Chapter 17.3
- Location
- OK
When I woke up Saturday morning, I suddenly felt a huge change in my thinking. Or rather, in my mind.
I could remember everything I had done that related to magic. Every spell, every observation, every mana movement, and the inferences I made from them.
Any alchemical result, any arcane ritual, if I wanted, they were seared into my memory permanently.
Releasing a pulse of magic that flowed through the house, following me as I walked through it in a daze, I walked into the kitchen with a complete map of my home, written out in my memory of the magic.
I sat down at the table, dizzy with the realization that my power had improved my memory again. The last time it did this was when I had started experimenting with Phonems, when I got the knowledge of how to cast spells.
"What's wrong?" Dad asked, frying up a pan of bacon.
I shook my head. "Nothing. Just feel funny is all," I lie.
He looks sad to hear it. "Well, I've got breakfast made if you feel up to it. You'll want a full stomach for today" he comments, reminding me of what we had planned for today.
We'd be meeting up with a person from the IRS, someone that I would be revealing my real identity to.
My guts felt twisted into knots. My secret identity had a lot of holes poked into it by the trio and the Protectorate already, but this felt like a step in a new direction.
Taylor Herbert's name would be marked down in hidden, secret government files, next to the word "Cape" after today. And after that, I'd be filing taxes with anywhere from dozens to thousands of dollars. Or dad would be, rather.
It was a step towards the dream that I had been fantasizing about. The dream of having enough money to fix problems. Of Sage becoming a true, legal, profitable Rogue, with everything that entails.
But I'd also be outing myself intentionally to the first person other than dad, and that person would be telling others. Writing it down. I'd be trusting the government to keep my identity safe.
It was nerve-wracking, and I couldn't exactly weave a spell to erase the memory of a governing body.
I managed to stomach some bacon and eggs, and figured that I would do more tests while we waited for the IRS agent to arrive.
"Tell me when they get here, alright dad?" I ask, getting a lazy salute as he polished off his own breakfast.
I started by doing some tests with a phonem I learned several weeks ago, one that made mana behave like electricity. "Zap"
First, I took a simple mass of Thaumic Mana, and uttered the phonem at it, holding the rippling mass of wave-electrons in my grip before directing it to a rechargeable phone battery from my pile of junk.
The mana flows into the battery, and, sure enough, I can feel the mana hanging out inside the battery. It's still decaying, like all magic does, but slowly, far slower than it would in open air.
I take some copper wire and twist it into the shape of a triangular rune, eager to see what happens if I try running the "magilectricity" through it.
As the mana flows through the copper wire, the rune activates, and the magic slips free of the copper, twisting into a jagged beam of mist and dust. It works!
It might not be a perfect solution, but it seems I can use mana spelled with the "Zap" Phonem, alongside conductive wire, in order to make runes!
Now I'm excited, and decide to test what would happen if I ran mana through a circuit. Would mana's conservation of patternage make it keep flowing in the same pattern?
Lacking a good way to test this, I just decide to run the Earthwater rune for a few seconds, before clipping it off of the magically charged battery.
As the copper falls away, the magic tugs uncomfortably for only a moment before slipping free, and revealing... A rune made of pure mana!
The patternage of the Earthwater Rune had been baked into the flow of mana, so even after I removed it, the mana continued trying to follow the pattern, even without a rune to guide it.
The battery was quickly emptied by this, so I charged it back up for one more round of tests. Arguably, the most important.
I dug out an old electromagnet from a rusty motor, running the magilectricity through it before holding it near some metal to see if it made a real magnetic field.
Sadly, it didn't, but what it did do was create a very visible aura around the magnet, one made up of beautiful looking waves and curves that reminded me of those illustrations of what a magnetic field looked like.
Inspired, I decide to test something on a whim.
Summoning a mass of mana, I cast a spell on it. "Zap Ringtatatata Cacklelacklecathack!"
Zap made mana behave like electricity. Ringtatatata made Mana apply its phonems to magic it came in contact with, but only once Cacklelacklecathack was uttered.
