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Pocket System

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Wait. People can still get extremely confused on Ace's stories? Weird.
Meanwhile in a future parallel timeline...
Vandal Savage: It has come to our attention that Klarion hasn't met his daily Chaos quota. Thus I conclude that we should kick him out and replace him with this being called John Doe.
Klarion: What the!? You can't do that!
Luthor: Yes we can. Now John, do you have- oh. He just bitchslapped Darkseid. Goal completed, I guess?
Klarion: What? No! I can bitchslap Darkseid as well!
Sportsmaster: Stop whining, Witch Boy. I'm listening to Darkseid shouting uncle at John Doe.
 
I could see that happening but not the bitchslap. I think it would go more like this:

Darkseid: Uses Anti-life equation.
John: Oh, intriguing. *Yoink*
Darkseid: Wat?
John: *Analyzes the crap out of all equations*. So it goes like this; *Uses ALL THE EQUATIONS* I knew math was complicated, but I never knew it could do this!
Darkseid: *Whimpers in a corner*
DC Reality: *Purrs happily*

Or perhaps he mistakes the equations for magic and makes a magical math system? Or gets a return of 1=0?
 
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Welcome to Shadowcrest!
  • Threadmarks
    • Zatanna was pacing near the front door. "It should just be a normal egg, right?"

    She'd been doing so for a few minutes now, despite John saying he would be by later than this. "And he promised not to 'bling' the baby, whatever that means…"

    The wait was, perhaps, starting to get to her. "So as long as he doesn't mess with it, then it should hatch into a perfectly healthy… Uh…"

    She paused. "Shit, I forgot to ask what a Parvicursor Remotus was again! How did he distract me with all those strange food questions!? GAH!"

    Should she go pester him with another note… No, he was going to come to dinner in like five minutes anyway. It would actually take her LONGER to run to her room, send off the note, and come back to meet him at the door even assuming he got the message and instantly answered her questions.

    Damn it! "It's going to have tentacles or something, I just know it… Mom did use to say something like that… Or was that about old boyfriends? Not that John is… AGH!"

    Her dad leaned in from down the hall. "Sweetie? Everything alright?"

    UGH! "I'm FINE Daaaaad! Just… give me a minute, John is going to be showing up any second now."

    Then her father made a very odd face for some reason. "...Am I going to have to give my shovel speech?" His hand flickered with power. "Because I've been practicing…"

    Oh god no! "Don't you DARE embarrass me, Dad! John's just going to stop by for dinner, give me the egg so he doesn't end up eating it or changing it into a robot or something, then I'm going to show him some basic magic books from the library. That's it."

    For some reason that didn't seem to calm her father down. "Alright then, just be careful which books…"

    Sheesh. "I know, I know! No books that bleed, talk back, phase out of reality, or rend unprotected minds. I'm not five anymore, dad!"

    And now, for some OTHER unknowable reason, he was cheerful again. "Oh perhaps not, but to me you'll always be our darling baby girl!"

    Daaaaaad! "SHOO! Get out of here, PLEASE!"

    The man reluctantly started to retreat. "Alright then, but if I hear someone needing a shovel'n…"

    No. "MOM! DAD'S GONNA SHOVEL JOHN!"

    Distantly she heard mom chuckle. "No shoveling our daughter's suitors until they've at least gone on two dates."

    EEK! "MOM!"

    [[Knock knock knock!]]

    ACK! "Both of you GET! Shadowcrest, help me!"

    And her home suddenly altered away the section of doorways her parents were teasing her from, a distinct sense of loving amusement radiating from the walls.

    Thank goodness. "Thanks, I appreciate it."

    The hallway felt just a touch more warm and inviting… Right, let's do this!

    Almost subconsciously, she followed door opening procedures. Shadowcrest had no concerns, Zatanna could feel the intentions of the one on the other side (Mild hunger, tired satisfaction, protective instincts, etc), as well as the distinctive LACK of magic that she had ONLY seen in this one boy.

    It had been so off putting initially that her mind gave up and IGNORED his absolute lack of magical presence entirely when John first saved her, simply due to the sheer impossibility of such a thing existing in the first place.

