Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage
- Thread starter MetaBettaOmega
- Start date
If Piggot has any semblance of intelligence, she'll realize that what she did came across as controlling and downright callous considering what he'd just been through. If the first thing she says to him when she calls, IF she calls, isn't an apology for strongarming a distraught person, then he'll have every right to chew her a new one. And if she immediately goes into bitch mode? He can always hang up.
In a place like Worm, were the rot is ingrained and generational to the whole planet (even more so in this feudal experiment of a city). He can't take things in half-measures just because their status-quo is being threatened (it's shit anyway), especially if he has the power to make solutions (even if he's not sure how). Honestly, if Crow won't get her head out of her ass over this ONE mishap then, he might need to think hard about just pulling on that fail-safe and call her cloak back to him. Ayla is great for short range but, maybe he should look into far reaching Divination to give him more information about Worm and the threats to him and the world (or at least his city) or just to find out what's wrong and why things are how they are. Making Thought-partition could go a long way with handling everything too.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
I wonder how he's going to create his magic faction. Is he going to summon more elementals of different types? Enchant suits of armor to be controlled by a massive golem core to act as their brain? Create nature spirits? Homunculi? Magically uplifted animals? Try and teach magic to the homeless of the area? All of the above?
There's a ton of different directions he could go.
I'm just imagining him making the entire former ABB territory into basically a fantasy kingdom, equipped with castles and such. Probably far too silly for this fic, but it's what comes to mind. That and all the WarCraft 2 music.
There's a ton of different directions he could go.
I'm just imagining him making the entire former ABB territory into basically a fantasy kingdom, equipped with castles and such. Probably far too silly for this fic, but it's what comes to mind. That and all the WarCraft 2 music.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
Yeah, I was wondering that too. One of my thoughts was working on pure golem craft, another summoning familiars, and lastly making a contract or deal with elementals or sapients from another world to come and work for him. I suppose he could also go the route of "permanently empower people loyal to me".
I'd support arcanum if he didn't have the insight about the Brockton bay prt he currently has. assault had hinted that there was a communication breakdown in the organizations due to suspicious activities, he personally witness this with Taylor's situation involving sophia and piggot all but admitted to him their call for help has been largely ignored for years, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that there are power and/or connected ppl that want the bay to stay like this. Dont forget the farms where just myths as far as they were aware and the empire was a bigger threat than the Abb because of their international connections.
- Location
- US
Doesn't work on a couple of levels. This fic uses an original magic system, and scratching the surface of soul magic to do something similar requires a ton of points.
ScreamyBirb
Here is Screaming
My guess is adding long range communication capability to the golems he'll be making for this with a paired ritualized item so he can check on and direct them from anywhere. It makes more sense than trying to make something with it's own mind, and it gives him a massive intel advantage if the golems can ping and/or query him whenever something happens. The paired item can be handed to New Wave when he's 'off duty' too, or perhaps Kali can handle it (I think she'd appreciate being able to see and act outside her bounds).
- Location
- Illinoise
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Do an Okami and make Guardian Saplings throughout the city. Concentrated in parks and hidden courtyards. Definitely one underground, in canes people come wanting to burn them to the ground. With something specific like spirit summoning instead of just summoning.
The funny thing is that you genuinely can't tell the difference whether or not this is a Coil Plot™ or a PRT power play here. Putting an increasingly powerful cape (who is forming his own power block with his own team and arguably New Wave) at odds with PRT ENE only works in Coil's favor, so I wouldn't be surprised in the least if this is more of his manipulations.
This is honestly one of the big problems I have with the Worm Brockton Bay setting - and to be clear, this is a general Worm canon/fanon issue, not specific to this fanfic.
The problem with PRT/Protectorate not giving additional support is exactly the above - this is supposedly the 'real' world and no city exists in a vacuum.
Let's look at a bit of math based off of statistics Wildbow has stated.
Brockton Bay around the time Leviathan hit was a city with a population of 350,000 people with one of the highest cape populations of any city in the country... and yet the PRT/Protectorate is, relatively speaking to its criminal cape population, understaffed and barely hanging on.
According to Interlude 13, the ratio of capes to normals is 1 in 8000 in urban areas, 1 in 26000 in rural areas. Villains outnumber heroes 2 to 1... if I'm mathing correctly based off of current US pop (it'd be lower obviously but work with me) 335 mil people in the US works out to roughly 42k people based off of urban area ratio... 1/3 of that 42k is heroic, which leaves 14k heroically inclined parahumans? If I'm getting the numbers right... Assuming the PRT/Protectorate concentrates in cities, there are 780 cities with a population of over 50k people in the US. Spread those 14k heroes around those cities and you get about 18 heroes per city... but obviously bigger pop cities get more, smaller cities get less. Honestly the numbers are probably lower - less population after Endbringer attacks and general societal issues, and the overall ratio of normals to parahumans in the US would be lower than 1:8000... but even with that, the Protectorate should have heroes to spare.