Running the magic through the coil, I saw the same field of magnetic energy, but now it spread out much further, and I could feel ambient magic interacting with it on contact!
Reaching for the coil, I yelped as the coil flew towards my hand and stuck to it like I was made of metal!
I could feel the forces pulling on my body, and especially on my blood, as the spelled magic shared its effects with the magic in my blood, making it also behave like electricity!
I had basically given myself a magnetic field, but only for magic and the things imbued into it...
I could feel the pattern of the spell, and how it decayed as it spread further from its source, becoming less effective. I didn't have to worry about the spell "grey goo"ing all the magic around me, it seems.
Until the magic faded entirely, however, I pulled the coil off of my hand and waved it around. Synthetic materials stuck to it like iron filings, and I noticed a thin layer of rainbow-colored gas swirling around it too.
My eyes widened a bit. I don't recall making any rainbow gasses in my lab, and after a while, I discovered that the culprit was all the synthetic materials I had been leaving around.
It seems Air is something that can be transmuted with synthesis magic. Something about that left me distinctly uncomfortable, considering some of the synthetic materials I had at my disposal.
...I resolved not to flood any caves with rock mana any time soon, unless I felt like seeing what Rock-Transmuted Air smelt like.
As I heard the doorbell ringing, I decided to plug the coil on top of one of my golem birds and ordered them to walk around my lab gathering up any transmuted or otherwise magical fumes that my experiments made inadvertently.
I walked into the livingroom, where dad was introducing himself to a lady in a suit.
"Ahh, hello. My name is Cheryl Brant. We spoke over the phone," she says, approaching me and offering a hand to shake. I noticed the briefcase in her other hand, and meekly shook the woman's hand.
"I'm Taylor Hebert, I called to- uh, sign up?" I respond.
She blinks blankly. "Correct. Well, I'd like to know that you're who you claim to be. We have had certain niche cases of certain individuals claiming to be unaffiliated capes before the cape in question can do so themselves," she explains, gesturing at me expectantly.
I look to dad, who nods affirmatively, and I run up to my room, grabbing my old blue armor and dragging it down with me.
"I have a new costume now, but this is the old one that I've been publicly seen in, and I can show some of my powers if I have to," I say, but Mrs. Brant shakes her head.
"No. That's sufficient for our purposes. Beyond a certain point, it becomes unreasonable to expect a copycat to be caught out without direct intervention from the parahuman in question. It's likely you will be contacted in your capacity as Sage at some point by either me or another individual later on, if we do suspect a copycat situation."
With that done, the next several hours involve a great deal of paperwork, as well as answering questions related to what my business ventures will be, and the associated taxes and legal restrictions that no rogue could really reasonably get out of.
I discovered that one of the main restrictions that I would have under a government affiliation actually involved informing someone when I would be willingly releasing my identity to other parahumans. It was a simple call, but it was mandatory for me specifically, as I could apparently sue the IRS and other agencies if my identity was leaked to unauthorized individuals, and thus, it heavily affected their own investigations into internal security as a result.
"If we do not know who you allow to know about your civilian identity, then we may make critical mistakes in the event of an actual breach, and that could result in further damage to not only our credibility but also the livelihoods of individuals trusted with managing the accounts," she explains.
Thankfully, despite the massive amount of forms I had to sign and look through, that particular quirk was as simple as making a quick call to a private number she gave me, and wouldn't require anything more than that.
I also decided to ask about one really important thing. Namely, that I'm not just completely greedy, and despite not wanting to be a hero yet, I was still willing to help with some things.
"If I wanted to make it clear that the PRT or Government or whatever could call me if they need help with certain things, how could I do that without signing myself up for formally binding stuff?" I asked awkwardly, not really knowing how to word what I was trying to express.
She adjusts her glasses, a plastic-lensed pair that looked a bit cheap for an IRS worker.
"I'm not exactly a Cape Afficionado, Miss Hebert. I would not know how to establish informal relations between you and your peers, I'm afraid. Though the IRS does consult Thinkers from time to time, they only do so for white-collar crime. I don't believe you expressed any abilities that could, for instance, detect money laundering?" she asks, genuinely expecting an answer.
