Smiling I carry a long scroll of some type of beast skin down into my experimentation hall. I wave away Kailin as I began to wonder what I could do with such speed. I certainly saw some of it when Kailin wrote down the entire regiment I shall be following in the space between the blink of an eye. Especially when telling me about it, took nearly 30 minutes of uninterrupted descriptions.
Although the basics are much simpler than what the density would imply. Perfection or body forging magic works by choosing a body part and then listing in excruciating, exacting detail the new traits you want that body part to have. Which is fascinating since that means that you could technically get like floating hands if you had enough Inspiration to burn.
However, Kailin warned me not to get too creative because apparently, while you can expend more Inspiration to patch up holes in your bodies schematics, past a certain point, patches aren’t going to cut it, and that body part will begin to create strange, and disastrous side-effects.
Although despite the limitations of the patches, they are absolutely fascinating since this must be what allows more bizarre and weird transformations like metal skin. Because frankly, I’m pretty sure that most people would be poisoned to death if they had something like iron skin. Although the anemic might instead jump for joy at not needing to refill their iron prescriptions.
I’m not perfectly sure, for all I know having that much extra iron makes your bones stronger. After all, I’m a fashion designer, not a doctor, but I don’t believe having metal instead of skin would be healthy or even possible without magic being involved.
As I think this a thought wanders past my mind, wait, you can get a body mod that replaces your skin with armor back home, and while it does make you look like an idiot for cosplaying a super soldier in peace, it doesn’t kill everyone who wears it. There’s obviously some way to deal with the consequences of armor plating.
Curious as to how I pull up the dead body of Stevens, my A.S.A.A.I and search through his database for body mod schematics, while I won’t be able to get the most modern ones, I should be able to get all the ones in the public domain, which means I get anything older than 20 years.
Scanning through, I quickly find a 24 year old blueprint on how to install cosmetic armor plates. Skimming the patent, I feel a rush of disappointment as I see that the armor plates don’t replace the skin but simply adorn it. Frustrated that I won't get an explanation of how to replace skin my face contorts into a frown. But quickly, my frown is turned upside down, and my disappointment fades away when I realize something.
“If I can access the patents, then why can’t I replace the body parts that Kailin describes with better, stronger ones!” I say excitement and inspiration flowing through my veins in a rush.
Adrenaline pumping through my veins I paw at the clasp of the scroll and read what the first body part in the sequence is. Alright, it’s my tendons, apparently so that they can withstand the force of my movement.
Almost feverish, I wonder what incredibly strong tendons could do. If they're meant to withstand the force of my monstrous speed, could I go faster, blast into obstacles? Oooh, I can almost feel my next big power spike happening right now.
Through the power of a society focused on science for the last 5 centuries mixed with magic that gets stronger and stronger the more you know about the human body, I can’t wait to see what comes next.
—
Groaning in pain I realize that I very much could wait; in fact, I probably should have. As I float above my experimental chambers in an extremely strange fetal position, all of my body pulled as inward as possible by superhumanly strong tendons.
I would scream expletives and enough curse words to make every era of sailor run away in fear, but right now my jaw is practically wired shut and pressed relentlessly into my chest by painfully tight ropes of my own flesh.
FUCK, I wasn’t willing to screw with their weird mind magic because they didn’t properly think of the consequences. and what do I do? I promptly and immediately run head first into a pile of my own idiotic and shitty decisions.
Ugh, still steaming with anger at my own stupid decisions. I use a touch of freedom magic to float towards the scroll, and I use my practically paralyzed foot to nudge it open. The scroll slowly rolls out, its bumpy surface making the already painful process horrifically slow. After it finishes rolling out, I float above it to get to the very end for the reverse chant.
I grimace as I read its description; it’s meant to be a chant spell like the spell to alter your body in the first place, but it seems Kailin might have predicted my fuckup or was at the very least prepared since there’s an alternate way to cast the spell.
Burning with pain, indignation, and shame, I take my lip and bite deep into its surface until I draw blood, and then I wipe my bloody lip onto the scroll through a clever use of flight. Only for the pain I was in before to not even compare to the pain I felt in the next second.
As I felt a bit of my spark, of my inspiration to create and make art, be burned to ash in order to fuel the spell.
I lay on the air, my limbs now free of the locking tendons but now dragged down by the weight of the emptiness I feel within me.
I try to think of a way out of this, a way to feel better, but I just can’t. The fundamental part of me that would do so being robbed from me.
I do this for an indeterminate amount of time until it feels like something has crawled over the wound and held the emptiness inside.
Hells below and above I-I don’t think I can do this; I don’t know enough about the body to make these schematics work, and I can’t take having more of myself robbed from me like that. Even if I could grit my teeth and force my way through with trial and error, what would be left of me at the end? Nothing but an empty husk, unable to even think of something as creative as not being a husk.