For an organization that is supposedly all about PR, the situation in Brockton Bay should look horrible for the organization, to the point that reporters should be picking on up on the fact that "hey, this one specific city is not getting any support, there's a revolving door where no arrests of parahumans are sticking, why is this happening?" Parahuman crime is different than normal crime. It is, by its very nature, high profile. Very notable and will consistently be reported on by the media. You can easily bet that the media is far more likely to report on a fight between Hookwolf and Armsmaster compared to a random thug murdering someone. Similarly, the media should be all over cases where parahumans break out of transports bound for the Birdcage. And... that's just not something that's usually addressed in Worm fics.
This is my big issue with the parahuman feudalism experiment in general, because Brockton Bay doesn't exist in a vacuum. The internet exists. Newspapers are still printing. Reporters are still reporting. The situation there should be making the PRT/Protectorate look completely, utterly incompetent... and unsurprisingly, that's not good PR optics!
The experiment should've failed from the outset because the first thing that the PRT/Protectorate would've done would be to call for reinforcements and more funding, and they would normally get it in any sane world / competent government organization. That's not happening, so you have to assume Cauldron is interfering... which means the experiment is already a failure because the entire point of the experiment in the first place is to see what happens when Cauldron doesn't interfere.
Again, this is a general fanon/canon issue. From a writing perspective, I understand why it is used - denying PRT ENE support means more drama / more reasons for action from the protagonist... but I've grown somewhat genuinely frustrated with the trope being used at this point.
To be clear, still very much enjoying this fic! Having a lot of fun reading it, I'm always a sucker for Out of Context magic coming into settings like this. Just frustrated at the whole "None of this 'Gotham belongs to Batman, Metropolis to Superman bullshit.'" in much the same way William is.
PRT ENE can and should be called out by both local and national media for how bad the situation in Brockton Bay is.
This is honestly one of the big problems I have with the Worm Brockton Bay setting - and to be clear, this is a general Worm canon/fanon issue, not specific to this fanfic.
The problem with PRT/Protectorate not giving additional support is exactly the above - this is supposedly the 'real' world and no city exists in a vacuum.
Let's look at a bit of math based off of statistics Wildbow has stated.
Brockton Bay around the time Leviathan hit was a city with a population of 350,000 people with one of the highest cape populations of any city in the country... and yet the PRT/Protectorate is, relatively speaking to its criminal cape population, understaffed and barely hanging on.
According to Interlude 13, the ratio of capes to normals is 1 in 8000 in urban areas, 1 in 26000 in rural areas. Villains outnumber heroes 2 to 1... if I'm mathing correctly based off of current US pop (it'd be lower obviously but work with me) 335 mil people in the US works out to roughly 42k people based off of urban area ratio... 1/3 of that 42k is heroic, which leaves 14k heroically inclined parahumans? If I'm getting the numbers right... Assuming the PRT/Protectorate concentrates in cities, there are 780 cities with a population of over 50k people in the US. Spread those 14k heroes around those cities and you get about 18 heroes per city... but obviously bigger pop cities get more, smaller cities get less. Honestly the numbers are probably lower - less population after Endbringer attacks and general societal issues, and the overall ratio of normals to parahumans in the US would be lower than 1:8000... but even with that, the Protectorate should have heroes to spare.
For an organization that is supposedly all about PR, the situation in Brockton Bay should look horrible for the organization, to the point that reporters should be picking on up on the fact that "hey, this one specific city is not getting any support, there's a revolving door where no arrests of parahumans are sticking, why is this happening?" Parahuman crime is different than normal crime. It is, by its very nature, high profile. Very notable and will consistently be reported on by the media. You can easily bet that the media is far more likely to report on a fight between Hookwolf and Armsmaster compared to a random thug murdering someone. Similarly, the media should be all over cases where parahumans break out of transports bound for the Birdcage. And... that's just not something that's usually addressed in Worm fics.
This is my big issue with the parahuman feudalism experiment in general, because Brockton Bay doesn't exist in a vacuum. The internet exists. Newspapers are still printing. Reporters are still reporting. The situation there should be making the PRT/Protectorate look completely, utterly incompetent... and unsurprisingly, that's not good PR optics!
The experiment should've failed from the outset because the first thing that the PRT/Protectorate would've done would be to call for reinforcements and more funding, and they would normally get it in any sane world / competent government organization. That's not happening, so you have to assume Cauldron is interfering... which means the experiment is already a failure because the entire point of the experiment in the first place is to see what happens when Cauldron doesn't interfere.
Again, this is a general fanon/canon issue. From a writing perspective, I understand why it is used - denying PRT ENE support means more drama / more reasons for action from the protagonist... but I've grown somewhat genuinely frustrated with the trope being used at this point.
To be clear, still very much enjoying this fic! Having a lot of fun reading it, I'm always a sucker for Out of Context magic coming into settings like this. Just frustrated at the whole "None of this 'Gotham belongs to Batman, Metropolis to Superman bullshit.'" in much the same way William is.
PRT ENE can and should be called out by both local and national media for how bad the situation in Brockton Bay is.
- Location
- Louisville KY
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My guy or girl, the trooper didn't know that he was planning to just teleport out. All he knew for sure was that a Parahuman that was acting like he was upset with the PRT starting to power something up. While the trooper did not behave wisely in the lead up, he didn't threaten him by pointing his weapon. That was specifically mentioned. He unholstered it but kept it away.
