Combinatorial Explosion (Worm/Original)

[Shadestyle]

The summon eventually came to an end. I hadn't ever meant for it to last, and so, eventually, Queen Administrator's form collapsed, leaving behind a corpse made of red and black crystals.

Before it did, however, I was able to study the Summons that Queen Administrator had held, and nail down its location. I didn't know what I would do with the information, but now I had it.

With a nervous glance around, I began summoning up Sand Magic, sweeping it through the area and using it to erase all evidence of what I had done here, taking special care to eradicate the form I had used for Queen Administrator's summon. If I needed her presence again, I would simply have to do the summoning again.

As the body dissolved into powder, then magic, and finally nothing at all, I considered my next actions. Did anyone else know what I now knew about powers? Should anyone else?

Slipping into the Elemental Plane of Earth, I thought about what to tell my dad when I got home. He didn't know much, other than that I was doing a delicate experiment that needed privacy. Should I tell him what I learned about powers, about how they come from "Partners", and how distorted mine appeared to be, or would it only hurt him to know?

Furthermore, the knowledge of that other world. Powers came from these otherworldly partners, but mine didn't. Queen Administrator confirmed as much. So then, what was magic? Where did it come from? What was that place like?

Was I better off than other parahumans, with my innately unlocked magical abilities, or had I only traded one nightmarish source for another?

My slime bike pulled to a halt outside the city limits, and after destroying it, I slipped into an alley that lacked any hollow footprints, slipping back into the real world without a sound.

I called dad on the way back to my house.

"Hey dad, I'm just calling to let you know I'm on my way back now," I said.

"Alright. Did everything turn out alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, nothing went wrong, and I learned a lot," I answered.

"Alright. Come back safely, Taylor. See you soon, I love you."

"Love you too dad," I respond, ending the call and slipping the phone into my bag.

When I finally got back around eight, dinner ended up being takeout, and we talked about the little things. I told him about the Elemental Plane of Earth, and how I was beginning to really understand what magic was all about, he told me about how the bay was doing, and how a new building being set up got a few jobs for the union this month.

It was nice, returning to normal like this.

---

The next day, I went to work at my shop, making a bunch of calls and signing a bunch of forms to get me certified to recycle materials. The way I saw it, I could get the city to hand me free junk and pay me to take it off their hands, but in reality, it ended up being pretty dull.

I certainly didn't get anything too interesting out of it, just a lot of engine blocks and washing machines that needed to be cut apart and have the copper wire taken out of, among other things.

The work was easy, and a bit meditative. I picked up a rusty engine with a heave, plopping it on one of my tables. The first step was simple, using Chrome Magic, I stripped the metal of all rust. Pieces of the engine actually fell apart at this, the only glue holding them together being the thick caked on oxides that had infested it. The rust itself was discarded. It would have taken powerful magic to actually turn rust into steel, and I wasn't expected to do it anyway. Instead, thin sawblades of sand magic were used to slowly cut the engine into manageable pieces to be hauled off to another recycling center where it would be used to produce batches of new steel later.

The woman on the phone when I was signing up to do this mentioned that I could get certified to melt down the metal myself, but I knew for a fact how much energy went into melting solid metal, and I didn't think it was cost effective, compared to what I could do with erosion magic.

Gallium Magic was another option, but I wasn't sure yet how something like a steel beam made out of shapeshifted engine blocks would hold up to stress, so I didn't mess with that quite yet.

Gallium Magic proved to be wonderful for extracting copper wire, however, as with some careful use of it, I could turn motors and rubber sheaths into perfect spheres of material, leaving behind the metal wire.

All in all, basic recycling proved to be an easy source of income, if a bit time-consuming and dull.

The rubber balls that I got to keep proved to be a popular curiosity in my shop, so I decided to sell them for a dollar each. Being made out of polymorphed rubber wire sheathing, they were oddly stretchy and seemed to bend in odd ways when squished, despite not being bouncy in the slightest.

With the money I got from that, I decided to buy a vacuum chamber as well, a cheap purchase that let me see how my mana reacted in an environment of pure vacuum. The results were a bit disappointing, as my power cheerfully announced that the mana I pumped in there was attuning to air at a rate of 0.03% its normal rate. It was also decaying more slowly, though, and I got the feeling that the wave magic in the chamber was approaching the basal decay rate.

Doing some math with my phone's calculator and some internet searches, paired with my own magical knowledge, I had come to the conclusion that mana most likely has a rate of decay, even in a pure vacuum.

This also helped confirm one other theory that I was fairly confident in, however, which was that Mana Attunement decays magic more rapidly than it naturally does. Micro-attunements that mana undergoes in open air was the fastest, due to the high movement of molecules and mana's wave-like properties in it resulting in an extremely high rate of attunement to trace materials in the air. Mana would decay within minutes to hours, left in open air at room temperature.

The second fastest was in a thin fluid like water, mana would decay in water within several hours, depending on the temperature of the water. Three hours at minimum, and around five at the most, before it became ice.

The third fastest was in solid matter. Mana stored inside a physical solid object like metal or stone would last around eight hours before decaying to undetectable levels.

And finally, the slowest, which was a tie between a Vacuum Chamber and Organic Matter. While mana in Wave form attunes constantly, due to it inhabiting molecules as it takes on the form of waves present within those molecules, and Ray Mana attunes rapidly, traveling at anywhere from hundreds of miles an hour to approaching the speed of light to impact material and attune to it, Liquid Mana actually displaced molecules, effectively preventing any attunement whatsoever in liquid mana that was not physically touching matter near it.

In both a Vacuum Chamber and an organic host, Mana could last anywhere from twelve hours to twenty-four, with the upper end of that spectrum relying on the liquid mana being congealed into a large enough sphere to minimize the surface area that comes in contact with surrounding matter. At the center of such a sphere, I was able to make some rough estimates, and concluded that Mana's rate of decay in a perfect vacuum likely approached three days.

An auspicious number to be sure. I could tell that the concepts there were significant. Three days, three being a number that features in a number of religious texts and mythologies, and triangles being the strongest structure in nature, it made sense that, if three were the "strongest" number, that mana at its strongest would incorporate that number.

But all of that is irrelevant. The vacuum chamber I bought was decently high-end, and it still didn't "beat" Liquid Mana in terms of staving off decay. It also didn't produce enough of a vacuum for me to see what mana acted like in a perfect vacuum, as I could still sense it attuning to the air left over in the chamber.

The closest I had come so far to seeing what mana behaved like in its true form was by observing mana that had been True Attuned. Mana that had been pumped directly from my soul into my equipment had no physical form, and was closer to a designation than any substance or energy. Its location was the armor, its volume was that of the armor, and I saw no glows or other assorted visible tells that mana underwent when it was true-attuned in that manner.

The mana in my body was similar, but much of it was also liquid mana, as magic around me circulated into the air and back inside of me. A lot of my blood plasma was actually no longer plasma, but rather a slurry of raw liquid mana. If I didn't explicitly command it not to, I suspected my blood would visibly glow with enough energy pumped into it...

I wonder how telling it was that my magic seemed tailor-made to store magic in my creations via giant glowing orbs placed near vital areas, if I wanted to get the most out of them.

While I was here, I also did tests on other things. I got a Rod of Pandore to be roughly as strong as pure titanium by slowly building up the amount of stress I put on it. First my bare hands, then I used a vice, working my way up to standing on top of it while it was hanging off the end of a bench vice. I only quit once, after testing my dagger on it, I gave it a nasty gash. I didn't want to break this rod after the hours of work I put into it, so I stashed it until I could think of more things to build up to with it.

Smelting together Pandore Powder with other metals was another test I attempted, one that sadly didn't seem to pan out, I could see the grit of pandore mixed in with the lump of steel I made, but it didn't contribute any new properties to the metal, aside from increased abrasion.

I also figured out that applying both Hellfire and Hellforge to an object proved to be an incredibly handy combination, and by burning a piece of silver until it turned into a dull tarnished metal, I was able to use that heat produced from the Hellfire to create a shard of blistering hot metal that seemed to never want to cool down.

Spoiler: Dice Check: Sage discovers her Clientelle

1d20 vs 1d20 = 19, 13

As I put away my equipment and experiments, and did some casual modifications around my shop, I heard the little bell near the door jingle as a customer walked in.

"Hello! Welcome to Sage's Produce, how can I help you?" I asked, walking up to the front counter to see who it is.

Seeing the boy in clearly tinker-tech armor and his two cohorts, my eyebrows raised a bit "Oh, uhh, It's Kid Win. I'm here to buy some stuff? I was told I could use my budget on some things here, and wanted to see if there was anything helpful," he explains.

Gallant nodded. "I'm in the same boat. Vista heard that you can reshape objects, and wanted to see what you could do with some things," the other power-armored hero explains, as Vista dumps a duffel bag of heavy looking equipment on my table.

"I'm not allowed to carry things that look dangerous for image purposes, but I managed to talk my superiors into a visit. Please tell me you can make a Taser X26P look like a sparkly princess wand or something," she says bitterly, taking out several heavy-looking pieces of military hardware, as well as what looks like a full set of kevlar riot gear.

I stammer a bit at the grenade launcher that the extremely young teen thumps on the table but get a laugh in response. "Don't worry. Tear Gas and Containment Foam. God I wish," she jokes, sliding the heavy ordinance off to the side.

Kid Win interjects "I know you mostly do wet-tinkering, but you wouldn't happen to have anything comparable to a 3.8 Terajoule Microreactor, would you? Armsmaster has one, but I'm not licensed with the nuclear regulatory board like he is, so I'm not allowed to use it," he explains.

Gallant, noticing how out of my depth I seem, adds a much more reasonable request. "I've been told you do healing. I've got some personal spending money, and I was curious if you had anything in stock for curing diseases. It's for a friend," he elaborates.

I clap my hands together. "R-right, so, Gallant, I can make healing fruits, but my power tends to work best with a personal visit, I'd be happy to take care of that for free if they're at a hospital I know, but if that isn't feasible, I can try to get you something workable at a decent price. As for the other stuff... I... I don't know? I would have to do some tests, but I'm sure I could come up with something," I say to the other two, wracking my brain.

Platinum Mana Engine for Kid Win's reactor? How much is a Terajoule? Vista's requests could all be handled with Gallium Magic for the form, and Paper magic for the color, but did I really want to do that kind of work on modifying weapons?

Then again, these people are heroes, and they're paying customers to boot. It didn't feel like the wrong thing to do, in this one circumstance.

"Alright, so, Vista, what were you thinking with the grenade launcher? I can shrink it, but the canisters would have to be tooled to fit by me personally, the spacial warping on it would keep you from fitting normal grenades in it," I open with, already drawing out schematics for the modified riot weapon.

Business was good, and the work helped take my mind off of things, for now at least.

---

Final week of June Plans:

[][Taylor] Talk to dad. It's time to discuss important things with him
-[][Taylor] Powers and your "Partner". He should know about what you've learned.
-[][Taylor] Magic. Perhaps you can finally convince him to let you unlock his abilities.
-[][Taylor] Write-in
[][Taylor] Hang out with Greg, instead of merely tolerating his presence.
[][Taylor] You'll spend your time investigating.
-[][Taylor] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. You now know everything that happened. Now it's time to confront Emma and find out why. Why did she do this to you? (Write-In Plan) (Taylor is not yet fully ready for this)
[][Taylor] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Sage] Go out healing with Panacea.
[][Sage] You'll spend your time investigating.
-[][Sage] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. You now know everything that happened. Now it's time to start tracking down Shadow Stalker and find out the truth. Why did they do this to you?
[][Sage] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Business] Make contact with an entity publicly in a professional capacity. (Write-in)

[][Business] Rent a building out for personal use.
-[][Business] Rent a building in the cheaper parts of town. (Low Prices, Low Safety, Low Scrutiny. Bonus to selling All goods)
-[][Business] Rent a building in the worst parts of town. (Insignificant Prices, No Safety, No Scrutiny. Backroom Dealings Enabled.)

[][Business] Fund a venture.
-[][Business] Try to extract some money from your Rogue Business (Gain granular liquid assets of your choosing on a successful Monetary Roll)
-[][Business] Purchase new materials and supplies (Write-in either a budget or specific things to buy)
-[][Business] Fund a project. (-1000$, A second [Project] action will be done this turn)
-[][Business] Fund experiments. (-100$, three additional [Advanced] Tests are added)

[][Business] Establish a new way of making money using the means at your disposal
-[][Business] Set up your building to sell goods from. (Write-In Goods to Sell)
-[][Business] Try healing for profit.
-[][Business] Write-in.

[][Business] Make use of Lisa. (Write-in)


[][Project] The heroes have come to you with requests. If you so choose, you can tell them to give you a week, so you can do the job properly instead of just slapping something together today. (Write-in Plan)

[][Project] You've discovered the existence of another world, the world your magic originated from. It's time to try and reach it.
-[][Project] Physically. You'll begin trying to create a vessel that can endure the void, though you have no idea how.
-[][Project] Mentally. You'll begin trying to create a spell capable of reaching this world, and observing it, though you don't quite know how.
-[][Project] Magically. You'll simply try to use the letter you received as a means by which to summon its sender. While your summoning magics are crude, you've got power and time to spare. You've already summoned things from beyond this world, after all.

[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Project] The hunger to experiment consumes your mind. You'll discard a project this week.
(If this vote wins, up to ten Write-in [][Advanced] experiments will be processed this turn instead of one major project.)

