When what first appears to be a living creatures begins to rez into existence, I was going to have a heart attack. When it turns out to be most of a cow, just dead, and somewhat prepped as meat, it isn’t much better. The other thing that causes me great discomfort is the boxes. There are kids’ meals or childrens’ meals boxes, straight out of my Fakeworld memories from commercial restaurant chains, or at least something ridiculously similar looking. Atter can’t grab any of it until I pick one up to hand it to her, for her to examine. Luni looks about as discomforted as me at the boxes.
Atter fishes about inside the box as steam wafts from it, and even my mouth waters. The food inside isn’t in any wrappers, so there won’t be any extraneous waste, beyond the thin little cardboard boxes, which can go in the furnaces, or be used as scrap paper. Inside the boxes is a mixture of sandwiches, and potato sides, such as crinkle-cut fries, or curly fries, or french fries, or baked potatoes.
I—. I feel like if I eat any of this, something could happen. The food looks fairly delicious, not lowest common denominator worst quality fast food by any means. But it’s not that. It’s the shops acknowledging more and more things from Fakeworld.
Vylon, motioning to what’s probably a cow corpse, nudges me to mutter, “I uh, haven’t had one to myself in a while Schism. Suppose I could?”
There should be a filter in my brain before saying stuff like this as I chirp a distracted response, “Knock yourself out.”
I mentally facepalm, wanting to apologize because I’m not sure if the phrase has any meaning here, since it’s supposed to be interpreted as do as you would like. Thankfully, even if Vylon was about to be upset, he heard my thought train about the phrase.
Shaking her head in disbelief after sniffing the food, Atter licks her chops and attempts to prevent herself from drooling. She looks questioningly my way, and I motion for her to go for it, so she digs in. Loud seems to savor the sandwich. It seems less so does she savor the french fries, but she still nods appreciatively while trying them out, intending to finish them. I begin levitating out box after box after box with my T K grips, and setting them near Daghda’s cauldron, so that people know they’re free food for the volunteers. I also quickly throw on my sandstorm cloak to cast a full pot for the cauldron, and telekinetically stir its giant ladle for a while as I sigh belatedly.
Frowning at myself for doing so, I query, “Atter? Do you recall the way back to Shiz and the others? You don’t have to stay in the prison, but I though maybe he might like some of the food too, but I need everyone else here for some spellwork I’m about to do. I apologize if it seems condescending or insulting to send you that way after showing you one of our most valuable secrets. I—. I’d hope you could take it more as a sign of trust, faith that you don’t need to be monitored maybe? I’m sorry.”
There’s a fair sized smirk on the left half of Atter’s face before she chuckles and nods in a semi-understanding manner. Atter responds, “I could see myself back if you so wish it Reggie. What few parts in myself that I’m proud of, I see in you, the worry for the safety of others, the concern for their wellbeing. It’s quite alright. We see you pre-dawn at the top of Mount Solace, yes? Shiz and I.”
Nodding emphatically I agree, “Aye, yes, definitely. So long as I don’t accidentally blow myself up or the entirety of Mount Verdimenn, I should be okay to make good on that. There’s, uh, only a small chance of that happening, lower with the help of those that are here.”
Snorting with laughter, Atter shakes her head while walking away with five of the meal boxes, bringing food to the other prisoners and the guards. She waves behind her as she continues out towards mount Solace. I can’t help chuckling at how impossible I must sound some times.
I levitate a stack of hundred dollar bills over to the dimensional pouch at my hip from where I have some secreted away in the library nearby. Better than having to run and get some every time we try something new in the shops. I’m about to do the thing I’m most worried about, so I’m hoping Kinzul, Luni, Te, and Lil are ready for this. I’d love to have Illy and Prinny at my side too.
I’m scared to say goodbye. There’s so much wrapped up in this form. Even with the modifications I’ve been doing to it, it’s still the me that I feel is most like myself. It’s who I remember first seeing a reflection of. Heck, Prinny and I were just bonding about certain shapes and ways our bodies felt nice fitting together, and I’m giving that up too. Speaking of, she takes me aside for a quick moment, and we both observe a short event within the object she’d had Teuila retrieve. It was— enlightening. Lightheaded, I return with her to everyone else, while she’s glommed onto my right side yet again.