I don't know if the whole 'I have an invisible minion that was spying on you and everyone else' could be considered only a mishap. He knows that he messed up, he just needs to figure out how to undo it. Of course, she might come to consider that it was a mistake once she's had some time for her head to clear.
Everyone just got done with a mission that is completely justifiably emotionally upsetting. Recalling the cloak would be a strong sign that they are done and I'm not sure if that level of escalation is the path forward when he was the one who did the wrong (unintentionally at the time).
I hope that he... actually talks with other people besides Alya and Kali before he commits to this route. I understand the appeal but ruling with an iron fist never ends well and it sounds like he's leaning in that direction.
- Location
- UK
There IS a reason why most people say that the Cauldron are fucking idiots. The Terminus experiment DOES exist in canon and it neatly demonstrates that Wildbow has absolutely no idea how scientific studies are done, which also makes Cauldron as a whole look utterly incompetent. It is true that Bet is only in as 'good' a state as it is thanks to the Cauldrons meddling, but that does not change the fact that its staffed by utterly incompetent morons whos idea of SCIENCE involves bashing test tubes together.
How exactly is Earth Bet in "good" shape?
Due to their complete incompetence, Eidolon was created. He alone is responsible for three engines of destruction being released long before they normally show up, causing the loss of millions of lives, near complete destruction of global trade, and the loss of numerous parahumans that could have made significant differences in human quality of life.
I fail to see how their "meddling" has helped in any way.
- Location
- UK
Its mostly functional. I wouldnt call it in good shape, but it IS still liveable and not a complete hellscape, torn apart by waring warlords a lot of that is due to the Cauldron. Its not perfect, and there are still plenty of places that are on fire, but they are places that were already unstable before the advent of Capes. The Cauldron have done a lot to keep things moving as well as they have. And its not fair to blame the Endbringers on them because they had absolutely no idea what they were doing with it. Brockton is them intentionally trying to gather data in a way that isnt even flawed, it just flat out doesnt work for what they want, while Eidolon was a result of an experiment performed well before they had a solid idea of what they were doing with vials AND none of them had any idea, or way of knowing, that creating him would also create the Endbringers.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
Because Wildbow.
He's got a WoG about what a hypothetical Cauldron-less Earth looks like. Assuming Fortuna kills Eden and does nothing else, the world is worse off and more chaotic even without Endbringers. There's no PRT, no Protectorate, no large heroic organization at all. No Birdcage means there's no answer to unkillable capes. No Contessa means there's more S-Class threats going out of control. No Vial Capes means there's less super powerful capes with stable minds helping out. You have parahumans being treated more like mutants from X-Men on the whole making things worse.
And Scion is still a ticking time bomb, going to explode and attempt to kill an even more divided Earth-Bet then in canon.
It's... very pessimistic, in true Wildbow fashion.
It's honestly something that I respectfully disagree with (I don't think it'd play out anywhere near as bad as Wildbow does) but then again I'm also an optimist...
If/when I ever do get around to writing one of the Worm fanfic ideas bouncing around in my head, one of the first things I'd probably try doing is actually remove Cauldron from the setting entirely:
Eden still dies (lets say that Fortuna died taking her out so she is off the board as well).
Her Shards still end up deploying, and are unregulated (but not to the point you see in Ward).
This causes the people who are Cauldron capes in canon to possibly Trigger with more powerful abilities than normally allowed (the Triumvirate).
This also causes Case 53s, who are not amnesiac but instead just particularly unfortunate with Shards that didn't get the memo on how to interact with humans (again, unregulated Shards).
There is no conflict drive either. Instead just simply have Shards wanting their powers to be used. More data is the goal. You do not need conflict to generate data. Parahumans don't need a conflict drive to be forced into conflict. We're bad enough by ourselves.
The PRT/Protectorate formed naturally.
The Birdcage was created as a (controversial) solution to particularly nasty capes.
NEPEA-5 is a bill that passed normally because the government didn't think things through - there's already a lot of pushback against it due to how it is pushing parahumans to villainy.
Eidolon is still causing Endbringers to attack (unknown to him). I'd personally lean toward there just being the three (earth / sky / sea).
Alexandria and Rebecca Costa-Brown are two separate people (sisters?).
There is no Brockton Bay Parahuman Feudalism Experiment, instead Coil triggered during Ellisburg and managed to hide it from the PRT. He still wants to take over the city, simply because he is Coil.
Brockton Bay is not getting reinforcements because of a combination of Coil interference and other cities getting hit hard throughout the country because of the upsurge in villains caused by NEPEA-5. PRT ENE is told specifically that they are to hold out as best as they can and the moment that the upsurge is handled they'll get reinforcements.
The Triumvirate is busy handling other, worse things (the stuff Contessa is normally dealing with, S-Class threats).
Scion... is off the board entirely (being a depressed space whale in a completely different dimension)... or alternatively is known to be an Entity but they don't want to kill him for fear of causing the Shard Network to go completely haywire with no oversight at all. He currently has no intention of continuing the Cycle without Eden.
Jack Slash and the Slaughterhouse 9 are still a problem - Broadcast makes it so that Jack himself consistently evades capture/death, and the other members cycle out (much the same as canon).
The Locker Incident and everything that happened with Sophia can be blamed on a Coil plot aimed toward discrediting Emily Piggot...