    Magic was tied to life and the Soul, after all. NOT having it would be like a ham sandwich forgetting that it needed to affect gravity and include tangibility while existing.

    .None of the 'detect weapons' routines went off, the ambient power levels were stable, no detected distress or coercion… Good, safe to open! "Hey John, I'm glad you were able… To…"

    She stared at the cheerful man standing in the doorway. "Hey Zatanna! Thanks for inviting me to dinner!"

    He was muscled. Tall. physically ripped. Had half white and black hair. Chiseled body. Glowing solid metallic eyes. Had she mentioned the physical fitness levels? "John?"

    The massive man (With a bright pink backpack?) tilted his head down to look at her. "Yes?"

    She stared up. "Why are you so…" Built like an olympic GOD! "...Tall?"

    The man (Boy?) blinked, then lit up! "Oh, this? I'm better now!" He flexed his arm. "See, I had to splatter myself just a bit to force my Body to continue existing beside timelines to get you free from that box thing and all those tasty evil magic chains and stuff. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I was fixing myself, back when I mentioned my broken spine and all that…"

    She just stared at the man as he continued to ramble. "So, you uh… Aren't around my age?"

    John paused. "I mean, probably not? I'm like, five days old and twenty two years old and a few hundred thousand years old even if that last bit was a little concurrently experienced as I built up my hive network of Soul copies, and I'm not sure HOW long I was going insane outside of existence before I managed to make myself be born that first time… Not to mention all the OTHER Bodies I made over my journey so far and in the future, since I sometimes mess up and have time travel issues and stuff…"

    …Well, okay then. "Would you like to come inside?"

    That was ALSO part of protocol. Ask if they wished to enter, but don't directly invite anyone to enter directly, don't gesture or imply that you are offering sanctuary informally.

    Just basic precautions that had been drilled into her over the years… Which was good, because she was running on autopilot right now and routine was comforting.

    He happily nodded and walked in without setting anything off (Although Shadowcrest seemed overly fascinated by the 'boy' for some reason), helping put her a little bit more at ease. "...So the backpack?"

    John blinked. "Ah! Right, your new familiar!" He then opened the top of the pink backpack and…

    She stared at it. "That is a MASSIVE egg."

    To be fair, she'd been expecting something huge based on the notes earlier and…

    John shrugged. "Honestly, compared to the other dinosaur eggs these were practically tiny."

    She blanked. "What?"

    He nodded cheerfully, examining with fascination the complex decorations of Shadowcrest's hallways. "Yeah, according to science and historical evidence, dinosaur eggs should only be as large as a soccer ball at most. Even for the largest creatures! But for some reason, the place where I found this little guy sort of throws out a bunch of rules, like basic physical limits and stuff."

    John poked one of the decorations. "I saw eggs as large as buildings, which should have crushed themselves under their own weight, and I'm pretty sure there were a COUPLE of half magical dinosaurs that just sort of avoided me… Though I can't prove it. And I don't have enough samples of local Magic to properly scan for the things. Not accurately, anyway… SOMETHING magical was wandering about that place, at least!"

    Zatanna absently accepted the backpack into her arms… Wow, this egg was heavy. "Huh."

    John grinned! "I know, right? Now this little guy or gal is one of the smaller dudes around, a little bug hunting runner that sprints around on two adorable little legs and with tiny little arms, like a small velociraptor or something. So you need to remember to take it out for walks, or for runs more likely. These things seemed pretty speedy!"

    She stared at the warmth that seemed… Happy to meet her? "How can something this big eat bugs?"

    Her shockingly fit (now older) friend hummed happily. "Well, aside from other examples like whales that eat plankton and stuff, the bugs in that place are pretty damned massive. Speaking of which, I brought housewarming gifts!"

    She watched John cheerfully pull out three impossible boxes out of NOWHERE like it was nothing. "This glowing one is full of Conceptually preserved food, my girlfriends helped with making side dishes and stuff and my sister and I Crafted all sorts of big delicious dino dishes… You'll need to use magic to get some of it out though, I have a roast in there that is literally the size of a bus and it is a HASSLE to move around…"

    …Going to have to circle back to that 'girlfriends' comment earlier, but the impossibly glowing box seemed like a more important issue. It didn't FEEL like magic, but… "John…?"

