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Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)

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Mister Ficser said:
Heart's Ease was poorly explained in its original spell description and states that it instantly gives someone the equivalent of a full year of therapy upon being cast.

There's a lot of things that need to happen for therapy to work. From the patient accepting the need for therapy, the identification of specific issues, discovering coping methods that actually work, uncovering suppressed traumas-

It is an extremely complicated and nuanced process and leaves the question of 'Is it as good as actual therapy or is it just using magic to force it to work' very open. Does it perform actual healing or does it force the recipient into feeling healed?

Waving jazz hands and saying 'It's magic!' doesn't answer the questions, especially when one is dealing with the mind, the root of someone's personality and self.

If you're dealing with someone that's suicidal and in desperate need of help? You use the spell and then send them to a therapist anyway.

Otherwise? You give them a choice because Heart's Ease sure as shit sounds like it's rewriting part of someone's mind.
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if you want to understand "heart's ease" you have to look at the source of the spell. if it is a mortal who made the spell then it is probably a mild form of mind control while if it is made by deity which is an entity that is aware of the past present and future and has a fundamental understanding of the human mind then it will probably be "therapy in a bottle" sort of spell.
 
neotzu said:
if you want to understand "heart's ease" you have to look at the source of the spell. if it is a mortal who made the spell then it is probably a mild form of mind control while if it is made by deity which is an entity that is aware of the past present and future and has a fundamental understanding of the human mind then it will probably be "therapy in a bottle" sort of spell.
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Deities, even "Good" ones, have a disturbing habit of treating mortals like disposable playthings.

Trusting them is a fool's errand unless said deity was mortal in the extremely recent past and still remembers what it's like (and was trustworthy before ascension, of course).
 
Ralyx said:
Ultimately, fundamentally, the primary purpose of all human interaction is to change someone's mind in some manner. Most people don't even give that a first thought, let alone a second, but the moment we start to discuss a more direct, less horrifically inefficient method of changing someone's mind, it suddenly becomes unethical. Why is that?
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Really simple: Because the spell bypasses someone's ability to make their own choices. You are directly modifying somebody according to your own desires, with them being unable to interact with the process at all, much less be in control.
 
Ralyx said:
Ultimately, fundamentally, the primary purpose of all human interaction is to change someone's mind in some manner. Most people don't even give that a first thought, let alone a second, but the moment we start to discuss a more direct, less horrifically inefficient method of changing someone's mind, it suddenly becomes unethical. Why is that?
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Generally speaking, all human interaction is conflict.
A conflict between perspectives, where we attempt to either modify another's perspective to match our own (and fail) or create an artificial bridge point that means that one person's perspective can be interpreted by another person's perspective.

Spells like Heart's Ease (or something like dominate person, for that matter) are functionally not that different from locking someone in a void space and only allowing their interactions to be with whatever you (the spell wielder/prison controller) want it to be.

You are applying conflict to someone else's perspective while allowing no other perspectives or experiences to counterbalance it.
(i.e, I say the sky is green and remove:
1. your memories of what the sky's colour is (your own previous experience),
2. any person who could tell you the sky was blue (other people's experiences),
3. any ability for you to determine what the skies colour was (your future experiences)
With no ability to refute my statement, eventually it becomes true for you but would require blatantly inhumane processes to achieve that.

You are correct that all human interaction is to change someone's mind (differences in language use aside, I acknowledge that), but spells like this are you applying human interaction over that should normally take a long period of time, in a near instant with no differing perspectives.

So functionally (and somewhat factiously), Heart's Ease is an extremist cult indoctrination compressed down to an instant.
 
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Ralyx said:
Ultimately, fundamentally, the primary purpose of all human interaction is to change someone's mind in some manner. Most people don't even give that a first thought, let alone a second, but the moment we start to discuss a more direct, less horrifically inefficient method of changing someone's mind, it suddenly becomes unethical. Why is that?
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There is a very big difference between trying to convince someone to be quiet via asking them politely, and making them shut up by stabbing them till they're dead. The fact that both are based around accomplishing the same goal doesn't change that the methods, consequences, target's agency and personhood, and degree of said goal are vastly different, and those matter.

