Wish upon the Stars chapter 4 pt 3

The next day I arrived back at the Unity building as early as  possible. Which was about noon for me, I am not a morning person, but  hey, they never gave me a time to show up anyway. As the bus pulled up  to the building I'd hopped off energetically, excited to start work on  my cape identity. My name and costume were fundamental aspects of my  legend and of my path in heroic cultivation. Even someone like me, who  was going to be leaning hard on my Wish power, would need to rely on my  image, especially in the early stages.

The  more points I could get early on, the more wishes I could grant and the  stronger I would get. All that would snowball into rank ups, which  would form a vicious cycle with my public image, creating a stronger  impression and more points. In the early stages I'd have to fake being a  crafter, since I could use the confidentiality to bind people not to  talk about their wishes. Luckily, having their power growth based on  public perception meant that trade secrets were sacred to crafters, so  full NDA's weren't at all uncommon.

The  candidate system wasn't exactly unknown, but in the early stages being  outed was incredibly dangerous. Zeke had heavily implied I shouldn't let  word of my candidacy leak until at least D rank,when I would be in the  public eye enough that attacking me would be considered interfering with  the trial, so I had quite a while to go. While the WCP didn't interfere  with higher level candidates, once you were publicly announced killing  you challenged their reputation. At lower ranks the same was true, but  you could more easily be killed off by other candidates if you became  too visible.

I  headed back to the intake office first, where I would apparently be  meeting my mentor for the first time. Captain Polaris, who I'd seen on  the news the other day. When I got there I found him waiting for me with  a smile. He waved me over when he saw me, taking my hand in a firm grip  and clapping me on the shoulder. "Shane! Good to meet you, my friend.  Excited to be working with you. As I'm sure you're aware I'm Captain  Polaris, but you can call me Ian when we're off work."

I  smiled back uncertainly. "Thanks. I...um, I'm a bit surprised you would  give out your civilian name like that. Stella said we always use cape  identities inside the guild." I didn't want to screw up on my first day  here, so I figured I'd better ask about that early. If he was just being  polite and using real names was some kind of unspoken taboo he figured I  would know about it was better to find out now.

He  chuckled at that. "Usually true, at least at lower levels. Higher  ranked Ascendents usually dispense with their other identity altogether,  but people at our standard traditionally keep them separate. I'm a bit  of a special case however, since I grew up in the Unity. My civilian  identity isn't really a secret." He waved at his uncovered face. "Hence  the lack of a mask. No real point to it, and I like it better this way  anyway." Sure enough, looking around I saw Captain Polaris was one of  the only capes nearby that didn't have a mask on.

His  face worked well with the image I had to admit. He had strong  cheekbones and bright blue eyes that matched his blue and gold suit  well. The suit itself looked heavily armored, but in the lightest way.  Kind of a full body leather armor one piece, with extra padding at vital  areas. His black hair was cut short and he just generally seemed like a  pretty stand up guy. I'd expected him to be snobby or arrogant being  the guild masters son, but he wasn't at all from what I could see. This  mentor thing might not be so bad.

He  motioned me to follow him towards the back, filling me in on how the  whole process would go as we walked. "So before you choose your costume  design we usually like to get your name hammered out, but we also know  some people tweak their names based on the general impression their gear  gives, so you can look at the various basic armor types before you come  up with your cape name and then tweak the specifics to fit the image  you want, if that works for you?"

They  had clearly put a ton of thought into this. I nodded. "Yeah, sounds  good, I just don't really know what to go with in terms of my name. It's  a big decision you know? Plus there's so many options and ways to go  with it. Any advice on how to narrow it down?" I'd been wracking my  brain over my name since for days honestly, and I was no closer to  narrowing it down.

Captain  Polaris clicked his tongue. "Nope, sorry. That's the big one that  people usually run into a problem with. I picked mine because of my mom  and where I was hoping my powers would end up. It's a bit cheesy I know,  but people usually respond pretty well to it. My only real advice is  try to pick something that has meaning to you. Even if it doesn't make  sense to anyone else your legend will fill in the blanks as you rank up,  but the person who most needs to be inspired by your name is the person  carrying it."

We  arrived at the end of a long hallway and he knocked on a large steel  door, a ratlike man with goggles and sallow skin opened the door,  shoving his head out in a jerky quick motion that made him seem like he  was animated in stop motion. "What! I'm working on a new design! Don't  you see the sign?" He pointed sharply at the empty surface of the door  where there was absolutely no sign, not even bothering to look at it  before whirling around to stalk back inside, leaving the door open.  "Well, hurry up then! I don't have all day!"