I think about that, but nothing comes to mind. "Not yet, ma'am."
She nods crisply. "Then I believe we are done, Miss Hebert. You are now authorized to operate as a legal entity in your parahuman persona, and will be treated as a citizen of the United States in that guise for all intents and purposes. Unless you have further questions, I would like to wish you a good day, and good luck with your ventures, 'Sage'," she says, already standing to leave.
When the door closes, I slump bonelessly onto the couch, swallowing heavily.
"Well, it's done. Now I can pay the taxman his due while I get filthy rich," I say to dad, who looks much less flapped by the paperwork. He had far more experience than I did with the stuff, so it makes sense.
"Don't worry, it gets easier after the first few," dad says, patting me on the head.
"First few what?" I ask, confused.
"Stacks," he says slyly, and I dread what burocratic nightmare could possibly give me a "stack" of paperwork to fill out.
I decided that hanging out with Amy would be the perfect palate cleanser after getting my Rogue business finally sorted out, and gave her a ring.
The conversation was a bit awkward, but she agreed to meet me at the boardwalk to talk and generally hang out outside of work.
For some reason, she sounded weird, and I only found out why once we actually met.
"Hey Sage," Amy said, looking completely wrung out compared to the last time I saw her. There was a bandage wrapped around her thumb.
"Want me to heal that?" I asked, pointing at her thumb-tip. When I made the offer, her arm twitched a bit.
"No, it's fine. I was just biting my nails. Bad habit," she shrugs, crossing her arms uncomfortably.
Eager to change the subject, Amy continued as if I hadn't asked. "So, what did you have in mind?" she asks.
"Well, I figured we could go around, grab some food. I signed up with the government, so now I can do rogue stuff properly. Thought you might be interested in talking about that," I say, as we make our way to a cheap cafe.
When we sit down, Amy finally blurts out, "What have you been working on lately. With your powers, I mean," she asks quickly.
A bit confused with her intensity, I furrow my brow under my mask. "Well, I recently figured out that I could make my mana obey other people's orders. You saw that earlier with my bird Thoth, and I've had an idea or two for expanding off of that," I start.
"This week, I thought I'd investigate some weird material I figured out how to make. Using one of my mana types, I can turn metal into ore, but I'm curious what would happen if I refined that ore, since the result should be something magical," I explain.
She looks frustrated with my answer, not saying anything else until the coffees we ordered arrive.
"Anything new on the healing side?" she asks, feigning casualness as she looks away at the word 'healing', as if it were an unsavory euphamism.
I think back to some of the tests I had already done this week.
The last thing I wanted to talk about right now was the Eldritch Magic I had been discovering lately, but I was able to figure out something that seemed neat enough for the ultimate healer.
"Oh! I did, actually. I can use a power that lets me purify and nullify poisons! I have to wear clothes made entirely out of Sage plants to do that, though..." I say, remembering the awkward slightly itchy robe I made to fulfill the "requirements" of the set bonus.
She laughs a bit at this. "Sounds right up your alley," she jokes, but my answer still doesn't satisfy her.
"It really isn't. Sage sucks for clothes," I respond, drinking some of my sugary nightmare coffee-cream.
The silence stretches awkwardly, and I can tell Amy is wracking her brain for something to say.
"Your lab," she mutters, before repeating it more confidently.
"You have plants at your lab, right? You said I could check it out if I wanted to, right?" she insists.
I did in fact awkwardly offer to let her check out the stuff I had back at the house, but... For some reason, Amy is acting incredibly skeevy and looks like she hasn't been sleeping or something.
Finally, I nod. "Yeah, that's an open offer. Can you tell me what's going on here, Amy? You're acting really strange," I ask, concerned.
She waves me off. "Let's go. I'll tell you later," she says, standing up suddenly.
I wasn't sure, but clearly, something was causing Amy a ton of stress. I hoped that it wasn't the things I said to her.
'I hope it isn't my fault,' I thought to myself as I stood up and left with her.
Despite my hopes though, It felt an awful lot like something I did was responsible.
