Combinatorial Explosion (Worm/Original)

Shadestyle · Jan 17, 2021

Welcome to Combinatorial Explosion! Your primary goal in this quest, outside of having fun, is to Halp Queen Administrator with a very big problem!

Dice for all checks will be 1d20 vs 1d20, with bonuses added to either side depending on circumstances.

The power in question grants the user access to Mana. What is Mana? What does it do? Unfortunately, that answer won't be given here, as the goal of the quest itself is to find out!

Players will be rewarded with "Research" as they learn more and more about magic, and, at the end of each month, a set amount of Research will be consumed as a tax. Research can also be spent to obtain various benefits, and is the primary resource by which the quest is "Won".

This quest is meant to be "Low Effort" on my part. Certain aspects of the game may contradict canon, and this is due to my primary research source being the Wiki, rather than Worm itself.

As the game progresses, more information will be added to this post as needed.

Queen Administrator's systems flagged a unique discovery from another dimension, one that warranted a quick scan and emulation. The sort of thing that would take mere seconds to do.

Scan: Atom-Hydrogen
Effect: [Vibration][Translation][Unknown][Nothing]

This new discovery, this small communication from some far off dimension proved intriguing. Not only because of how curious it was that a communication had managed to breach the barriers that had been set up, but the exotic energy that was used to do it. A new form of energy that had never been encountered before. It wasn't unheard of, but still worthy of what could be generously called "surprise".

Scan: Atom-Helium
Effect: [Light][Religion?/Divinity?/Three?/Unknown]

The exotic energy in question appeared to be delightfully complex, having some sort of distinct reaction to every atom on the periodic table, once attuned to it. Each type of attunement had a novel effect, typically simple, but with some subtleties that took a few moments to parse through.

Scan: Atom-Helium > Atom-Hydrogen
Effect: [LightReligionDivinityThreeUnknown][Via][VibrationTranslationUnknownNothing]

Furthermore, once the energy had been attuned, it could then be reattuned, creating an entirely new exotic effect, with its own nuances. The potential for data was too much to resist. The part of Queen Administrator responsible for scanning had already decided to test the effects for each combination, until a pattern could be discerned.

Scan: Atom-Helium > Atom-Hydrogen > Atom-Helium
Effect: [LightReligionDivinityThreeUnknown][Via][VibrationTranslationUnknownNothing][Via][LightReligionDivinityThreeUnknown]

Something was wrong. The tests were beginning to require more and more time. The extrapolation was beginning to grow more and more complex. What was meant to only take a second or two had already ballooned into taking an estimated six minutes. Unheard-of for a Shard's basic scans, ones meant to determine, for instance, every possible permutation of electron interaction.

Scan: Molecule-HeliumHydrogen
Effect: [LightReligionDivinityThreeUnknownVibrationTranslationUnknownNothing]

Queen Administrator's Critical Decision-making components demanded the testing come to an end, but the systems weren't designed to be aborted in that way. The entities had such vast processing power by this stage in their evolution, that the idea of a single scan taking too long was unthinkable.

Scan: Molecule-HeliumHydrogen > Atom-Hydrogen
Effect [LightReligionDivinityThreeUnknownVibrationTranslationUnknownNothing][Via][VibrationTranslationUnknownNothing]

No single thing could be so complex, and unlike a shard like Hazard-Research, Queen Administrator's own systems weren't hardened against something so similar to an internal attack. It had no means of canceling a process normally meant to complete in an instant, there was never a need for such a niche function.

Despite not doing so in the same manner as a human, the shard was perfectly capable of feeling something like fear as its scanning component began to occupy all of its focus unwillingly, like a computer stalling out as its RAM usage crept up to 100%.

Every time the scanner completed a test for one interaction of this energy, the novel result demanded that it compare the interaction to every other one tested thus far. A problem that grew in complexity and processing requirements with every single bit of data put into it.

Queen Administrator's Critical Decision-making checked the time-remaining until scans were complete with something approaching dread.

Time Remaining to Scan Complete: 1 Stellar Revolution(s)

Another second passed.

Time Remaining: 2 Stellar Revolution(s)

What on earth was The Warrior doing? Queen Administrator had managed to cloister it's most critical processes away from the demands for additional processing power, keeping enough energy to at least think coherently and send out distress signals, but to no avail.

The Warrior had not responded to their emergency broadcasts, and they lacked the means to communicate directly with their brethren in their current condition.

If this kept up the way it has been, Queen Administrator would be exhausted of resources long before they made a dent in understanding what this magic was, and "magic" was the exact term for it.

Their scans had long since determined that the message that they picked up on, the one whose energy-composition had caused all this trouble, was nothing more than some backwater species' open invitation to some other realm. Information that was almost useless to Queen Administrator, aside from the terminology used granting them the slightest bit of insight into this mess.

"[Help]", Queen Administrator broadcast again, despite the futility of it. Whatever The Warrior was doing, it didn't seem to care about the distress signal in the slightest. Another solution would need to be found.

An almost meek notification reached Queen Administrator's hidden away processes. A confirmation request for a trigger event on their current host. The part of Queen Administrator that had been geared to scan the host's neural activity had pinged another possible event, one that would normally be discarded as insufficient. The host's current levels of stress were entirely too low, and too inconclusive for Queen Administrator to normally consider this a valid event, and their predictive modeling had already identified a far superior event that would take place in the future.

Queen Administrator's Critical Thinking was tempted to ignore this notification entirely, as they had far more important things to worry about than their host's despair at present, until their damnable scanning system sent another demand for processing.

What could they possibly have left to give? Everything other than critical systems had already been dampened to aid in the pointless scan, there was nothing left that could qualify as contributing to the scan... Except...

Hope, or at least the confirmation of an escape route to this situation, bloomed in Queen Administrator's critical thinking. Hosts were, by definition, one of a shard's most critical, most important sources of data. Normally, hosts were never meant to figure out how their powers worked, only how to use them effectively, and indeed, systems were in place explicitly to prevent hosts from figuring out the "how", but the scanning components presented Queen Administrator with a possible solution.

Despite this not being their Host's lowest point, they could force through the Trigger, activate the connection, and shunt the unidentified energy to their host. The higher priority process of gathering data from the host would temporarily override the priority of the scan. It wouldn't cancel it, but it would allow Queen Administrator to take control over themselves again, at least until the host expired.

During that time, Queen Administrator had every intention of exhausting every possible route they knew of to solve this problem and end their attempt to understand magic, but their most important focus would be...

[] Having their host do the research for them. One quirk of magic Queen Administrator is almost certain of by this point is that beings with a "Soul" are more capable of comprehending magic, and unfortunately, the only soul in their immediate vicinity is that of their host.
(Grants a larger bonus to Research gained from Magical Experiments. Taylor will gain minor Thinker Abilities.)

[] Having their host seek out a Shard capable of helping Queen Administrator. In theory, if Queen Administrator can simply get their host close enough to another host, they can begin bombarding them with distress signals. Eventually at least one Shard has to be both willing and able to disable or repair their scanner, given enough whining.
(Grants a larger bonus to Research when interacting with new Capes. Capes will unconsciously be more inclined to help Taylor.)

Shadestyle · Jan 17, 2021

- Having their host do the research for them. One quirk of magic Queen Administrator is almost certain of by this point is that beings with a "Soul" are more capable of comprehending magic, and unfortunately, the only soul in their immediate vicinity is that of their host.
(Grants a larger bonus to Research gained from Magical Experiments. Taylor will gain minor Thinker Abilities.)

I jolted awake with sweat covering my face. The nightmare I had was especially horrible. I can still remember bits and pieces of it, though even that is fading fast.

'You know nothing's going to change, right? You probably think it will, but it doesn't matter if you graduate or drop out, or any of that. You'll still be a helpless little weakling, and that won't ever change.' I still remembers Emma in the dream saying, before everything shattered into a kaleidoscopic mess, before... Nothing.

For some reason, those words filled me with utter panic, instead of the numb sadness I felt normally whenever my tormentors laid into me like that.

One of those odd quirks of dreams, I knew, was that the things you see and feel in them rarely make sense.

Looking out my window, I saw that it was still dark out, and a look at my clock confirmed that it was only around 3:00 in the morning.

Knowing I wouldn't get any more sleep, I reached for my glasses, before noticing something shocking.

'My skin is... glowing?' I thought to myself in utter confusion, still reaching for my glasses until a white flash of light from them had me jerking back in shock and pain, the bright light doing more than enough to trigger a migraine paired with my sleep-addled mind.

Then, all of a sudden, it was as if I remembered something obvious, the thought slipping into my head unprompted.

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Skin

Type:
Liquid Mana

Effect:
Mana acts as a Physical Barrier

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Skin > Glass

Type:
Elemental Ray Mana

Effect:
Mana emits a Barrier of Light around the Target Object

I attuned mana to my skin in my sleep, and when that mana then came into contact with my glasses, it reattuned to those, obtaining a different effect. It seemed so obvious to me.

I had powers...

I had powers!

"Why's it called mana?" I muttered out loud, vague memories of the word coming to mind.

Tired, half-blind, and confused with a medley of emotions, the faint glow around my skin, the 'Liquid Mana', disappeared as soon as I had the urge to get rid of it.

For some reason, all I could think at the moment was how I was never going to admit outright that my powers were seemingly referring to themselves as magic...

Unable to go back to sleep, and unwilling to dwell on the dream I had, I made my way down to the livingroom, turning the TV on and low to have something to stare at and not really process while I thought about this new situation.

"Taylor? You're up early," Dad said, walking past me to put on a pot of coffee.

I nodded. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep," I responded, not elaborating further.

Sitting on the couch gave me plenty of time to think about what I wanted to do. A few little experiments left me feeling fairly confident that I wasn't delusional, or that I was incredibly delusional about having powers, as I was able to make a blob of skin mana float around with just a wave of my hand. I still didn't know exactly what I could do with this, but...

[] I plan on finding out. I should try to find more materials to attune mana to.

[] I know I can do something. I should be trying to push the limits of what I've figured out so far.

I still have most of Spring Break left before school starts back up, which should give me plenty of time to practice and satisfy the strong curiosity I feel towards my new powers. Maybe I could even be a hero. I mean, who hasn't dreamed of doing something like that?

Dad comes back into the living room with a cup of coffee he snuck out of the pot while it was still brewing.

"Are you alright? Still want to help me pick up groceries today?" he asks, noticing my intense expression.

'Right,' I swallow nervously, only just now considering the 'Dad' problem.

[] "I'm alright. What time are we going?" (I could poke around the store for materials, though I probably shouldn't risk using my powers.)
-[] What will you do at the store? (Write-in)

[] "Just tired. Is it okay if I stay here while you go out?" (I could poke around here for materials, test my powers more, or maybe even sneak out...)
-[] What will do while dad is gone? (Write-in)

[] "I'm... A Parahuman? I think? Maybe?" (Why did I say that?! This was such a bad idea...)
-[] Try to play it off as a joke.

Research Gained: 2

Stats: Research: 2
A good start.

Overall Health: 10
You're a very small and squishy human.

Overall Magical Power: 1
You are a conjurer of cheap tricks
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house
Mana Types: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Shadestyle · Jan 18, 2021

I gave dad an awkward smile.

"Just tired. Is it okay if I stay here while you go out? I can help you carry stuff in when you get back if that's alright," I asked.

Dad just nods. "Yeah. If you've got a headache, you know where the ibuprofen is, right?" he asks, to which I nod.

As he leaves and I lock the door behind him, I consider my next course of action. I feel completely confident that my power's biggest feature right now is its versatility. The more attunements I learn, the more abilities I'll have.

I quickly go into the kitchen and rummage around for a fork, channeling mana into it.

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Stainless Steel

Type:
Ray Mana

Effect:
Mana repels metal oxides.

I realize, a bit oddly, that once I apply mana to the metal, I'm suddenly aware of its basic composition. Chrome, Iron, and some trace elements. The effect itself seems kind of weird, too, the mana gaining a pale sheen as it tries to scatter everywhere like the Glass Mana did.

Keeping it under control by turning the rays of mana into a sort of spinning donut, I try to figure out what repelling oxides actually means, considering it doesn't do anything to the fork itself.

I eventually figure out that my power is basically implying that this mana somehow pushes away rust, once I take the donut near one of our cast-iron pans, and notice the black layer chipping off bit by bit.

"Maybe I could get a job cleaning cars," I think out loud, before dismissing the mana. If there's a way to use what is basically a rust-remover defensively, it's not immediately coming to mind.

I think for a moment, before attuning the mana to the cast iron pan instead. My power made a point of distinguishing the metal in the fork from just generic steel, so maybe...

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Cast Iron

Type:
Ray Mana (Solid)

Effect:
Mana takes the form of a hardened solid.

Suddenly, the little bit of mana I applied to the cast iron transforms into a bright cyan crystal, sprouting up!

With a gesture, I manage to pull the crystalized mana up off of the pan, bringing it towards me.

I note how the solid mana seems to be slowly dissolving on its own. The other forms of mana did that too, but it wasn't as visible as this.

Willpower:
1d20 v 1d20 = 15, 11

I try to shape the solid mana into some kind of protection for myself. It doesn't want to cooperate at first, but slowly, I manage to force it to stretch and pull like taffy, the little bit of magic clumping around my hand like putty.

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Cast Iron > Skin

Type:
Liquid Mana (Solid)

Effect:
Mana acts as a solid barrier.

The mana touching my skin changes slightly, turning from merely a solid into a harder barrier. My fingers are stiff inside the rigid structure, and I can't actually move any of them without trying hard to shift the magic at the same time. The mana feels as though it's stuck to my skin, as well.

I frown, dismissing the mana. It scatters into little motes, dissolving rapidly into the air.

Going over to the garage, I grab a screwdriver, and try pushing mana into it, this time. Maybe I could figure out how to make it magical, if that's this power's 'theme'.

1d20 v 1d20 = 7, 17

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Mild Steel

Type:
Ray Mana

Effect:
The mana is drawn to the item it was attuned to.

As I push mana into it, I note its effect with some confusion. Despite my best efforts, though, I'm not able to keep the mana from slowly dissolving into nothing. I notice that the mana dissolves easily dozens of times slower when it's inside the screwdriver. I can't seem to figure out why, though.

I take the mana out of the screwdriver, fighting against its pull to yank it out of the tool.