I  blinked at the sudden change in demeanor as he shifted from angry  hermit to imposing master of ceremonies. Captain Polaris just rolled his  eyes and nodded for me to head inside. He followed me in, speaking to  the strangely tall but very hunched man. "We know, Pack Rat, this won't  take long. I just brought my new mentee here to take a look at some of  your materials and style samples so he can pick his name and then we can  get started on designing his gear. You know you collection is integral  to the naming process."

The  obvious flattery seemed to appease the fidgety man, who grinned at us,  exposing incredibly large and very yellow teeth. "Of course, must bring  the new blood up to speed in the most efficient manner. I suppose I can  allow the interruption." He gestured grandly to the back of the room,  dramatically proclaiming. "Very well! You may gaze upon the wonders of  my collection! Be inspired, young neophyte, and know your rise to  greatness is a debt you will never repay!"

Captain  Polaris rolled his eyes again and spun a finger around his ear when  Pack Rat's back was turned, the universal sign that someone was a few  chickens short of a hen house. I had to choke back a silent snicker, but  despite the joke he didn't seem to look down on Pack Rat at all. It was  more like good natured teasing, and I saw Pack Rat's mouth quirk into a  partial smile as he headed back. I was guessing this was an inside joke  between the two, and I felt a bit more comfortable knowing I was  somewhere with such a playful atmosphere.

When  we got to the back of the room, I realized why he'd chosen to go by  Pack Rat. The entire place was filled wall to wall with shelves. Square  cubbyholes stuffed full of random materials, some sheets of fabric, some  plants in display cases, some chunks of stone just laying around, but  in general there were so many different kinds of mats I was dizzy just  trying to take them all in. In front of the shelves were five  mannequins, all in varying types of costumes, and I assumed these were  the samples we were here for.

Captain  Polaris gestured to the mannequins. "Ok Shane, here we have samples of  the most basic costume types favored by the Unity. Granted you can ask  for something a bit more unique and people sometimes do, but these are  templates we've refined over generations of active users. Every branch  of the Unity uses these same templates. They're pretty simple. First up  we have the standard jumpsuit." He gestured at a mannequin wearing a  full body one piece costume similar to his own, though the one on the  mannequin seemed much less padded and reinforced.

Sure  enough he pointed to himself. "As you can see I went with that. We also  have the light armor style." He gestured to a leather armor type  costume, then to another mannequin next to it. "After that comes stealth  suit." That one was as unobtrusive as possible, clearly made for  infiltration. Then he gestured  to the fourth. "Full caster type." This  one was just robes and layers, probably good for ranged casting. And  finally he pointed to the last mannequin. "And lastly the heavy armor.  That one isn't commonly used, doesn't fit the heroic image as well and  it's an overt style, but some people make it work."

When  he finished introducing them he just stepped back, letting me think  over my options, but more importantly, letting me seek inspiration from  the costumes. It did help, I had to admit. I had a short list of names  that I'd been thinking of, and matching each name to a costume type and  then deciding if I wanted that costume type or not let me eliminate a  dozen or so of the more unsuitable ones. I browsed the costume styles,  but in the end I already knew which one I wanted.

The  light armor style spoke to me the most, and I planned to have a caped  cloak with a hood to go with it. I also wanted to see if it was against  the rules for Zeke to make me a mask, his stuff seemed really good and I  was betting he could make more styles than just the really obvious one  that marked me as a WCP member. All of this, however, required me to  pick a name. I had to admit this was a tough one.

I  combed through historical and mythological names. I wanted something  that suited not just my image as a wishmaster candidate but that was  obscure enough or oblique enough not to draw attention to my nature to  soon. I thought furiously until I finally decided on something. Wishes  could be granted by Djinn, and in the old stories Djinn were a kind of  spirit often bound by a specific figure. Not just Djinn, but demons and  spirits of all shapes and sizes. I walked up and tapped the light armor,  making my selection before turning to look at Captain Polaris but  paused before I spoke up, thinking.

I  mentally went through color palettes and designs for my armor wondering  exactly what it would look like, but in the end they had people for  that, so all I could really do was let them know exactly what they would  be working with. Plus it wasn't like I wouldn't have input once they  started. I nodded to myself, I had officially decided. I shot my mentor a  grin. "I want this design, with a big flowing cape and hood, details to  come, and I've officially decided on my name. Call me Solomon."