Picture this, I'm driving home from seeing the optometrist for the third time, the second time because the new machines at the office measured my face and the worker wrote down the wrong information so I had to go through the test a second time, and the last time to get new lenses. It was storming out. But I needed my glasses to drive to work. So I went and got the lenses switched out. It took the girls ten minutes behind the counter to do that. Now I can see straight through my left eye again and I'm on my way home.
I drove underneath the bridge to highway 87 after getting off at the off ramp to get into town. When I got to the other side of the tunnel I found that it was sunny and morning. My truck shed water for a hundred feet until I came to a stop off the side of the road. I parked the truck, took out the keys, and wondered if these events had really happened.
I got out of the truck, not believing my eyes. But there it was.
I looked down at the road. There was the water from the rain storm. It had been raining cats and dogs a moment ago. Now there was no sign of the bridge I'd driven under. The sun was bright and hot with a few puffy white clouds in the distance. There is water all around where the truck made tracks and there are a few gallons of water pouring off out of the truck bed and along the sides. It was like my tire tracks had appeared from out of nowhere.
I looked around, "Is there anybody here that can give me an explanation for this? Because if so, that would be appreciated?" I waited a minute, but nothing came out of the bushes to greet me.
My name is Norman and I appear to have been transported to . . . someplace else.
-000-
I spent a minute looking around, taking in the fresh air that was unlike what I was used to at home, and looking up at the sky. Part of me expected there to be a second moon or something. Thankfully that was not the case. It was just a really nice blue sky without a single cloud.
I'll admit, a part of me was just a tiny bit disappointed in that. If I was transported to an alien world I'd liked to have seen some alien plant life. That would be pretty neat.
I seemed to be on earth. Or at least, everything was earth-like enough that I didn't see any indication that I was on an alien planet. The plants were normal shapes and the right colors. I saw normal-looking animals. I couldn't name most of them if I was honest, but I'd seen them on and off all my life and in the classroom on display in books and TV. I was pretty sure I was in America and that the bees pollinating the flowers were the same as the ones in the gardens amongst my neighbors yard.
It took a bit for the sunlight and heat to get to me, but it was hot out. I got back in my truck and pushed a button to roll down the windows but kept the engine off. I still had half a tank of gas and didn't want to waste it.
Idling in the shade and doing nothing while I sat behind the wheel, I wondered what I should do now.
I waited long enough that some cars passed me by. They were all older models but looked brand new, and some that was even older and looked well used. You know, even if you took good care of a vehicle it usually only lasts about twenty years. Sometimes in 2024 I still see cars older than I am, but they're floor show models kept in the garage under a tarp and taken out for holidays.
So it seemed that I had been thrown back in time as well.
In the direction I had been driving there was a really long road that gave way to a cement highway. On the right side there were four sets of train tracks. On the left was a road of sand and gravel or dirt track or a wide space. In the distance the mountainous hills leveled out for miles and miles and miles, until it reached the ocean, so far away I could only see the water as a wide strip that sparkled in the sunlight on the horizon.
I turned on the radio that had cost $1500 dollars to fix on the two year warrantee before it had expired and started searching for the news or some music. Just anything that would start telling me anything about where I'm at.
It takes a moment to tap into a publically available channel, although I have to do it manually. For some reason the scanner wasn't working. I assumed that codes or something were involved.
". . . and this is Channel 42 with the news at 9:00 AM on the dot . . ."
Well I was definitely not home now. I didn't recognize this channel, this voice, the news, the politicians fucking things up was vaguely familiar, and certainly not the music.
I started the truck and started driving down the road just for something to do . . .
. . . when I felt like I had left something behind and had to come to a stop.
I turned around in my seat and couldn't find anything. But I knew that something was there. It was like a sound or a color or an illusion in a poster or a pattern in a paper maze. There was something there.
I had never been surer of anything in my life.
I did a kay turn on the road and drove back the way I came. When I passed by the spot I came into this world I could feel something in my head pointing at that spot swing around as I passed it by.
I turned around again and parked the truck.
In the summer heat of this world the water had almost evaporated on the hot road. I slowly drove the truck forwards on the side of the road. I didn't see anything different but when I came up to this spot the feeling disappeared. I was here.
I parked and then got out of the truck to walk around and found that the feeling of direction came back once I was far enough away. I turned around, putting one foot in front of the other, and counted off how many feet I needed to get back to this space and for the directional sense to go away. The space was about three times as long as it was tall, and wider than the road, it ended above my head and fingers when I stood on my truck, and I was sure it was in the same shape as the underside area of the tunnel I'd gone through.
Now that I was aware of it I knew about where everything was in this space.
A cricket chirped and I turned my head to look at right where it was located at. My glasses made precise vision at such a distance impossible, yet I knew where the bug was amongst the grass he was blending in with.
I had a superpower.
BA-BUM!
The world seemed to fall away as my mind expanded in various directions. Unused capacity started learning, like the first time I had tried to figure out video games, or when I got my first computer, or when I got my first car. Suddenly I needed skills and awareness, and not learning them was never an option.
After feeling out where the edge of the space I was looking at was located at I tried a few things. First by picking up some sand and rocks along the road and marking out the outer edge of the area. Then I walked into, through the middle, and away from the designated area. I even tried walking backwards.
After about an hour of people passing me in their cars and giving me strange looks, I managed to twist and pull open a doorway.
The door opened.
There was a hole in the world.
There was a white hole of nothingness to a void of prismatic light.
That had me cross-eyed for a bit and I had to take a rest. The door closed with a windy sound and a SLAM as reality closed the door.
I went back into the truck and ran the engine to give myself some air conditioner so I could cool down. Fortunately I actually had some sunscreen so it wasn't all bad. Because I definitely had a sunburn after this.
Then I went back to the doorway and tried to figure out what my powers are.
I was fortunate that my powers weren't very eldritch. Once I knew the trick I could do it with a few gestures. There was no evidence that my mind was going to be screaming at the impossibility of it all and melt out my ears, or of an alien presence within my body, or that I was being drained of some fundamental something or other. It felt natural and right.
I could drive my truck through to the other world.
Of course I had to be careful when I went anywhere. I didn't want to end up driving into a bunch of Indians on horseback and get shot full of arrows.
Unfortunately I also lost the connection to My World. It was my biggest clue that these powers were given to me. I managed to find a world similar to my own. Same date, same locations, same houses and apartment, same businesses, same entertainment, but with enough historical differences that none of my family members exist. That was a painful rub.
And there were rules to my powers as well.
For some strange reason I could only make doorways when nobody was looking, seemingly depending on an "out of sight, out of mind" loophole of some kind on my end. But once the doorway was established at both ends it didn't matter if I was later to use it to go into a stadium full of screaming teenagers as it was locked into place.
