Zoom inspects the last [Spell Design] in front of them
Zoom is already cringing as they check the updated skill
"OH MOTHERFUCK ME RIGHT IN THE SHIMMERY BITS!"
"Something wrong with the designs?" Virabell had supplied the 30 foundational [Metal Magic] [Spell Designs] after Zoom explained their inability to stabilize their soul using only energy. Normally casting creation magic unassisted was the realm of [Arch-Mages] because of how complicated the designs were, but with their new inorganic kickass magic brainmeats it should be a simple matter of copy and paste.
Choosing what to create was a bit harder with the amount of options they had, the sage had recommended sticking to one school of magic for the moment and while [Crystal Magic] had great synergy with other magic, [Nature Magic] offered almost limitless flexibility and [Elemental Magic] gave access to conceptual matter, [Metal Magic] wins on cool factor.
Which was how Zoom made most of their decisions, usually to their detriment, but apparently it was basically the standard approach to most [Soul Magic]. Which made them not want to do it, but in the end the desire to create cool arcanotech won over the desire to be a bratty little bitch.
Just barely.
"The designs are fine, but my system is bullying me", Zoom complains.
"And how is your system bullying you?", the sarcasm oozes of her words, but Zoom was already building up a good tantrum and didn't let that stop them.
"IT KEEPS TALKING TO ME! First it tried to be all neutral and informative seeming and when that didn't work it started getting sassy when using [Inspect] and I ignored that shit, but now it's being sassy in the notifications! IT'S TRYING TO MAKE ME LIKE IT!"
"Look kid, that shit ain't really my wheelhouse, normally [Spirit Sage] Joyful Whispers guides people in that long journey, because I ain't got the patience", Virabell responds after a moment.
"I hear a but and I hope it's a juicy one!"
"Oh, I only serve the jiggliest organic pound cake kid, so lemme give you another option, you can talk your feelings over with a trusted figure who will guide you towards personal growth and emotional health..."
"Or?"
"Or I just tell you you're an idiot and tell you how it really is"
"Ooh, yeah! Second option please!"
"Alright, your previous system was made to serve the entire population of-- what was the name of that shithole again? Ah right, [East Onderland], your previous system was there for all of [East Onderland] and they preferred it if you didn't exist, so the system punished you for existing. You're new system is there for you and only you unless, Gods forbid, you procreate, so you can trust it to only fuck up out of incompetence instead of malice, got that?"
Zoom thought that over for a moment, "Promise?"
"Yeah, pinky promise"
"Not you, we met like 5 minutes ago and I haven't even seen your face! I was talking to the fox lady responsible for getting us out. Scarlet what do you think, can I trust this hoe about this?"
"Well, umm, Gra-, Mi-, ermm, Virabell is very respected", Scarlet anxiously starts, startled to suddenly be part of the conversation, "And, ummm, I guess I don't know of anyone with a unique system that doesn't like it a whole lot?"
Scarlet had lost the little self confidence she had before the sentence was over, but that was good enough for Zoom.
"K, sweet!" they replied and started on copying all the [Spell Designs] to their own partition.
Deciding to trust Scarlet to trust Virabell to trust their system, they inspected the new skill.
The [Metal Sense] isn't what they would expect, [East Onderland] sense skills come with vague instincts and intuition that develop organically alongside the skill, but their new system just gave them an exabyte worth of data models and a basic API to test sensory data against it.
As they inspect the data another skill asks for their attention.
When they integrated their [Energy Manipulation] skill collection, it's skills leveled up a bunch, including [Information Manipulation], it was now level 15 and passing 10 unlocked an extra function.
Zoom allows the skill to translate [Metal Sense] and as the API converts to the new language, it seamlessly connects to the rest of her mind and they're suddenly aware of every single metal atom in the shielded room. There isn't much left after Quinn's void consumed most of the room, the room is basically a vacuum, but even then there are still close to a million particles each only a few atoms in size and most of them unfamiliar alloys.
Analyzing all that requires ridiculous amounts of processing power that is automatically allocated to the skill, Zoom has just enough time to realize they don't have enough mana to power it and reach towards Ember's magic before they black out.
Scarlet was just about to check in on Zoom when mana levels shoot through the roof, no alarms go off this time though, shielding is at 100%, ambient mana levels still below standard atmosphere levels, neither [Master Poison Handler] or [Expert Safe Intent] trigger and [Substance Analysis] is coming up unknown despite drinking up oceans of Titania mana through [In Titania's Service].
She's starting to feel the fatigue of the day, the panic comes through muted as she looks to the [Grand Sage] for help. Virabell's eyes are glued to the window though, "Oooooh, now that's a show!" she purrs appreciatively, "I wonder is they're gonna blow up again."
Small crackles and pops start to sound out from the room as her sensors report an enormous amount of [Create Silver] spells being formed simultaneously.
