--==Chapter 24: A Sphere of Many Talents--==

"When I was a young elvish boy, growing up on the slopes of Ocanapu, my grandfather used to tell me, 'If you can shape how people see you, you'll finally be happy.'" Sori said.

"I don't believe any of that is true," I replied skeptically.

"But it could be, and that's the point. And the more people want to believe it, the more they will believe it. So the trick becomes identifying what they want and transforming yourself completely to match their expectations; that's how you'll finally be happy."

"That is all terrible advice. Can you just tell me how to physically do it and then maybe leave psychoanalyzing to licensed professionals?"

"Boo, you ruin the fun." The orb said with a bouncing spin, "Alright, fine. It's super easy; you just provide a pathway for their minds to follow using dream realm probabilities. This domain of yours should be useful for that. You transmit it to them in association with yourself or some other object."

"You aren't being as helpful as you think you are."

"Of course I am; you're just bad at this."

"Ok, well, be more specific. How do I actually do any of that?"

"You did something similar with Hands, using the memory crystal to store scenes you'd visualized."

"Wow, you really have been spying on me."

"Usually, I can barely see you. You're an eye floater that I can only see if I don't look right at you. It's very annoying. Anyway, the illusion jutsu is similar to the visualization skill. Which makes sense if you know that Hands based that on this very illusion technique."

"Why do you know Hands's name, but you didn't know mine? I kind of feel insulted."

"That's silly. Hands is part of the project; you're just a piece of trash with a domain.

I laughed, "Goddamn, it's a good thing I named you Sori; you're an asshole." Funny or not, I still glanced around the stone ship for a rock or slipper to throw at the eldritch eye.

"I didn't end the world; I just live in it," Sori said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"I told you, I might have scheduled it, but anything that happened after that had nothing to do with me, as far as I can recall."

"Which isn't far." I reminded him.

"Anyway, Hands's name is easy to remember. He's called Hands because he walks around on hands when he's not in the pool. Well, really, whole arms. Wait, I wonder if his last name is Armstrong. I should have asked him! Well, he probably wouldn't have answered. He was very rude. Will you ask him? He showed you the visualization trick, so I bet he likes you!"

Everything Sori said sounded too fantastical to be real, and he was obviously wrong and confused about some things. I was pretty sure he wasn't an elf raised on the slopes of wherever, for example.

Hands had appeared out of nowhere, so he might know how to do illusions. I was less sure that he was actually a dolphin monster that used arms as legs. Though, I had seen an albino dolphin, and I knew firsthand that a person could find themselves transformed. Surreally, it wasn't something I could rule out. "You realize he literally killed me right after that, right?"

"Yeah, but you got better," Sori said dismissively. "Just think about it. Either way, you already know how to visualize, which would be great if we were trying to create a visual illusion, but we're not."

"Why was that again? It seems like visual illusions could be useful."

"The complexity is significantly higher; you'd need a lot more time to learn how to do it well. Also, while they might be the most compelling, they're super easy to see through. Even idiots can easily pierce through them."

"You're only saying that because I didn't realize Hands was a dolphin."

"I mean, it's in the name!"

"What? No—What? Most dolphins don't have hands."

"Yeah, but Hands Armstrong?" Sori said as though he couldn't believe I hadn't made some connection.

"Ok, first off, You just made up that last name."

"I made up that first name too."

"Secondly, he's the only Dolphin I've ever heard of having hands, and I suspect you gave him more than just names."

"I didn't give him arms and hands!" Sori said indignantly. "I told you, I just schedule things, and I don't think I even scheduled that."

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"Alright, alright," I conceded, "So, I what, visualize the emotion? Do I need one of the memory crystals?"

"You don't need a memory crystal. Probably. I've never actually taught a werewolf magic. But no, you shouldn't. Anyway, visualize, exactly, except you don't actually visualize anything. Instead, you have to empathize. Feel what they feel, what they want to feel. For some reason, people are scared of you. I think it's the blue aura. Have I mentioned how weird that is? Anyway, I call things like that a trigger. You have to change what triggers are associated with you in their minds. So first, understand what they feel and why. Then consider what you want them to feel about you instead and the thing that triggers that emotion. All that's left is for you to transmit this trigger-feeling pair. Easy peasy."

"Okaaay… let's assume, for a second, that I follow most of that. What do you mean transmit?"

"Well, Hands uses echolocation. I use my ghost powers."

"I thought you were an elf?"

"A dead elf ghost."