You have (Zero) Advanced Tests Remaining. (Write-in)
[][Advanced] Assemble a suit to test a True Attunement's Set Bonus.
[][Advanced] Discover additional Cantrips of a particular Set Bonus. (Limit
[][Advanced] Perform an Alchemical Experiment.
[][Advanced] Attempt to force magic to do as you wish it.
[][Advanced] Test the effects of a Spell
[][Advanced] Test the effects of an arrangement of Runes
[][Advanced] Something Else

Perform a simple experiment. (Write-In)
[][Simple] Test a substance's Mana Attunement
[][Simple] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain
[][Simple] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement
[][Simple] Test a specific Phonem's effect
[][Simple] Study a target for Phomens
[][Simple] Test a specific Rune's effect
[][Simple] Study a target for Runes
[][Simple] Test a Transmutation (Choose a Synthesis Mana and a Non-Silicate Target)
[][Simple] Something Else

---

Fifteen Research Gained.

Stats

Research: 40
A good start.

Overall Health: 14
You're as strong as a healthy child. If that child had the power of magic from birth, that is.

Overall Magical Power: 14
You are a skilled Channeler, using raw Willpower and attuned mana to plow your way through problems. You dabble in other magics that both enhance and detract from your raw mana channeling, such as Wizardry, Alchemy, and Runecraft.

Overall Monetary Power: 3
You're a Parahuman-for-profit, just starting out. You have incoming profits and you're starting to make connections, even with a few people in high places. Your wealth is probably comparable to that of other low-level parahuman consultants. You could retire at fifty with this kind of money.

Abilities

Magical Soul: C
Rating: Trump ???
Your soul emits magic. The stronger your soul, the more powerful your magic. Your resolve to discover the truth behind your best friend and worst enemy has strengthened your soul.

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

Magical Power: B
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will. Once per month, you may boost your Magical Power ranking to A for one scene.
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: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget anything, no matter what it is, so long as it pertains to a mana experiment.

---

 

[Shadestyle]

I set down my cup of tea, the half-full mug still steaming lightly as I do.

My knowledge had been growing since the day I obtained my power, and since the very moment I awoke my magic.

I knew things now that I hadn't even known that I didn't know. An entire world of unknown unknowns. Knowledge that I couldn't even conceive of lacking, I was beginning to understand on the most intimate level.

The world was coming to an end. My powers came from another world. The thing that gave me my powers was as much my ally as it was a part of the very creature that set armageddon into motion.

"Taylor?" dad asked, noticing my expression, staring down at the table. He was always so worried about me. Even now, I could see the bits of concern working their way up into his expression as I glanced at him.

It would hurt, telling him the truth. He knew almost nothing about the things I knew, and he was already so worried for me.

But it needed to be done.

"Dad, we need to talk. There are things you need to know about. Things I've learned," I say, standing up.

"Of course. What did you want to talk about?" he asks, but I shake my head.

"Not here. I have a place in mind, if you've got the time to go there," I explain, walking over to where I keep my costume, packing everything I needed into the duffel bag.

"You'll want the helmet I made for you too," I explain, donning my costume.

Looking at me with an uncomprehending, uncomfortable stare, dad slowly sets down his paper, going to his own bedroom where he kept the helmet we used for visiting the PRT.

By the time he returned, I had everything packed.

"What is this all about, Taylor? Where are we going?" he asks nervously.

I turn to dad, zipping up my bag and shrugging it on.

"Somewhere thematic."

---

It didn't take long for us to make our way to the edge of the bay, me in my costume, and dad in his helmet.

I had been using pulses of mana as we traveled, both to map out parts of the city, and to check for followers. We didn't have any, at least, none so stupid as to follow us directly as we drove and walked.

It was still too early for people to be up and about, and the clouds made the early morning darkness especially pronounced.

I reached into my pouch of magical reagents, pulling out a small flake of sapphire and letting it fall into the palm of my hand.

"I know I haven't shown you as much as I could have. A lot of it has been because it just wasn't important. Some of it was because I didn't feel like you needed to know. But that comes to an end here," I say, the flake glowing with a chilling glow as I slowly take a step out onto the water, my steps freezing it beneath me.

"Follow me, we're almost there," I say, slipping the flake back into my pouch, still channeling magic through it to walk on the surface of the water.

We walk for several minutes, coming up to one of the derelict ships still hanging above the waterline, a particularly awkwardly jammed one that served as one of the jutting metal fangs that starved the bay of traffic.

With a gesture, the ice we were walking on expands, forming a much larger platform for us to stand on, while at the same time, a tiny tube with a piece of selenium metal is fished out of my pocket, and I begin weaving a spell around us. Arcane Selenium Mana always reflects the night sky of a full moon, no matter where, when, or how it is summoned.

Wrapped around us, and paired with an image of the earth, it formed a nice enough place for our discussion. Mana outside the bubble served the role of detecting any interlopers dumb enough to approach us in this private area.

At the same time, a bubble of void formed outside of that, effectively sealing us away from everything else in the universe.

Dad looked around, seeing the sea of stars around us, and the little illusion of earth in the middle of the icy dias we were standing on. "This is amazing, Taylor! Is this what you wanted to talk about?" he asks, tempted to reach out and poke one of the stars hanging in the false sky.

"No," I say, instead pointing towards the planet in front of us to draw his attention to it.

I could feel my Partner, Queen Administrator, offering assistance in ensuring the accuracy of the illusion.

The accuracy of what I was going to show him.

At first, a small comet crashed into the world, shed from something just out of sight. A single shard of something greater, landing on our world.

The little planet glowed as it floated in front of us, hanging daintily in the air, but slowly, it began to dim. Lights of the cities on its surface began to wink out, little scars and pops here and there flashed into being, or slowly formed in fast motion. A spire rises up in the antarctic, only to collapse moments later.

When the last light on the planet vanishes, only then does it begin to crack, a red glow emerging from within it before...

With a grand eruption the likes of which never before seen by man, the planet is gone, dust and rubble are all that remain.

Dad's skin is pale, he doesn't understand what I'm showing him.

"Three hundred years. We won't live to see it. Our children won't either, but it's coming. I know it is," I say softly, my grip on my feelings slipping as I feel cold dread and fear pooling in my stomach. My face feels hot, a bit feverish, even.

Dad reaches out to me for a moment. "Taylor," he says, forgetting himself for a moment before correcting himself. "Sage, you can't..."

"Know? I can't know that? I do. My studies have shown me the end of this world. The end of humanity," I say, getting a hold of myself for his sake.

"The thing that I summoned, the thing I called forth in the forest a week ago, it showed me. It told me things that nobody was meant to know. It showed me the dusk of the human race, and in exacting details explained to me the full extent of its kind's plans."

It hit me all at once, and I realized what had happened to me, like something killed so suddenly and so instantly that it did not even realize it was dead.

The knowledge I learned had destroyed me, fractured something in me so dearly that I didn't even notice until now, talking about it.

I spread my arms wide, and dad stumbled away as I beheld the illusory rubble that came three hundred years from now, give or take a few decades.

"The reason behind Parahuman abilities, manifest. My Partner showed me, dad. It showed me because it has gone quite mad. Mad enough to respond to my summons." I say.

I felt amused at this. Was that what Queen Administrator meant, by how similar we were? Did she know that what I would learn from our conversation would place me here, the knowledge of her kind's salvation eating away at my mind as surely as magic even now was eating away at hers?

As my only hope drives my Partner around the bend, how ironic that my Partner's only hope would in turn drive me there as well.

For my partner, the extraction of knowledge from the human race was salvation. For them, magic risked their annihilation. For me, it was the exact opposite.

It was comforting. Even if magic turned out to be from some evil source, there wasn't one bad enough for me to care. Anything was better than extinction, I imagined.

I feel a pressure around me. It's dad, hugging me tightly.

"It's going to be alright, little owl. I'm here. You hear me?" he says.

"It isn't," I respond. "But it will be, dad."

I hug him briefly, my hands wrapping around his own, before I gently pull away from him.

"You didn't want to obtain magic from me, dad. You believed that I didn't yet understand it well enough. Let me prove to you that the nature of magic is known to me. Let me awaken your soul to it, here and now," I ask, holding out my hand, which, even now, is beginning to glow a bright green.

"I know now the nature of magic. I have wandered the Elemental Planes, I have summoned things from beyond the veil, and learned otherworldly knowledge from them. I have seen the world weep as infinity collapses, and watched as reality bled from that very collapse."

"I'm not just one human being who knows about magic, dad, I'm the only one who knows."

"I don't have to be, do I?" I ask, stretching my arm out further for him to grasp it.

I needed him. I needed another person to confide in, to collaborate with. It was too much for one person. That's why I brought him here, why I made a spectacle out of what could have been a quiet discussion at home.

I needed another person in my world of magic.

Spoiler: Dice Check: Trust

1d20 vs 1d20 = 13, 15

He doesn't take my hand, walking closer to me, and hugging me once again.

"Taylor, I love you, so very very much. This must be hurting you so much," he says, leaning back and looking me in the eye. I'm stunned, frozen, even.

"But I don't need magic to be your father, Taylor. I don't need magic for you to teach me the things you've learned. I don't need it for us to be a family," he says.

He continues, wiping tears from my eyes. "If you think I need it, then fine. I'll take your hand, I'll join you, but I won't do it like this. I won't do it because you think I'll leave you without it. Because I won't understand you without it."

He glances away. "I might not know how to summon fire, or teleport. Maybe I can't talk to demons or fly."

He turns to look back at me with steel in his eyes. "But I will always love you. I'll always be there to listen. To help you. I'll do my best to understand the things you understand, to help you understand the things that an old man like me has had the time to figure out."

"If you need me in your life... My soul's just fine for that already," he smiles down at me.

I can't keep from sobbing, leaning into my father as he quietly holds me, like armageddon itself couldn't reach me in his arms.

The magic in my hand is erratic, my emotions too compromised to keep it together, but I do anyway. I pull back, long enough to blink it out of my eyes.

Did I make a mistake? Did the magic in the air alone prove sufficient? He hadn't taken my hand, hadn't struck the bargain, and yet, I could sense it, a mote in the air that wasn't me. It wasn't Thoth, and it wasn't my Partner.

What nonsense, what a nigh-contrived coincidence it seemed to be, that my father's soul had begun trickling magic, by his words alone.

 

[Shadestyle]

"Oh. Well, that's certainly convenient," dad said, closing the door casually as we both walked back into the house.

He took it surprisingly well, the knowledge that he apparently now has magic, and I didn't intentionally do anything to cause it. It certainly made me look like an idiot, considering I based my reasoning on how I knew so much about magic, and still had no clue how he was able to do that.

As he stows his keys and locks the door, I begin to explain things that he needed to know, things that my power helped me to avoid, mercury and gallium both being obvious candidates.

As I went down the list, however, dad looked a bit befuddled. "Taylor, so far, it sounds like most of the things you've listed are... Well, to be frank, they're not exactly the safest things on their own. Mercury? Arsenic? I'm not sure I would ever actually find calcium metal, unless you handed me a piece," he says, taking me out of my catastrophising.

He had a pretty good point.

"Not all of the dangerous mana types come from dangerous materials, though, dad. Bones and Gallium are pretty easy to come by, and those are both kind of dangerous too. Oh! Eggs can be a real problem too. I haven't messed with them too much, but I wouldn't infuse a raw egg with mana if I were you," I say.

He puts on a pot of coffee, and though I don't drink it often, I take a mug of it when he offers it.

He might not be as tense as I am about the situation, but I can tell that he's listening, by the way he seems to have his focus on me.

"Speaking of which, I haven't been sitting around while you've been working so hard. I know how you've had an eye out for stuff to help with your magic and your business. You might already have some of this stuff, I'm not sure what books you've been buying lately, but a second one never hurt anybody," he says, going to the closet and digging something out. A bunch of books, wrapped with paper.

"Happy birthday, kiddo," he says, handing em over.

'Oh. My birthday,' I realize, taking the package from him gingerly, unwrapping it to see what all is inside.

The one on top has my eyes widening. "Unobtanium, a Look At Our Needs". I've heard of this book, but I haven't actually read it before. It's a manifesto that was written by Hero, and later, other editions came out where other tinkers emerged and took their own crack at 'updating' the encyclopedia-like book.

An entire book detailing the things the world's greatest tinker thought about society, and the things parahumans could do for it.

I looked at the other books too, books on business, physics, mechanical engineering, botany, and, at the very bottom of it all, what looked like an absolutely dusty green tome, thick and covered with archaic bits and bobs. Illuminated text on the front simply read "MAGIC" and when I opened it up, I realized it was actually a three-ring-binder,

I looked at dad for an answer to the last odd gift, and he shrugged with a bit of embarrassment. "Noticed how messy your notes were. I know how you hate losing things."

Looking at the books themselves, I could tell they weren't the sort of thing you got cheaply. "Dad, these are all college-level textbooks, where did you even get all of these?" I asked.

He smiled, but it was a bit less wide than usual. "The community college. Annette still had some old things there from her teaching days, and they didn't mind," he explained.

Sure enough, these weren't the student-editions, but the teacher's ones, and there, in the cover of the book, mom's name was proudly written on them.

"It's perfect," I said quietly, still a bit too fragile for more enthusiastic responses.

Taking in the silence, dad decided to interrupt it before it turned awkward. "So, back to the magic lessons, Professor Hebert?" he asked, holding up a hand and making the center of his palm glow a flickering teal.

Blinking the wetness away, my eyebrows rose. "Fast learner."

"Alright, so, what you're doing right now is called Infusion. You're taking some of the mana you're putting out into the air and pulling it back into something physical. The mana you've got right now, I'm fairly certain, is some form of Thaum to Skin mana. Thaumic Mana is the name I've been using to refer to mana attuned in a medium of air, so you'll want to learn that terminology and a lot of other jargon, first off..."

---

It seems Lisa knew about my birthday as well, as when I went into work the next day, she had a tacky looking ribbon tied around an absolutely insane-looking sheaf of notes roughly stapled together.