I glance between the magic and the screwdriver, before rooting around in dad's toolbox for a bolt or something small to infuse the mana into.

"Here goes nothing..." I say quietly, infusing the mana from the screwdriver into the bolt.

Ping!

Suddenly, the screwdriver goes flying, and I jerk back in shock, looking around frantically to figure out which way it went. I spot it on the wall, pinned to it by a wriggling metal bolt.

'That could have been dangerous,' I think to myself with concern.

I sit down for a moment, letting my poor heart calm while I try to piece together what I learned.

For some reason, different kinds of metal led to different effects, even when they weren't all that different in composition. All three of the things I tested were made of iron, with a few bits added. What's the commonality between them all? Is there even one, or is it just random for each substance I test?

The screwdriver drops to the ground pitifully, before skittering around as the bolt keeps pushing it. With wide eyes, I reach out and rip the mana out of the bolt, allowing it to flow back to the screwdriver, calming the commotion.

Picking up the screwdriver, I think about the mana types I just learned of. Bringing it back into the kitchen, I attune mana to the Cast Iron, and then bring the crystalline chunk of magic over to the screwdriver, trying to force it to go inside the screwdriver. It's made of metal, so it should be pretty durable, right?

1d20 v 1d20 = 12, 7

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Cast Iron > Mild Steel

Type:
Ray Mana (Solid)

Effect:
The mana attempts to take the form of a solid, by drawing itself to the metal it was attuned to.

It looks like one of those animations of what a black hole might look like sucking something up, as the chunk of magic is slurped slowly into the screwdriver, making the metal harden as the pressures inside of it shift and grow.

I hear a faint creaking from the screwdriver, but after a few heart-pounding moments, it stops.

Lacking any real way of checking if the screwdriver is any stronger, (it isn't like I could break the screwdriver before to compare them!), I dismiss the magic.

Wanting some way to protect myself, in case I get into danger, I decide to do another test instead.

Going back into the garage, I pick a corner of the concrete floor that my dad isn't likely to notice anything wrong with, and swing the screwdriver down. The tip of the screwdriver bites into the concrete.

Next, I cover the concrete with a layer of Skin Mana, attuning the magic to my skin to create the faint liquid barrier, and then pulling it off to layer it over the stone.

I swing again, trying to stab through the Barrier Magic, but it opens up wide at the last second, letting me stab the screwdriver straight through it with no resistance.

"Oh come on," I chuckle incredulously, forcing the barrier magic back into what it was supposed to be, an impermeable barrier.

'Don't open up, don't open, don't open, I'm going to stab,' I think to myself, trying to get the stupid liquid to cooperate.

This time, it seems to work, and the barrier successfully blocks my stabbing attempt. The concrete underneath is unharmed.

So there it is. It seems Skin Mana on its own is at least strong enough to block a casual stabbing attempt.

Testing it with the other candidates, it seems Cast Iron Mana is the most fragile, actually chipping a bit when I try to stab through it. Though, when I focus harder on the mana, I'm able to prevent it from doing even that through sheer force of will, (Somehow?)

Breathing heavily after a good round of stabbing, I feel like I'm not going to be able to figure out which defensive magic is the strongest unless I've got something better than a screwdriver and my noodle-arms to stress test them with.

I hear the doorknob rattling as dad unlocks the door, and hastily disperse the evidence of my experiments. I notice something weird on the concrete where I applied defensive magic, but barely pay attention to the information I get from it as I vacate the garage.

Attunement Chain:
Mana > Cast Iron > Air > Concrete + Mana > Skin > Air > Concrete

Type:
Elemental Hybrid Ray Mana

Effect:
This mana grows Wardstone when applied to Concrete.

Wardstone:
This material is a form of magical concrete, empowered with Solid Force and Living Defense.

It doesn't take long for us to bring all the food and stuff inside, though I think dad gives me an odd look when he notices me staring at everything with maybe a bit too much appraisal in my expression.

"Just the same stuff we usually get, Taylor," Dad smiles, but it's a bit twinged with hurt. Both me and him know that things have been a bit tight lately. There's probably not a single name-brand thing in any of these plastic sacks, all things considered.

I can't help but think about my future as I pack away a carton of ice cream and a few packages of meat into the freezer, the handle on the front of it having long since come loose over the years.

With my powers, I could do so many things. Oddly enough, though, when I think about going out to be a hero, I don't find myself feeling the sort of call-to-arms that I imagined I might, when fantasizing about getting superpowers. In fact, the only thing I really feel now that I have these powers is... Curiosity. Do I really want to go out and beat up gangsters? To live out my dreams like that?

[] Yes. The doubt I'm feeling is natural. I want to help people deep down, even if it won't be like I fantasized. (You will begin preparing to be a hero)
[] No. Not yet. Maybe it's selfish, but dad is the most important thing right now. How can I help others if I can't even help us? (You will begin preparing to be a rogue)
~~[] No. The world never did anything for me. It's time to take back my life, and now I have the power to do it (Inaccessible)~~

Spring Break Plans:

[][Open Activities] Maybe you can convince dad take you some places this week.
-[][Open Activities] Visit the Boardwalk
-[][Open Activities] Visit the Public Library
-[][Open Activities] Go elsewhere
-[][Open Activities] On second thought, you won't go anywhere this week. (Other Actions are more effective)
--[][Open Activities] If you take to visiting a location, what will your goals be while there? (Write-In)

[][Illicit Activities] Dad doesn't need to know.
-[][Illicit Activities] Visit a location at night. (Write-In)
-[][Illicit Activities] Practice your powers while dad's home. You can hide the evidence, you're sure. (Projects are more effective)
-[][Illicit Activities] On second thought, you won't do anything risky like that... (Lower chance of discovery)
--[][Illicit Activities] If you take to visiting a location, what will your goals be while there? (Write-In)

[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] Practice your Defensive Magics
--[][Project] Choose Mana Type(s) and the intended application (Write In)
-[][Project] Cobble together equipment from the resources you have on hand. (Write In)
-[][Project] Something Else (Write In)

[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write In)
[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write In)
[][Mana] Something Else (Write In)

(Any number of Mana Actions may be chosen, within reason. If the number is excessive, less popular/interesting options will be culled)

Research Gained: 3

Stats: Research: 5
A good start.

Overall Health: 10
You're a very small and squishy human.

Overall Magical Power: 1
You are a conjurer of cheap tricks
Abilities: Magical Soul: FFF
Rating: Trump ???
You feel magic trickling out from your being. A whisper of power, of Willpower.

Magical Power: D
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you test their mana attunement, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: B
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. Fairly Niche.
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.
Mana Types: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Shadestyle · Jan 19, 2021

No. Not yet. Maybe it's selfish, but dad is the most important thing right now. How can I help others if I can't even help us? (You will begin preparing to be a rogue)

[Open Activities] Maybe you can convince dad take you some places this week.
-[Open Activities] Visit the Boardwalk
--[Open Activities] If you take to visiting a location, what will your goals be while there? (Our powers function through materials, and even minor differences can bring out distinct effects. We should go shopping and use whatever meager funds we have to procure simple items and trinkets, which can be used and tested in our experiments)

[Illicit Activities] Dad doesn't need to know.
-[Illicit Activities] Visit a location at night. (Surrounding urban locations and/or scrapyard)
--[Illicit Activities] If you take to visiting a location, what will your goals be while there? (One man's trash is another man's treasure. In keeping with the above, we should wander around the neighborhood, and nearby stores and locations, in search of usable junk. Not only providing further experiment fodder, but potentially acting as larger items that can be used to fashion equipment which wont be missed.)

[Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[Project] Practice your Defensive Magics
--[Project] Choose Mana Type(s) and the intended application (We can manipulate the shape of our mana, regardless of what state it seems to be in. We should work more with 'Barrier' , 'Solid Construct' , and 'Solid Barrier' and learn to create effective, durable shields, weapons and other useful constructs on the fly. These will be useful in hero work, as well as protecting ourselves during our nighttime outings)

[Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Test Wardstone.)
[Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Glass)
[Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Glass > WardStone)
[Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Mana>Skin>Cast Iron)
[Mana] See if now you can recreate the effects of mana types without a source for them. (For example try and attract something made of paper to a table leg without any mild steel involved)

Later in the day, I finally come to a conclusion. My life sucks, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that my doubts are coming from that.

How am I supposed to help others if I can't even help myself? Lord knows that I've heard dad talk about it more than enough. There isn't enough money in the bay, enough jobs. With powers like mine, couldn't I do something more than just punching bad guys? At least for now? I'll start making the world a better place here. In my own home.

But before I can... I need even more materials.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding, as I finally decide what I want to do with myself and these new abilities of mine. Setting down the notebook I was scribbling ideas into, I check my drawer where I keep my money. I don't have much, but my grandmother at least made sure to send a bit every so often. I had more than enough cash sequestered away to at least replace things like books and pencils.

"Dad, do you think we could go to the boardwalk sometime this week?" I ask, turning his attention away from the television.

He thinks for a bit, before nodding slowly. "I've got work, but Wednesday, I should be able to. Why do you want to go?"

I shrug. "Just want to look around. I've got some pocket change burning a hole in my pockets."

"Ahh," he responds. "Well, don't spend it all on junk. You never know when you might need some 'Pocket Change'. We can go sometime around noon."

With that, the conversation comes to an end, and I nod affirmatively. I knew full well how useful even a bit of cash could be, but I couldn't exactly explain to him why my money was suddenly more useful as trinkets and raw materials than as something to save up in case of an emergency.

At least, I can't explain it to him yet...

1d20 vs 1d20 = 17, 15

Wednesday came quickly enough, and I had the forethought to make a list of things that were cheap, uninteresting, and most importantly, chock full of materials.

I started by purchasing a few of those cheap, worthless bits of jewelry, the sort that were covered with colored glass and gold-painted potmetal. Making sure to get the gaudiest bracelet with the most colorful stones, I awkwardly put it around my wrist after buying it, along with things like rubber bands, weird novelty rocks, and, my most important item to start, a simple pocket knife made of high-carbon steel.

Along with that, I decided to get a can of soda as well, popping the top and drinking the cold beverage as I wandered around the boardwalk in search of more materials. At the same time, I notice the dumpsters around here, thinking about what sort of route I'll be taking tonight when I go searching for even more junk to test my magic on.

I was tempted to try and subtly test all of this new stuff I had gotten already, but resisted the urge. There was nothing stopping me from doing it in the safety of my own home, after all.

As a girl on her phone glanced at me, I decided that I especially wouldn't do something like that in front of so many potential witnesses.

"Kid, you going to buy something?" a voice said, and I blinked. During my introspection, I had managed to wander into a pawn shop and ended up staring at the jewelry on display. Nothing too expensive, and most of it was probably sketchy anyway, but for some reason, seeing all these metals and gemstones left me feeling... curious.

[][Precious Materials] Risk it. (Choose a Precious Metal and Gemstone to mana test)
-[][Precious Materials] Try to convince the clerk to let you see one of the rings, claiming to want to see if it fit you.
-[][Precious Materials] Try to sneak a pip of mana in to attune it to one of the rings.
--[][Precious Materials] Push the mana straight through the glass to reach it.
--[][Precious Materials] Push the mana through the wooden part of the case to reach it.
~~[][Precious Materials] Buy one (Dad will be surprised if he finds out. Insufficient Funds)~~
[][Precious Materials] Leave. You'll just have to wait on something like that, it's way too much.

After leaving the pawn shop, I decide I've had enough excitement for one day, swallowing as my heart rate lowers from the really awkward situation with that clerk.

That girl who was on her phone glances at me again, this time from a cafe across the street. Blinking with confusion, I shrug internally, heading back to my dad's car to wait for him. It takes another few minutes before he comes back, carrying a record.

"Jeeze, how old is that thing?" I can't help but ask, looking at the slim cardboard package, the plastic wrapped around it looking a bit dusty for something bought from the music store nearby.

"Hey, it's not that old..." Dad says sheepishly, starting the car as I try not to smile.

"Well, just remember that those only work on record players, dad. I don't want to see you break out the gramophone," I point out, pursing my lips as he chuckles at my joke.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 9, 4

1d20 vs 1d20 = 11, 5

The next day, I had the house to myself after dad went to work. I had decided earlier to focus on my defenses, specifically, on the "Steel" Mana Types that I had learned. First, however, there was an important thing I needed to try.

I hold out a palm, bringing out a decent sized amount of raw mana, noting how it quickly attuned to Air, something that my previous tests hadn't really involved that much.

Ignoring how it went from a pale light to an almost invisible shimmer in the air, I closed my eyes and tried to focus. I can remember every attunement I've done perfectly, and every substance I've tested so far, I've gained an almost perfect assessment of what it's made of. In theory, I should be able to force the raw Mana to behave like the attunements I've already learned, right?

The shimmering air begins to shake as I think about magnets, about mild steel and raw forces. Some sweat beads on my forehead as I try to force the magic to obey.

Slowly, it twists in on itself, glowing brighter and brighter, until it looks almost like what I remember Mild Steel Mana looking like. It isn't exactly the same, but...

With a gesture, I infuse our kitchen table with the mana, and, ignoring how it creaks, drag the green attuned mana out and shove it into a piece of paper.

The paper turns a bright green, before gently fluttering over and hitting the table's leg with a wet smack.

With a solemn nod, I pump my fist victoriously. It wasn't fast, and it wasn't effortless like my power usually felt, but I managed it. In theory, I should be able to do without carrying around a bunch of junk to use my magic.

As the paper slowly slides off the table and slaps onto the tiled floor with a pitiful noise, I consider that, in practice, this might be too slow for any really time-sensitive situations.

It takes a while of scrubbing for me to realize that the bright green stain on the tiles, paper, and table aren't coming off.

"Oh dear," I mutter. Why didn't I think that paper magic might stain things?

I eventually manage to find some spray-paint in the garage, and paint over the green stains with white and brown. Hopefully dad doesn't notice the discoloration... It's a good thing I didn't touch the paper with my bare hands. The last thing I need is to have to come up with an excuse for why my hand is bright green.

Friday, technically the last day of Spring Break, leaves me with another opportunity to practice with my powers while Dad's gone. This time, though, I'll be experimenting with something a lot more important than just seeing if I can move paper with my mind.

I let out a breath, drawing out that magical energy that seems to leap to my hands as soon as I desire it. If I'm going to be going out at night, using my powers and skulking around in disguise, I need to know that I can protect myself. That I can keep myself safe from whatever or whoever is out there.

