By the way, does anyone else wonder if changing the amount of mass present in the Bubble affects its lifespan? The only two ways I can imagine Grey Boy's Bubbles working is that either his Shard is maintaining them somehow (unlikely) or it is some form of self-perpetuating system like a spinning top staying upright. In the later case altering the variables present ought to have some effect on the system, though not likely an immediate one. I think Alex ought to scan the Bubble a second time after freeing the mayor just to check, it would not surprise me if the Bubble gains a few years after this albeit nothing major.
[X] a tiny wooden gnome.
[X] Creature
Creature Roll: (400 points)
Category Roll D50=15 Harry Potter/Percy Jackson, Entry Roll D137=48
100 Grindylow, 50 Hinkypunk, 200 Hippogriff
Category Roll D50=2 Ark/Primeval/The Future is Wild, Entry Roll D290=25
50 Blade Wasps, 300 Bloodstalker, 200 Brontosaurus
Sub-vote results: 50Hinkypunk + Micro Bonus
Banked: 350
This one kick my ass but I hope you like the result.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tuesday, 05/31/2011 (10 AM)
Right as the loop reset, I transformed him and applied the Eldritch Theme at the same time. In a blink the transformation was complete. Standing before me, was now a tiny wooden gnome.
Mentally I isolated the transformed man from the network while still sending him soothing vibes. He appeared confused as if he couldn't believe what was happening. And I couldn't fault him for that. As gently as possible I picked him up and sat him down on my outstretched hand. Then I stood up and walked out of the bubble.
Once out of the bubble, I removed the Elritch Theme from myself and the transformed mayor. There was no need to traumatize those watching.
The transformed mayor was frantically looking around, in a confused mix of elation, wonderment, hope, and fear. Would he dare to believe that it was real? As he gone mad? Again? One of his tiny arms was patting his belly, constantly checking that it was intact. Unconsciously he was emitting tiny squeaking sounds weirdly reminiscent of a creaking door.
Respectful silence fell as I approached the stretcher, the heroes and the troopers parting. With great care, I deposited him in the middle of the stretcher and took a step back.
"I'm going to turn you back to normal now. Ready?"
It took a bit for him to understand my words. When he did, he nodded frantically.
I flipped a mental switch, dispelling the effect and turning him back into his proper shape. And that's when things went wrong.
As soon as he turned back to normal, he started convulsing. Meanwhile, the heroes by my side collapsed. And Solar sent me a hurried message. Something, that I only heard once before.
[REQUEST RECEIVED], [SHARE DATA?]
Trigger event. Fuck!
I sent a hurried no to Solar. This situation was already complicated enough, there was no need to add more complexity to the Power that the Shard was brewing.
"Step back! Step back, he's triggering!" I shouted at the nurses and paramedics who were trying to restrain the convulsing man. Troopers were approaching the downed heroes to assist them. I let them do it. My attention was fully on the man currently undergoing a trigger event.
The convulsion had stopped but this wasn't the end. Under my eyes, he was transforming. His body was getting bigger and longer, his arms and legs were retracting into his body, his head was flattening, and his mouth was enlarging to occupy his whole face. His clothes got destroyed in the process, tearing under the strain. I didn't dare interrupt the process, I could cause more harm than good. Soon the stretcher broke under the new Parahuman increased bulk. Hopefully, this was a Changer power and he would be able to get back to normal.
Once the change was completed, the result was unsettling. Mayor Tiller has become a giant worm, around seven meters in length and three in height. One factor jumped to my attention immediately, his skin possessed a texture that was eerily reminiscent of bark. Bark that looked just like that of Root. It was evident that his Shard took some notes from the transformation. Was the trigger event on hold all those years in the bubble? If so, while transformed it couldn't connect due to the Menagerie protection and was forced to wait until I dismissed it. However, I still used that short window of time to analyze my partner through that fleeting connection. What else did it manage to learn? Root Sprite weren't in any way potent creatures. Nevertheless, they still possess a spark of magic. And what would have happened if I had chosen a more esoteric creature?
