Two outta three, y'all are getting me excited with these guesses! Honestly, I'm mostly excited for the chance to get a legendary Pokémon, pairing it with Alpha will be super interesting! The deadline for the choice is coming, and I'm hitting a serious writers block because of it, so I'm really hoping more people will give a preference soon...
The True Ark (Celestial Menagerie, OC)
- Thread starter SoberSaviour
- Start date
Chapter 11
I woke up with a grumpy reluctance that was oh so familiar. Why must the gods curse you with early mornings, oh the cruelty of it all.
"Arnold, get the fuck up! The temps are here!" Thomas, you freak of nature, how are you so awake every damn day. It's probably spite, now that I think of it. Stupid hateful old bastard. "Arnold!" I will get my revenge, sir!
A groan escapes my throat as I roll off the couch with a loud thud. I glance at the wall clock and fix a glare at the hour hand. Who the fuck gets up willingly before five in the morning? Crotchety fossils and temp workers, evidently. Grumbling all the while, I get dressed and start the usual morning rituals, including slamming a full shot of pure espresso. Once I set up the morning baked goods, I threw the goods I whipped up last night on a tray, and I'm finally feeling a little alive.
Last night's revelations try to penetrate the fog, but my grogginess is too string, having only slept for three hours. Espresso shot number two is slammed back with fervor, and I bring the trays with me down the stairs.
"There's the little shit, so anyway, let me give you the run down on the do's and don'ts of working here." Dumb bald dickhead. Ignoring the two blobs of foreign biomass, I mechanically put the food on display and run a quick stock of coffee beans. Still good.
Wait.
Fuck, today they're gonna shadow us to learn the ropes, aren't they. Thank Gaea you knocked the second shot back. It would've taken at least another ten minutes to register the waking world. Trudging back upstairs, I grab the barista guide, double-check it's not my training plans, and lumber back downstairs to pass it off.
"-nd Arny there has some specialty drinks that I have no clue how he manages to make, so if anyone asks-" I interrupt Thomas by tossing the notebook onto the table they were talking at, startling all three. Triple kill, hehe.
"Jesus -" "Holy - "
"Fucking rat bastard!" Thomas glares at me accusingly.
"Guides. Fuck you, Tom. Stupid early birds special eating ass bitch." I continue my grumbles of vitriol as I go back upstairs to get breakfast started. I hear mirrored insults thrown my way from the café. That's what you get for being morning people, sucks to be you.
A massive yawn resets my train of thought, and I get back to the kitchen with waffles popping into my head. That sounds good to me.
Halfway through my meal, a still grumpy Thomas trudges up the stairs, explaining how the apartment is off limits and that he already has a house sitter picked out, so he will know if they fuck around.
"And this is Arnold Polke, an ungrateful brat that, despite being useless in the morning, will be your teacher and direct supervisor while I'm gone."
I finally get a good look at the temporary employees, and instantly hate the older man who looks offended that I outrank him. With a tan complexion and receding hairline, he looks to be in his late thirties. His bushy eyebrows looked like they had a mind of their own, and paired with his crooked nose makes for an effective glare. He had dark brown hair and eyes, but his mustache was so small it looked drawn on. A scar ran down his strong jawline, and a mole was huddled into the upper left corner of his massive forehead. He was otherwise average, not very thin but certainly not fat or fit.
The other was a woman who had brown hair and eyes as well, but they were repeatedly glancing at their coworker with discomfort. She was kinda mousy and was the shortest in the room, no taller than five foot eeven. Her body was shapely, and her posture was highly guarded, as if the man next to her was about to attack her any second. She had a few small scars on her face that were expertly hidden with makeup. Although her face was meticulously enhanced with foundation, blush, and who knows what else, it didn't quite hide the stresslines of a woman beaten down by life.
"Listen to him, and you'll be able to be a barista full time wherever you want in this dumpster fire of a city. There's nobody better at cooking, baking, or brewing in this city. Unfortunately. I would've hired anyone else if they could've kept up."
"Go to hell, Tom."
"You first, Arnold. Anyway, any questions?" The man glared harder at me but said nothing for now. The woman tentatively raised a dainty hand, looking confused.
"Umm, how will we be learning from Mr. Polke?" Her voice was soothing in a motherly way, but her obvious anxiety was making her seem even smaller than she was.
Mr. Quincy waved the guide I tossed at them earlier. "This is your Bible while you work here. If you have a question, nine times outta ten, it's in here, and any others are in there too. Read it, follow it, memorize it if you have to, and you'll be fine. Anything goes beyond the pale, and you need another opinion, ask us. You go to Arnold first, then me." She nods, relaxing a fraction.
"Any way I can learn who I'm training here, or am I just gonna call you man and woman?" I ask waspishly, really not liking the Hispanic man's attitude.
They each look momentarily surprised before the man scoffs and rumbles with a noticeable accent. "Jorge Silva."
The woman clears her throat and demurely mutters. "Kayden Anders."
I grunt an affirmation and go back to my breakfast. As Thomas herds the two back downstairs to open up, a pull on my soul drags me in.
The loom spins. Threads condense together, darkening in the process as the tapestry wove together. Soft colors brighten up a small image of a submersible shining it's lights at a cavern wall, dense currents distorting the beams. Behind it was many dim blue lights, illuminating a creature. Fifteen meters of sea titan float ominously behind the bright submarine, dark navy scales reflecting the several dozen bioluminescent bulbs and spots of the monster. It's teeth were the size of swords, and we're angled outward like an anglerfish. The Hullbreaker, a silent hunter of the deep. A power is gifted with it, Flashbang Summoning.
The timeless inspection ended, and I was back. The hullbreaker was a terror I'll gladly hold onto for later, it's destructive ram being ridiculously powerful would be put to good use, say, against a certain watery Endbringer? It should also be a good sparring partner for Ariel when she evolves.
Focusing on the present, I start putting away the dishes and think about the two temps. Jorge is going to either be a massive problem, or just an annoyance. It will all depend on if he changes his tune when be starts shadowing me. If he does, his attitude will be irritating to deal with but not impossible. If he doesn't, Thomas will need a replacement because I'm not dealing with that for even one day.
Kayden on the other hand, seems a bit too timid for customer service. I could easily imagine her being railroaded by some douchebag, but I'll withhold judgment until I've seen her in action. Perhaps her softer temperance will prevail over the Karens and Kyles out there looking to throw their weight around. Stranger things have certainly happened.
Heading down, I see they both are waiting for me, and it seems Thomas is already out for supplies.
"Alright, first up, I'm going to go over the menu so you don't look incompetent glancing at the prices all day. Then, we're gonna..." It carried on like this for a couple hours, and thankfully, my ability to teach is top tier fiat-backed bullshit. It took only an hour, and they had more or less memorized most of the prices and menu options. The second hour was live practice after opening at seven o'clock. The college zombies hardly noticed the new faces, but the old timers and regulars did.
Come lunch, the somewhat familiar zip of wind entered the café and all eyes were on Victoria. With a flicked coffee bean, I had her undivided attention. "Aura, Vicky." My impression of Panacea leaves her befuddled, but she eventually gets it under control.
"Thank you, now I've got news for you and the Wards." She perks up. "Me and old man Tom are gonna be gone for about a month, so it'll be around halfway through January when your favorite coffee maker will be back." She looks absolutely floored and starts blubbering and begging me to stay.
To my right, I notice how tense Kayden's become and take a quick glance to make sure she's okay. Her hands are white knuckled, her shoulders were tight, and her impressive muscles I only now noticed were coiled and ready to spring into action.
This is odd because she's been exceeding my expectations in nearly every way. She gets a bit cold towards minorities, but she hasn't said or done anything irrideemable yet. She's trying to overcome her racism, at least that's what it looks like to me, and considering where we are, it could be she was just raised that way and is fighting her parent's influence. Until she slips up, I'm content with respectfully ignoring it since nobody else seems to care. But now she looks like she's on the verge of a panic attack.
I give a couple of apologies and hand off the orders to Jorge so I can touch base with Kayden.
"Hey, you okay? Need a break?" Kayden flinches and looks at me with wide eyes. For a second, there was a corona of light around her eyes, but it was gone so fast I might have imagined it. She forces herself to relax with a deep breath and meekly nods.
"Best hurry up then, you get fifteen minutes." I say not unkindly. She nods in relief and books it to the bathrooms. I sigh out a somewhat disappointed huff. It seems I've found an elusive one here.
For the last couple of months, Purity has been absent from the Empire 88's roster. She is the strongest Blaster in the city, able to annihilate entire buildings in one go of her beams of light, and her trademark look was light too bright to see through shrouding her face. And now, a woman appears as a temp worker with racist leanings, glowing eyes, and an extreme aversion to one of the most popular heroes in the Bay. I may suck at math, but I can put two and two together. Somehow, I'm teaching a super villain how to be a barista. Great.
Grabbing Glory Girl's order, I pull Jorge over to show him how to make a Miner's Delight and continue as if nothing happened. She is trying to be better, so she'll get the one chance. If she fucks it up? Gaea, save her ass cause I'm going Nazi hunting.
Victoria was pouting fiercely in the pickup line, but I told her it's about family, and she accepted it begrudgingly. With an extra strong espresso labeled for her sister and a conspiratorial wink, the super heroine flies off to deliver a present.
The day wound down pretty quickly, with Jorge and Kayden acceptable at the basics by the end of shift. While I was wiping down some tables, I sent off a text to Thomas about their progress. He's happy with it since he's only a few levels above the two temps himself, but I can't be satisfied with them until the first weekly check-in shows them as my version of acceptable.
Thinking on it, I ask Tom to grab a few tools. I'll need to do some maintenance on my mecha-shift weapons and some extra materials in case I need it won't hurt. As soon as I hit send, I head up to get a late lunch prepped for Jorge and Kayden. I'm not showing off. Shut up.
"Hey rookies, I've got some meatball subs for ya, my treat." I holler to them both, and the speculative look they share makes me feel better about my decision to give Purity a chance. I may come to regret it at some point, but I want to believe in redemption.
Jorge shrugged and took the first bite. After a satisfying crunch of toast, his eyes widened as the flavor hit his taste buds. Pulling an equally satisfying cheese pull, Jorge nods to Kayden and dives in with gusto.
Mrs. Anders takes a far smaller bite but is still instantly enchanted by my cooking skill and lets out a shift moan of delight.