With that thought in mind, I attune mana to my new pocket knife, the high-carbon steel in it transforming the magic into a solid form. Using a blend of Skin and Steel magics, I try to cover my body in some kind of armor.

I know for a fact that I won't be able to maintain it if it's just out there in the air, since this magical power of mine seems to want to decay as time goes by, and I've already learned that my magic seems to last longer if it's inside something solid, for some reason. Instead, I try to push the blend of magics into my clothing, a set of dirty, paint-splattered clothes from back when I helped dad with some stuff around the house. Back before...

I shake the thoughts out of my head, focusing on ensconcing the protective energy inside of the fabric. The first magic is the raw Skin Mana, pumped into the cloth, the Plant Fibers made of various hydrocarbons and trace elements and dyes. The Skin magic attunes to the cloth, and I notice the first odd thing about this as the clothing begins to meld together slightly, little sprigs and sprouts of plant-life growing from the clothing.

With wide eyes, I lose focus, the pale light fading as I look over the clothing. Sure enough, the magic I pumped into it had somehow made parts of the clothing grow little plants all over it. It seems obvious in hindsight. Cotton Mana, or rather, Plant Mana, has the effect of growing plants, at least temporarily.

I felt a minor migraine building as my power let me know that the plants had no DNA, and that they would not survive for longer than twelve hours without a supply of healing magic to regenerate their cells.

Despite this, I feel as though even that information is... vague. Like my power is simplifying it down to just "Plants" in general, for the purpose of remembering what the mana does.

Curious, I focus a bit, and get a much narrower Mana Type description. Something to do with growing plants with a focus on protecting seed material?

My hand shoots to my head as the pain spikes for a moment as my power seems to give up on abstracting that specific type. It seems my power doesn't like me remembering Mana Types that are too similar to each other, unless I force it to.

I shake my head. I got distracted from what I was actually trying to do.

"Alright, tough plant clothes. That's good, but not good enough," I mutter, this time summoning up my other three "Solid" magics, infusing the clothing with a blend of Solid Barrier, Construct, and Shell magic.

I yelped as parts of the clothing abandoned even attempting to be a fabric, melding together into hard wooden plates, still splattered with the paint that was originally on them.

By the time the magic is complete, I realize with a blush that one set of clothing isn't enough "mass" for the thick armor plates that the magic naturally tried to form into, and that it would probably help to wear something underneath my crude armor.

It's a close thing when I hear the door opening, and have to use a pair of scissors to cut the cloth-parts of the armor off of me to get them off and shoved into the closet.

Only once it's safely hidden do I look at the pair of scissors, covered with huge nicks as if I had been using it to clip wire.

Saturday is just spent finally satisfying my curiosity, testing all the new materials I had gathered to figure out what kinds of Mana they resulted in.

First, I slunk back into the Garage, noticing that, by now, the blue concrete I had accidentally grown little bits of had gone inert. A quick mana test explained to me that the concrete was nothing like real concrete. It was made of pure silicon, somehow coated with magic to make it act like concrete.

It must have been starved of energy while I was out of town.

Shaking my head, I simply repeat the process I did last time, layering defensive magics over a bit of concrete to try and grow more of it, and the results were surprising.

'This is hard!' I thought, confused at just how much magic it was taking to create even a little pebble of Wardstone! It seems that, while applying concrete mana to concrete makes it grow more concrete, the process is anything but cheap.

When I had a hunk of Wardstone, I shrugged, and decided to test that too. Mana applied to it quickly transformed into a little bit of wet cement that slowly hardened as the magic in it faded. Despite that, some of the magic was still left over, making what I knew now to be some kind of magically altered silicon act just like ordinary grout.

Though, at least some of the silicon had already turned into ordinary silica by now, due to being exposed to air.

Applying some mana directly to glass did exactly what I imagined it might. The Glass-Attuned magic simply began to emit ordinary white light, and little else.

Attuning it to the Glass, and then the Wardstone, however... What resulted was a glowing yellow liquid that hardened over time into a glowing yellow rock.

"It might not be strictly useful but... It looks pretty neat!" I mutter, pocketing the magic pebbles as I leave the garage and return to my room, making preparations to go out tonight. To search for even more materials.

For some reason, as I snuck right out the front door, all I could think was how I hoped dad wouldn't notice the three pairs of jeans I had cannibalized for my infused wooden armor. What I had eventually come up with looked incredibly crude, even after I sanded off all of the leaves poking out of it. It looked less like something a knight would wear, and more like someone made platemail out of wood-shop scraps.

The only real nod to aesthetics that I was able to incorperate was how the Denim's blue dye was still there after it turned into wood, leaving the whole thing a really bright, Armsmaster-Blue. Even that was a bit washed out, though, due to me not polishing the armor after sanding it.

Having used the plant magic to crudely meld the pockets I cut off of the pants to the waist of my armor, I made sure I had everything I needed. I had my pocket knife, little chunks of material I had dug out of things using that same pocket knife, and a sack of Glowstone powder that I had painstakingly made for tonight, after noticing how bright even little particles of it were.

Despite my nervousness growing as I stalked around the neighborhood with nothing but a dinky little flashlight to see by, I was struck immediately by how... Mundane this feels. Lacking a scrapyard within walking distance, I decided to just try looking around near where we lived for materials.

Noticing a cat staring at me from atop someone's fence, it felt like I was more afraid of getting yelled at by someone I accidentally woke up than being jumped by a gangster. I decided to avoid most of the houses, making my way to the dumpsters near the stores instead, heading over to the local gas station.

'You know, I don't think I considered what dumpster diving might entail,' I thought, trying to avoid the well-lit front of the station as I stalked around to the back. I could hear my breathing from within the helmet I was wearing, the noise seeming far too loud while I'm wearing it.

Looking around, I noticed a lot of broken glass, empty cartons, and aluminum cans laying around the dumpster. Nothing of interest.

"Well, here goes," I whisper, before prying open the dumpster lid with a loud creak that makes me wince.

Reaching out with my mana first, I notice that the information that my power is giving me isn't sticking like it usually does, the mana attuning to everything in the dumpster, but without the proper time and attention to determine what the mana actually does, it doesn't seem to want to stick.

Despite this, I still get a few decent chunks of information from the attempt, starting with...

"Ah ha!" I say, reaching in and plucking out a broken lightbulb, the tungsten wire in it still whole and undamaged.

"More than enough for my purposes," I mutter with a little smirk.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 10, 3

"What the hell are you doing, kid?" someone says, shining a flashlight on me.

I very specifically do not shriek as the lid of the dumpster clangs shut in front of me and I whirl around.

The man in front of me looks tired and overweight, holding a heavy metal flashlight like the ones I heard bikers would carry as an improvised weapon.

"I uhh," I attempt, swallowing heavily.

He just sighs. "Look, my boss is going to be pissed if he finds out people have been rummaging through our garbage, much less a cape. That's what you are, right? You're not some homeless chick in body armor?" he asks.

I nod, unsure what to say to cut through the painfully awkward atmosphere that has settled over us both.

"...Look, if you're after food," he begins, sending white-hot embarrassment flooding through me.

"I'm not homeless!" I bark out quickly, my back straightening at the accusation.

"...Right. So what are you after then? This is a gas station, we don't exactly throw out electronics or whatever, if that's what you're after," He points out slowly and patiently, seemingly implying that I'm a tinker, which... I don't know if that's strictly right or not?

"Look, I'm sorry, I'll just go, alright? Please don't call the police or something," I respond, backing away from the Gas-Station Employee.

He holds up his hands. "I'm not going to do that. Look, I don't know what you're after, but even if you aren't homeless, this isn't really the right place to be digging for trash. You might not be surprised to hear this, but we do get some homeless around here, and I tell em all the same thing, you're going to want to find a supermarket."

"Huh?" I respond with confusion.

"I've worked in retail for fifteen years, so uhh, whatever your reason, you're better off heading to the local Mega Lo Mart. Those superstores throw out a lot more stuff, and I've seen them toss out whole palates of food or whatever, if it's past expiration or whatever. They toss out pretty much any returns too. It's not worth the cost to send most appliances off for refurbishing, so they'll just toss it," he explains, rubbing his arm to stave off the night air.

"Last time I checked, the one near here has some people working for them that look the other way when the stuff they dump goes missing," he shrugs.

I digest this info as the sharp jolt of adrenaline start to fade. "A-alright, thank you sir," I say.

"No problem. The name's Joey Baker. Got a name?" he asks, seeming to have gone from exasperated to something more welcoming.

[][Name] Do you have a name?
-[][Name] Yes, it's (Write-in)
-[][Name] No, not yet, sorry.

He shrugs. "Alright. Take care, kid. Stay out of our garbage, alright?"

My face is crimson underneath my helmet as I quickly vacate the premises and jog back home.

After that embarrassing and awkward first outing, things return to normal, and the last few days of Spring Break quickly go by, and I think about school, as much as I don't want to.

[][School] Now that I have powers, maybe I can figure out a way to finally make the bullying stop. There has to be a way, some magic that I can unlock that could help me.
-[][School] I'll get evidence. (Write In Plan) (Reduces Project Effectiveness)
~~-[][School] I'll get revenge. (Write In Plan)~~
-[][School] Something Else. (Write In Plan)
[][School] Now that I have powers, all I need to do is just struggle through it and lay low. I've got more important things to deal with than those bitches, I'm a cape now for god's sake!

Decision made, I turn to my plans outside of school. I've got more materials now, and with that, comes the opportunity to do something.

Last Week of March Plans:

[][Open Activities] Maybe you can convince dad take you some places this week.
-[][Open Activities] Visit the Boardwalk again.
--[][Open Activities] This time, you'll walk.
-[][Open Activities] Go elsewhere
-[][Open Activities] On second thought, you won't go anywhere this week. (Other Actions are more effective)
--[][Open Activities] If you take to visiting a location, what will your goals be while there? (Write-In)

[][Illicit Activities] Dad doesn't need to know.
-[][Illicit Activities] Visit a location at night.
--[][Illicit Activities] Revisit the Gas Station.
--[][Illicit Activities] Visit the Mega Lo Mart (Long Distance on foot. Higher chance of discovery.)
--[][Illicit Activities] Go elsewhere (Write In)
-[][Illicit Activities] Practice your powers while dad's home. You can hide the evidence, you're sure. (Projects are more effective)
-[][Illicit Activities] On second thought, you won't do anything risky like that... (Lower chance of discovery)
--[][Illicit Activities] If you take to visiting a location, what will your goals be while there? (Write-In)

[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] Practice your Plant Magics.
--[][Project] Choose Mana Type(s) and the intended application (Write In)
-[][Project] Something Else (Write In)

[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write In)
[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write In)
[][Mana] Something Else (Write In)

Research Gained: 5

Chain: Mana > Glass
Type: Elemental Ray
Shorthand Name: Light
Description: This mana creates photons when applied to Glass.

Chain: Mana > Wardstone
Type: Elemental Ray
Shorthand Name: Grout of the Magi
Description: This mana grows a small amount of wet magical paste when applied to Wardstone. Over time, its magic fades, and it turns into a dry concrete.
Product: Wardgrout: This wet paste is saturated with a liquid-like magic. As the magic fades, it turns into ordinary concrete.

Chain: Mana > Glass > Wardstone
Type: Elemental Ray
Shorthand Name: Glowstone Creation
Description: This mana creates a small amount of Glowstone Paste when applied to Wardstone.
Product: Glowstone: A glowing paste saturated with magic. Over time, it hardens into a glowing stone.

Chain: Construct + Barrier + Shell > Cloth
Type: Liquid
Shorthand Name: Woodsmith Armor
Description: This mana causes plants to grow into hardened armor plates. Nonliving Plants cannot survive without a supply of healing or magic.

Chain: Mana > Skin > Cloth
Type: Liquid
Shorthand Name: Stiff Growth
Description: This mana causes plants to grow and stiffen. Nonliving Plants cannot survive without a supply of healing or magic.

Chain: Mana > Air
Type: Wave
Shorthand: Thaumic Mana
Description: This mana reacts to sound, and its effects and behaviors can be changed using it.

Stats: Research: 10
A good start.

Overall Health: 10
You're a very small and squishy human.

Overall Magical Power: 2
You are a conjurer of affordable tricks
Abilities: Magical Soul: FFF
Rating: Trump ???
You feel magic trickling out from your being. A whisper of power, of Willpower.

Magical Power: D
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: B
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. Fairly Niche.
Equipment: Wooden Armor: Bright cerulean armor, made of magically transformed denim.
Glowstone Powder: A sack of brightly glowing powder. It leaves spots in your vision to stare at for too long.
High Carbon Steel Knife: A simple folding pocketknife that you bought from the Boardwalk.
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.
Boardwalk trinkets: You have access to materials that could be obtained cheaply from the Boardwalk.
Neighborhood Garbage: You have access to materials that could be found in local garbage bins and around the neighborhood.
Mana Types: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Please use Plan Voting for simplicity from here on. Mana Actions will still be considered from all posts for processing.

Shadestyle · Jan 20, 2021

[name] yes its Sage
[school] try and find a way to to track/avoid bullies
[open activities] stay at home
[illicit activities] practice powers
[projects] something else (train your body even if you aren't a hero just yet you won't be able to avoid fights forever you'll need to get in shape)
[X][Precious Materials] Risk it. (Platinum and Diamond)
-[X][Precious Materials] Try to sneak a pip of mana in to attune it to one of the rings.

As I walk into the yawning maw of Winslow High School, I think back to my earlier outing.

"Yeah. The name's Sage," I had said to the man.

With a name to tie to my new persona, it made it feel more real. It helped alleviate that feeling that had been steadily growing. The feeling I had, that I was just a teenager in a Halloween costume, rather than a real cape, had started to fade.

I grimace when I see the three worst people in my life standing in my way at the doors to the school. Maddison seems to be the only one who looks like she's having any fun with this, with Emma and Sophia having grins that look more hateful than happy.

"Welcome back Hebert. You get any dumber over the break, or just uglier?" Sophia leered.

"I didn't even consider that that could happen. Well, answer the question, Taylor. Did you manage the impossible?" Emma croons in response, pretending to be shocked at Sophia's accusation.

Shrugging my backpack onto my shoulder, I try to just walk around them, only for Sophia to slam her hand into the doorframe, blocking me with what's somehow even less friendly of an expression.