Second was that I could make nine portals right off the bat. I could set up a base on a planet that I liked to use as my travel hub and then open portals to nine other worlds; or, I could string them out or branch them from one world to another in different complex ways. Attempting to open a tenth door just shuts down the first one I opened or the one farthest away.
Third was that there was a range limit. I could open a portal as long as I can see it clearly enough. I could walk away and then open another door in another location to go between the two. By sticking my head out of a portal I could gradually build a stairway of portals further and further away. I even managed to get one most of the way up out of the earth's atmosphere on the planet I was starting from before having my head exposed to the cold vacuum made me stop. However once I returned to earth some of my farthest portals stopped working leaving me only the ones close to earth.
Another thing was that the portals were protected by a membrane like a very thin sheet of plastic floating on water, but you could break your hand through it. When broken through with an arm or leg there was an itching burning sensation like the barrier was trying to eat at your skin with a few hundred goldfish mouths.
I also had an awareness of what was happening in and around the doorways. It was what allowed me to direct the openings of the portals between trees and buildings and trash cans and underneath cars. That awareness didn't go away when they were closed, only when they were canceled from existence.
What did this mean?
Well, I could rob a bank for one. So long as there was nobody around to see the space I wanted the doorway to form in I could step inside a vault.
Didn't need to do that since there were, literally, abandoned vending machine in abandoned malls and hotels full of money. Non-sequential bills right there. With theoretically unlimited funds there was nothing small I didn't want that I couldn't buy.
Larger items were a bit problematic. If I wanted to buy a shed or a backhoe there would be no house for the salesman to deliver them too. Cars were right out since I don't have an ID. And some people would not accept cash even if I had it all in my hands.
I also had a bit of a problem with security cameras. If someone was looking through them I couldn't appear in that spot. Satellite surveillance? Advanced sensor systems like on Star Trek earth? Or if the planet was being scanned by alien technology? Couldn't open a doorway.
I could always keep trying. And there were exceptions. But it was frustrating.
After many failed attempts to try and return to My World I had to become self-sufficient. I needed a world where I could open portals without someone looking over my shoulder. After finding a world without humans in it I set up a base of operations and for lack of a better explanation, started stealing what I needed to survive.
One of my favorite worlds to go shopping was in the 1970s. Before satellites got really going. Before security cameras started to occupy the corners of every room and monitor every door. There were more items I could buy without an ID or credit cards.
There weren't many vending machines in this time that I could cut open with a diamond saw, however. So I did end up stealing food from here. I usually opened a doorway from my Hub World into a closed store where nobody could see me, stepping through and filling a shopping cart with items off the shelf, using a flashlight to guide my way.
If I wanted technology I'd actually make the effort to go to a more advanced world.
Point is that, sometimes I had money but couldn't spend it because it would be considered counterfeit, sometimes I couldn't get something without an ID or a credit card, I couldn't get things delivered to a home I didn't have, and sometimes it was just easier to go into a closed store to steal.
In truth, there was very little that changed of the contents of most food products, whether it is a jug of juice or a can of coffee. Different laws and different manufacturing techniques for different ingredients made the finished product somewhat different. But on the whole meat, fruits, vegetables, and popcorn hadn't really changed all that much.
Oh! I was aware that there was a big difference in heath and food regulations but they weren't enough to bother me too much.
Once I had food I naturally moved onto getting appliances, generators from hardware stores, books that explained to me how to become self-sufficient, tools, vehicles, tractors, and even entire Mobil Homes from trailer parks waiting to be sold and shipped out across the state. Between portable sheds and camping gear I made a real mess of a field of grass on the river.
But what do you want for free?
Now what was I going to do with my life?
I was going to visit a few worlds and see if I could get some superpowers and more tech to become more independent and less like a thief of the multiverse. Then maybe I'd see about helping a few people.
Once I was good and ready, I gathered up my supplies, put on a pair of good boots, and took the plunge to go and visit a few fictional worlds.
I had decided on a short list of places to visit specifically because I didn't care about the plot or had no interest in getting involved in the protagonist lives. They also had the benefit of having no omnipotent being that would take issue with my existence. Or at least not much.
I hope.
As such I could arrive "early" in the timeline at a location of my choosing. The "when" being during a flashback of one of the characters. That was enough to get me at a specific location and time. Also, since I could choose freely between a book, a film, or a game based on the same setting, my options were pretty broad.
If I later changed my mind I'd still have plenty of time to get involved later.
But let's see how the first one goes first!
-000-
Universe: Kekkaishi Jumpchain
Time : July 20th, 1990
Location: Karasumori School
My idea to get new powers involved "Jumpchain documents" and maybe a few worlds you could get powers just by being there. But there was no guarantee that the powers would be fiat backed or work in another world.
I had a List.
Maybe I could get in contact with a Jump Chan, I don't know.
So for now, I was going to give this a try.
I appeared on top of the Kasasumori School next to the HVAC system away from prying eyes. The place looked like many schools in an anime with a rooftop area that people could visit to hang out for lunch. A high fence prevented people from jumping off the walls. More fence protected school equipment from vandals. There was a stairwell that would allow kids to get up here. There was a picnic area and trash cans even.
Depending on whether you go by release date of the Manga or the Anime, the earliest time in this world in which the protagonist is active is either 2003 or 2006. There is also a prequel in the first episodes when the protagonist is four years old. By showing up in 1990 I was hoping that this would allow me to avoid any troubles before the protagonist got out of their diapers.
It was just before the start of school so there were no brats hanging out except the sports teams using the track and fields.
I had no interest in leaving this spot or doing anything. So I put my couch cushion down in the shade and took a seat, then took out a book to read for a few hours. Trying to see if this would work or not.
I could already feel my plan working.
Why was I here if I didn't want to get involved in the plot?
I had decided to start here because the show had popped up when I went online looking up abilities similar to my own. In the Kekkaishi manga Ability Users had a power similar to my own called Dimensional Doorways. I was hoping that it would be enough to maybe give me a boost in power.
I'd already decided to call my power Dimensional Doorways and the portals I created as Doorways.
There was also the Free General Perk called Physical Improvement. I could feel it working too. I would look down at my arms and legs and practically see a new definition of muscle growing underneath my skin. If it was anything like the one in the JumpChain document I'd get a boost in durability, the ability to jump three meters in the air and run like an Olympian athlete.
Of course, that wasn't to say that training every day from four years old for combat didn't have its place either.
After the local girls track team had packed up for the day I went back to reading my book to wait out my time.