"Happy birthday, boss, or should I say," Lisa begins, only to begin hissing and gurgling at me.

I feel the ambience shift, and despite Lisa lacking magic of her own, little balloons appear out of the humid air.

The balloons are covered with runes in a cheery, blown-up font.

"Not really surprising, but latex balloons are pretty easy to describe in water. The hard part is writing 'Happy Birthday Sage' on them," she says, smirking at my unspoken question.

The balloons pop shortly after that, spraying flecks of water everywhere, missing the sheaf of notes entirely.

"Anyway, I finished translating what you gave me. It isn't everything, but then, you didn't exactly have all creation handy when you were jotting things down," she says.

"Thank you. Anything in particular you noticed while working on it?" I ask.

She gives me a look. "You know what loanwords are?"

I do, and nod affirmatively. "Yeah."

She points at the notes. "That language is chock full of em, I'm almost certain. This language has a lot of overlap with other languages, considering it includes a lot of characters whose aesthetic doesn't match, but describe concepts that just barely fit in the idea of water."

"Such as?" I ask, looking to try and see what kind of aesthetic she was talking about.

"Jello Shots. Alcohol takes about a sentence to describe. Gelatin and the animal products it's derived from, several words. Jello Shots specifically, though, fall under some kind of narrow hodgepodge crossover between things that look, act, and smell like water. There are a few other things like that too that don't line up with reality quite right, and when it happens, there's different linguistic quirks in the writing and spoken form," she explains.

She starts raising fingers. "I'd take this with a grain of salt, but there's probably a language for meat and fruit and they're probably frighteningly similar, if not the same language," she explains, raising one after the other to count them off.

"There's also a language just for steam and ice, but they only share a few dozen words with water, and the words they share aren't what you might expect. Steam and Water only seem to share words like 'Flowing' and 'Falling', and when it becomes weather, the language gets muddy and incoherent, so there's probably a weather language too with a few words shared here and there," she continues.

"Other than that, glug glug blub blub," she jokes.

I nod. "Thanks a lot. You need any healing? I've got another job for you, and I'd like you fresh for it," I ask, pulling up a chair in case she does.

Lisa tosses her hair, sitting down. "Far be it from me to turn down a free checkup. Have at it, doc."

"Right," I say, putting my hands over her temples and pulsing low levels of weak magic. Nothing strong enough to heal wounds or trigger mutations, but enough to take the edge off, I knew from my own tests on the matter.

"So, if I had to guess, you want me on more power testing. That thing where you move energy between materials, right?" she asks.

I nod, knowing that Lisa probably sensed the gesture without me having to speak.

"Did you figure out that your mana has a last-in-first-out queue of effect priorities?" she opens with, sighing under my healing touch and leaning back.

"Explain?" I ask, having a few ideas of what she's talking about, but nothing concrete enough to speak on the subject.

"Yeah. Your mana works backwards. Latest material is used to perform the previous effect. If you do Fire then Ice, the mana tries to do fire, but it does it by using Ice," she explains plain as day.

"So if you had a mana that made swords, and put that in something that tried to do lightning," she opens with, pausing long enough for me to chew on the idea.

"It would try to make swords, using lightning?" I answer.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner. You got a notebook or something? You're wanting me to do the hard work for you, right?" she asks, rolling her shoulders and standing up, fresh and ready to go.

"I was hoping you might have a few ideas, yes," I nod, reaching over to where I kept my tome.

"Any plans on letting me in on the company secret, or we just sticking with family and pets?" she asks, leaning up against a wall.

I froze for a moment, but the surprise passed quickly. "You work quick, Lisa. It's a good thing I hired you to work for me when I had the chance," I say in lieu of an answer.

"Here's some of my notes. A lot of it is kept in my eidedic memory, but I do write some things down when I feel the urge," I explain, handing it over and watching as she flips through it.

I only bothered to save the really important or useful mana types in actual writing, so as to not get bogged down with all the trivialities, and it seems that's paying dividends now, as she opens up the little notebook labeled "Useful Components".

"What are you after?" she says, looking through the runes and phonems and attunement chains with a keen eye.

"Something profitable?" I ask a bit nervously, hoping that my rigorous magical testing holds up to her need for information.

"Sorry, gotta point something out," she says, pointing at some of my repeated tests. One of the things that had been particularly annoying to figure out the mechanics behind.

"Notice how some of these are getting more boring instead of weirder and more meta?" she points at the plant repeated tests.

"Plant mana; helps plants. Plant to Plant mana, help plants by helping plants. Plant to Plant to Plant mana, help plants by helping plants by helping plants. Result gets more fucked up and abstract the more you force it."

She then points to silver.

"Copper, do time stuff. Copper to Copper, do time stuff. Copper to Copper to Copper, do time stuff. No change."

She then points to some of my healing tests.

"See how when you double up copper at the end of other stuff, it slowly starts changing? Graphite to Copper to Copper, rewind, but with a taste of healing. Salt to Copper to Copper, rewind, but with a taste of separation."

"I noticed that, but I wasn't sure why it was happening," I offer.

"Check out gold, same thing. No change when you double it up. Same thing happens to aluminum," she says, clearly thinking hard.

"It's almost like multiplication, in a weird way. Most materials make your magic grow more convoluted and complex, but a few of them, Copper, Gold, and Aluminum for one, make it slip back towards their original effect. I bet there's some sort of weird reason why, too, but it's not hitting me with such a small sample size," she says.

I remember my full list of learned magics, and offer up one that isn't in my notes. "Silver does it too. Attuning something to silver over and over just results in silver magic."

She blinks. "Oh, it's just precious metals. They draw your magic back to their original effect instead of compounding on it."

I jerk back with confusion. "Aluminum isn't a precious metal," I point out.

She gives me that knowing smirk. "It was. Napoleon was rumored to have cutlery made of the stuff, and it was rarer than gold until we figured out how to mass produce it. If your magic is just going off that 'collective human experience' thing, then any metal that's 'considered' precious by its own arbitrary definitions would count. Gold, Copper, Silver, Platinum, the works."

I give Lisa a grateful look. Her ability to just pluck answers out of the most incoherent data continues to surprise me. It could have taken me months, or maybe even years to make the kind of connections that she figured out in one quick session after glancing at my scribbled down notes.

"As for profit... You know there's a huge bounty on Grey Boy's bubbles, right?" she asks, pointing at my wide variety of time-related magics.

"Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. If it does, there's probably not an easier source of money this side of the law, cracking open the bounties on the fucked up shit that villains leave laying around," she says in a blase tone.

"Something that won't make me a target of those same villains?" I plead.

She thinks for a moment, putting a finger to her chin.

"Sell the PRT a better mousetrap. Here, hold on," she says, scribbling down something in the margins of my notebook.

"Might not work, but I'm not exactly a wizard, so cut me some slack," she says, revealing her grand creation.

Thaum > Chlorine > Chlorine > Cactus Iron > Silicon > Silicon

If Lisa's logic on how attunement works is correct...

Use creation to make something to make thorns that utterly demolish what they come in contact with.

"Lisa, that's terrifying. Maybe don't design horrible weapons unless I give the sayso," I ask politely.

She gives me a sly grin, glancing at my notebook. "Sure, in return, please don't bring any zinc within a mile of me," she says, clearly having noticed the part in my notebook where I tested nearly six recursions of zinc's curse magic.

Ok, maybe I shouldn't be calling the kettle black when it comes to designing horrific things to do with magic.

---

Spoiler

12, 7

After talking shop with Lisa, and taking long enough for me to stop pondering what sort of horrific shenanigans she would get into given magic, (She was entirely too clever when it came to deadly things that could be done with it, I found), I decided to try moving some funds around in my business.

It turned out to be a pretty simple affair, I sent money from my business to the government, and a mysterious check came in the mail from an unnamed source who would not be named a few days later, the unnamed person, if they WERE to be named, of course, would have a name that rhymes with "Wage" and a job that rhymes with "Vogue".

I ended up getting more than enough money to afford this week's goodies, even more atomic samples for me to play around with, and play around I did, testing out all the new substances that I managed to order off the internet.

I found out that Helium was another Wave Mana, Divine in nature, (Did the gods speak in squeaky high pitched voices?)

I also found out that my power could be especially smug, informing me that Titanium Magic made something be the same size that it currently was. Something that would have been undetectable if not for a parahuman ability apparently picking up the slack of testing for something that had no meaningful effect on anything.

I found several more forms of magic by going down the list of atomic elements that seemed downright demonic. Rubidium seemed to make my eyes reflect hellfire whenever I was telling lies, and Bromine made the most awful scent, easily worse than anything I had ever smelled before.

It wasn't all bad though, I found out that I could animate candy using magic, and that Strontium Mana was especially well suited for it. The gummy bears wandering over my desk descended upon the gummi worms with fervor and ferocity that seemed out of place on the rainbow-colored sweets.

The further I went down the list, to heavier and heavier elements that were more and more obscure, the stranger their effects became.

Molybdenum, for instance, seemed to stump my power. All the mana did was try to connect two dimensions, neither of which were this one.

Polonium and Astatine seemed to create Lesser and Greater Chaos Magic, the sparkling rainbow lights not fooling me for one minute, as I could see minor distortions in time and space near a few of the motes, while several others seemed to spark and sputter dangerously.

Lanthanum and Cerium seemed to have more of the vaguely religious mana types associated with them, both having to do with farming and grain, and one of them even named "Ceres' Assistant". The magic was obviously a nod to the element's namesake, one of those fertility and agricultural deities.

The last one of any real note turned out to be another Alchemy Type, Rhenium. It was a bit horrific, considering that it's sole effect was that it could alchemically liquify whatever it was applied to.

I took my Partner's words to heart when it gave me the warning it gives for all alchemical magics, and decided not to use it until I was more prepared for the potential consequences.

At the same time, I looked over Lisa's notes, and they were thorough. I suspected, studying these runes and translations, I would be able to create runic scripts without nearly as much bumbling around, something I tended to require a lot of when developing new magic.

I also looked at the runes she claimed were "Loanwords" from the elemental languages of meat and fruit. With her notes, I was able to parse out what she meant. While the Elemental Language of Water involved a lot of wavy lines and ripples, the words for "Jello Shot" involved circles and curved lines connecting the circles.

Looking to the other runes I had learned, the one that seemed closest to that was the symbol for mercury, a circle with a halfcircle above it, and a cross below, helpfully named "Flesh Crossover" by my power.

I did find a few of the runes in Lisa's studies that matched up with the ones in my own notes as well, where she pointed out the Ice Runes, and how they involved "distorted" curves like ovals. Something that lined up with my studies of freezing ice in water. The runes I derived from studying ice freezing in water involved both ovals and rippling lines, the hallmarks of ice and water.

She did really good work, and with how thick her sheaf of notes was, I suspected she had put in countless hours trying to get everything ready for me.

Her question came back to me. Is magic just something for family and 'pets', or did I plan on giving it to others? To people I trusted?

I had to think about that, before it started appearing on its own.

Walking into the back of my lab, I unlatched a small box that contained a silicon replica of a letter, one that I made from memory as a copy of the one I had seen.

Picking up the letter gently, I turned it over, examining it again before putting it back in its place, and locking the box up once again, waiting for the day I would put it to use.

I didn't know why dad's soul had awakened on its own.

But there was someone who might.

---

Spoiler: Author's Note

First off, I would like to apologize, several mana types have changed, due to me only just now realizing my incompetence this chapter.

I had erroneously granted mana types to several precious metals that were impossible, and had to correct those once I realized what I did. Aluminum, Silver, Gold, Copper, and Platinum do not have recursive mana types, and the ones that I accidentally gave some to, I have since reverted. Keep this in mind, moving forward, as other "precious" metals will emerge over time, from a list I have prepared that contains the ones that are considered "precious" by magical standards.

 

[Shadestyle]

i just saw the force of will mana type it's the way to shonen fight right?

Click to shrink...

Soon you'll find that every way is the way to shonen fight in this game

Mwahahaha~<extended stereotypical laughter cut for your convenience>! Here you miss the true depths of my genius.

By focusing on implementing pointers and on the compartmentalization of parenthesis-like structures before getting variables working, this issue can be bypassed.
Issue: human meat-brain and fuzzy nature of the language makes for a poor compiler
Solution: test known bits of 'code' and rely on Taylor's true superpower absolute memory for magic to allow for her to call on known attunement-complexes

This will allow for an effective shift from programming in an absurd assembly-adjacent language to working with an ever-growing lisp library with necessarily intuitive functionality.
The shorter the code, the easier it is to parse. It might not be elegant in the mathematical sense, but approaching a Scratch-like drag-and-drop system with big handy code blocks will make that at least marginally viable.

Click to shrink...

Keep in mind that, (Now that Lisa has spoiled it, I have no shame in explaining this to simplify gameplay OOC), The Last-in-First-Out method of Mana Attunement means that you cannot insert code blocks anywhere except the earliest point of an attunement chain and still receive predictable behavior outside of certain niche chains in which there is only one possible set of results.

Fire > Fire > Emerald = Rocky Road Flames

(Rocky Road Flames) > Fire is a valid use of a 'Pointer' in Mana Attunement terms, as the Last-In-First-Out method interprets the mana attunement as "Do Rocky Road Flames" using "Fire" at the end of the day.

However, the opposite is NOT true, and I've been automatically blowing up attunement chains that attempt to defy this.

Example:

Fire > Rocky Road Flames is an invalid Mana Attunement Chain, as it assumes the result will be "Do Fire using Rocky Road Flames", when in reality, the actual attunement chain is:

Fire > Fire > Fire > Emerald, which is interpreted as "Do Fire using Fire Using Fire Using Emerald". The result would likely have nothing to do with Rocky Road Flames, whatever they may be, as the Last-in-First-Out system can only recognize predictable behavior in the earliest stacks.