...Yeah, really it's not that hard to imagine a Worm without Cauldron, in my opinion. A lot of what happens in Worm can be put down to human malice and incompetence. Without Cauldron though, there's no longer excuses keeping the setting grim dark - instead you can go noble dark instead - yes it is a shit world but it can get better. The heroes can win. Personally I find that a much better story to read than something like canon Worm.
---
Going back to Marvelous Mage before I end up derailing... honestly I'd argue that if William really wanted to boost things I'd more actively look at more magical item crafting like he's already been doing. It's a way to permanently buff himself and those around him. What is better, a spell that casts a temporary shield or a coat that constantly regenerates a temporary shield?
- Location
- florida
I imagine in the future he will spare a few words of criticism for the police and local government as well as the PRT?
To be fair :3
And heck new wave knew about the ABB operations too...
In all seriousness. It's very reasonable for him to be sickened and horrified by what he saw and furious that it was allowed.
To be fair :3
And heck new wave knew about the ABB operations too...
In all seriousness. It's very reasonable for him to be sickened and horrified by what he saw and furious that it was allowed.
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Good chapter!
I think this paints a very realistic picture of someone under severe mental stress. I'm kinda surprised he's this constrained after what he's seems - he desperately needs some sleep and rest. I hope this isn't building up to something.
I don't think this is a Coil play - Pigot is just used to all Capes being under her military command. The workers specific actions seem a little antagonistic, but oh well.
I'm curious what Pigot wanted to talk about. At best, she could want him to collaborate more on big projects. At worst, she could want to interrogate him on 'his' clear Thinker powers given how quickly he tracked it down.
Looking forward to his next powers, each one seems to be a game changer.
I think this paints a very realistic picture of someone under severe mental stress. I'm kinda surprised he's this constrained after what he's seems - he desperately needs some sleep and rest. I hope this isn't building up to something.
I don't think this is a Coil play - Pigot is just used to all Capes being under her military command. The workers specific actions seem a little antagonistic, but oh well.
I'm curious what Pigot wanted to talk about. At best, she could want him to collaborate more on big projects. At worst, she could want to interrogate him on 'his' clear Thinker powers given how quickly he tracked it down.
Looking forward to his next powers, each one seems to be a game changer.
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Chapter Seventy One
New
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It took some time for me to calm down, a mixture of frustration and disgust giving me a sort of nervous, manic energy that seemed to rattle around in my bones, fighting to explode out of me. I cried, I cursed, I shouted at the trees and to the sky, but both Kali and Alya stayed close, keeping me from doing anything stupid until I finally worked through it. I ended up making my way to my room, barely taking the time to finish getting out of my costume before collapsing into my bed.
I woke up about five hours later to my phone ringing. When I picked it up, I could see I had already missed three calls from an unknown number, but that it was Lady Photon who was currently calling me. I took a moment to shake off my sleep before tapping the call button.
"Hello, this is Arcanum."
"Arcanum, hello, it's Lady Photon," the familiar voice confirmed. "I just wanted to check in on you and make sure everything was alright."
"Yeah, I'm… I'm okay, recovering at home," I assured her.
"That's good. That was a lot to take in, even for us," She admitted. "We have a lot more experience handling this sort of situation, or at least similar situations... It's not easy."
"Yeah, it was.... worse than I could imagine."
There was a solemn, dark silence over the phone before Lady Photon cleared her voice, pulling us back to the conversation.
"So, sometime after the scene was cleared, the PRT called in New Wave for information when you refused to meet with the Director," She added, and I winced. "We want you to know that we one hundred percent support your refusal. We've been dealing with PRT and Protectorate crap long enough to read between the lines of what they were saying to hear what they were actually doing. While I would recommend trying not to be so… bombastic about it, next time, you don't have to worry about getting in trouble."
"How did you manage that?"
"Director Piggot is a rigid military woman, and she doesn't trust capes. She assumes the worst, and when she tries to wrangle a situation, she assumes her assets will function like military-trained assets would," She explained, sounding exasperated with what seemed like an ongoing issue. "She needs reminding that we are not military assets, that we aren't even her assets to begin with. She doesn't like hearing that, of course, but at least she doesn't pretend it's not true."
"Jesus, what a clusterfuck," I said, leaning on my elbow and running my hand thrush my hair. "How is this going to affect me covering for Amy?"
"We thought of that. With her psychologist's agreement, Amy will be healing at the PRT for now," She explained, continuing before I could open my mouth. "Don't worry. She will be following your parameters rather than following her old scheduling habits. It also plays into her therapy in other ways, but she hasn't discussed that with me, which is fine. She seemed genuinely happy about the setup when we discussed it, but we will be keeping track and checking in consistently. Further, she will never be healing without a member of New Wave with her."
"Good, that sounds good," I said with a nod. "In all honesty, it's probably better to put some space between the PRT and me for a while. Not their biggest fan at the moment."
"I don't blame you," the mother superhero admitted. "Well, I just wanted to let you know we managed to smooth things over a bit, and make sure you are okay."
"Thank you, Lady Photon, I appreciate the phone call," I said honestly.
A few more pleasantries were exchanged before we hung up, leaving me alone in my room until Alya reformed, sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.
"That sounded good."