I watch with a great amount of smugness. Even though the skills were handed to me on a silver platter, I was proud of my cooking. The looks of happiness on everyone's face whenever they try my food warms my heart.
Within ten minutes, the late lunch was over, and we were back to business as usual. No surprises popped up, no more heroes came in, and the workday ended without issue. After closing, Jorge stayed behind while Kayden left in a bit of a hurry to pick up her daughter.
"I wanted to apologize." Jorge said, looking at me with respect. "I doubted you quite a bit this morning, but I'm glad I was wrong. Thank you for teaching me so much today."
I look at the temp worker and give a soft smirk. "I always do enjoy shattering preconceptions. It's fine, I'm aware of how I look in the morning, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to teach you both. You picked things up far quicker than I expected, so I must say I'm proud of you and Kayden. On a weekly basis, Tom is coming back to check-in and touch base, so if you want to keep working here after the month is up, you can let him know after your first week." He smiles and nods with determination.
After he's left, I let off a sigh and collapse into a chair. I've been putting it off, but I need to think about what I learned last night.
According to Gaea and Alaya, I have the potential to develop a Reality Marble. This form of magecraft requires the user to either be inhuman or think inhuman. The idea is to layer what you perceive the world to be within a temporary and enclosed sphere, enforcing it upon reality and dragging anyone caught in its range into your world. In this bubble, you are effectively replacing Gaea's influence with your own, making the laws of physics and magecraft obey your ideals. It is a very powerful ability, but once I make one, it means I've truly left my humanity behind.
The idea I'm not human isn't so much the issue. What is, is that it means I'll never truly fit in with society at large again. I'll never be comfortable just being human, and that is a big change. For now, it's only the possibility to manifest one, so until I complete my Reality Marble, I'm still the same.
The question then becomes, do I want to complete it? For now, I have plenty of distraction with the training I'll be doing over the next month, so I'm putting it off till later. Again.
My phone vibrates, and I look to see a text from Thomas. He picked up the supplies, as well as the tools and materials I asked for, and his pickup truck was fully loaded. I'm a bit sad to leave the café for so long, but I know I'll be back, and when I am, I'll get to see my students' progress.
With all the context I've been given today, I can say with reasonable surety that Kayden is trying to get clean. Throughout the day, she was getting more and more open with the customers and with Jorge. The minor hiccup with Victoria was more worrying, but it was her first day.
Looking up her name, it turns out her husband is none other than Max Anders, the CEO of Medhall. Another piece of the puzzle.
I lean back in the chair and tumble these nuggets of information around. I heard Kayden cooing and talking with a mother who was jogging with her son in a stroller. She said her daughter was younger than the two year old boy, and a newborn could be a pretty good catalyst to think harder on life choices.
Why would the wife of a very successful businessman be doing temp work? Most likely, she is looking to be more independent. According to her temp file, she hasn't been working for several years. So, she's not happy with her husband in sole control of the finances, but this is a recent change.
As one of the strongest capes in the Bay, she would very likely be married to another cape to have something to relate to, which is a rabbit hole I'll avoid for now to stay focused. Intergang marriage is the most common way to consolidate power with bigger gangs, so any disagreement between Kayden and Max will definitely affect her position in the Empire.
So, to summarize my hypothesis here, Kayden Anders had a child with Max, and wanting to protect her newborn daughter is trying to leave the Empire behind, possibly including their racist dogma. Since they haven't divorced, Max has some level of power over her that might not be limited to financial issues, but it is one way for her to start vying for independence with custody of her daughter.
With a sigh, I rub my face in annoyance. I'm not qualified to judge her for her actions since I'm not sure what I would do in her place. But I am qualified to help her protect her innocent daughter since I will be a hero. So until I debut and get enough pull to guarantee her daughter's protection, the best way to help is to help Kayden herself.
With that squared away, I think back to Max Anders. The CEO of Medhall is most likely an Empire cape and a fairly high ranked one if his leverage over the strongest blaster in Brockton Bay says anything. This also means that Medhall is all but certainly a front for the Neo-nazis. With how egotistical most villains are, I'm guessing that Kaiser would never allow an asset like Medhall to be under anyone but his control. Ergo, Max Anders is probably Kaiser. This is a very big issue.
If I'm being honest, having Medhall set up here has been a major boon to the city. The number of jobs it brings is a massive part of the local economy, and simply deleting it would do way more harm than good at this point. In order to root out the Empire, I'm going to need to find some way to influence the company, which is not gonna happen as a sixteen year old dropout. Until I get an answer, I'm not going to be able to target Kaiser directly.
Thomas interrupts my musings by ringing the shitty bell on the doorframe, and his smirking mug tells me that I'm going to be doing a lot of work in just a minute.
"Guess who has two thumbs, is leaving the city for a month, and has a ton of shit to pack?" My eyebrow twitches. He points at me. "This guuuy!" I fucking knew it.
"And who's going to make dinner?" I question pointedly. His smirk grows. "Someone who had better start working if they want time to eat. Spoiler alert, I ate while I was out shopping. Chop chop!" Hatred. All the hatred.
So, we have a lot happening, and is it just me, or did Noah puzzle that out a bit too quickly... almost like someone wanted him to know about it. I wonder who that could be? *laughs with malice* Ahem, anyway, at this point I want to set a bounty on spell idea inspiration, because shit, it is tough to think up simple spells that a beginner would be able to learn or create, but are suitably complex to be powerful so it's actually usable with the in setting weakness. Funnily enough, the magic power needed to truly manifest a Noble Phantasm for any amount of time, even a weaker one like Wickerman, takes a lot more energy than it does to cast far weaker and more temporary spells, especially with Gaea's hidden aid. So, the complexity that Noah can utilize is pretty solid, even with only twelve circuits of middling quality.
LAST CHANCE to state your case! One month timeskip, or one month of shown training! Pros and cons in a following post!
But still, leave your thoughts, and thanks for reading!
"Arnold, get the fuck up! The temps are here!" Thomas, you freak of nature, how are you so awake every damn day. It's probably spite, now that I think of it. Stupid hateful old bastard. "Arnold!" I will get my revenge, sir!
A groan escapes my throat as I roll off the couch with a loud thud. I glance at the wall clock and fix a glare at the hour hand. Who the fuck gets up willingly before five in the morning? Crotchety fossils and temp workers, evidently. Grumbling all the while, I get dressed and start the usual morning rituals, including slamming a full shot of pure espresso. Once I set up the morning baked goods, I threw the goods I whipped up last night on a tray, and I'm finally feeling a little alive.
Last night's revelations try to penetrate the fog, but my grogginess is too string, having only slept for three hours. Espresso shot number two is slammed back with fervor, and I bring the trays with me down the stairs.
"There's the little shit, so anyway, let me give you the run down on the do's and don'ts of working here." Dumb bald dickhead. Ignoring the two blobs of foreign biomass, I mechanically put the food on display and run a quick stock of coffee beans. Still good.
Wait.
Fuck, today they're gonna shadow us to learn the ropes, aren't they. Thank Gaea you knocked the second shot back. It would've taken at least another ten minutes to register the waking world. Trudging back upstairs, I grab the barista guide, double-check it's not my training plans, and lumber back downstairs to pass it off.
"-nd Arny there has some specialty drinks that I have no clue how he manages to make, so if anyone asks-" I interrupt Thomas by tossing the notebook onto the table they were talking at, startling all three. Triple kill, hehe.
"Jesus -" "Holy - "
"Fucking rat bastard!" Thomas glares at me accusingly.
"Guides. Fuck you, Tom. Stupid early birds special eating ass bitch." I continue my grumbles of vitriol as I go back upstairs to get breakfast started. I hear mirrored insults thrown my way from the café. That's what you get for being morning people, sucks to be you.
A massive yawn resets my train of thought, and I get back to the kitchen with waffles popping into my head. That sounds good to me.
Halfway through my meal, a still grumpy Thomas trudges up the stairs, explaining how the apartment is off limits and that he already has a house sitter picked out, so he will know if they fuck around.
"And this is Arnold Polke, an ungrateful brat that, despite being useless in the morning, will be your teacher and direct supervisor while I'm gone."
I finally get a good look at the temporary employees, and instantly hate the older man who looks offended that I outrank him. With a tan complexion and receding hairline, he looks to be in his late thirties. His bushy eyebrows looked like they had a mind of their own, and paired with his crooked nose makes for an effective glare. He had dark brown hair and eyes, but his mustache was so small it looked drawn on. A scar ran down his strong jawline, and a mole was huddled into the upper left corner of his massive forehead. He was otherwise average, not very thin but certainly not fat or fit.
The other was a woman who had brown hair and eyes as well, but they were repeatedly glancing at their coworker with discomfort. She was kinda mousy and was the shortest in the room, no taller than five foot eeven. Her body was shapely, and her posture was highly guarded, as if the man next to her was about to attack her any second. She had a few small scars on her face that were expertly hidden with makeup. Although her face was meticulously enhanced with foundation, blush, and who knows what else, it didn't quite hide the stresslines of a woman beaten down by life.
"Listen to him, and you'll be able to be a barista full time wherever you want in this dumpster fire of a city. There's nobody better at cooking, baking, or brewing in this city. Unfortunately. I would've hired anyone else if they could've kept up."
"Go to hell, Tom."
"You first, Arnold. Anyway, any questions?" The man glared harder at me but said nothing for now. The woman tentatively raised a dainty hand, looking confused.
"Umm, how will we be learning from Mr. Polke?" Her voice was soothing in a motherly way, but her obvious anxiety was making her seem even smaller than she was.
Mr. Quincy waved the guide I tossed at them earlier. "This is your Bible while you work here. If you have a question, nine times outta ten, it's in here, and any others are in there too. Read it, follow it, memorize it if you have to, and you'll be fine. Anything goes beyond the pale, and you need another opinion, ask us. You go to Arnold first, then me." She nods, relaxing a fraction.
"Any way I can learn who I'm training here, or am I just gonna call you man and woman?" I ask waspishly, really not liking the Hispanic man's attitude.
They each look momentarily surprised before the man scoffs and rumbles with a noticeable accent. "Jorge Silva."
The woman clears her throat and demurely mutters. "Kayden Anders."
I grunt an affirmation and go back to my breakfast. As Thomas herds the two back downstairs to open up, a pull on my soul drags me in.
