“Are you sure about this?” Tessa asked hesitantly as she and Greg headed to the strip for his awakening.
“Pretty sure?” Greg replied. “That alien chick already scanned me and said I have a heat ability, so I don't see why it wouldn't work. I just need to get some food so I don't pass out once I turn real. Though I may be able to avoid that with more smoke… still should have some food on hand just in case though.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “I don't mean that, I mean the part about letting some strange alien woman study you! What if you let something slip and she finds out about… that? And again, why is it always a woman!?!”
“I'm pretty sure I can avoid the topic fairly easily, but if not, I can always call things off, right?” Greg pointed out. “And honestly, I really need to figure out what the hell is going on with my smoke. Having an expert take a look at it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. And I still have no idea why I keep running into women! Though, admittedly, the problem this time was probably the fact that I'd apparently wandered into the women's section…”
Tessa narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, before shaking her head and sighing. “Just be careful, alright?”
“I will.” Greg assured her, grabbing her hand and giving it a squeeze. “I'd never do anything that might get you hurt.”
Tessa flushed, glancing away. “I don't want you to get hurt either.” She grumbled, giving his hand a squeeze back.
It didn't take them much longer to get to the strip, making their way to the cafeteria and grabbing some food, which was thankfully free, Greg filling multiple plates with food before the two of them found a table. “Alright, here we go.” He let out a slightly nervous breath as he focused, shifting his simulation of his body closer to reality until- “Fuuuck.” Greg groaned as everything clicked into place and the starvation hit. Then, a moment later, the extra smoke he'd brought surged into him, latching on and… “Huh…” Greg grunted, blinking slightly as he suddenly felt… fine? He was still hungry, but it didn't seem to actually matter anymore? Like he would kill for a pizza, but he didn't feel like he was about to pass out anymore.
“Well?” Tessa asked. “Are you good?”
“Maybe?” Greg cocked his head. “I'm not passing out at least, so that's something? I'm still starving though…” He shrugged, finally digging into the food. “Well, I guess that's good enough for now.”
Tessa nodded. “It isn't like you're going to be doing this very often, right?”
“I certainly hope not.” Greg mumbled through a mouthful of food. “I hate being hungry.” Tessa smiled, letting him focus on eating while she idly picked at her own meal. As he ate, Greg's mind drifted towards his smoke, wondering how attaching it to his body kept him from passing out. Obviously it was somehow acting as a stand-in for the nutrients and whatnot he was missing, but it wasn't replacing them or he wouldn't be hungry, right? Somehow it was making his body work despite the missing nutrients… but how? By… moving it? That's all a body was, right? A system of cells and chemicals just sort of… circulating? You just needed nutrients to fuel it all, like an engine. And his smoke moved things despite the lack of fuel? Did that mean his smoke could just move things like that?
Greg blinked. Wasn't that what his smoke had been doing? It wasn't like the bodies he formed out of smoke were using food to function. He supposed they could have been using mana, like everyone else, but according to that alien woman, his smoke didn't even interact with mana! Greg frowned. But then where did the force from his smoke come from? It had to come from somewhere right? And the whole mutation was caused by mana… Greg sighed, dismissing that train of thought. He didn't have enough information to figure out what was going on there. But what he could figure out…
Tessa yelped as she felt something pinch her butt. “Who-!” She whirled around, looking for the perpetrator, only to cut off as she heard Greg snicker, whipping back around to glare at him. “That was you?!?”
“Maybe.” Greg replied with a smirk. “But can you guess how?”
Tessa narrowed her eyes at him. “A bug?”
Greg grinned. “Nope. Guess again.”
Tessa frowned. “A tac?”
“Not even close.” Greg snickered, shaking his head.
Tessa blinked. “Did you awaken?”
“What? No, it still has something to do with my smoke.” Greg replied.
Tessa cocked her head. “You… figured out how to make yourself invisible?”
“No… but I'm definitely going to try now.” Greg muttered.
Tessa scowled, searching for any other possibility, before letting out a sigh and shaking her head. “I don't know. How did you do it?”
“Like this.” Greg grinned, sending a small cloud of smoke to her wrist and grabbing it with it, picking it up and swinging it around a little.