I could remember everything I had done that related to magic. Every spell, every observation, every mana movement, and the inferences I made from them.
Any alchemical result, any arcane ritual, if I wanted, they were seared into my memory permanently.
Releasing a pulse of magic that flowed through the house, following me as I walked through it in a daze, I walked into the kitchen with a complete map of my home, written out in my memory of the magic.
I sat down at the table, dizzy with the realization that my power had improved my memory again. The last time it did this was when I had started experimenting with Phonems, when I got the knowledge of how to cast spells.
"What's wrong?" Dad asked, frying up a pan of bacon.
I shook my head. "Nothing. Just feel funny is all," I lie.
He looks sad to hear it. "Well, I've got breakfast made if you feel up to it. You'll want a full stomach for today" he comments, reminding me of what we had planned for today.
We'd be meeting up with a person from the IRS, someone that I would be revealing my real identity to.
My guts felt twisted into knots. My secret identity had a lot of holes poked into it by the trio and the Protectorate already, but this felt like a step in a new direction.
Taylor Herbert's name would be marked down in hidden, secret government files, next to the word "Cape" after today. And after that, I'd be filing taxes with anywhere from dozens to thousands of dollars. Or dad would be, rather.
It was a step towards the dream that I had been fantasizing about. The dream of having enough money to fix problems. Of Sage becoming a true, legal, profitable Rogue, with everything that entails.
But I'd also be outing myself intentionally to the first person other than dad, and that person would be telling others. Writing it down. I'd be trusting the government to keep my identity safe.
It was nerve-wracking, and I couldn't exactly weave a spell to erase the memory of a governing body.
I managed to stomach some bacon and eggs, and figured that I would do more tests while we waited for the IRS agent to arrive.
"Tell me when they get here, alright dad?" I ask, getting a lazy salute as he polished off his own breakfast.
I started by doing some tests with a phonem I learned several weeks ago, one that made mana behave like electricity. "Zap"
First, I took a simple mass of Thaumic Mana, and uttered the phonem at it, holding the rippling mass of wave-electrons in my grip before directing it to a rechargeable phone battery from my pile of junk.
1d20 vs 1d20 = 16, 5
The mana flows into the battery, and, sure enough, I can feel the mana hanging out inside the battery. It's still decaying, like all magic does, but slowly, far slower than it would in open air.
I take some copper wire and twist it into the shape of a triangular rune, eager to see what happens if I try running the "magilectricity" through it.
As the mana flows through the copper wire, the rune activates, and the magic slips free of the copper, twisting into a jagged beam of mist and dust. It works!
It might not be a perfect solution, but it seems I can use mana spelled with the "Zap" Phonem, alongside conductive wire, in order to make runes!
Now I'm excited, and decide to test what would happen if I ran mana through a circuit. Would mana's conservation of patternage make it keep flowing in the same pattern?
Lacking a good way to test this, I just decide to run the Earthwater rune for a few seconds, before clipping it off of the magically charged battery.
As the copper falls away, the magic tugs uncomfortably for only a moment before slipping free, and revealing... A rune made of pure mana!
The patternage of the Earthwater Rune had been baked into the flow of mana, so even after I removed it, the mana continued trying to follow the pattern, even without a rune to guide it.
The battery was quickly emptied by this, so I charged it back up for one more round of tests. Arguably, the most important.
I dug out an old electromagnet from a rusty motor, running the magilectricity through it before holding it near some metal to see if it made a real magnetic field.
Sadly, it didn't, but what it did do was create a very visible aura around the magnet, one made up of beautiful looking waves and curves that reminded me of those illustrations of what a magnetic field looked like.
Inspired, I decide to test something on a whim.
Summoning a mass of mana, I cast a spell on it. "Zap Ringtatatata Cacklelacklecathack!"
Zap made mana behave like electricity. Ringtatatata made Mana apply its phonems to magic it came in contact with, but only once Cacklelacklecathack was uttered.
Running the magic through the coil, I saw the same field of magnetic energy, but now it spread out much further, and I could feel ambient magic interacting with it on contact!
