning." he said seriously.
"No you dried out grape, i'm talking about empathy. Humans aren't purely logical creatures. There's an emotional aspect I highly suspect you are having serious trouble with right now given your condition. You can't empathize with everyone else because you haven't experienced this world as it is from anywhere but beyond your sensors and securitrons, which is to say impersonally." I say pointedly.
"There is perhaps a grain of truth to what you say. The issue still remains however that restoring my body is not a simple task or I would have long since done so." he said conceding the point.
"Vault one zero eight in the capital wasteland. Originally designed to study social chaos with a triple stockpile of weapons, no entertainment and a power supply designed to fail after twenty years. The inhabitants of that vault ignored that experiment entirely and developed nearly perfect cloning technology. Exact replicas of the original DNA but with a single catch. The minds of the clones were innately anti-anyone else and turned hostile as a result. Racist to any but other clones basically. If you can send a small force there to scan the cloning technology and bring the schematics or even equipment back. You could then clone yourself, transplant your brain into the clone body and effectively achieve longevity without almost entirely giving up your humanity like this." I said seriously.
"And why would I take such a risk? You do realize the vast multitude of ways this could go wrong correct?" he asked seriously.
I shrugged "Just experiment using criminals until you are satisfied with the stability of the procedure, you've never let something as small as moral constraints stop you before." I said easily.
"The viability of this plan of action is quite high. There is the matter of travel however. The capital is no short distance to travel in this day and age." he says seriously.
"First, you could absolutely make a flying machine capable of it with your resources. Second I might have something that would work but will draw a LOT of attention." I said frankly.
"In what regard?" he asked curiously.
"In the "what the fuck is that and where did it come from" regard." I said honestly.
"You have successfully stoked my interest if nothing else. Very well I will make an earnest attempt at restoring my body with the information you have provided. If I am not mistaken that is all of your conditions met." he said seriously.
"It is. Don't dismiss everything I am about to say as nonsense because I can prove it. I have magic. Specifically a type of magic that is heavily dependent on the summoning of constructs. The thing from before was one such construct." I said seriously.
"Magic. That is what you are going with? I am disappointed in you. I meet you with honesty and a rare modicum of trust and you feed me fairy tales?" he said with a let down tone.
"I just told you I can prove it. Just don't sick your bots on me when I do." I say summoning my binder and flipping through it to find something cheap to cast.
I choose the [Nimble hobbit] that only costs two mana and tap two of my mana producing artifacts and summon it. House watched dead silent as the binder appeared out of nowhere, as the card left my hand illogically and expanded, and as a short well dressed but barefoot humanoid walked out of it before the card vanished.-
"Fascinating. So magic actually exists?" he said clearly awed.