Behind me, the heroes were already waking up. My partners were still observing the scene with interest. Sifu in particular appears fascinated by the whole thing.
Despite his fearsome appearance the transformed mayor didn't appear to be aggressive. Reading emotion on a giant worm was far from easy but seeing that he wasn't indiscriminately attacking everything in the vicinity I decided to approach. And hoping he could still hear and understand my voice. I called on everything I learned about Psychology from Miss J.
"Mister Tiller. Things must be very confusing for you right now. Between being freed and now this, it's perfectly normal."
The worm turned to face me, lowering his head until I could see deep into his gullet. Despite my strength and my daily encounter with creatures that could swallow me in one bite, this felt different and a little intimidating. My hindbrain is screaming at me that I should flee. I ignored it. I had a much harder time ignoring the smell. How does something that only exists for less than a minute manage to have such rotten breath?
"I want you to focus. You should be able to find a new switch in your mind to turn back. I know you can do it."
For a bit, nothing seems to happen, apart from the mouth in front of my face opening and closing repeatedly. Then a shiver passed through the worm's body. He pulsed and shrunk, even changing color back to a more human skin tone.
Then he stopped and with a shriek, the flow reversed and returned to his monstrous worm shape. In reflexive anger, the traumatized man struck the ground with his new tail, cratering it with a thunderous blow. Everyone in the vicinity moved a few more steps back.
Strength is at least proportional to his new size, maybe superior. That was good to know.
"It's fine, it's fine. It was working. Not getting it on the first try is normal. You just need to keep trying."
The rumble coming from the man-turned-worm wasn't reassuring but he still hadn't made any aggressive move, so I took that as a win. He closed his mouth in what I could only hope to be the equivalent of closing his eyes in concentration. Absently, I wondered how he was perceiving the world in this state. Vibration maybe?
Ursa Aurora, who recovered in the meantime, approached cautiously. She spoke in a whisper. "Is it working?"
I answered in an equally low tone. "I think so. He nearly got it the first time."
And indeed this time it seems to be working. The pulses over the worm's body were happening more frequently, and each time he was shrinking a little more and returning to a more human shape. Until a naked man lay spread out on the ground. He was unconscious, the strain was too much for him.
Crouching down in front of him, I murmured. "You did good."
I gestured for the medical personnel to come over. Then I stood up and turned toward Ursa, with Bladelord behind her. Heatsink however was hovering near the medics, watching intently as Mayor Tiller was put on a new stretcher.
"Well, that didn't go quite as planned. But nobody was hurt, so there's that."
"Small mercy that. I certainly didn't expect to witness a Trigger event today." Ursa shook her head.
"Me neither." Bladelord clapped his hand. "Thankfully nobody was harmed. And by the way congratulation Compendium. You did it."
I gave him an honest smile. "Thank you. It will be the first of many."
Turning back toward the medical team we watched as Mister Tiller was being loaded into an ambulance. He would be transported to the nearest hospital and be put under observation. Considering the latest developments, he would certainly be put under watch by the Protectorate. In addition, as the very first person to be freed from a Gray Boy's bubble, the media would be eager to learn more about him. So he would need to be protected from that too. Considering the size of today's operation, hiding this was a pipe dream. A press conference was planned at ten to get ahead of any rumors. And this time they're would be no Triumvirate member to take the heat for me.
To try and distract myself from that dread event, I refocused on the bubble that was still there. Ultimately, it would need to be covered up again, this time with a much smaller building because there would be no need to consider the relative comfort of the person inside.
While I continued talking with Ursa and Bladelord, my partners got to work.
The first one to try was Quanta. The teleporting blob was able to generate a ghost inside the bubble. However, to his mounting frustration, it was unable to align with the ghost and teleport inside. It was a little funny to see the normally cheerful slime, glaring at its ghost and vibrating in annoyance.