All mana attunements beginning with Rocky Road Flames will have results that, at their core, "Attempt to do" Rocky Road Flames, as you can automatically reparse > Fire > Fire > Emerald as that effect, which is then attempted by the next part of the attunement.

Keep this in mind, as it means whatever pointers you want to apply, if you don't want them at the very beginning, you'll have to use Precious Metals (Which slowly revert attunement chains to their original effect with each recursion), or you'll have to use "Convenient" chains that tend towards the same effect (Repeating Salt tends to result in separation that create separation, even if you do it in the middle of a chain or the end of one, and Lead recursions tend to result in stealing mass from things to achieve an effect, even if put later on in a chain)

I feel no shame or annoyance explaining these things, since they're not really "Learnable", and you already know the "Pieces" that lead up to it.

 

[Shadestyle]

I was distracted as I worked on the finishing touches for the Wards' commissions.

Missy's was easy enough. Gallium Magic and Lisa's consultation let me compress everything down, eventually creating a thin wrist guard covered with tiny holes, controlled via a dial and a palm-mounted button.

Tasers, Grenade Launchers (I made sure that only non-lethal ones were actually in with the ones she brought), as well as a collapsing wrist-mounted baton with a lithium-battery powered stun-gun mounted on it.

The end result still looked a bit edgy, but Missy assured me beforehand that "They can spray some glitter on it later," when I was asking how it needed to look.

The only point of concern I had left was checking if her ability to warp space interacted nicely with my ability to warp reality. I found it concerning how easily she was able to fit standard-sized grenades into the thimble-sized mounting brackets where the ones I had set up were kept, and decided to inform the PRT that I didn't want lethal munitions being used in it, even if she could fit them in there.

She wasn't amused by me making the phone call right then and there, but that only made it seem all the more imperative that I didn't get a reputation for being able to stuff high explosives into kid-sized modular weaponry.

Kid Win's request proved to be more complicated, however, and he would need to come in personally to work out the details of the reactor he wanted me to build.

As the door to my shop jingled merrily, I sealed the last little bits of my makeshift mana engine. With the realization that precious metals reverted all mana types to their own, I realized that Precious Metals were the secret final ingredient I was missing to make quality mana engines. Since all mana types reverted to one specific type, precious metals quite literally undid the process of mana corrupting into ambiance.

A thin layer of platinum in the chamber that turned dust to mana meant that all dust I put into the chamber would turn into pure untainted lightning magic.

"Hello! Welcome to Sage Produces! How can I help you?" I ask, turning to face the new customer.

"Thank you for welcoming me. I would like to commission your services. I'm in need of your unique energy supply, and a total top-to-bottom renovation of my properties to properly distribute it" the masked man says, mechanical plates that make up his 'face' shifting to match his expression. To his left and right, two immaculate individuals stand a polite distance to the side and behind him.

He looks around my shop, taking a deep breath as he peers around at the messy shelves, alchemically shaped toys and small sacks of various spices occupying most of the front section that was open to the public.

I blink, not recognizing the man. "Who are you, sir? I hate to pry but I'm not sure I'm comfortable being commissioned by... Certain people. I also don't have Mana Engines released to the public yet," I explain as carefully as I can. I hope Lisa knows what's going on, as I don't exactly have a way to let her know what is happening while she's in the back room reading magazines.

He clicks his tongue quietly, as if sampling what he is about to say before he says it. "You may call me Accord. I've purchased your produce in the past by proxy. You've sold to unsavory individuals without your knowledge already. My being forthcoming is a courtesy to one producing a product I have found myself enjoying. A courtesy I have taken great pains to perform."

He pulls out a small phone that looks vaguely tinker-tech, unfolding it until it looks more like a tablet. "I do not appreciate your dishonesty. Do understand that my patience with you is greater than most, but not without limit," he explains, activating the interlocking device and navigating to files saved on it.

Accord's voice is disdainful, clearly restraining his temper for some reason as he begins to speak again. "As you can see here, two of your Mana Engines are either in production or in active use. One seemingly kept by a Lisa Wilbourn outside her duties in your employ, and another, currently tied up in production for the PRT, as you can see here," he explains, efficiently swiping to photographs taken of Lisa, overlaid with some kind of weird filter, and documents that I'm positive aren't available to the public, including a literal transcript of my talking to Kid Win on the project I was going to work on for him.

The prototype for which was sitting on the table right behind us.

"So no, what you've said was a lie. If not the entirety of the public, then most certainly a curated facet of it including both private individuals that serve your interests and government affiliates that do the same."

By now, I noticed something strange, focused as I was on the information he seemed to pull out of thin air. Normally, the boardwalk was awash with traffic, both on foot and by car, but while Accord was here, not a single one passed by my shop.

He notices my staring, glancing behind himself for a moment. "A fifteen-minute window I established for this meeting. A traffic jam on fifth and Johnson, a movie released on the same day, and three temporary restaurant closures due to CDC violations. I did explain already that I had put some effort into providing you the courtesy of a personal meeting."

I swallow heavily.

"That said, our meeting is quickly coming to a close. Yes or no, Sage? Your ability provides the ideal ambiance necessary for me to reclaim a certain quality of life that my power makes difficult, and I would have access to it for purely legal purposes," he says, glancing at his watch briefly.

"It's illegal for me to sell tinkertech to known villains," I say meekly, prepared for this to turn violent.

The interwoven wood and metal components of his mask shift, the eyebrows on them raising.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response, Sage," he says in rebuttal.

[][Accord] Provide Accord with low-grade Ambiance generators. (Supremely Illegal. Overall Monetary Power is increased to 6. You receive supernatural knowledge of certain locations Accord frequents.)
[][Accord] Do not provide Accord with any mana-generators. (Risk of Reprisal)

When I finally answer, the man nods.

"Have a nice day, Sage," he says, walking out the door with his two business-suit-wearing lackeys.

Moments before he finally walks out, he seems to decide something, looking back towards me. "It would be in your best interest to be more mindful of your city, going forward. Politeness and personal meetings should not be considered the norm, when one's self and businesses are sought out. I am far from the only individual set on interacting with you in a way you did not solicit."

With that, he leaves, and roughly a minute later, a car goes by and I see a few people jogging down the street.

Lisa slowly opens the door, having quietly been listening from the other side. A handgun is in her hand, clenched in a white-knuckle grip.

"Thinker from Boston. He bought your spices off the internet. Took the edge off his power, even with almost undetectable mana levels. I think your mana probably influences probability, no pun intended," she says quickly, distracting from the fact that she apparently has a gun on her person, and decided to pull it out.

She blinks, stowing the gun quickly as the door jingles again, and I whirl about to face whoever just walked in.

"I'm here to work on the engine?" Kid Win says, glancing between the two of us awkwardly.

"Right," I breathe out nervously, wondering if I should reveal what just happened. Lisa jabs me in the side with a "not now" look on her face, and I decide to follow her lead on this one.

"So, how do you feel about matter-annihilation power generators?" I ask, clapping my hands and putting on a cheery look.

---

We talked shop for a long while, and worked on a bunch of different prototypes made out of transmuted and alchemized material, until eventually, we settled on a small Gallium-Compressed Dust Reactor lined with platinum, and powered by burning what he called "Island-of-Stability Nanoparticles" as the 'dust'.

My power cheerfully informed me that "Z=114" and "N=184", the tinker-tech materials that he was using as dust fuel, had mana types that literally defied description and apparently involved tentacles.

I took that as foreshadowing, and reacted accordingly. "By the way, Kid Win, never, and I mean never, breach that reactor while it's consuming fuel," I said to him, giving him as firm a look as I could through my mask as he gingerly picked up the dust reactor, which looked a little bit like the reactor from the Iron Man movie that came out a few years ago, circulating mana in an endless glowing donut loop of Platinum Magic and humming merrily.

"Thanks, I'll try not to break rule one of Tinkertech in general; 'Don't break the power supply'," he jokes, waving goodbye and hopping on his hoverboard outside to fly off to god-knows-where.

"You probably shouldn't have mentioned that denser dusts made more mana," Lisa says, crossing her arms.

"Quiet you," I retort.

"You should have asked for samples. You can hardly call yourself a wizard without a few eldritch horrors at your beck and call," she snarks.

'If only you knew,' I thought to myself, glad that Lisa hadn't quite picked up on the reason for my grimace, or if she did, she kept it to herself.

---

Spoiler: Sage determines if physics is willing to roll over on command.

1d20 vs 1d20 = 3, 15

As I worked on a few easy experiments, I only grew more distracted with what was to come.

My latest test sat on my table, a ball of metal that I had 'inflated' with Gallium Magic.

It was a failure, interestingly enough. While I could expand a container to make it larger, Gallium magic's nature as a conceptual agent reared its ugly head.

The metal vessel was made hollow by reshaping it with Gallium Mana, but it still had a capacity of 'Zero'.

Even opening a hole up in it, I found that I couldn't stick so much as a finger inside the square-meter of space that was inside it. It hurt to look at, and made my eyes itch when I tried putting things inside the alchemically generated space.

Expanding existing vessels was possible, of course, if I took something that was hollow, and increased the size of it with gallium, the new space was perfectly usable. Creating a hollow however, resulted in this, a false space that nothing could occupy. Gallium Magic has a very limited ability to change an object's properties, even if its shape changes. Much like how if I turned a knife into a perfect sphere, it could still cut, if I tried to give an object properties it didn't have using gallium, the effects were odd, even when they did work.

The best example I could think of was how, no matter how sharp I made something with gallium mana, it wouldn't be able to cut any more than it could originally, unless I gave it a tiny amount of sharpening, which seemed to 'break' the effect, resulting in a razor sharp edge.

Using the void proved to be its own interesting mess for trying to make my own vacuum chamber. I had set up a thick glass box, and created a portal to the void in it. Sure enough, air began to seep out of the box and into unreality, but as it did, I felt a shudder run from my feet to my head, and the memory came up unbidden, of the time I saw a fisherman throwing chum into the water.

The chamber was empty, as perfect a vacuum as I could make, and I was all too eager to close the void portal once it was.

The air that went into the void floated there only briefly before being unmade. The scent of matter insufficient to draw whatever could survive in an environment that lacked all reality itself.

One thing I did notice was that, in order to create a void portal, I couldn't have mana occupying the same space. Either a portal to the void was in a spot, or ambient mana was there. It spoke of interesting properties that left me wondering. What kind of world had something as esoteric as the magic I had?

I couldn't wait any longer, putting my box of vacuum on a shelf for later, and fishing out my envelope.

I felt nervousness pool in my stomach, and I knew I wouldn't be able to put together a ritual as ornate as the one I used to summon Queen Administrator. It felt too impersonal, too casual for that, and I felt unfocused and impatient.

"Dad, I'm heading out to the testing spot," I said, grabbing my costume-bag and stuffing the letter in it.

Dad nodded. "I can come with you, if you want?" he asked. Ever since he found out that a villain showed up at my shop, and one that knew dad had one of my weapons, he had started openly carrying the pen-weapon, the mana engine inside it rapidly growing irrelevant as dad's magic proved sufficient to sustain it.

I thought about it for a moment. He was the only other magic user, and while his powers were incredibly weak as they were now...

"No, it's fine. I'll keep in touch, alright?" I said, slinging the bag over my shoulder.

Spoiler: Sage determines if property law is willing to roll over on command

1d20 vs 1d20 = 19, 15

Sadly, I wasn't able to buy a random specific patch of forest miles and miles away from Brockton Bay, but I was absolutely able to buy a general patch of forest miles and miles away from Brockton Bay. It wasn't quite the one I wanted, but it was in the same general area, and I was able to put together the funds to pay for a small area to call my own.

With that said, since this was a rather public act, I suspected that there was little reason to be subtle about going there. Once I was far enough away from the house, I changed and summoned Thoth, simply flying the rest of the way to my own secluded patch of forest to attempt my second true summoning.

As I landed at the site, I briefly released a pulse of magic, and, satisfied with the lack of spy equipment spying on me, I created a large wooden dome, sealing me and Thoth away from the world.

For this summoning, I knew the appropriate thematic elements and metaphors to use in enhancing the arcane magic I would be weaving in order to summon the person I was after.

Taking off my mask, I took out the copied magical letter, and, with a pen of paper mana, I simply wrote on the letter three plain words that left no uncertainty as to their intent.

'Return to Sender'

As I levitate the letter in front of me, I begin to rhyme. A short, simple thing sufficient for my purposes as I summon layered recursive barriers to contain it, and the magic that it will soon act as the center of.

"This letter here, this postcard true, has given me a lot to do."

"It gave me magic, for that I thank, but being honest, and to be frank,"

"I must know why, I must see who, and so I cast a search for you,"

"This magic letter, creator render, let's correspond, Return to Sender!" I announce, unleashing my spell and consuming the copy in magical fire that begins beaming pure, undiluted information through the void, bare traces of mana housing it as it seeks out its creator.

The magical flame begins to shrink, and then, it begins to grow.

What new fresh horrors am I going to see? What truly mutated and deformed being lives in a world of magic? What twisted mind calls out into the void in search of me?

In the center of the protective circles, a being forms. Two legs, two arms, two eyes. Not a tentacle in sight, and not once does it seem intent on wearing my face in any way, shape or form.

Instead, it resolves into a small fuzzy child in off-white clothes who looks like a raccoon on two legs. Round glasses made of mana pop into existence to perch on the end of their face, completing the mana-avatar.

As the summoned individual looks up at my face, they blink several times in disbelief.

"Holy shit it's Skitter," he says.