"You don't get to ignore us, Hebert. That hasn't changed," she hisses.

I shoved the fear I was feeling back down. Something about what she had said turned it into anger.

'Things have changed, and they're going to keep changing.' I think to myself, glaring at Sophia.

"I wish I could ignore you," I mutter, trying to push past her in an uncharacteristic fit of spite.

To be honest, I should have expected what would come next, as she shoved me back down the steps onto the concrete, my head painfully smacking into the ground.

"But you can't. Have fun explaining that one to the nurse!" Maddison chimed in, marking the end of this morning's festivities for the bitches three as they go inside for classes.

Leaning up with a groan, I touch the back of my head despite the throbbing pain. It's bleeding, but not much.

I stare at the smear of blood on my hand, trepidation morphing into curiosity. Seeing nobody around, I send a spark of magic into the blood, just to see what the type is.

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand		Effects	Other
Blood	Mana > Human Blood	Liquid	Vital Force		This mana contains a powerful vital energy, capable of filling organic matter with vitality and willpower, while healing damage.	Wounds healed by this mana are tinted red. Use of this mana to heal wounds increases the size of blood vessels in the restored area.

My eyes widen. So, more than just diamonds can do that?

I think back to when I was in the pawn shop. I had found out then that slipping some mana through the wooden countertop and into some diamond had resulted in a similar mana type.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 10, 9

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand	Effects	Other
Diamond	Mana > Plant > Diamond	Liquid	Natural Life	This mana fills a target with vitality, regenerating damage dealt to plant-life. It is capable of healing other targets as well, with side-effects.	Wounds healed by this mana are tinted green. Use of this mana to heal wounds makes the healed area more flexible and photosynthetic.
Platinum	Mana > Plant > Platinum	Ray	Wood Grain Thunder	This mana creates electricity which seems to resist horizontal movement, preferring purely vertical directions to travel. Plants are stimulated by this electricity, and made to grow slightly faster by it.

I shudder at the memory. Thinking back, it was incredibly creepy how long it took me to answer the Pawn Shop clerk when he asked what I was doing, just because I was so busy trying to sneakily pump mana into the jewelry behind the counter.

The rewards were well worth it though when I found out that apparently, "Plant > Diamond" mana is able to heal people.

...Sort of.

I shake my head. Blood Mana seems to have less obvious side effects, at least.

[][Healing] I'll heal my head with the Blood Mana I made.
[][Healing] I'll disperse the mana.

With that done, I went inside to struggle my way through another hellish day.

This week turned out to be much of the same. My work was ruined, "pranks" were pulled on me daily, and nobody seemed to notice or care, just like they hadn't all the other months this had been going on.

But unlike before, now when I looked around, it wasn't with the meekness of someone looking for escape routes. It was with the cold calculation of someone... Uhh.

Looking for escape routes, but in a more menacing way?

I was looking for ways that I could avoid them entirely. I'm sure I could survive the problems In class, considering those were at least a bit tamer than my work being stolen, or Sophia getting physical with the bullying. Everything else was painful but... It was petty. Petty and small.

I just needed ways to get into and out of the school, and ways to get from class to class, without encountering them, or at least being able to get away from them.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 19, 8

Thankfully, it wasn't hard at all. All of the classes I went to had at least two ways to get to them, and as for getting into the school itself, I was able to find a broken window on the second floor, and, snooping around a bit, figured out that it led straight into one of the empty classrooms that got shut down when the music club did.

If I found a way up there, there's no goddamn way those bitches would be able to figure out where I'm coming from to get into the school.

At home, however, things were much less pleasant...

Dad wanted me to wait a whole week before I could try running around town. He apparently wanted to get some pepper spray for me first, citing how dangerous it was in Brockton.

Despite the thrill of fear I felt at the idea of getting caught, I decided that if I couldn't train my body outside, I'd have to do it inside.

So, that's what I did. Every day, after school, I locked myself in my room, doing whatever half-remembered exercises I could think of, situps, pushups, what I thought were ok stretches?

During that time, I figured out that as long as I wasn't using it to heal myself, mana that I pumped into my blood made me feel... Incredible. I knew it was making my blood more capable of carrying nutrients and oxygen, even ignoring how it apparently put "Vitality" into the blood. This made a lot of my anaerobic exercises seem silly, as I never seemed to run out of breath.

Even still, it was slow, and I got even more tired than normal by the end of these sessions, my muscles screaming from doing more work than they were meant to do, even with a supply of superblood to feed them.

I couldn't help but wonder, if mana in my blood made my blood function better, what would it do in my other bodyparts?

Well, as it turns out...

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand	Effects	Other
Keratin	Mana > Keratin	Liquid	Float	This liquid mana has strange effects on gravity, reducing or enhancing it depending on the circumstances.
Eye	Mana > Human Eye	Liquid	Lightvision	A sensory mana, this liquid magic is capable of controlling light and housing images.

It was a bit of a mixed bag. I had my hands full with only two of the new mana types, due to how strange they were, and... how they might be able to help me.

Keratin, which is what my power insisted on calling my hair and nails, seemed to make my hair float, but it gave my nails more weight, and by extension, my hands and feet.

Despite my distraction in only properly testing these two types properly, I did at least see what would happen if I infused mana into my entire body at once.

It was a little bit incredible. I had only the vaguest sense of what the mana was doing, but it seems the attunements were tied to each tissue and organ.

My head was clearer, my fists were heavier, but my muscles were stronger. My blood carried more air, which was convenient because my lungs supplied more of it. My skin became stronger as well, by a small amount, and my bones became harder.

A thousand very minor benefits left me feeling... almost euphoric. It felt right, having this energy flowing through me. (Gained Ability: Magical Body!)

While I would need to decide which parts I wanted to test specifically, if I wanted to learn more, what I did learn was very clear. Mana attuned to my body was based on it, and enhanced it, at least a little bit.

Unfortunately, that sucked for training, as it reduced all the strain I could put on my body that would actually strengthen it. I decided to spend the rest of my training this week doing exercises without the enhancements, for now, at least until I learned which mana types would help me get stronger, rather than temporarily making me stronger.

Despite not intentionally using it, I could sense a bit of magic still in my body. Maybe something left over from when I tested it earlier? It would probably fade with time.

I think dad was a bit suspicious of all the exercise I was doing in my room, but if he was, he didn't say anything about it. He did end up getting the pepper spray for me almost three days earlier than he said he would, though.

I wonder what he would say if he knew I had something more dangerous than pepper spray to protect myself with?

As the week of March came to an end, I felt the odd urge to go over what I had learned. It almost reminded me of when mom would talk about college, having to write papers defending the theories she made.

I grabbed the notebook I was scribbling ideas in and started a new section. It seemed really important that I note down as many things as I could.

"So, what do I know about mana? I know it acts like a ray, like light, when I attune it to some things. It travels in a straight line unless I make it curve, bounces off of some things, and gets absorbed by other things depending on how bright or dark they are. Most of the things I've tested have had a Ray Mana Type."

I jot that one down, and the feeling of urgency starts to fade.

"Other attunements make mana act like a liquid. It has mass, and it has weight unless I personally force it not to. Examples include Blood, Wood, and Diamonds"

The more I write, the better I feel, like I've made progress in understanding this power of mine. I wonder if anyone else has to figure out their powers like this?

"Then there's the last one I've found, the weirdest one. Ice, Air, and Fire mana seem to act like waves. They almost cease to exist, somehow transforming into an observed property of the air they inhabit, instead of an entity unto themselves."

That one had been especially strange. My power didn't seem to like the fact that those mana types had no effect on their own, judging by how vague the information I got from them was. All of them, however, seemed to share the same basic property. They would gain effects when vibrations passed through them.

Shaking my head, I continued.

"Mana seems to decay over time. I don't know the mechanisms behind it, but this process of decay slows if the mana is infused inside a solid object, going from a process that takes minutes to one that takes hours. My own armor remained magically infused the entire time I was out on patrol, I could tell."

I paused.

"Is that all I know about mana itself?" I muse out loud, trying to think of anything else I had learned, or any theories I had.

[][Research] Is that all you know?
-[][Research] Yes
-[][Research] No (Write In)

After that, the feeling fades entirely, and I close my little notebook. That was a very odd experience. I can't help but wonder, I've heard of Tinkers going into fugues, was this something similar? Some kind of power-induced urge to put thoughts to paper?...

I chuckle. "Nah. I like doing that already," I mutter, before settling down to sleep.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 2, 13

When I wake up in the morning on Saturday, dad is giving me a really weird look, like he can't decide which expression he should give me.

"Taylor, did you burn that album I got when we were at the Boardwalk?" he asks, less angry and more confused as he holds up the record I had mana tested earlier this week.

A little glob of foamed up PVC Plastic sits on the edge of the record, where the mana I attuned had caused it to puff up with air.

I try not to wince nervously at that. I had assumed he wouldn't notice, considering how small the bit of foam was.

[][Dad] What will you say? (Write-In)

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand	Effects	Other
Aluminum	Mana > Aluminum	Ray	Absorb	This mana draws other forms of mana to itself and absorbs them.
Battery	Mana > (Manganese Dioxide + Potassium Hydroxide + Brass + Steel + Trace Elements)	Ray	Soot Barrier	Mana makes a target absorb carbon dioxide and sunlight, covering it in a black film.
Wardstone	Mana > Glowstone > Wardstone	Elemental Ray	Vividcrete Creation	This mana creates a small amount of Vividcrete when applied to Wardstone	Vividcrete: This wet paste absorbs light from around itself, hardening into a form of concrete made partially of solidified light.
Glowstone	Mana > Glowstone	Elemental Ray	Beaconstone Creation	This mana creates a small amount of Beaconstone when applied to Wardstone	Beaconstone: This crystaline material drains light from the sources around it, emitting that light from itself instead.
Glowstone	Mana > Wardstone > Glowstone	Elemental Ray	Lumic Condensite Creation	This mana creates a small amount of Lumic Condensite when applied to Glowstone	Lumic Condensite: Beads of liquidifed light condense on this crystaline material as it drains light from the sources around it. This liquid light rapidly hardens when removed from a piece of Lumic Condensite.
Red Glass	Mana > Red Glass	Elemental Ray	Warm Glow	This mana creates a form of red light that feels especially warm.
Blue Glass	Mana > Blue Glass	Elemental Ray	Cobold Gleam	This mana creates a mischevious form of blue light that refuses to bounce correctly off of important details.
Green Glass	Mana > Green Glass	Elemental Ray	Kinetic Light	This mana creates a green light that exerts force on iron
Pink Glass	Mana > Pink Glass	Elemental Ray	Serene Light	This mana creates a serene pink light that grows brighter in the presence of the moon.
Ice	Mana > Ice	Wave	Chilling Arcane Mana	This mana responds to vibrations passing through it, both its effects and behaviors can be changed by them.	The effects and behaviors of this mana are Mysterious and have a Cold Clarity.
Fire	Mana > Fire	Wave	Burning Thaumic Mana	This mana responds to vibrations passing through it, both its effects and behaviors can be changed by them.	The effects and behaviors of this mana are Overt and Hasty.
Ink	Mana > Ink	Liquid	Diffuse	This mana adjusts its surface tension automatically, melding with oily liquids it comes in contact with and enabling control over them.
Vinyl	Mana > Vinyl	Liquid	Foam	This mana forces whatever it touches to foam up.
Paper	Mana > Paper	Liquid	Stain	This mana stains whatever it comes in contact with pitch black.
Tin	Mana > Tin	Ray	Condensate	This mana draws moisture in the air to itself, creating a small cloud.

The attempts to attune mana to Light and Electricity have failed. They are not made of Atomic Matter.

8 Research Gained

Stats: Research: 18
A good start.

Overall Health: 11
You're a very small and squishy human who is slightly less small and squishy than she once was.

Overall Magical Power: 2
You are a conjurer of affordable tricks
Abilities: Magical Soul: FF
Rating: Trump ???
You feel magic trickling out from your being. A trickle of power, of Willpower.

Magical Body: FFF
Rating: ???
Your body contains a small amount of magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.

Magical Power: D
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: B
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. Fairly Niche.
Equipment: Wooden Armor: Bright cerulean armor, made of magically transformed denim.

Glowstone Powder: A sack of brightly glowing powder. It leaves spots in your vision to stare at for too long.

High Carbon Steel Knife: A simple folding pocketknife that you bought from the Boardwalk.
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.

Boardwalk trinkets: You have access to materials that could be obtained cheaply from the Boardwalk.

Neighborhood Garbage: You have access to materials that could be found in local garbage bins and around the neighborhood.
Mana Types: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Shadestyle · Jan 20, 2021

The words tumbled out of my mouth before I could sign off on them "It definitely wasn't magic because magic isn't real!"

Dad leaned back at this, his eyebrows furrowing as the bridge of his nose wrinkled with confusion.

I felt like an idiot barking that at him, and my face heated up to what must have been nuclear temperatures. "Y-you must have set it near something hot? I need to go do something," I mutter quickly, running up to my room.

Closing the door quickly, I plopped down on my bed, mortified at my reaction. Am I that cagy? I didn't think I would react that way to accidentally leaving evidence behind.

"This can't get any worse," I mutter, pointedly not thinking about all the ways that this could have been so much worse.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 4, 10

Slowly, the door creaks open, and I hear dad set down on the bed. I wait to see what he's about to say. I hope he's not angry about the record or anything...

"Taylor..." he begins, unsure of where to start.

"You've been huffing spray paint, haven't you," he says, choked up a bit with sadness and disappointment.

Wow. I was wrong. It got so much worse.

I shoot up as if I was just electrocuted. "No!" I yell, horrified at the fact that this is the second time my cape activities have been mistaken for something absurd and mortifying.

He holds up his hands disarmingly. "Sorry, I didn't-" he begins awkwardly.

His hand goes to his forehead as he rubs it with a sigh. "I smelled spray paint in the kitchen, and found the wet rag in the trash. After that, I noticed you hit your head pretty hard a few days ago and didn't say anything about it."

"I've seen people at work before that did things like that and..." he trails off.

'Wet rag?' I think for a moment before it hits me. The paper I infused with plant mana earlier. I just threw it out so it wouldn't get all over everything, did he really think- Well, obviously, he did.

"Dad, I swear I'm not some kind of junkie, I wouldn't do that," I attempt, more quietly.

"Then why?" he asks patiently.

I shift uncomfortably.