Doc was the next to try his hand at it. I didn't know what to expect from this but I wasn't hopeful. And the results were indeed disappointing. The Time Stop effect didn't appear to interact with the Bubble in any way. Doc couldn't enter it while time was stopped. And if I equipped him with the Eldritch theme and he tried to activate it from the inside nothing happened. Well, the Time Stopper spread through the Bubble and even outside of it but when the effect ended the Bubble was still there.
Then it was time for the grandmother of time to try her hand at it. From the get-go, she told me that it wouldn't work. But she was willing to try if only to see if we could deduce anything from the attempt. While Kupuna Wa's time slowing ability looked at first glance very similar to Doc's Time Stop effect, weaker in fact, it worked on a completely different scale. Doc's was an extremely localized effect. Kupuna Wa's encompasses an area that I can't quantify, at minimum the size of the planet, and certainly a lot more.
She positioned herself, above the Bubble. I felt her focusing before unleashing the effect. For me and everyone else, it looked like nothing happened, except for the Mind linked with Kupuna Wa. This specific Mind saw things from her point of view. And sadly even from this unique perspective, the Bubble wasn't disturbed. The grandmotherly living mask could tell that the area of looping time continued to chug along as if nothing had happened.
With a disappointed sigh, Kupuna Wa returned to hovering near me.
The last one to make a move was Sifu. By now both Ursa Aurora and Bladelord had left to supervise the end of the operation. And Heatsink left with the ambulance carrying Mayor Tiller. By this point, the familial connection was pretty much confirmed. His son? A nephew? Something like that, but I wouldn't go digging.
I observed with great interest as the sage of the Panda Clan laid seals all around the bubble. What he was doing went so far beyond the little I already learned of Fuinjutsu that I couldn't make head or tail of what I was seeing. However, it was still fascinating to watch a master at work.
When he was finished, the ground around the Bubble was covered in esoteric characters and an unfurled scroll, also covered in seals, was positioned in an empty circle in front of Sifu.
"That looks extremely impressive, Sifu. You're going to try to seal the bubble inside the scroll?"
The red panda nodded firmly. "Yes. I've never sealed any phenomenon like that before." He gave me a wink. "This should prove interesting."
As he watched he launched a long sequence of paw-seals. After nearly a minute of uninterrupted motion, he slammed his paws on the ground at the very edge of the scroll. Light travels through the network of symbols, starting at the edge before converging toward the bubble.
For the first time since we started this experiment, the bubble showed some reactions. I held my breath as I watched it take on a mirror-like texture, before flashing through all the colors of the rainbow, then turning pitch black, and finally shrinking by a few centimeters. It remained like that for a few seconds as I prayed for it to work.
My hopes were dashed when the scroll burst into flames and the ink on the ground sublimated into noxious blue smoke. At the same time, the Bubble returned to its previous size and monochrome coloration.
Sifu hopped back and I followed his example. I remained silent, mentally raging against fate. The guards noticed the commotion and one was approaching. I waved him away. "It's fine. Don't worry about it." The man appeared unsure but ultimately nodded and stepped back.
I turned toward Sifu, who was talking to himself. "I didn't expect such a volatile result. Clearly, we'll need a much more robust scroll and a different type of ink." He was rubbing his chin. "Maybe some tweak to the matrix too."
Hearing that I regained some hope. "But if you do that, it will work?"
"I'm fairly confident yes."
I let out a smile. "That's excellent news, Sifu. Would it free the victim?"
Looking toward the sky, Sifu started muttering under his breath. "Hmm. Let me think." The red panda spent the next few minutes deep in thought before finally refocusing his attention on me. "No, anything inside would be dragged with the zone of looping time."
"Damn." I frowned. "At least, it could allow us to move the Bubbles. Clean things up once the victims are freed. But it's not a priority."