Leading everyone to my private vault, I close the door without locking it. I might not live through this. No sense trapping them in here until Lucky wanders by to dig them out, or making Te punch her way out, or making Lu wait on her wand to recharge to stoneshape her way out.
Addressing them all, but mostly Kinzul, I ramble, “So, um. I’ll be doing a really experimental shift of my Can’Z’aasian powers. We’d had a self-actualization shapeshifting ability because our evolved forms, triggered by our own wills, were somehow reflective of, or extensions of our wills. So we basically had spells that, like any of the dragons here, would take us from these little forms you see, up to what might look like an adult human, or adventurer, or knight, or monster. I—. Yeah, in case you’re wondering, mine was of course the monster. Lu’s the only reason I’m not some rampaging beast stuck on Can’Z’aas right now.”
My Anchor sighs, shaking her head. She softly whispers telepathically, “Oh my Hero, no. No that’s not true. I love you, but you’d, you have to come back, you always do, you always will. Even from this one, right now, tonight. You’ve got this Hero, always have, always will.” Then in a bit of a bossy voice and attitude, Lu adds, “I love you Reggie Shellcracker, and you’re going to promise not to disappoint me.”
Mildly startled, I cough, and shrug helplessly before responding, “Well, I—. I hate to make promises I don’t know if I can keep Lu. Some of this is out of my hands. I love you too though. I promise I’ll do my best to not disappoint you.”
Addressing those of the gathered to be involved in the magic, in turn, I start, “Te? I’m going to be going for combat efficiency, stamina, agility, and the like. If you get any sense of the changes going on, I want you to focus on those please. Lil? I’m going to try to incorporate my breath weapon into my natural biology, possibly my scales, or wings from my draconic form, which might need the tail as well, or failing those, maybe some parts of the armor of the Mite-Hulk-King. Lu? Lu I need to stay me. Please don’t let me disappear. I know that’s a lot of pressure. And maybe it’s an irrational fear, I’m sorry Lu. Kinzul my love? I need you to Administrate the flow of their thoughts and feelings, all of our Latents, and my spellwork. I’m going to try approximately three at once, so it might take up to half of an hour almost, just for the first part, then I think another eight minutes for the second part.”
Turning towards the other two, I almost mumble, “Illy? I’m scared. I’m really scared. I don’t know if I’ll be me on the other side of this. Illy I know you know that fear. I just, I just want you to remember *this* me, and that I love you, even if you have to remind a new me, if there is one. Prinny? Kind of the same thing. I’m scared, and I’m clinging to comforts, and you’re the most comforting being not already entangled in the spellwork. I love you too. I love all of you.”
I sit in lotus position on my bed, and Lil wraps his arms around me, draping them over my shoulders as he sits snugly up against my back. Teuila sits at my right side, holding my right hand, while Luni sits at my left, holding my left. Kinzul sits behind the three of them, behind me, and drapes her arms over Lil’s over my shoulders. Prinny crawls into the crook between my legs to sit with her own legs wrapped around my waist, and she leans her face forward to snuggle it into my chest. Illy looks lost, and left out, until Kinzul leans back, and draws Lil back.
Prinny scooches more closely to be able to wrap more of herself around me now that she’s not balked by four arms over my torso, and Illy climbs into the spare position behind me, in front of Lil. Iylynila’s blush would fry eggs instantly as she wraps her own arms around me, between Prinny’s arms and legs, across my belly. There’s three pairs of legs cast wide about my hips in a hilarious stack with Illy’s legs tight against mine, Lil’s legs tight against hers, and Kinzul’s legs loosely against Lil’s.
I catch Teuila whispering jokes to Illy about how her ability now has a name she’s using for sure, Mirage Flash, so she’s a Mirage Flasher. Of course Te giggles like a madbeast when she says, “That’s right, I’m one bad MFer.” Illy almost chokes on her laughter, and even I snort back a laugh about it while I’m trying to concentrate.