Reaching for the coil, I yelped as the coil flew towards my hand and stuck to it like I was made of metal!
I could feel the forces pulling on my body, and especially on my blood, as the spelled magic shared its effects with the magic in my blood, making it also behave like electricity!
I had basically given myself a magnetic field, but only for magic and the things imbued into it...
I could feel the pattern of the spell, and how it decayed as it spread further from its source, becoming less effective. I didn't have to worry about the spell "grey goo"ing all the magic around me, it seems.
Until the magic faded entirely, however, I pulled the coil off of my hand and waved it around. Synthetic materials stuck to it like iron filings, and I noticed a thin layer of rainbow-colored gas swirling around it too.
My eyes widened a bit. I don't recall making any rainbow gasses in my lab, and after a while, I discovered that the culprit was all the synthetic materials I had been leaving around.
It seems Air is something that can be transmuted with synthesis magic. Something about that left me distinctly uncomfortable, considering some of the synthetic materials I had at my disposal.
...I resolved not to flood any caves with rock mana any time soon, unless I felt like seeing what Rock-Transmuted Air smelt like.
As I heard the doorbell ringing, I decided to plug the coil on top of one of my golem birds and ordered them to walk around my lab gathering up any transmuted or otherwise magical fumes that my experiments made inadvertently.
I walked into the livingroom, where dad was introducing himself to a lady in a suit.
"Ahh, hello. My name is Cheryl Brant. We spoke over the phone," she says, approaching me and offering a hand to shake. I noticed the briefcase in her other hand, and meekly shook the woman's hand.
"I'm Taylor Hebert, I called to- uh, sign up?" I respond.
She blinks blankly. "Correct. Well, I'd like to know that you're who you claim to be. We have had certain niche cases of certain individuals claiming to be unaffiliated capes before the cape in question can do so themselves," she explains, gesturing at me expectantly.
I look to dad, who nods affirmatively, and I run up to my room, grabbing my old blue armor and dragging it down with me.
"I have a new costume now, but this is the old one that I've been publicly seen in, and I can show some of my powers if I have to," I say, but Mrs. Brant shakes her head.
"No. That's sufficient for our purposes. Beyond a certain point, it becomes unreasonable to expect a copycat to be caught out without direct intervention from the parahuman in question. It's likely you will be contacted in your capacity as Sage at some point by either me or another individual later on, if we do suspect a copycat situation."
With that done, the next several hours involve a great deal of paperwork, as well as answering questions related to what my business ventures will be, and the associated taxes and legal restrictions that no rogue could really reasonably get out of.
I discovered that one of the main restrictions that I would have under a government affiliation actually involved informing someone when I would be willingly releasing my identity to other parahumans. It was a simple call, but it was mandatory for me specifically, as I could apparently sue the IRS and other agencies if my identity was leaked to unauthorized individuals, and thus, it heavily affected their own investigations into internal security as a result.
"If we do not know who you allow to know about your civilian identity, then we may make critical mistakes in the event of an actual breach, and that could result in further damage to not only our credibility but also the livelihoods of individuals trusted with managing the accounts," she explains.
Thankfully, despite the massive amount of forms I had to sign and look through, that particular quirk was as simple as making a quick call to a private number she gave me, and wouldn't require anything more than that.
I also decided to ask about one really important thing. Namely, that I'm not just completely greedy, and despite not wanting to be a hero yet, I was still willing to help with some things.
"If I wanted to make it clear that the PRT or Government or whatever could call me if they need help with certain things, how could I do that without signing myself up for formally binding stuff?" I asked awkwardly, not really knowing how to word what I was trying to express.
She adjusts her glasses, a plastic-lensed pair that looked a bit cheap for an IRS worker.
"I'm not exactly a Cape Afficionado, Miss Hebert. I would not know how to establish informal relations between you and your peers, I'm afraid. Though the IRS does consult Thinkers from time to time, they only do so for white-collar crime. I don't believe you expressed any abilities that could, for instance, detect money laundering?" she asks, genuinely expecting an answer.