Of course, not having a JumpChain document or a Patron did have a few negatives as I found out. The sensations that crawled up and down my muscles was like being zapped with electricity at the doctors testing my nerves, and the hot and cold flashes drove me to distraction. But all in all, I was able to spend nearly eight hours on this rooftop without being interrupted.
I put my book of Jurassic Park away in my backpack, picked up my couch cushion, cleaned up my food and water, packed up my things, and opened the doorway I'd made back to a decoy world without any trouble at all.
It was as I was stepping through that I got the fright of my life as a thrown kunai nearly took out my right leg. On instinct I closed the door behind me and jumped to the side, allowing the dagger-like implement to stab its way into the dirt besides me.
I fell on my ass.
"Holly shit!" I checked my leg to make sure nothing was wrong, and found a small cut in my pants halfway up my thighs. "If that had been one inch closer . . . I'd have needed a doctor." I gulped.
Suddenly that sandwich I had for dinner didn't feel so good.
I reached over and pulled the ninja tool out of the ground. It was all the way in the dirt and holly fuck, I think it had split a rock in half!
I held the tool in my hand and examined it, "This is pretty light, or is it?" I dropped the tool to the side and listened to it hit the ground with a THUD sound. "Or maybe I'm just a bit stronger?"
Shivers went up and down my body as adrenalin with nowhere to go flooded my system.
I took a few deep breaths, focusing on my relaxation exercises and tried not to get any dizzy spells.
"You're okay Norman. This isn't like the time you crashed your truck, or when you lost your world, or when you started stealing shit. That was a shot to wound, not to kill. Go walk it off."
Nodding at myself, I took a long walk along the river.
-000-
Editing: Did some editing explaining the Doorways and where Norman gets his money, and what Norman wants to do.
For now Norman is going to see if he can get fiat-backed Free General Perks or Items that would give him abilities in any world he visits.
Think about going to a world similar to RWBY except no grimm or hunters. They unlock and use Aura in school sports. I'm not sure if you are fit enough to use Aura, ki, or chakra even if you could unlock it.
For magic, think skill books. Nothing better than picking up a book and instantly learning a spell or two.
Hmm, maybe visit a setting like SAO or Ready Player One except no death game, and the game was designed to teach the bulk of the population how to use those supernatural skills? World Seed really comes to mind for that.
You've been going through a theft stage. There was that one movie where everyone just went poof except for the 3 protags. Better than one that folks turned into zombies in. You could basically look for gold reserves and all that. That's sort of iffy though. It's not like most of us have any clue how to spend gold bars. Gold coinage could be pawned in theory. That'd likely get you enough local cash to get by.
Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising would be a safe world to visit for advanced tech. They have basically Star Trek replicators in 2030. You'd just need to pick up some creation engines and local super drugs, and you'd be set.
I wonder if it would be possible to steal a Red Alert 1 mobile construction vehicle. That's the only unit of its type that I could see the MC just getting in and driving off with as well as having a shot at understanding any time soon.
Love the idea of jumpchain without the eldritch power pushing you for conflict or entertainment.
Its already interesting with visiting different settings and how you can help/scruw the original plot. Also Infinite plunder from abilities, technology, magic or even people, what is there to not like .
As for you first base i would nab the old droids from "I, robot"(2004 movie) for cheap labor. Maintence of those can be problematic but you can always visit the setting and ask some mechanik for maintence. Avoid the NS5 model if you dont have your own friedly AI tho.
Universe: Hub World
Location: Training area
Time: Morning
I was lucky. My awareness of everything happening around the Dimensional Doorway had saved my leg.
If I hadn't had the instincts to dodge when I knew when my life was in danger I'd have had a hole in my leg.
If I hadn't just gotten a physical enhancement perk I wouldn't have had the strength of speed to dodge.
But I was okay. I just needed to sew up the hole in my pants.
I was going to continue with my plan: Go to another world for a day, see if I could pick up some Free General Perks, come home, spend a day or two getting my sleep schedule in sync with the local clock, play in the gym for a day or two, then go to another world to do the same thing over again.
Then: Profit!
After I got back home from my walk I spent a few hours in the gym. I wasn't in great shape but the difference between yesterday and today was profound.
I started with a jog on a treadmill, the best I could steal in world from 2023, one that monitored my heart and everything from a gym that I had hated in yet another world. They'd ripped off my credit cards by charging me long after I had stopped going to the gym, with their asshole training coaches charging me long after they were kicked out and the company had gone bankrupt!
To get my heartbeat up the conveyor belt went faster and faster even as my heartbeat refused to pick up the pace. Normally that wouldn't work due to my low blood pressure. I had to use manual and preprogramed settings. But today I found myself keeping up with the treadmill long after it had reached a speed I shouldn't have been able to match. Soon after the machine shut down with a code error flashing on the screen.
According to the manual; this was due to the fact that I had an abnormal heartbeat. So hurra for safety systems.
I was not out of breath.
I tried a jog the old fashioned way around my camp ground and found that my air intake was keeping up with my activities.
Next I used something called a Speed Radar Ball Coach to measure my pitching speed when I threw baseballs at a target. No surprise, but the balls I was throwing looked like they were being shot from out of a pitching cannon. My form was atrocious I had no doubt of that.
But it was the same with the basketball where I could get nothing but net.
The Basketball Hoop game screamed, "Winner! Winner! Winner!"
Universe: Generic Superhero Jumpchain
Location: The Beach
Time: Also Morning
Once I had managed to collect a Free Generic Perk from a world I went ahead with my plans to collect more abilities floating around some other Jumpchain worlds. In some of the JumpChain some of these abilities would overlap and reinforce one another.
I kind of looked at these Free Perks as party favors and went, just, maybe a bit nuts.
On my third day of Free Perks shopping I visited a random superhero world that didn't seem connected to any comic book I knew of from the 1990s. It was about as generic as I could think of, with a host of good guys and bad guys, but not really making the mainstream news.
I only stayed for a few hours to walk the beaches and get a look at the local girls in their swimsuits and buy some fried doe. So long as the location was on another Earth I was the ultimate five minute tourist.
But that was more than long enough for my powers to develop some minor, supportive, unstated, secondary abilities of their own. Sub-systems in other words. I already had something like that with my Dimensional Doorways, having a radar/awareness of each doorway.
But I was now more aware of all the component parts.
Toriko was a really extremely food friendly place. Just by walking down the street and inhaling I felt like I had gotten in a full meal. They were also extremely environmentally friendly when it came to technology. Anything that affected the taste and health of ingredients would bring the International Gourmet Organization down on your head like a four-armed Troll-Kong.
However, in the Jidar Kingdom all I could smell was poverty and trash.