I shiver in pain and fear even as I wonder what I should do instead; after all, I cannot willingly cripple myself by being too weak to get better. How will I ever get home if I am a quivering coward who can’t take a couple risks?
But How? Maybe I could get somebody else to do it? But how would I find them? There aren’t exactly many humans up here in the astral, and the only ones I’ve found must be from another dimension, considering all their magic; my world has never had magic. For all I know the reason the upgraded tendons didn’t work is that their biology is slightly different.
Plus, who would willingly go through having their tendons contort them into a horrific husk of pain once a week or so? Although now that I think about how long did it take for most of the missing Inspiration to regenerate. I certainly have no idea; the clock only works on the planet since it's the only source of gravity for a good long ways in at least two directions. Hmm, maybe I should do more experiments in front of the clock just to figure out how long my experiments take, time is an important factor after all in my data.
Wait, I was thinking about tendons. Yeah, even if I hired someone as a dummy, what would I pay them with—my winning smile and an excellently tailored dress? No, if I want to push through the impossibility of both making better tendons and not turning myself into an empty shell of myself, I’m going to need some help.
But what help can I even get? I have no way to contact Kailin she didn't exactly leave behind their number. No I'll have to find a more roundabout solution. Well the fundamental problem of the spell is that it takes away my Inspiration in enormous quantities when I fail. if I changed it to my type of spell, where it would give me Inspiration, I could trial and error my way through this, while becoming even more of an idea-thinking machine.
My great stores of Language have made me amazing at everything from understanding body language to flipping through a scroll a scarce couple of seconds after I received it. Who knows what having an enormous amount of creative inspiration would do for me. Before that, however, I need to know how to alter the spell in the first place. And frankly, I have no idea how I would change the spell, but there is someone else I know who has some insight into these strange people's weird spells. Plus, unlike Kailin, he gave me something that I presume was to call him.
With a less haggard expression on my face, I invoke Freedom, and float over to a handle attached to the space station, and pull my way to the throne room, carelessly brushing the floating papers, dooming the unlucky plans to fall into a corner or down to the frozen planet of meat.
Pulling myself through several doors, I find myself in the choked entrance of my junk drawer of a room. The floor covered by floating junk, random plates of iron and steel inscribed with failed runes falling upwards to the ground of the frozen meat plannet above. Alongside a horrid attempt at making a teddy bear without any stuffing, an abandoned crochet project, a litany of scribbles, and a little dude I made by welding iron nails together. My eyes drawn to the little dude, I grab him out of the nonexistent air and put him closer to the floor so it takes longer for him to be swept away.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Shaking my head, I focus myself on finding the little badge thingy that Patient Bridge gave me. From what I remember, it looked like a carved piece of wood with two feathers attached to it. He left it behind when he gave me some space to grieve.
Once I reach my makeshift couch, the epicenter of the room, I search amidst the random junk I threw in here, and after far too long, I eventually find the badge floating underneath a horde of papers. Gripping it, I see its triangular surface, with two bronze rings embedded into the wood holding two brown feathers.
Puzzled about what I should do, I poke it over and over again. Getting no response from it, I eventually shrug and begin to turn back to my throne room to hopefully wait for Patient Bridge there. But as I turn around and begin to head back, I hear a subtle tapping as I see Patient Bridge tapping his foot on thin air in front of me.
He makes a small cough before saying in a calm voice, “You were calling me Tara? Quite insitently as well.”
Slightly embarrassed and a bit confused, a flush climbs my cheeks before I stuff those unnecessary emotions into a metaphorical bush and say, "Yes, Patient Bridge, I have been looking for you; I could use some help, and you're the only one that I can contact down there.”
Turning their head slightly, they reply, “Help with what exactly?”
Clearing my head, I say, “Well, all I need to know is how the hell does this burning emotions stuff work, because I cannot lose more of my spark, I feel as if something integral to my very existence will be taken away if I allow more of my Inspiration to be burnt away.”
I hear Patient Bridge make some sort of hmm sound before a very queer expression crawls across his face, like he was half-heartedly forming anger out of a burned-out husk before quickly shuffling it away.
Sighing, he says, "Well, firstly, my condolences for losing some of your foundation; it is beyond discomforting every single time it happens. Secondly, I ask that you have some patience, for your question is a decidedly difficult matter to explain without quite a bit of background. So please excuse my digression into the past.”
Nodding I wait for his explanation, a thought in the back of my head satisfied that I can contact Kailin fairly easily.