The loom spins. Threads condense together, darkening in the process as the tapestry wove together. Soft colors brighten up a small image of a submersible shining it's lights at a cavern wall, dense currents distorting the beams. Behind it was many dim blue lights, illuminating a creature. Fifteen meters of sea titan float ominously behind the bright submarine, dark navy scales reflecting the several dozen bioluminescent bulbs and spots of the monster. It's teeth were the size of swords, and we're angled outward like an anglerfish. The Hullbreaker, a silent hunter of the deep. A power is gifted with it, Flashbang Summoning.
The timeless inspection ended, and I was back. The hullbreaker was a terror I'll gladly hold onto for later, it's destructive ram being ridiculously powerful would be put to good use, say, against a certain watery Endbringer? It should also be a good sparring partner for Ariel when she evolves.
Focusing on the present, I start putting away the dishes and think about the two temps. Jorge is going to either be a massive problem, or just an annoyance. It will all depend on if he changes his tune when be starts shadowing me. If he does, his attitude will be irritating to deal with but not impossible. If he doesn't, Thomas will need a replacement because I'm not dealing with that for even one day.
Kayden on the other hand, seems a bit too timid for customer service. I could easily imagine her being railroaded by some douchebag, but I'll withhold judgment until I've seen her in action. Perhaps her softer temperance will prevail over the Karens and Kyles out there looking to throw their weight around. Stranger things have certainly happened.
Heading down, I see they both are waiting for me, and it seems Thomas is already out for supplies.
"Alright, first up, I'm going to go over the menu so you don't look incompetent glancing at the prices all day. Then, we're gonna..." It carried on like this for a couple hours, and thankfully, my ability to teach is top tier fiat-backed bullshit. It took only an hour, and they had more or less memorized most of the prices and menu options. The second hour was live practice after opening at seven o'clock. The college zombies hardly noticed the new faces, but the old timers and regulars did.
Come lunch, the somewhat familiar zip of wind entered the café and all eyes were on Victoria. With a flicked coffee bean, I had her undivided attention. "Aura, Vicky." My impression of Panacea leaves her befuddled, but she eventually gets it under control.
"Thank you, now I've got news for you and the Wards." She perks up. "Me and old man Tom are gonna be gone for about a month, so it'll be around halfway through January when your favorite coffee maker will be back." She looks absolutely floored and starts blubbering and begging me to stay.
To my right, I notice how tense Kayden's become and take a quick glance to make sure she's okay. Her hands are white knuckled, her shoulders were tight, and her impressive muscles I only now noticed were coiled and ready to spring into action.
This is odd because she's been exceeding my expectations in nearly every way. She gets a bit cold towards minorities, but she hasn't said or done anything irrideemable yet. She's trying to overcome her racism, at least that's what it looks like to me, and considering where we are, it could be she was just raised that way and is fighting her parent's influence. Until she slips up, I'm content with respectfully ignoring it since nobody else seems to care. But now she looks like she's on the verge of a panic attack.
I give a couple of apologies and hand off the orders to Jorge so I can touch base with Kayden.
"Hey, you okay? Need a break?" Kayden flinches and looks at me with wide eyes. For a second, there was a corona of light around her eyes, but it was gone so fast I might have imagined it. She forces herself to relax with a deep breath and meekly nods.
"Best hurry up then, you get fifteen minutes." I say not unkindly. She nods in relief and books it to the bathrooms. I sigh out a somewhat disappointed huff. It seems I've found an elusive one here.
For the last couple of months, Purity has been absent from the Empire 88's roster. She is the strongest Blaster in the city, able to annihilate entire buildings in one go of her beams of light, and her trademark look was light too bright to see through shrouding her face. And now, a woman appears as a temp worker with racist leanings, glowing eyes, and an extreme aversion to one of the most popular heroes in the Bay. I may suck at math, but I can put two and two together. Somehow, I'm teaching a super villain how to be a barista. Great.
Grabbing Glory Girl's order, I pull Jorge over to show him how to make a Miner's Delight and continue as if nothing happened. She is trying to be better, so she'll get the one chance. If she fucks it up? Gaea, save her ass cause I'm going Nazi hunting.
Victoria was pouting fiercely in the pickup line, but I told her it's about family, and she accepted it begrudgingly. With an extra strong espresso labeled for her sister and a conspiratorial wink, the super heroine flies off to deliver a present.
The day wound down pretty quickly, with Jorge and Kayden acceptable at the basics by the end of shift. While I was wiping down some tables, I sent off a text to Thomas about their progress. He's happy with it since he's only a few levels above the two temps himself, but I can't be satisfied with them until the first weekly check-in shows them as my version of acceptable.
Thinking on it, I ask Tom to grab a few tools. I'll need to do some maintenance on my mecha-shift weapons and some extra materials in case I need it won't hurt. As soon as I hit send, I head up to get a late lunch prepped for Jorge and Kayden. I'm not showing off. Shut up.
"Hey rookies, I've got some meatball subs for ya, my treat." I holler to them both, and the speculative look they share makes me feel better about my decision to give Purity a chance. I may come to regret it at some point, but I want to believe in redemption.
Jorge shrugged and took the first bite. After a satisfying crunch of toast, his eyes widened as the flavor hit his taste buds. Pulling an equally satisfying cheese pull, Jorge nods to Kayden and dives in with gusto.
Mrs. Anders takes a far smaller bite but is still instantly enchanted by my cooking skill and lets out a shift moan of delight.
I watch with a great amount of smugness. Even though the skills were handed to me on a silver platter, I was proud of my cooking. The looks of happiness on everyone's face whenever they try my food warms my heart.
Within ten minutes, the late lunch was over, and we were back to business as usual. No surprises popped up, no more heroes came in, and the workday ended without issue. After closing, Jorge stayed behind while Kayden left in a bit of a hurry to pick up her daughter.
"I wanted to apologize." Jorge said, looking at me with respect. "I doubted you quite a bit this morning, but I'm glad I was wrong. Thank you for teaching me so much today."
I look at the temp worker and give a soft smirk. "I always do enjoy shattering preconceptions. It's fine, I'm aware of how I look in the morning, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to teach you both. You picked things up far quicker than I expected, so I must say I'm proud of you and Kayden. On a weekly basis, Tom is coming back to check-in and touch base, so if you want to keep working here after the month is up, you can let him know after your first week." He smiles and nods with determination.
After he's left, I let off a sigh and collapse into a chair. I've been putting it off, but I need to think about what I learned last night.
According to Gaea and Alaya, I have the potential to develop a Reality Marble. This form of magecraft requires the user to either be inhuman or think inhuman. The idea is to layer what you perceive the world to be within a temporary and enclosed sphere, enforcing it upon reality and dragging anyone caught in its range into your world. In this bubble, you are effectively replacing Gaea's influence with your own, making the laws of physics and magecraft obey your ideals. It is a very powerful ability, but once I make one, it means I've truly left my humanity behind.
The idea I'm not human isn't so much the issue. What is, is that it means I'll never truly fit in with society at large again. I'll never be comfortable just being human, and that is a big change. For now, it's only the possibility to manifest one, so until I complete my Reality Marble, I'm still the same.
The question then becomes, do I want to complete it? For now, I have plenty of distraction with the training I'll be doing over the next month, so I'm putting it off till later. Again.
My phone vibrates, and I look to see a text from Thomas. He picked up the supplies, as well as the tools and materials I asked for, and his pickup truck was fully loaded. I'm a bit sad to leave the café for so long, but I know I'll be back, and when I am, I'll get to see my students' progress.
With all the context I've been given today, I can say with reasonable surety that Kayden is trying to get clean. Throughout the day, she was getting more and more open with the customers and with Jorge. The minor hiccup with Victoria was more worrying, but it was her first day.
Looking up her name, it turns out her husband is none other than Max Anders, the CEO of Medhall. Another piece of the puzzle.
I lean back in the chair and tumble these nuggets of information around. I heard Kayden cooing and talking with a mother who was jogging with her son in a stroller. She said her daughter was younger than the two year old boy, and a newborn could be a pretty good catalyst to think harder on life choices.
Why would the wife of a very successful businessman be doing temp work? Most likely, she is looking to be more independent. According to her temp file, she hasn't been working for several years. So, she's not happy with her husband in sole control of the finances, but this is a recent change.
As one of the strongest capes in the Bay, she would very likely be married to another cape to have something to relate to, which is a rabbit hole I'll avoid for now to stay focused. Intergang marriage is the most common way to consolidate power with bigger gangs, so any disagreement between Kayden and Max will definitely affect her position in the Empire.
So, to summarize my hypothesis here, Kayden Anders had a child with Max, and wanting to protect her newborn daughter is trying to leave the Empire behind, possibly including their racist dogma. Since they haven't divorced, Max has some level of power over her that might not be limited to financial issues, but it is one way for her to start vying for independence with custody of her daughter.
With a sigh, I rub my face in annoyance. I'm not qualified to judge her for her actions since I'm not sure what I would do in her place. But I am qualified to help her protect her innocent daughter since I will be a hero. So until I debut and get enough pull to guarantee her daughter's protection, the best way to help is to help Kayden herself.
With that squared away, I think back to Max Anders. The CEO of Medhall is most likely an Empire cape and a fairly high ranked one if his leverage over the strongest blaster in Brockton Bay says anything. This also means that Medhall is all but certainly a front for the Neo-nazis. With how egotistical most villains are, I'm guessing that Kaiser would never allow an asset like Medhall to be under anyone but his control. Ergo, Max Anders is probably Kaiser. This is a very big issue.
If I'm being honest, having Medhall set up here has been a major boon to the city. The number of jobs it brings is a massive part of the local economy, and simply deleting it would do way more harm than good at this point. In order to root out the Empire, I'm going to need to find some way to influence the company, which is not gonna happen as a sixteen year old dropout. Until I get an answer, I'm not going to be able to target Kaiser directly.
Thomas interrupts my musings by ringing the shitty bell on the doorframe, and his smirking mug tells me that I'm going to be doing a lot of work in just a minute.
"Guess who has two thumbs, is leaving the city for a month, and has a ton of shit to pack?" My eyebrow twitches. He points at me. "This guuuy!" I fucking knew it.
"And who's going to make dinner?" I question pointedly. His smirk grows. "Someone who had better start working if they want time to eat. Spoiler alert, I ate while I was out shopping. Chop chop!" Hatred. All the hatred.