"Well, I'm not wanted, and it doesn't sound like I'm too far up Director Piggot's shit list," I responded with a shrug. "Both of those are good."
I leaned back on my hands for a moment, before letting out a long sigh.
"Why does it feel like everyone in the government here is holding the idiot ball and can't let it go?" I asked the universe rhetorically. "I really hope it's not contagious."
I sat for a while longer before eventually getting up and stretching. There was no way I was leaving the compound again for the rest of the day, barring an emergency. Instead, I had a late lunch or early dinner before finally getting to work on something I had promised to make Kali a while ago. She had seemed to like the idea of a golem she could boss around here to help with work. Unfortunately, for the longest time, I had been too busy to work on anything that wasn't necessary. Thankfully, I now had some free time.
It was simple really, just about the easiest golem I had ever created, with living wood as a base and only a handful of ritualized gemstones on a stone core. It could follow commands, sure, but struggled to comprehend complex instructions. I had intended to make it much more complicated, but Kali intervened and explained, through some complicated imagery and feelings, that that was all she needed. When it was done, she seemed happy, but within an hour, the golem had disappeared. Kali seemed smug when I asked about her, teasingly implying that I should be patient.
The following day, I quickly completed my rounds at the hospital before leaving to check on the docks community. I spent some time repairing the damaged golems, which I had left alone for way too long. I also promised to bring a pair of metal golems soon, to really solidify the place's defenses. The four metal golems that followed me around had proven to be extremely competent and durable, so building a few specifically for defending the community would help considerably.
I had Ayla keep her eyes peeled for Olivia, but she was nowhere to be found. She was either avoiding me or avoiding the community altogether. I left her a message through George that I was looking for her, but I didn't have high hopes.
I went on patrol alone after that, making a push to no longer ignore the gathering of ABB forces we stumbled on. It slowed down the patrol considerably, but we busted a small drug house and a few small groups of goons at separate places. It was well worth the extra time, especially because some of them seemed shocked that I had picked them up. Guess they thought I was playing softball to keep from stirring any trouble up, but the time for that had long passed.
When I traded off patrols with New Wave, I immediately teleported just outside the junkyard I had used to make my golems. Another chunk of cash and a few spells later, and I left with enough metal for several more golems, though this time I didn't form the metal into anything yet, instead leaving it in large metal chunks. Having some metal lying around the compound might come in handy at some point, and I could quickly form them as needed rather than beforehand.
Once I finished and delivered the metal golems to the community, I spent the next few days working on the compound. I still performed my daily tasks, but most of my time was spent out of the city. The patrols were much more intense than before, sure, but in most ways, I was taking it easy, recovering from the Farm raid. I also made sure to check up on the victims in the hospital, even as most of them were discharged to return to their lives. The ones who remained were still struggling mentally, and would soon most likely be relegated to mental health institutions, where they would hopefully recover.
For one, long night, I considered trying to create a mental healing spell. My knowledge automatically fed me a bare framework, even just from thinking about it, but I hesitated to keep going. Messing with people's minds, even in a good way, was something I wasn't sure about. Magical healing was incredible, yes, but it wasn't perfect. The nature of the healing itself brushed most of its shortcomings to the side, but that wouldn't be the case with mind healing.
The brain was too complicated to just memory wipe the trauma away, as PTSD and other mental trauma symptoms can exist without memory of the actual event. Healing mental trauma would equate to a full mind massage, tweaking, poking, and prodding the brain back into shape. It was absolutely mind control, and there was absolutely no way I would ever be able to convince people it was all I could do, as that's just now how powers seemed to work here.
At some point, when the cat was out of the bag, and I had people who believed me that I was using magic, I might offer that sort of spell to people. For now, however, having a spell like that would most likely get me locked up, along with anyone I used it for potential master effects.
On the seventh night of my current charge cycle, I got a rather shocking scare. I was sitting by the fire, brainstorming some ideas for what I would spend my next charges on, when a large, almost skeletal form began to pull itself from the dirt a dozen or so feet past the edge of the compound lights. The movement caught my eye immediately, but I still froze as the dark form seemed to yank itself free of the ground, crawling from the earth, clumps of clay and mud falling from its frame.
Finally, I recovered enough to react. I held out my hand and gave my staff, which was leaning against the wall not far from me, a mental yank. It slapped into my hand, and with a flourish, I aimed the business end at the shadow. I was just about to turn said shadow into a very bright fire, when Kali sent a wave of calm through the compound. I slowly lowered my staff, and the shadow walked closer, slowly stepping into the fire pit area.
It was her golem, the one I had made her a few days ago, though it hardly resembled what I had first created. What had been a simple, headless humanoid frame was now refined and remolded to match human proportions. It had a head, arms, legs, and a torso, all proportional to its height and size. As I watched, short green leaves began to grow from its scalp, creating what was almost like a pixie cut, finished with a large single rose growing just above the temple.
As its "hair" grew, the golem's face shifted and moved, smiling happily at me as the clearly feminine golem stepped closer. Its whole body was clearly sculpted after a woman's, with coils and branches of my enhanced wood forming strong limbs. Unlike the normal golems, this one sported rather tight and refined definition, rather than stocky, brutish trunks.