    Too busy showing off, John set the newest box to one side… And completely missed it vanishing from the room!? "Wait, what!?"

    Now the man held up a second stone chest, this one seemed to be made out of some sort of blood slick rock. "This on the other hand is a Crafting Chest! Any materials you want to convert can be placed inside and transformed into raw dinosaur meat for more meals in the future. Tastes really good when you make hamburgers out of it too, let me tell you!"

    Wait, WHAT!? "Hold on…" Nope, too late. This box ALSO vanished when John set it down! What was going on!?

    Finally he held up a glass chest with a MASSIVE dead bug inside! "And this is a Crafting Chest JUST for your little eggy familiar! This way you can toss in wheat or trash or whatever you want to get rid of into this chest and pop out delicious dead insectoid snacks for your new friend!"

    She glared at the idiot, which FINALLY caused John to pause. "...What's wrong?"

    Zatanna pointed at the floor. "WHERE did the other two chests go!?"

    He blinked. "Huh?" Then he stared at the empty bit of rug. "Oh. Well… That's not normal."

    For the love of… "John, did you just infect my house with ghost boxes? Am I going to be haunted by glowing boxes full of delicious meals… And a bloody box of raw meat?"

    …WHY was he actually considering her suggestion? "I uh… Don't think so? Let me test something."

    Then before she could object, he placed the glass chest with a MASSIVE dead bug in it on the floor… And both of them watched it vanish like the other two.

    What. The. Fuck. "I swear to god, John. If I wake up at two in the morning with dead bug cubes in my bed? I will kill you."

    John on the other hand seemed fascinated! "They aren't gone… Nor are they out of phase with reality, or offset the timeline or… Oh. OH!"

    The man turned to her with growing glee! "Zatanna, you didn't tell me that your house was a {{Home}}!"

    …Wait, what? "I'm sorry?"

    He began making other odd boxes and contraptions appear in his hands, adding them to the floor to vanish before she could stop him! "If I had known your {{Home}} was like MY [[Home]] I would have offered better housewarming gifts entirely! After all, the boxes and food and stuff were for the {{Home}} OWNERS, while THESE gifts are things my [[Home]] loves to share with all the versions of herself."

    ARGH! "STOP DOING THINGS AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"

    …No. Calm. Stay calm. "I'm sorry. Please. I mean, please explain what's going on."

    John blinked. "Um… Alright?" He pointed up. "Your house is alive, and thought my gifts were for it. She accepted them. Now that I know she is more of a {{Home}} than a house, though, I've just given it a bunch of useful gadgets that my personal [[Home]] enjoys."

    The boxes and odd objects had already been absorbed by her house... Really? "Shadowcrest?"

    The walls shivered in… Was that a burp!? "Are you alright!?"

    Her home felt… Embarrassed? Blushing? The lights in this hall did look a bit pinker…

    What the hell, John. "Is my home going to be hurt by any of this?"

    He shook his head. "Nah. Though she should be careful when using some of the material conversion and Crafting stations when it comes to Magical stuff. Like I said, I need more data before I can feel confident about working with materials without relying on Conceptual restrictions and the Essence of ideal matter."

    Zatanna gave him a look.

    John coughed. "Just… Use the Crafting Chests with non-magical stuff, and only make non-magical stuff, you know? Like it would be fine to Craft cups of coffee or hot chocolate, but not for using my tools to duplicate potions or rituals or whatever. At least, not until I can collect enough information to verify some stuff first."

    Sigh. "Let's just… Come on, my parents are somewhere in this direction." Probably. Depends on where the house shifted them when she had been embarrassed… Uh, STRESSED, when Zatanna had been STRESSED earlier!

    John was still overly cheerful. "Great! I'm hoping your mom will be willing to help me a bit before I leave. I might have caused a bit of a mess running away from the hospital."

