The Mech Touch novel Chapter 232

Ves considered designing mechs his life’s calling. Since his birth into the Larkinson family, his upbringing constantly centered around mechs. Even after finding out that he’d never be able to interface with a mech, he switched his goals to designing them after a low spell.

Strangely enough, Ves never questioned his singular obsession with mechs. In the Age of Mechs, that shouldn’t be a problem for most people, but mech designers had it different.

A mech designer designed mechs. While that sounded like a pleonasm, it actually hid a fundamental truth: a mech designer combined his knowledge and life experiences to shape a unique mechanical war machine into being.

What was a mech designer without much life experience? A bot. A run-of-the-mill cookie-cutter designer who studied from the same mainstream textbooks referenced by countless other designers.

"Is this why apprenticing to a Master and seeking fortune in danger is so important?" Ves hummed to himself. He felt as if he parted the veil behind a essential truth in the field of mech design. "Mech designers that lead monotonous lives will inevitably gravitate towards designing monotonous mechs."

He thought back on all the innovative designs he came across. From the glorious, larger-than-life Caesar Augustus to the gimmicky spear-dashing Hoplite, all of these unique creations possessed a spark of personality that no sane designer could have ever come up with if they holed up in a design studio all day.

Despite their various flaws, the personal touch imbued in their designs turned them into unforgettable classics that lived on in the annals of mech history.

What about the Star Designers, the very best designers in the galaxy? Legends like Apollo, The Polymath and The Armorer all possessed colorful biographies filled with excitement, struggle and tragedy. They persevered throw their lows and rode their highs towards the very top of the tallest mountain in the galaxy.

Even then, they still sought even greater heights, always grasping towards the unattainable heavens above.

"That’s still too far away from me." Ves shook his head. Who was he kidding? Forget about reaching the heavens, he still hadn’t finished his first climb. "Let’s find a hobby first."

What did other people do for fun? Ves decided to ask his employees.

He already knew what Carlos did sometimes in his free time. Even back at Rittersberg, he occasionally sneaked to a game center and immersed himself in one of those casual mech simulation games.

Different from Iron Spirit, these games allowed neural peasants like Carlos and Ves to get a taste of actual piloting with minimal demands on their aptitude. They worked by pre-programming all kinds of moves into the virtual mechs. Players could activate them by issuing only a single mental command.

Rather than call it piloting a virtual mech, Ves considered it more like commanding a robot. He always felt very detached when he played such casual games. Even though the games evolved throughout the years to the point where even beginner pilots could pull off moves mastered by aces, it never felt real enough.

"So that’s out."

Ves approached Chief Cyril next. He had a very peculiar hobby.

"I make my own clockwork from scratch. I started with the classics using alloys and woods, and after several years of mastery I moved on to incorporating exotics in my works. It’s a great hobby for technicians like me because the skills and patience you learn from assembling clocks will greatly help your ability to put a mech together."

Clocks didn’t call out to Ves. As far as he was concerned, if he needed to know the time, he could look up the current time from his comm.

With some reluctance, he started asking his technicians on what they did in their free time.

"I like to catch up on the mech duels of the past week with my buddies."

"My father used to be a pro at zero-G rugby. I still play some in the weekends at Freslin’s local club."

"I’m part of a bird watcher’s association. We’re currently lobbying the local government to introduce more species of birds on our planet."

None of these activities appealed to him, but they did give him a sense on what people did for fun. Half of the time they took over the hobbies from their parents. That presented a problem for Ves, as his father was a mech pilot himself.

"What did my dad do in his off time?"

He liked to sit on the porch of their house and watch the murky sky of their home planet. Sometimes he brought out a data pad and read some literature about mundane people facing mundane problems.

Should he sit down and read a book like his father? "I already have to read a lot for my work, so I have no appetite to read anything else for fun."

Ves didn’t imagine he’d have so much trouble finding a suitable hobby for him. The more he realized its absence, more he thought he hadn’t been making the most out of his life.

He started dabbling in various kinds of arts.

He tried practicing music, but his complete lack of experience with any kind of instrument made it clear he needed to put in thousands of hours to get somewhere. For someone like Ves, that took way too much time.

He switched to painting next, only to get frustrated by his inability to translate his vision onto the campus. Besides requiring a lot of specialized skills and finesse, Ves also found the process to be tedious.

Figuring he had nothing left to lose, Ves tried out a couple of virtual games on his terminal. He tried his hand at being a battlefield commander ordering around virtual troops, an infantryman fighting against aliens in the trenches and a ship captain who tried to bring his battered ship home.

None of the games held his interest for long. Ves already worked in a sector closely related to war and conflict. Playing the role of a combatant was a nice fantasy, but he’d rather stick with his current job.

"I’m kind of under constant threat right now. My security guards advised me against taking casual walks outside. Who knows how many greedy criminals are waiting to kidnap me outside." _{ƒreewebηoveℓ.com}