I turned back toward Sifu. "Thank you very much for your help Sifu. Will you be able to continue working on it in the Valley? Or do you need to remain here?"
He shook his head. "No, I've learned everything I could from this. I will be going back now. Good Day Summoner." With that, he bowed and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Sadly for me, I couldn't do the same thing. Once, I confirmed with the lieutenant in charge that my business with the bubble was done.
A little later, I found myself in front of the Montpelier Protectorate building. Bladelord just finished addressing the press and announcing that for the first time, someone was freed from one of Gray Boy's Bubble. He was of course immediately pelted with questions from all corners. He was prompt to pass on the ball to me.
My appearance caused another ruckus. Using a trick that Eidolon gave me, I remained stubbornly silent until the journalists realized that I wasn't answering anyone's question. Only, when they fell silent in turn did I speak.
"Thank you. Yes, I can confirm that today I used a power I recently acquired, in conjunction with some other ones to free someone from a time loop. And yes, I can promise to the families of the victims that I fully intend to free all the others. It will take time but we will do it. Now I can answer a few questions. You in the back."
The woman I designated eagerly addressed me. "Montpellier Herald. Compendium can you elaborate on the means used to free Gray Boy's victims?"
"Of course." I gave them a summary of the process without going into too much detail. The revelation that I could transform people into my partners caused another minor ruckus. The urge to call on The Voice on them all was rising but I suppressed it.
Then there was a question about the limits of this transformation power. I kept my answer vague, they didn't need to know the details.
Next, I selected another journalist standing in the middle of the pack. "NBC Vermont. What criteria will be used to decide the order in which the victims will be freed?"
"Mainly by the severity of their situation. A panel of medical professionals and Thinkers had been assembled to do so."
This answer didn't prompt an avalanche, so I was able to select another person.
"Fox News. As you only free the victims, what will happen to the Bubbles?"
"That has yet to be decided." The journalists didn't appear to be satisfied with that answer but they didn't press further.
The next question caught me a little off guard. "Vermont Daily News. Compendium, if I may, I have a question on a different subject."
I gave him a nod, at least she was polite. "Thank you. During the last week, you've been spotted in multiple different central states visiting the local PRT or Protectorate Headquarters. May we know why?"
"You're very well informed." She smiled at the compliment and I continued. "For security reasons, I can't give you all the details. However, I can tell you that this is linked to an effort to make my healing power more widely available all over the country. It does require some setup to be enacted, which is why I must travel to each location."
The following questions were all related to this. Some tried to pry more details about the setup, which I refused to answer. And some asked if this healing would be provided to civilians. On this, I remained as vague as possible. Only saying that it would be reserved for emergencies.
After that, I was able to conclude the press conference. A fair number of journalists grumbled at not being able to ask more questions, but I would be there all day if I didn't put a stop to it.
While I was in Montpellier, I picked up a new partner. Thankfully, Bladelord already adopted a young goat, creatively named Billy, to become the mascot of the local team. The enthusiastic caprin has been installed in a pen near the exterior training ground.
The Menagerie decided to gift me with two new partners immediately after I bonded with Billy.
A diminutive fairy-like magical beast made of smoke that carries a lantern, a Hinkypunk./And of course it uses that lantern to lure travelers into swamps and bogs, like a will-o-the-wisp./It can fire small fireballs from its lantern so it's not entirely defenseless.
The Hinkypunk may have the potential to make a hero. Equip Trait as a pseudo breaker power maybe or weapon summoning with the lantern. Something to think about.
Getting back to Brockton, I had a short debrief with Colin and Director Piggot. They were mainly interested in knowing how much more time I would be spending away from the Bay, now that in addition to the partner network I had the Gray Boy's victims to free. They were in no way opposed to this, but they needed to know to schedule patrols and such.
My afternoon was much calmer, with a few meetings and some training. The most notable event was Nimue gaining her eighth floor after a delve by the Pioneer. I was extremely proud of her. She was advancing at an incredible pace. Of course, she had access to reliable delvers, lots of resources, and all the other advantages of the Menagerie but that was still impressive.