"Hahahaha, that has to be the most impressively stupid way to use metal magic I've seen all decade!" Virabell cackles as a silver ring starts to grow from the cloud of spells.
Before Scarlet can try to defend Zoom a second distorted laugh starts to sound out louder and louder from the chamber. Mana, electricity and heat starts to flow through the growing silver filaments and Zoom shouts loud enough to trigger the kinetic shields.
"IN YOUR MOTHERFUCKING SMARMY ASS FACE BITCH! I DIDN'T BLOW UP, I DIDN'T NEED NO STUPID SHAPING SPELLS AND I'M MADE OF METAL AND MAGIC AND LIGHTNING AND LASER AND YOU'RE JUST A SUCKY PILE OF WORDS AND NUMBERS! WHO'S THE GODSDAMNED SYSTEM NOW BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!"
Zoom cackles as their mind continues to take shape above Quinns pool of edgy dorkness, [Metal Sense] takes almost every bit of mana they have and with their self stripped back to it's barest essentials, they do what comes natural and create.
It begins simple enough, summoning particles of silver wherever there is signal loss in their mana pattern.
The sudden burst of clarity as they finish feeds into a happy mania and they start improving the design right away.
Creating a second ring shooting off perpendicular from the first with 30 nodes along it, using silver they transcribe a specialized sense for each of the metals they know, happy to discover that their new formal language mapd across 4 dimensions. It's' really awesome, they should totally give it a good name!
They link the nodes back up using the ring, creating a second much more efficient metal sense.
Ignoring their system they continue on, creating a stable housing for every part of their mind along the primary ring, losing themselves in the overwhelming complexity of the project.
Suddenly flush with mana and cognition, solving their original problem is an afterthought, a simple spell form inscribed on the inside of the ring lifts Ember's glowing star out of the midnight black pool, centered in the ring, excess energy automatically rerouted into oblivion.
Drained, but finally fucking stable, Zoom lands their ass on the small ridge of surviving metal along the wall of the room, satisfied with a job well done. Only, except..
Zoom blinks while they slowly connect the dots, landing, ass, blinking...
Zoom jumps up in a glorious war dance as they realize they have a physical body again, jumping and curling around to check every inch of their new bod. They are a glowing teal and pink ferret, about a meter in size, on closer inspection it's an outer shell made of hard light shaped around a knot of mana somehow connecting with a node along her primary ring.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"SCARLET I HAVE A BODY AGAIN, WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN? DO I LOOK AS COOL AS I THINK I DO? WHAT DOES MY FACE LOOK LIKE?"
"Umm", a startled Scarlet starts, "I think you have a cute ferret face? It's hard to see from here and it showed up while you started laughing and, umm, shouting those things to your system?"
Zoom, pleased that flying still comes naturally, checks their notifications while shooting up towards the opaque viewing window. [Sentient Energy] had leveled up twice before they started construction and they were pretty sure that skill-up came with an unlock.
"Oh hey, I was so awesome at using my new [Metal Sense] that I got two unlocks for my [Sentient Energy] skill. One of 'm let me build the ring thingy, but the other one gave me an personalized avatar!"
Zoom has to make a few happy swoops before they calm down enough to hover in place, "SO! Do I look pretty?"
Zoom hovers in front of the window, a giant glowing neon ferret. In the dreamscape they had been shaped loosely like a ferret, but were mostly made from an indistinct mass of lightning the same way Ember was made from a mass of flames. She had thought the similarity was how they ended up friends, but now she felt stupid for missing all the hints.
Zoom's new look was a lot less abstracted now, thin rays of light mimicked fur well, reminding her of those RGB fiberglass faux fur jackets that were coming back in style. But instead of a pulsing rainbow they glowed either uniformly neon teal or neon pink with small tendrils of similarly colored electricity occasionally arcing between them.
They are mostly teal, the pink reserved for their sharp looking claws and jagged marking across their body, normal ferret stripes and a few cartoon skulls, stars and spirals scattered randomly.
They sport a very smug looking ferret face with a pink mask across most of it and a pair of glowing teal eyes, with magenta star shaped pupils.
The entire look combined with their sharp grin made them look like a spirit animal fever dream from a 14 year old girl on copious amounts of sugar and hallucinogens.
"You look really cool and you do have a cute little ferret face!" The new look is comfortable and familiar, reminding her of all the nights playing games in their dreams. Which makes her realize that they had all been hidden behind the emergency shielding in front of the viewing window. The window came with a built in projector and her camera's had survived everything, so they had never lost sight of the room, but that only went one way.
"Zoom I forgot! The mana levels have stabilized, if you're done I can switch back to normal shielding and make the window transparent", she offered.
Zoom enjoys their new body by simultaneously smiling, nodding and giving two thumbs up.