    Step, step, step… Wait. "What?"

    He winced. "Yeah, turns out when you heal up a bunch of kids with all sorts of terminal issues it sets off ALL the equipment and turns on ALL the alarms and stuff. And then I sort of relied on this really nifty new trick where I ask reality to sneak me away somewhere without being tracked, and ended up in this massive apartment building that was on fire! But when I put THAT thing out and healed a few people this dude in a costume showed up and I think they thought I was some sort of water based super villain or something but when I ran away from THAT guy there was this whole cardboard box full of kittens and I had to take them to the nearest animal shelter, but it was actually a drug smuggling ring so after knocking them all out that just ended up me having to find ANOTHER animal shelter with even MORE animals and stuff, and…"

    Zatanna walked with growing awe, horror, and confusion as John narrated the impossible things that may or may not have caused him to be marked as a world renowned super villain over the course of a few hours.

    …Which was not her problem. "You know what? I'm sure my mom can help you with all that." Hopefully. "Want to help me come up with cool dino names for eggy here?"

    John lit up with happiness! "Sure! What about Beep-beep or Beeper? Like the noise the road runner makes?"

    Hell no. "I'll consider it."

    Note to self: Do not let John name things.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • I'm amazed that Zatanna's parents haven't popped out yet. Zatanna is rather cute here.

    Shadowcrest may have been rather thrilled about the {{Home}} warming gives. I'm wondering if her parents noticed.

    They really should all be there taking notes. Did John accidentally learn Synchronicity Wave Travelling?
     
    Shadowcrest ate the Boxes, so they are Compatible?

    They never need to do Trash Day Again!

    Thanks for the snip.

    Will John build an Underground place like the pit in Sunnyvale with Magic Torches?

    Place one under Shadowcrest to Strengthen the Power?

    John is called a Super, will he make a local Volcano a [[Home]] and Upgrade it so they can visit?
     
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    Poor Temptation. She would've loved that heroic/villainous misadventure. I'm sure she could really ham it up, perhaps on Doctor Doom's level.
     
    Is it expected or random that I think Shadowcrest will accidentally join the {{Home}} network? Not the main instance, but like, from the side?
     
    Eggy will be nicknamed "Beepy" and have a Grudge with John.

    Will a room be set aside just for John to visit?

    Will John give Zatanna a Magic Girl Outfit?

    Will she be the Sailor Moon or Nanoha type? DxD?

    Will the ((Home)) get a knock on the door from Myx?

    Thanks again.
     
    theaceoffire said:
    John lit up with happiness! "Sure! What about Beep-beep or Beeper? Like the noise the road runner makes?"

    Hell no. "I'll consider it."

    Note to self: Do not let John name things.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    ...and here I thought the Roadrunner went 'meep meep'. Apparently the official version actually is 'beep beep'. With a few variations in spelling; 'meep meep' is apparently just an alternative one.
    Fragnostic said:
    Is it expected or random that I think Shadowcrest will accidentally join the {{Home}} network? Not the main instance, but like, from the side?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    So Shadowcrest will join the {{Neighborhood}}? That might open the door to other {{Neighbors}}.

    Since Mr. Rogers has that line about "Won't you be my neighbor?", that just brings to mind weird things. Like an eldritch being styling themselves after the lessons they learned from binge watching Mr. Rogers.

    But there's also the idea of Sesame Street popping up; John's already visited the Muppets, so there's some possible connection there.

    And with more recent media, there's My Friendly Neighborhood, which... well, not only does that match becoming a {{Neighborhood}}, it's got its base in shows like the prior two.

    John ending up helping restore a television show... Well, it might get weird. I'm just going to go with the assumption that the Conceptual force behind everything keeps it mostly in line with how it's supposed to be. Temptation and Grace having reactions to being shifted like that when interacting with the Neighbors/the show could be interesting. And probably better than the reverse, considering how the 'Unfriendly Neighborhood' came to be.
     
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    It is always hard to imagine John's age and match the current age of his body with an accurate idea of what he is supposed to look like. To be honeat despite several instances of him appearing as 18+ I have consistently imagined him as 10-14. This scene from Zatanna's PoV was perfect for highlighting the difference between his body's biological age and the way he acts.
     