[][The Source] Write-in

 

[Shadestyle]

"What? Who's Skitter?" I ask. This only seems to make the kid blink again.

"You? Sorry, I, well, I read about you in a story? Well, not a whole story, more like a bunch of scraps I got together and read?" he says, glancing down.

"Explain," I say, crossing my arms. He read about me?

"I'm a Summoner, Ma'am, it's kind of my thing! Well, I haven't actually managed to summon anyone yet, but I've been getting together all kinds of books and bits from the void. There's a lot of stories about you, and a few of em are even on paper!"

He pulls something out of his pocket, a bunch of burnt pieces of paper, clipped onto the back of a shiny new tablet.

He gesticulates more animatedly, "Skitter, master of escalation, antihero extraordinaire! I got enough information with your name on it to read about you, so I know all sorts of stuff, like how you descended from a dragon, and how you drink tea all the time, and how you've got bug powers."

His voice goes quiet. "Nothing about you being able to backtrace a summoning spell to its source and reverse engineer it though..."

Getting a good look at the kid, it's clear that he's the sort of awkward, bumbling individual who would get along with someone like Greg with ease.

"I'm going to be honest, maybe a third of what you said is actually true. Are you the person who tried to summon me? Who are you?" I say tersely, receiving a meek nod in response.

"Yes ma'am, I'm Seeker," he says quickly.

"My name is Sage, and my power isn't just to control bugs. I haven't even done much with that," I explain conversationally.

I hold up a hand, igniting it with mana. "My power is magic, and your summoning spell is why I have it. I called you here to find out why. Why did you try to summon me? How did you get the spell you used to do it? What are you, and where are you from?" I ask.

He mouths 'oh no' when he sees me manifest magic.

Swallowing, the raccoon-boy rubs his face, flattening what had started to frizz from nervousness. "T-that explains a lot."

"I dunno, I'm a summoner, I fish media out of the void, I've been trying to do my first st-summon for a while now, I didn't think someone would go and somehow get magic from one measly little summons, I didn't even get a response from any of the others," he explains.

"I'm just an animal-person, technically more of a procyonid-person, but that's kind of obscure and there aren't a lot of species in it anyway, and our power works with stuff outside of that so most people just say 'Raccoon Person', and a few people say we should be reclassified as 'Ringtail-People', but..." he says, stumbling over his words.

"I'm a raccoon-person, don't worry about it," he corrects, deciding to simplify and summarize his explanation.

I pull up a chair, suspecting that this conversation is going to take longer than I'm willing to stand. "What do you mean by power? Your magic?"

He shakes his head. "Animal-people have a special appendix that lets us take on any traits we want, so long as it fits us. Bird-people, Lizard-people, Dog-people, stuff like that."

"I can't do much, though, mostly just shrinking and growing," he explains, and in a surprisingly smooth fashion, his avatar begins to shift and distort before my eyes, the dark black fuzz covering him changing colors and patterns as his limbs shift and distort.

"Any animal trait, as long as it's a raccoon or close to it," Seeker finishes, returning to 'normal'.

"Oh, also, don't let a bird-person punch you. It's bad," he comments as an afterthought.

Digesting this little fact, I move on, slowly getting closer to the answers I was after from the start. "Where are you from, Seeker?"

He looks a bit uneasy at this. "Uhh, how long do you want that answer to be?"

"Long enough that I don't have to ask 'and where is that?'," I retort.

Seeker sighs, flopping down onto the ground and sitting in the middle of the circle.

"So, I live in 'Paradise', which is this really dumb boring place, and that's a space station that floats around Miter, which is a really important planet in Earthrealm, which is one of the three dimensions that make up The Trinity, along with the Divine Plains and the Hellscape."

"I see. And everyone on your world has magic?" I ask, cutting to the heart of the matter.

He nods. "Well duh, everywhere in my world is magic. The only things that don't have souls are monsters and really simple lifeforms like plants and small bugs, and sometimes those get souls too," he shrugs.

There. One of the big answers I was after, right on the verge of being spoken. "How," I demand, leaning forward eagerly. This little kid, if he knew how souls appeared, just went from 'the most disappointing wizard' to 'holder of critical info.'

"How do things get souls? I dunno, in my world, something gets a soul if it's supposed to have one. How does it work in yours?" he answers back, uncomfortable at my sudden interest.

"I don't know. What do you mean, 'supposed to have one', what makes something a valid candidate for just getting one?" I insist.

"...I don't know a lot about this stuff, ma'am, I'm sorry," he responds instead of answering.

I mull over his words. He doesn't have the answers I'm after, but the information he has...

"You never told me why you summoned me. Is there something you needed?" I ask, trying to work some kindness into my tone. If this is some kind of eldritch monster disguised as some socially inept kid, then they're doing too good of a job for me to tell.

"I just thought it would be cool to meet a superhero. It's boring and annoying where I live. Sorry if I caused any problems," he says, looking away.

I start to feel like I've been kicking a puppy, getting all caught up in trying to squeeze intel out of this kid.

"So, you're a summoner, right? I saw your summon. It was way more advanced than mine. How did you manage that?" I ask, dropping my barriers and creating a second chair using a bit of plant matter.

He watches my work with surprise. "Well, uhh," he says watching the chair grow out of the ground with a bit of intrigue and disgust.

"I'm a wizard," he says, as if that explains it.

snapping out of his staring, he hops up and plops down onto the chair, quickly picking up steam. "It's really easy, way easier than being a channeler, not that there's anything wrong with them, of course, it's just that it's kinda hard messing with all those attunements, shaping mana, patterning it to get effects, I didn't really like it, but spellcraft is really easy, it's mostly just memorization, and I've got a book I dug up on how to talk fast, and it has some really good tips!"

He rummages around in his pocket, pulling out a burnt, half-destroyed book. "So you want to be an Auctioneer" reads proudly on it in half-decayed script.

"So, for the summoning spell, all you really need to know is the target you want to summon, and the spell itself. It doesn't work unless the target is in a different dimension, of course, since it uses extraspacial directions to travel between the caster and the target, and you can't really fit the spell in just a 3D space, but it's really good for a beginner spell,"

He holds up a hand and starts babbling an absolute word-salad of phonems that my power picks up on.

"I find it helps to think of it as a song, you obviously can't really sing it, or the effects are all messed up, but when you're just practicing it, it's really handy," he explains eagerly.

Trailing off for a moment, he glances at me. "So, you're a... Druid. That's nice? Or are you a Green Mage? You aren't a Communer, are you?" he asks, gesturing to my costume.

This time, I shrug at him. "What's the difference?"

He starts holding up fingers "Druids use magic to serve nature, Communers enslave the nature around them, and Green Mages usually just make their own nature to mess around with. Though, if you're a channeler, I guess you'd be a 'Green Channeler',"

I thought about this.

"Well, I don't serve or enslave nature, I'm pretty sure," I said, thinking about whether or not Thoth and my garden counted as "enslavement."

He chuckles nervously. "That's good, Druids are a bit crazy, and communers... Bad news," he says.

"So, what exactly are you then? A channeler? You're pretty good at it, but if you're self taught, I bet you're a mage."

I gesture for him to get on with the explanation. "You're the first person I've met who knows those terms, you're going to have to work with me here, Seeker."

He nods vigorously. "Ok! So, uhh, how did the pneumonic go, Channelers will and Wizards's swill?"

"N-nevermind, so, I don't know how you have it organized, but, the way I was taught it was that we usually have shorthand for what someone uses, First, you've got Sorcerers, they control Thaumic Mana, or just raw mana from their souls in general. Channelers, who use Willpower to control Soul Mana, Wizards, who use Spellcraft to control Thaumic Mana, Mages, who are kinda like the bast- uhh, lovechild of the two," he corrects hastily.

"So, Will, Formality, and Mixed, for Channelers, Wizards and Mages, then there's Espers, they do the same thing but with Mana in the air, Ambient Mana. There are Psychics, Bards, and Shamans, for Ambient Mana, again, Will, Formality, and Mixed,"

His eyes widen. "My mom's a bard, actually, people call her an 'Annihilator Bard', but she's retired, so she doesn't do much nowadays," he trails off, and I detect a hint of negativity in his tone.

"Uhh, right, so, Psychics use Willpower on Ambience, Bards use Formal Music on it, Shamans use a mix of the two. Follow along so far?" he says, and I nod, noting similarities to things I've done or thought of in the past.

"Finally, same thing, Will, Formality, Mixed, but for Bodily Mana. We call those 'Fighters', but honestly, not all of them fight. A lot of people argue over what to call bodily mana, too, but uh, you'll be alright if you just call it that. For those, we've got Aura Users, Martial Artists, and Monks. Aura Users draw the mana out of their body parts and move it around with willpower, Martial Artists use bodily movements to control the mana in them, and Monks kinda mix the two together," he explains.

He leans in, and whispers. "Between you and me, Fighters are really scary. People call them that even though not all of em fight, but when they do, it's really bad."

He claps. "And that's how we classify magic users! Any questions?" he answers, adjusting his glasses, before realizing something else and coughing before I can answer.

"Oh, uh, there's also the people who don't do any of what I just said, but that gets into some really obscure stuff, and a lot of the people that do it specifically try to buck the general descriptions we've come up with over the years, and there's also just some weirdos who don't use magic as far as anyone can tell. I have no clue about them, though, so I'm sorry about that."

I smile. "No, it's alright. I guess that makes me a Mage, then? I've been doing a little bit of everything."

"Must be nice, being able to just sort of do stuff like this, huh? Paradise kinda sucks for making giant tree domes and stuff," he says, kicking his feet in the air as he speaks.

"I wouldn't know. What's it like, then? With a name like Paradise..." I start, waiting for him to answer.

He puts his head in his hands, grimacing. "It sucks. The meal-delivery bots there steal and replace your food when it gets cold or stale, or even a little bit past expired, the cleaners clean up all the messes, even if the mess is something like street art, the repair drones take your tv in for repairs if it gets so much as a scratch on it, so there goes four hours of my life," he throws his arms up.

"I know a bunch of my friends are thinking about moving, because they want to mess with mutagenic compounds, but the autodocs can't tell if something is mutated on purpose or by accident, so they just fix everything."

"They'd have this big ol tree thing turned back into a houseplant by the end of the hour," he says, jabbing a finger at the wooden dome I made to contain the summoning.

"And of course, those stuck-up elites living in The Heap lord it over us, living it up in the garbage! No preset dietary plans, no robots messing up your stuff. I have to hide the stuff I fish out of the void, or it'll get sent straight to the heap with the rest of the trash," he says, frowning as impetuously as a short little raccoon can.

"That's why I picked the name I did. I'm Seeker of Trash, and one day I'll find it," he says.

I thought about asking why he didn't just move, but then, if he was anything like I was, then I got why. Well, I didn't, here was a kid in immaculate, spotless-clean clothes who renamed himself after garbage, complaining about how the robots that do everything for him don't do it perfectly, envious as all hell of people who apparently live in an actual dump.

But I guess for him, it's just home.

"What was your name before you called yourself Seeker?" I ask, humoring him.

His head tilts like a confused puppy. "What do you mean?"

I notice his avatar beginning to fade, the mana comprising it beginning to dissipate.

He notices this as well. "Well, I guess that's it for now. Will we meet again, Sage?" he asks curiously.

I give him a thumbs up. "I'm not through with you and your weird little world yet."

He gives me an awkward smile, and then disappears entirely.

I grab my notebook from the duffel bag nearby, crossing my leg as I begin to write down the things I've learned, feeling Queen Administrator's needy request for data beginning to rear its head.

Before anything else, I go down to where I had been theorizing about the world that my magic came from, jotting down a single line.

"Full of weirdos (Obsessed with trash? Possibly a City of Racoons?)"

After that, I began to note down other obvious things. It was a trio of dimensions, (More evidence for the symbolism of the number 'three'), it apparently had space stations and tinkertech robots, at the very least, most, if not all sapients there had magic like mine, and far more advanced, if a kid who had to be at least somewhat younger than myself was able to cast that impossibly advanced summoning spell.

Some metals, precious metals, would undo attunements if repeatedly attuned to, and I could use that to make consistent mana engines that turned all dust into a particular kind of mana.

Mana lasted longer than I thought, if the spices I made were able to apparently affect Accord in a meaningful way. It demonstrated that my ability to detect mana was lacking. I thought mana was utterly eradicated after a maximum of three days, but something about that theory wasn't fully correct. Was it destroyed completely in that period of time? Was it destroyed at all, or merely made unusable and undetectable to me? What ways could I use to find out?

It may have been a mistake, rebuffing Accord's demands so quickly as I did. He seemed polite enough as he left, but at the same time, he apparently saw something in my magically created spices that I couldn't, once they were exhausted of magic.

What did he see? Why did he really want my mana engines?

Questions for later.

Lisa was a godsend. Thanks to her, I also knew now that Mana followed a "Last-In-First-Out" system. With that, I could, if not predict mana attunement, then at least get an idea of why particular mana chains did particular things. Recursive mana attunements becoming increasingly bizarre and esoteric made a bit more sense, knowing that.

What else did I know? Was there anything I hadn't outright thought of yet, some sort of revelation that was sitting just on the tip of my tongue?

[][New Theories] Write-in

Finishing my writing, I closed my book, and began to unmake the dome, the wood began to flow down into the soil, transforming into mundane plant life once again. Seeker of Trash was wrong about one thing. I absolutely wanted this thing gone once I was done with it. The last thing I needed was people poking around here, or worse, actually finding something if they did.

I still didn't know what caused a person to awaken their soul to magic, so my caution would be prudent in the days to come. Thankfully, I knew it wouldn't be insurmountable to find out.