We spent a while designing her new floor together. And after consulting with my partners, Hé-no volunteered to serve as her boss. This surprised me a little but I had no problem with it, and he would indeed make for a fantastic boss.
(D142=95 Mortashen, D160=46 Fragnetic (200))
(D142=26 The World Ends With You, D108=95 Vespertilio Canor (400))
(D142=20 Terraria, D217=40 Pygmy Staff (300))
The round of Random Summoning wasn't anything special today, but I had worse. Sadly nothing, with long-term benefits.
I ended my day with a visit to the Pelham house. Crystal invited me for dinner. Seeing her bedroom I discovered that my girlfriend was kind of a slob. Her blush was extremely cute when she realized that maybe doing some cleaning before inviting her boyfriend would have been a good idea. Before, dinner we spent an hour together, cuddling with the occasional kiss. She also showed me some art pieces she made for her classes, mainly stylized logos. Even though she didn't call herself an artist, she had some serious talent. She gave me a drawing of my symbol, a dragon head coming out of an open book, and the results were breathtaking. It would feature prominently in my office.
During dinner itself, today's events came up but thankfully we didn't linger too long on it. All in all, it was a very pleasant and relaxing evening.
Wordcount: 3361
Excess words: 542
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As some of you have guessed, Gray Boy's victims have a high chance of triggering when freed. However, as Scion still lives it wasn't a broken trigger. Can you guess what I intend to do with the ramifications that the Shards can gather and use Data if the host was transformed during the trigger event?
For the roll, 350 (Banked) + 360 (Chapter) + 0 (Excess words) = 710 points.
[] Creature
[] Power
Voting will be closed Saturday at 3 PM GMT
Note: You may remember that a while back I asked for ideas on what Alex could give to Crystal so she could come with him when traveling dimensions.
You had some good proposals, and I continue to look on my own. I would like your opinion on the options that appeal to me the most. This is not a vote, I'll decide myself, just please tell me what you think. And if you've thought of other things don't hesitate to share.
(700) Ramiel with Equip Trait (proposed by @Kratos1990): She could equip the S2 engine as an organ, allowing her to manifest an AT field (but not the laser) and only call Ramiel if things go to hell.
(600) Matatabi with Maintain Summoning: She could be a Jinchuriki all the time. And slowly learn to use chakra. The drawback is that she would need to learn, which takes time she may not have before she could do much more than call on a Chakra cloak.
(500) Horse Talisman with one undecided power: The pure survivability option. The Dog Talisman could work too.
(300) Crystalsapien with Armor Summoning (proposed by @jonasquinn): The least expensive option of the lot, but flavorful. It's not discreet at all, and cannot be hidden if she uses it.
This chapter reads more like a list of bullet points instead of a segment of the story but I couldn't find a good way to summarize the events that I wanted to include without doing that. I hope you like it anyway.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sunday, 06/05/2011 (9 AM)
The four days that followed my visit to Killington, were at the same time eventful and peaceful. A lot of small things happened but none of them were that noteworthy.
Over that period I freed five additional people from Gray Boy's Bubble. Among these, three triggered, and despite my attempts to minimize things each one gained power influenced in more or less subtle ways by the partner I turned them into.
A woman that I turned into Mole, gained the ability to create a hole in the ground, and if she jumped into it, she then teleported some distance away by emerging from another hole in the ground.
Trying to be as bland as possible the next one was turned into a Bunny. The man in question gained enhanced senses, mostly smell, and even more so hearing. Once again this could be explained away, Thinkers with enhanced senses in one flavor or another were a dime a dozen. Still, it was weird.
I could have chalked up those two as a coincidence, but the last one convinced me otherwise.
