Episode: 7.19

--- Ozzy ---

Like he promised, the next day saw him once more visiting the building where he’d met Johnny in the hopes of picking up something useful from the other Deadman.

“Ah, there you are little brother!” Johnny greeted with a wide smile as Ozzy found him in the same room they’d ‘harvested’ the Deadbeast the day before.

He bit back a scowl at both the continued familiarity as well as the creeping chill up and down his spine, before reluctantly nodding back. “Hey.”

An awkward silence fell over them after those greetings.

“Welp,” Johnny started as he clapped his hands together. “What did you want to learn about?”

(I don’t know you’re the supposed exert here…) He thought bitterly, before more politely saying, “I think you mentioned something about me having a, uh, a ‘Frost Core’ was it? What exactly is that?”

“Ah, good question.” Johnny grinned while giving him finger guns. “Cores are… they’re like these extra organs that all Deadmen and Deadbeasts have. They’re where we get out powers from.”

His face scrunched up a bit, since what little research he could manage didn’t really reveal anything about these, ‘cores.’ (Then again they didn’t mention anything about Deadbeasts either…)

Though he had a feeling that was more because if people knew Deadmen didn’t actually have to eat people to live, then they wouldn’t be as scared of them. (And if they aren’t scared of them, then no one will call Sanctuary after them.)

Shaking his head before he could go any further down that tangent, he turned his attention back to Johnny. “Alright, but how exactly do they work? I mean, I thought we got our powers from ectoplasm? So…”

“Think of it…” Johnny tapped his chin for a moment before snapping his fingers “like an engine and gasoline!” The other Deadman smiled. “We eat the ectoplasm, store it in our bodies, and then our cores use it for our powers.”

“Okay…” (I already got most of that but, whatever…) “If there’s a ‘frost’ core are there other kinds?”

Johnny nodded. “Yeah, I think there are… eight different kinds, or at least that’s what I’ve picked up in the last couple of years.”

“And those kinds are?” He prompted, when it became apparent the other Deadman wouldn’t continue on his own.

“Oh, right! Um, there’s Ecto-cores those control our bodies, but also the more ghostly things?” Johnny started, though he didn’t sound very sure of himself. “Then there’s the Fire core that well manipulates fire, since you’ve got a Frost core you might want to avoid those guys, brother.”

His eyes narrowed. “Does having a core type give you a weakness to the other cores?”

“Sort of?” Johnny shrugged, scratching the back of his head. “I haven’t seen it too much, but I know while it doesn’t really hurt them, opposite cores do tend to be sensitive to their opposing attribute.”

“Still, after fire cores are frost cores which generate ice and stuff.” Johnny continued with his explanation. “Then there’s Electric cores which control lightning and sometime machines? Or I guess it lets Deadmen possess machinery?” The dirty blonde shook his head. “I don’t know, it’s one of the weirder ones.”

(Probably works by manipulating the way electricity flows through circuitry.) He hypothesized easily enough.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“After that there’s light and shadow cores, which make light or get rid of it. Though depending on how much light or how many shadows there are they can also make short lived constructs.”

“Sort of like how the magic works?” While he didn’t know much about shadow magic, he did know a bit about light magic due to being a fan of Aurora.

Johnny actually grimaced at that. “Yeah, I had the same idea, but uh… that’s not how it works, little brother.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Right, when I first figured out what my core was, I had the idea to try and get a spell book from the city I was in.” Johnny explained. “Thing is after a couple of weeks I figured out whatever ‘magic’ is made of doesn’t work anything like ectoplasm and our cores.”

“Do you have any idea what the difference could be?” From what little he knew on the subject; it was the kind of question that had been plaguing scientists ever since Deviancies were first discovered.

“Magic seems a lot more… structured? While ectoplasm is… wilder?” Johnny sounded like he didn’t trust his own answer, something that was emphasized when the blonde shook his head. “I don’t know. I feel like you’d need a college degree to understand even half the stuff I read, and I’m a high school dropout.”

(Damn…)

He must’ve made a face because Johnny quickly backtracked. “That said, while magic may’ve been a dead end I’ve still picked up a few tricks that should be able to help you out, little brother.”

Running a hand down his face he nodded. “Alright… You said there were eight cores, you’ve only mentioned six.”

Johnny blinked before scrunching his face up in thought. “Right, uh, these two are kind of rare in Deadmen but there’s also the Mind core, which from what I’ve seen gives Deadbeasts Puppeteer abilities. So, I guess the same would hold true of Deadmen if they got the power.”

(Or it might be where the rumors of possession come from…) He figured, knowing the Puppeteer and Slaver classes were largely separated to avoid stigma against the former.

“And the other one?” He asked.

Johnny shook his hand back and forth a bit. “I guess it’s like a… Nature core or something. I’ve only ever seen Deadbeasts use this one, but it basically causes plants and stuff to go wild, growing really fast, or producing pollen that make it hard to breathe, things like that.”

(I guess it makes sense that Deadmen and Deadbeasts would have different core types and appearance rates, given how different human and animal minds tend to be. Though that still leaves the question of,) “How do we get our cores?”

Johnny frowned as he scratched the back of his head. “Well, we’re made with a couple in us already, but if you eat enough ectoplasm and a few cores of a given type you might grow a new one. Though I think the more cores you have the less likely that is to happen.”

(So I can get new cores?) That was an interesting detail. “And how do you know how many cores you have?”

Johnny gave him a wry grin. “You just love those questions don’t you… I’m uh, not entirely sure on that one. I think the number of powers you have is equal to the number of cores you have, but I don’t know for sure.” The blonde eventually shrugged.

(Right… I guess he wouldn’t have all the answers…) He sighed. (Still, I know more than I started out with so at the very least this wasn’t a waste of time.)

“Well, thanks for the help I guess…” He didn’t really have any other questions at the moment, so there wasn’t really a reason for him to stick around. Especially since he’d told Trish he was just going for a walk to stretch his legs, and he didn’t want to be gone long enough to make her worry.

“Wait, wait,” Johnny stopped him. “I’ve still got one more trick you should learn before you go, brother.”

He couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. “What kind of trick?”

“If you’re going to make it out on the streets then you need to learn how to sense ectoplasm, so you can find a Deadbeast whenever you start getting hungry.” Johnny told him, before giving him a pained look. “Starving yourself until you start frenzying isn’t healthy, if you keep doing it you might go Feral.”

“Go feral?” He repeated. “I thought that was like slang for Deadbeasts?”

“It means any member of the dead that can’t be reasoned with or that you can’t talk to.” Johnny explained with a grimace. “If a Deadman starves themselves too often, their cores will start to shut down one by one until eventually they end up going full Romero. That’s what usually happens to most new Deadmen, they try so hard to keep from attacking people that they starve themselves until they eventually enter a permanent frenzy.”

He was suddenly reminded of the various Deadmen attacks throughout Amityville’s history. Where Deadmen would attack indiscriminately, hurting who knows how many people before being put down by either the local Hunters or Sanctuary.

He also remembered the odd sort of blacked out awareness he’d experienced whenever he’d frenzied. Where his body would move as if compelled by some all-consuming instinct that he just could not deny as he was made passenger in his own body.

And as he couldn’t help but compare the two sets of memories, the whole situation suddenly seemed much, much bleaker.