Bit edgy of an example, but it should be rather immediately understandable. :V
 
w4terghost said:
Spells like Heart's Ease (or something like dominate person, for that matter) are functionally not that different from locking someone in a void space and only allowing their interactions to be with whatever you (the spell wielder/prison controller) want it to be.
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The spell description I'm familiar with stated that it's a corollary to the cure wounds spells that works on emotional damage instead of physical damage (IIRC).
Then there's a list of things it works on such as fear effects, confusion, insanity, wisdom damage, and such.

It isn't functionally similar to a charm or dominate spell at all, much less the kind of solitary confinement torture space you brought up.

Of course the spell descriptions vary between versions, and an author ultimately has to decide what the practical effects of such a spell would be in a real world, but it's one of the least worrying spells from its school that somebody might randomly cast on you.
 
cheesyme said:
There is a very big difference between trying to convince someone to be quiet via asking them politely, and making them shut up by stabbing them till they're dead. The fact that both are based around accomplishing the same goal doesn't change that the methods, consequences, target's agency and personhood, and degree of said goal are vastly different, and those matter.
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I think that's a terrible analogy because of the level of collateral damage to things other than their voice.
A more honest comparison would be asking them to be quiet, and hitting them with a silencing spell. In which case I think it's much more clearly a difference in degree, not in kind.
For example, if you're someone's boss, and you ask them to be quiet, that could be much harsher than hitting someone driving by with a brief silence spell.

While the consequences certainly matter, I don't think that the method matters much, and the agency difference between a request and a spell is not vastly larger than the difference between a request and a request made by your boss, or by a flight attendant, or by someone you find very attractive.

A blanket "ability to make your own choices" in response to normal human interaction is an illusion. You don't have a blanket ability to not shut up if your boss asks you to, because of the context and inferred consequences. You don't have a blanket ability to choose not to get therapy, if not getting therapy would impact your ability to hold a job.

w4terghost said:
You are correct that all human interaction is to change someone's mind (differences in language use aside, I acknowledge that), but spells like this are you applying human interaction over that should normally take a long period of time, in a near instant with no differing perspectives.
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That just sounds like a difference in competence and correctness. If someone thought that it was raining right now (and it wasn't), or that the sky was green, you would expect an argument to have no differing perspectives. And if you were telepathic or an AI you might expect conversations to take place much faster, nearly instant.

Mister Ficser said:
Heart's Ease was poorly explained in its original spell description and states that it instantly gives someone the equivalent of a full year of therapy upon being cast.
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The definitions that I can find online don't seem to include that line?
From it not being able to affect wisdom drain, I would infer that it primarily affects lingering sequelae, not permanent changes as a result of experiences, which I suspect would be distinguishable via magic. (Which isn't really in line with it being equivalent to therapy.)
Magic therapy is super sketchy, but it's not clear to me that that's what that spell does?
(That spell doesn't seem to exist in Pathfinder; the closest analogies I can find are Psychic Surgery or Restoration when using the Horror Adventures Sanity System, both of which are associated with the Occult Adventures Psychic Magic rules, and at least the latter probably implies a magical valence to emotions, mental states, and sanity and madness to the point that the magic system interacts with them as fundamental objects.)
 
I think discussion about heart's ease should return to its origins.
Is the mind incomprehensible? (For every skill and universe it come from because no matter exact description when we have game masters and fanfiction. How chief said so it will work.)
If you say yes then permanent magical influence not good idea. Who knows what it does.
If you say no, then entire problem become 'is healing good thing?'.
I mean healing make adventurers more daring and hasty. If they have regeneration they don't even think about wounds. Like Al with his new hp draining toy. Reachable healer like conflict drive...
We can draw parallel between body and mind healing: gamer body and gamer mind both automatically keep everything on top but suppress natural growth however many GB can grow naturally and there is some GM that not turn host into robot (some with switchable emotional equalizer) . Regeneration spell and heart's ease make deviation from good state go away magically because if we answer yes to the first question mind just complex metaphysical machine (body also complex machine but we know about it) that can be repaired externally. Then we go to the rabbit hole of philosophy of self.

Imho Alchemist don't use heart's ease not because mind manipulations but because he fear to loose trauma. Like someone keep scars he keep mental issues.
 
Mister Ficser said:
Heart's Ease was poorly explained in its original spell description and states that it instantly gives someone the equivalent of a full year of therapy upon being cast.
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Usually the case that someone doesn't want to consider these or leaves it broad enough to be up to your own discretion. -But it's also an Enchantment spell (So it'd be a form of mind manipulation) that can be learned under the pleasure domain so you can probably infer that as you would. Personally, I'd think it'd numb/ward-against negative feelings and experiences as they're the natural enemy of pleasure.

