Getting the keys to the motorcycle I was technically the legal owner of was as simple as hitting up the main administration building, then waiting for half an hour as someone dug around to find them. While I waited, I also took the time to fill out a form to get an MG license. Surprisingly, that only took up a handful of minutes of the wait since they only needed my cover name and a password that would be used to verify that I actually was the MG I claimed to be.

The system wasn’t the best for numerous reasons, but since the ID lacked a picture, my real name, a description, or any unique identifying features outside of a serial code, it was really the only easy way to approximate two-factor authentication. I doubt most people would try to forge an MG’s ID, but with how being an MG could conveniently turn away most legal inquiries, it was definitely necessary for there to be some security measures in place.

After I got the keys, I was told to find lot C, spot 37- which was… somewhere. After wandering around for too long, I tracked down one of the maps, only to find out the lot was on the other side of the campus, which was about a ten minute walk. With the use of my new boosting technique, it took about the same amount of time. Mostly due to taking a short break to configure my sphere of perception into a forward facing cone of slightly larger volume so I had enough time to slow down or alter my trajectory, and longer ones to deal with the consequences of fucking up despite that.

Getting actual use out of adding energy into my steps let me tweak a few things, mostly when it came to turning. It’s already hard to sharply turn when at normal sprinting or running speeds, but when you’re going around twenty miles per hour it’s nearly impossible. When I had a wall to use as an external brake or ricochet surface depending- on the angle- things were mostly fine, but when someone misjudged how fast I was going and tried to cross in front of me it got more complicated.

The first time that happened, I tried to stop normally- a bunch of quick steps while leaning back- and had to learn so far back that my feet slipped out from under me. For how fast I was going, I only ended up with trivial scrapes as I semi-intentionally dispersed a lot of the energy in a roll while bloating myself from converting the remaining kinetic energy into ULE. I guess I never considered how it would feel to cram ULE into my body since it was always at a level where I never even considered running out, but the feeling was much worse than I would have expected.

When I could get a breath in through the fits of dry heaving, it felt like my chest would explode. I had a migraine bad enough that I don’t even really know if I was thinking. If I tried to stay still, I would literally vibrate fast enough to make a low hum, and when I tried to move my muscles would overshoot both the intended angle and strength.

Appearing and doing something to let me focus, Cleo amusedly said, {maybe I should have warned you about this being a possible consequence of overusing ULE generation. Don’t worry, it’s not fatal or even that harmful, you just need to either let your body dissipate it back to normal levels or dump it into a perk.}

After I tried to ask something and ended up wrenching my jaw open then snapping it shut with a loud click, they continued, {The best option would probably be [Unremarkable], since the rest of your perks either lack a target, are completely passive, or would cause unwanted property damage.}

After almost pulling something while trying to shrug, I turned off the perk in question before doing the equivalent of plugging a lamp directly into a high-voltage main line. Predictably, that was awful for a completely different reason.

For a split second before the output normalized, I’m pretty sure everyone who ever met me forgot I existed. Well, I forgot I existed- kinda like putting my sense of self to sleep- and if overloading the perk was able to make me somehow forget…

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Anyway, the second time someone made it necessary to stop quickly, I tried adding more power to my boost a little earlier to jump over them. It certainly worked, but since I was in the air I couldn’t avoid the wall that necessitated the path’s slight turn which I had been preparing for before the roadblock walked in front of me. The story was pretty much the same as last time but slightly better- a pattern that was upheld through the two other incidents that occurred before I reached my bike.

Now very sore and bruised- but free of broken bones or, more surprisingly, cuts- I hopped on the bike. Despite having the option to use its jet mode, I took it nice and slow- following the suggested road speeds all the way to the parking lot of the building my apartment was in.

Once I got there, I took off one of the side panels with my screwdriver I had to grab from my room. For some reason when I picked up [Pocket of Holding], I didn’t pack it as full as I possibly could- something I fixed by squeezing a few other miscellaneous tools in along with the aforementioned screwdriver. Once the panel was off, I plugged my tail into the easily identifiable maintenance port and started poking around. Since the warranty was likely already gone on account of the acquisition process, I wasn’t worried about voiding it myself and used [Magical Hacking] to poke around more than you probably should be able to.

After a few hours of tinkering with the software, I threw together an operational mode where it would assume it had as much ULE as it wanted, only use the jet propulsion, and extend the air braking / turning flaps a lot more than default. In addition, if I really cranked the handlebars in a direction, the built in stabilizing gyro would more aggressively lean into the turn with the hope that doing so would let me get a foot down easier to use the work-in-progress kinetic energy canceling for even tighter turning.

Because I needed to be plugged into the bike to enable that new mode, I carefully pried the port off the circuit board and added enough wire to allow me to stick it to an external part of the frame where I could comfortably reach with my tail.

Sitting against the bike, I spoke out to no one in particular, “do you think I could mitigate the force if I crashed? I don’t have any riding gear and if I could avoid having to wear any it would be nice.”

As expected, Cleo spoke inside my head, {I am confident that you wouldn’t die, however, it would be a lot worse than your earlier impacts. With enough adrenaline, I’m sure you could push the ULE conversion to an almost unlimited degree. But doing so might kill you from shock. Any guesses why humans can die from something like that?}

“Heck if I know, it’s just one of those weird quirks that humans have. Like lower back pain, bad knees, lack of teeth replacements, and inability to make many of our necessary nutrients. I guess, evolution is only good for getting to reproduction- after that it doesn’t care.”

{If I may add some complaints of my own, I have also noticed a lack of acuity in many of your senses and inexplicable hang ups around certain ideas,} they paused while pointedly narrowing their eyes at my horns and tail, {although you lack some of the latter.}

Now interested, I asked, “do Semiseelie not feel uncomfortable changing something so intrinsic to them as their form? I mean, yeah, I did decide on this system of sight- but I gave it some thought and was at least a little put off by it.”

{Our forms are temporarily given to us as they are needed. Even the name I use with you is temporary since my real name cannot be communicated with any medium you can perceive. The closest approximation to our nature I can give is that we resemble what it would be like if fundamental aspects of your universe had consciousness.}

“Wack. Assuming that is a good enough approximation, what fundamental aspect would you be?”

After thinking for a few seconds, Cleo said, {I don’t know everything that you have discovered as a species, but I do know that you as an individual lack the knowledge to understand- assuming there is a truth similar to me in this universe in the first place.}

Feeling tired, I dragged myself up, dusted off, and said, “that’s an eloquent way to call me stupid. Anyway, I’m going to waste the next few hours doing a whole lot of nothing until it’s time to try to make smoke move again.”