So being in Jidar was a shock.
Back home there were plenty of cities that were going down the dumpster due to idiotic policies or because the businesses were just leaving the local area, or crime was out of control - either/or. Maybe the mines had run dry. Maybe the police won't respond when you dial your phone for help. Maybe the police don't have the gas to patrol your neighborhood. Maybe someone changed the rules. Maybe the judge won't prosecute criminals even when caught on camera. Maybe the mayor was a moron.
But in this world and in this place that sort of lawlessness had already reached a plateau of corruption years ago, but still not quite that stupid.
Jidar was ruled by gangs on every street who had, through self-preservation, worked very hard to protect their territory and keep businesses open. Criminal enterprise at its finest.
Everyone was a tough customer with a means to defend themselves and their property. None of the stores were closed. Many businesses had a guard standing out front with a pitchfork or a sword or a gun to keep troublemakers at bay. Here people could actually defend themselves against criminal scum, so it wasn't like home at all.
No doubt if they got caught stealing they'd cut off your hand and cook it up with rice BEFORE they fed it to your face. Food and ingredients were like gold. Anything that impeded the flow of goods was destroyed.
I saw plenty of stores openly advertising how dangerous their ingredients are. I had no doubt that they also armed themselves with their own product. The shop keepers had definitely evolved into some of the most deadly people on the street. There were tanks full of dangerous fish with big teeth. Chicken cages with all sorts of strange creatures that looked evil. Squid with stripes and fish with barbs, plus lots of other creatures that were poisonous preserved in jars of cooking oil.
Damn them, some of it actually smelled good.
In ten minutes I had been offered everything from Drug Snails to Poisoned Puffer Fish Whales to candy that looked like the sugar candy in breakfast cereals.
It was very strange. Without the government the people here policed themselves. Well, the government was still here and it took its cut of the vice. And sure the place looked run down, and there were no services to repair roads or signs, but stores everywhere I looked were full up and the people here were taking care of their buildings and buying the services of repairmen.
One part anarchy and one part self-organizing survivalists.
I think I kind of liked it.
Danger was the spice of life after all.
In the distance the Gourmet Casino rules this cesspit with its lights and attractions. Men bet on weather you live or die. There was so much power being pumped into the lights and sky, turning night into day, that they must have had a dozen power plants just for the lights and fountains and other attractions. It didn't take much to remind me they ran on a model of absolute vice. You'd be absolutely insane to rob the place. A thousand other businesses surrounded the casino, some with lesser casinos and other businesses of sin, ten star restaurants, love motels and hostels, others with more direct affairs.
I didn't have any of the local currency. Most of my money actually came from visiting abandoned towns and shopping malls and cracking open abandoned vending machines, ATMs, and dispensaries. I hadn't even had to go to an empty earth to find them either. The company had simply never picked up their machines when the shopping malls were shut down. At this point I had several suitcases of cash for each decade of the last hundred years.
I also have some gold. I went to a pawn shop that was lit up like daytime due to the casinos nearby and got in line to turn over my metals for a few hundred thousands of dollars of the local cash. They didn't ask for identification.
I also bought some clothes and bling to change into and went to have a night on the town. A big leather and gold chain belt with the letter N in red fake jewels, and finally a pair of ray ban glasses to keep the lights out of my eyes, made me fit right in.
Since I was headed in the direction of the world's largest gambling establishment I wasn't robbed.
Once I could duck between two buildings where I wouldn't be seen I opened a new doorway back to my Hub World, closed and negated the doorway behind me, and opened another doorway to The Central Gourmet Wholesale Market.
Step-step, side-step, step-step.
Universe: Toriko Jumpchain
Location: Human World, Gourmet Wholesale Market
Time: Its Afternoon on this part of the planet
The Gourmet Market was a really hustling and bustling place!
In less than a minute I had seen, and I'd counted them, more than a thousand new ingredients and lifeforms that looked like the result of a kid's imagination, than I'd ever seen in a farmers market.
Not only did the air smell better here but there was no aftertaste of poverty to be found. There was some sourness from ingredients going bad, garbage, and the offal as ingredients were chopped up for sale, but I could ignore those. The ingredients on display were so fresh most of them were still alive and in cages. Entire buildings made nothing but ice for cooling or liquids for tenderizing or smoke for jerky, or serviced electric carts and tote motors and forklifts moved materials in all directions to auction houses.
Double dipping into this world didn't give me a double scoop of the Perk Gourmet Cells Application. Everyone and nearly everything in the Toriko world has Gourmet Cells. Just by dropping into this world I got a small infusion, about average with any other human on this planet, boosting my appetite along with my recovery speed and regeneration, and I felt lighter with every step I took. Not to mention hungrier.
Not only did they sell ingredients here but they also sold supplies as well.
I used the money I had gotten from Jidar Kingdom to purchase my Cooking Utensils: a ladle and a couple knives, plates, grindstones, boning knives, filet knives, meat grinders and graders, and one high grade knife. Following this were some items that would help me in the wild, like filtration and purification equipment, vitamin supplements, the Swiss Army Knives of blades, fire starters, lights, and various seasonings.
The seasonings were especially important since they didn't exist on any other Earth. They were full of Gourmet Cells.
Plus most of the instruments were made out of recycled animal parts or stones that had gourmet cell preserved within them.
Some of my Item Money was spent on a high-quality Gourmet Stick, the best available. I also bought some ingredients and amused myself hugely by testing it on everything I bought, from meat to vegetables to fruits and nuts. It would have been cheap at twice the price, and was actually the lowest price for the tool to be found on the planet, which I think was the point since it had encouraged me to do some shopping while I was here. With one single poke I knew more about an ingredient than all the labels on a can of tuna!
Normally I'd say that if you have to look up something up on the internet to figure out what you are eating than you shouldn't be eating it. The fewer things mixed together into your food the better. Simple is best.
But it was just the coolest toy I HAD to have one!
However, I did remember to save some money for one good meal at an all you can eat buffet and got to chow down on a crab/fish thing the size of my head. I think it was called a pincer fish?
It was hot and spicey, like it had swum through an entire swamp family's bathtub of secret recipes and spices before it was put in the pot! Not exactly like a crocodile stuffed full of crawdads, but close! It tasted like pepper marinated oil and was served on a plate of cracked corn bread with olives!
Didn't exactly look like the one from the manga or anime. And I managed to put away seven plates of side dishes to go with it, somehow.
I've always been mixed about visiting Toriko or even Food Wars. Why? I've always worried that those settings would screw up my sense of taste and ruin food/eating from anywhere else.
I'm not sure what powerset he actually has. I thought it was just a portal traveling to different worlds. It seems more like essence meta portal travel where he picks up basic local power sets merely from visiting the settings.