    Oh noes.
    Little did Giovanni know that he should not have feared for the virtue of his daughter but about the virtue of his home.
    Shadowcrest pinked at the gifts.
    Well, at least John didn't get adopted yet.
    Thats the job of realities.
     
    There was talk about [[Home]] communications.

    Does it cover places cut off? Like the Muppet Reality?

    Has John built up an Immunity? Even with a different body? Essences and all that.

    He was younger and less experienced at doing things he does now, did he cut off the Muppet reality chain fully?
     
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    You just tripped over DC's speculated solidified narravanium, didn't you? Just remember that, in direct opposition to Marvel's plotonium, or Worm's expositium; in DC hero's are made when good things happen to good people (and villains from bad things happening to bad people) rather than bad things happening to good people like in Marvel or Worm.
     
    Take a look, it's in a book!
  • Threadmarks
    • As Zatanna insisted both of her parents were SUPER busy and shouldn't be bothered until dinner later, John happily followed his shorter companion as she introduced him to the wonders of wonders: The Magical Library.

    Or at least, part of it.

    John felt a grin growing as he stared into the seemingly endless room of shelves and glowing magical fields… "I can actually TASTE the information in this place!"

    Like, non-figuratively, the air itself was heavy with opinions and forgotten arguments and mindless ramblings, the sounds of debates long lost echoing behind the drone of bored professors repeating facts and figures they also once suffered to memorize.

    It was glorious! "Where should I start? And can I [[Scan]] stuff at will, or are there magical protections and stuff stopping that sort of thing?"

    His friend shivered for some reason at his tone, but recovered quickly. "Anything out here, or in the shifting hallways? That's all fine. Anything chained down, submerged, embedded in rocks or metal… Ask me first. If anything starts bleeding? Like, you, the walls, the books, ANYTHING at all? Back off and yell so I know about it, then we need to get out of the library and tell dad. Doesn't matter what color the blood is either, this is just basic safety protocols here."

    She was already moving with confidence down the twelve row of books as John followed. "I'm going to be bringing you to what I call the 'intro apprentice' section, which is… Well, honestly quite a boring area of the library. But still important though! It has all sorts of warnings and basic book handling techniques and stuff to make sure you are able to read the books and not the other way around."

    Fair enough. "I'm just going to set up some active recordings then… [[Scan, continuous, limited 10 meter radius.]]"

    Oops, that actually made her flinch for some reason and stare at him… "Was it something I said?"

    She stared harder. "Every time you cast those odd spells, it feels REAL odd… Like the sounds are attempting to politely carve themselves into my brain or something. Can you like… NOT do that?"

    Huh. "It's not technically Magic, more me demanding sections of my existence, my System, to interact with reality… But let me try something." Adjust a few settings, try to better interface his spoken words with the local flavor of existence…

    Maybe this would fix it? Let's just craft something… "Right, tell me if this fixed it: [[C̵̨͔̼͎̝̭̪̟̪͢r҉͚̭̪͎̞͔̣̟͡a̸̝͔̣̳̭͚͉̠̦͟f̶̢̜̘͉̻̠̰̮͉̖̙̹͔̭̹̳̳̟͘͝t̶̛͔̩͓̦̩͚̺̺̰̺̫̟͜!̀͡͏͕̭͈̼̭̲͖̦̳̹͖̝̫͜͡ͅ]]"

    "ACK!"

    INSTANTLY the room itself shivered!

    Oops! "Sorry! Sorry Shadowcrest, sorry Zatanna! Here, let me try fixing that a different way…"

    She held up her hands! "NO! Uh… No, just um… Do it like you were before all… All that. Alright?" The young lady began rubbing her ears, checking for blood. "Sheesh, that was intense."

    Yeah, more than a little bit shocking. "Again, sorry… Apparently trying to sound more 'local' gave me a slight accent. And WHATEVER that language was? Clearly it was not meant for human ears. Or to be spoken by one either… My throat started fragmenting a bit."