Phew, deep breaths Reggie, picture everything you need to first. Three activations at once, followed by another activation, for a total of thirty two minutes straight of calling out to Can’Z’aas. I—. I should get some opinions.
Gnawing on my lip, I ask, “Guys? I think I could reset my nerves with a new base form, and I’d be a lot faster. Problem is, I’ve been turning my disadvantage into several new advantages. My currently destroyed nervous system makes me immune to dragonfright, and I’m able to halt any further mana residue buildup from my changeling mana residue sickness.”
While Illy leaps straight to wanting me to repair my nervous system, Prinny cautiously weighs both options, leaning towards keeping my current advantages. Lil thinks I’ll probably break the system of my own body somehow and end up with both advantages, which causes Lu and Te to just giggle and agree with Lil instead of offering feedback. I sigh, not being any closer to a decision, at least until my wife speaks, offering a third solution.
Lady Kinzul suggests, “What if, as our darling son,” I snort, cough, and sputter, as Lil’s brain temporarily breaks when Kinzul calls him *our* son, as she continues, “suggested, you decide to take both sets of advantages. You’ve mentioned that much of your internals exist in some nebulous *digital* space, yes? Could your true nerves exist there, while keeping channels throughout your physical body? Perhaps even widened channels for additional operational abilities?”
I am going to fuggin’ love being married to the Administrator. I want to turn around and leap at her and kiss the hell out of her. Which everybody just heard me think. Ugh, now I’m blushing hot enough to fry eggs instantly. She praises me for abstract thinking that can break rules? She’s easily as creative. I mean, she had to be, for reasons that are secret to everyone save Prinny and me, and possibly Illy, and possibly Lil. Wait. Does everyone here know? Scratch that, we can hash it out later so I know who shouldn’t hear certain thoughts.
Okay, let’s see, what else do we have. I was thinking about baking all the forms together for one sort of super combat form, but what if I made my form more *me*? I’m a Changeling Fae, but I also have a fairly highly potent specialized shapeshifting skill from Can’Z’aas. What if I created a body, a form, that uses that specialized level of shapeshifting instead of the one with the natural limitations of my poor ability to use my natural Changeling Fae gifts? I wouldn’t have to reach out to Can’Z’aas every time, and I could very well have access to all of my side-grade forms.
Moreover, if I’m using this time to reach deeply into Administrated self-actualization shapeshifting with Kinzul’s aid, I might be able to set up forms that have the biology to access all of my Can’Z’aasian skills. Or at least one apiece, and be able to shapeshift between them. I know of a Frostfire Salamanderian, so that could be a form that has my thermokinesis available biologically, though that might take a third stage evolution because they’re so big. Could I be a teenage or pupa F F Salamanderian or something?
I’d better pull them up in a moment between moments, in retrocognition. Diving into the non, seeking the absence of time, the space between spaces, I stretch out and distort time. Suddenly I find myself a bit concerned, when I see everyone in my private frozen mindscape, in telepathic avatars, including Illy, Prinny, and Kinzul. They aren’t moving around, but it’s definitely surprising that they’re here. Although I suppose, this must be how Kinzul is planning to Administrate our combination of abilities. Okay, pull up the last version of your stats page that you recall Reggie.