Some of those toys seem neat, but ... without knowledge of other perks, they would be useless. So what if you have a tool that gives you more info about food than a pokedex does on Pokemon? You still need to know how to use that info and what it means to actually cook things. Unless the super tools somehow lower the skill level needed for some of it.
O.k. I'd be tempted to play with the neat toy for a bit in a more normal setting to see what it says about usual food.
Toriko has things like Food Honor. Not something that I'd ever expect you to really use outside of that setting. Who knows? It might actually come in useful.
I'd be very leery about eating Gourmet Cells. Sure, it could be a neat power-up if you don't mind it mutating you and giving you a curse of gluttony.
I'm surprised that gold held value in Toriko at all. That's one of those settings where I could see them using something odder to back their currency with.
can't say i am familiar with any of those settings so i'm probably losing some background what is happening.
A tool to describe food ingredients pokefooddex? i bet its going to be usefull, at last you will be safe to eat local food wherever you go and if you find some strange thing you can always point at it and cross if its a food or not or if it can be used as a food or eatable at all.
It would be shame to find a nice sweet tasty fruit only to find later it carried prehistoric parasite eggs while those hatch in your guts.
Universe: Hub World
Location: Cooking Shack
Time: Sunset
After getting home and reorganizing my kitchen I didn't think I'd be hungry for the rest of the day. I had a rather full supper after all.
I spent a few hours doing some household chores. Like mowing the grass around the portable shacks I'd stolen. Each was basically a miniature barn big enough for a car or a tractor to fit inside taken from a hardware store parking lot where they'd been on display. I used them to contain all my stuff.
I hadn't actually WANTED to steal them from off the lot but I didn't have a delivery address. Same with my mobeil home and cars. I actually had an idea about stealing stuff abandoned in the woods, like an abandoned trailer park, but those items were trashed.
I had plenty of tools from hardware stores. Some were better than others. On the whole, the machines used further up the timeline were better, lighter, ran on less fuel, and you got more power. I had the best weedwhacker!
Several hours later I was hungry again, however.
So I took the strange looking fish I got at the Gourmet Market and the cookbook I got to go with it and cooked it up. I spent the time needed to heat up my pan on the propane stove to read the book. The creature was like a flounder with rainbow stripes and a silver belly, the Silver Rainbow Back Fish!
I was soon able to fillet it and then slice it into steaks. Then I put it on some bread slathered with oil. It was hands down the best fish sandwiches I'd ever eaten!
Total food euphoria achieved.
I found out that my cooking skills had increased. Not just because I was getting in lots of practice either. I had this Perk called Inspirational Pull. I could look out the window into the woods and feel which plants would make good ingredients. I went to look them up in a book and found that you could eat them with the correct preparation. If I held a fish in my hands the pull to a set of ingredients in my cupboard was different than if I was holding cow meat in my hand.
My memory had improved as well. So long as it was cooking related, that is. It was like all those cooking shows and bar drinks I'd seen on TV had stuck in my mind like a piece of meat between my teeth.
Of course I also became a bit of a food snob as well. Regular humans from the Toriko world could eat and process large portions of food much faster than the humans in other worlds can. You can see it in the commercials like where a normal businessman is eating a crab the size of a large suitcase. Two people could sit down to a meal that would put a decent buffet combined with a Thanksgiving dinner to shame, consuming it all in one sitting, and not have to worry about their weight at all.
Without Gourmet Cells in the dishes it was like eating food without spices. Kinda generic. Sure it was healthy, maybe, but by the end of the meal you'd be ready to murder the other guy for some salt and pepper.
It now took me three more plates of food to fill me up on a daily basis.
I spent a week cooking, eating out, and exercising at the gym I had assembled. What I found confirmed my suspicions: in exchange for extremely high energy demands I had extremely powerful life force, regenerative powers, and peak human powers of the body.
When I came off my food high I found myself enjoying smaller portions again. I suppose integrating Gourmet Cells into the body takes a bit of time. But as well as a normal appetite I also lowered my body's physical levels. I could ramp my power output back up again after I went to the buffet, however!
It wasn't as good as the Heavenly Kings or some of the other food adapted mutant freaks of the show, but it was definitely better than what I had before.
So it was all good.
Universe: One Piece Jumpchain
Location: Unnamed Island
Time: Sunrise
Once again I found myself bringing along a chair to enjoy myself in some out of the way corner of another world.
This time I was in One Piece.
I was looking to get the Grand Line Physique Perk. My Epitaph was to call myself Norman the Doormaker, which is who and what I am. I go where I want and am on a Journey to get some superpowers from all kinds of worlds. Goda's Blessing would be nice, but considering that a lot of worlds will have beauty perks it'll be a drop in the bucket.
Didn't care for the Unique Laugh. But since it was optional I didn't want it.
The island I was on was barely big enough to support a dozen trees and I hung a hammock between them to enjoy the shade. This time I had put my sunscreen on beforehand. However, thanks to my physical enhancement perks from Kekkaishi and Toriko's manga and all the time I had spent outside I actually had something you might call a Tan.
I'd brought my boombox with me and turned it on for some Music. The big old square monster was dated, but you could find the machine across nearly any world from 1985 to 2025. The one I'd gotten was basically a portable PC at this point, came with programs so that you could play your music and movies, and was built to be transported and set down at the beach so you could enjoy the sand and surf.
Hell, if it got knocked out of the boat it would also float.
When I took off my shirt to stand in my swimming trunks, I had to admire my chest in the clean waters. These last few weeks in the gym had really shown some impressive results. And being in a few anime worlds had clearly spun up the process.
"Growl."
I padded my stomach and reached over to a cooler to bring out some ingredients to assemble myself a grinder on the beach.
Ultimately nothing happened while I was in the One Piece world. I was only there for a day after all. When I returned home and did my time in the gym and on the game machines. I was about two inches taller, however.
I did feel a sort of potential settle within me. Not as much as the Toriko world however. That was like comparing a clove of garlic to a peppercorn.
Universe: Shantae Jumpchain
Location: Shuttle Town
Time: Morning sunrise
Shantae was a cool game world. I was going to get some cool Shantae game powers as Free Perks!
The morning I stepped out onto the pier of Shuttle Town I felt a sharp pain in my body and knew I'd made a mistake.
I fell over in pain.
Before I knew it my body shaped itself into a new form; I suddenly became female! There was no ceremony, no drawn out process, no flash. All the flesh on my body suddenly went elsewhere as every cell leaped into this new configuration.