So for the last one, I picked Bacon. The result was a woman able to throw blasts of light that turned anyone hit into a piglet for a few minutes, and if they were parahuman she gained a much weaker version of their power for the same duration. Considering how traumatized she was we didn't do comprehensive tests but she panicked when waking up after her trigger event and she hit a hero called Hecaton, who can grow additional arms and legs. As soon as he was turned into a pig she sprouted fingers and toes from all over her body. It didn't help with her state of mind, and Hug was required to calm her down.
It was evident that Shards in general, loved to use Data gained from my partners to craft the ability they would grant. I was determined to avoid any partners with any real power. For the next, I was thinking of the Companion Cube. But would there be any psychological consequences for the victims after being transformed into an inanimate object?
Obviously, even if I was freeing those people, which was wonderful, seeing them suffer in horrible ways beforehand was a bit traumatizing, so I did meet with Doctor Yamada on Friday. We talked a fair bit about my experience with the bubbles, how I handled it so far, whether I could sleep, what my feelings were each time, and so on.
Putting words on things felt good. At the end of the session, I called Moonbeam. Once the surprise passed, Doctor Yamada got on smashingly well with my unicorn. We spent a fair bit of time talking about psychology in general, my contribution was purely theoretical but the two of them were able to exchange more concrete examples without quoting names of course. The differences in the psychological makeup of humans and ponies exist but surprisingly aren't that deep. The two widely different sapient species had a lot in common.
During my travels, I continued to pick up new partners. In Albany, I gained a Guinea Pig, a Salamander from Columbus, a Betta fish in Lansing, and lastly a Great Dane from Harrisburg. I wasn't sure if the dog would pass muster for the Menagerie, considering I had multiple already, but it worked fine.
On the subject of the partner network, I received the first request for healing. I expected it much earlier, however, the one in charge restrained themselves to emergency cases. I got two back-to-back, a pair of troopers who received bullet wounds during a firefight in Denver, and a hero from Cheyenne who received a nasty burn. In both cases, the healing worked just fine.
Of course, traveling wasn't the only thing I did. On Thursday, I had enough time for one more magic lesson with my two students. Well, less a lesson and more an experiment. Specifically, we tried to enchant some of Strega's amulets. At first, I was afraid that Taurus would feel excluded but thankfully that wasn't the case. He was deeply interested in the experiment and he took on the job of documenting most of it.
For my part, I was really interested in Strega's power. Her ability to bend the law of physics wasn't uncommon among Parahumans, but her versatility was. The strategist in me was appreciative of the tactical value of it.
It didn't take long to get some good results. Unbreaking made the effect of her totems last nearly three times as long, with some variance depending on how many beings were subjected to their effects. With just that, this experiment was a success. But of course, we didn't stop there.
The logical thing to do after Unbreaking was to try with Mending. And while it did prolong the effect of the Totem, theoretically for an unlimited duration, that was only if we fed it Bottles o' Enchanting. And that would be extremely costly and difficult to manage in the field.
Finding out if other enchantment works, proved trickier. It turns out that the answer was only with specific effects. The one that modulates temperature could be affected by Flame or Fire Aspect to increase it and by Frost Walker to reduce it.
There was also Density, which worked extremely well when it came to increasing gravity. With that effect being by far her favorite, I knew that Density would become scarce among my collection of enchanted books in short order.
Before putting an end to the experiment we found out one last enchantment that worked, but in different ways than the others. Protection, and its variants, made the totem at the center of the effect harder to destroy. Considering that the totems were the main weakness of Strega's power, it was an excellent find.
All in all, we were plenty satisfied with this day's lesson.
Professionally, I also had a meeting with Dragon. I asked her to send me a Dragonsuit so I could load it up with several things I gathered. Collin was fairly busy, and Kid Win was still in the middle of a frenzy of redesign following the discovery of his specialty. In any case, Dragon would no doubt share.