So, we have a lot happening, and is it just me, or did Noah puzzle that out a bit too quickly... almost like someone wanted him to know about it. I wonder who that could be? *laughs with malice* Ahem, anyway, at this point I want to set a bounty on spell idea inspiration, because shit, it is tough to think up simple spells that a beginner would be able to learn or create, but are suitably complex to be powerful so it's actually usable with the in setting weakness. Funnily enough, the magic power needed to truly manifest a Noble Phantasm for any amount of time, even a weaker one like Wickerman, takes a lot more energy than it does to cast far weaker and more temporary spells, especially with Gaea's hidden aid. So, the complexity that Noah can utilize is pretty solid, even with only twelve circuits of middling quality.
LAST CHANCE to state your case! One month timeskip, or one month of shown training! Pros and cons in a following post!
But still, leave your thoughts, and thanks for reading!
Last edited:
Pros of timeskip:
Speeds up the story.
We can jump almost directly into the action of capehood.
Will obtain one free roll for the month for both a power and a creature.
Stay consistent with the soul-growth lore.
Cons of timeskip:
We lose out on character development.
Less total rolls on the Menagerie.
There will be times a flashback is required to explain something in the near future.
Less time to suggest new spells and/or techniques, I will not be retconning any training, it will be set in stone.
Speeds up the story.
We can jump almost directly into the action of capehood.
Will obtain one free roll for the month for both a power and a creature.
Stay consistent with the soul-growth lore.
Cons of timeskip:
We lose out on character development.
Less total rolls on the Menagerie.
There will be times a flashback is required to explain something in the near future.
Less time to suggest new spells and/or techniques, I will not be retconning any training, it will be set in stone.
Honestly I'm surprised Kayden showed up looking for a job. Hopefully she can behave when Vicky comes back to the cafe again with the Wards in tow.
Small typos here
Small typos here
Should be "Empire"
Should be "villain"
Should be "won't"
ScreamyBirb
Here is Screaming
I'm all for a timeskip, hiding away to train isn't going to be all that exciting in comparison. A semi-interlude to summarize/highlight-reel it would be good though. (Woo, training montage!)
Hopefully Purity does manage to turn herself around with a helping hand, she would make a powerful ally. Would be a very good outcome for her too, really.
Hopefully Purity does manage to turn herself around with a helping hand, she would make a powerful ally. Would be a very good outcome for her too, really.
@BigsDragon
Thanks for the heads up!
Thanks for the heads up!
- Location
- france
- Pronouns
- He
From personal experience, I would recommend the Timeskip. It's something I didn't do enough in my story. Any story to relies on wordcount to function can benefit from a timeskip to prevent bloat.
Ideas for spells:
I'll assume that reinforcement and graduation air are already being considered.
Light bulb: Create a sphere of light at the tip of your finger. At low levels it's just a flashlight and at high levels it can become a devastating laser or a light bomb. Colors of light could be adjustable (including ultraviolet and infrared maybe), intensity, and size of the bulb. Easy to learn, hard to master. And short-lived so it can't be eroded by Gaia.
Surface walking: Just like wall walking and water walking from Naruto. A minor injection of prana at the point of contact (hand/feet) could enhance maneuverability greatly. Again, as long as you don't stand in place it's short-lived enough for Gaia to not care. At a very high level, it may even graduate to walking on air.
Telekinesis: Self explanotary. In the beginning, it's hard to even move a dice and at a high level you can throw cars.
What does "Stay consistent with the soul-growth lore." mean?
I don't enjoy much lots of flashbacks and feel they often cut the flow of the story a bit, less when they are being used in the middle of action scenes. I am all for seeing the place, some more interactions with Thomas and summons, and having some general idea of what they train, but probably a day by day training montage would be too much. As for the rolls, it is true that they can bloat many stories. I do not see any problem limiting them to 1 while training with or without timeskip.
In my story, a soul grows with unique, important, meaningful, and / or impactful experiences. With Noah specificly, I'm using it as an explanation for the points system of the Celestial Menagerie. Although some small clippings of training montages can be considered such, for the most part, they are just repetition and monotony. So to follow my preset lore, one month of repetitive training isn't going to be anywhere near as helpful as a week of meeting new people and trying out a new hobby. I hope that helps because I don't know how else I can word it.
- Location
- USA
Time skip or an abbreviated training montage. Unless you planned on shifting focus to Tom when he returns to Brockton and have him interact with the locals in some way or want to use the word count to increase his collection of powers and summons before his debut there is no real need to spend a lot of words on training, just show the results of said training in the actions he and his partners take.
If you plan on having Noah interact with someone heavily and want to have an interlude from their perspective during his month long absence I could see it, but he is unaware of Taylor at this point and will be out of town during her trigger event and hospitalization. Having his coffee/pastry pushing affect Amy in some way to butterfly the Winslow Locker Incident into getting Sophia/Emma in trouble in some significant way would be nice, but rather unlikely.
If you plan on having Noah interact with someone heavily and want to have an interlude from their perspective during his month long absence I could see it, but he is unaware of Taylor at this point and will be out of town during her trigger event and hospitalization. Having his coffee/pastry pushing affect Amy in some way to butterfly the Winslow Locker Incident into getting Sophia/Emma in trouble in some significant way would be nice, but rather unlikely.
Honestly I don't know enough about magecraft to be able to suggest spells. Maybe some kind of sleep spell or binding spell? If he could figure out healing even a really minor version that would be invaluable even if it could only stabilize you long enough to get to the hospital. A spell that could make him temporarily more difficult to see would help if he had to get out of the line of fire. That's the best I can come up with. Well that and any form of short range teleportation would be very helpful if he figured out how to use it the right way but I don't know if that would count as minor even if he only could teleport a few feet
Maybe it's my weakness for Milfs, but I always enjoy stories that manage to flip purity and do so in a realistic manner. Narratively she's one of the few villains that makes sense to have a redemption arc. With her backstory, age wise, she was basically indoctrinated into being a nazi, is a most likely abused single mother, whose husband is probably a wife beating piece of shit. You can't tell me kaiser isn't the type. I vote for plan pipe the Milf and get her on a list by banging the evil racism outta her
A bit of a bounded feild/gradation air idea.
Dividing line. Making a line that people and or things don't want to cross, or has a hard time crossing.
Uphill both ways curses: just... all directions feels like steep Uphill when you move. Accorded in the common saying about how hard it used to be, so you do draw on a "mystery". And in the rain,too: Makes the curse draw cold water to peripatetic on the target. Make it grow colder and colder and rain harder as it progresses.
Pebbles in you shoes: minor most projection with big impact. Or other minor inconvenience that may turn a fight.
Basing some of these on you saying native Magecraft being super weak right now.
Defensive Dusty winds: gonna fuck up your abilities to fight
Dividing line. Making a line that people and or things don't want to cross, or has a hard time crossing.
Uphill both ways curses: just... all directions feels like steep Uphill when you move. Accorded in the common saying about how hard it used to be, so you do draw on a "mystery". And in the rain,too: Makes the curse draw cold water to peripatetic on the target. Make it grow colder and colder and rain harder as it progresses.
Pebbles in you shoes: minor most projection with big impact. Or other minor inconvenience that may turn a fight.
Basing some of these on you saying native Magecraft being super weak right now.
Defensive Dusty winds: gonna fuck up your abilities to fight
Last edited:
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
It's always nice seeing another Menagerie fic! I like what you're doing with the story and can't wait to see more. It does have that Coffee Shop AU feel to it, just from the main character being a barista, which is cute.
I do have some bits of criticism though:
This is extremely jarring. You've jumped from a first person perspective to an omniscient third person narrator and back again. This joke is a classic bit, but it very much pushes a reader out of the story when the perspective like this changes abruptly without proper notice. A page break /use of a horizontal line like this:
Could help with separating the two. Obviously, if you're copying and pasting this from another document writer, it's a bit of a pain to insert horizontal lines with SV's text editor, so you can always just do something like this: <...> or ------- or ////////
Side note, you do have Alec have a moment of meta awareness here. If you're going for a fic that's less serious and more silly, that's fine thematically, but if you want a more serious tone, which given the panic attack with Scion, that's something you should keep aware of since meta-jokes detract from that.
Also, while it's been a bit better in recent chapters, you tend to have Arnie and Thomas talk to each other with separate lines of dialogue in the same paragraph. This is confusing. Generally, when writing dialogue, it's better to have an entire new paragraph when a different character speaks to designate that the speaker has changed.
Compare this:
To this:
It helps the reader immediately know that the speaker has changed, and also takes away the small amount of mental work they need to do when such a change in speaker is not obvious.
A few times in the story, I had to go back and reread a paragraph because I couldn't tell the speaker changed on a first pass.
Beyond those grammatical points:
While on a reread, you probably intend the Focus here to be just a formalized spell, but through my first pass, I was thinking you were talking also about a Magical Focus in the D&D sense. Like a wand or staff.
Which by rolling a Clow Card, you automatically have. So, I was a bit confused there. But considering you did very well integrating the notes about Magic Circuits and the skills of a Head Chef into the story, I'm assuming you saw the note in the Cardcaptor Sakura Category about summoning your own personalized staff at will and just haven't had it be relevant yet.
Still, with the staff, Arnie/Noah should be able to just try and explore what magic they can do with its assistance versus without it.
The moments passed on this, so I'm fine with the current nerf being in place. Don't consider this as me trying to convince you to change what you've decided on, as flip-flopping is bad for any story. This is merely me exploring the idea:
There's way to nerf it or interpret it so it isn't simply an instant kill to everything. I find that playing with the concept is more interesting when you do away with the no-limits fallacy, and pin the ability down based on what it has done definitively instead.
We know it can kill Wizards/People. We know it can kill animals. We know it can't kill Ghosts, but it can petrify them. We know that viewing the eyes of a Basilisk through a physical medium or reflection will protect the viewer from death, but will instead petrify them.
Beyond that, we also know that Fawkes, as a Phoenix, is completely immune to a Basilisk's stare, so it's not a counter to everything in Harry Potter already. Whether or not you want to argue this is from it just being immortal or it's magical nature of healing countering the instant kill is up in the air. So, there's an argument that creatures that are capable of healing themselves rapidly or have immortal bodies are immune. If the Basilisk magic is trying to kill based on a being's own tangible mortality through magical means, lacking any mortality to begin with in that sense would make you immune. Thus: Shards, Endbringers, and Scion could just be immune straight up. Even certain parahumans could be considered immune like Alexandria.