When I hit the boardwalk and saw myself in the water I saw a girl's face with purple eyes and tan-skin, long purple hair tied up into a pony tail ending with one of those stone rings on the end, and sharply pointed ears. Even sitting down I had my back arched like it was my natural setting and my stomach was concave. I also had a set of Mediterranean/islander hips, which were round and seriously curvy in all the ways that a man wants in his woman. I wasn't uncomfortable sitting on the decking at all. Seriously thou, each of my legs is thicker than my entire torso, all of it pure muscle. I hadn't changed much in height as far as I could tell but my torso was shorter and my legs were definitely longer.
I was also wearing Shantae's red default belly dancer outfit, with the red slippers, the sheer red harem pants, the yellow hoops over the hips, red bra with gold ring in the middle, a gold crown following my hairline with a jewel in the middle of my forehead, golden arm bands, golden loop earrings, and golden stalk for the hair.
I looked like a younger, more exotic, Jeanie from the I Dream of Jeanie sitcom but without the headscarf, silly hat and vest. Or an older, more mature, Shantae.
Then I arched my back nearly in half as I stared up at the sky, gripping my head in even more serious pain, "Holly freaking spit!"
Unlike my other jumps the knowledge that came crashing into my brain wasn't subtle at all.
I have never been so caught up on events!
Suddenly I knew everything there was to know about Belly dancing. It was as if I had gone on a world tour to learn all the major styles from the Mediterranean Sea to the showgirls in major entertainment districts all over the world to the Red Light District to the Stripper Olympics!
Thousands of hours of study, and tens of thousands of hours of practice had toned my abs into a six pack!
Then there were the video game powers where I could jump upwards through the floors and platforms, or fall from any height without getting hurt, or change my direction after I jumped. Another power I got was the power of a video game character to smash pots to find jewels and coins. There shouldn't have been anything valuable in them, but that wasn't going to stop the perk from working.
And instead of having a Manna bar in the corner of my screen I was intimately aware of mine. I already had a bit of magic from some of the world's I'd visited but now I could see it and measure it. Also, running out of Manna won't hurt me, I just won't have any to use. It took an hour to fill if completely emptied.
Also I had a Space Wallet now. It was basically an infinite bag of holding for money, jewels, gold, other valuables and coins.
Also I was now putting out some kind of aura where everyone within line of sight of my person won't mind that I'm wearing skimpy outfits. So instead of thinking "so scandalous!" it'll be just another day at the beach.
"Oh my god," I wiped my head with the back of my hand. "Whooo! Hell did that hurt. Gods, I don't like drugs but I'm totally visiting Toriko's world and stocking up my medicin cabnit, because I seriously need a headache pill right the fuck now! Ah! Well at least I'm all caught up now. Thou I do wonder why I'm still wearing my old glasses?" I touched the frames on my face.
Then the Wardrobe trunk of clothes fell on me.
That hadn't been there! This was harassment from the universe at large! I'm a guest!
Untangling from the wardrobe trunk full of ALL the outfits from the Shantae Games took a bit of time. These outfits didn't just include the half-genie outfits, but for the pirates and mooks as well.
Also my eyes were fixed. None of the perks I'd gotten so far had fixed my eyesight. These corrected my vision and made me feel 'smart.' When I took the glasses off I stopped feeling 'smart' but my eyes were fixed now. I could see more colors and everything was in perfect focus.
"Vision correcting glasses -- oh ha, ha, very funny." I looked up at the sky in annoyance. "You know I was only visiting. I wasn't trying to make trouble you know!"
Lightning crashed over the horizon in the hot humid air.
"Eep!" I squeaked. "Okay, okay! I'll leave, okay? Thanks for the perks. No need to be so mean. I'm going. Just give me a minute okay?"
It probably took longer than five minutes, which was another perk that had allowed me to fit a bunch of work into five minutes, but I packed up everything in the Wardrobe Trunk. With the Vision Correcting Glasses item in hand I then skedaddled my firm round buttocks through the doorway back to my world.
-000-
Some minor edits. Norman the Doormaker as an Epitaph.
"World" changed to "Jumpchain" for Earths with a Jumpchain document. Places without a Jumpchain will be called "World."
We all know what you'd likely end up doing. That'd be for QQ though.
So, Jumps that require you to be female? Hmm, James Bond, Buffy, Winx, Negima?
Switching genders usually costs like 50CP. Does your new female genie form count as an alt form? I can see you being able to flip back to normal once you leave.
While I would love to get something from lots of Jumpchains Norman is running on a "nothing gained, nothing given" 00CP Jumpchain Gauntlet. Very few Jumpchains give absolutly free perks just for showing up. The alternative is acquiring an alt-form or species because you don't have to pay for it. Norman can't get Drop-In Perks or Items either because he dosen't have a Patron either. He's just showing up for the free handouts.
I have a dozen places Norman's going to go to get what he needs and then I'll be out of Freebe's for him to get.
But I thank you for reminding me of Winx Club. I'd forgotten you could get magic there for free.
Huh, I was actually going to suggest using that specific Shantae jump since the generic perks are so good and got synergy with the Kekaishi stuff.
Did not expect the forced female aspect tho since the drop-in is the generic male role, which you'd technically get by just showing up randomly.
At least the stuff is generally usefull.
Also, if you want some really nice and strong free for everyone stuff... I got options, because I played with the concept since you first started that back over on SB, even made an Essence for it.
Generic Military over in the SB drive is actually immensely usefull. Generic Spacebattles would actually allow you to get that nice jumpchain-brand smartphone.
I better stop myself from mentioning more.
Artwork by Mistic Man on Deviant Art. Please support.
Universe: Hub World
Location: The Brand New Wardrobe Shed
Time: Sunset
Fortunately I was able to return to my base form as a straight heterosexual male after I left the Shantae Universe and its angry self. I lost a lot of the Genie magic and only my female alternate form could perform the belly dances real well, but I had basically accomplished my goals.
I hadn't realized that I could get an Alt Form. Didn't know that was an option.
My stomach was all the flat and sexy now, in both forms. I had a bit of magic and some powers now. I even had an alternate form I could sneak around with to pretend at being in two places at once as different people.
I hadn't gone to Shantae to get an alternate form, but I'm not complaining.
"Man, this is an ass that just won't quit," I looked at myself in the mirror. I transformed in front of the mirror, the outfit I had on once again changed into a Shantae belly dancer outfit, with none of my male clothes to be found past the transformation. "I can actually feel the tingle as I shape shift. And it doesn't seem to matter what clothes I wear."
I took my outfit off and put it to the side. I also took a moment to appreciate that I knew how to take the outfit on and off. Most of the clothes weren't a big deal, but the jewelry and the bra needed some muscle memory I didn't have. but learning how to take a bra off in a timely manner could only be a good thing.