It's like you said. They'd still probably need to talk it out and figure out their feelings on the matter, just like with most things but by making it less important to yourself, you're all the more likely to forget it too. This also kind of leads back to my statement about "People don't want to consider the details" because by numbing pains it'd probably be quite addicting whilst encouraging certain behaviours like unfettered hedonism or apathy.
 
Mister Ficser said:
Heart's Ease was poorly explained in its original spell description and states that it instantly gives someone the equivalent of a full year of therapy upon being cast.

There's a lot of things that need to happen for therapy to work. From the patient accepting the need for therapy, the identification of specific issues, discovering coping methods that actually work, uncovering suppressed traumas-

It is an extremely complicated and nuanced process and leaves the question of 'Is it as good as actual therapy or is it just using magic to force it to work' very open. Does it perform actual healing or does it force the recipient into feeling healed?

Waving jazz hands and saying 'It's magic!' doesn't answer the questions, especially when one is dealing with the mind, the root of someone's personality and self.

If you're dealing with someone that's suicidal and in desperate need of help? You use the spell and then send them to a therapist anyway.

Otherwise? You give them a choice because Heart's Ease sure as shit sounds like it's rewriting part of someone's mind.
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Eh, if it's rewriting someone's mind it's a hostile Charm or Enchantment, forcibly changing what they are according to the will of an outside force.
If it's a beneficial healing spell, it's helping the mind to change itself along its natural and most beneficial path according to what is best for IT. You're leaving the whole 'heal others and eliminate trauma' and instead adding new trauma to the mix with that interpretation. The only way a healing spell should do something adverse to someone who needs it is if you slug them in the jaw while administering it.
Like my example above, you're basically saying not to heal someone because it will leave exploitable scars, or the flesh will be weaker than if you did it naturally. Neither happens with a Healing spell. Heart's Ease should be no different, especially since it's a spell that originates with a Good Goddess of Love and in the Book of Exalted Deeds, not some uncaring master of mental manipulation or some Axiomatic, Anarchic, or Sinful paradigm. Like most magic, if it doesn't say it has side effects and weakens the user of it over the long term, it doesn't! You are inferring things of the spell that are not part of its spell description.
This spell is literally a gift from higher powers meant to directly oppose the horrible psychological and emotional damages that Evil can inflict on mortal beings. It is not meant as a de facto punishment for those who use it to overcome such terrible things, which is what you are making it out as.
If you believe it as such, you should stop using any magic to heal or cure, for the exact same reason! It makes you weak, and the spell has a hidden cost, making it dishonest, misleading, and ultimately NOT beneficial! That is the exact opposite of Good and Healing, far more like an evil and insidious perversion of healing magic!
 
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Aelryinth said:
Eh, if it's rewriting someone's mind it's a hostile Charm or Enchantment, forcibly changing what they are according to the will of an outside force.
If it's a beneficial healing spell, it's helping the mind to change itself along its natural and most beneficial path according to what is best for IT. You're leaving the whole 'heal others and eliminate trauma' and instead adding new trauma to the mix with that interpretation. The only way a healing spell should do something adverse to someone who needs it is if you slug them in the jaw while administering it.
Like my example above, you're basically saying not to heal someone because it will leave exploitable scars, or the flesh will be weaker than if you did it naturally. Neither happens with a Healing spell. Heart's Ease should be no different, especially since it's a spell that originates with a Good Goddess of Love and in the Book of Exalted Deeds, not some uncaring master of mental manipulation or some Axiomatic, Anarchic, or Sinful paradigm. Like most magic, if it doesn't say it has side effects and weakens the user of it over the long term, it doesn't! You are inferring things of the spell that are not part of its spell description.
This spell is literally a gift from higher powers meant to directly oppose the horrible psychological and emotional damages that Evil can inflict on mortal beings. It is not meant as a de facto punishment for those who use it to overcome such terrible things, which is what you are making it out as.
If you believe it as such, you should stop using any magic to heal or cure, for the exact same reason! It makes you weak, and the spell has a hidden cost, making it dishonest, misleading, and ultimately NOT beneficial! That is the exact opposite of Good and Healing, far more like an evil and insidious perversion of healing magic!
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I think the comparison would be "is this a cure wounds spell, or a permanent polymorph spell into something nearly identical but possibly different according to the thoughts of the source of the magic, like changing appearance because the caster considers that better".
 