Divination and Prophecy magic is a thing in Harry Potter and there is no mention of wizards or witches dying from magically perceiving a Basilisk in the future. (You could just blame this on JK's bad worldbuilding to be fair...) So, there's an argument that precognitive Shard powers and their hosts wouldn't be affected by the Basilisk, especially if their future senses are not based on a method of sight. PtV certainly doesn't give Contessa pictures for her steps after all. A lot of precog shards don't even see the future, but merely simulate it. So after the first moment the Basilisk is used with its gaze power active, all other shards would be able to simulate that ability in their number crunching.
There's also a sheer amount of mass to consider. Shards are huge. Humans in comparison are tiny. An affect that can magically instantly kill or petrify a human sized organic being may not have the oomph to instantly work on a continent sized mass of alien tissue. And with that reasoning, there's room to play with in the writing exactly how the affect would play out without it being an instant win versus Shards and Entities.
Sure, this would mean that if you just pull out a Basilisk against any parahuman that doesn't have a bizarre Changer/Breaker form, it would be an instant win, but there's also huge consequences due to Cape Culture that would make using it a Faustian bargain.
Yes, you instantly killed the ABB and the Empire with your Basilisk. Now, the PRT have labeled you a villain and are intending to put you into the Bird Cage for scaring everyone. Even if you use the Non-Lethal power and petrified the villains, you're going to get a similar reaction if only you can heal it.
Once again, I want to say I really enjoy this story, and I would love to see more of it! Thank you for writing.
I do have some bits of criticism though:
This is extremely jarring. You've jumped from a first person perspective to an omniscient third person narrator and back again. This joke is a classic bit, but it very much pushes a reader out of the story when the perspective like this changes abruptly without proper notice. A page break /use of a horizontal line like this:
Could help with separating the two. Obviously, if you're copying and pasting this from another document writer, it's a bit of a pain to insert horizontal lines with SV's text editor, so you can always just do something like this: <...> or ------- or ////////
Side note, you do have Alec have a moment of meta awareness here. If you're going for a fic that's less serious and more silly, that's fine thematically, but if you want a more serious tone, which given the panic attack with Scion, that's something you should keep aware of since meta-jokes detract from that.
Also, while it's been a bit better in recent chapters, you tend to have Arnie and Thomas talk to each other with separate lines of dialogue in the same paragraph. This is confusing. Generally, when writing dialogue, it's better to have an entire new paragraph when a different character speaks to designate that the speaker has changed.
Compare this:
To this:
Example said:
It helps the reader immediately know that the speaker has changed, and also takes away the small amount of mental work they need to do when such a change in speaker is not obvious.
A few times in the story, I had to go back and reread a paragraph because I couldn't tell the speaker changed on a first pass.
Beyond those grammatical points:
While on a reread, you probably intend the Focus here to be just a formalized spell, but through my first pass, I was thinking you were talking also about a Magical Focus in the D&D sense. Like a wand or staff.
Which by rolling a Clow Card, you automatically have. So, I was a bit confused there. But considering you did very well integrating the notes about Magic Circuits and the skills of a Head Chef into the story, I'm assuming you saw the note in the Cardcaptor Sakura Category about summoning your own personalized staff at will and just haven't had it be relevant yet.
Still, with the staff, Arnie/Noah should be able to just try and explore what magic they can do with its assistance versus without it.
The moments passed on this, so I'm fine with the current nerf being in place. Don't consider this as me trying to convince you to change what you've decided on, as flip-flopping is bad for any story. This is merely me exploring the idea:
There's way to nerf it or interpret it so it isn't simply an instant kill to everything. I find that playing with the concept is more interesting when you do away with the no-limits fallacy, and pin the ability down based on what it has done definitively instead.
We know it can kill Wizards/People. We know it can kill animals. We know it can't kill Ghosts, but it can petrify them. We know that viewing the eyes of a Basilisk through a physical medium or reflection will protect the viewer from death, but will instead petrify them.
Beyond that, we also know that Fawkes, as a Phoenix, is completely immune to a Basilisk's stare, so it's not a counter to everything in Harry Potter already. Whether or not you want to argue this is from it just being immortal or it's magical nature of healing countering the instant kill is up in the air. So, there's an argument that creatures that are capable of healing themselves rapidly or have immortal bodies are immune. If the Basilisk magic is trying to kill based on a being's own tangible mortality through magical means, lacking any mortality to begin with in that sense would make you immune. Thus: Shards, Endbringers, and Scion could just be immune straight up. Even certain parahumans could be considered immune like Alexandria.
Divination and Prophecy magic is a thing in Harry Potter and there is no mention of wizards or witches dying from magically perceiving a Basilisk in the future. (You could just blame this on JK's bad worldbuilding to be fair...) So, there's an argument that precognitive Shard powers and their hosts wouldn't be affected by the Basilisk, especially if their future senses are not based on a method of sight. PtV certainly doesn't give Contessa pictures for her steps after all. A lot of precog shards don't even see the future, but merely simulate it. So after the first moment the Basilisk is used with its gaze power active, all other shards would be able to simulate that ability in their number crunching.
There's also a sheer amount of mass to consider. Shards are huge. Humans in comparison are tiny. An affect that can magically instantly kill or petrify a human sized organic being may not have the oomph to instantly work on a continent sized mass of alien tissue. And with that reasoning, there's room to play with in the writing exactly how the affect would play out without it being an instant win versus Shards and Entities.
Sure, this would mean that if you just pull out a Basilisk against any parahuman that doesn't have a bizarre Changer/Breaker form, it would be an instant win, but there's also huge consequences due to Cape Culture that would make using it a Faustian bargain.
Yes, you instantly killed the ABB and the Empire with your Basilisk. Now, the PRT have labeled you a villain and are intending to put you into the Bird Cage for scaring everyone. Even if you use the Non-Lethal power and petrified the villains, you're going to get a similar reaction if only you can heal it.
Once again, I want to say I really enjoy this story, and I would love to see more of it! Thank you for writing.
Last edited:
@Shadow Archon
Thanks for the input! I'm actually trying to incorporate the line break stuff into one of my drafts, so I'm honestly glad I'm not just wasting my time and that some people do care about my so far less than optimal formatting, and I do admit the same paragraph dialogue is a bad habit I'm trying to curb so it helps to have it pointed out. The whole basilisk dilemma was honestly me just freaking out about Collin's camera breaking and the overall implications of how little information could be found on it in the library. Might've been an overreaction on my part, but this is my first story ever and I was worried about my own writing skills falling short on making it work. I'm glad you enjoy it!
Thanks for the input! I'm actually trying to incorporate the line break stuff into one of my drafts, so I'm honestly glad I'm not just wasting my time and that some people do care about my so far less than optimal formatting, and I do admit the same paragraph dialogue is a bad habit I'm trying to curb so it helps to have it pointed out. The whole basilisk dilemma was honestly me just freaking out about Collin's camera breaking and the overall implications of how little information could be found on it in the library. Might've been an overreaction on my part, but this is my first story ever and I was worried about my own writing skills falling short on making it work. I'm glad you enjoy it!
So the potential worlds that he could have gone to are;
1, Worm
2, One Piece
3, Pokémon
And 4, RWBY.
And I think his Semblance should have something to do with Ranged Reinforcement, based off his soul Affinity's for magic with Earth as the reinforcing and the Light and Dark giving it the ranged ability with mild regeneration or a damaging/draining field of effect respectively.
If you have him getting the reality marble you could potentially have him gain the Field category from the Celestial Forge for his menagerie to inhibit, either in baby, adult, or Alpha forms, while he hasn't summoned them. With potential for them to get more time with Arnold without the whole, can only Summon them for 24 hours then have to wait another 24 to summon them, and could let them interact with each other before he gains multi-summon and perma-summon so multiple could be in real-space continuously.
Also I vote for time-skip with maybe the first day shown, just to set the tune of how the training went.
1, Worm
2, One Piece
3, Pokémon
And 4, RWBY.
And I think his Semblance should have something to do with Ranged Reinforcement, based off his soul Affinity's for magic with Earth as the reinforcing and the Light and Dark giving it the ranged ability with mild regeneration or a damaging/draining field of effect respectively.
If you have him getting the reality marble you could potentially have him gain the Field category from the Celestial Forge for his menagerie to inhibit, either in baby, adult, or Alpha forms, while he hasn't summoned them. With potential for them to get more time with Arnold without the whole, can only Summon them for 24 hours then have to wait another 24 to summon them, and could let them interact with each other before he gains multi-summon and perma-summon so multiple could be in real-space continuously.
Also I vote for time-skip with maybe the first day shown, just to set the tune of how the training went.
Last edited:
@BlackBasalisk
CORRECT!!! You got all three, so you can choose an omake topic that I will do my best to write! You can choose to hold onto it for later, and I'll still honor it so no pressure to think of anything right now
CORRECT!!! You got all three, so you can choose an omake topic that I will do my best to write! You can choose to hold onto it for later, and I'll still honor it so no pressure to think of anything right now
Last edited:
Chapter 12
Hopefully, I don't make a habit of doing all-nighters. I don't think even a coffee shop has enough caffeine to fuel my body if it sticks. This is the last night before the training trip, so I have a few things to do before we leave.
Formalcraft has a few basic bounded fields for obfuscation and a couple for hiding in plain sight, so I quickly set them up in the apartment to give some soft protection to the café. The weak fields won't do much to diffuse extreme scrutiny, but it will make it harder to see the place as a threat or target. This should be enough to keep the shop from burning down in our absence or getting hit by the gangs before we get back. This alone took seven hours, and hiding it from mundane eyes took two more, but it was a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Packing was simple but grueling since Thomas could only find a discrete parking spot a whole block away. That was another hour of work, and with the hour I needed to make dinner as planned, I only finished everything by 5:00 AM, meaning I had less than two hours to do any morning chores and get my training plans all made and set up.
Deciding to just take a long shower and finalize my schedule on the ride up to the cabin, I luxuriate in scrubbing away the grime and sweat. In the water, I feel a tug.