I opened up the Wardrobe I'd gotten in Scuttle Town and went looking through the outfits, settling on a purple version of belly dancer outfit I'd started out with. When I changed back to my male and human self it was as if nothing had happened. When I changed back into my Shantae alternate form I was back in the purple outfit.
"So I can change clothes. That's good to know," I rubbed the back of my hand over my chest, up and down. "Shantae doesn't have big breasts since her body is so small, but they're definitely there. Her smaller size certainly dosen't stop her from being a teenage heart throb. Just goes to show that as long as a woman has nice breasts, a flat stomach, and a good butt, something will go off inside our male brain heads that says 'this-good-mate-with-it'!"
I tapped my finger along my smooth jawline, not a man's beard shadow to be found.
"I'll definitely have to go shopping and play with this a bit. This girl needs clothes other than sexy swimwear, pirate outfits, and sailor uniforms," I paused, as another thought struck me. "Since I'm pretty much a woman all the way down to my DNA, does this mean my mind will shift to become more female as time goes on? My brain and skull changed too, and I'm basically running on estrogen now."
I turned around and bent over, observing how the clothes were slowly being sucked between my ass cheeks.
"If your swimwear goes between the cheeks you either got to own it, get a thong, or get another outfit. One of the things I always thought was so ridiculous is that girls would wear these tight cocktail outfits and then spend basically their entire night pulling the clothes down as they rode up. That, or wearing high heels and then walking home barefoot after half an hour in them. That's not a wardrobe malfunction, that's a You Malfunction because you wore the wrong outfit."
I nodded because, male or female, that made sense.
I stood back up, put my hands behind my back and tried to keep my arms straight. "If you're going to wear a tight skirt and high heels you need to take smaller steps when you walk."
I swung my hips left and right a few times and then turned around again.
The black triangle of fabric that was the seat of my harem pants had returned from the dark netherworld between my cheeks.
"There definitely is some video game magic going on with these outfits. I haven't had to tug anything into place no matter how I turn, it's like it's held in place with tape or painted on," I remarked. "Although now that I am Shantae and have the power to make people not care how scandalous I look I find myself interested in showing off. I don't feel awkward or ashamed at all for wearing this."
Was it wrong that I felt attracted to myself?
There was just something sexy about a girl bent over, arched back, which attracted me. More so my own ass. I had The Diamond.
Imagine that the shape of your round buttocks forms the tip of a point where they meet at the top and then your thighs at the bottom formed the four walls of a square, with your upside down pussy in the middle and your asshole at the top. That was The Diamond.
"Man, I never thought I would get my hands on an ass like this. Too bad it didn't happen while I was a man," I sighed as I switched between one form and another. "I'll have to get more transformations, or this is going to seem weird. Since I used magic and perks I'm pretty sure this doesn't count as cross-dressing. Everything changes from my DNA to the arrangement of my cell structure. Bone, ligaments, muscle mass, chemically, neurologically, I'm a woman. So I'm not Trans, I'm just transformed."
I nodded.
I looked at my hands and brought them up to my face. No matter how close or far away my hands were I could see my fingerprints. I brought my hand up to my face and brought it closer and closer to my eye until my hand was cupping my face.
I can hardly remember having eyesight this good. The only thing that comes to mind is when I was in middle school. I could put my nose up against the brick and still count the holes in the rock. Even with good glasses I'd never had that good ability to focus on something close once I'd lost it. That had been over twenty years ago now.
I thought about continuing with testing both in my Human and half-Genie forms at the gym, and maybe trying out some magic?
But I was curious . . .
"Ah, screw it!" I banged my hand off the side of the shed. "I'll deal with that later!"
I went into my stupid Mobil home and to my bedroom to look up my porn collection.
Universe: Yuyu Hakusho Jumpchain
Location: America
Time: Sunset, 1992
The cemetery was not a large one but it was funny in how active it was at night.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes were meeting up to do business. There were yokai, goblins, demons, and more which I'd have to look up in a book. English didn't have a very broad number of names for all the creatures from the Demon World.
Across the road a gas station which had gone out of business was home to a miniature tent town full of creatures hawking wares and services in the dawn's early night. I was pretty sure that the police cruiser contained an actual human and he was being mind-controlled by the way he stared fixedly on the road out in front of him.
But at least nobody was eating him. Taking funny pictures with a Kodak camera and making bunny ears? Yes. But his soul was in his body and he wasn't missing any blood and he'd be able to go home at the end of his shift. What more could you want?
I sighed as I took it all in and rubbed at my very male face. A tiny and cold-hearted part of my brain whispered sweet nothings in my mind. I should just get out a mini-gun and kill all these bastards while I have the chance.
I shook my head in disagreement. I always knew that the demons in this cartoon series were a bunch of evil aseholes but the level of casual disregard they had for our species was rock solidly grounded in reality.
Demons
Grimm reapers
Oni
Spirit Detectives
Psychics
Rich Men in Suits
The whole lot of them were so confident in the masquerade they pulled off it was hard not to believe that it was fully true when you saw it in action. It certainly helped that the guys in charge of the human afterlife were also fully supportive of the mascaraed and when, not if, you died than a full report will make it across Koenmon's desk lickety-split. And while it was not perfect, the rulers of the afterlife knew when and where each person on the planet would die so that helped.
I have never liked ghosts.
For the longest time while growing up, my mother would tell me about the specters that would go by our home. We had lived next to an open grass field once used by horses, across from the town ball field. Why would ghosts come by and bother us?
Now I found myself across a cemetery at a gas station on a long highway road watching as the sun set after having absorbed a portion of the power offered from this Jumpchain world, I decided that knowing was better than ignorance.
Thinking about it now I was pretty sure that Yu yu hakusho was actually far darker than the show let on, and that was fairly dark already.
In my time here just this day I'd seen enough things to confirm that human forgetfulness of the supernatural was a thing here. Some people would experience life-threating encounters due to their location or because some demons like hunting humans young or because a town was attractive to demons for some reason only to be rescued by the Spirit Detectives. No matter how hard they held onto the information they can't stop the memories from falling through the cracks until there was almost nothing left.
Then they'd forget why they were trying to remember something in the first place.
What should have been a dramatic, life changing event would be forgotten in hours or minutes.
Maybe they'll remember it as a dream some days later, maybe not. Or maybe they'll photograph the demon and get a picture in the local wacko magazines next to the UFOs and swamp gas. I don't know.
If ghosts were memories of the past come to haunt the present than I'm not sure exactly what perception of the paranormal counted as. The demons walking around the abandoned gas station and down to the convenience store should have been filmed on a Kodak camera or my phone but neither had worked.