I end up giving her a lot of stuff. The three mecha shiftweapons, ascroll, dust samples from the Evernight Castle, and a few things I picked up from Random Summoning that she was better equipped to study than me. She was particularly excited about the Superconductive Copper.
While we talked in person, I mentioned that her Dragonsuit technically qualifies for Creature Acquisition. So if she was willing to give me one, I would happily accept it. It could serve as my partner for the Guild. She was extremely receptive to the idea, stating that she would design the best one she could while keeping in mind everything that my powers brought to the table. Her exact words were, only the very best for my little brother. Seemingly she saw this as an opportunity to repay me for my help in some small way. I simply said that I was looking forward to it. It should be ready in a few weeks. I was quite curious to know what she would cook up.
Training wise I started and finished my regime of seeds. Having eaten a hundred of each I was ready to stop there. And I was a little sick of them too. The only exception would be if I find any other type of seeds. The results spoke for themselves, even with the minimum amount of partners summoned and no other boost I could do amazing things. And with everything activated at once, I would be hard-pressed to find anyone able to rival me in physical activity. It was somehow exhilarating.
I spent a fair amount of time getting accustomed to my new physical parameters, sparring with my partners, shadowboxing, and just exercising in general. I continue to visit Nimue's Dungeon too, and reach level seven as Dungeon Master and five as a Researcher. I regained the ability to use Material Extraction on the partner that I lent to Nimue and a perfect memory concerning Magical Theory, which was quite nice.
Practice with the Panda also continues, both with my wood clone and by myself. I didn't learn anything new, but I continued to refine what I learned. In the same vein, I trained with Rex's chakra cloak. Something that I've been neglecting lately with everything that was on my plate. With the wood clones available, I could now afford to do so. It was even one thing that the clone could help train. There was a strong chance that I would need it when Behemoth inevitably raised his ugly head.
And evidently, armament Haki remained a priority. On that front progress was glacially slow, by my standard anyway. Kuja wasn't able to give me much context but it was clear that training Haki was normally an extremely long road. Even just manifesting it could take years. The fact that I could do so, even just on my fingertip, was a testament to all the advantages at my disposal. So in the end I couldn't complain about my ability to learn this rare skill at a hundred times the speed of someone else, instead of instantly.
My partners were also training during the same period. The Pokemon, battle maniacs that they were, continue to progress at a rapid pace. Koraidon learned the powerful move, Outrage, a move that I would be extremely careful in deploying. The user had a tendency to go mad with rage and destroy everything in their path. Considering Koraidon's strength the risks were substantial. But he wasn't the only one, the other continued to learn new moves as well. I was extremely proud of them.
But of course, my Pokemon weren't the only ones to progress. Gobimon has grown enough to reach the level of Ultimate. After a fierce battle against R.O.B, he managed to Digivolve into a magnificent Brachiomon. At that stage, he towered above the battlefield in a real way, without becoming so large that he couldn't act in an urban environment. Aylamon was the first to congratulate him, before asking for a ride. The following minutes were spent watching Aylamon ride on Gobimon's massive head while shouting encouragement at him to run faster.
Concerning my personal life things were also going remarkably well. On Thursday, I had a short date with Crystal during her lunch break. Nothing complicated, a simple leisurely walk in the park adjacent to the college. It was just nice to spend time together.
On the same evening, I participated in an impromptu online tournament with Lars in a racing game. Even with my enhanced reflexes I lost, simply because he knew the game better. It was fun anyway.
And on Friday night, we all gathered in a Karaoke for an evening of singing and laughing. I discovered that Crystal wasn't a great singer, her voice was more than pleasant enough but she couldn't hold a note to save her life. I wasn't any better so I couldn't complain. It was an enjoyable evening.
Mom wasn't forgotten, we spent a good chunk of Thursday evening cooking together. She used the opportunity to tease me about my relationship with Crystal. I endured it with good grace.