Lycanthromancer said:
Deities, even "Good" ones, have a disturbing habit of treating mortals like disposable playthings.

Trusting them is a fool's errand unless said deity was mortal in the extremely recent past and still remembers what it's like (and was trustworthy before ascension, of course).
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Writers often have major problems writing actually Good deities, frequently confusing them with Law/Authority and 'I know best.'
For instance, the Silver City (Heaven) in DC Comics is almost classic Law, with built-in discrimination, the angels all about following God's Rules and Falling it you don't, and not about doing the right or best thing... and when it does the latter, it finally SHINES with what Heaven is actually all about.
In Marveldom it is much the same way, Heaven/Angels making deals with Evil and uncaringly punishing mortals for minor shit that is of no relevance, Axiomatics hung up on rules and the furthest thing from Good.
This is usually disguised by having 'good' beings represent 'the Light', which is almost always a euphemism for "Follow the Light" i.e. the Law.
They also get hung up on 'good for me' and 'good for you' are not necessarily Good at all, and completely ignore Good's higher purposes.
I'll agree that trusting a Lawful, Chaotic, or Evil god is a fool's errand, even if what they offer is good for you.
But a Good god, BY ALIGNMENT, is a Good god. Trusting them to do what they say to beneficial results, especially if it involves healing, should be completely natural and instinctive. The fact so many gods do not act the Alignments given them in whatever sources they come from (Zeus, for example, is NOT Chaotic Good at all in the old Deities and Demigods) only makes this more confusing.
If what a Good god does is Good but not good/great for you... that probably means that there is something very wrong on YOUR end, not on theirs, but of course the profoundly wise, millennia old, divinely aware being in tune with the highest concepts of Good is going to be wrong, not a mere selfish mortal.
More likely, the writer doesn't know what Good is, subs in Lawful authority/I know best, and completely misrepresents the actual Alignment.
---Portraying actually Good higher beings again is something writers rarely do well, and you only have to look at how badly Paladins are written to see that, Lawful Stupid being SOOOOO prevalent. Gotta add that stupid grim and gritty Neutral shit to make them human, right?
Plus, Good deities are often considered pretty damn boring, as the fallback is Good deities are peaceful beatniks, passive Healers, and non-violent overly defensive sorts who are too compassionate and merciful to exist in the real world... and it's always their goddamn fault, not yours, when they withhold their healings and blessings from you, because obviously you haven't done anything wrong! How dare they discriminate and not heal you for free, like they do their sincere worshippers?!
You only need look at the old testament God and the new Testament Jesus to contrast Law and Good to one another. God of the Old Testament was wrath, fire, conquest, war, and a flaming fist of follow my rules and prosper, deviate and be punished, etc.
Jesus, on the other hand, is mercy, compassion, healing, forgiveness, sacrifice, and understanding... but he never espouses violence, only condemnation and rebukes. In martial terms, Jesus is weak, and God is strong, but God must be Good, so let's have our Good power act like Him if we want a martial Good god, and every other Good god can be martial weak sauce like Jesus.
It's really rather tiresome. When I write Good, I write DAMN GOOD, because Good labors under so many restrictions, unless you are awesome Good, you are going to get punished.
The idea that humans are holier and More Good than celestials and Good gods is just crazy on the face of it, and makes no logical sense. The whole idea is to imitate and emulate them, they are the ultimately refined results of what Good mortals aspire to be! The idea that we are better than them is just more crazy Evil/Neutral self-puffery and excuses. If we are better than they are, why would we ever seek to be like them? They would seek to be like us!...
Eh, Alignment discussions... :)
 
Raphael said:
I think the comparison would be "is this a cure wounds spell, or a permanent polymorph spell into something nearly identical but possibly different according to the thoughts of the source of the magic, like changing appearance because the caster considers that better".
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I will say this... Heart's Ease has a duration of permanent, which is... wrong.
Because Permanent means the effects can be dispelled.
The effects should be instantaneous, like other healing spells. It does what it needs to do, and is gone.
Furthermore, with a Permanent duration... it would make you fundamentally immune to everything it cures, so you would ever only need to cast it once in your life, unless it gets dispelled. It also caters to the impression that it is mind control, because you have an ongoing enchantment affecting your head, even if it is beneficial to you.
So, errors in the spell already.
 