I had a native who seemed all too willing to exposit at me everything they knew, after all. One who, if need be, could help me access this world, this... Trinity of Realities.

Thoth trilled as I summoned them, pecking at me gently as I swung myself over their back.

I should fly over to wherever Amy is healing, I bet she's having a ball, with her new 'healing tinkertech' doing all the work for her.

 

[Shadestyle]

I decided to make some artwork of Seeker, to help give with visualizing his current look.

 

[Shadestyle]

As I flew around on Thoth, I gave her a pat on the neck. "Keep us up, Thoth, I'm just checking where we need to go!" I shout, pulling out my phone and texting Amy to find out where she's hanging out today.

I kept a paranoid eye on the horizon as I did, glancing up periodically as we made the long glide home, nearly dropping my phone once before I got a better grip on it and simply glued it to my wrist-armor with some temporary synthesized material.

When Amy responded with the place, a Snackwells cafe outside one of her usual hospital choices, I guided Thoth to the place, bringing the giant magical bird to a halt just outside.

I noticed several people snapping photos of me with their phones, and nervously dismissed Thoth, the giant summon dispersing into motes of light before fading.

"Hey Sage. Scam any kids out of their lunch money lately, or is this more of a 'create aberrations unto nature' month?" Amy jokes, sitting at one of the tables outside.

I raise an eyebrow, plopping down in the chair in front of her.

"Nah, I'm into demon summoning now. You help any old ladies across the street, or is this more of a 'get cats out of trees' month?" I retort with an easy smile.

She smirks. "Scathing. Nah, I'm slacking off while my healy juice does my job for me," she says, jabbing a thumb behind her at the hospital.

"I'm on call if anything goes wrong, but, since I'm a genius, it won't, naturally," she says.

"Naturally. Oh, uhh, I'll have a mocha," I say, turning to the nervous-looking waiter standing awkwardly off to the side, he seems eager to set off and get my order, as he quickly dashes off into the restaurant.

"So, things have been going well for you, then? I actually came to help you out today. Guess I should probably work on getting my own 'healy juice'. Wonder how much it'll sell for," I muse aloud, and Amy looks faux-scandalized.

"You'll leave me destitute! Oh, this is how it always goes, big business coming to muscle in on us small town healers," she says, clapping a hand to her cheek.

I cross my arms. "You couldn't be more correct, dear Panacea, I'll produce a shoddier product and sell it for a penny less than yours. Undercutting the market has never been easier!" I exclaim before we both break out laughing.

She gives me a glance. "In all seriousness, though, you probably shouldn't do that. For one thing, my product is already pretty shoddy, and your work tends to be a bit..."

"Mutagenic?" I offer.

"Something like that. Anyway, for another thing, I'm already getting a dollar a dose for it. Carol is working on trying to stop insurance companies from padding the hell out of it, but it's a thing," she said.

I gaped a bit, mouth open like a fish.

"Wait, you're making money off of the stuff? That's great!" I respond, causing her to glance away.

"I told you I'd think about what you said. So I did. Don't read into it," she responds, withdrawing a bit.

She frowns. "What I really don't get is why more people agree to being healed by the juice, now that it costs a dollar. I've got no clue why that happened," she points out, unsure whether she should be happy with that knowledge or disdainful of it.

I already had an idea of why. "Probably just the way people are. It's always a bit hard to completely trust something you get for free."

She looks at me. "That's kinda cynical, even by my standards," she says in response.

"Cynical town," I retort, just as the waiter brings out my mocha. My phone buzzes with a text.

"Guess so," Amy says, checking her own phone for texts.

"Uhh, huh," Amy says awkwardly, eyes widening at the text she got.

I take my own out, and notice that it's Lisa. She triggered the "Coil's playing around like he thought we wouldn't notice" alarm.

"Your shop's being robbed, Sage, did you... know..." Amy begins, but I'm already leaping across rooftops, a maelstrom of magic surrounding my form.

---

"Fuck yeah! Who got the scoop? We got the scoop!" Skidmark shouts gleefully as Squealer laughs obnoxiously, yanking levers in the oversized cockpit of a truly abominable vehicle, one that looks like a bulldozer was hatefully mounted by an eighteen-wheeler, and had a litter of forklifts jammed onto the end.

Squealer laughs even louder, pulling up her headphones, some sort of funky beat blasting out of it as the vehicle rocks in an unsettling manner. "What was that babe?!" she shouts over the roar of machinery.

Skidmark waves her off. "Don't worry about it, just get that building up and out!" he responds, summoning up a field of energy around the place that makes the nearby rubble and rocks begin to lift up into the air.

"You got it babe!" she shrieks, slamming a button with her fist so hard that it sparks as the cheap plastic dents inward.

The vehicle begins grinding, parts shifting around as huge prongs of metal shoot out, piercing into the walls of the building.

The bulldozer arms that the prongs are mounted on groans torturously, hydraulic pistons hissing as, quite impossibly, the building begins to groan. From the sides of the machine, two brackets on wheels begin to swing out, clamping together on the other side of the building and forming an impromptu trailer.

A little sign flops down from one of the brackets, a crude, welded together scrap of metal spraypainted with some text.

"WIDE LOAD"

I slam down onto the pavement, cracking it as I dash towards the vehicle. In the corner of my eye, I spot Lisa on the roof of a nearby building, using binoculars to watch from afar.

"Hey! What the hell are you doing to my shop!?" I roar, taking a step forward.

I flinch back when one of the goons hanging off the sides of the huge vehicle take a shot at me with a handgun.

Dropping to one knee and summoning a wall of mana that deflects several other bullets, I begin muttering to a ball of arcane magic in my hands.

"The great tree endures
The bark envelopes my skin
I am protected."

As I mutter, I feel my skin hardening, and my armor strengthening. With a shout, I shove my arm forwards, flinging the solid mana barrier at the vehicle, smashing one of the wheels on it into wreckage.

As I do, I run to the side, several bullets slamming into my armor and splintering parts of it as the mob of drugged up idiots continue shooting blindly in my general direction.

"Hurry it up, the stingy bitch is here!" Skidmark shouts, poking Squealer in the shoulder as he pulls out a handcannon that seems a bit beyond barkskin's ability to block.

My eyes widen as, with an almighty heave, my entire shop is dragged several feet back, the vehicle having somehow uprooted it from the foundations.

I wasn't sure if I should be pleased that my reinforcements held up, or absolutely livid, they were trying to rob my shop! The whole damn shop!

Firing several more bolts of mana at the wheels, I quickly realized that wasn't going to stop the machine from driving off with my hard-earned building.

It was around this point that I noticed another group slam into Squealer's abomination, several darkly dressed teens riding giant monstrous dogs, led by a man in military fatigues who barked orders at the others.

Taking the momentary distraction for what it was, I dove out of the way of Skidmark taking a shot at me with his gun, the ominously glowing weapon unleashing a violent cannonball-like shot that ripped a trench in the ground where I was standing.

The vehicle was still picking up speed, even with the giant monsters biting and ripping at several of the tires, and I could see it was turning to go straight down the freeway.

I had no other option, I had to end this now.

Running straight at the vehicle, I transformed the boots of my armor, mutating them into pillars of wood that propelled me over and onto the roof of my shop, where I crashed down into it, landing barefoot on the wooden top floor.

Immediately, I began to chant, hands planted on the wood and summoning up all the magic I could muster.

I felt Queen's contributions suddenly balloon outwards as I felt the ground shift, and heard the vehicle begin to tear down the highway. Goons began pounding on the doors, and I knew I had to work fast, both before they got in, and before this sudden surge of mana began to fade.

"Construct, Barrier, and Shell Magic, all mixed together and attuned to Wood," I mutter, hearing shouts from outside as the doorknob is shot off.

The glowing halo of mana forming in my hands increases in intensity, before finally resolving into what I'm after.

Woodsmith Armor.

As I hear explosions from outside, I concentrate, using my will to shape the mana as the goons rush in, drugged up gangsters trying to open fire, only for the floor underneath them to open up and swallow every single one of them in reinforced enchanted wood.

Plucking one of the guns dropped in the panic, I quickly reform the boots of my Sage Armor, before leaping up through the hole I came in on, wind whipping past me.

I see Armsmaster on his bike, and a few other heroes trying to keep up with the building-stealing bulldozer

"Drop my god damn shop!" I roar, pointing the gun at Skidmark, who is shouting obscenities down at Armsmaster, fields of violet energy on the bulldozer throwing back several of the tinker explosives he's trying to shoot at them from his bike.

He turns to me with a sneer. "Shoulda thought of that before you kept all the tinker drugs to yourself!" he roars, spittle flying from his mount as he fires off a shot at me, narrowly missing as I yank up a spike of wordsmith armor from the floor below, shaping it into a hasty shield.

"I don't have tinker drugs you coked up... Fuckhead!" I shout, incredulous and utterly sick of this entire exchange already.

"Don't lie to me, you're the plant bitch, they always got tinker drugs!" he says, operating on some kind of incredibly idiotic misconception that I planned on fully disabusing the moron of.

"I don't do drugs, I do this!" I shout back, unleashing all of my boosted magic into my shop all at once.

"Do what?!" he exclaims, confused at the lack of response.

I snarl, but don't speak, letting what comes next do the talking for me.

A beat later, the entire vehicle shears in half, roots from my shop's wooden foundations spearing into the asphalt and metal alike.

I watch Squealer howl with rage as Skidmark smashes his face into the metal roof of the dozer from the sudden jolt, the front half of the vehicle somehow still not inoperable.

Armsmaster whizzes by, not even bothering to look at me, while the villains on the dogs slow long enough for me to catch a better look at them.

Among them, I notice a familiar hockey mask, practically able to feel the hateful sneer underneath it as Shadow Stalker shoots by, one of the riders on those dogs.

I look down at my arm, the one I used to unleash the magic, and note the black lines cooked into it where the mana had been channeled, surrounded with little green warts.

It smells odd, in a bad way.

"Are you alright Sage?" I hear Kid Win say, hovering over on his hoverboard, at street level, I see several of the other wards there as well, looking up with concern.

I try to wave him off, but my vision darkens uncomfortably when I try to move the arm I had used. "I'm fine," I lie, feeling incredibly tired all of a sudden.

My vision goes dark again, but I manage not to black out for longer than a second, catching myself.

Gritting my teeth, I reach out, ignoring the heroes as I slowly trickle mana into the building, and the remains of squealer's mess of machine parts. "I'm fine. If you can, I could use a tow," I say, realizing that even with the roots retracting back out of my building, I don't have enough power to drag an entire building down the street on my own.

"Uhh, I'm not sure my board is strong enough for that, I'll make some calls, alright?" he says, grabbing his phone.

No, I didn't have enough strength to move an entire building. Not yet, at least.

---

Queen Administrator was doing a little jig of joy, insofar as a malignant tumor on an abandoned planet could do one. This month had been so so productive! Data! Knowledge! Dare she say it, wisdom? So much information, and with so little energy expended!

Negotiator had been busy as well, and the data their host had shared proved to have value of its own, even if the shard itself was being coy about sharing the compiled data they had gained from the experience.

On top of that, Queen Administrator had learned oh so much from their host's new little friend. An entire world in which the dominant species' lowest and youngest members could breach even Father's dimensional barriers.

It was so very very interesting, in a way nothing else had ever been before.

She received a rather frantic message from [Course Correction] as well, proving the potential use of the data she had been amassing on this magic. If they were hungry for a slice of this pie, it must have been tasty.

Spoiler: Research Shop

Ten Research has been consumed by the Scanning Module. Queen Administrator has 113 Research in reserve due to overwhelming data and theories presented

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

[][Research] Taylor's blase comment has given you much to think about. She made such a wonderful point. If one must know magic, then one need only ask the magicians. One Hundred Points of Research may be expended, with Father's permission, to establish a bud on this new world. You have the [Destination]. Now all you require is one simple thing. [Agreement].

[][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. Magic, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.

-[][Research] Gift [Bitterant] Research Data.
--[][Research] (Cost: 3 research) Request Coordinates and Status of [Bitterant]'s host. Their host's absence and lack of information on their status is causing your host some stress, ergo, they must be brought together. (Sage gains knowledge of Shadow Stalker's past locations and resting areas for the past month, enhancing the chance of a successful meeting. The two are drawn together serendipitously)
--[][Research] (Cost: 1 research) Ahh, you get it now. Your host hates [Bitterant]'s host almost as much as you dislike [Bitterant]. You wonder how utterly wrong it would be for you to slip them enough magic to cause them massive problems when they bumble into it, and yet, curious as to how effective it might be. (Shadow Stalker's powers malfunction massively, and may break entirely. Shadow Stalker may gain magic)
--[][Research] (Write-in)

-[][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data.
--[][Research] (Cost: 5 research) [Efficiency] is, for lack of a better word, Efficient. If given access to Mana, and warned of the potential dangers, their host should easily find ways to improve energy efficiency using it, and pass the savings along to you. (Armsmaster gains access to Magic. Research Tax reduced to 9 per month)
--[][Research] (Cost: 35 research) One way or another, your host has essentially learned to create Tinker Tech, using crystaline flesh their magic can create. Unfortunately, you aren't formatted to properly capitalize on this... Yet. (Armsmaster gains access to Magic. Taylor gains the ability to produce tinkertech based on Queen Administrator's current functions, such as mana production, mana control, and data management)
--[][Research] (Write-in)

-[][Research] Gift [Negotiator] Research Data.
--[][Research] (Cost: 20 research) [Negotiator] is being coy. They have an entire database now of the Elemental Language of Water, and their own little notes and quirks written in the margins. They just aren't going to give it to you without something in return. (Taylor gains Aqua Compiler, enabling freeform use of many Water Runes and Phonems, Lisa gains Magic)
--[][Research] (Cost: 30 research) Give [Negotiator] a very generous bribe to help with acquiring data on magic. (Lisa gains a supernatural ability to recognize and analyze magic, and is more receptive to doing so. The research she gains, you gain.)
--[][Research] (Write-in)

-[][Research] Gift [Queen Shaper] Research Data.
--[][Research] (Cost: 10 research) They've clearly cottoned on to the fact that you're hoarding a brand new toy to yourself. Giving them some of your notes could lead to delightful new forms of data. (Amy gains access to magic, and the ability to sense and manipulate liquid mana as an extension of her current powers. Taylor's Eideic Memory will obtain more usable biological data during mana experiments)
--[][Research] (Write-in)

-[][Research] Gift [Course Correction] Research Data.
--[][Research] (Cost: 5 research) They want magic, full stop. However, in return, they claim to have gained knowledge that even you don't have about mana yet. What on earth could a navigation shard have figured out that you, in your intensive scans did not? (Accord gains access to magic, Taylor discovers a secret of magic)
--[][Research] (Write-in)

--[][Research] Gift a shard of your choosing Research for a reason of your choosing. (Write-in)

With that, Queen Administrator lounges back, satisfied with a job well done.