REGGIE STATS, SKILLS, AND PARAMETERS 4200.36 LEVEL 17 1.25 BRAWN 15 1.1 AGILITY 12 1.5 PLUCK 20 1.4 SMARTS 18 1.2 WISDOM 14 1.7 DUENDE 24 SKILLS 1.02 ACID GEN 5 ALCHEMY 202 2.292 BREATH 323 CAPACITY 32767 CRAFTING 420 DISENCHANTING 6 6.272 ELECTROKINESIS 1318 2314.628471 ENERGY 5543 7.452 S.A./SHAPESHIFTING 1613 16.068 SPACE 3767 7.727 STAMINA 6727 4.672 STEALTH 918 16.472 SURVIVAL 1934 16.608 THERMOKINESIS 3902 8073217.54 TIME 2,018,304,135 OFFENSES 6.2 BLUDGEONING 1300 4.72 PIERCE 930 6.2 PUGILISM 1300 8.24 SLASHING 1810 PAIN DEFENSES 0.0900090009 ACID 1011 0.04045307443 BLUDGEONING 2372 0.07587253414 ELECTRO 1218 0.4524886878 LUNG CAPACITY 121 0.9900990099 NEGATIVE ENERGY 1 0.113507378 PIERCE 781 0.9803921569 PSI 2 0.05892751915 REFLEXES 1765.38768 1597 0.09082652134 SLASHING 1001 0.02777777778 THERMAL 3500 0.3558718861 TOXIN 181 KNOWLEDGES/MEMORIES
Oh, wait. What about trying to imagine the effects of four months of Rayileklian adventure on my stats? Let’s see, even assuming that I took a, what’s standard in videogames, ten percent loss to stats on death? Wait, no, I didn’t take any stat loss on death. We verified my temperature perception to be almost exact to what my thermal resistance said it’d have been. That’s the one that would have taken the biggest hit too, since it was one of my highest skills that carried over in a noticeable way. Okay, so what would a one hundred twenty day growth streak look like?
That time in which I’d killed four ancient dragons, a hydra, been party to killing a necromancer and rock elementals, uh, killed a boatload of, oh wait, five ancient dragons. Kozzurth, Yisstendahl, Olashax, Vanathar, Tinth. Boatloads of cultists, and boatloads of Terrorzin followers, and a bunch of crazy-arse monstrosities in ShizTinth stronghold. Uh, five ancient dragons alone, if I were solo, would definitely take me to level twenty, but I wasn’t. Most of the kobolds and Draconiacs and cultists barely counted, but there were a hell of a lot of them. There were what, six, eight young-adult dragons in the stronghold as well? And some high-end Spellknights and high end casters? Okay, yeah, assuming it’s like that one system, then I’d still have definitely hit twenty, and likely capped out there. Knowing me, I’ll break the system into some kind of epic leveling nonsense. Snrk. You wish Reggie, you wish. Sorta. A little. Okay yeah I do.
Alright, so, about a hundred eighty or so points of electrokinesis just from the day-to-day due to diminishing returns, rather than the like, three hundred sixty it could have been. Then probably an effton more points in those big fights where I’d been getting hammered by lightning. The Felgre horde, Yisstendahl blasting me, the entire day at ShizTinth. Probably say two points an hour for each of those or something close. Twenty or so points from the Felgre horde, maybe. We’ll call it twenty with that plus getting blasted by Yisstendahl. I’d say another ten points between ShizTinth and the Worldstorm. Two hundred ten points of electrokinesis?
Bludgeoning, acid, and electro resists would have skyrocketed, some minor thermal resist gains, some toxin, let’s see where we end up with all these changes. Huff, okay, retrocognition how the growth rates for every point were ever calculated on Can’Z’aas for everything I’d ever done. Oh holy friggin’ hell, so much data, ow my brain. Okay, I think I’ve got the right values, more or less. Now think of every single thing that happened on Rayileklia that might lead to producing growth in those skills. Right, yep, there and there and there and there. Friggin’ hell. Okay. I think I know where I should stand, if I had access to my menus. Within a fair margin of error. If I’ve been able to grow in some of the other points, I wouldn’t really be able to tell. Like the time skill, and so on. I don’t have any real way to tell if my alchemy, crafting, disenchanting, or capacity could have gone up. I don’t have enough data points from Can’Z’aas for most of them, or the capacity was more tied to loot than my own skill.