Getting into a more comfortable position Patient Bridge goes into a crisscross applesauce upon the air and says, “In ages past, we learned magic at the feet of the gods, gifted scraps of power for service in order to service. But within these gifts lay foul poison, even if the gods above phrased it as a boon. For with each incantation, each careful sacrifice, and all the quivering compliments we gave to the uncaring gods above, we became more like them. We became more clever, more cold, more angry, our very beings supplanted by their corruption.”
“Those of us who were bound to the gods were also bound to their mistakes, to their flaws, but beneath their boot we found ways. Through time and learning, we understood that there were other ways of magic, that instead of choking on their poison, we could burn it for warmth. The gods despised these spells and vigorously fought against their spread. But like crushing an ember, each attempt at extinguishing the spark only led to more sparks flying everywhere, and Emotion Burning slowly spread. So that the war-mad zealot might look at their family and not see fear. So that the priests eyes might not be clouded with unearned pride, and so that our children will not inherit our anger several sizes too large. Why build ourselves a shrine to unworthy gods by hammering at our minds when we can throw the burning carcass of our faith at the gods themselves?” I see with this that a beautiful smile crosses his face, one formed of pure, unadulterated joy.
Before, with a calmer look, he says resolutely, “God invocation spells have been thrown to the wayside in the age of the shaman. Instead, we prune, and we cut at the sprouts of emotion. I myself have burned away my anger, for it has no use in this world; anger only leads to pain and war. Any uses of anger beyond those are merely academic. The mind grows back after burning stronger and heartier if you do it right, but why tolerate having it at all? I won’t insist that you turn to burning your emotions, but God Invocation is dangerous. It turns men to monsters.”
I stare at Patient Bridge in abject horror, he has traded and burned away all of it. All of his anger is apparently just gone, and he is robbed of even feeling angry at the society that taught him to destroy his ability to feel a core emotion.
I may not believe it, but good God, I’m torn between horror and tears. I am reluctant to simply disparage an entire society from a couple words but after picking up my jaw I say “Patient Bridge how are you okay with this? You’ve been robbed of your anger.”
With a calm gaze, he says, “You act as if wasn’t my own decision to prune away my anger, but I find no fault in this. You do not understand, and ignorance should never be returned with anger, in fact nothing should.”
I feel a burst of relief that he doesn’t get angry with me for rebuking his entire society before I realize he cannot stop being calm. He is forced to be calm, at all times, for the rest of his life.
Nervous after our strange exchange, I ask him, "Well, if you're going to be nonjudgemental about it, why don't you teach me how to swap Emotion Burning spells with Invocation."
I see Patient Bridges face shift through several emotions before landing on determination as he says, “While I will not force you to stop or even encourage you too, as it would be a violation of your will, I shall not help you turn into more and more of a -foreign invader- and monstrous being”
Taking a moment to pause and think, Patient Bridge then says, “Would your people even recognize you if you come back to them clad in skin of bronze and burning with the anger of a thousand suns?”
I scoff at this and say dismissively, “What I am doing will not visibly change my shell, and even if I did, my homeland has many procedures to drastically alter your body, they would not give a wick, although they might be concerned as to why I was clad in armor”
Patient Bridge looking intrigued says “Your homeland sounds fascinating, since from what I glimpsed in the swap showed that you were quite new to magic. How strange to have a world where they mutilate people into different shapes without the guidance of a Shaman.”
Guffawing I reply “to you it must seem strange and nonsensical but to me AI overlords, and body modifications are just home.”
Hells I miss home, I miss my workshop, with its full shelves and specialty tools, I miss my friends and the simply truth of not being alone, I miss my family scars and all. My mind turns to more wistful images of home, but I can't stand here thinking about them forevor I have to work towards getting back.
Alright, getting back to business, I debate my options since I can’t exactly use the old body mods when I know flat out better ones, and my plan of going around the high price of trial and error by changing the price has been foiled by Patient Bridges odd moral stance.
"Well, if you won’t help me, can you at least tell me how to fix these plans so I don’t break my tendons again?” As I say this mildly exasperatedly, I take the scroll and unfurl it towards Patient Bridge letting him see the spell.
I see an amused expression crawl across Patient Bridge’s face as he says, "Apologies, but why don’t you ask someone who has even the faintest clue what that is?”
"Well, I don’t exactly have a handy dandy medallion thing for them, and I can’t exactly pop down for a chat and some tea.” I say, my mild exasperation pushing into the territory of passive agressiveness.
"Oh, that's fairly easy to solve; the dream descent spell will be a bit more inefficient for you, but it should still work; you do at the very least believe that dreams exist. Let me just” As they say this they poke me in the forehead and with a rush of memories I understand how to cast the spell.
“Now I must be off. I have a wonderful nap to get to.” As they say, this Patient Bridge fades out of existence with a sparkle, and I am suddenly alone in my base.