Aelryinth said:
Writers often have major problems writing actually Good deities, frequently confusing them with Law/Authority and 'I know best.'
For instance, the Silver City (Heaven) in DC Comics is almost classic Law, with built-in discrimination, the angels all about following God's Rules and Falling it you don't, and not about doing the right or best thing... and when it does the latter, it finally SHINES with what Heaven is actually all about.
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Err, the Bible is absolutely NOT about doing the "right or best thing."

I mean, you've actually read it, right? It's horrific.
 
Unless we're discussing how it relates to Hellblazer within the DC universe? It may be wise to avoid talking about real world religions.

That tends to draw out some rather heated arguments and a lot of hurt feelings without contributing anything constructive.
 
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Chapter 321, TT New
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    • Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 3.2.1
    Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
    _________________________________________________________________________
    24/07/2003 (TT, Earth-12)

    Stiff and sore, Alchemist awoke to greet the morning light of his realm with a stretch and a yawn. Or as much of a stretch as he could manage with Kary practically half on top of him.

    He hadn't done anything the last few days and that was a specific choice, not just a side-effect of laziness or fatigue. He needed time to recover, physically from figuring out the bottom limits of Freikugel and emotionally from... a lot of things.

    Yuffie had enjoyed having time where he wasn't distracted. The day after her aborted mission had just seen them lazing around the house. Watching movies and snacking and playing with the familiars. Jinx had to go back to school during the daytime but Kary had been more than happy to relax with them.

    Alchemist had actually tracked down a copy of the Princess Bride, one of the rare few movies that actually had a little something for everyone.

    Sword fighting!

    Intrigue!

    Drama!

    But a nice, relaxing three day weekend did need to come to an end. There were things that he needed to work on.

    Casting Bilocation, a second Alchemist formed and began to head downstairs while the Alchemist that remained behind wrapped his free arm around his lover's back.

    The dragon helped himself to a quick breakfast of granola bars and puttered about the kitchen for a bit as he thought. He had... so many things to take care of. Plans that needed to get worked on, at least a little bit.

    The Mother Krystelle he had trapped inside of another demi-plane should be ready to produce another elemental Krystelle, which would mean another trip through the Item World. That would be a full day's worth all on its own but would open up a significant number of upgrade options for his facilities and tools.

    He was definitely getting a Lightning Crystal next. He'd be able to swap out the Harlock's anti-matter generator with something that produced energy ex-nihilo instead of a finicky device made of Clarke Tech that ate phlebotinium to keep from exploding.

    And the process would give Alchemist an opportunity to master a number of spells that the entities inside the Ebony Ingot had been too fragile to work on.

    Or Alchemist could go to his forge and work on the Ebony Ingot, start turning that into the tools he needed to cover a number of other concerns. He needed weapons and rings, primarily. And even those were just going to be intermediary products leading to a much larger, much more demanding finished product.

    Alchemist hummed quietly to himself as he pulled the milk out of the fridge and poured some into a mug before putting the milk away and setting his mug into the microwave.

    Or he could keep working on his enchanting? He needed to bring that up to its current maximum level. Hitting level three-hundred would let him put a maximum of four, full-power enchantments into any single item. It would also be a fantastic opportunity to bring Fortify Skill up to the same level...

    Alchemist weighed the pros and cons as he watched his mug of milk spin round and round in the microwave.

    They were all good options and he did intend on doing all of them. Eventually. He just needed to figure out where to start.

    Stopping the microwave at the one-second mark, Alchemist pulled out his steaming milk and hit the cancel button. Puttering his way over to a cabinet, he pulled out a box of hot cocoa mix and started to stir it in.

    He also had the upgraded form of Devour to think on, he supposed, as he sipped at his scalding chocolate. He had captured at least a couple of every monster from Bitterblack Island and there were two in particular that had abilities he'd especially appreciate. The Frostwyrms had an intrinsic Fast-Cast ability that shaved a good eighty-percent off of their spellcasting time and the Hydras, while not death-proof, could regenerate full limbs in seconds.

    Although the regeneration was strictly biological and didn't restore their hit points.

    Stepping out the back door, the wizard closed it gently enough that it didn't make a sound as he considered his options. There was so much to do and, finally, enough time to actually do it.

    But...

    That didn't mean he actually had to do all of it by himself.