The loom spins. The threads were stiff and burnished like copper wires, twining and connecting with exotic energy changing individual threads' thickness and colors to suit the artwork. A scene of vicious blizzard winds was peirced by a hazy red barrier slicing the wind apart. In the pocket left behind, a gunmetal grey machine shaped like a massive two meter tall gyrfalcon flew, with rocket exhaust propelling it at hypersonic speeds. The tapestry had a different design on its back, showing something I could now identify as an XQ-58 Valkyrie UAV with a familiar hazy field parting the air, coasting over a broken battlefield. This is a Transformer, one named Gearbreak that excelled in scouting and counter-intellegence. A practical ocean of knowledge washed into my brain, giving me all Veterinary knowledge of my summons and most mundane animals.
I exhale an excited breath as the water pelts me once again. This didn't change much, but it gave me enough to need to redesign my training. New meal plans, new limits to meet and surpass, as well as a new perspective on what I already knew gave inspiration to maximize the gains this trip will instill.
Rinsing out the last suds of the bath, I hurry to get dressed and grab multiple notebooks on my way to the truck. Thomas is waiting there with an impatient look. "Well, well, well, the prodigal son arrives. What took so long, Aquaman? Does the fish need more TLC?"
"Fuck you Tom! Ariel doesn't deserve to deal with your shit! Keep it up, and I'll introduce you to Medusa properly, you old bastard."
His hands whip up in surrender while his face shifts to genuine panic. "Now hold on, isn't that a bit too far, I'm only joking here!?" My glare magnifies, and he gets the picture I'm not in a good mood. He swallows harshly, and rushes to get in the driver seat. Good, be afraid!
I hop into the passenger and turn on the radio to avoid conversation and start planning out the next month. First up is running any fresh meat through boot camp to get basic discipline and communication issues sorted out. Next is releasing the horde of swimmers into the lake to do some underwater combat/ search and rescue drills, some aerial maneuvers and dogfights for the fliers, shadow dueling and katas for me, and some magecraft practice during downtime.
Biggest goals of this first week is to get comfortable with the routines and supportive combat, as well as evolving Ariel as soon as possible. Next is to work on technique and physique for everyone and possibly run the 'pets' through therapy training. Afterward is to push the limits where we can and practice our weaknesses where we can't. Finally is hyperfocus on teamwork for my summons and magic spells for me.
The local ecosystem is gonna be strained to supply a steady diet for everyone, but it'll grow back eventually. My Survivalist power will help out a ton in this aspect, as will my new Veterinary knowledge to let me know a proper diet to promote growth. As I review said powers, I notice a rather perfect synergy between Transformer 'biology', if it can be called that, and the mecha-shift technology utilized by faunus Hunters.
Grabbing a new notebook, I sketch the schematics of Poison and Venom, my weapon. They're a gauntlet, Poison being part hardlight generator powered by hardlight dust, and a javelin-bow, Venom, respectively. But with all the parts I asked Thomas for and the knowledge about Transformer shifting and forcefields that Gearbreak gives, I think I can upgrade it. And this isn't even getting into making it a Mystic Code with a few magecraft rituals...
I put it aside for the moment to focus on Ariel, the one who needs the most one on one training out of my summons. With the ability to both heal and deal heavy damage if needed, the focus I'll be placing on her is definitely warranted. Although the exact names aren't known to me, the fact they exist and how to train these techniques is. With how many abilities I can train into her, Ariel is gonna be a staple combat partner for a long time to come. Elemental attacks, self heal, multi heal, physical attacks, mental attacks, spectral attacks, the list keeps going and one month won't be anywhere close to teach everything, so I'll focus on four for now. With her extreme affinity with water, I think I'll hone in on that for her first element to learn, along with healing and some form of defense.
A nudge from Thomas pulls me from my thoughts, and a glance out the windshield shows a moderately sized two floor log cabin at the top of a hill. The dark oak logs are worn and old, but hold holding strong and sturdy. Six windows on the front were arched with heavily tinted glass, the second floor had three windows that were much smaller and perfectly clear facing us. It looked to be around twenty five hundred square feet with a deeply slanted roof of maroon tiling. Turning around revealed a long enough driveway to be invisible from the road and have a few hundred feet of front yard to spare.
"So, what do you think? The lake is a small hike away, but it's still private property, so as long as you don't remake the maps, you should be fine. The front yard is two hundred forty by eighty and double that out back. It has been in the family and reconstructed three times in the last two hundred years. Ancestry leads back to the Puritans, too, y'know? Good enough for you?" The smug look on his face is for once entirely warranted. I can't even be mad.
"It's perfect. I'm not sure how much we'll need, but the yards alone are plenty of room for most of this month's work. Why don't you live here instead of groady Brockton Bay?" I ask.
He lets out a sigh and opens his door. "I grew up here for twenty-five years, Arny." I follow him out and walk with him towards the front door. "I love the place to death but I didn't own it until my parents passed, after that my older sister owned it before being placed in a home, and I do visit every other month to take a small vacation, but I followed my Uncle to his coffee shop all those years ago because it was too calm here. Nothing changes out here for decades at a time, and it was driving me nuts. Not to mention that it's an hour away from society proper. Two hours to get take out is just redundant, and I hate cooking, honestly." He digs out a slightly rusty keyring and fiddles with it before finding the right one. With a practiced movement, he jiggles the lock into a very specific position and turns the key. A soft click, and the door squeaks open. He looks at the walls with fond eyes before stretching his back.
"Well, let's get everything unpacked. You can use the tool shed out back for the bits and bobs you needed. I'll need to check the pantry and fridge to see if my nephew was by anytime recently, probably not, but he has crashed here before. Left home like me to work in Boston as a mechanic. He leaves his tools here on occasion, so if you see something you could use, don't be shy. Just make sure nothing breaks. Obviously." He chuckles to himself at what was most likely an inside joke. I shrug, but get to work unpacking.
With a lunch break in between, it takes only two hours to get the truck unloaded, and another two to put away everything in its proper place. So to get things going, I summon the Poison Scaveran, Jeff, and Gearbreak.
"Alright, let's set some ground rules." The system of whistles I use with Loki were made with fliers in mind, so teaching that took very little time, and after naming the scaveran Caustic, we started on the more complex commands. Jeff was far smarter than I initially expected and was actually taking to whistling with me for the commands, though I'm eighty percent sure he doesn't have the biology to whistle.
After getting the commands down, I summoned Loki to fly with the others and follow us on our hike to the lake. Jeff was having fun telling the fliers to do tricks, and the fliers were having fun stretching their wings. Once we see the lake, I whistle to the fliers to circle the area and train on their own while I summon up Medusa, Ariel, and the Hullbreaker, who was swiftly named Triton.
"So, today is just basic drills and getting into the rhythm of training, so I want Medusa and Triton to race about the lake bed, while Jeff and Feabas will be doing physical exercises. Everybody got that? Good, I'll be swimming and practicing structural analysis on myself, so if you need me, you know where to find me. Let's go!"
Line Break
Later, I was in the tool shed stretching deliciously sore muscles and brainstorming. The training paired with getting the Hunter faunus transformation included a few different weapons before it settled for Poison and Venom, including a few that were mostly jokes, but the unorthodox can work if you do it right. As my aura slowly healed off my fatigue, I smiled at my mecha-shift weapons.
Poison and Venom appeared to be a bulky gauntlet with a pale blue crystal in the palm and a spear-bow hybrid, respectively. The gauntlet had a hardlight Dust crystal powering a hardlight generator calibrated to make a barrier and an arrow to go with the bow.
After getting Veterinary with Gearbreak, and thus the knowledge of Transformer's shifting and forcefield tech, I've been getting multiple ideas to upgrade my old friends. I grab some spare parts and a soldering iron and get to work.
Line Break
Meditating eith my eyes closed on the bed I claimed, I think deeply about the greater mysteries I may one day enact. Towering monstrosities of steel and power clashing with gods, a whole separate world that is at my complete command, rituals powerful enough to mold the planet in my image, and many more. But the journey of a thousand miles starts with just one step. An image I found while swimming on the lake flashes through my head, a ship's sails filling with wind, and my magic circuits hum to life.
Going through the motions, I slowly cast all three of the spells Gaea generously gave me. I hold a piece of paper in my hands, and trickle mana into it, getting pings of metaphysical information and physical dimensions. It feels like I'm literally scraping the surface of this spell, but I ignore it in favor of identifying imperfections within the sheet. Next, with a bit more prana, I carefully fill in those imperfections, centering my ideal as a sheet of metal. I open my eyes and look over the abnormal stiff paper, trying and failing to tear it. Suddenly, it cracked down the middle like a slab of sandstone. Obviously, I'm going to need to work on that.
Next, I again closed my eyes to focus, shape my prana into a thin plane of roughly equal proportions, and attempt to make it simulate the paper I was just experimenting with. Opening my eyes, I see a square of off-white material that looks as even as a preschooler's first attempt at a square. Trying to fold it instantly shatters the prana making it up, showing how much work I need to do.
I have a thought and grab a fresh piece of printer paper to test my idea. I first use structural analysis again, but instead keep these readings in mind as I make a paper out of gradation air. The spells synchronized harmoniously, and the paper I made both looked and felt correct, but the quality was worse than tissue paper and crumbled after only two folds.
I scratch my head, pondering on how to eek out a bit more efficiency, before remembering something. I reach within my soul, aiming right next to The Jump, and pull. A shimmer of soft orange light heralds the arrival of my wand.
The weight settled in my hands, and I was entranced by how smoothly my energy flowed through it. The wand was four feet long, almost a staff in honesty, and the Bog Oak was the perfect level of rough to keep a firm grip without chafing. Dark brown and ancient, the wood pulsed with a slow, methodical hum of magic that resembled more a mountain than a tree. The carvings of celtic knots converged upon a warm crystal that was colored like a frozen bonfire. The opposite end had a bronze cap that had dozens of runes with gold inlays that brought to mind a feeling of profound connection.
All of my internal energies; aura, prana, mana; they all were heartily accepted with such warmth it bordered on love, and the rightness I felt holding it was overwhelming.
It took a few minutes of bathing in the sheer joy to get my mind on track, and when I did, I noticed a shed tear of happiness. I felt more than a little guilty for having never summoned my wand before now. A forgiving whisper flowed through me, and I could only grin. Let's test out our limits, friend.