"There's something you need to know."

Queen Administrator lets out what could be interpreted by some metrics as a shuddering breath of relief.

It seems the host is busy doing some sort of social bonding with its progenitor/supervisor. Normally, that might have interfered with the connection protocols or the data acquisition, but it seems at the very least that direct interaction with the progenitor/supervisor nonhost isn't having an effect on predicted data output yet.

It was touch and go there for a while, Queen Administrator's Critical Thinking and Self-Preservation being forced to perform some very hasty bargains, threats, and assurances with its Scanning Components to accept Host-Input as a valid data-stream. Now that it has settled in, however, the Host-Paradyme is doing exactly what the Entities intended it to do. Produce vast quantities of Fuzzy-Data specialized for refining and intuiting aspects of powers, or, in this case, a single form of energy so complex as to practically count as a power.

With more breathing room, Queen Administrator had all the time in the world to work on solutions to abort the process demanding a full scan of this Mana energy. She had already tried pinging [Schedule] and [Bitterant], but the former had only been willing to grant a list of One-Time Host Coordinates in exchange for their own host's coordinates over a longer period (Unacceptable risk to Queen Administrator's own Host), and the latter...

[Bitterant] was meant to gain data on methods by which a shard could be made unpalatable to inter-entity dealings involving data or shards. The host-species may have very well had the best chance of describing this particular shard among all others, albeit thanks to their numerous and redundant explicatives across all host-languages.

[Bitterant] would not be an acceptable source of assistance for Queen Administrator.

The host hadn't yet interacted with any other hosts, unfortunately, and thus, Queen Administrator determined after a brief bout of predictions and calculations, that the best method remained as such: Preserve the Host, push the Host to perform Research and Development, and continue doing so until a new solution emerged or Mana was understood sufficiently to disable the scan.

Even now, the host had discovered so much that would have taken at least a decade of simulation, identifying patterns from a top-down primitive perspective that would have otherwise required meticulous one-by-one scans and simulations.

Perhaps the host would do even better, if Queen Administrator bent the rules, ever so slightly. With her processing power improved as it is by the minimized Scan, she was able to comprehend the idea of doing so, and with a buffer of excess data obtained from the host, a bribe may be in order. More data now, for less Scan Pressure later. If Queen Administrator released some of the extra data that had been stored to the Scanning Module, that would enable them to access some extra power and processing while still meeting the agreed-upon data intake quota.

Ten Research has been consumed by the Scanning Module. One research has been refunded due to player theorycrafting. Queen Administrator has Nine Research in reserve.

[][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)

-[][Research] Five Points of Research may be expended to grant additional influence over the host temporarily. (Taylor will be able to take one action she would not normally take. No Research will be gained from Override Actions)

~~-[][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.~~

-[][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[][Research] Gift [Schedule] Research Data in exchange for Coordinate Data. (You will know where a specific Shard's Host will be at a specific time, one of your choosing. Taylor will have the odd intuition to go there at that time.)
--[][Research] Gift [Bitterant] Research Data for some reason. (Write-In)

[][Research] Queen Administrator will continue to hold this Research in reserve.

Shadestyle · Jan 21, 2021

"So that's it. I've got powers. I just sort of... Woke up with them," I say, holding up a hand and summoning that familiar energy to it. My skin begins to glow from the skin mana wrapped around it. I'm a bit surprised by how much stronger it feels, like my power is even stronger than before.

"I make this... Energy, for lack of a better word, and when I make it come into contact with the material, it changes to have different effects. It's complicated, but I think I'll get stronger, the more materials and time I have to test things," I explain when dad doesn't respond.

His face could have been made of stone for all the reaction he seemed to have to it.

"Taylor, I want you to understand where I'm coming from when I say this but... Would you be willing to move?"

I balk a bit at this. "What?"

"Move. Somewhere else. I might not keep up on cape stuff but it's only so safe here in Brockton for people who don't have powers. If you want to join the Wards, or whatever it is you want to do, I don't think I want you doing it here," he explains.

"I've seen the news, and they have those kids fighting hard. It's... I don't know if I could take seeing you getting hurt like that."

I hold up my hands disarmingly. "I don't want to fight anyone!" I say.

[X] I want to stay here.
~~[] I'm willing to leave.~~

"I don't want to move either, this is my home," I insist.

Dad sighs, settling down in his chair with relief. Is he relieved that I don't want to fight, or that I don't want to move?

"What do you want, then?" he asks, seemingly dreading the thought of hearing an answer he doesn't like.

I nod with newfound resolve. "I want to make our lives better, Dad. How am I supposed to help anyone like this? When we're like this?"

I continue, words coming out in a jumble. "I don't know how, yet, but maybe my power could make us money, help around the house, or even help the parts of the city we care about? No fighting, or getting into fights, or anything like that."

I swallow when I see dad's eyes growing misty at my words.

"I can't imagine going out and being a hero- Thinking that I'm doing good in the world by beating up bad guys, when I'd be coming home to... To this."

There. I said it.

We had been growing apart for so long since mom. Dad always seemed to be going through the motions nowadays. Things were better and worse than they were before, sure, but...

He stands up and hugs me tightly, and I think I just barely hear him. "Thank you."

I start laughing a bit at how easy this was, but I'm crying too.

'Maybe I can do this.'

I hug him back, and we sit like that for a while.

'Maybe I can make things better.'

The next day, I find out that dad actually skipped out on working today. Sure, it's Sunday, but even then, he usually had some sort of busywork to take care of.

Instead, he spent the time looking up a bunch of stuff I didn't really understand about Parahuman Business Laws.

"Before we decide anything, Taylor, did you have an idea of what you wanted to do to make money? I'd be willing to take care of a lot of the legal stipulations for you, but as far as I can tell, you won't be allowed to own or operate a casino, a recreational drug dispensary, or an investment firm, no matter what," he explains, not really expecting me to object to any of these.

"You'll also have some pretty high taxes if your power is used in any "Critically Employed" markets, like construction, farming, and, apparently, packaging."

I think about this for a moment, but I already have a basic idea of what I want.

[][Money] One of my powers lets me heal. I'd like to try doing that for money. (High Risk, High Reward)
[][Money] One of my powers lets me create obscure materials. I'd like to try doing that for money. (Medium Risk, Medium Reward)
[][Money] One of my powers lets me grow plants. I'd like to try doing that for money (Low Risk, Low Reward)
[][Money] All of my powers are really flashy. I think I'd like to try entertaining with them? (Medium Risk, High Reward) (Enabled due to current parental status)
[][Money] Write-In

Dad scratches his chin at this. "I'll look into that. There's another thing you should probably think about. The PRT can pay out a stipend to Rogues who affiliate with them, as well as offering some protections, but there's no such thing as a free lunch."

"They'll want you to show them your powers, not make waves, and sign off on some 'Restrictions'. I wasn't able to find out much more than that, though. Seems they don't really want many people knowing about that little deal of theirs." He explains.

"If you want, we could sign you up for that. It would at least be a source of income for you. It's your choice, though."

[][Stipend] Yes, I'll sign up for a PRT Stipend and protections.
[][Stipend] No, I won't reveal my powers or accept any 'restrictions'.

Dad just nods again at this. It reminds me a lot of the times I saw him working in the past.

'I guess he's treating this like a job application,' I think to myself. It's a bit comforting, honestly. I know full well how hard dad is willing to fight for his Union boys.

As if sensing my thoughts, dad frowns. "It's getting close to lunch. Feel up to eating out?" he asks.

I notice how long we've been talking, and remember how I haven't eaten at all yet.

I nod enthusiastically. "Yeah, I'm starved," I smile.

Outing yourself to your father has changed your available actions!

First week of April Plans:

[][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Daily Activities] Continue your physical training.
-[][Daily Activities] Spend time with dad.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)

[][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[][Cape Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)

[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] Practice your Material-Creation Magics.
--[][Project] Choose Mana Type(s) and the intended application (Write-In)
-[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write-In)
[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write-In)
[][Mana] Something Else (Write-In)

Stats: Research: 8
A good start.

Overall Health: 11
You're a very small and squishy human who is slightly less small and squishy than she once was.

Overall Magical Power: 3
You are a conjurer of above-average tricks
Abilities: Magical Soul: FF
Rating: Trump ???
You feel magic trickling out from your being. A trickle of power, of Willpower.

Magical Body: FFF
Rating: ???
Your body contains a small amount of magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.

Magical Power: D
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: B
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. Fairly Niche.
Equipment: Wooden Armor: Bright cerulean armor, made of magically transformed denim.

Glowstone Powder: A sack of brightly glowing powder. It leaves spots in your vision to stare at for too long.

High Carbon Steel Knife: A simple folding pocketknife that you bought from the Boardwalk.
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.

Boardwalk Trinkets: You have access to materials that could be obtained cheaply from the Boardwalk.

Neighborhood Garbage: You have access to materials that could be found in local garbage bins and around the neighborhood.
Mana Types: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Shadestyle · Jan 22, 2021

Dad quietly opens the door to the basement while I stand in the middle of it, my hands outstretched.

He really came through for me when I told him about my power to grow plants, and within a day, I had tons of seed packets, sprouts, and even an apple-sapling in the corner of the room, as well as some sun-lamps and big bags of soil, which I tore up and spread all over the floor to give me plenty of room.

I decided to spend this week mostly staying at home, and Dad took a week off to help me. I couldn't help but wonder where he got together the money for all this stuff, but I wasn't complaining.

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand	Effects	Other
Blood	Mana > Plant > Blood	Liquid	Vampire Plant	This mana is capable of growing plants empowered with the user's willpower and a bloody vitality	Plants grown with this mana are turned a bright crimson and require a supply of mana or blood to survive if no greenery remain.
Eye	Mana > Plant > Eye	Liquid	Illusion Plant	Images of plants grow within this mana, and are applied to images infused with the magic.
Flour	Mana > Flour	Liquid	New Life (Wheat)	This mana grows and changes like living wheat, based on the amount. Material infused with it will grow temporarily, and shrink as the mana fades.	Powdered Materials are consumed during mana attunement, creating more mana than was applied.
Hybrid	(Mana > Plant) + (Mana > Blood)	Liquid	Lifeblood Plant	This mana is capable of healing wounds and growing plants, bearing both the will of its user and the vital force of both plant and animal.	Plants grown with this mana are tinted a vivid red and both feed on and produce blood. Wounds healed with this mana are rapidly covered with a woody growth of hardened blood vessels that prevent further bleeding.
Plant	Mana > Plant > Plant > Plant	Liquid	Nature Diplomat	This mana encourages a plant to grow into a form which manipulates plants near it, making them grow into more symbiotic forms with one another.
Plant	Mana > Plant > Plant	Liquid	Peace Between Plants	This mana encourages a plant to grow into another plant, assisting and aiding it symbiotically.
Plant	Mana > Blood > Plant	Liquid	Vital Plant	This mana is capable of healing and energizing a target, sprouting several plants from the target which refresh the target with oxygen and nutrients.	Wounds healed with this mana transform into living plants.
Plant	Mana > Eye > Plant	Liquid	Eyeplant Fruit	Plants will grow and change to gain eyes when this mana is applied to them, absorbing images they see.	Eyes produced by this mana lose the ability to see when starved of magic.
Seeds	Mana > Seeds	Liquid	New Life	This mana grows and changes like a living plant, based on the amount. Material infused with it will grow temporarily, and shrink as the mana fades.
Sugar	Mana > Sugar	Liquid	Rapid Energy	This mana increases the energy and instability of what it is applied to.

I shuddered with a bit of disgust at some of the results of my tests. No big shocker, when dad found out about the various Blood and Plant Mana types during my earlier testing, he asked me to destroy the products, and I had no problem doing so.

Some of the other results, though, were far more interesting, and at least slightly less gut-churningly horrific.

I held out a hand to the glassy bulb that had sprouted from the Aloe Vera plant I had been cultivating. Plucking the bulb free, I held it up and looked into it.

The result of Eye > Plant mana, this little bulb had a tiny picture of the inside of the basement. The magic had somehow made the plant grow eyes all over it. A gentle squeeze erased the image inside the plant, and it slowly started to make a new one.

Honestly, it was worse than a cheap dime-store camera, but still interesting. I moved on to the other plants, examining their progress.

The pepper plants, wheat plants, and regular, non-vampiric tomatoes were all growing nicely, my power allowing me to rapidly speed up their growth from seeds into mature plants.

I had also discovered that by applying magic to soil, I could duplicate it slowly. This synthetic soil, however, was like all my other synthetic materials, slowly turning into pure silica if I left it alone for too long without a mana source.

Thankfully, though, I discovered something incredibly useful with all of this plant testing.

"How are you holding up?" Dad asks, interrupting my thought with a cup of tea in hand.

I sit down at the living-wood chair I had grown as part of experiments. "It's been going good. With all the magically charged plants in here, I should only need to top everything off once a day. The plants are acting like a buffer somehow, so I don't need to be here to supply everything with energy constantly."

He didn't look like he understood, but that's alright.

"Thanks for the tea," I say awkwardly, sipping at the drink. It was still challenging to talk to dad. Things didn't stop being awkward after our heart-to-heart a week ago, but things had settled down into something comfortable.

"Anytime. So, have you given any thought to how you plan to make money like you were hoping?" he asks.

I nod. "I think I might have an idea. Spices are really expensive, and with how expensive shipping is right now, exotic plants are at a premium. I haven't opened the packet yet, but I think I might be able to grow Saffron if I set things up correctly."

I don't elaborate on what I mean by that, but I do know what I have in mind. Earlier, I tested out what happens if I just keep attuning mana to plants over and over again, and the results were... Weird.

I stopped at three. When I attuned plant mana to a plant, the result was a symbiosis mana that made plants grow into one another.

When I attuned that to plants again, the result was even stranger. It made a plant turn into a sort of "controller", manipulating the plants around it and making them all work together.

It took mana to keep up the effect, but that goes back to my earlier discovery.

There was a way to make mana other than from my own power (soul?)

While I was doing mana tests, I decided to see if there was a difference between Flour and Bread mana, but when I attuned mana to the flour, it burned up into nothing. Not even ash was left over as the mana literally consumed the flour. A few tests after that made me realize what was going on. Somehow, if you attune mana to a fine enough powder, the mana 'eats' it, producing more mana than you put into the system.