But . . .
I watched as a new demon appeared from nowhere onto the crosswalk, the low-level creature able to teleport from this world to the Demon would through a tiny crack in the net. He was as red as blood, only three feet tall, had foot long sharp ears, a six inch long sharp nose, heavy black eyebrows, triangle yellow teeth, eyes that were solid grey marbles, and dressed in a brown trench coat and a fedora.
The bundle of nervous energy I should have experienced never materialized. Being an older man forced to interact with large groups of people in my last job, with dunks, assholes, skags, bitches, nice older couples, children, had taken a lot of that energy out of me. Plus now I was ripped as a Greek god jacked up on some serious confidence boosters.
I had no idea who he was, what type of demon he was, or even if he was a he at all.
The creature carried two sacs tied by a rope over one shoulder. "I've got what you wanted. Do you have my money?" then the creature pulled out a Rolex watch from one pocket and looked at the time.
I held up a brown mail envelope that was filled with cash. "I've got it here. Though I am curious why you would need cash."
"Just because we're demons doesn't mean we don't have bills to pay and humans to bribe," the red demon explained. He snapped his fingers, like a boss, "This way."
We went over to, well, what would be a wooden booth at the circus or town fair, but was working as a cashier desk, "manned" by half a dozen female demons with blue skin and hair, three eyes and six long spindly arms. Lights in green and red over the windows indicated they were open or not.
Business was brisk. There were swords being exchanged for those ice demon tear pearls, but also cash, gold, drugs, spices, and coolers with packs of blood from a hospital. Most everyone had horns. Most everyone looked pretty scary but the atmosphere of business made me forget about it.
When it was my turn I handed over my cash.
Like a bank teller or a pawn shop broker or a dealer at a casino, the woman asked me to take my money out of the bag, myself, before she took my money and started counting it out, turning the faces of the bills so they were all up. The one dollar bills went to the front, the fives went into the next row, the same as the tens, fifties, and the few hundreds I had. Six hands and three eyes can move a lot of cash. When she was done with a bundle she would then put the lot into a mechanical counter machine, counting it twice or sometimes more because the bills were slightly damaged and not clean and crisp, and then wrap them with a 5,000.00 paper band.
$987,315.00
"Huh, just close to a million dollars. You've got enough cash to buy everything we've got to sell here." The demon nodded appreciatively. "Why would you want these things?"
"I need slave labor," I shrugged. "How much?"
The demon threw the sacs down. "I ought to make you pay more, but these things are common as pencils. We treat them the same way we do human souls or slaves, which in today's market is about ninety dollars. Each bag has 700 seeds, so that's 126,000 total."
Yeah, I'd looked up the price of slave too before coming here so it wasn't a surprise to me. It was the actual kidnapping, service fees and transporting them to the buyer which jacked up the price.
"I'll take them both then, and I'd like some larger bills, if I may? And an anti-curse tag," I nodded to the cahier, who started sorting the bills with inhuman efficiency. When it was over and I had what was left of my cash back I also gave the demon a 100.00 for a tip.
Then I put my money back into my paper bag and put the lot in my Space Pocket where it would be safe. The demons keeping an eye on me noticed what I'd done.
The demons here knew fucking well all that I was weak as shit, but they respected magical powers.
I was bluffing so hard my dick could punch through a steel wall.
Once the tiny goblin demon had his money I took my two sacks and opened them up. Inside were large seeds each with the screaming face of a human being, complete with teeth and eye and looks of despair.
"Hey, where's the manual? How am I supposed to take care of these things?" I demanded, frowning.
"Heh!" the demon fanned himself with my cash before pocketing it. "You can grow them just like pumpkins. The trick, human, is that you have to feed them your spirit power. The more spirit power, the faster they'll grow, the bigger they get. If they run out of power they die and you control them telepathically. If you want more seeds all you have to do is cut open their crotch to get at their balls. Have a nice day."
Then the red goblin disappeared at a fast walk that I hadn't noticed before, so quickly that it only looked like he had teleported. I watched as the little guy went zipping through the crowd at speed, spanked a girl demon's butt on the way out, and then ducked as she retaliated with a triple barbed tail swipe.
Now, the fact that I could see the demon as he moved whereas ten minutes ago he was too fast for me to see showed that coming to this dimension and getting spirit power was the correct choice. Not only was I Spiritually Empowered and Spiritually Aware now, but I could pump that energy into my body to give me even more superhuman abilities. Like my eyes for example.
Unlike Toriko and his world's more physical explanations for their super powered abilities these were supernatural and at some point I was doing things that couldn't be explained by science.
Unless you were the Ghostbusters and Vankman, that is.
That wasn't even getting into the whole normalcy of society.
No matter how you look at it, the demons looked like they'd been created by a thousand artists that had only stayed within the human shape by broad definition; the demons all looked like punk rockers after a concert, the extras standing by for a movie shoot, or the participants for a Halloween costume contest. Sure they had weapons, but they also wore jackets, necklaces with iconography, and belts with chains, earrings and ball caps. They stood around talking shooting the shit and smoking with one hand and drinking a beer with the other while listening to music on boom boxes.
Then there were the demon women to look at. The girls seem almost entirely too human with a select number of parts added on for fun. I could almost get the idea that demons could hold onto certain features and grow new parts as they got older. Usually it was tails or teeth or ears. It was as if they had all chosen to be sexual icons and picked what they wanted out of a catalog. And really, if you had magic why wouldn't you make yourself look as beautiful as possible?
I could almost pretend that I was at a party at someone's house. Give them a few motorcycles and the imagery would be complete.
I took hold of my purchases and began making my own way out.
There had been a few demons on the edge of the crowd that had been eyeballing me. I made a point at looking at them.
They staired back at me.
I jumped upwards twice my height to get onto the roof of the bank booth. I appeared on top without effort, going right through the roof that had been in the way. I'd been practicing that move for three days now and now I had the chance to show off, I smirked back at them.
The demons who had seen what I'd done gaped.
From there I jumped into the air, then redirected my jump to land on the abandoned roof of the gas station. Dodging in the air was supper difficult, nearly impossible, even for demons that could fly. The fact that I had just done something nobody here could do?
Well, it made them cautious. There weren't really any rules or laws against killing demons. But the fact that I had some obvious power going for me when I had the spiritual presence of a weak demon? That might make them think I had something else up my sleeve.
I took a moment to jump from one telephone pole to another telephone pole before jumping back onto the road. Then I walked into the convenience store and bought myself a tub of chocolate ice cream for the walk home to the doorway I'd left behind.
No demon bothered me on my long walk back late at night.
.