    Anyway, back on topic! "Let's see what my Scans are pulling in… 'Whispers of Enchanted Flora: A Botanical Guide by Elara Moonshadow', 'Spectral Symphonies: Music Theory for Ghosts by Aetherius Nightwind', 'Cauldron Cuisine: Otherworldly Recipes from a Kitchen Witch's Spellbook by Morgana Spellfire', 'Chronicles of the Astral Traveler: Journeys Beyond the Stars by Celestia Starweaver'... Wait, some of these are only partially accessible?"

    Zatanna looked up, confused. "What do you mean?"

    John pulled the Cauldron Cuisine book out. "This one only has like, fifty pages available. Cuts out mid sentence at the end, which doesn't seem right…"

    He quickly flicked to the back of the book… And then more to the back of the book… And then more to the back of the book… And then… Paused. "Huh. The pages at the front and back vanish as I move through them. Only the words around the currently opened section actually exist as you go."

    Zatanna leaned in. "Let me see that… Oh, I think that's the spell for 'endless pages' that many magicians and witches use on their journals so they don't need to keep replacing them when they run out of room to write. Anything officially printed instead of handwritten shouldn't have that issue… If you hadn't pointed it out, I would have never noticed, honestly."

    John narrowed his eyes. "So instead of storing ink on a page, it seems to… Sort of store the idea of what the ink SHOULD exist on a theoretical page? And use Magic to rearrange the materials as required to rebuild the pages as you turn them."

    Damn it. "That's going to be tricky to scan. I might have to pass them directly to my sister's people and have her agents manually turn and record each chunk of book at a time. Darn it, that's going to be a headache!"

    Zatanna shrugged. "This is the public section of our library, so all these books are just duplicates and stuff… Though uh, you mentioned your sister? And…" She frowned for some reason. "Girlfriends? Are they going to be showing up for dinner too?"

    Hmm? "Oh, no. My sister, her spies, all my kingdom subjects, and my girlfriends are staying inside my personal shard of existence. Only I am allowed to directly interact with this world, it's part of a test of my security and stealth abilities… But I can still send them stuff and they contact me and all that. They can also analyze the data that I am gathering as I wander around, so that's helpful."

    She blanked at part of that. "Kingdom subjects?"

    John nodded. "Officially I am the Frog Emperor. My Soul has a Swamp that thrives with the Concepts and Spirits of an endless number of existences and some of my inanimate friends and… Well, it's a bit complicated. Remind me to introduce you to Substitoad at some point later on, when I'm not trying to be super stealthy. He's an awesome amphibian, let me tell you!"

    Carefully selecting the books that were scanned to be 'missing' an ending, John began making a pile. "So anyway, can I [[Pocket]] these for the SPYRAL agents to help me scan? We've got enough people willing to help out that it shouldn't take long."

    The young magician sighed. "Whatever, it's fine. None of those are dangerous at least, or even that valuable… Mom says that everything near the public areas of the library are meant to act like a buffer so nothing gets damaged if a fight breaks out or someone attempts to summon something or explodes themselves."

    Wow. "Has any of that happened?"

    She shrugged. "Every year or so SOMEONE manages to get in here. Shadowcrest leaves a number of 'secret' entrances and 'weak points' in our defenses so that any determined attackers or annoying relatives will get funneled THIS way instead of actually managing to get inside our home. Dad's friend/enemy, John Constantine, tends to pop up every now and then too… He's the one who blew up that one time."

    Double Wow. "Really?"

    Zatanna nodded. "It was a HUGE mess, and Shadowcrest took days to clean up all the… Icky stuff. I mean, He got better and stuff… But Dad says that sort of thing is expected when Constantine is around." She shivered. "Mom thinks Constantine is funny or something, but I'm pretty sure she is just messing with dad… I'm just glad he exploded over there, and not near any of MY favorite books. That would have been SUPER gross!"

    True, true. "Well, let me scan more of these unimportant books until I find a way to directly [[Scan]] the Magic involved in expanding the available pages. I want to learn from some examples, ones that I can rip apart or maybe even eat a little bit first, so I don't damage any of your important documents later on."