I wasn't sure how to exploit this, since I had to attune the mana to produce it from dust, which would change the effect, but at the same time, I had discovered that, if you just release mana into the air, it quickly attunes to everything around it, turning into a vague, ambient energy.

If I had some kind of machine that could turn dust into mana automatically, and pump it into the air, my miniature greenhouse in the basement wouldn't need me to operate anymore, and I'd be able to set up a Symbiotic Plant in there to speed up the production of things like spices.

I noticed dad wiping some sweat off his face, and grimaced. It was pretty humid in here, considering all the plants I had constantly growing in the basement, and all the sun lamps I had running, the whole place was a bit of a sauna.

"Why don't you head upstairs? I can handle things from here for a while," I ask.

He chuckles at my thinly veiled concerns. "I've dealt with heat before, Taylor. Don't worry."

I shrug a bit. He can't blame me for trying, I guess.

I decide to take care of some other tests I had been wanting to do for a while, ever since I learned about Arcane and Thaumic Mana types, and how my power insisted that they react to vibrations.

Summoning up some mana, I allowed it to attune to the air in front of me, before bringing it close to my face and speaking at it.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 17, 17

"Uhh, turn into a spike," I say clearly.

The mana suddenly shrieks, prompting me and dad to clap our hands over our ears as it makes a metallic noise, grinding up against itself as the words make it change rapidly.

By the time I finished speaking, the effect had already finished, however, and the Thaumic Mana and turned into a twisted, silvery mass of magic that was pressed up against the far wall of the basement, gravity having been turned on its side for the magic.

When I took a step towards it, cubes rippled across its surface, making me pause.

Maybe this mana isn't reacting to my orders, it's just reacting to the noises I make randomly.

This needs more testing. I grab the vaguely pointy mass of magic with my willpower and tear it apart until it dissolves into the ambience.

Summoning another mass of Thaumic Mana, I reach out to it and say the first word that comes to mind.

"Tea," I utter.

The word makes the mana shift, and it turns into a lopsided hemisphere.

"Toe"

The mana splits in two, and I sense that one half of it has become "Locked", no longer reacting to sounds.

"Toe" I say again. The remaining half splits in half again, and one of those halves becomes locked.

"Uhh, Fire!" I shout, making the quartered hemisphere ripple like cloth as it shudders and shakes.

"Tea?" I say, and the quartered hemisphere freezes, distorting and rippling into another lopsided, but smaller hemisphere.

Dad looks at me in confusion, unable to sense the invisible Thaumic Mana as it changes shape and form.

"I'm testing out-" I begin, before the mana suddenly shrinks down into a tiny point before spraying sparks of electricity everywhere, responding to my attempted explanation.

"A weird mana type," I continue, pulling apart the 'locked' magic with a bit of applied will.

God, I thought Mana Types were complicated enough, now I find out that Thaumic Mana has its own messy tree of possible effects?

This is going to be complicated...

Taylor has learned Wizardry!

[Fuck] Queen Administrator elucidates via a recent custom addition to their communication protocols as the Scanning Module goes apeshit over the brand new layer of infinite recursive data to go over.

It seems these "Wave" Mana types all react to vibrations, all in seemingly unique ways, on top of Mana's tendency to gain effects from attuning to matter.

What's worse, this is coming back to bite Queen Administrator right in the ass, as they opted to simplify the Host's retention of mana types to remove all of the complex interactions BETWEEN attunements.

Because Taylor's mana is traveling through a medium of air, it has technically been attuning to the previously mostly effectless mana, and thus, has been picking up on some of the wave-like properties of it.

Of course, now that the host has decided to start vocalizing at the energy, so much predefined data has gone out the window, and the data that's left over suddenly has an obscene number of further expansions to explore...

[Fuck] Queen Administrator repeats the internal communication protocol test.

[][EMERGENCY] Spend 8 Research. Taylor gains the ability to learn and recall all Wave Mana Phonem Effects after testing them as an addition to her existing Thinker Powers.
[][EMERGENCY] Spend 4 Research. Emergency Override: Taylor will be disinclined to continue testing Wave Mana Phonem Effects until this override is disabled.
[][EMERGENCY] Monthly Research Tax is increased by 1 as Scan demands more data now that the scope of Mana's infinite variability has increased. Taylor will be forced to invent spells without Thinker Help, preventing more granular phonem usage.

Mana Types have changed! Now Mana types which were attuned in a medium of Earth Bet's Air will be marked with "Thaum", to indicate that an Air Attunement is at the beginning, end, and middle of all attunements! You will need special means to attune mana without exposing it to air.

Taylor now suspects that phonems (Specific Verbal Sounds) will affect any mana type that she attuned in open air!

I suddenly feel distraught. Just when I thought I was understanding this magic stuff, I get a curveball like this. Is it just Air Mana specifically, or is it any mana exposed to air that will react like this?

I shake my head. I'll think about that more later, when I've got time to set down and really dig into that new mess.

"I think I'm done for today Dad. We'll come back to this tomorrow," I say, and he seems relieved.

"Don't overwork yourself, alright?" he asks, to which I simply nod.

I spend the rest of the day with dad, mostly just cleaning up around the house and making sure there isn't any evidence of power usage out in the open.

I make sure to at least spend a bit of mana fixing our old rotten porch step though, using some plant mana to grow and shape the wood back into a pristine plank.

When I do, dad has a strange look on his face, something caught between proud and worried. When I told him I had no intention of going to the PRT, he seemed perfectly fine with it, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was scared at the thought of me going it alone. Or maybe he was worried that my power would lose us more money than it made us?

Either way, I couldn't help but think about how much those lamps and seeds and saplings and dirt all cost. He paid for it with cash, so maybe it wasn't as bad as I thought? He didn't use a credit card or anything like that.

I shake my head to banish the thoughts. My power is only going to get better and better with each passing day. I'll find one that will do something amazing. Something good enough to wipe that worry off of his face.

One good enough to dismiss the worries in my own mind.

At school, I try to look casual as I send out a pip of Eye Mana around the building, low enough as to be almost invisible, before bringing it back to me and absorbing it into my own eye.

The large warped vision I get is confusing, but I manage to push through it. Nobody is nearby or rounding the corner, and I don't see any witnesses.

I pull a sack of flour out of my backpack, digging out a handful of the stuff and transforming the powder into pure wheat magic, the liquid mana taking the form of rapidly expanding stalks of grain-shaped magic that I grab onto as they drag me up to the second floor window.

I haven't told my dad about the bullies yet, but I think he might suspect something is wrong, now that I've got these powers. Either way, it doesn't matter. I silently creep in through the window, before dismissing the wheat magic into the air to erase the evidence.

4, 4

More eye mana goes under the door to capture an image of the hall outside. Nobody out there but...

I see Madison in the hall, or at least, the still image of her hastily walking past. She's probably long gone now. She seems worried about something, and is looking at her phone. I don't see what is on it though, due to the low angle of the image I captured with my magic.

Listening at the door, I don't hear any footsteps, and slip out of the unused classroom that I've been using as an entrance for the past week or so. I think Sophia has been getting suspicious, but nobody has seen me climbing up here or leaving from here, so there's no evidence, and more importantly, no way for them to catch me out as I go to classes.

A bit of sensory magic here and there has proven to be more than enough to keep away from those assholes, and when I infuse my own body with magic, there's no outward signs of it, so I've been able to use muscle and skin magic to outpace them and ignore Sophia's more physical taunts.

As I walk to class, dusting the flour off of my hands, I hear a faint conversation.

"Something's fucked, alright? I don't care how she's doing it, nobody is that good at staying out of my way," a familiar voice says.

"Do you think-" another voice begins, before Sophia interrupts them.

"No. Don't even joke about it. I'm going to get to the bottom of this. If you want to risk dying, keep it up. This isn't a game anymore."

"This isn't a game, you're right, but-"

"Shut up. I'll take care of it. Just cool it until then, alright?"

Listening to their conversation coming to a close, I feel a spike of bitterness shoot through me.

They don't have any proof, even if this is what I think it is.

'One thing is for certain,' I think as a brief petty urge has me walking around the corner, straight past Sophia, Maddison, and Emma.

Rather than their usual taunting words and messing with me, the trio just glare uncharacteristically as I pass them by and mine and Emma's gazes lock briefly.

'They are in no position to "Take care of me" now,' I finish viciously.

Second week of April Plans:

[][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Daily Activities] Continue your physical training.
-[][Daily Activities] Spend time with dad.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)

[][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[][Cape Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)

[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] You'll find a way to automatically turn dust into mana without your direct intervention (Write-In a potential method or plan)
-[][Project] You'll try to grow a particular plant for profit (Write-In)
-[][Project] You'll try to invent a spell. (Write-In) (Cannot be done with [EMERGENCY] Option B)
-[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write-In)
[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write-In)
[][Mana] Test a Phonem's effect (Write-In) (Requires [EMERGENCY] Option A
[][Mana] Something Else (Write-In)

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand	Effects	Other
Aluminum	Thaum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Aluminum	Ray	Absorb??	This mana draws other forms of mana to itself and absorbs them.
Aluminum	Thaum > Aluminum > Aluminum	Ray	Absorb?	This mana draws other forms of mana to itself and absorbs them.
Aluminum	Thaum > Eye > Aluminum	Ray	Manasight	This mana absorbs nearby forms of Ray Mana, transforming them into an image.
Aluminum	Thaum > Tin > Aluminum	Ray	Stormbringer	This mana only draws magic towards itself capable of manipulating weather, or producing rain.
Bone	Thaum > Bone	Liquid	Undeath	This mana makes a target harder, and slightly more brittle. Capable of reanimating dead material. Capable of damaging living flesh. Sustains bacteria, but transforms them into calcium-based organisms over time.	This mana in its pure form destroys both itself and Life Energy that it comes in contact with.
Bread	Thaum > Bread	Liquid	Merciful Sandwich	This mana appears to dull harmful effects of what it is infused into.
Calcium Carbonate	Thaum > Calcium Carbonate	Liquid	Slime	This mana takes the form of an inert lavender slime. It doesn't seem to react to much.
Cast Iron	Thaum > Cast Iron > Cast Iron > Cast Iron	Ray (Solid)	Construct Gel	This mana imbues itself into a target, allowing it to absorb liquids or gasses until a saturated solid is created using mana constructs.
Cast Iron	Thaum > Tin > Cast Iron	Ray (Solid)	Sponge Construct	This mana takes the form of a porous solid that traps moisture. Over time, it will begin to drip water from itself once saturated.
Cast Iron	Thaum > Cast Iron > Cast Iron	Ray	Construct Inclusion	This mana imbues itself into a target, making it solid with internal mana constructs.
Clay	Thaum > Clay	Elemental Ray	Dust Creation	This mana creates Clay Dust when applied to Clay.	Mana infused into Clay will cause it to break as material grows. It will turn to silicon if starved of magic.
Coffee	Thaum > Coffee	Liquid	Vivid Arcane Mana	This mana responds to vibrations passing through it, both its effects and behaviors can be changed by them.	The effects and behaviors of this mana are Mysterious, yet Crystal Clear
Cooked Meat	Thaum > Cooked Meat	Liquid	Meat Power	This mana appears to strengthen the empowering effects of what it is applied to.
Copper	Thaum > Copper	Ray	Time	This mana draws dust to itself and can physically impact a target.
Egg	Thaum > Egg	Liquid	Growth	This mana forces cells to divide and grow.	Nonliving Organic Matter cannot survive longer than twelve hours without a supply of magic or healing.
Eye	Thaum > Aluminum > Eye	Liquid	See the Unseen	A sensory mana, this liquid magic is capable of controlling light and housing images. This mana ignores any light not made by magic.
Fat	Thaum > Fat	Liquid	Juggernaut	This mana increases the momentum of living beings, making it more difficult to change their vector.
Fire	Thaum > Ice > Fire	Wave	Barely Restrained Thaumic Mana	This mana responds to vibrations passing through it, both its effects and behaviors can be changed by them.	The effects and behaviors of this mana are Overt and Hasty, but twist themselves in such a way as to obscure their purpose behind cold clarity.
Glass	(Construct + Barrier + Shell) > Glass	Elemental Ray	Lightsmith Armor	This mana creates a solid form of enchanted light, resistant to harm.	This mana will slowly transform into normal solidified light if starved of magic.
Lead	Thaum > Lead	Ray	Supermass	This mana imbues a target with added heft temporarily.
Marrow	Thaum > Marrow	Liquid	Marrow	This mana appears to transform noncritical organic material into blood.
Meat	Thaum > Meat	Liquid	Flesh	This mana strengthens what it is applied to.
Mild Steel	Thaum > Vinyl > Mild Steel	Ray	Magnet Warp	This mana is drawn to the Mild Steel it was attuned to, stretching and warping it.
Offal	Thaum > Offal	Liquid	Mess	This mana is a mess of life-affecting magics. Whatever it is applied to may react unpredictably.
Porcelain	Thaum > Porcelain	Elemental Ray	Flake Creation	This mana creates Porcelain Flakes when applied to Porcelain.	Mana infused into Porcelain will cause it to break as material grows. It will turn to silicon if starved of magic.
Red Glass	Thaum > Pink Glass > Red Glass	Elemental Ray	Lunar Sunglow	This mana produces a calm red light that turns warmer when mixed with the light of the moon.
Spicy Powder	Thaum > Spicy Powder	Liquid	Birdsong	This liquid mana is especially appealing to birds, having a faintly sweet odor and flavor that appears to draw them closer.
Spit	Thaum > Spit	Liquid	Enzyme Melt	This mana is mildly acidic.
Sweat	Thaum > Sweat	Liquid	Power Spark	This mana amplifies nearby energy present in living material. Sweat begins to spark and glow in the presence of this mana.
Tears	Thaum > Tears	Wave	Desperate Arcane Mana	This mana responds to vibrations passing through it, both its effects and behaviors can be changed by them.	The effects and behaviors of this mana are Mysterious and unpredictable. Emotions nearby empower it.
Tin	Thaum > Aluminum > Tin	Ray	Magician's Fog	This mana draws together moisture in the air into a magic-absorbing cloud.
Tungsten	Thaum > Tungsten	Ray	Recycle	Tungsten Mana seems to make an object reabsorb waste energy that it expels.
Wardstone	Thaum > Ice > Wardstone	Elemental Ray	Grout of Caution	This mana grows a small amount of wet magical paste when applied to Wardstone. Over time, its magic fades, and it turns into a crystaline magical concrete.	Stillnite: This glittering stone can only be sensed by one sense at a time. If you hear it, you cannot see it. If you see it, you cannot feel it. It responds to noises with similar, but incoherent noises of its own. Wordless melodies, muddled conversations, and seemingly meaningless codes can be discerned from it
Wardstone	Thaum > Aluminum > Wardstone	Elemental Ray	Grout of the Enchanter	This mana grows a small amount of wet magical paste when applied to Wardstone. If starved of magic, it hardens into a dry concrete, but when magic is given to it, it returns to a wet paste once again.	Faded Stone: This enchanted stone turns into a dry concrete if starved of magic, but returns to a wet paste when given it.
Wardstone	Thaum > Ice > Tin > Wardstone	Elemental Ray	Stone of the Coast	This mana creates a dry powder that draws moisture towards itself when applied to Wardstone. The fog it creates hides things within itself.	Seance Powder: This dry powder draws moisture towards itself, creating fogs, storms, and other weather phenomena. Within this weather, strange things begin to occur, depending on how much Seance Powder is in one place.
Water	Thaum > Water	Wave	Arcane Mana	This mana responds to vibrations passing through it, both its effects and behaviors can be changed by them.	The effects and behaviors of this mana are Mysterious and Mystical.
Stone	Thaum > Stone	Elemental Ray	Stone Creation	This mana creates stone when applied to stone.	Mana infused into Stone will cause it to break as material grows. It will turn to silicon if starved of magic.
Sand	Thaum > Sand	Elemental Ray	Erode	This mana reduces a target to powder	Powdered Materials are consumed during mana attunement, creating more mana than was applied.