Line Break
The next morning, I pull Thomas away from the funny pages. I need to explain at somepoint, might as well do it quickly, like ripping a bandaid. I take a fortifying breath and look Thomas in the eyes.
"The world is going to end within my generation."
He looks confused but motions to continue. He has a bit of sweat on his bald head, but not a glimmer of doubt in his eyes.
"One of my summons is a precognitive spirit, and she foretold an evil greater than the Endbringers is coming. In fact, the Endbringers are this beings' creations. It does not care about life or happiness, and is planning a genocide on an uncountable scale, something it has done over and over for what might be millions of years." Trying to explain Gaea as a carry on of a different summon felt redundant when I can't realistically describe the ins and outs of magecraft, but this way I can at least get the information into an acceptable format.
Thomas pales, and the sweat multiplies. His eyes unfocused for a short moment, and the gears in his head spin in place. He looks into my eyes, begging for this to be a joke, to be exaggerated, to be as impossible as he feels it should be, but found naught but tired determination. Fear clings to his frame as he sags into his chair. Mutterings escape his quivering lips, prayers that go unanswered, and curses that lay unfulfilled.
"This being is currently unstoppable, but it won't always be. In time, something will come that could rival or defeat it, but as of right now, the planet is all but defenseless. I am one of the only people in the world who knows about this, but I refuse to be cowed by a future that I can change. My roster of summons is, according to this prophet, one path to victory, but it isn't the only one either. There is a chance to win, Tom, but to do that, I need to be stronger. I'm unsure where our deadline is, but it isn't today, so I'll train like it might be tomorrow."
His panic is not abated, but it is bouyed by a small sliver of hope. This is what I'm fighting for, and I will not fail to live up to that hope. I will kill Scion, and I will live my life because I am Noah. A name that will go down in history as a savior.
"Whatever happens, Arny, I'll be right behind you. Always." Thomas says, laying a hand on my shoulder. His eyes were aglow with bravery and loyalty. His hand gripped me like a lifeline. I feel a warmth in my chest, knowing I'm not alone in this.
That's all I needed.
Whoo boy, that was rough, I'm really glad that I'm doing a timeskip because I can not keep up this level of writing for so long on these same topics. Trying to not be repetitive with my vocabulary in a training setup was tough, I can not imagine doing an entire month of this. Also, I'm wondering if you want me to throw in an Informational thread with his progress or if I should try to write it in properly, I'm cautiously optimistic about my chances with truly writing it in, but if you guys prefer a more cold analysis of Noah's fruits of training let me know.
As of this moment, any suggested spells will be for Noah to learn in the future. Keep in mind that Magecraft is one of the hardest magic systems to learn and create spells with, so progress outside of highly focused training will be greatly reduced. Thanks to everyone for giving your suggestions! Many of your ideas were incorporated into the spells Noah makes during the month, and I'm excited to see what you all think of them!
Last thing to discuss will be where he should focus his magecraft research from now on, since he will not realistically have the necessary time to do everything. Obviously, this is heavily influenced by what spells he makes and his progress in them, but I'm curious of your blind ideas about it anyway. After his training timeskip is done, I'll be asking this again to see if anybody changes their minds upon seeing his repertoire.
Big shout-out to @BlackBasalisk for guessing the worlds correctly! They were Worm, One Piece, Pokémon, and RWBY! His omake will be written whenever he chooses, so be sure to keep an eye on that.
Formalcraft has a few basic bounded fields for obfuscation and a couple for hiding in plain sight, so I quickly set them up in the apartment to give some soft protection to the café. The weak fields won't do much to diffuse extreme scrutiny, but it will make it harder to see the place as a threat or target. This should be enough to keep the shop from burning down in our absence or getting hit by the gangs before we get back. This alone took seven hours, and hiding it from mundane eyes took two more, but it was a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Packing was simple but grueling since Thomas could only find a discrete parking spot a whole block away. That was another hour of work, and with the hour I needed to make dinner as planned, I only finished everything by 5:00 AM, meaning I had less than two hours to do any morning chores and get my training plans all made and set up.
Deciding to just take a long shower and finalize my schedule on the ride up to the cabin, I luxuriate in scrubbing away the grime and sweat. In the water, I feel a tug.
The loom spins. The threads were stiff and burnished like copper wires, twining and connecting with exotic energy changing individual threads' thickness and colors to suit the artwork. A scene of vicious blizzard winds was peirced by a hazy red barrier slicing the wind apart. In the pocket left behind, a gunmetal grey machine shaped like a massive two meter tall gyrfalcon flew, with rocket exhaust propelling it at hypersonic speeds. The tapestry had a different design on its back, showing something I could now identify as an XQ-58 Valkyrie UAV with a familiar hazy field parting the air, coasting over a broken battlefield. This is a Transformer, one named Gearbreak that excelled in scouting and counter-intellegence. A practical ocean of knowledge washed into my brain, giving me all Veterinary knowledge of my summons and most mundane animals.
I exhale an excited breath as the water pelts me once again. This didn't change much, but it gave me enough to need to redesign my training. New meal plans, new limits to meet and surpass, as well as a new perspective on what I already knew gave inspiration to maximize the gains this trip will instill.
Rinsing out the last suds of the bath, I hurry to get dressed and grab multiple notebooks on my way to the truck. Thomas is waiting there with an impatient look. "Well, well, well, the prodigal son arrives. What took so long, Aquaman? Does the fish need more TLC?"
"Fuck you Tom! Ariel doesn't deserve to deal with your shit! Keep it up, and I'll introduce you to Medusa properly, you old bastard."
His hands whip up in surrender while his face shifts to genuine panic. "Now hold on, isn't that a bit too far, I'm only joking here!?" My glare magnifies, and he gets the picture I'm not in a good mood. He swallows harshly, and rushes to get in the driver seat. Good, be afraid!
I hop into the passenger and turn on the radio to avoid conversation and start planning out the next month. First up is running any fresh meat through boot camp to get basic discipline and communication issues sorted out. Next is releasing the horde of swimmers into the lake to do some underwater combat/ search and rescue drills, some aerial maneuvers and dogfights for the fliers, shadow dueling and katas for me, and some magecraft practice during downtime.
Biggest goals of this first week is to get comfortable with the routines and supportive combat, as well as evolving Ariel as soon as possible. Next is to work on technique and physique for everyone and possibly run the 'pets' through therapy training. Afterward is to push the limits where we can and practice our weaknesses where we can't. Finally is hyperfocus on teamwork for my summons and magic spells for me.
The local ecosystem is gonna be strained to supply a steady diet for everyone, but it'll grow back eventually. My Survivalist power will help out a ton in this aspect, as will my new Veterinary knowledge to let me know a proper diet to promote growth. As I review said powers, I notice a rather perfect synergy between Transformer 'biology', if it can be called that, and the mecha-shift technology utilized by faunus Hunters.
Grabbing a new notebook, I sketch the schematics of Poison and Venom, my weapon. They're a gauntlet, Poison being part hardlight generator powered by hardlight dust, and a javelin-bow, Venom, respectively. But with all the parts I asked Thomas for and the knowledge about Transformer shifting and forcefields that Gearbreak gives, I think I can upgrade it. And this isn't even getting into making it a Mystic Code with a few magecraft rituals...
I put it aside for the moment to focus on Ariel, the one who needs the most one on one training out of my summons. With the ability to both heal and deal heavy damage if needed, the focus I'll be placing on her is definitely warranted. Although the exact names aren't known to me, the fact they exist and how to train these techniques is. With how many abilities I can train into her, Ariel is gonna be a staple combat partner for a long time to come. Elemental attacks, self heal, multi heal, physical attacks, mental attacks, spectral attacks, the list keeps going and one month won't be anywhere close to teach everything, so I'll focus on four for now. With her extreme affinity with water, I think I'll hone in on that for her first element to learn, along with healing and some form of defense.
A nudge from Thomas pulls me from my thoughts, and a glance out the windshield shows a moderately sized two floor log cabin at the top of a hill. The dark oak logs are worn and old, but hold holding strong and sturdy. Six windows on the front were arched with heavily tinted glass, the second floor had three windows that were much smaller and perfectly clear facing us. It looked to be around twenty five hundred square feet with a deeply slanted roof of maroon tiling. Turning around revealed a long enough driveway to be invisible from the road and have a few hundred feet of front yard to spare.
"So, what do you think? The lake is a small hike away, but it's still private property, so as long as you don't remake the maps, you should be fine. The front yard is two hundred forty by eighty and double that out back. It has been in the family and reconstructed three times in the last two hundred years. Ancestry leads back to the Puritans, too, y'know? Good enough for you?" The smug look on his face is for once entirely warranted. I can't even be mad.
"It's perfect. I'm not sure how much we'll need, but the yards alone are plenty of room for most of this month's work. Why don't you live here instead of groady Brockton Bay?" I ask.
He lets out a sigh and opens his door. "I grew up here for twenty-five years, Arny." I follow him out and walk with him towards the front door. "I love the place to death but I didn't own it until my parents passed, after that my older sister owned it before being placed in a home, and I do visit every other month to take a small vacation, but I followed my Uncle to his coffee shop all those years ago because it was too calm here. Nothing changes out here for decades at a time, and it was driving me nuts. Not to mention that it's an hour away from society proper. Two hours to get take out is just redundant, and I hate cooking, honestly." He digs out a slightly rusty keyring and fiddles with it before finding the right one. With a practiced movement, he jiggles the lock into a very specific position and turns the key. A soft click, and the door squeaks open. He looks at the walls with fond eyes before stretching his back.
"Well, let's get everything unpacked. You can use the tool shed out back for the bits and bobs you needed. I'll need to check the pantry and fridge to see if my nephew was by anytime recently, probably not, but he has crashed here before. Left home like me to work in Boston as a mechanic. He leaves his tools here on occasion, so if you see something you could use, don't be shy. Just make sure nothing breaks. Obviously." He chuckles to himself at what was most likely an inside joke. I shrug, but get to work unpacking.
With a lunch break in between, it takes only two hours to get the truck unloaded, and another two to put away everything in its proper place. So to get things going, I summon the Poison Scaveran, Jeff, and Gearbreak.
"Alright, let's set some ground rules." The system of whistles I use with Loki were made with fliers in mind, so teaching that took very little time, and after naming the scaveran Caustic, we started on the more complex commands. Jeff was far smarter than I initially expected and was actually taking to whistling with me for the commands, though I'm eighty percent sure he doesn't have the biology to whistle.