Covering a large portion of the golem's body was a dress of leaves and flowers, which pulled tight around it, almost like a layered kimono nightgown. Overall, the very feminine golem had very sharp, almost wolfish features, with large, brilliant green eyes. It was like looking at a wooden anime character. The features were alien enough, however, that it skipped over the uncanny valley, settling into a space that was sharp, but expressive, while very much not being human.
As the golem got closer, it smiled, and trees around us shuddered and swayed.
"...Kali? Is that you?" I asked, my own eyes wide as I stood up slowly, leaning my staff against the chair.
I stepped closer, and the golem made a "so-so" gesture with their hand. Between our connection and her hand motions, I got the gist of the situation. She was inhabiting the body, which she had spent several days working on underground, but it wasn't actually her body or anything, just a vessel she could use. Better than ordering around some golems by far, even if she had drained some of her stored energy to get it done.
It was incredible, an artistic creation beyond anything I was capable of, with a detailed, layered magic that I didn't even know where to start interpreting. She seemed to love it, happily stoking the fire, walking around the compound, tending some of the flowers and berry bushes that had started to grow around the edges, and even bringing me a cup of hot chocolate as it started to get late. It felt like I had gained a magical dryad caretaker, who seemed to love every minute of finally being able to interact fully with the real world.
Thankfully, she seemed to switch seamlessly between inhabiting the golem frame and letting it form into the side of a tree not far from the edge of the compound. I could actually feel the difference when she did that, her being going from a quiet, subtle blanket to a heavy, colorful point, walking around the compound itself.
Kali was growing at a steady rate, as the magic nature of the compound itself encouraged her growth. I could already tell that her domain was pushing further into the forest around us. Towards the city, it felt like a dozen feet or so had slowly fallen under her influence. On the other side, however, almost three times that had been claimed. She was growing more powerful as well, and her influence on reality in her domain was beginning to show.
It was exciting to see her growth, and I could tell she was happy with her progress as well. With a temporary body set up, I was excited to finally be able to talk normally to her, which she seemed to think wasn't too far away.
The day after Kali's golem form rose from the mud, I finally heard from Olivia. I woke up to a message on my phone from her, telling me to pick her up for patrol like normal. So far, up until that point, I had been covering our patrols alone, which was honestly fine since I had the support of my golems. Four powerful metal golems and a rapidly learning mage were more than enough to handle a small army of ABB goons. Either way, I wasn't about to force anyone to work with me as a hero. I didn't want anyone beside me that didn't want to be there.
Technically, I could have found her whenever I wanted, using my connection to the magic in her cloak. However, I had already breached her trust once, so stalking her with the equipment I gave her seemed like a universally bad choice. Unless she was in danger or had crossed a very hard line, I had decided to leave her alone. She did deserve her privacy, after all. Thankfully, she reached out to me, saving me the issue of worrying about it at all.
That morning, I did my regular morning business before saying goodbye to Kali and teleporting away to the city. Rather than heading directly to the pickup spot, I grabbed a couple of coffees and a pair of breakfast burritos. Forgiveness was always easier with a full stomach, after all.
I teleported to the alleyway to find her sitting in her usual spot, leaning back against the wall of the alley. She spotted me immediately and leaned forward, but before she could say anything, I put the burrito and coffee into her hands. I could practically feel her eyes rolling when she shook her head and opened the paper bag to see what I had gotten her.
I didn't hear a single complaint while she ate it, though. When we were both done, I sat on a crate on the opposite side of the alleyway. After a moment, we both spoke up at the same time.
"We need to talk."
"We need to talk."
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It took some time for me to calm down, a mixture of frustration and disgust giving me a sort of nervous, manic energy that seemed to rattle around in my bones, fighting to explode out of me. I cried, I cursed, I shouted at the trees and to the sky, but both Kali and Alya stayed close, keeping me from doing anything stupid until I finally worked through it. I ended up making my way to my room, barely taking the time to finish getting out of my costume before collapsing into my bed.
I woke up about five hours later to my phone ringing. When I picked it up, I could see I had already missed three calls from an unknown number, but that it was Lady Photon who was currently calling me. I took a moment to shake off my sleep before tapping the call button.
"Hello, this is Arcanum."
"Arcanum, hello, it's Lady Photon," the familiar voice confirmed. "I just wanted to check in on you and make sure everything was alright."
"Yeah, I'm… I'm okay, recovering at home," I assured her.
"That's good. That was a lot to take in, even for us," She admitted. "We have a lot more experience handling this sort of situation, or at least similar situations... It's not easy."
"Yeah, it was.... worse than I could imagine."
There was a solemn, dark silence over the phone before Lady Photon cleared her voice, pulling us back to the conversation.
"So, sometime after the scene was cleared, the PRT called in New Wave for information when you refused to meet with the Director," She added, and I winced. "We want you to know that we one hundred percent support your refusal. We've been dealing with PRT and Protectorate crap long enough to read between the lines of what they were saying to hear what they were actually doing. While I would recommend trying not to be so… bombastic about it, next time, you don't have to worry about getting in trouble."
"How did you manage that?"
"Director Piggot is a rigid military woman, and she doesn't trust capes. She assumes the worst, and when she tries to wrangle a situation, she assumes her assets will function like military-trained assets would," She explained, sounding exasperated with what seemed like an ongoing issue. "She needs reminding that we are not military assets, that we aren't even her assets to begin with. She doesn't like hearing that, of course, but at least she doesn't pretend it's not true."