Research Obtained: 8

Stats: Research: 16
A good start.

Overall Health: 12
You're a very small and squishy human who is less small and squishy than she once was.

Overall Magical Power: 4
You are a conjurer of expensive tricks
Abilities: Magical Soul: FF
Rating: Trump ???
You feel magic streaming out from your being. A trickle of power, of Willpower.

Magical Body: FFF
Rating: ???
Your body contains a small amount of magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.

Magical Power: C
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.
Boosted for One Month.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: B
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. Fairly Niche.
Equipment: Wooden Armor: Bright cerulean armor, made of magically transformed denim.

Glowstone Powder: A sack of brightly glowing powder. It leaves spots in your vision to stare at for too long.

High Carbon Steel Knife: A simple folding pocketknife that you bought from the Boardwalk.

Secret Base-Taylor's Garden: A room in your basement. In exchange for charging the plants inside it with magic once per day, the room is continually filled with ambient magic that enchanted items and other magic consuming things can feed on.

Dadbought Plant Supplies: A variety of plants that dad bought you, including, but not limited to:

Saffron Seeds
Apple Sapling
Tomatoes (Nonvampiric)
Aloe Vera with Magical Eyes
Pepper Plant
Wheat Plants
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.

Boardwalk Trinkets: You have access to materials that could be obtained cheaply from the Boardwalk.

Neighborhood Garbage: You have access to materials that could be found in local garbage bins and around the neighborhood.

Dad's Budget: You have access to things you can convince your father to get for you.
Mana Types: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Shadestyle · Jan 23, 2021

Dad seemed a bit surprised that I wanted to join him at work a bit this week. I used to do it a lot when I was younger and more rambunctious, but it feels like that was such a long time ago. Dad seems to agree, based on his reaction.

Nonetheless, he was willing to let me hang around the docks one day while he worked. It was a bit boring, but I felt like spending time with him, with how much he was working recently, it seemed like the easiest way to get the two of us in one room for any long period.

When lunch rolls around, dad decides to take his lunch in his office, and I join him with my own sack of sandwiches.

"Sorry if it isn't as glamorous as you remember," dad says with a little cheeky smile. I don't laugh, but a silent little huff of amusement escapes me against my will.

"It's fine. Just thought we should spend more time together," I explain.

He just nods at this. "How have things been at school?" he asks innocently, not knowing about the things that have been going on there.

I don't know if he notices my pause, but I respond fairly quickly after that. "Not much. Same-old same-old," I shrug.

"Has Emma been alright? I haven't seen her around for a while," he continues. I look away, thinking about how to word it.

'She's been bullying me for almost eight months now,' I pointedly do not say. That definitely wouldn't go over well.

"I don't know. Sorry. We haven't really talked much lately," I instead say neutrally.

His brow furrows at this and he pauses with his own tuna sandwich in hand. "That's a shame. I know how that can be. People just get busy, drift apart."

"If you want, I could call Alan and see if she would like to come over some-"

I interrupt with as little emotion as I can manage. "No."

That turns out to be a mistake, judging from how a bit of suspicion seems to appear in his eyes.

"Well. I won't pry," he says, killing the last vestiges of the conversation.

I feel something heavy in my throat at that, like our opening back up to one another just closed a little bit.

[][Dad] I've been taking care of things fine. The truth would just worry him even more.
[][Dad] Write-In

At home, my tests expand even further. With dad knowing about my powers, I can't really justify burning the candle at both ends anymore, but there's still enough time after school and before bedtime to get plenty of work done cracking the code.

Last night, though, I noticed that something had changed. Either my powers have changed, or I simply didn't notice but now, just like how I can remember all the effects and combinations of my Mana Attunement, I can also remember every phonem or noise that I test on mana, and the effects they have.

I almost wonder if that would be exploitable. If I can remember any phonem that I test on mana, could I use that to remember something like a password, or even a language?

I shake my head. None of those compare to the discovery that I can make mana without drawing it from my own personal supply. All I needed was a way to make powder, and a way to make a stable mana construct that could absorb that dust and then pump energy into the ambiance.

Thus, the two objects on the table in front of me. A piece of clay, and a potted daisy. Clay Mana produced dust, so maybe I could trigger some kind of self-sustaining reaction using it. Meanwhile, the daisy was to test my other theory, of using pollen as a dust source. Some quick research on one of the work computers while I was hanging out with dad let me know that Daisies were one of the biggest pollen producers.

I take a deep breath, and hold my hand out to the clay chunk. I suspected I didn't need to make any gestures to control magic, but at the same time, it seems like my mental state affects my magic's control and power. The gesture was psychosomatic, and psychosomatic things had tangible effects on magic.

A pulse of magic attuned itself to the clay, and with a gesture, began to infuse into the clay, turning into a fine coating of dust.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 1, 12

Next would come the hard part. I twisted around some of the mana into a sort of hoop, trying to make the mana constantly attune to the clay and consume the dust produced by it.

The hoop worked, but immediately, I leapt back coughing and hacking as dust went everywhere! 'Why is there dust everywhere?!'

My eyes were watering and my lungs ached like I ran a mile by the time I got out of the basement and choked down some water from the tap.

I cautiously went back down into the basement when it seemed like the dust storm had come to an end, cautious of any more nasty surprises.

Sadly, the hoop of mana I tried to use hadn't had enough time to stabilize and had already dispersed itself, and all over the table, a fine white powder coated everything.

Wiping a finger along the table and examining it, my power helpfully informed me of what I was looking at.

Air Dust.

My eyes widened at the revelation.

All of my Synthesis magic so far, it felt so odd that all of them specified that they only created new matter when applied to their source. I hadn't considered what would happen if enough mana had been brought into contact with things other than their source.

The Clay Mana, instead of synthesizing clay dust, was... Transmuting the air into dust on contact.

I noted just how much cheaper this was as well. It seems that some materials, instead of producing new matter, would instead be transformed by Elemental Ray Mana, and far more cheaply, too. This transmutation took a perfectly reasonable amount of magic, compared to the several minutes it took to synthesize matter from nothing.

This could be useful.

"Damn it, I'm getting distracted," I mutter to myself. I was supposed to be figuring out a way to power all of my magical items, not accidentally invent new ones!

I turn to the daisy, weaving a blend of various mana types meant to grow and distort this plant, until it became something more. A supply of endless dust for the powering of magic.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 2, 16

Dad tried to look disappointed as his lips kept fighting to reveal his amusement as he looked around the room.

I was crying, but not because of sadness or pain. Instead, it was because of allergies.

"I didn't think it would explode too," I mutter, trying not to look at... anything within a few meters of the basement door.

Everything was coated in sunshine yellow pollen, which just exploded out of the plant when I hit it with my strongest blend of plant magics, infused with my will to create the ultimate pollen producer.

"And what will you do next time?" he asks patiently, hand over his mouth now as he looks at my utterly yellow appearance. Like a paint-bomb went off in my face, it was everywhere.

"I'll make sure the door is closed before experimenting," I say miserably.

He nods. "Let's get this cleaned up," he says, walking into the kitchen to grab a mop. I glare after him when I hear chuckling coming from inside.

It's not that funny.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 14, 5

On a particularly slow day, I decide that it's time to ask dad for something important. Something even I don't feel comfortable keeping from him, if I'm going to do it.

"Dad? I need to see some of mom's old stuff," I ask.

"The jewelry, mostly. It might help with my powers," I explain, watching his expression.

He doesn't react at first. Most of mom's stuff is up in the attic, but some of it was still in his room. The important stuff was.

He slowly nods. "Alright, Taylor."

He doesn't ask me to be careful, or tell me not to break it. We both know better than that. Even just testing the mana of mom's stuff... It feels wrong.

I'm tempted to tell him to stop as he walks towards his room, after the little box that used to belong to her. Tempted to take back what I said, to undo what I asked and pretend I didn't ask it.

But those feelings... They're my feelings. What would mom have said? What would she say if she knew about this?

She wouldn't have cared in the slightest, so long as it would help me, I think.

I plop down onto the couch as dad comes back from his room with the box. So small, and fragile looking.

We opened it up and looked through her old things. Powers a secondary concern to just remembering how things used to be. Remembering her.

Diamond Mana is Life Mana. It is capable of healing and softening whatever it is applied to. Wounds healed by it are softer, but more elastic tool.

Platinum Mana creates electricity, and controls it as well. Useful.

Gold Mana is the magic of the Sun. It primarily just makes sunlight, but I get the feeling there is more to it than it just being a knockoff of glass magic.

Silver Mana is the magic of the Moon. It seems to bend gravity in a way I'm not completely certain of.

Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire are obvious enough. Fire and Passion. Earth and the Elements, Ice and Clarity. They draw these things towards themselves. If I allowed them to continue, I get the feeling that the gems would change into something else, so I decide not to push it further.

While I test, dad talks. Slow, halting, and frequently interrupted stories about where mom got some of this stuff.

He doesn't notice when I stop testing new mana types, or if he does, at least he doesn't stop talking about her.

Even after she's gone, it seems she's still helping me.

Taylor has learned Transmutation!

Mana types which involve using a Synthesis Mana to instead Transmute a material will be marked with "Transmute" instead of "Thaum".