    She poked his pile of potential projects. "Is that even possible?"

    Probably. "The Magic can recreate those pages, so the information is being stored SOMEWHERE for it to reference from. I mean, it could be cheating by reading its own future to show you things as it WILL show you them, or maybe it pulls data from some Concept or something that resonates with the initial printing or… Well, like I said, we will have to try some stuff and find out!"

    A bit of good ole experimentation was just what the doctor ordered!

    ~~~Pocket System~~~

    Giovanni Zatara stared at the magical projection. "THAT'S John Doe!?"

    Sindella hummed in amusement. "Apparently so."

    He waved an arm at the thing! "I thought he was like TWELVE! Why is he a college age bodybuilder!?"

    She tilted her head… "Probably thanks to a healthy diet and lots of squats and pushups on the cold hard ground."

    Her husband slowly turned to stare at her. "I'm sorry?"

    She grinned. "Abs like that? You gotta flex for the best! Have to feel the burn, and work it like you twerk it and…" She couldn't help but giggle at his growing horror. "Dear, just be glad he still is mostly human shaped and not some sort of incubus or tentacled demon. Besides, I'm sure you'll like him, he's a good boy."

    His fear was intense as he pointed towards the image! "THAT IS NOT A BOY!"

    Sindella couldn't help but snort. "Oh yeah, he's a MAN baby! Hee hee…"

    Oops, his head was starting to throb a little. "Stop focusing on his new form, and pay attention to his actual ACTIONS, dear. Aside from his claims to have girlfriends already, everything he's done since entering our home points to a purely platonic friendly relationship here. If anything, he's more fascinated by those random books about magical hair treatments than he is about taking advantage of our little girl."

    Giovanni growled as he shifted to glare once more at their guest. "He's bribed our home, and my daughter seems FAR to interested! Weren't they exchanging letters or something? Let's go back to that. Keep that 'boy' a few million miles away from MY little princess!"

    Don't taunt your husband, don't tease your husband… Change the subject! "So what has Shadowcrest shared about those odd devices John gave her?"

    He ran his hand through his hair. "Half of it? I have no clue. It's doing SOMETHING to the walls, adding material and components to all sorts of locations, but our home assures me that none of it is detrimental. The stuff I DO understand seems impossible, but at least the instructions to actually USE such equipment is straightforward enough as long as you ignore all the reasons that none of it is possible in the first place…"

    Oh? "What do you mean, impossible?"

    Her husband sighed. "For example… Shadowcrest, could I please have a cup of sunlight?"

    They both stared at the very cheerful, very bright mug. The text on the side happily proclaimed, 'Sun-ting Delicious' and had a bright red heart below it.

    The contents seemed like liquid gold.

    It also, for some unreasonable reason, smelled fabulous.

    Sindella leaned forward. "What on earth is THAT!?"

    He snorted. "Impossible, that's what it is. Our house {{Crafted}} that using raw dinosaur meat. Since we have so much of it now. Which is also, apparently, a thing."

    Well would you look at that. "What does it taste like?"

    He shrugged. "I don't know, I originally tested this by asking for a glass of moonlight. It was safe to consume, all my magic gave up when trying to tell me what ingredients were used… And it tasted minty, if you must know."

    Keeping an eye on the magical surveillance, and on that so-called BOY, he reached into his robes for some components. "Let me just confirm this is also not poisonous or corrupting and then we…"

    Mmm! "It tastes like pineapple!"

    He slowly turned to her in horror. "Did you just…"

    She grinned. "Shadowcrest, could I please have a cup of starlight?"

    Her husband stood up! "Don't you dare…"

    Nope! "Too late, I already asked for… AH HA!"

    She snagged the sparkling mug marked 'Star-ting a Trend' and scarpered!

    He lunged for her but she had a head start! "It's mine now, love! MUAH HA HA HA!"

    Behind her he began the chase! "Don't you DARE drink anything else until I can properly scan…"

    "IT'S ALL MINE, DEAR!" God it was great to be healthy again! "CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!"
     
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