    Raising his hand up, Alchemist used Wraith King, conjuring a dozen duplicates of himself. The copies all looked at him, silent and waiting.

    They knew why he'd made them. And they were eager and willing to get to work, the same as he was.

    Casting Fortify Skill: Enchanting on ten of them while the last two got Fortify Skill: Blacksmithing, Alchemist sent them a lazy salute and got one in return before they split off to get to work.

    It was the one exploit that he got from using the skill, the one bit of feedback from it. Their offensive abilities may have been locked in at a quarter of his own but they had full access to his crafting specialties and, somehow, whatever they made would offer him experience for the crafting skill they used.

    So, that was two projects taken care of.

    Alchemist still needed to take care of something on his own, though. And he had a fantastic idea of what he could work on until Kary finally woke up to join him in killing off Lightning aspected monsters inside of a crystal.

    "Ash! Reis! Cinder!" Alchemist shouted, drawing the various familiars out from where they'd been napping. As they came running, Alchemist smiled and extracted a trio of Shards from his inventory. One of Tis Rozain, the light elemental ray and two of Void Ray, the dark elemental ray.

    "Play?!" the hounds asked in tandem.

    "Play," Alchemist agreed as he crouched down to eye level with the magical beasts. Ash and Cinder both enjoyed ear rubs and that was a decent enough opportunity to gift them with Cannibalize. Reis tried to pull away but stopped and started crooning when he finally snagged her and started to rub the spines along her back. "Ash, Cinder, you two eat these. Reis, I have a different one for you. We're gonna learn a new attack spell."

    The dogs looked dubious but Reis, being a dragon and a true omnivore, devoured her crystal by swallowing it whole.

    Then she opened her maw in Alchemist's face, revealing dozens upon dozens of needle-like teeth and blasted him with both her awful breath and a thin, almost anemic beam of holy light.

    Seeing that, the two dogs couldn't get their own Shards down their throats fast enough.

    Alchemist just chuckled and shook his head as the familiars experimented for a moment, blasting their new attack spells at the ground and ripping up patches of grass.

    This was a mistake. And he knew it was a mistake.

    And that wasn't going to stop him.

    -----

    Tiffany felt pretty good as she got an early start on her morning.

    The other day, Alchemist had told her to pick out one of the apartments from the complex they'd... stolen? Were squatting in? Renovating without permission?

    Whatever someone wanted to call it.

    Tiffany had picked out one of the corner apartments on the second floor and she'd been working on figuring out how to furnish it ever since. She'd filled out dozens of pages with sketches before figuring out something better or deciding she didn't like something.

    Her jaw cracking wide in a yawn, the girl opened the front door of Alchemist's house and was about to step out-

    And froze, her lips thinning into a concerned line as she watched Alchemist flying past, propelled by a purple beam and a yellow-white beam. That didn't seem to be coming from him.

    Leaning out the door, Tiffany saw that Reis and one of the hellhounds were shooting the beams. From their mouths.

    The gamer's mouth twisted through a few expressions as Tiffany tried to decide how she felt about what she was seeing.

    "Alchemist?" Tiffany called once he was done getting knocked around for a moment. The man raised one hand up, one finger extended, and the familiars stopped their assault. "What's going on?"

    "Uh... hi?" Alchemist offered as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Gave the familiars something new to play with."

    "...And you're letting them just throw you all over the place?" Tiffany asked, uncertainty clear in her voice as she stepped out of the house and closed the door behind her.

    "It's three on one, Tiff," the man told her as the familiars ran off, blasting at each other with their new breath attacks. "Unless you're willing to hurt whoever you're handling? You don't win when you're dealing with more than two attackers."

    She debated bringing up his Haste magic, something he'd said she should learn a while back, back when her System was down. Or the time-stopping stopwatch he'd made. Or any of a number of options that would probably work to at least distract the familiars that had been attacking him.

    But she supposed, on some level, that he wasn't wrong. When powers weren't involved? Three attackers was almost definitely one too many.

    "...Are you busy today?" Tiffany finally decided to ask. The last few days had almost definitely been family time for the guy and she hadn't wanted to interrupt. Even if she had been turning green with envy.

    "I do have plans." Damn it! "But I don't have to get started on them immediately. What's on your mind?" Yes!

    "I picked out one of the apartments but I'm not too sure about how to furnish it," Tiffany admitted, casually ignoring the familiars firing blasts of light or darkness at each other in the background.