Alright, more magic is always more fun, although, Hells, do these people have to make all their spells take forever. Scanning through the spells requirements, I see it requires precisely 8 repetitions of 8 mantras in order to activate. After which, I must go to sleep and speak my target's name.
Shoving the medallion back into its little spot in my junk room, I float over to the couch and plop down before attaching myself to the couch so I do not drift away. Secure I begin to repeat the words embedded in my memory, for who knows how long in the timeless mush I live in. Before I promptly fall asleep on command, my mind finally letting go of my extremely tired body.
I feel a strange drifting sensation as if I were falling on top of a swirling leaf, winding and twisting in the air as I approach the ground. After some time, my feet touch down on a soft, bouncy surface, all around me are faint clouds of purple and pink. Huh, my dream reminds me of the astral plane, it has the same freeform feeling. Perhaps my dreams have been influenced by my long stay in the astral.
Oh well, shaking my head to dispel the unnecessary thoughts, I call into the pinkish purple expanse "Kailin.”
As I do so, I find my footsteps taking me farther and farther away from my gentle clouds of stardust, and I soon find myself walking on crimson velvet, which shifts with every movement. It’s wriggling eerily similar to a heart, with the floor and walls around me pushing in and then pulling in.
Slightly creeped out by the fact that Kailin's dreams are apparently preoccupied by fabric hearts, I call out, "Kailin, you in here; I’d like to talk to you about the spell regimen because I kinda …”
Appearing out of the folds of velvet fabric in a meditating position, Kailin says “You fucked it up didn’t you? Alright, what ill-advised last-second modification do you have for me? Don’t be shy; you aren’t even the hundredth person to do such a thing, although you are the first to come to me in my dream.”
Sheepishly, I say, "Well, I had some better, more detailed designs for tendons, but when I tried to apply them, they all snapped forth with such strength that I couldn’t move any of my arms.”
Wincing, Kailin stands up and pats me on the shoulder and says, “Oh god, that must have hurt like -blasphemers prison-, tendons might be the usual first step, but they are extraiordinarily painful when done wrong, and you seem to have done the usual fuck up. My guess is that you made the tendons too short. If they aren’t long enough, your tendons pull on all your muscles until you’re forced into the shape of a ball of pure pain, and you're forced to do an emergency reset.”
Surprised, I spurt out, “What, how I used the measurements for how long the tendons should be from your spell? Maybe it’s the tendons I used?”
Exasperated Kailin says, “The correct length for tendons and practically any body part you want to modify changes when you change the body part itself -contempteble inept person-. You can't give yourselves the biggest muscles if they're attached to a short frame; you need to change everything to change any one thing."
Frowning I think about the contradictory fact that, frankly, short people are usually super buff, which kinda throws away her entire point before getting back to the point. I begin to speak before I am interrupted imediately by Kailin asking "What did you even change, did you just increase the tension strength or pull power without thinking about it? You can't just make numbers go bigger and expect them to be better!"
Slightly disturbed, I see Kailin whisper to themselves, screeching complaints about idiotic children who think power equals all the numbers being bigger.
Hesitant, I pipe up and say, "Well, no, I didn't just make the numbers bigger. You see, where I'm from, we are a lot better at anatomy than you are, and I have access to the plans on how to change that anatomy with a higher amount of detail and hundreds of years of knowledge."
As I say this Kailins sculpted form whips around and stares at me, I am surprised as I see the first hint of shock I've seen flicker across their face. They didn't care a wick about me being an entirely different species, but they currently look like the jaw that they designed themselves has detached and fallen onto the floor.
Oh well, it makes sense. I've essentially dropped down from above and claimed to an expert that I have research from another world that is much better. It looks like I'm not doing a disservice to Kailin, but rather that their helping me also allows me to help them. Although, as quick as the surprise comes, Kailin quickly wipes away her shock and replaces it with a more calm and curious face.
Looking intrigued, Kailin asks, "Well, can I see it? This sounds amazing!"
Nervous at the idea of sharing something like this, I hesitate for a second before I realize that I can't exactly get the help I need if I don't show them the things they need to do to help me. With a flick, I activate Stevens solid light projection and show the 22-year-old schematic for enhanced tendons based on polymer elastics.
At first, they're a bit distracted by the projection, but they are quickly entranced by the designs shown. I hear them muttering nonsense under their breath, like, "What the fuck is a polymer, or plastic? Is this translation spell working? It cost me a fucking tooth. It better work."
Before, with a burst of excitement, Kailin says, "Yes, yes, I can work with this. Hmm, if I want to alter the spell to accommodate for these body mods, we might have to slightly adjust your height; there doesn’t seem to be enough room."
"Wait what?"