"And God's secretary?"

"A spook's gotta work."

"A horseman of the apocalypse, an angel, and an Alien intelligence?"

"Everyone knows the four horsemen are angels and angels are elves; just ask Santa. And if you thought either were local, well, that would make you stupid."

"Are you hoping you'll just stumble onto your origin if you make enough guesses?" I asked the orb with mocking amusement in my voice. "You literally have no idea what you are, do you?"

"I know what I am! I'm a higher plane nexus point that is the Venn diagram of all the best Sori's! Anyway, how are you so confident you know what you are? You're human? Normally you're running around terrifying people as a blue wolf-man. If I were you, I'd be more suspicious of my own memories. But that's none of my business."

Sori was underestimating me if he thought he would unnerve me with the idea. I was a nihilist and not wholly convinced anything could even be called 'real' anyway. And that was before the world ended in such an unlikely way. I smirked in response. "like Popeye, I yam what I yam."

"Well, stop, and instead, be what you pretend," Sori replied.

"You're going to need to be more specific on how I actually' cast' the illusion."

"You just convey it. It's as easy. Would you just try it already?" Sori said, "I wanna see!"

"Yeah yeah, fine, I'll give it a go. But will it even work on you?"

"It'll work on anything with complex memory. Of course, I can reason my way out of any random illusion; trust me, I'm clearly a wizard of the highest order."

"I thought we decided you were god's virtual assistant?"

"I'm a sphere of many talents."

I considered my options. Thinking it was best to keep it simple. I decided to share the familiarity I'd felt that echoed my friendship with Jon. I'd set my appearance as a trigger associated with that friendship. See this face? It's me, your best bud. Not that I was sure how to cast any of that as an illusion. Presumably, there was some kind of magic intent at work. Absent better ideas, I just smiled at the floating eye while focusing on the idea that we were friends.

The eye started the shiver before bursting into gales of laughter that saw it fall from the air and nearly hit the ship before righting itself and floating back up. "Oh, oh, that was amazing! You, uh, you used the illusion I used on you, back on me. That's the best. Oh lord, I needed that."

Shit. "You, um, have been casting an illusion on me?"

"I'm pretty sure I mentioned that."

"So you don't remind me of Jon? Because you really seem to."

"Of COURSE I remind you of Jon. That was another problem with your illusion. You shared what you wanted me to feel and didn't change a thing. The illusion needs to be based on the target's emotions. You have to create an illusion that I want, not that you want."

"You're a floating mirrored eye whose backstory changes every few minutes; how am I supposed to know what you want?"

"You know I'm using an illusion on you to increase our familiarity. What does that tell you?"

"That I should trust you less. Since I know it's an illusion, shouldn't the feeling fade?"

"That's why memory illusions are better than visual illusions. Even if you want to believe those illusions, once you can see through them, they become nothing more than a dim projection. Memory illusions like this let you affect things like emotional responses. People trust their emotions even when they really shouldn't. They follow their hearts even when they know they'll regret it. More, they invest in those feelings, seek reasons to explain and justify them. You're doing it even now.

"As far as either of us knows, I'm an eldritch horror sent to torture you for eternity. But because I associated myself with your memories of friendship, you can't just choose to stop liking me. Plus, I reinforced that illusion with my aloof behavior and honest nature. Now you rationalize trusting me as a necessity and fun, or at least familiar. I've bypassed fear and distrust, the pain emotions that would be reasonable in this situation. Anyway, your choice of illusion was only part of the problem. It was also an incredibly spotty transmission."

"Maybe if you'd explain things properly-"

"Emotionally conditioned illusions are the easiest illusions to cast. I'm not sure how you'll ever manage Procedural or Semantic illusions, let alone Episodic illusions, if you can't figure out even this much. Maybe it just takes practice…." Sori said, not sounding convinced.

"Could you at least try to explain," I said, exasperated. "What was wrong with my 'transmission'?"

"It was like a whisper. You what? Tried to use a smile to cast the illusion? I mean, that's fine, but it better be a pretty memorable smile. Be bolder, less self-conscious. It's not about what you feel; it's-

Whoops, we're out of time. Not good, you are not ready. Here, take these buttons instead. Study these. The circle ones will put a force field the size of a car around you. Don't forget what I said. Best friends forever, byeeeee."

A sudden pressure thumped into my whole being. Every inch of me felt like it had been hit by a giant pillow. I felt like I was falling for a brief moment, and then everything went black.