---

It took precious days, but nobody was anxious to leave my shop in the middle of the road, and I didn't have to pay to have it simply towed back to my property.

It was incredibly uncomfortable to see my shop investigated so heavily in the aftermath, but since I hadn't been doing anything illegal or suspicious there, I was eventually allowed to plop the building right back where it was.

It would take time to repair all of the damage, and the Merchants managed to slip away, but the ones I caught would be going straight to prison, and thanks to Lisa, I had a good idea why it happened.

"See what's trending?" she said after the battle was over and through with, when I called and set up a meeting with her to talk about what happened.

She showed me her phone, and sure enough, there was a new team of vigilantes known simply as "The Undersiders", made up of a few known criminals and some unknown ones as well, I could only assume.

Whoever they were, their PR team had deep pockets, and one thing was for certain, Coil's grubby prints were all over the attack. I knew because echoes of that undone timeline still rang around in my head after the battle. My memory helpfully contained what would happen if my mana interacted with a perfectly intact building for several hours, as opposed to the hellish onslaught that had occurred instead.

"So, whether or not Coil set the merchants on your shop, the Undersiders were definitely ready to swoop in and 'save' the day. They also made off with about twelve-thousand dollars in tinker tech from Squealer's cast-off parts, but of course, the media is more focused on the 'scrappy, down-on-their luck superheroes and their tragic mistreatment by law enforcement," she explained, flipping through various online news articles and threads on message boards.

"You can tell this team was hacked together, though. Without me, Coil doesn't have another cheap teenage thinker to wrangle these idiots, so he had to go with a mercenary. Probably the same reason why they're hitting villains instead of banks. Shadow Stalker had to be folded in before she got arrested, I imagine, so the team had to be fluffed up to lure her in," Lisa points out, not saying anything as I scowl at the name.

"Thankfully, the PRT isn't really buying what they're selling. Most of them are still wanted, and the ones that aren't are wanted for questioning. Unfortunately, it looks like they're going to end up playing softball with these clowns until they've got the PR engine turned back against them or someone dumps them on the PRT's front porch tied up with a bow," she says with some disappointment, glancing at me as she finishes.

"So the bad guys get away scot-free," I say bitterly, looking away from Lisa's phone.

She just shrugs, turning it off. "Sure. Unless someone does something about it."

'Someone indeed,' I thought bitterly. I had almost forgotten, distracted by all the new things I had learned. The resolve I had to find out the truth behind Shadow Stalker and the trio. To achieve closure and catharsis. I had almost forgotten the threat of Coil, looming in the background as he moved pieces along his little chessboard, or whatever it was overblown thinkers liked to use as metaphors for their planning.

This had served well to remind me.

---

First week of July Plans:

[][Otherworld] Hang out with Seeker. You've got a lot to learn, and one little fuzzy child to learn it from.
-[][Otherworld] Have him summon you. It's time to see his home for yourself. The things you stand to learn are immeasurable.
-[][Otherworld] Have you summon him. Touring him around your home is likely a good incentive for him to blab more precious information for you to learn.
[][Otherworld] Ignore the Trinity of Realities for now. You've got plenty to do in this world as is. (Other actions are more effective)
[][Otherworld] Write-in.

[][Taylor] Hang out with Dad. He needs training and instruction in the magical arts. (Write-in teaching plans)
[][Taylor] Hang out with Greg, instead of merely tolerating his presence.
[][Taylor] You'll spend your time investigating.
-[][Taylor] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. You now know everything that happened. Now it's time to confront Emma and find out why. Why did she do this to you? What possible reason could she have to have utterly turned on you? (Write-In Plan) (Taylor is not yet fully ready for this)
[][Taylor] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Sage] You'll spend your time investigating.
-[][Sage] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. You now know everything that happened. Shadow Stalker has gotten away for too long, and wormed their way into these 'Undersiders' You'll find out the truth of why the trio targeted you and destroyed your life, and then, let come what may.
-[][Sage] Coil has made his first move, and judging by the fact that he kept it, he got what he wanted, whatever that is. Begin investigating him and his operations.
[][Sage] Something Else (Write-In)


[][Business] Make contact with an entity publicly in a professional capacity. (Write-in)

[][Business] Rent a building out for personal use.
-[][Business] Rent a building in the cheaper parts of town. (Low Prices, Low Safety, Low Scrutiny. Bonus to selling All goods)
-[][Business] Rent a building in the worst parts of town. (Insignificant Prices, No Safety, No Scrutiny. Backroom Dealings Enabled.)

[][Business] Fund a venture.
-[][Business] Try to extract some money from your Rogue Business (Gain granular liquid assets of your choosing on a successful Monetary Roll)
-[][Business] Purchase new materials and supplies (Write-in either a budget or specific things to buy)
-[][Business] Fund a project. (-1000$, A second [Project] action will be done this turn)
-[][Business] Fund experiments. (-100$, three additional [Advanced] Tests are added)

[][Business] Establish a new way of making money using the means at your disposal.
-[][Business] Put Mana Engines on the market, in a limited fashion to civilians and 'supposed' civilians.
-[][Business] Try healing for profit.
-[][Business] Write-in.

[][Business] Make use of Lisa. (Write-in)


[][Project] The Merchants practically wrecked your shop in broad daylight in the middle of the boardwalk. You won't let them do it again.
-[][Project] Guardian. A biomantic beast should provide adequate protection while you're away. You'll construct a true horror worthy of protecting your property, within legal bounds.
-[][Project] Reinforcements. A mana engine and enchanted magical materials could allow you to turn your entire shop into a veritable fortress. Good luck ripping up the building when the foundations are reinforced with Stonebond, Underdog Rock and Sisyphium.
-[][Project] Enchantment. You are a mage, a mage whose mastery grows with leaps and bounds. You'll weave a spell potent enough to make Maleficent sweat, something that is sure to keep idiots from attacking your property without some payback.

[][Project] You have an entire document detailing the Elemental Language of Water. In a very real way, you now have the opportunity to create something incredible. (Success Chances vastly improved by obtaining Aqua Compiler)
-[][Project] Create a Thaumic Spell with effects of your choosing
-[][Project] Create a Runic Array with effects of your choosing

[][Project] Seeker of Trash knows the spell of Summoning, and now, thanks to your Eidetic Memory, so do you. You'll attempt to follow in his footsteps, and summon a fictional character you could justifiably know and wish to summon, granting them an avatar of mana to inhabit.
-[][Project] Write-in.

[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)

[][Project] The hunger to experiment consumes your mind. You'll discard a project this week.
(If this vote wins, up to ten Write-in [][Advanced] experiments will be processed this turn instead of one major project.)


You have (Nine) Advanced Tests Remaining. (Write-in)
[][Advanced] Assemble a suit to test a True Attunement's Set Bonus.
[][Advanced] Discover additional Cantrips of a particular Set Bonus. (Limit
[][Advanced] Perform an Alchemical Experiment.
[][Advanced] Attempt to force magic to do as you wish it.
[][Advanced] Test the effects of a Spell
[][Advanced] Test the effects of an arrangement of Runes
[][Advanced] Something Else

Perform a simple experiment. (Write-In)
[][Simple] Test a new Mana Attunement.
[][Simple] Test a new specific Phonem
[][Simple] Study a target for Phomens
[][Simple] Test a new specific Rune
[][Simple] Study a target for Runes
[][Simple] Test a Transmutation (Choose a Synthesis Mana and a Non-Silicate Target)
[][Simple] Something Else

---

73 Research Gained. 1000$ Gained.

Stats

Research: 113
A good start.

Overall Health: 14
You're as strong as a healthy child. If that child had the power of magic from birth, that is.

Overall Magical Power: 14
You are a skilled Channeler, using raw Willpower and attuned mana to plow your way through problems. You dabble in other magics that both enhance and detract from your raw mana channeling, such as Wizardry, Alchemy, and Runecraft.

Overall Monetary Power: 3
You're a Parahuman-for-profit, just starting out. You have incoming profits and you're starting to make connections, even with a few people in high places. Your wealth is probably comparable to that of other low-level parahuman consultants. You could retire at fifty with this kind of money.

Abilities

Magical Soul: C
Rating: Trump ???
Your soul emits magic. The stronger your soul, the more powerful your magic. Your resolve to discover the truth behind your best friend and worst enemy has strengthened your soul.

Magical Body: F
Rating: ???
Your body contains 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. Once per month, you may boost your Magical Power ranking to B for one scene.

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: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget anything, no matter what it is, so long as it pertains to a mana experiment.

---

Spoiler: Author's Note

This update was a big one! Go easy on me if I made any mistakes, alright?

 

[Shadestyle]

"We'll have a storm now. And an earthquake, if you like," the mysterious stranger said in an authoritative tone.

"You must stand aside, out of danger."

Suddenly, the robed figure was replaced by a burning shape that stood in a loose, uneasy posture, blue flames rising up from its feet and radiating from its head.

The figure raised a hand, and their eyes opened, twin pits of darkness.

There was a flash of light, as if everything in the world had caught fire in an instant, and then...

---

Danny gasped, jerking awake. The television was all static, and the videotape had long since ended. He could hear bird song faintly from outside as the sun started to rise.

"That's the last time I watch that movie," he muttered to himself. Last night, him and Taylor had decided to watch movies, just the two of them. The Adventures of Mark Twain had been fun, and brought back memories of a very young Taylor begging Annette for the film, having already read most of Mark Twain's more popular work.

Of course, back then, Taylor was the one who had gotten bad dreams from it.

Danny stood up from the couch he had fallen asleep on, letting out a huff of air as he felt the aches and pains that seemed so far away, even just a few years ago.

Knowing how strong his little owl had become after gaining her powers, he was a bit surprised to still have aches like those. Well, not really surprised.

As he began to stretch, knowing that that usually banished the worst consequences of a poor sleeping spot, his sleepy mind ran through a few thoughts, before settling on one in particular.

'How did the saying go? Before enlightenment, pour water, after enlightenment, pour water?' he thought, but that didn't seem right.

'No, that wasn't it,' he concluded, raising his hands high up in the air and stretching as much as he could, the pleasant ache of exerted tendons pushing away the unpleasant ache of stiff joints.

Taking a deep breath, he let out another puff of air. He felt pretty good now. Work wouldn't be nearly as much trouble if he wasn't hurting. Sitting around doing paperwork might not have seemed like the kind of work to aggravate pains, but the people who thought that hadn't had to do it at the union building.

A cramped office and a cramped chair were what awaited him there, as he checked on Taylor, who was usually sleeping, eating, or doing something incomprehensible in the basement.

Today, it seemed to be option 'A', and he found her asleep in her bed. It was a comforting sight, especially after he had found out about her escapade as Sage last week.

He saw the news, as well. Most of the footage was choppy amateur work from people poking their phones out of their apartments nearby to catch a shot of the Rogue systematically plowing towards the guys with guns, weaving together shimmering barriers and grown plants to thwart the bullets that she didn't simply dodge outright.

He wondered how Taylor had made her armor undulate like it did, parts of it seeming to grow thicker moments before something would hit it. He still didn't know much about magic. Aside from the ever-present sensation of it in his core, and the curious feeling of it in the air, he hadn't done much with it, not seeing the need.

Though, it did seem to flare a bit when he was done stretching. Maybe there was something to that 'Yoga' junk. He certainly felt better than he usually did after stretching.

He started up his truck, making his way to Donut Oleg's, a place that got started up by a burly Russian by the same name, but was now owned by a Chinese family who bought it years back, keeping the name in an effort to keep some of the customers that the original benefitted from.

'Of course,' he thought, parking outside after a short drive there.

'They sure didn't seem to need the help,' he finished, walking inside the crowded building, breakfast in full swing for the people here.

"I'll have a dozen powdered and some coffee, please," Danny said once it was his turn, paying and receiving his order.

"Have a goodun'," the teen at the register said, already losing interest in the customer now that they had what they came for.

The coffee wasn't anything special, but the donuts were some of the best he could get his hands on. Either way, his order was practical. It was early, he hadn't quite slept right, and some sugar and caffeine would give him some short-term energy until he was awake properly.

As he parked outside of the union building, he decided he'd eat a few of the donuts before getting out of the car. A bit greedy, but Daniel Hebert was a man who knew how to make the most of his assets, and he knew they would disappear quickly once he actually started working, a consequence of him being a bit too nice to his coworkers when it came to pilfered donuts.

As he wiped his hands clean of the powdery sugar and took another drink of coffee, he felt properly revitalized, something his budding mana seemed to agree with, considering the second little flareup he had felt.