"Jesus, what a clusterfuck," I said, leaning on my elbow and running my hand thrush my hair. "How is this going to affect me covering for Amy?"
"We thought of that. With her psychologist's agreement, Amy will be healing at the PRT for now," She explained, continuing before I could open my mouth. "Don't worry. She will be following your parameters rather than following her old scheduling habits. It also plays into her therapy in other ways, but she hasn't discussed that with me, which is fine. She seemed genuinely happy about the setup when we discussed it, but we will be keeping track and checking in consistently. Further, she will never be healing without a member of New Wave with her."
"Good, that sounds good," I said with a nod. "In all honesty, it's probably better to put some space between the PRT and me for a while. Not their biggest fan at the moment."
"I don't blame you," the mother superhero admitted. "Well, I just wanted to let you know we managed to smooth things over a bit, and make sure you are okay."
"Thank you, Lady Photon, I appreciate the phone call," I said honestly.
A few more pleasantries were exchanged before we hung up, leaving me alone in my room until Alya reformed, sitting on the edge of the bed beside me.
"That sounded good."
"Well, I'm not wanted, and it doesn't sound like I'm too far up Director Piggot's shit list," I responded with a shrug. "Both of those are good."
I leaned back on my hands for a moment, before letting out a long sigh.
"Why does it feel like everyone in the government here is holding the idiot ball and can't let it go?" I asked the universe rhetorically. "I really hope it's not contagious."
I sat for a while longer before eventually getting up and stretching. There was no way I was leaving the compound again for the rest of the day, barring an emergency. Instead, I had a late lunch or early dinner before finally getting to work on something I had promised to make Kali a while ago. She had seemed to like the idea of a golem she could boss around here to help with work. Unfortunately, for the longest time, I had been too busy to work on anything that wasn't necessary. Thankfully, I now had some free time.
It was simple really, just about the easiest golem I had ever created, with living wood as a base and only a handful of ritualized gemstones on a stone core. It could follow commands, sure, but struggled to comprehend complex instructions. I had intended to make it much more complicated, but Kali intervened and explained, through some complicated imagery and feelings, that that was all she needed. When it was done, she seemed happy, but within an hour, the golem had disappeared. Kali seemed smug when I asked about her, teasingly implying that I should be patient.
The following day, I quickly completed my rounds at the hospital before leaving to check on the docks community. I spent some time repairing the damaged golems, which I had left alone for way too long. I also promised to bring a pair of metal golems soon, to really solidify the place's defenses. The four metal golems that followed me around had proven to be extremely competent and durable, so building a few specifically for defending the community would help considerably.
I had Ayla keep her eyes peeled for Olivia, but she was nowhere to be found. She was either avoiding me or avoiding the community altogether. I left her a message through George that I was looking for her, but I didn't have high hopes.
I went on patrol alone after that, making a push to no longer ignore the gathering of ABB forces we stumbled on. It slowed down the patrol considerably, but we busted a small drug house and a few small groups of goons at separate places. It was well worth the extra time, especially because some of them seemed shocked that I had picked them up. Guess they thought I was playing softball to keep from stirring any trouble up, but the time for that had long passed.
When I traded off patrols with New Wave, I immediately teleported just outside the junkyard I had used to make my golems. Another chunk of cash and a few spells later, and I left with enough metal for several more golems, though this time I didn't form the metal into anything yet, instead leaving it in large metal chunks. Having some metal lying around the compound might come in handy at some point, and I could quickly form them as needed rather than beforehand.
Once I finished and delivered the metal golems to the community, I spent the next few days working on the compound. I still performed my daily tasks, but most of my time was spent out of the city. The patrols were much more intense than before, sure, but in most ways, I was taking it easy, recovering from the Farm raid. I also made sure to check up on the victims in the hospital, even as most of them were discharged to return to their lives. The ones who remained were still struggling mentally, and would soon most likely be relegated to mental health institutions, where they would hopefully recover.
For one, long night, I considered trying to create a mental healing spell. My knowledge automatically fed me a bare framework, even just from thinking about it, but I hesitated to keep going. Messing with people's minds, even in a good way, was something I wasn't sure about. Magical healing was incredible, yes, but it wasn't perfect. The nature of the healing itself brushed most of its shortcomings to the side, but that wouldn't be the case with mind healing.
The brain was too complicated to just memory wipe the trauma away, as PTSD and other mental trauma symptoms can exist without memory of the actual event. Healing mental trauma would equate to a full mind massage, tweaking, poking, and prodding the brain back into shape. It was absolutely mind control, and there was absolutely no way I would ever be able to convince people it was all I could do, as that's just now how powers seemed to work here.
At some point, when the cat was out of the bag, and I had people who believed me that I was using magic, I might offer that sort of spell to people. For now, however, having a spell like that would most likely get me locked up, along with anyone I used it for potential master effects.
On the seventh night of my current charge cycle, I got a rather shocking scare. I was sitting by the fire, brainstorming some ideas for what I would spend my next charges on, when a large, almost skeletal form began to pull itself from the dirt a dozen or so feet past the edge of the compound lights. The movement caught my eye immediately, but I still froze as the dark form seemed to yank itself free of the ground, crawling from the earth, clumps of clay and mud falling from its frame.