The window shimmers purple and green for a moment before turning transparent, revealing their audience. To her left stand two men, one a tall gaunt emaciated figure with almost see through white skin, a mop of unkempt gray hair, a pair of sparkling lively eyes and a gentle smile. The other a beefy orc, almost two heads smaller than the other, hair in a traditional topknot and a five o'clock shadow. He is decked out in all kinds of symbols, fetishes and occult paraphernalia, a look a bit ruined by his outfit of flip flops, tan cargo shorts and an unbuttoned bright blue shirt with bananas and rubber duckies, showing of chunky abs and pecs. Like some kind of dope beach bum surfer shaman dude guy. Zoom approves.
Looking further to the right they spot a floating pixie with neon blue twin braid and a really cool leather jacket, Zoom instantly pins her as Virabell. The rest of her outfit is equally cool, a pair of scuffed pink and black sneakers, charcoal lightly torn jeans, a shirt for a band way too cool for Zoom to know about with the neck cut to make it open up and a simple black choker. Even her liner and lipstick was perfect, smudged just enough to make it like she isn't even trying.
To the back of the room was a tall slightly humanoid looking tree, which Zoom mostly pegs as a dryad because of a lack of pot, but maybe that was just weird [Fae] gardening?
It was pretty tree though, little purple flowers and a cool light brown bark.
To the right of the room is the stone golem witch lady who spoke to Ember, Esther. If they couldn't see her subtly move while breathing, it would be easy to think she was a generic witch statue. The simple black robe draws the eye to her sharp and regal features, her stone skin a warm brown with a few orange streaks dappled along her cheeks and brow. Her hat impressively large with a dark green brocade ribbon along it's base, with all kinds of knick-knacks stuffed inside.
Next to her is the tallest person in the room, easily standing at twice Zoom's height, it's obviously Titania, her dress is made from leaves so fine they look like silk, or silk woven so expertly it looks like leaves, embroidered lines of gold and metallic purple make beautiful understated floral patterns from very functional looking magical glyphs along the entire body of the dress. Streams of flowers are pinned in her red-brown hair held up by a golden antler shaped crown. Every part of her outfit screaming Elven royalty and every part of her body language screaming overworked single mother desperate for a nap. She stands slightly stooped, a tired set to her face, but her eyes sparkle lively when they make eye contact.
However the real center of attention is Scarlet, she oddly looks way hotter in the waking world. In the dreamscape she had always been very pretty with her curvy hips, sleek bloodred hair, a poofy tail and cute squishy cheeks, but in comparison it almost feels a bit mean spirited. Instead of her normal small and hunched posture, she is tall and elegant, with a sharp jawline and the kind of kneel for me eyes that were gonna blow Ember's mind.
And that was despite her current state, it was clear she had been crying, her eyes red and starting to swell, mascara and eyeliner dripping down in dramatic lines except on her left cheek where she smudged it, a small spot on the tip of her nose as well.
"Damn Hemmie, you look way hot in real life, despite looking like shit!" Zoom laughed, "Ember is gonna squirt her pants when she sees how hot you are, why'd you make yourself uglier in your dreams?"
The hot fox-, no scratch that, the extremely hot foxy lady blinks at them in confusion.
"Our bodies in the dreaming are based on our view of ourselves", the stone witch responds instead of Scarlet, "and Scarlet has some work to do on her self image."
"Oh geez, really?" Zoom gapes, still reeling at the difference, "Something for Ember to fix I guess", they shrug.
"Anyway, it's been nice to meet ya'll and while I would love to hang around and get styling tips from Virabell, I think it's time for Nemetona to do it's thing"
That snaps Scarlet out of her confusion, "Do they need anything?"
"It, not they...", a look crosses Scarlet's face, "Yeah I know, it's important to it and it's really nice, so be nice back!"
"I...", Scarlet begins and then shakes her head, "No of course, it won't be the first person I meet with it pronouns"
"Yeah, so that's kinda the rub, I don't think it's like a person person, but also not not a person if that makes sense?"
Scarlet looks a bit flabbergasted at that, but Titania quickly cuts in with a warm smile, "Perfectly honey"
A bit surprising, that usually requires more explanation, "Perfect! But yeah, since this whole thing is like super personal, it's usually a real fan of connecting with like nature and the environment and shit, do you think you could like, open a window outside or something?"
Scarlet responds by slightly smugly hitting a button and with a loud groan the walls begin to move and open up like blooming flower petals, Zoom looks up at the sky as a rush of fresh air washes over them, realizing with a smile the sun is about to set.
Looking back at Scarlet she's giving them a very proud little smile, clearly having seen the awe on their face.
"That's awesome, it opens up just like a butthole!"
Scarlet looks like she's about to make an angry counterpoint, but Zoom is already flying back to the ground, taking the time to inspect and note down all their skills before letting Nemetona switch back in, happy to leave this clusterfuck in competent hands.
Zoom
How do you feel about crunchy systems like Zoom's?