    "Well... I have furniture," Alchemist admitted as he looked up to his house, towards one of the windows that Tiffany couldn't see through. "Or I could just conjure some up on the spot. Technically, the spell costs money but GP isn't really an issue."

    "You can just... conjure whatever you want?" Tiffany asked. She struggled to wrap her mind around the idea. That he could literally just... make whatever he wanted? Whenever he wanted?

    "There's a value cap on magical items," Alchemist explained as he motioned towards the door to the demi-plane. "But otherwise? Yeah. I can magic up any mundane materials that I want, or finished products if I can imagine them."

    Following along behind him, Tiffany hurried to get ahead of Alchemist as they entered the apartment complex. They exited into the laundry room where he'd set up the door and soon enough found their way up to the second floor.

    The bottom floor technically only held one apartment and that was supposed to be the owner or landlord's apartment. It was situated next to the wall bank of mailboxes, which was across the hall from the laundry room and the utilities room.

    She wasn't sure how Alchemist planned to get the water or electricity turned on. She wasn't even sure if Jump City was still aware that the apartments existed. They'd been in a pretty bad shape before Tiffany and Yuffie had spent a few days repairing everything with magic.

    Upstairs, on each floor, there were about six apartments. Four corner units with two bedrooms and then a pair of singles on the east and west sides. The north and south spaces were open but that probably had more to do with the stairs and some kind of structural concerns.

    Opening the door, which was currently kept unlocked because nobody knew where any of the keys were, Tiffany revealed the bare walls and equally bare hardwood floor of her apartment to Alchemist.

    She'd never had her own space before, not like this. A part of her felt absolutely giddy about it. A part of her looked at trying to fill it and felt overwhelmed.

    Even so. She'd already made a few decisions. She'd picked out a double unit instead of a single specifically so she'd have the space to set up an Enchanting Table. So she could work on things by herself without having to bother Alchemist or the others too much.

    "So, what do you think?" Tiffany asked.

    "I think..." Alchemist hummed quietly as he tapped at his chin. "Well, we've got options. I'm no interior decorator, Tiff. I just get what I think will be useful."

    ...Yeah, she got that. The guy had a few framed photos of his family in his house but his walls were otherwise bare. And he only had one plant in a pot by the window which also seemed to be the place where his new snake pet liked to hang out.

    Creepy thing barely moved and there didn't seem to be much going on behind its four eyes.

    So it was just like a normal snake, really, aside from the eyes and arms.

    "So, I can either give you some of the stuff I stole from Wayne Manor and you can figure it out yourself. We can hit up a thrift store on the nicer side of town. Or we can get a few magazines and we can work out what you'd like to have."

    "...You robbed Wayne Manor?" Tiffany asked. She hadn't heard that right, had she?

    "Yes, yes I did. The furniture, the grandfather clock, the jewelry, the wine and the silverware."

    "...Why?" Tiffany asked. "When?!"

    "When I asked you to let me use the Zombie I.D. for some stress relief," Alchemist explained with a growing smirk. "As for why? Well... why not?"

    -----

    Situated in the kitchen of Alchemist's house, five little dolls stared at various books and, from time to time, made notations in notebooks they'd requested from their creator.

    "I think I'll take Technologist," Chica the little yellow chicken said from one corner of the table on which they stood.

    "Why?" Freddy the brown bear asked, a normal sized pencil held in his too-small paws.

    "I need it to make pharmaceuticals," Chica explained. "And that's another feature."

    Bonnie didn't exactly ignore them but she kept her own thoughts to herself as she looked from the many, many books and back to her level up screen.

    Freddy would never be a spellcaster as strong as she was and his choice in features would reflect that. Chica had picked the Chirurgeon subclass of Alchemist and Bonnie still couldn't wrap her head around that. They were constructs! They couldn't even use potions!

    Goldy and Foxy didn't have spellcasting at all and didn't have to worry about that whole aspect of leveling up in the first place.

    Bonnie had wanted to ask for the creator's help but Freddy insisted they leave him alone. Which didn't make any sense to the little purple rabbit because the creator had been very clear that he would be happy to help them at any time should they need it.

    But... fine. Bonnie could be patient. Bonnie could wait.

    Flicking back and forth between the books that Jinx had given them upon request, then to the screen with their leveling options, Bonnie released a tired sigh.