REGGIE STATS, SKILLS, AND PARAMETERS 5229.6 LEVEL 20 1.25 BRAWN 15 1.1 AGILITY 12 1.5 PLUCK 20 1.4 SMARTS 18 1.2 WISDOM 14 1.8 DUENDE 26 SKILLS 1.02 ACID GEN 5 ALCHEMY 202 2.292 BREATH 323 CAPACITY 32767 CRAFTING 420 DISENCHANTING 6 7.112 ELECTROKINESIS 1528 2737.276691 ENERGY 5663 7.532 S.A./SHAPESHIFTING 1633 16.164 SPACE 3791 7.847 STAMINA 6847 5.152 STEALTH 1038 17.432 SURVIVAL 2054 16.704 THERMOKINESIS 3926 8073217.54 TIME 2,018,304,135 OFFENSES 6.68 BLUDGEONING 1420 4.76 PIERCE 940 6.68 PUGILISM 1420 8.48 SLASHING 1870 PAIN DEFENSES 0.06743088334 ACID 1383 0.03858024691 BLUDGEONING 2492 0.05917159763 ELECTRO 1590 0.4524886878 LUNG CAPACITY 121 0.8849557522 NEGATIVE ENERGY 13 0.1097694841 PIERCE 811 0.8928571429 PSI 12 0.05636978579 REFLEXES 1793.05488 1674 0.08764241893 SLASHING 1041 0.02747252747 THERMAL 3540 0.3558718861 TOXIN 181 KNOWLEDGES/MEMORIES
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Holy fuggin’ crap. Fifty two hundred health? Based on everything that’s happened, ancient dragons maybe have a few hundred. Sure, my offenses for the most part aren’t even adding up to hundreds in multipliers, and they have pretty good resistances too, but no wonder I keep walking away looking relatively unharmed. Even average dragons’ scales give them ridiculous slashing resistance and piercing resistances, and pretty solid bludgeoning resistance as well. So punching them in the chest or snout might actually be my best option offensively currently, especially adding in my E S P multiplier. F B F Style would be better, a higher multiplier, and two elements to cycle through if necessary, but I don’t have full access to it here. That’s part of the point of this time using retrocognition though. Get access to my skills.
Okay, let’s try to imagine what a form might look like for each of our skills. Just start in order. Acid generation? Some of the bugs that spit acid, but I can probably just roll that into a multi-elemental-organ breath weapon. Hopefully I can get the breath weapon organ to work in all of my throats, though it maybe should only be in forms that are immune to that element. Hm. Okay, scratch acid generation. Alchemy? Well, that’s more knowledge than some type of biological-possibility ability. Unless there’s like, myconid people that can use their own mushroom bodyparts for alchemy. I guess I’ll try that, and simultaneously wrap the acid generation into that one too.
Oh man, my inventory capacity, argh, if I could access that and my space skill, as biological baselines, then I’d have all the offense I need, and I’d just be mowing down the hordes of Terrorzin left and right. I can’t imagine anything living that has a—. Transdimensional space inside of it. Reggie. Yep. I know. You do. I know! I know already, yeesh. How the hell do I get that to apply though? Especially like, thirty two thousand inventory space. I could see maybe swallowing a sword or something, and reaching into my mouth and fishing it out, but I’d be scared I’d slice my own neck apart.
Maybe something silly, like an animate teddybear form, with a zipper? That, heh, hahah, that’s not quite the image I imagine myself projecting as I lay waste to the forces of the apocalypse, hahaha, but I like it. Just open up the zipper, and reach in, snag stuff, drag it out. I think it’d have to be a third stage form sadly, because I’d want it to be really big, kind of colossal as far as teddybears go, like fifteen feet tall or twenty.
Crafting, we’ll just hope that we can make a myconid alchemist form, and try to roll that into there, but lets make sure it has like um, prehensile vine tendrils. Things that can be really dexterous, to be able to do extremely fine detail in crafting. It’ll also need excellent vision. Um, oh, and disenchanting, so those vines need to have some kind of, uh interaction with, hm, chemical reagents that would specifically only dissolve gem dust of certain types. Yes, yes exactly, like say a couple dozen of those tendrils in kind of a plant-like backpack area, each one with a separate reagent.
Oh, and I could have it also apply the permanency enhancement enchantment much faster, more efficiently, and uh, hm. Yeah, possibly have it able to chew and excrete gem-paste or something like that. So the tendrils can secrete either specific kinds of acid, or specific kinds of sap-like substance that helps bind gem-dust substrate effectively, and so on.