After getting the commands down, I summoned Loki to fly with the others and follow us on our hike to the lake. Jeff was having fun telling the fliers to do tricks, and the fliers were having fun stretching their wings. Once we see the lake, I whistle to the fliers to circle the area and train on their own while I summon up Medusa, Ariel, and the Hullbreaker, who was swiftly named Triton.
"So, today is just basic drills and getting into the rhythm of training, so I want Medusa and Triton to race about the lake bed, while Jeff and Feabas will be doing physical exercises. Everybody got that? Good, I'll be swimming and practicing structural analysis on myself, so if you need me, you know where to find me. Let's go!"
Line Break
Later, I was in the tool shed stretching deliciously sore muscles and brainstorming. The training paired with getting the Hunter faunus transformation included a few different weapons before it settled for Poison and Venom, including a few that were mostly jokes, but the unorthodox can work if you do it right. As my aura slowly healed off my fatigue, I smiled at my mecha-shift weapons.
Poison and Venom appeared to be a bulky gauntlet with a pale blue crystal in the palm and a spear-bow hybrid, respectively. The gauntlet had a hardlight Dust crystal powering a hardlight generator calibrated to make a barrier and an arrow to go with the bow.
After getting Veterinary with Gearbreak, and thus the knowledge of Transformer's shifting and forcefield tech, I've been getting multiple ideas to upgrade my old friends. I grab some spare parts and a soldering iron and get to work.
Line Break
Meditating eith my eyes closed on the bed I claimed, I think deeply about the greater mysteries I may one day enact. Towering monstrosities of steel and power clashing with gods, a whole separate world that is at my complete command, rituals powerful enough to mold the planet in my image, and many more. But the journey of a thousand miles starts with just one step. An image I found while swimming on the lake flashes through my head, a ship's sails filling with wind, and my magic circuits hum to life.
Going through the motions, I slowly cast all three of the spells Gaea generously gave me. I hold a piece of paper in my hands, and trickle mana into it, getting pings of metaphysical information and physical dimensions. It feels like I'm literally scraping the surface of this spell, but I ignore it in favor of identifying imperfections within the sheet. Next, with a bit more prana, I carefully fill in those imperfections, centering my ideal as a sheet of metal. I open my eyes and look over the abnormal stiff paper, trying and failing to tear it. Suddenly, it cracked down the middle like a slab of sandstone. Obviously, I'm going to need to work on that.
Next, I again closed my eyes to focus, shape my prana into a thin plane of roughly equal proportions, and attempt to make it simulate the paper I was just experimenting with. Opening my eyes, I see a square of off-white material that looks as even as a preschooler's first attempt at a square. Trying to fold it instantly shatters the prana making it up, showing how much work I need to do.
I have a thought and grab a fresh piece of printer paper to test my idea. I first use structural analysis again, but instead keep these readings in mind as I make a paper out of gradation air. The spells synchronized harmoniously, and the paper I made both looked and felt correct, but the quality was worse than tissue paper and crumbled after only two folds.
I scratch my head, pondering on how to eek out a bit more efficiency, before remembering something. I reach within my soul, aiming right next to The Jump, and pull. A shimmer of soft orange light heralds the arrival of my wand.
The weight settled in my hands, and I was entranced by how smoothly my energy flowed through it. The wand was four feet long, almost a staff in honesty, and the Bog Oak was the perfect level of rough to keep a firm grip without chafing. Dark brown and ancient, the wood pulsed with a slow, methodical hum of magic that resembled more a mountain than a tree. The carvings of celtic knots converged upon a warm crystal that was colored like a frozen bonfire. The opposite end had a bronze cap that had dozens of runes with gold inlays that brought to mind a feeling of profound connection.
All of my internal energies; aura, prana, mana; they all were heartily accepted with such warmth it bordered on love, and the rightness I felt holding it was overwhelming.
It took a few minutes of bathing in the sheer joy to get my mind on track, and when I did, I noticed a shed tear of happiness. I felt more than a little guilty for having never summoned my wand before now. A forgiving whisper flowed through me, and I could only grin. Let's test out our limits, friend.
Line Break
The next morning, I pull Thomas away from the funny pages. I need to explain at somepoint, might as well do it quickly, like ripping a bandaid. I take a fortifying breath and look Thomas in the eyes.
"The world is going to end within my generation."
He looks confused but motions to continue. He has a bit of sweat on his bald head, but not a glimmer of doubt in his eyes.
"One of my summons is a precognitive spirit, and she foretold an evil greater than the Endbringers is coming. In fact, the Endbringers are this beings' creations. It does not care about life or happiness, and is planning a genocide on an uncountable scale, something it has done over and over for what might be millions of years." Trying to explain Gaea as a carry on of a different summon felt redundant when I can't realistically describe the ins and outs of magecraft, but this way I can at least get the information into an acceptable format.
Thomas pales, and the sweat multiplies. His eyes unfocused for a short moment, and the gears in his head spin in place. He looks into my eyes, begging for this to be a joke, to be exaggerated, to be as impossible as he feels it should be, but found naught but tired determination. Fear clings to his frame as he sags into his chair. Mutterings escape his quivering lips, prayers that go unanswered, and curses that lay unfulfilled.
"This being is currently unstoppable, but it won't always be. In time, something will come that could rival or defeat it, but as of right now, the planet is all but defenseless. I am one of the only people in the world who knows about this, but I refuse to be cowed by a future that I can change. My roster of summons is, according to this prophet, one path to victory, but it isn't the only one either. There is a chance to win, Tom, but to do that, I need to be stronger. I'm unsure where our deadline is, but it isn't today, so I'll train like it might be tomorrow."
His panic is not abated, but it is bouyed by a small sliver of hope. This is what I'm fighting for, and I will not fail to live up to that hope. I will kill Scion, and I will live my life because I am Noah. A name that will go down in history as a savior.
"Whatever happens, Arny, I'll be right behind you. Always." Thomas says, laying a hand on my shoulder. His eyes were aglow with bravery and loyalty. His hand gripped me like a lifeline. I feel a warmth in my chest, knowing I'm not alone in this.
That's all I needed.
Whoo boy, that was rough, I'm really glad that I'm doing a timeskip because I can not keep up this level of writing for so long on these same topics. Trying to not be repetitive with my vocabulary in a training setup was tough, I can not imagine doing an entire month of this. Also, I'm wondering if you want me to throw in an Informational thread with his progress or if I should try to write it in properly, I'm cautiously optimistic about my chances with truly writing it in, but if you guys prefer a more cold analysis of Noah's fruits of training let me know.
As of this moment, any suggested spells will be for Noah to learn in the future. Keep in mind that Magecraft is one of the hardest magic systems to learn and create spells with, so progress outside of highly focused training will be greatly reduced. Thanks to everyone for giving your suggestions! Many of your ideas were incorporated into the spells Noah makes during the month, and I'm excited to see what you all think of them!
Last thing to discuss will be where he should focus his magecraft research from now on, since he will not realistically have the necessary time to do everything. Obviously, this is heavily influenced by what spells he makes and his progress in them, but I'm curious of your blind ideas about it anyway. After his training timeskip is done, I'll be asking this again to see if anybody changes their minds upon seeing his repertoire.
Big shout-out to @BlackBasalisk for guessing the worlds correctly! They were Worm, One Piece, Pokémon, and RWBY! His omake will be written whenever he chooses, so be sure to keep an eye on that.
Last edited:
For now, he both doesn't know he can, nor does he have the skill to do so. He has basic training on his aura and combat against both humans and beasts from Huntsman training gifted with his Faunus transformation, but only basics. Also, to get the context about the ability to share aura he'll need to get the Zoologist power to learn more in depth the livelihood and societal stuff. For now, he only knows that a form of human called Faunus can have aura, and they fight both normal humans and faunus and creatures of Grimm. Thanks for reading, and thank you
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
So, he has a Transformer now.
Transformers are basically just giant robot people.
Is there a reason Gearbreak didn't say anything? Or why Noah didn't react to the fact one of his summons is literally a person? His knowledge perks would give that away.
Like, there's a lot here about the potential of Transformer technology here and it helping him with mechashift weapons, which is great thinking, but I would assume the fact he's a person would be a more immediate concern.
Another thing is that the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie had its first flight in 2019. So beyond him being an alien robot, his vehicle form is also pretty much future tech on Earth Bet.
Transformers are basically just giant robot people.
Is there a reason Gearbreak didn't say anything? Or why Noah didn't react to the fact one of his summons is literally a person? His knowledge perks would give that away.
Like, there's a lot here about the potential of Transformer technology here and it helping him with mechashift weapons, which is great thinking, but I would assume the fact he's a person would be a more immediate concern.
Another thing is that the Kratos XQ-58 Valkyrie had its first flight in 2019. So beyond him being an alien robot, his vehicle form is also pretty much future tech on Earth Bet.
Gearbreak is specifically one of the Transformers that aren't people based but animal based, in this case the Gyrfalcon. He isn't canon, he doesn't have an actual counterpart, and so he's completely custom. Not even his name is used by any canon Transformer. Also, the tech of Transformers is definitely far advanced of anything on Earth Bet minus Tinkertech, however we only have the knowledge of fixing it since we have the Veterinary power. Without it we would be completely clueless how Gearbreak works, and would have to wait until we get Material Acquisition to tinker with it. However, and I asked zagan about this directly, with how compatible it is with mecha-shift technology, Noah can upgrade his weapons to be more versatile than just two weapons merged together. It isn't making a new Transformer out of his weapons, just an upgrade.
As for advanced technology, yes. It's a Transformer.
Joking aside, Noah doesn't know what the XQ-58 Valkyrie is, so doesn't know it's literal future tech, he only assumes it's something Transformers made. And why wouldn't he? Big shape-shifting robot aught to have advanced tech, right?
Last edited:
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
This is based on the Custom Transformer entry, right?
Every Custom Transformer has a beast, vehicle, and humanoid form.
And... every transformer with a humanoid form, at least to my knowledge, has human-level intelligence.
Huh, so it does. Didn't notice that. Welp, that sucks for me. Entirely fucks my whole storyline from this point on, actually. Honestly, this means I have to completely rewrite like three chapters including this one, and that's not even counting the derailment of everything I had planned for the training month and after.
Last edited: