Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
And I think he doesn't like your constant whining.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
Last edited:
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
Any particular reason he didn't put down those last two Zombies? Being 'Named' Zombies, they should drop unique items or Perks.
Also Terra really needs to introduce more/better ways to spend Perk points in bulk Epic Perks were a step in the right direction, but with literally thousands of points even that's not enough. And while at least they aren't wasted if he doesn't spend them, the bonus to his base stats isn't as impactful as it used to be.
Also Terra really needs to introduce more/better ways to spend Perk points in bulk Epic Perks were a step in the right direction, but with literally thousands of points even that's not enough. And while at least they aren't wasted if he doesn't spend them, the bonus to his base stats isn't as impactful as it used to be.
- Location
- Paradise, Hawaii
I for one want to see the Void Dragon pull out it's own Flag & project "First to do Cross Reality jaunt, Git Good Scrubs." In the same tone Power Girl did.
What? You know he would.
As an aside? Where is his Dragon ship? So the Astronauts find it and try to Hot Wire it to fly back to Earth?
What? You know he would.
As an aside? Where is his Dragon ship? So the Astronauts find it and try to Hot Wire it to fly back to Earth?
As Alan Scott's zombie showed, everything from the Zombie I.D. has a habit of being broken. And not in the fun way.
So those two zombies would have just taken some time that Al spent better by doing functionally anything else. He didn't need the experience, he can make better gear and using Control Undead on them would have been hilarious but Al doesn't know how a level-based control system would interact with his prestige system, so that would be much better tested with a bunch of level 1 skeletons that couldn't 1v1 various members of the Justice League.
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Random thought: If he got something that allowed long term hibernation (but not stasis, so his body keeps aging), could he seek out an item in Chrono Trigger, and 'wait' through 65 million+ years in order to go from horse-ish sized to fuck-off-ginormous dragon? Not sure if it was kept in all versions, but I recall outer dragons (of which void dragons are one variety) having to upper cap on age, and keep growing bigger with further pseudo age categories. ...After looking up those details from a 3.5 wiki, 167 ft long at 4,097 years (Great Wyrm), and then another 17.5 ft every 1,024 years thereafter. So, a 65 million year old Void Dragon would be...a bit over 210.4 miles long. While also being able to turn into smaller animals, humanoids or dragons so many times per day it might as well be 'at will'.
...Though, admittedly, going to Chrono Trigger with a plan like that, he might as well just replace Lavos. Getting to cosplay the big villain might be fun, I suppose. The Void Dragon's whole 'gain attributes/traits/feats/spells/powers/abilities from eating creatures' thing might make 'eat the thing in the world's core and pretend to be it' a valid option. Just got to snack on the various lesser spawn to get all the abilities.
EDIT: A bit after posting, a thought came to me. Lavos's whole thing was getting abilities and such from the inhabitants of the planet, and producing offspring with those to send off again. Was Lavos a mother Void Dragon getting ready to clutch? It's crazy, but yet makes so much sense....
Last edited:
Too bad that a single Wish only increases your WIS score by +1 until it gets to 16, then it needs multiple Wishes to increase it further, and never beyond 18.
How much time? He has the Life spell, he has phoenix down potions and can easily buy more. Presumably he can buy Revivify potions from Final Fantasy VIJ/IIIUS.
Cast Life or use a Phoenix Down or Revitify on it and it's instant death.
Maybe he can also purchase the Vanish spell from Final Fantasy IIIUS/VIJ and then use double spell/x-magic to cast vanish then cast Life to ensure it hits?
TL;DR? undead bosses can usually be handled easily with Life or a Phoenix Down potion in most Final Fantasy games, and they lack the contractual boss immunity that you'd expect.
Last edited:
- Location
- Oregon, USA
That's 2nd edition. That is not how things work in later editions.
It's a continuation somehow (probably Al) the US flag on the moon ended up pulled out and a Chinese one put in it's place which at first China denied doing but then decided to claim they did. Green Lantern Hal though tore the Chinese flag out when he saw it and I think replanted the American one and they currently seem to be fighting over the spot.
My first thought was that Al interrupted the very start of the Lunar War from Fallout, but that's probably more likely.
...Y'know the Final Fantasy games do have zombie-cure items. I do have to wonder.
What would happen if Alchemist de-zombified the planet?
What would happen if Alchemist de-zombified the planet?
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Well, I mean, he very much did? The only two left are Super-Zombie and Die-Ana. And they're on the moon.
- Location
- U.S.
which one had the best one? I think FFX had both the item, and the spell, also they had a auto life spell for auto resurrections? that sound useful to get.
They call it cursed power, but honestly, its just another word for magic/power.
Maho, reaitsu, mana, magic, qi, whatever they call it, it's all the same stuff. Remember that in the Orient, magic is 'maho', demonic/spiritual by default. Calling it cursed is just an affection, 'my magic is different because the name is'. It's just magic.
Last edited:
OR Steven He, who he was actually channeling. As the Beijing Corn made clear.
That.... very much depends on the value of Wish you use from what edition of D&D, and the author mostly uses 3e/pathfinder.
AD&D wish was +1 per Wish, up to 18. After 18 it was ten Wishes per point of increase, but the max Stat was 25. With his Stats having no cap, this is... strange in how it would apply.
3e Wish was +1 Inherent bonus to any Stat, up to a max of +5. So, 30 Wishes tops. Note that 5 points in 3e represents a doubling, so five Wishes would double any particular Stat he has.
It would probably be easier to just write it out as : Your bonuses from Stat X increase 20% per Wish, to a maximum of +100%.
Last edited:
Oooo! Go for the spell so metamagic and the 'all' materia and all nonsense can work with it. Maybe he could pull something similar to the Great Dusting.
.. Although on second thought this might be a bad idea because what if the zeds consciousnesses are also refused and then he accidentallies a few billion people in a dimension that wasn't supposed to be real?
On third thought that sounds like something Alchemist would do.
EDIT: The spell you're referring to is Dispel, which might conflict with others he has I think. Still!
Last edited:
- Location
- Isekai'd to this shitty world we're live in
Somewhat like this:
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Was Maleficent actually a void dragon in human(oid) form?
princebalto.fandom.com
Dragon Maleficent
A dragon is the form assumed by Maleficent to kill Prince Phillip at the end of Sleeping Beauty. She has black and purple scales and breathes green fire. She is a bear She is a Tyrannosaurus Rex She is a Meanest Sharptooth The Zillo Beast plays dragon Maleficent in Sleeping Afghan.
Last edited:
Chapter 262
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 2.6.2
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
24/11/2010
It was the day before Thanksgiving and Jinx felt incredibly nervous.
Which was kind of weird, when she thought about it.
She was a dragon with a hellhound familiar, she knew magic and had power the likes of which few mortals could comprehend and fewer still could wield! What did she have to be afraid of!?
A tiny little office in the courthouse in Star City, that was what.
Jinx, in her human guise, wore a smart suit in plain, dark blue and had her pink hair combed and tied down into a neat, simple ponytail. Even with her gray skin and slitted, catlike eyes she wasn't the most outstanding person waiting in the hall.
Some people were loud; a couple (or rather, pair of exes) were arguing over their lawyers nearby. A kid with more piercings on his face than Jinx could count was dressed in a beige jumpsuit and had a pair of handcuffs holding his wrists together.
The kid, a boy, sent Jinx a gap-toothed smile when he caught her looking. It took a second for the girl to realize that he was trying to intimidate her.
That was... sad.
After several seconds, the juvenile delinquent seemed to get the hint and his smile faltered, his confidence breaking under Jinx's unblinking stare.
A loud 'Pop!' of bubblegum next to the disguised dragon almost broke her focus as a girl sitting next to Jinx loudly chewed on her gum. Compared to the multicolored mohawk the teenager was sporting, Jinx's soft pink hair was practically unnoticeable.
People weren't that brave back in Gotham. Standing out too much was a good way to get singled out and not in a good way.
The door set into the wall Jinx was seated against opened and a young man stepped out. He seemed to be close to Jinx's age and he was dressed nicely, if not well in a rumpled dress shirt and some simple black slacks. The teen was wringing his hands nervously and glancing around, one blackened eye locking on to the delinquent in the jumpsuit.
"Come on, Jerry," a woman said as she came out behind the boy. "We can pick up some O'Shaughnessy's before you go back to school..."
Jinx watched the two depart, one nervous boy and his overbearing mother.
"Miss Hex?" another voice called, this one belonging to a woman that was standing in the doorway. "Come on in and we'll take a look at your case."
Jinx stood up, a thick binder held fast against her chest, and followed the woman into the office.
It wasn't a very big office. A couple of chairs situated in front of a single, large desk that the woman, Judge Maria Hernandez, was shuffling around. One wall to the side was just a series of filing cabinets and there were two windows against the back wall but they were facing the wrong side to catch the morning sunlight.
In between the two windows was a picture of the judge, wearing a judge's gown and holding one of those fancy little wooden hammers.
"Have a seat, Miss Hex, and we'll get started."
Jinx did as she was instructed, watching the woman all the while. Once the family court judge was seated, the woman looked Jinx over.
"Very well." The judge leaned across her desk and pressed a button on a fairly large, rectangular device. "I am Judge Maria Hernandez and I will be assessing the Emancipation Request of one Jennifer Hex. Today is... Wednesday, November Twenty-Fourth of the year Two-Thousand and Ten. Now, Miss Hex, I understand you were placed in the care of one Dinah Lance. Is she here today?"
"She is not," Jinx stated, loudly and clearly for the recording device.
"You can speak normally, dear," the judge patiently explained.
"Oh, uh, thank you? Uh-" Jinx cleared her throat. "-no, Miss Lance is not here today."
"Then let the record show that Miss Hex is acting without her guardian present." The judge sorted through a drawer in the side of her desk for a moment before coming up with a file. "Now, Miss Hex, I did review your case and there were some startling inconsistencies I would like to have cleared up before I make a decision in one form or another. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Very good. I can see here that you are a runaway, though the... Gotham Police Department did not seem to know from where. Can you tell me what happened to your birth family?"
"My mother... died," Jinx admitted, her hands plucking at her pants nervously. "My... father tried to kill us. He, uh, didn't..."
"...It's alright, dear." Maria's calm voice was soothing.
Looking up from her lap, Jinx saw that the woman was pitying her. As galling as it was, Jinx didn't have it in herself to fight.
"And I suppose the foster care wasn't really suited for you at the time, was it?"
Jinx mutely shook her head in the negative.
"What is this world coming to..." Jinx was fairly sure that she wasn't supposed to hear that, but the older woman certainly hadn't been quiet. "If you can, could you explain to me how it is that you went from Gotham City and found your way all the way here to Star City?"
"I, uh, ran into Alchemist, the mage working for Batman? In Gotham. I... My dad, when he, he said they had to 'Burn the Witch'. I had a flashback, or a panic attack or something when Alchemist cast a spell. He fixed a dryer in, like, an instant and I... my mom was killed because I have magic. And I told Alchemist that I didn't want to go to a hospital. So he called Batman instead?" Jinx actually wasn't sure about that part. She'd been feeling all floaty at the time and her memories of that day kind of felt like they were underwater. "And Batman tried to have Miss Lance foster me, but... that didn't work out."
Dinah did try, Jinx would give her that. She just wasn't really suited to handling someone that she actually had to live with and had consequences that were going to be felt immediately.
Black Canary didn't actually deal with too many people for extended periods of time. There was more to keeping the peace than just demanding that things be done her way...
"Clearly," Judge Hernandez said before she sighed and flipped to the next page. "Normally when we get such a request, the applicant has either stopped going to school or fallen in with some of the more... unsavory groups in the city. However, according to your transcript you've been attending school and doing reasonably well. Where are you currently residing, and with whom?"
"I've been staying at the home of Alchemist, Tracy Whittaker, and his daughter, Yuffie- He's actually been staying at the home of his girlfriend, Kary!" Jinx quickly added at the unimpressed glare the judge had settled into. "So he's there in the morning making breakfast for all of us, then he gets Yuffie started on her day. I think she might have A.D.D. or something? So he has her doing online school- Anyway, he makes breakfast and we all split off to do our own stuff. I go to school, Yuffie does computer school, Kary does martial arts stuff and Alchemist goes to do whatever Batman tells him to do."
"...I see," Maria sighed deeply before looking between her paperwork and Jinx again. "Your grades have stayed stable and your school attendance hasn't suffered, so you do seem to care for your education. That is our most serious concern for most applicants. Next we need to discuss finances- For us to grant your emancipation request, you need to provide proof that you are able to cover your own expenses and show a reasonable level of responsibility with your finances. Are you employed?"
"...Does self employed count?" Jinx asked. She was quick to continue at the raised eyebrow the older woman sent her. "I, I make stuff to sell online! Enchanted, uh, enchanted rings and things."
Jinx swallowed thickly and looked back down at the binder in her lap. Opening it, she held it over the desk so the judge could take it.
"Alchemic Solutions, LLC?" Judge Hernandez asked, reading the printed sheets that Jinx had meticulously arranged for her.
"Yeah-yeah, Alchemist started it as a joke but, uh, he made it into a real company recently. He actually has a real office, over in Metropolis! It's across the street from Lexcorp. He hired someone to put together the website for us and we both sell the stuff we make on it."
"I see... Ring of Regeneration, Two-Hundred and Fifty Dollars?" the woman muttered as she flipped through the different listings. "Ring of Waterbreathing, Five-Thou- Five-Thousand Dollars?!"
"Ah, yeah," Jinx said with a wince when the woman looked up at her. "I make the paper rings. They're only able to be used once, which is why they're cheaper. Alchemist does the metal ones but they're permanent, so he charges a lot more for those."
"I... see? Honestly, Jennifer, this is a bit beyond my understanding. While this is impressive, do you have any bank statements or proof that this... venture has been providing a positive revenue stream?"
"If you keep going through the papers, you'll find my last two bank statements. Alchemic Solutions doesn't withhold pay, so I get paid as soon as taxes are deducted from the sale of merchandise."
Jinx inhaled slowly and forced her hands to stay still as the judge continued sifting through her paperwork.
She was fine. Everything was fine. All her ducks were in a row, they'd worked hard to make sure of that.
"Well..." Judge Hernandez put Jinx's binder down and reached up to rub at her forehead. "This is actually quite impressive. Judging by these figures, you would be adequately able to afford to care for yourself. Now, if, and I say if, you were emancipated, what would you do next?"
Jinx opened her mouth, then closed it as she leaned back in her chair and gave it some thought.
"I guess..." Jinx had a dozen ideas but she hadn't ever really sat down and thought about what priority they needed to be done in. "I left Dinah because she hurt my dog... So, I guess I'd start looking for a place of my own with a yard for her."
"Well... Everything looks to be in order," the judge admitted after she picked up Jinx's binder and tapped it against her desk to realign the papers. "I'm very happy to approve your emancipation, Jennifer. This isn't the end of the road, of course. You'll need to provide family services with your address once you do find a permanent residence or, if you haven't succeeded within ninety days, we'll be performing a wellness check on your current home."
Maria stood up and began to walk around her desk, so Jinx did the same.
"That all makes sense," the young dragon admitted, relief filling her from her head to her toes. "I can't imagine that'll be too hard."
"You say that now, Jennifer," Maria teased, a surprisingly honest smile on her face, "but you haven't met half the people I have, doing this kind of work."
"...It's not really that bad, is it?" Jinx kind of didn't want to know.
Except she really, really did.
"Sweetie, I'm hoping to retire in a few years and go to criminal court instead of family. I would rather deal with murderers and mobsters instead of divorcing couples and pregnant pre-teens."
Jinx... stared at the judge's back as she opened the door for her before waving her out.
That said so, so much... but left Jinx with even more questions than it answered!
-----
Alchemist honestly did not have much to do lately in the mountain.
With Bialya imploding earlier in the month, the timeline around it was just completely ripped apart. No war, no conquest, no grudge match between M'gann and Psimon. The girl's secret had never been revealed by the psychotic man-child and, so far as the wizard knew, she'd never admitted to the rest of the team that she was from the bottom caste of Martian society.
He hoped the girl could learn to trust her teammates. They wouldn't care if she was white, green, red or even purple. They might have, if there had been a White Martian invasion, but Alchemist genuinely believed that the heroically inclined brats could learn to appreciate her as an individual and not a color.
Or they would've killed her because she looked decidedly inhuman and they would have gone on to have a moral crisis and turn into the edgiest, grittiest group of teenagers with superpowers.
He gave it fifty-fifty odds either way.
Regardless of that potential crisis brewing away, Alchemist wasn't really enjoying his downtime.
Things hadn't happened.
That was especially surprising. A lot of things didn't happen every day! And those countless missed events didn't typically bother the man.
Two events in particular, however, stood out in stark contrast to the rest.
The day the world was split hadn't happened. Klarion cleaving the world into two, one full of adults and the other full of children, had not occurred. That one, Alchemist had a tentative explanation for.
He'd removed Wotan from the field and the ancient reincarnator had been a critical emblem within the ritual that Klarion would have performed. Wotan could stand for the cyclic nature of life, the past and may have been a sort of eliminator of what was currently considered a child as they had been a child and would go on to become a child again through their targeted reincarnation.
Alchemist hoped the bastard was enjoying the world of Dark Souls.
So, without Wotan, Klarion would need a few other people to fill in for those roles. Mordred, the bastard of King Arthur, would probably suffice for one but Klarion would need to rebuild the ritual from the ground up to account for the real, mystical differences between the unwanted prince and the former slave-girl.
Alchemist sighed and rubbed his face as he continued putting together the office he'd leased in Metropolis. Nearby, sitting on the floor as he'd yet to finish deciding where he wanted to put any desks, a printer churned away and spat out order forms.
Leasing an office in Metropolis? Virtual tours and payment could all be done online and he'd had ample opportunity to take care of that during his idle hours at work. He'd also found an accounting firm that handled a good dozen other small businesses and signed up with them. Also online.
Nothing he'd done was especially difficult. Honestly, the hardest parts had been finding a web developer to put together a website that Alchemist and Jinx could both add or remove items from and getting a spot in a building near Lexcorp. A fairly small office on the penultimate floor of a thirty story tall building directly across from the megacorporation had been surprisingly...
Cheap.
"-No, Wirts. I need you to get the transfer efficiency up another five percent. The heat build-up throughout the case has to be minimized and we've already established that adding coolant would be unfeasible," Lex Luthor was saying to... somebody.
Alchemist assumed the man was talking on the phone. He couldn't see him, of course, considering Lex was in the building across the street and a good thirty meters up on top of that but Alchemist -could- see into the corner of the man's office from his window. Which meant that Lex Luthor's office was within range of Clairaudience.
"We have novel materials for a reason. If need be, we can dust off some of the old superconductor research. Yes, I know it was too expensive to bring to market, I'm the one that made that decision. That doesn't mean it might not be applicable to supplement some of our other projects and I want a functioning prototype of the Lexorian before the end of the year. Yes, yes, that's fine. Write up an outline and send it to me, I want projections on the structural values as soon as your team has something."
Alchemist listened intently as he worked, setting up several filing cabinets along one wall of the office.
The other event that had Alchemist worried was the brat brigade from the Forever People. He wasn't sure of the exact date but he knew they should have shown up by now. That they hadn't meant that something had changed.
Which, y'know, fair. Alchemist wasn't working to preserve the timeline. That would just lead to decision paralysis and voluntary incompetence.
But he hadn't been expecting his activities to offset something so... big. The New Gods, even if the group Alchemist was thinking of were just children, shouldn't have been impacted by his actions and choices... should they?
Although... Psimon -had- gotten his grubby little mitts on some of their technology. And Alchemist had invoked the Life Equation to counter the Fatherbox before eating the evil little thing...
Well. Maybe the New Gods taking a little more time to figure things out did, in fact, make sense.
The wizard cut off the spell letting him listen in to Lex Luthor as the man began discussing money with his research team when he felt his pocket vibrating. Pulling his phone out, the man saw that it was a text.
From Superman.
-- Lois and I are on the bottom floor of the building at 715 Lexington Ave. Where are you? --
Alchemist quickly tapped out a response-
-- On my way down. One second. --
-and then teleported to the ground floor.
It beat twenty-nine flights of stairs and it was faster than the elevator!
The wizard appeared just as Clark was pulling his phone out of his pocket, the man hadn't even had a chance to read it yet. Not while he was pretending at being human, anyway.
"Well, hello there," Alchemist greeted, enthusiasm in his voice as he took in the duo standing in the lobby of the building his business was now a resident of. "What can I do for the Daily Planet today?"
"...Power Girl didn't mention why I wanted to talk to you?" Lois Lane asked, speaking quickly while Clark was still in the process of opening his mouth.
"I didn't ask," Alchemist admitted as he took in the duo. Both wore suits, though Lois's was a dark suit jacket and skirt combo compared to Clark's suit and pants. "I figured you would tell me, anyway."
Lois's purple eyes narrowed for a moment before they widened as she came to some kind of realization.
"...You're just like her, aren't you?" Lois finally asked.
Alchemist just shrugged in response. Lois hadn't exactly said who Alchemist was just like and he didn't really care to dig the answer out. If the reporter wanted to make some kind of comparison, she was free to do so.
"We'd heard that you can repair objects instead of just healing people," Clark explained as he waved Alchemist towards the door. The mage followed along as he was led outside and Clark pointed to a car that was crookedly parked on the side of the road.
The passenger doors were also crumpled in but Alchemist was still more focused on the fact that it was taking up two parking spaces.
"...Yeah, I could fix that," Alchemist agreed as he took in the damage. The windows had bags taped over them and the doors were being held shut by a bright orange strap. "Or I could teach you how to fix it yourself?"
"...I thought Power Girl might have been exaggerating when she said you like to teach people magic," Lois commented as she stared at her car while standing next to Clark. "Aren't you worried about people not needing your services if you teach them how to do whatever it is that you do?"
"Not at all," the wizard admitted as he reached into his inventory and dug around for a Scroll of Mending. Extracting that, he held it out for Lois to take from him. "Anyone can learn to be a plumber, an electrician, welder, whatever. Those people still get paid pretty solidly because, while anybody can, very few do."
He did not comment, however, on the fact that while anybody could cast a cantrip, trying to cast a spell that was well beyond someone's abilities could well kill them. That was an extreme example, however, and that kind of risk didn't just show up for attempting magic that was just a bit above someone's skill level.
And Alchemist certainly had no intentions of spreading around Comet or Meteor. Even if he could track down a lesser version that could actually be taught.
"Read it, lose it, publish it, do whatever you want with it," Alchemist told the woman as she unrolled the paper.
He personally preferred books to scrolls, but he had to work with the medium that was available to him.
"Seriously, you won't hurt my feelings."
Shifting his eyes away from Lois as she began to read, Alchemist looked up to meet Clark's gaze. The man raised one eyebrow, then shifted his eyes from Lois, to her car, then back to Alchemist.
The wizard just shrugged, completely clueless as to what the Man of Steel was trying to get at.
Clark sighed and slouched forward, his body language shifting from controlled to exhausted in an instant.
"So, wait- This says the spell can repair anything that's not magical if given enough time?" Lois asked, drawing Alchemist's eyes away from Superman. "And this is supposed to be a basic spell?"
"Yes, actually," Alchemist explained as he waved towards Lois's car and began to mold his own magic into the spell of Mending. If need be, he could mold Lois's magic for her until she learned to do it herself but that would require contact. "It's a class of magic known as household magic, or cantrips. These are basic spells, taught to help practitioners build a foundation of understanding. Not just of magic, but of how to use it and utilize it. These spells may not be outwardly very powerful but, provided one is willing to invest a bit of time and imagination, they can completely change how a person views and interacts with the world. Those lessons can carry forward as a practitioner learns more advanced spells and finds ways to utilize them beyond the obvious..."
Alchemist didn't know it, he couldn't see it, but he had a wide, genuine smile spread across his face as he found an eager, attentive student.
-----
Listening to the engine of her little red sportscar purr, Lois had a soft smile on her face that made the severe, ambitious woman seem... soft.
Clark rarely saw that side of her. He wished he knew how to bring it out of her more often. Her normal smile, when she was in the office or tracking a story, it was usually a mix of aggressive and... something else. A complex, heady mix of ambition, anticipation, determination and something primaly predatory that-
Clark had to cut off that line of thinking.
"Your stop, Smallville," Lois said as she pulled to the side of the road in front of Clark's apartment. "Hey," she called as Clark started to get out, "thanks for coming with me today. I know Alchemist is one of the good guys; we all saw the work he did at the hospital. Just..."
"He takes some getting used to," Clark said, getting a nod from Lois as he vocalized what she was thinking.
Clark liked Alchemist, truthfully. The man may have been awkward and difficult but he did care. He was willing to act contrary to Batman, his 'employer', if he thought the man was wrong. He'd argued that Clark should find people he trusted to talk about how he felt in regards to being cloned.
And, when the wizard had made that point, he hadn't volunteered himself for that position.
That was something Black Canary had done and it had just made Clark feel more awkward about the situation, not less. He liked the woman, he trusted the woman, but there were some things, some feelings that he didn't want to share with the Justice League.
Gently closing the door of Lois's fully repaired car and walking away, Clark knew he heard a quiet but very complimentary 'Mama Kent knew what she was doing when she baked those buns...' before Lois drove away.
And, maybe, that might have put a little pep in Clark's step.
He didn't know what to expect from the wizard on any given day and today was just another oddity on a fairly long list. From putting together a mechanical arm to arguing with Clark about the clones getting proper treatment to... setting up an office?
Watching the man spend a few hours coaching Lois through casting what he considered a basic spell had been eye opening. Sometimes the man would stumble over his words and it had nothing to do with any attraction to Lois; the chemical tells were absent. It seemed more like the man was thinking faster than he was speaking and sometimes a word could end up out of place.
He'd been excited at the opportunity to teach and he hadn't gotten upset when his ad-hoc student had struggled to move from theory to application. He certainly hadn't been shy about praising Lois when she finally got the spell to work and they all watched as the cracks on her windows slowly, slowly sealed themselves.
"Clark?" Little Missus Stevenson from the apartment below his called out from her landing as the man was walking up the stairs. "Did I see you down there with that Lane woman again?"
"You did," Clark admitted with a small smile. "She needed to get some work done on her car and wanted some company."
"Well isn't that sweet of you..." Mrs.Stevenson was a short old woman with wispy white hair and a pair of fairly large glasses that magnified her brown eyes something fierce. "When are you going to take that woman on a date? You're getting a little old to be a bachelor, young man!"
"She's just a colleague, ma'am," Clark instantly denied, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "You know how things are these days."
"These days, hmph!" the little old lady grumbled, frustration in her voice. "I met my Harold when I was working at a cafe and nobody thought nothing of it, not back then. You spend half your life at work and now people get upset if you meet someone? What do they expect you young'uns to do? Speed dating on them computers or somethin'?"
"Something like that," Clark said, placating the woman as he hurried upstairs. "Have a good night!"
Closing the door of his apartment behind himself, Clark slid the chain latch in place and exhaled slowly. He kicked his shoes off by the door and then headed towards his bedroom, undoing his tie as he went. By the time he'd reached his bedroom he already had his shirt off and his pants unbuttoned and he was ready to change into a pair of sweatpants and just breathe.
Finally free, Clark relaxed. He could feel the tension in his cheeks and brow release, just a bit, and he could stop trying to force his posture into meek, unassuming Clark, journalist of the Daily Planet.
Tapping the remote as he passed through his living room, the television turned on, its volume set to the lowest it could go, Clark made his way to the kitchen. Putting together a sandwich only took a minute and then he was back in the living room, sitting down with a light meal in front of the boob tube.
The Man of Steel was quick to change the channel away from the news, airing a story about the current queen of Vlatava taking ill, and turned to one of his private passions.
The science fiction channel.
Settling in to enjoy a light meal so he'd have room for the family dinner tomorrow, Clark found that he felt... good. Today had been a good day.
No fires, no robberies, no robots. He'd gotten to spend his time with a woman he found attractive and...
Clark looked at his Justice League communicator, haphazardly placed on the coffee table next to his phone. At the cracks in the plastic from where he'd lost control over his strength.
Taking a bite of ham and cheese, Clark thought on what Alchemist had explained to Lois.
That reality really was flexible. That someone just needed to have the will and the belief to change the world and that was magic, big and small. He'd followed along as the mage had put Lois through different thought exercises, had helped her learn to connect with the part of herself where dreams and imagination intermingled with reality.
Leaning forward and dropping crumbs from his chest back down onto his plate, Clark picked up the battered device and closed his eyes.
Magic, as Alchemist had explained, was just as much a technology as it was an art. It followed different rules compared to what the hard sciences did but it could be replicated and complex spells and magics were built on the same principles as the basic ones.
Mending was connecting to the concept of something and investing time, which was energy and potential and sacrifice all mixed together, to restore something. It couldn't make an object better than it ever was, it wouldn't supercharge or empower anything. It was just someone wanting to help something shine like it used to, return to whatever former glory it once had.
Feeling magic, magic that wasn't being turned against him, it felt like he was trying to catch steam with his bare hands. Grabbing it and forcing it wouldn't work. Or, if it did, the results wouldn't be what he wanted them to be.
Instead, Clark metaphorically 'blew' on that feeling, pushing it, directing it towards the device in his hand with the idea of 'Fixing' it. He held that feeling, strange as it was, for almost a minute before he opened his eyes.
The miniature cracks that had formed along the case, crept along the tiny screen, were gone. As though they'd never existed to begin with.
Clark felt a smile spread across his face.
It wasn't big. Heck, it was supposedly as basic as basic could be! But Clark had done it; he'd succeeded at something that anybody else could do and he hadn't done it by being Superman.
Just regular old Clark Kent.
AN/ I'll be visiting my wife's family for the next week, so I won't be able to do any work on this for a bit.
When I can get back to it, though, I hope to try and do something a little special for you all
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
24/11/2010
It was the day before Thanksgiving and Jinx felt incredibly nervous.
Which was kind of weird, when she thought about it.
She was a dragon with a hellhound familiar, she knew magic and had power the likes of which few mortals could comprehend and fewer still could wield! What did she have to be afraid of!?
A tiny little office in the courthouse in Star City, that was what.
Jinx, in her human guise, wore a smart suit in plain, dark blue and had her pink hair combed and tied down into a neat, simple ponytail. Even with her gray skin and slitted, catlike eyes she wasn't the most outstanding person waiting in the hall.
Some people were loud; a couple (or rather, pair of exes) were arguing over their lawyers nearby. A kid with more piercings on his face than Jinx could count was dressed in a beige jumpsuit and had a pair of handcuffs holding his wrists together.
The kid, a boy, sent Jinx a gap-toothed smile when he caught her looking. It took a second for the girl to realize that he was trying to intimidate her.
That was... sad.
After several seconds, the juvenile delinquent seemed to get the hint and his smile faltered, his confidence breaking under Jinx's unblinking stare.
A loud 'Pop!' of bubblegum next to the disguised dragon almost broke her focus as a girl sitting next to Jinx loudly chewed on her gum. Compared to the multicolored mohawk the teenager was sporting, Jinx's soft pink hair was practically unnoticeable.
People weren't that brave back in Gotham. Standing out too much was a good way to get singled out and not in a good way.
The door set into the wall Jinx was seated against opened and a young man stepped out. He seemed to be close to Jinx's age and he was dressed nicely, if not well in a rumpled dress shirt and some simple black slacks. The teen was wringing his hands nervously and glancing around, one blackened eye locking on to the delinquent in the jumpsuit.
"Come on, Jerry," a woman said as she came out behind the boy. "We can pick up some O'Shaughnessy's before you go back to school..."
Jinx watched the two depart, one nervous boy and his overbearing mother.
"Miss Hex?" another voice called, this one belonging to a woman that was standing in the doorway. "Come on in and we'll take a look at your case."
Jinx stood up, a thick binder held fast against her chest, and followed the woman into the office.
It wasn't a very big office. A couple of chairs situated in front of a single, large desk that the woman, Judge Maria Hernandez, was shuffling around. One wall to the side was just a series of filing cabinets and there were two windows against the back wall but they were facing the wrong side to catch the morning sunlight.
In between the two windows was a picture of the judge, wearing a judge's gown and holding one of those fancy little wooden hammers.
"Have a seat, Miss Hex, and we'll get started."
Jinx did as she was instructed, watching the woman all the while. Once the family court judge was seated, the woman looked Jinx over.
"Very well." The judge leaned across her desk and pressed a button on a fairly large, rectangular device. "I am Judge Maria Hernandez and I will be assessing the Emancipation Request of one Jennifer Hex. Today is... Wednesday, November Twenty-Fourth of the year Two-Thousand and Ten. Now, Miss Hex, I understand you were placed in the care of one Dinah Lance. Is she here today?"
"She is not," Jinx stated, loudly and clearly for the recording device.
"You can speak normally, dear," the judge patiently explained.
"Oh, uh, thank you? Uh-" Jinx cleared her throat. "-no, Miss Lance is not here today."
"Then let the record show that Miss Hex is acting without her guardian present." The judge sorted through a drawer in the side of her desk for a moment before coming up with a file. "Now, Miss Hex, I did review your case and there were some startling inconsistencies I would like to have cleared up before I make a decision in one form or another. Do you understand?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Very good. I can see here that you are a runaway, though the... Gotham Police Department did not seem to know from where. Can you tell me what happened to your birth family?"
"My mother... died," Jinx admitted, her hands plucking at her pants nervously. "My... father tried to kill us. He, uh, didn't..."
"...It's alright, dear." Maria's calm voice was soothing.
Looking up from her lap, Jinx saw that the woman was pitying her. As galling as it was, Jinx didn't have it in herself to fight.
"And I suppose the foster care wasn't really suited for you at the time, was it?"
Jinx mutely shook her head in the negative.
"What is this world coming to..." Jinx was fairly sure that she wasn't supposed to hear that, but the older woman certainly hadn't been quiet. "If you can, could you explain to me how it is that you went from Gotham City and found your way all the way here to Star City?"
"I, uh, ran into Alchemist, the mage working for Batman? In Gotham. I... My dad, when he, he said they had to 'Burn the Witch'. I had a flashback, or a panic attack or something when Alchemist cast a spell. He fixed a dryer in, like, an instant and I... my mom was killed because I have magic. And I told Alchemist that I didn't want to go to a hospital. So he called Batman instead?" Jinx actually wasn't sure about that part. She'd been feeling all floaty at the time and her memories of that day kind of felt like they were underwater. "And Batman tried to have Miss Lance foster me, but... that didn't work out."
Dinah did try, Jinx would give her that. She just wasn't really suited to handling someone that she actually had to live with and had consequences that were going to be felt immediately.
Black Canary didn't actually deal with too many people for extended periods of time. There was more to keeping the peace than just demanding that things be done her way...
"Clearly," Judge Hernandez said before she sighed and flipped to the next page. "Normally when we get such a request, the applicant has either stopped going to school or fallen in with some of the more... unsavory groups in the city. However, according to your transcript you've been attending school and doing reasonably well. Where are you currently residing, and with whom?"
"I've been staying at the home of Alchemist, Tracy Whittaker, and his daughter, Yuffie- He's actually been staying at the home of his girlfriend, Kary!" Jinx quickly added at the unimpressed glare the judge had settled into. "So he's there in the morning making breakfast for all of us, then he gets Yuffie started on her day. I think she might have A.D.D. or something? So he has her doing online school- Anyway, he makes breakfast and we all split off to do our own stuff. I go to school, Yuffie does computer school, Kary does martial arts stuff and Alchemist goes to do whatever Batman tells him to do."
"...I see," Maria sighed deeply before looking between her paperwork and Jinx again. "Your grades have stayed stable and your school attendance hasn't suffered, so you do seem to care for your education. That is our most serious concern for most applicants. Next we need to discuss finances- For us to grant your emancipation request, you need to provide proof that you are able to cover your own expenses and show a reasonable level of responsibility with your finances. Are you employed?"
"...Does self employed count?" Jinx asked. She was quick to continue at the raised eyebrow the older woman sent her. "I, I make stuff to sell online! Enchanted, uh, enchanted rings and things."
Jinx swallowed thickly and looked back down at the binder in her lap. Opening it, she held it over the desk so the judge could take it.
"Alchemic Solutions, LLC?" Judge Hernandez asked, reading the printed sheets that Jinx had meticulously arranged for her.
"Yeah-yeah, Alchemist started it as a joke but, uh, he made it into a real company recently. He actually has a real office, over in Metropolis! It's across the street from Lexcorp. He hired someone to put together the website for us and we both sell the stuff we make on it."
"I see... Ring of Regeneration, Two-Hundred and Fifty Dollars?" the woman muttered as she flipped through the different listings. "Ring of Waterbreathing, Five-Thou- Five-Thousand Dollars?!"
"Ah, yeah," Jinx said with a wince when the woman looked up at her. "I make the paper rings. They're only able to be used once, which is why they're cheaper. Alchemist does the metal ones but they're permanent, so he charges a lot more for those."
"I... see? Honestly, Jennifer, this is a bit beyond my understanding. While this is impressive, do you have any bank statements or proof that this... venture has been providing a positive revenue stream?"
"If you keep going through the papers, you'll find my last two bank statements. Alchemic Solutions doesn't withhold pay, so I get paid as soon as taxes are deducted from the sale of merchandise."
Jinx inhaled slowly and forced her hands to stay still as the judge continued sifting through her paperwork.
She was fine. Everything was fine. All her ducks were in a row, they'd worked hard to make sure of that.
"Well..." Judge Hernandez put Jinx's binder down and reached up to rub at her forehead. "This is actually quite impressive. Judging by these figures, you would be adequately able to afford to care for yourself. Now, if, and I say if, you were emancipated, what would you do next?"
Jinx opened her mouth, then closed it as she leaned back in her chair and gave it some thought.
"I guess..." Jinx had a dozen ideas but she hadn't ever really sat down and thought about what priority they needed to be done in. "I left Dinah because she hurt my dog... So, I guess I'd start looking for a place of my own with a yard for her."
"Well... Everything looks to be in order," the judge admitted after she picked up Jinx's binder and tapped it against her desk to realign the papers. "I'm very happy to approve your emancipation, Jennifer. This isn't the end of the road, of course. You'll need to provide family services with your address once you do find a permanent residence or, if you haven't succeeded within ninety days, we'll be performing a wellness check on your current home."
Maria stood up and began to walk around her desk, so Jinx did the same.
"That all makes sense," the young dragon admitted, relief filling her from her head to her toes. "I can't imagine that'll be too hard."
"You say that now, Jennifer," Maria teased, a surprisingly honest smile on her face, "but you haven't met half the people I have, doing this kind of work."
"...It's not really that bad, is it?" Jinx kind of didn't want to know.
Except she really, really did.
"Sweetie, I'm hoping to retire in a few years and go to criminal court instead of family. I would rather deal with murderers and mobsters instead of divorcing couples and pregnant pre-teens."
Jinx... stared at the judge's back as she opened the door for her before waving her out.
That said so, so much... but left Jinx with even more questions than it answered!
-----
Alchemist honestly did not have much to do lately in the mountain.
With Bialya imploding earlier in the month, the timeline around it was just completely ripped apart. No war, no conquest, no grudge match between M'gann and Psimon. The girl's secret had never been revealed by the psychotic man-child and, so far as the wizard knew, she'd never admitted to the rest of the team that she was from the bottom caste of Martian society.
He hoped the girl could learn to trust her teammates. They wouldn't care if she was white, green, red or even purple. They might have, if there had been a White Martian invasion, but Alchemist genuinely believed that the heroically inclined brats could learn to appreciate her as an individual and not a color.
Or they would've killed her because she looked decidedly inhuman and they would have gone on to have a moral crisis and turn into the edgiest, grittiest group of teenagers with superpowers.
He gave it fifty-fifty odds either way.
Regardless of that potential crisis brewing away, Alchemist wasn't really enjoying his downtime.
Things hadn't happened.
That was especially surprising. A lot of things didn't happen every day! And those countless missed events didn't typically bother the man.
Two events in particular, however, stood out in stark contrast to the rest.
The day the world was split hadn't happened. Klarion cleaving the world into two, one full of adults and the other full of children, had not occurred. That one, Alchemist had a tentative explanation for.
He'd removed Wotan from the field and the ancient reincarnator had been a critical emblem within the ritual that Klarion would have performed. Wotan could stand for the cyclic nature of life, the past and may have been a sort of eliminator of what was currently considered a child as they had been a child and would go on to become a child again through their targeted reincarnation.
Alchemist hoped the bastard was enjoying the world of Dark Souls.
So, without Wotan, Klarion would need a few other people to fill in for those roles. Mordred, the bastard of King Arthur, would probably suffice for one but Klarion would need to rebuild the ritual from the ground up to account for the real, mystical differences between the unwanted prince and the former slave-girl.
Alchemist sighed and rubbed his face as he continued putting together the office he'd leased in Metropolis. Nearby, sitting on the floor as he'd yet to finish deciding where he wanted to put any desks, a printer churned away and spat out order forms.
Leasing an office in Metropolis? Virtual tours and payment could all be done online and he'd had ample opportunity to take care of that during his idle hours at work. He'd also found an accounting firm that handled a good dozen other small businesses and signed up with them. Also online.