    They could all pick to either continue leveling up in their current class or else multiclass and they all had two features to select at level two. And Bonnie, Freddy and Chica, if they continued their current class, would be able to select either a new spell in Bonnie's and Freddy's case or a new recipe for Chica.

    "Stealthy," Goldy declared, his paws smacking at the transparent screen in front of himself. "And Skill Focus: Stealth. With Fast Stealth as my Rogue Talent."

    Shocking. Absolutely shocking. Bonnie had no idea how they hadn't seen that coming. At all.

    Still, that gave Goldy an immediate plus-five bonus to his stealth, on top of the skill points he'd directly put into the skill. And that bonus would hit plus-ten when Goldy was allowed to put ten points into stealth. And he'd get to keep that full bonus while moving at full speed.

    Considering their Dexterity score was all the way up at sixty after the various boosts and boons their creator had either directly Wished up for them or else somehow fed to them when he'd permitted them to take on the form of his daughter?

    No mere civilian would be able to see Goldy if he didn't want them to.

    But that didn't help Bonnie in figuring out what she wanted to spend her points on.

    On one side of things, they weren't limited to just the Feats from Pathfinder. But that was both good and bad because it also meant that they had more and more choices and no real idea on what to spend them on.

    Decision paralysis, she'd been told in the past. The problem with having too many options and not enough direction.

    She could pick Feats that would offset some of the limitations of her size. She could pick feats that would make her spells harder to resist. She could even pick feats that would let her summon creatures more effectively.

    Or she could pick feats that would further expand her capabilities. As an Arcanist, she had a limited pool of special points that would let her perform spells or spell like abilities without using her spell slots. And her arcane exploit, Dimension Slide, would let her literally teleport twenty feet in any given direction, functionally at will. An exploit that would grow by an additional ten feet for every level.

    But, at the moment, it was the only exploit that she had and she could only use it between four and five times per day, assuming she hadn't used it all up the day before. She could pick a Feat that gave her more points, or she could pick another Feat that gave her access to another exploit.

    Or she could pick Feats that would completely shift her abilities in different ways.

    "Yar!" Foxy exclaimed, drawing four set of eyes to the little red fox. "I be pickin' Bilge Rat an' Combat Distraction!"

    "...Foxy?" Freddy asked as the bear scrolled through his own menu. "Combat Distraction is limited to goblins."

    "I be pickin' it anyway."

    Bonnie rolled her little glass eyes and focused on her own menus. She hadn't made her decisions yet, after all.

    Scrolling further in and reading through the various listings, she started to get some ideas, though.

    "I'm going with Spell Sniper," Bonnie explained as she selected the Feat. "That will double my spell range for attack spells and let me pick a cantrip. Which will be... Eldritch Blast."

    Finalizing her selection had Bonnie shivering for a moment as she felt the twisted, arcane knowledge trickle along her mind. It was especially unsettling given that she didn't have a brain.

    "And I think for my second Feat... Eldritch Initiate with Eldritch Spear." Which would set the base range of Bonnie's new cantrip to three-hundred feet. Which she'd just doubled to six-hundred feet. Which was a lot of range for a weapon that didn't necessarily cause a lot of damage but Bonnie's main job was to cast control spells and stay out of range, so having a really long-range spell in her back pocket to harry and harass was just another tool to help irritate and annoy to keep enemies distracted until Goldy could sneak up and stick his knife in someone's kidneys.

    And she could change her Eldritch Invocation choice in the future when she leveled up and decided that really, really good range on her weapon wasn't so important. Probably when she had enough levels that Dimension Slide would let her move in and out of range at will.

    "...You're mean, Bon-Bon," Chica said after the chicken spent nearly a minute searching through her own menus to fully understand what Bonnie had put together.

    Bonnie, so proud of her clever choices, crossed her arms and pouted.
     
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    • A question? About Tiffany/ Player One apt.

    If she invited the TT back to her place, will Robin recognize Wayne property?

    Darknessa is doing great in School?
     
    Last edited:
    Khettien said:
    I want to say no, since it's a different timeline - butterflies madly flapping them wings, and all that.

    But the law of funny says yes he would.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    It's ALMOST the furniture from his Wayne Mansion, but everything is slightly off due to the alternate timeline. Nothing he can call out, but it feels like Alfred furnished the place and then someone else rearranged the furniture...
     
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