Electrokinesis, I mean, at this point buddy, you are a living lightning storm. Do you really even need another form specializing in it? *Well*. I suppose we could actually become a lightning elemental in one form. Probably a stage three evolution though. Then we could lightning leap without needing to pull retrocognition every second to make adjustments to keep our atomic bonds from peeling apart. Sure, sure, that sounds good.
Self actualization shapeshifting is one we’re trying to bake into our base form, to be able to get access to these other forms, so that I don’t have the problems my original Changeling Fae biology gave me, by having a body trying to handle all these different kinds of mana doing all these things at once. That’ll be the only thing in my base form I think, except the current suite of electrokinesis, thermal senses, and uh, being an archmage and whatnot, oh, and the breath organ.
Space, funnily enough, the Mite-Hulk-King form I know has a cosmic-king form. So that’d have to be a two point five and a three point five, or third and fourth tier evolutions to get that to be a biological baseline. Could I be a space elemental? A void elemental? A shadow elemental? I think that last one exists, based on Ahliyuri and Ahliyui having radiant and umbral abilities that manifest the way that they do, as if they’re just elementals manifested in the forms of weapons.
Stamina, well, we’re trying to get Teuila’s help to bake that into the base form. Stealth, we might as well try to bake the base form’s agility and reflexes to favor stealthy movements. Gosh, we’ll be trying to perfectly sculpt muscles and a primary nerve network that’ll exist in a nebulous digital space. This is insane.
Survival though, what the hell is the best at surviving? Hydras, trolls, and lycans tend to have regeneration. Could I create a form that’s a lycan? One without a curse or disease to spread, perhaps with its own ability to transform slightly. A chimaera-lycan? Its own base form would look like my base form’s base form, and it could have say three’ish forms, possibly condensed down into one. One, something reptilian, maybe my old winged draconic form. Two, something mammalian, I’m thinking a big anthropomorphic predatory hunter cat like Linti, Lightning Hunter. Three, something pescian or avian. If I consider my winged draconic form simultaneously my avian form, then the third form could be something like a bipedal shark. Considering how often I’ve ended up nearly drowning in my life, I think that’s a safe bet. Can we really do that?
Thermokinesis, I’ll probably have to have three different forms. Two will be side grade shapeshifts available to my base form into either a fire elemental, or a cold or ice elemental. The third will be a Frostfire Salamanderian, in a third stage evolution. I’m not even going to try to figure out a biological concept that could maybe house the ability to have two billion points of a time skill. It’s probably better that way, to just leave it lie until I maybe get back to Can’Z’aas someday. I’ll keep my retrocognition and other various passive things and the few things I know about from my Latent, but that’s about it.
Are we really doing this? Let’s list them out and try to put sort of power price-tags on them. The higher power, the higher the stage, the longer it’s going to take to transform into them, by a long shot. They also might not last that long. Actually, hold it. Higher stage to transform into, and last longer, higher power/versatility for shorter duration. Yeah, the more refractory investment, the longer the transformation can last.
Ugh, that means I’ll have some forms where I can only use them for a few minutes, and then not be able to use them, possibly any other form, for several hours, or days. I’ll be taking best estimates, but I’ll assume that a one to one ratio exists, where either as soon as I’m done with that form, I can use a new one, or I have to sit out shapeshifting for an equal amount of time as the amount of time I spent in that form. Like I think if I spent an hour in my myconid crafting form, I’d be stuck unable to use that form for fifteen hours, due to it being like five skills worth and a stage three. It might lock me out of any other form for those fifteen hours, not sure. We’ll make a better chart when we’ve got a handle on it.
1: Natural body, second form, baseline shapeshifter with current Rayileklian abilities, plus intense focus on stamina, energy, stealth. Deleting cherubic Reggie to instill it with the following subshapes:
1: Myconid crafter/alchemist/acid-generator/disenchanter/speed-enchanter. 5x power mostly non-combat form, say 5x refractory stage 3 evolution S.A. Shapeshift.