Nothing he'd done was especially difficult. Honestly, the hardest parts had been finding a web developer to put together a website that Alchemist and Jinx could both add or remove items from and getting a spot in a building near Lexcorp. A fairly small office on the penultimate floor of a thirty story tall building directly across from the megacorporation had been surprisingly...
Cheap.
"-No, Wirts. I need you to get the transfer efficiency up another five percent. The heat build-up throughout the case has to be minimized and we've already established that adding coolant would be unfeasible," Lex Luthor was saying to... somebody.
Alchemist assumed the man was talking on the phone. He couldn't see him, of course, considering Lex was in the building across the street and a good thirty meters up on top of that but Alchemist -could- see into the corner of the man's office from his window. Which meant that Lex Luthor's office was within range of Clairaudience.
"We have novel materials for a reason. If need be, we can dust off some of the old superconductor research. Yes, I know it was too expensive to bring to market, I'm the one that made that decision. That doesn't mean it might not be applicable to supplement some of our other projects and I want a functioning prototype of the Lexorian before the end of the year. Yes, yes, that's fine. Write up an outline and send it to me, I want projections on the structural values as soon as your team has something."
Alchemist listened intently as he worked, setting up several filing cabinets along one wall of the office.
The other event that had Alchemist worried was the brat brigade from the Forever People. He wasn't sure of the exact date but he knew they should have shown up by now. That they hadn't meant that something had changed.
Which, y'know, fair. Alchemist wasn't working to preserve the timeline. That would just lead to decision paralysis and voluntary incompetence.
But he hadn't been expecting his activities to offset something so... big. The New Gods, even if the group Alchemist was thinking of were just children, shouldn't have been impacted by his actions and choices... should they?
Although... Psimon -had- gotten his grubby little mitts on some of their technology. And Alchemist had invoked the Life Equation to counter the Fatherbox before eating the evil little thing...
Well. Maybe the New Gods taking a little more time to figure things out did, in fact, make sense.
The wizard cut off the spell letting him listen in to Lex Luthor as the man began discussing money with his research team when he felt his pocket vibrating. Pulling his phone out, the man saw that it was a text.
From Superman.
-- Lois and I are on the bottom floor of the building at 715 Lexington Ave. Where are you? --
Alchemist quickly tapped out a response-
-- On my way down. One second. --
-and then teleported to the ground floor.
It beat twenty-nine flights of stairs and it was faster than the elevator!
The wizard appeared just as Clark was pulling his phone out of his pocket, the man hadn't even had a chance to read it yet. Not while he was pretending at being human, anyway.
"Well, hello there," Alchemist greeted, enthusiasm in his voice as he took in the duo standing in the lobby of the building his business was now a resident of. "What can I do for the Daily Planet today?"
"...Power Girl didn't mention why I wanted to talk to you?" Lois Lane asked, speaking quickly while Clark was still in the process of opening his mouth.
"I didn't ask," Alchemist admitted as he took in the duo. Both wore suits, though Lois's was a dark suit jacket and skirt combo compared to Clark's suit and pants. "I figured you would tell me, anyway."
Lois's purple eyes narrowed for a moment before they widened as she came to some kind of realization.
"...You're just like her, aren't you?" Lois finally asked.
Alchemist just shrugged in response. Lois hadn't exactly said who Alchemist was just like and he didn't really care to dig the answer out. If the reporter wanted to make some kind of comparison, she was free to do so.
"We'd heard that you can repair objects instead of just healing people," Clark explained as he waved Alchemist towards the door. The mage followed along as he was led outside and Clark pointed to a car that was crookedly parked on the side of the road.
The passenger doors were also crumpled in but Alchemist was still more focused on the fact that it was taking up two parking spaces.
"...Yeah, I could fix that," Alchemist agreed as he took in the damage. The windows had bags taped over them and the doors were being held shut by a bright orange strap. "Or I could teach you how to fix it yourself?"
"...I thought Power Girl might have been exaggerating when she said you like to teach people magic," Lois commented as she stared at her car while standing next to Clark. "Aren't you worried about people not needing your services if you teach them how to do whatever it is that you do?"
"Not at all," the wizard admitted as he reached into his inventory and dug around for a Scroll of Mending. Extracting that, he held it out for Lois to take from him. "Anyone can learn to be a plumber, an electrician, welder, whatever. Those people still get paid pretty solidly because, while anybody can, very few do."
He did not comment, however, on the fact that while anybody could cast a cantrip, trying to cast a spell that was well beyond someone's abilities could well kill them. That was an extreme example, however, and that kind of risk didn't just show up for attempting magic that was just a bit above someone's skill level.
And Alchemist certainly had no intentions of spreading around Comet or Meteor. Even if he could track down a lesser version that could actually be taught.
"Read it, lose it, publish it, do whatever you want with it," Alchemist told the woman as she unrolled the paper.
He personally preferred books to scrolls, but he had to work with the medium that was available to him.
"Seriously, you won't hurt my feelings."
Shifting his eyes away from Lois as she began to read, Alchemist looked up to meet Clark's gaze. The man raised one eyebrow, then shifted his eyes from Lois, to her car, then back to Alchemist.
The wizard just shrugged, completely clueless as to what the Man of Steel was trying to get at.
Clark sighed and slouched forward, his body language shifting from controlled to exhausted in an instant.
"So, wait- This says the spell can repair anything that's not magical if given enough time?" Lois asked, drawing Alchemist's eyes away from Superman. "And this is supposed to be a basic spell?"
"Yes, actually," Alchemist explained as he waved towards Lois's car and began to mold his own magic into the spell of Mending. If need be, he could mold Lois's magic for her until she learned to do it herself but that would require contact. "It's a class of magic known as household magic, or cantrips. These are basic spells, taught to help practitioners build a foundation of understanding. Not just of magic, but of how to use it and utilize it. These spells may not be outwardly very powerful but, provided one is willing to invest a bit of time and imagination, they can completely change how a person views and interacts with the world. Those lessons can carry forward as a practitioner learns more advanced spells and finds ways to utilize them beyond the obvious..."
Alchemist didn't know it, he couldn't see it, but he had a wide, genuine smile spread across his face as he found an eager, attentive student.
-----
Listening to the engine of her little red sportscar purr, Lois had a soft smile on her face that made the severe, ambitious woman seem... soft.
Clark rarely saw that side of her. He wished he knew how to bring it out of her more often. Her normal smile, when she was in the office or tracking a story, it was usually a mix of aggressive and... something else. A complex, heady mix of ambition, anticipation, determination and something primaly predatory that-
Clark had to cut off that line of thinking.
"Your stop, Smallville," Lois said as she pulled to the side of the road in front of Clark's apartment. "Hey," she called as Clark started to get out, "thanks for coming with me today. I know Alchemist is one of the good guys; we all saw the work he did at the hospital. Just..."
"He takes some getting used to," Clark said, getting a nod from Lois as he vocalized what she was thinking.