He glared at his coffee suspiciously. "Just what are they putting in this stuff nowadays?" he murmured, getting out of the car and closing the door with a click as he strode confidently into the building. It was a good thing he picked up coffee while he could. Quality coffee wasn't anywhere to be found in this particular building, so he'd be stuck with the usual swill once his current cup ran dry.

Carol was behind the front desk as usual, typing away at something, either important files or her blog, depending on how quiet today was.

"Morning," Danny said, walking past her, noticing a necklace on her desk. He had gained a bit of an eye for odd things, ever since he was the one helping get most of Taylor's 'cape' materials, and the rainbow colored gem set in the middle of the otherwise cheap-looking necklace.

"What's that?" he asked politely, and she looked away from the computer to see what he meant.

"Oh! It's Fordite. My husband works at the local automotive place, so they have quite a bit of it. It is quite nice, isn't it?" she asks, offering a smile.

He nods. "Yeah. Might have to get one for Taylor. She likes that sort of thing," he says, already preparing to leave for his office.

"Oh? Well, I'd be happy to tell my husband, heaven knows he still owes you for all your hard work," she responded, getting a nod from him.

Most everyone he knew 'owed him' for his work, considering most of the people he knew well were also members of the union. He never let it go to his head, but he also knew that you couldn't ignore that kind of sway if you wanted to help get people as many good jobs as you could manage. It helped out more than once, just having the ability to call up someone who was well-off thanks to him to see if they had an opening for the next poor guy to walk into his office.

'I appreciate that Carol. I'll be in my office if anyone needs me,' he says, offering a short wave.

He had been wanting to look over some papers lately that had been irking him. Ones that had been irking him since he got his new abilities.

---

Danny let the papers flop back down onto his table with a huff. It didn't make sense.

Or rather, it made sense to him, but something was obviously wrong.

A lot of the work he did involved hunches. He had to not only find jobs for hard-working men and women, but also find hard-working men and women for jobs. It was a fine balance, and he was usually one of the first people called if a new hire or a new job didn't turn out the way he figured it would.

He had learned a while ago that, if he was being honest, his hunches didn't mean spit. When it came down to pure guesswork, people were funny about defying what you thought about them after a short interview, something he usually made up for with a handy list of phone numbers and people he knew who could help when he needed to shuffle things around.

That wasn't the case here.

Or rather, it wasn't the same case.

He looked through the papers again, trying to decide if he was seeing connections where there wasn't any.

He assumed that older folks typically went for older jobs. A fourty-something man seemed like a good fit for work that had some history to it, where a fresh-out-of-school eighteen-year-old wasn't quite.

He was proven wrong enough times to make him doubt that this was strictly true, but lately, he had been doing what he usually did, trying to make connections and figure out how to do the best job he could as head of hiring.

And it had started working just a little bit more.

He was pretty sure that he wasn't getting better hunches. It seemed obvious that a guy who used to do a lot of skateboarding would be decent enough at changing wheels on cars. It was simple work that used the same kind of tools, and it was one of the only jobs he could offer the kid.

It seemed pretty clear that John Hammond, a vet down on his luck who just needed money for rent, would be better suited for hauling work, he knew well enough from his own father's half-remembered talking about the military that it involved a lot of moving things from point-a to point-b.

His usual cases where he had as much information as he could get, and it came down to simple guesswork on how to make the call.

But unlike before, this practice wasn't nearly as spotty as before. He got far fewer calls about people flaking out, fewer complaints from employee or employer, whenever he was forced to follow one of his theories that seemed to hold water.

After thoroughly looking through last week's logs, he was pretty sure of one thing. Magic was involved, even if it wasn't the direct cause. But, of course, to his knowledge, there was only really one person who could tell him if he was getting better ideas, or if something was making his terrible ideas work better.

Taylor, who had expressed a very keen interest in training him this week, once she had made time for it.

'Well, with any luck, I won't be totally empty-headed by the time that happens,' he thought to himself, yawning a bit as he stretched, waiting for the inevitable flow of bonus mana to give him a bit more pep for the hours of calls he'd be making today.

[] Interlude: Lisa
[] Interlude: Amy
[] Interlude: Armsmaster
[] Conclude Interludes

 

[Shadestyle]

"[Data]"

"Yeah yeah, don't get your autoclave packets in a twist, I'm still wrapping up your little care package."

"[Corrupt]"

"See, I've been getting that a lot, but honestly, what's a little corruption between friends if it means getting data faster?"

"[Agreement]"

"So, you really don't care about the awakening data? I don't have all the info on it quite yet, but I'm pretty sure we could get you sorted out with your own soul, instead of having you waste effort using physics-alteration to cheat it in."

"[Redundancy]"

"Ow, rude. Alright, if you say so... So, where do you want to make the trade, my place or yours?"

---

Armsmaster's opaque visor covered his narrowed eyes as he stared down at the microreactor that Kid Win had allowed him to examine.

From an outside perspective, the device was simple. Primative, even. The Ward had taken the time to explain what he could, noting his contribution in the form of high-mass materials for the fuel source, and the rogue's own simplistic explanation of how the device functioned.

As far as Sage was concerned, the device was basically a furnace of sorts. Fuel goes in, and the energy consumes it to create more energy.

Of course, a nuclear reactor is also 'basically' a furnace, and Armsmaster had needed a licence of the highest order to operate and own his own for tinker purposes.

Powder goes in, lightning comes out. As basic as could be, and yet...

"Readings show departiculation in the extreme, consistent with reports of other departiculating effects and dimensional distortions," he notes aloud, a camera mounted on an arm zooming in on the device to get a better look at its molecular structure.

What Sage had done to shrink and warp the structure of the parts she used resembled Chevalier's work more than something like Vista's ability.

"Sage referred to that process as 'Alchemy', since she admitted to only having vague control over it," Kid Win pointed out, sitting on a chair nearby, just out of the way.

Armsmaster's eyes narrowed further at the readout, a gesture he considered sufficient to inform the fellow hero of his acknowledgment, despite them having no way of seeing him make the expression.

"Bring up search results," he mutters, his algorithms digging up historic and pop culture accounts of alchemy and arranging it into a bullet-point list of commonalities.

Glancing at the Greeko-roman mythos and 'Anime/Manga' entries, he dismissed the entire list with a faint nod. "Usable," he muttered, leaning in closer to the reactor and shaving off a tiny bit of its outermost layer with a mechanical limb.

The reactor's parts showed all the telltale signs of departiculation, or at least, a form of it. It was one of 'those things' that Tinkers could babble about to one another without anyone in the room being able to understand what the hell they were talking about, beyond the vaguest notions.

Those vague notions essentially amounted to the following. Some parahuman abilities created 'definitions' that overlayed physical material, reducing or removing the particles present in it, hence the term.

In this case, the reactor had been turned into something that barely held on to the distinction of being made of physical matter, but a thin field of rewritten physics was, for lack of a better word, tethered to the object's components, and in the object itself, the energy in question was currently generating its own, entirely unrelated field of otherworldly physics.

The reactor was a child's diorama, the work of a day or so cutting up pieces of the fabric of reality, painting it their favorite colors, and then gluing them together into something that looked informally like art.

"Right, I believe this has been incredibly informative," he says, standing up from his chair, and handing the reactor back to Kid Win brusquely.

"Wait, what did you learn, sir?" the ward asks, trying to catch his superior as they calmly storm out.

"No clue," he answers in a way that conveyed the greatest breadth of his current thoughts, in the fewest words.

---

The door jingled, and Armsmaster took care to step over the large root that was jutting out of the floor, frowning at the sight of the newly repaired shop.

Sage's previous establishment had been, as far as pictures went, a fairly organized affair, in Armsmaster's opinion. Shelves. Walls. Floor.

This new arrangement, however, seemed to be a work in progress, or so he hoped.

"Oh! Hello! I'll be right with you, I'm just working on filling in some stuff!" Sage said from the bottom of a deep pit lined with living, bio-organic railings that seemed to actively shift and move, wooden branches distorting as he approached, prepared to keep him from making a liability suit of himself by falling down into the pit.

"I called three days ago to commission a 'Mana Engine'," he said, peering down into the hole where the rogue seemed to be using a bright yellow torus of lasers to erode away the soil and foundations of the building.

"Hi Armsmaster! It's in the back! Leave the money on the counter, please!" she said, waving him off before, with her other hand, creating a beam of light that seemed to cause web-like pillars of stone to grow over the cement she had just been digging out.

Tempted to observe for only a moment, Armsmaster decided to just get what he came for. Destructive study of one of these engines would allow him to hopefully gain inspiration for his own work, and unlike most Tinkers, Sage seemed either unknowing or uncaring about this fact, selling him the engine even after he informed her of his express intentions with it.

'Good luck with that,' she said, as if there was nothing to worry about.

Shaking the memory away, he approached the unmanned counter, quickly realizing that it isn't unmanned at all, this time.

The girl at the counter idly popped her bubblegum, looking for all the world to be some sort of costumed clerk, an ordinary cashier's outfit contrasting with the glowing blue domino mask they wore.

Stiffly, he approached, hoping he wouldn't have to repeat himself to the girl, a hope that was answered as she pulled out a heavy, simplistic machine onto the table. His requests to minimize the amount of 'alchemy' used on it was met with intrigue by Sage, followed by consternation when 'biomancy' and 'synthesis' were also rejected, in the hopes of minimizing interfering influences during his research.

This didn't seem to be a dealbreaker however, judging from the crudely bolted together mechanism, made entirely out of copper with a motor welded onto the side mandating that it be plugged into the wall, due to a lack of the platinum coating she used on Kid Win's own reactor.

As he wasn't planning on using it for electricity, he deemed it an acceptable loss for his own reactor to generate what she called 'generic time' instead of electrical energy.

"Thank you for shopping at Sage's Produce. That'll be $1,239.96," the girl at the counter said, chin on her fist as she looked to be strongly disdainful of the job she clearly minded doing.

Armsmaster paid with his card, of course, carrying cash being something that viscerally annoyed him after gaining his powers.

As he left the store, he was already flooded with new ideas, the device seeming to come apart in his mind as his power helpfully began feeding him inspiration after the brief contact he had with the rogue.

He, of course, had no reason to suspect that the inspirations came from him entering Sage's immediate proximity, and attributed it to the mana engine he was packing away in his bike, magic inside whirling inside, filled with potential.

---

Arcane Secrets, Flames that burned at one's foes, demons that served their clever masters. There were many things that the average person be might be tempted to pursue, once they had discovered for themselves the ability to use magic.

"Test number 625, one megabyte of data, three kilobytes upload-download, 1 Gigahertz processor speed, current stable size, 97 microns."

Armsmaster was not the average person.

The first thing he had learned upon reaching his workshop and examining the engine had also been among the only things he had learned, namely, that mana possessed no inherent 'fundamental particle' that he could see. It was self-similar, and behaved similarly at one kilometer as it did at one micrometer.

It could also be treated to act like light, and could be used to grow silicon.

His manipulators slowly, carefully, and above all else, delicately moved closer to the microchip he made via 'magical' photolithography.

While Armsmaster didn't believe in magic on principle, he also respected talented tinkerers, and Sage's work was worthy of that respect. He would call it what Sage called it, if only out of that respect and for clarity of discussion with the rogue in the future.

Beliefs thus established, the nanoscopic switch on the microchip flipped on, and the semiconductive materials began doing what they do best, semiconducting the electricity running through them as he wished.

His mouth quirked up at the readouts. He hadn't worked with silicon-based-architecture for a long time, for reasons that seemed obvious to him, and yet, he might be tempted to take a glance at some of his older projects relating to silica, now that he had this new energy at his disposal.

The tinkertech mana-emitter he had produced proved to be a tempting device indeed, with what it could do to silicon at arbitrary scales.

Of course, the mana-constructs that formed around the 'magical' materials he synthesized proved to be a problem, as both synthesis and transmutation caused a very slight increase in the volume of molecules, which had to be accounted for until they were starved long enough to revert to more traditional materials.

That said, of course, it wasn't without uses. Using his mana-emitter, he found that by using a silicon lens, he could 'walk' molecules around, using repeated transmutation to enlarge a molecule using the enchantments that were wrapped around it, then starve the molecule of energy until it reverted, pushing surrounding matter around with precision he simply couldn't attain without using much more energy-intensive means.

He hadn't yet tested how large an atom could become with repeat transmutation, due to the increased potency of its 'magical' effects as more layers of enchantment were added, but he suspected quite a few layers could be applied, if he had the time to really push it.

But even ignoring the downsides and difficulties inherent to the submolecular printing and manipulation, his new blueprints for mana-generating devices proved to be phenomenally handy, and unlike Sage's own work, he had managed to find methods using his power to create the energy without an initial spark, pulling the energy from a subspace manifold using a frequency modulator of his own design. Unfortunately, Dragon had examined the design and said, quite worryingly, that his machine wasn't replicable. The mana generation proved to be one of the irreplicable parts of his tinkertech.

"Dragon, pardon me if I'm misunderstanding, but you claimed that my version couldn't be replicated. Is that meant to be implicative of something?" he asked politely, waiting for Dragon to bring up blueprints that had him swallowing unconsciously, his mouth a bit dry as he glanced over the blueprints.

"Here," she said, bringing up her own designs, refined and calculated based on Sage's handmade versions.

It wasn't the requirement of reality-warping aspects of Sage's power that made her mana engines unable to be duplicated, and it wasn't classical tinkertech blackboxing that made her mana engines unable to be duplicated.

It was... Nothing.

Nothing was keeping her mana engines from being duplicated by mundane means, provided that one had mana to act as the spark.

[] Interlude: Lisa
[] Interlude: Amy
[] Conclude Interludes