Finally, I recovered enough to react. I held out my hand and gave my staff, which was leaning against the wall not far from me, a mental yank. It slapped into my hand, and with a flourish, I aimed the business end at the shadow. I was just about to turn said shadow into a very bright fire, when Kali sent a wave of calm through the compound. I slowly lowered my staff, and the shadow walked closer, slowly stepping into the fire pit area.
It was her golem, the one I had made her a few days ago, though it hardly resembled what I had first created. What had been a simple, headless humanoid frame was now refined and remolded to match human proportions. It had a head, arms, legs, and a torso, all proportional to its height and size. As I watched, short green leaves began to grow from its scalp, creating what was almost like a pixie cut, finished with a large single rose growing just above the temple.
As its "hair" grew, the golem's face shifted and moved, smiling happily at me as the clearly feminine golem stepped closer. Its whole body was clearly sculpted after a woman's, with coils and branches of my enhanced wood forming strong limbs. Unlike the normal golems, this one sported rather tight and refined definition, rather than stocky, brutish trunks.
Covering a large portion of the golem's body was a dress of leaves and flowers, which pulled tight around it, almost like a layered kimono nightgown. Overall, the very feminine golem had very sharp, almost wolfish features, with large, brilliant green eyes. It was like looking at a wooden anime character. The features were alien enough, however, that it skipped over the uncanny valley, settling into a space that was sharp, but expressive, while very much not being human.
As the golem got closer, it smiled, and trees around us shuddered and swayed.
"...Kali? Is that you?" I asked, my own eyes wide as I stood up slowly, leaning my staff against the chair.
I stepped closer, and the golem made a "so-so" gesture with their hand. Between our connection and her hand motions, I got the gist of the situation. She was inhabiting the body, which she had spent several days working on underground, but it wasn't actually her body or anything, just a vessel she could use. Better than ordering around some golems by far, even if she had drained some of her stored energy to get it done.
It was incredible, an artistic creation beyond anything I was capable of, with a detailed, layered magic that I didn't even know where to start interpreting. She seemed to love it, happily stoking the fire, walking around the compound, tending some of the flowers and berry bushes that had started to grow around the edges, and even bringing me a cup of hot chocolate as it started to get late. It felt like I had gained a magical dryad caretaker, who seemed to love every minute of finally being able to interact fully with the real world.
Thankfully, she seemed to switch seamlessly between inhabiting the golem frame and letting it form into the side of a tree not far from the edge of the compound. I could actually feel the difference when she did that, her being going from a quiet, subtle blanket to a heavy, colorful point, walking around the compound itself.
Kali was growing at a steady rate, as the magic nature of the compound itself encouraged her growth. I could already tell that her domain was pushing further into the forest around us. Towards the city, it felt like a dozen feet or so had slowly fallen under her influence. On the other side, however, almost three times that had been claimed. She was growing more powerful as well, and her influence on reality in her domain was beginning to show.
It was exciting to see her growth, and I could tell she was happy with her progress as well. With a temporary body set up, I was excited to finally be able to talk normally to her, which she seemed to think wasn't too far away.
The day after Kali's golem form rose from the mud, I finally heard from Olivia. I woke up to a message on my phone from her, telling me to pick her up for patrol like normal. So far, up until that point, I had been covering our patrols alone, which was honestly fine since I had the support of my golems. Four powerful metal golems and a rapidly learning mage were more than enough to handle a small army of ABB goons. Either way, I wasn't about to force anyone to work with me as a hero. I didn't want anyone beside me that didn't want to be there.
Technically, I could have found her whenever I wanted, using my connection to the magic in her cloak. However, I had already breached her trust once, so stalking her with the equipment I gave her seemed like a universally bad choice. Unless she was in danger or had crossed a very hard line, I had decided to leave her alone. She did deserve her privacy, after all. Thankfully, she reached out to me, saving me the issue of worrying about it at all.
That morning, I did my regular morning business before saying goodbye to Kali and teleporting away to the city. Rather than heading directly to the pickup spot, I grabbed a couple of coffees and a pair of breakfast burritos. Forgiveness was always easier with a full stomach, after all.
I teleported to the alleyway to find her sitting in her usual spot, leaning back against the wall of the alley. She spotted me immediately and leaned forward, but before she could say anything, I put the burrito and coffee into her hands. I could practically feel her eyes rolling when she shook her head and opened the paper bag to see what I had gotten her.
I didn't hear a single complaint while she ate it, though. When we were both done, I sat on a crate on the opposite side of the alleyway. After a moment, we both spoke up at the same time.
"We need to talk."
"We need to talk."
Never a good thing to hear from a Woman or opposite party (even in this context).
Hopefully he goes the route of disclosure and ropes her into the fact that Ayla isn't human, is integrated into his soul, and even if she did undergo ego death to attach to someone else literally nobody else in the multiverse is capable of hosting her.
And also the other autonomous spirit she should get friendly with exists.
And also the other autonomous spirit she should get friendly with exists.
Oof. Coming from Carol, this would be an indictment. Coming from Sarah, it's probably a writer's error.