I think about that, but nothing comes to mind. "Not yet, ma'am."
She nods crisply. "Then I believe we are done, Miss Hebert. You are now authorized to operate as a legal entity in your parahuman persona, and will be treated as a citizen of the United States in that guise for all intents and purposes. Unless you have further questions, I would like to wish you a good day, and good luck with your ventures, 'Sage'," she says, already standing to leave.
When the door closes, I slump bonelessly onto the couch, swallowing heavily.
"Well, it's done. Now I can pay the taxman his due while I get filthy rich," I say to dad, who looks much less flapped by the paperwork. He had far more experience than I did with the stuff, so it makes sense.
"Don't worry, it gets easier after the first few," dad says, patting me on the head.
"First few what?" I ask, confused.
"Stacks," he says slyly, and I dread what burocratic nightmare could possibly give me a "stack" of paperwork to fill out.
I decided that hanging out with Amy would be the perfect palate cleanser after getting my Rogue business finally sorted out, and gave her a ring.
The conversation was a bit awkward, but she agreed to meet me at the boardwalk to talk and generally hang out outside of work.
For some reason, she sounded weird, and I only found out why once we actually met.
"Hey Sage," Amy said, looking completely wrung out compared to the last time I saw her. There was a bandage wrapped around her thumb.
"Want me to heal that?" I asked, pointing at her thumb-tip. When I made the offer, her arm twitched a bit.
"No, it's fine. I was just biting my nails. Bad habit," she shrugs, crossing her arms uncomfortably.
Eager to change the subject, Amy continued as if I hadn't asked. "So, what did you have in mind?" she asks.
"Well, I figured we could go around, grab some food. I signed up with the government, so now I can do rogue stuff properly. Thought you might be interested in talking about that," I say, as we make our way to a cheap cafe.
When we sit down, Amy finally blurts out, "What have you been working on lately. With your powers, I mean," she asks quickly.
A bit confused with her intensity, I furrow my brow under my mask. "Well, I recently figured out that I could make my mana obey other people's orders. You saw that earlier with my bird Thoth, and I've had an idea or two for expanding off of that," I start.
"This week, I thought I'd investigate some weird material I figured out how to make. Using one of my mana types, I can turn metal into ore, but I'm curious what would happen if I refined that ore, since the result should be something magical," I explain.
She looks frustrated with my answer, not saying anything else until the coffees we ordered arrive.
"Anything new on the healing side?" she asks, feigning casualness as she looks away at the word 'healing', as if it were an unsavory euphamism.
I think back to some of the tests I had already done this week.
The last thing I wanted to talk about right now was the Eldritch Magic I had been discovering lately, but I was able to figure out something that seemed neat enough for the ultimate healer.
"Oh! I did, actually. I can use a power that lets me purify and nullify poisons! I have to wear clothes made entirely out of Sage plants to do that, though..." I say, remembering the awkward slightly itchy robe I made to fulfill the "requirements" of the set bonus.
She laughs a bit at this. "Sounds right up your alley," she jokes, but my answer still doesn't satisfy her.
"It really isn't. Sage sucks for clothes," I respond, drinking some of my sugary nightmare coffee-cream.
The silence stretches awkwardly, and I can tell Amy is wracking her brain for something to say.
"Your lab," she mutters, before repeating it more confidently.
"You have plants at your lab, right? You said I could check it out if I wanted to, right?" she insists.
I did in fact awkwardly offer to let her check out the stuff I had back at the house, but... For some reason, Amy is acting incredibly skeevy and looks like she hasn't been sleeping or something.
Finally, I nod. "Yeah, that's an open offer. Can you tell me what's going on here, Amy? You're acting really strange," I ask, concerned.
She waves me off. "Let's go. I'll tell you later," she says, standing up suddenly.
I wasn't sure, but clearly, something was causing Amy a ton of stress. I hoped that it wasn't the things I said to her.
'I hope it isn't my fault,' I thought to myself as I stood up and left with her.
Despite my hopes though, It felt an awful lot like something I did was responsible.
Don't worry! More of your tests next chapter! (As well as the project possibly!)
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