Clark liked Alchemist, truthfully. The man may have been awkward and difficult but he did care. He was willing to act contrary to Batman, his 'employer', if he thought the man was wrong. He'd argued that Clark should find people he trusted to talk about how he felt in regards to being cloned.
And, when the wizard had made that point, he hadn't volunteered himself for that position.
That was something Black Canary had done and it had just made Clark feel more awkward about the situation, not less. He liked the woman, he trusted the woman, but there were some things, some feelings that he didn't want to share with the Justice League.
Gently closing the door of Lois's fully repaired car and walking away, Clark knew he heard a quiet but very complimentary 'Mama Kent knew what she was doing when she baked those buns...' before Lois drove away.
And, maybe, that might have put a little pep in Clark's step.
He didn't know what to expect from the wizard on any given day and today was just another oddity on a fairly long list. From putting together a mechanical arm to arguing with Clark about the clones getting proper treatment to... setting up an office?
Watching the man spend a few hours coaching Lois through casting what he considered a basic spell had been eye opening. Sometimes the man would stumble over his words and it had nothing to do with any attraction to Lois; the chemical tells were absent. It seemed more like the man was thinking faster than he was speaking and sometimes a word could end up out of place.
He'd been excited at the opportunity to teach and he hadn't gotten upset when his ad-hoc student had struggled to move from theory to application. He certainly hadn't been shy about praising Lois when she finally got the spell to work and they all watched as the cracks on her windows slowly, slowly sealed themselves.
"Clark?" Little Missus Stevenson from the apartment below his called out from her landing as the man was walking up the stairs. "Did I see you down there with that Lane woman again?"
"You did," Clark admitted with a small smile. "She needed to get some work done on her car and wanted some company."
"Well isn't that sweet of you..." Mrs.Stevenson was a short old woman with wispy white hair and a pair of fairly large glasses that magnified her brown eyes something fierce. "When are you going to take that woman on a date? You're getting a little old to be a bachelor, young man!"
"She's just a colleague, ma'am," Clark instantly denied, holding his hands up in a placating manner. "You know how things are these days."
"These days, hmph!" the little old lady grumbled, frustration in her voice. "I met my Harold when I was working at a cafe and nobody thought nothing of it, not back then. You spend half your life at work and now people get upset if you meet someone? What do they expect you young'uns to do? Speed dating on them computers or somethin'?"
"Something like that," Clark said, placating the woman as he hurried upstairs. "Have a good night!"
Closing the door of his apartment behind himself, Clark slid the chain latch in place and exhaled slowly. He kicked his shoes off by the door and then headed towards his bedroom, undoing his tie as he went. By the time he'd reached his bedroom he already had his shirt off and his pants unbuttoned and he was ready to change into a pair of sweatpants and just breathe.
Finally free, Clark relaxed. He could feel the tension in his cheeks and brow release, just a bit, and he could stop trying to force his posture into meek, unassuming Clark, journalist of the Daily Planet.
Tapping the remote as he passed through his living room, the television turned on, its volume set to the lowest it could go, Clark made his way to the kitchen. Putting together a sandwich only took a minute and then he was back in the living room, sitting down with a light meal in front of the boob tube.
The Man of Steel was quick to change the channel away from the news, airing a story about the current queen of Vlatava taking ill, and turned to one of his private passions.
The science fiction channel.
Settling in to enjoy a light meal so he'd have room for the family dinner tomorrow, Clark found that he felt... good. Today had been a good day.
No fires, no robberies, no robots. He'd gotten to spend his time with a woman he found attractive and...
Clark looked at his Justice League communicator, haphazardly placed on the coffee table next to his phone. At the cracks in the plastic from where he'd lost control over his strength.
Taking a bite of ham and cheese, Clark thought on what Alchemist had explained to Lois.
That reality really was flexible. That someone just needed to have the will and the belief to change the world and that was magic, big and small. He'd followed along as the mage had put Lois through different thought exercises, had helped her learn to connect with the part of herself where dreams and imagination intermingled with reality.
Leaning forward and dropping crumbs from his chest back down onto his plate, Clark picked up the battered device and closed his eyes.
Magic, as Alchemist had explained, was just as much a technology as it was an art. It followed different rules compared to what the hard sciences did but it could be replicated and complex spells and magics were built on the same principles as the basic ones.
Mending was connecting to the concept of something and investing time, which was energy and potential and sacrifice all mixed together, to restore something. It couldn't make an object better than it ever was, it wouldn't supercharge or empower anything. It was just someone wanting to help something shine like it used to, return to whatever former glory it once had.
Feeling magic, magic that wasn't being turned against him, it felt like he was trying to catch steam with his bare hands. Grabbing it and forcing it wouldn't work. Or, if it did, the results wouldn't be what he wanted them to be.
Instead, Clark metaphorically 'blew' on that feeling, pushing it, directing it towards the device in his hand with the idea of 'Fixing' it. He held that feeling, strange as it was, for almost a minute before he opened his eyes.
The miniature cracks that had formed along the case, crept along the tiny screen, were gone. As though they'd never existed to begin with.
Clark felt a smile spread across his face.
It wasn't big. Heck, it was supposedly as basic as basic could be! But Clark had done it; he'd succeeded at something that anybody else could do and he hadn't done it by being Superman.
Just regular old Clark Kent.
AN/ I'll be visiting my wife's family for the next week, so I won't be able to do any work on this for a bit.
When I can get back to it, though, I hope to try and do something a little special for you all
Last edited:
Lois Lane gets her clothing, car, and apartment ruined on a regular basis, so the Mending Spell is a huge relief. She can unwind a little bit and not worry about having to purchase a new wardrobe every month.
In at least one continuity, Lois deliberately doesn't have any sentimental keepsakes in her apartment because she is afraid of her irreplaceable items getting destroyed by a villain attack.
Possible humor if people find out Lois knows the Mending Spell and start going to her with their broken possessions.
- Location
- United States
Instead, Clark metaphorically 'blew' on that feeling, pushing it, directing it towards the device in his hand with the idea of 'Fixing' it. He held that feeling, strange as it was, for almost a minute before he opened his eyes.
The miniature cracks that had formed along the case, crept along the tiny screen, were gone. As though they'd never existed to begin with.
Clark felt a smile spread across his face.
It wasn't big. Heck, it was supposedly as basic as basic could be! But Clark had done it; he'd succeeded at something that anybody else could do and he hadn't done it by being Superman.
Just regular old Clark Kent.
AN/ I'll be visiting my wife's family for the next week, so I won't be able to do any work on this for a bit.
When I can get back to it, though, I hope to try and do something a little special for you all
Clark using magic. What a world. I like the idea of superman sticking around to help repairs with magic after battles, and it shores up one of his weaknesses.
This chapter was great and had a lot of payoff for some things I thing we have all be waiting for. That said, the above line is a highlight one. I think it matters to do something far to many people mess up when writing Superman. It captures his 'humanity' the fact that the man of steel is still a person and can enjoy and find joy in improving. That he isn't perfect all the time, just trying his best to be good and happy.
Imagining Clark with the resist energy spell from D&D 3.5e or protection from energy from D&D 5e is many levels of amusing.