On the Menagerie front, a few things happened. I gained two partners, a cute bird called the Least Auklet. And a Storm Atronach, an elemental being made of stone and lightning. Interestingly, I didn't get to choose their name, they gave it to me through Animal Language. They were called Qo, seemingly it means lightning in some obscure language from their dimension.
Still related to the Menagerie, I gained a new partner in a different way. Early Wednesday morning I watched with eager anticipation as the Void Chick's egg moved from side to side, before cracking, a tiny beak piercing the shell, fragments of it falling to the ground and revealing the tiny head of the chick. Through a process that took several minutes, it extracted itself from its egg, first cracking the egg in half, then pushing, before resting, before pushing again. Each time the cycle repeats itself a little more of its body is revealed. After one final push, it managed to stumble into the open air, trembling from the cold. After resting for a minute it tentatively stood up, and started chirping, looking for food.
It was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen in my life.
After making sure it was alright I let it in Hug's tender care.
Obviously, I kept my routine of Random Summoning.
Wednesday
(D144=5 Pokemon, D548=231 Hippopotas (200))
(D144=37 Card Captor Sakura, D52=44 The Through (200))
(D144=131 Smite, D27=3 Camazotz (600))
Hippopotas was a cute and affectionate Pokemon, but the sandstorms he could generate at a whim were kind of bothersome. At least he got along great with Gobimon for the brief duration of his visit. The Trough was an interesting card but not really useful to me, I already have multiple different ways to pass through walls. Sadly the last creature I got to meet on Wednesday was an unpleasant fellow. Camazotz was a god in the same way as Cernunnos was. The first words out of his mouth include a request for a human sacrifice. I didn't insist and dismissed him immediately. Contrary to Cernunnos, I hoped to never meet him again.
The ability to attract pollinators that Stamen possessed was mildly interesting and he was a nice enough fellow but that was all. Despite being a Demon the Crow Tengu was actually fairly pleasant to talk to. And he was able to give some advice to Caradoc, they spared for a bit. For his part, the Sphinx of Game turned out to be a malicious being, trying to convince me to play riddles with him right away. Even with the protection of the Menagerie I refused to play with him and dismissed him in short order.
Friday wasn't great for Random Summoning, a vicious dragon, a giant evil flying whale, and a big mutated rat. Nothing with any real uses. I mean the whale was impressive, yes. But I couldn't do anything with it.
And on Saturday I got a giant moth that granted me the ability to glide just for having it. It could have been since to give it to a hero that needed some mobility. Next was a robotic weapon platform that was a mix of human and alien technology. The interesting part for me was the Alloy that composed its armor. It was an excellent material and I extracted as much as I could from it. Both to give to Nimue and to Dragon.
But the best one that came out of Random Summoning was the last one. Even I heard about the legend of the Monkey King. Meeting one of his companions was an honor. We spent the whole night talking and training. He was a fantastic teacher. Twenty-four hours was far too little time to even try to learn any magical skills from him, particularly since I had work to do on Sunday. So instead, with the help of Laoban, he helped me refine my scattered martial arts training. Teaching me some exercises to do and a lot of tricks that could be used with Shapeshifting considering the power that Solar grants me. Come morning I left a trio of wood clones with him to continue.
The engineers, biologists, and geologists had finished their work. All the permits had been acquired. And the event had been organized. Finally, everything was in place for me to move the tanker blocking the Bay.
Wordcount: 2721
Excess words: 263
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The next chapter will cover the moving of the tanker and maybe another mini-time skip, we'll see how it goes.
For the roll, 410 (Banked) + 240 (Chapter) + 120 (Excess words) = 770 points.
[] Creature
[] Power
Voting will be closed Friday at 3 PM GMT
Note 1: What type of Dragonsuit do you think Dragon will give to Alex? A (pre-time skip) canon one or a custom one? And if the second, what features should it include?
Note 2: I added a new class to the list of Dungeon Classes, the Force Sculptor. It's very likely to be the class that Crystal will choose, but it's available to everyone.