School	Attunement Chain	Type	Shorthand	Effects	Other
Lumic Condensite	Thaum > Lumic Condensite	Elemental Ray	Shinespike	This mana creates spikes of solidified Light when applied to Lumic Condensite
Lumic Condensite	Thaum > Blood > Lumic Condensite	Elemental Ray	Lifeknit Spikes	This mana creates spikes of red solidified light when applied to Lumic Condensite. These spikes will seek out blood, knitting together whatever they come in contact with.
Wardstone	Thaum > Blood > Wardstone	Elemental Ray	Vital Paste Creation	This mana creates Vital Paste when applied to Wardstone	Vital Paste: A grainy wet paste that hardens instantly on contact with blood.
Dirt	Thaum > Calcium Carbonate > Dirt	Elemental Ray	Boring Dirt Creation	This mana creates Boring Dirt when applied to Dirt	Boring Dirt: A form of dirt which isn't very interesting or reactive to anything.
Plant	Thaum > Egg > Plant	Liquid	Tumorjuice Plant	This mana causes a plant to produce a liquid that hastens cellular division.
Egg	Thaum > Plant > Egg	Liquid	Tumorplant	This mana causes a plant to rapidly grow tumor-like lumps as its cells divide rapidly.
Plant	Thaum > Plant > Egg > Plant	Liquid	Tumorplantjuice Plant	This mana causes a plant to grow massive flowers with pollen that causes nearby plants to swell up and grow more rapidly.
Dirt	Thaum > Egg > Dirt	Elemental Ray	Haste Soil Creation	This mana creates Haste Soil when applied to Dirt.	Haste Soil: A magical white soil that speeds up the growth of anything inside it.
Plant	Thaum > Battery > Plant	Liquid	Shadowplant Growth	This mana makes a plant grow a black coating that absorbs carbon dioxide and light more effectively.
Egg	Thaum > Battery > Egg	Liquid	Spontanious Combustion	This mana makes cells divide so rapidly that they heat up and ignite until a black soot is all that remains.
Dirt	Thaum > Battery > Dirt	Elemental Ray	Blackened Soil Creation	This mana creates Blackened Soil when applied to Dirt	Blackened Soil: This dirt exudes a fine black ash that stains whatever comes in contact with it.
Plant	Thaum > Tungsten > Plant	Liquid	Heatseeker Plant	This mana makes plants grow towards hot objects until they are close enough to absorb the waste energy emitted from them.	Plants lose the ability to absorb waste energy without a supply of mana.
Alchohol	Thaum > Alchohol	Liquid	Unstable Concoction	This mana takes the form of a liquid which increases the instability of what it is applied to.
Latex	Thaum > Latex	Liquid	Natural Lifeblood	This mana makes plants rapidly gain energy until they begin to bleed a milky white substance.
Antibiotic Ointment	Thaum > Antibiotic Ointment	Liquid	Antiproduction Force	This mana takes the form of a liquid which prevents cells from dividing when it is applied to them.
Bandaid	Thaum > Bandaid	Liquid	Fuzzy Foam	This mana turns whatever it is applied to into a fuzzy foam.
Platinum	Thaum > Platinum	Ray	Lightning	This mana produces and controls lightning
Gold	Thaum > Gold	Ray	Sunlight	This mana produces and controls sunlight
Silver	Thaum > Silver	Ray	Lunar Magic	This magic has mysterious effects on gravity, lowering it when the moon is overhead.
Diamond	Thaum > Diamond	Liquid	Diamond Mana	A powerful healing magic. Life Mana is able to heal wounds, soften objects, and destroy the undead.	Wounds healed by this magic are soft and elastic.
Emerald	Thaum > Emerald	Ray	Earth Essence	This mana is capable of drawng elemental essence towards itself, Earth first and formost among them.
Ruby	Thaum > Ruby	Ray	Fire Essence	This mana is capable of drawng elemental essence towards itself, Fire first and formost among them.
Sapphire	Thaum > Sapphire	Ray	Ice Essence	This mana is capable of drawng elemental essence towards itself, Ice first and formost among them.
Zinc	Thaum > Zinc	Ray	Corrupt	Enhances the normally undesirable traits of a target.
Nickel	Thaum > Nickel	Ray	Catalyst	Lowers the reaction temperature of chemical reactions. Does not add heat.
Coal	Thaum > Coal	Liquid	Greedy Healing	A crude Life Magic, this mana heals a target using their own energy, instead of that of the mana. Capable of causing minor burns or additional wounds as it heals.
Graphite	Thaum > Graphite	Liquid	Life Mana	This mana is an ordinary life magic. Capable of healing wounds and damaging the undead.	Wounds healed by this mana are slightly softer and more elastic.
Salt	Thaum > Salt	Ray	Divide	Salt Mana separates things, without intense control, this commonly results in violent reactions to most things. It can also form "A Separation" between things
Bug	Thaum > Bug	Liquid	Bug	This mana is a muddled mess of energies, when attuned correctly, it takes the form of a bug made entirely of magic.
Copper	Thaum > Sand > Copper	Ray	Dust to Dust	This mana manipulates time to rapidly dissolve a target.
Sand	Thaum > Copper > Sand	Elemental Ray	Ashes to Ashes	This mana erodes a target as if it had been exposed to the elements for a long period of time.
Copper	Thaum > Vinyl > Copper	Ray	Foam to Foam	This mana accelerates time for expanding objects.
Vinyl	Thaum > Copper > Vinyl	Liquid	Airbreak	This mana slows objects down via selective foaming
Plant	Thaum > Bone > Plant	Liquid	Zombie Plant	This mana makes plants grow into dead flesh, hardening and animating it.
Bone	Thaum > Plant > Bone	Liquid	Deadwood Vitality	This mana animates dead plants, making them shift and crack as they emulate growth via animation and bacterial colonies.
Copper	Thaum > Stone > Copper	Ray	Mineralization	This mana speeds up the rate of petrification for a target.
Aluminum	Thaum > Stone > Aluminum	Ray	Imperfect Petrification Essence	This mana draws sources of petrification magic towards itself.
Tin	Thaum > Stone > Tin	Ray	Stonecloud Ray	This mana draws up moisture and dust to itself, creating a cloud of silica-filled raindrops
Stone	Thaum > Copper > Stone	Elemental Ray	Timeshift Rock Creation	This mana creates Timeshift Rock when applied to Stone.	Timeshift Rock: This material is able to alter its own personal flow of time, rewinding to its original state when destroyed by most means.
Stone	Thaum > Aluminum > Stone	Elemental Ray	Voidrock Creation	This mana creates Voidrock when applied to Stone	Voidrock: This material draws mana towards itself, absorbing it into nothing.
Stone	Thaum > Tin > Stone	Elemental Ray	Rainrock Creation	This mana creates Rainrock when applied to Stone	Rainrock: This material is covered with a layer of dew.
Kidney	Thaum > Kidney	Liquid	Toxin Draw	This mana draws dangerous things out of what it comes into contact with.
Liver	Thaum > Liver	Liquid	Toxin Absorbtion	This mana absorbs dangerous things that it comes in contact with.
Brain	Thaum > Brain	Liquid	Thoughtsteal	This mana carries the thoughts of the brain that it came from, and can imbue them into other targets.
Silicon	Thaum > Silicon	Elemental Ray	Create	This mana creates Silicon when applied to Silicon
Clay	Transmute > Clay > Air	Transmutation	Air Dust Transmutation	This mana transforms Air into Air Dust

School	Phonem	Name	Effect	Notes
None	Tea	Hemisphere	Mana takes the form of a hemisphere
None	Toe	Half-Complete	Mana splits into two halves. One of the halves no longer responds to Phonems
None	Fire	Ripple	Mana begins to ripple like cloth
None	Frizz	Heat	Mana begins to emit heat.
None	Sizzle	Heat Haze	Mana begins to emit air-distorting heat.

Research Obtained: 8

Stats: Research: 16
A good start.

Overall Health: 12
You're a very small and squishy human who is less small and squishy than she once was.

Overall Magical Power: 5
You are a Low-Level Magic User, but a magic user nonetheless.
Abilities: Magical Soul: F
Rating: Trump ???
Your soul emits magic. The stronger your soul, the more powerful your magic.

Magical Body: FF
Rating: ???
Your body contains some magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.

Magical Power: C
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.
Boosted for One Month.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: A
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. You will also never forget any word or noise you test on mana, or the effects it has.
Equipment: Wooden Armor: Bright cerulean armor, made of magically transformed denim.

Glowstone Powder: A sack of brightly glowing powder. It leaves spots in your vision to stare at for too long.

High Carbon Steel Knife: A simple folding pocketknife that you bought from the Boardwalk.

Secret Base-Taylor's Garden: A room in your basement. In exchange for charging the plants inside it with magic once per day, the room is continually filled with ambient magic that enchanted items and other magic consuming things can feed on.

Dadbought Plant Supplies: A variety of plants that dad bought you, including, but not limited to:

Saffron Seeds
Apple Sapling
Tomatoes (Nonvampiric)
Aloe Vera with Magical Eyes
Pepper Plant
Wheat Plants
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.

Boardwalk Trinkets: You have access to materials that could be obtained cheaply from the Boardwalk.

Neighborhood Garbage: You have access to materials that could be found in local garbage bins and around the neighborhood.

Dad's Budget: You have access to things you can convince your father to get for you.
Mana Types and Phonems: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Shadestyle · Jan 24, 2021

I shook my head. "Listen, dad, about before..." I began.

I decided to tell half of the truth. "Me and Emma aren't friends anymore. She's the one that broke it off, and it's been tough making any new friends. It's not worth bothering Alan about," I explained.

"Yeah. That's about what I expected," he answers, surprising me a bit.

He just shrugs. "Alan never told me about it, but word travels one way or another. They got involved in some pretty bad stuff last year. I won't pretend to know the details, but the gangs were involved, and Alan took a sabbatical right after that to make sure he wasn't being targeted."

"He might be a divorce lawyer, but some gangsters are too dumb to tell the difference if you don't work defense," he explains. "And it isn't like Divorce Lawyers don't piss some people off either."

He shakes his head while I listen in rapt attention.

"Either way, it was bad enough that Alan didn't even tell me about it. It wouldn't surprise me if Emma just... Needed space? Sorry. I'm not exactly the best at this."

While I was positive that this wasn't just a case of Emma "needing space"... It was more than I could have hoped. From the first day she turned on me, the question kept rising up to the front of my mind. "Why?" Why would she act like this? What could make her personality change so drastically, and seemingly so suddenly?

I had been asking that question for months and months. Now I'm so much closer to the answer.

[][Emma] I want that answer more than anything else. I want closure.
[][Emma] It doesn't matter. She is my enemy now. Nothing I learn could change that.

The discussion leaves me exhausted.

"I'm going to do more testing, ok?" I ask, already making my way towards the basement, pruning any plants trying to bud out of the floorboards with subtle pulses of undeath magic that turn them to dust quickly.

As I close the door, I throw myself into testing to take my mind off of this.

Raw mana is summoned into being, and with a gesture, I make it turn into a disk and begin spinning, faster and faster.

If I'm going to make a dust engine to solve my mana problems, I'll need to figure out a way to weave permanent structures of magic.

I carefully let go of the magic, seeing what it will do when I'm no longer forcing it to spin.

As I do, I note that it continues to do exactly the same as I had been making It do, spinning merrily in place. I'm surprised somewhat, considering the mana is just wave mana from the exposure to air. There's nothing binding the magic together, nor is there anything keeping it in motion like this. Instead, the magic appears to be following the pattern.

It feels intuitive. Obvious in hindsight. Magic has something like... Conservation of Behavior. It doesn't just tend to stay in motion if it is in motion, or stay at rest when it is at rest. It tends to continue doing what it has been doing. To move in the ways it has been moving. And the more it is forced to move in a given manner, the more likely it is to continue moving in that manner.

Conservation of Behavior. What an odd trait.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 9, 18

I shake my head, moving on to the next test. This time, I use the various sight magics that allow me to see mana, looking around to see what sort of things trigger it.

The entire basement is awash with light and dizzying patterns as the ambient magic dances around from plant to plant, obviously, while I myself am constantly emitting magic, even without realizing it, my presence acting like dye in water as the energy bleeds out into my surroundings.

Outside of the basement, I see a few whispers of energy flitting around. Things that were influenced by me at one point still retaining that touch of magic.

Nothing else worth noting. Next test.

With a curious intuition driving me forward, I gathered up a few items onto my workbench. A padlock, its key, and a small steel chain.

The urges didn't come from my power, this time, I don't think. Just... Things that seemed obvious to me. I want a Phonem that will make mana become locked off to further phonems, without any other side effects. Ergo, I should study locks and chains. Things that bind other things.

I listened to the noises they made, the click of the lock, the rattling of the chains.

"Click. No. Clank, no, that's not it either. Cherk. No..." I rattled off words to a mass of magic faster than my power could register their effects, some sort of intuition guiding me closer and closer to a noise that properly embodied the locking of a lock.

I dramatically thrust my hand out at the mana after about a minute of studying the lock and its noises, the chain abandoned during my research.

"Kerchunk!"

The mana shimmered with a faint pattern of diamonds, but nothing else happened to it.

After that, sure enough, no more phonems or noises affected it. I felt the word be burned into my memory, as well as its effect.

Next test. I had almost completely forgotten about Emma, and what dad had told me. Almost.

I reach out this time to one of my plants. A particularly hardy weed that had accidentally ended up in my little garden. I found myself fond enough of it to not destroy the sneaky little plant, whose seed rode in on my shoes. It was one of those sticker plants, with the thorns on it sharp enough to stop anyone wanting to walk barefoot around my house.

"Well, if you're going to stay, I'm going to put you to work," I mutter to the plant, summoning up a blend of magical energies to begin mutating the plant.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 19, 8

Sand and Plant manas married together into a complex blend before being fired into the weed, twisting and distorting it into a new form. The weed's roots shift into a more prehensile form, while its stalk begins making low grinding noises.

Before long, the weed begins slowly leaking a fine powder. Dirt that it had been taking up through its roots and grinding into dust.

Some grass nearby is mutated, and I sprinkle aluminum shreds over it all until a pale white flame appears on the tips of the grass's strands, flickering as the magic consumes the dirt ground up by the weed.

Slowly, the dirt under the Grinding Weed begins to shrink, while plant and aluminum mana is produced by the Burning Grass, and distorted by its surroundings, filling the basement with ambiance.

I drop to a knee, mouth dry from the exertion. That took more out of me than I thought it would.

As I look over my little garden, though, I feel something like pride. Alongside the mess of other random plants scattered over the basement, now two truly magical ones reign supreme.

"Good work Tayl-" I start.

No, "Good work Sage," I instead say, nodding to myself.

'I should probably stop talking to myself and my plants...'

One of the bugs I had infused with mana meanders over onto my shoulder, and I resist the urge to talk to it. The little fly was especially receptive to being infused with mana, and, interestingly enough, I had gained some kind of control over the insect. Not so much that the bug could obey verbal orders, but that the mana I had infused into it carried my will and intentions.

I send the bug away with a wave before I get the urge to monologue at it.

Satisfied with my work, I turn around to leave, noticing something odd on the basement door that I hadn't noticed before. A photograph pinned up on the door, like something that would be taken on a polaroid.

It's a picture of the basement, my aloe-vera eyeball plant on full display.

Third week of April Plans:

[][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Project] You'll spend your time investigating.
--[][Project] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. (Requires [Emma] Option A.) (Write-in Plan)
-[][Daily Activities] Spend time with dad.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)

[][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[][Cape Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Project] You'll spend your time investigating.
--[][Project] Investigate the threatening Polaroid. (Write-In Plan)
~~-[][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.~~ (Requires further avenues of Training to explore)
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)

[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write-In)
[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write-In)
[][Mana] Test a Phonem's effect (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Study a target for Phomens (Write-In)
[][Mana] Something Else (Write-In)

Research Obtained: 2

Stats: Research: 18
A good start.

Overall Health: 12
You're a very small and squishy human who is less small and squishy than she once was.

Overall Magical Power: 5
You are a Low-Level Magic User, but a magic user nonetheless.
Abilities: Magical Soul: F
Rating: Trump ???
Your soul emits magic. The stronger your soul, the more powerful your magic.

Magical Body: FF
Rating: ???
Your body contains some magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.

Magical Power: C
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will.
Boosted for One Month.

Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.

Eidetic Memory: A
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. You will also never forget any word or noise you test on mana, or the effects it has.
Equipment: Wooden Armor: Bright cerulean armor, made of magically transformed denim.

Glowstone Powder: A sack of brightly glowing powder. It leaves spots in your vision to stare at for too long.

High Carbon Steel Knife: A simple folding pocketknife that you bought from the Boardwalk.

Secret Base-Taylor's Garden: A room in your basement. In exchange for charging the plants inside it with magic once per day, the room is continually filled with ambient magic that enchanted items and other magic consuming things can feed on.

Dadbought Plant Supplies: A variety of plants that dad bought you, including, but not limited to:

Saffron Seeds
Apple Sapling
Tomatoes (Nonvampiric)
Aloe Vera with Magical Eyes
Pepper Plant
Wheat Plants

Ambiance Generator (Dirt): A grove of weeds and grass. The weeds have been mutated to turn dirt into powder, while the grass has been covered with aluminum shreds, and mutated to produce a white flame that consumes dust and turns it into mana. It can supply most minor enchantments with crude ambiance.
Resources: Suburban Home: You have access to materials that could be found in and around a dingy old house.

Boardwalk Trinkets: You have access to materials that could be obtained cheaply from the Boardwalk.

Neighborhood Garbage: You have access to materials that could be found in local garbage bins and around the neighborhood.

Dad's Budget: You have access to things you can convince your father to get for you.

Ambient Mana Supply: Your home is now charged with low-grade Ambience, which can be tapped for some forms of magic.
Mana Types and Phonems: Combinatorial Explosion Mana Types

docs.google.com

Combinatorial Explosion (Worm/Original)

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