2: Capacity: Animate plushy, same, 5x refractory stage 2 evolution S.A. Shapeshift.
3: Electrokinesis/Thermokinesisx1: Lightning elemental, Fire Elemental, Ice Elemental, low priority, 1x refractory, 1x power combat form, easy shapeshift, stage 2 evolution.
4: Space: Mite-Hulk-King cosmic level form, *at-least* stage 4 evolution, 16x refractory, possibly a 16x power cost on top of all of that, or something like a 65536x cost to quick-transform. Jeeze, transform for a minute and I’m locked out of shapeshifting for like a month and a half.
5: Space: Shadow-Elemental 1x refractory 1x power combat form, stage 2 evolution.
7: Chimaera-Lycan: 2x refractory, 3x combat power, stage 2 evo. (Draco-catlady-shark)
8: Thermokinesisx2: Frostfire Salamanderian, 4x refractory, 16x combat power, stage 4 evo.
Can I handle this? Can I do this? Can Kinzul handle helping me achieve this? Things might not work the way I’m envisioning, there might be more restrictions, or less powerful abilities than I’d hoped. I think I’ve got the basics down more or less. I think out of the subshapes my highest priorities are the chimaera-lycan, and the myconid, though it’s a tossup which one’s highest priority. I don’t think I’ll ever risk using the cosmic-king form. It might neuter my combat effectiveness for ridiculous amounts of time. Even if I could probably decimate an entire battlefield within a minute. It might take either a month and a half to transform into the form, or have a month and a half refractory period, or who knows what other downsides. Bluh, plus, it’s based on King’s alien biology, so it might have that creepy stuff floating around inside again. I’m back to not being able to risk it. I almost don’t want to even include it as an option.
Like, the Myconid form might be a one hour equals five hours of downtime form, or it could be fifteen, twenty-five, or seventy-five hours of downtime form for example, because I don’t know which multipliers create the various downsides. It could take fifteen hours to be able to turn into it for one hour, and then have it on a five hour cooldown before I can even start the fifteen hour process again, or something like that. Kinzul will help me shape it to be the most efficient version of how I’m able to construct things, but even the most efficient might be the worst way I could imagine it.
I sigh wistfully, thinking about the woman that is my Lady, my wife. Well, wife-to-be, but she’s already going around and calling me her spouse, and she’s been calling me her love since she’d heard me weeping on the battlefield in our first engagement. She—. She really fell in love with me there, didn’t she? When I was contemplating mercy, and right and wrong. I probably shouldn’t sit here crying to myself in frozen time thinkspace. Right, snap back to reality, try not to cry about the fact that you were thinking about Kinzul possibly actually really being in love with you. Also maybe have the thought before you return to reality, where everyone can hear what you were just doing in paused time.
I sigh to myself, shaking my head at myself as I realize everyone had just heard my thoughts after I’d returned to the normal flow of time. I start explaining, “So, I’ll be engaging a bit more than I thought I would, it’ll be about a nine step process, each eight minutes long. I’m tempted to throw some of them out, because it seems like possible wastes of time, things that might never be usable due to their drawbacks, but, well, I wouldn’t mind sitting like this for seventy two minutes,” soft chuckles and smiles agree with me before I continue, “So, Kinzul, my love, I wa—“
I sense an almost devious grin across Kinzul’s mental wavelength. She somehow already has access to my plans that I developed in paused time. Just how powerful, how amazing, how intuitive is Kinzul? Her Latent? Well, I suppose we can get a move on on this. By the time we’re done here, the phone should have enough charge to at least check it out. I want to know if I have to jailbreak it to get it to load up. If it requires internet, cell, or wireless access, or a cell carrier, to be able to pass the setup screen, it’s basically useless for now.
So starts a very dangerous hour and a quarter, in which time my form will be constantly in flux, constantly glowing and growing. I’m scared what will come out on the other side, who will come out on the other side, if it’ll even be me that survives the journey. I love you all.