Tessa's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. “So your smoke is like conditional telekinesis?”
Greg paused. “I guess you could put it that way? I don't know, I just realized that since my smoke was just simulating things, then the force of what I've been doing hasn't actually been coming from like muscles or anything, it's just the smoke, and if that's the case, then why would it actually need to simulate anything to work?”
Tessa just stared at him for a moment, then let out a sigh. “And you haven't even awakened yet.”
*
Greg took a bit more time to finish eating, then the two of them headed to the awakening station to get Greg some magic. Greg surreptitiously collected the smoke he'd left on the door as they walked in, since there was no reason to try and sneak in anymore. Well, no, there probably was, considering how tightly they kept it locked up, but he wasn't going to without a good reason. One of the blue alien people was sitting at a desk, focused on her network device, quickly putting it away and flashing them a smile as they approached. “Greetings! How may I help you?”
Tessa gave Greg a weird look before turning back to her. “My boyfriend doesn't seem to be awakened, and according to what I found on the network, this is where we go to fix that.”
“Of course, let me just make sure…” The woman muttered, raising her network device and hitting Greg with a beam, scanning him. “Let's see…” She hummed as she went over his results, her eyes widening slightly as she caught sight of his natural mana. “What the…”
“Is there a problem?” Tessa asked, expression twisting almost like she'd expected this.
The woman glanced at her. “I'm- not sure. The scan can't seem to decipher his natural mana. It seems to indicate he can produce something, but it can't seem to determine what that something might be, which suggests that whatever he produces is entirely unique!” She got excited for a moment, then frowned as she continued. “Which means we can't determine what effect the substance might have on our reality. It could be dangerous, like antimatter.”
Greg blinked. “That's a thing? People who can make antimatter?”
The woman nodded. “It's rare, and they generally can't produce very much, but yes, it happens. And this substance you can produce could be even worse.”
“So what do we do?” Greg asked hesitantly.
“We'll need to have your mana tested before we can continue, which means you'll need to see the Archmage.” The woman explained, tapping at her network device as she sent off a message.
Greg frowned. “Archmage?”
“Yes?” A voice answered, Greg and Tessa both jumping and whirling around to see another alien woman standing behind them. “Which one of you has the strange mana?”
“You got here fast.” Greg couldn't help but comment as he raised his hand.
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“‘Here’ is relative.” The Archmage smirked slightly, creating a white thread. “Give me your hand.” Greg did as she said and she carefully sent the thread into his hand, Greg feeling a bit of a tingle as it circulated around his palm before the Archmage pulled it back out, its color having changed to black, immediately isolating it in some kind of bubble and sending it away. Greg blinked as he suddenly felt some smoke simply appear miles away, focusing on it and looking around, finding himself in a rune covered circle with several beams shooting at him while the spitting image of the Archmage studied him from outside it. “Hm… it doesn't appear to be dangerous.” The Archmage muttered, drawing Greg's attention back to the awakening station. “According to all my readings, it's utterly non-reactive. Which, unfortunately, means it probably isn't very useful either.”
Greg raised a finger, opening his mouth, then closing it, then opening it again, only to close it once more, before finally settling on a response. “You can clone yourself?”
The Archmage blinked at him. “Excuse me?”
“The lady in the room with all the runes and beams and whatnot, that's you, right?” Greg elaborated. “How are you controlling two bodies at the same time? Is it a skill thing or is there magic involved?”
“Ah, you're connected to that substance in some way. Fascinating.” The Archmage muttered as it clicked. “There is some level of skill involved but primarily it requires a significant investment of mana into the development of your mental faculties, until you're capable of maintaining multiple threads of thought at the same time. A worthwhile pursuit if you wish to make the best use of this substance.”
“Gotcha.” Greg nodded thoughtfully. “Weird, I thought my natural mana was heat. Why'd it become making smoke?”
“Wait, that's the substance you make?!?” Tessa asked incredulously.
Greg shrugged. “Apparently?”
Tessa frowned. “I can't tell if that's better or worse than you just getting an entirely new ability.”
The Archmage eyed them suspiciously. “You're familiar with this substance?”
“I am that substance.” Greg replied, briefly poofing into smoke, the Archmage's eyes widening slightly as he reformed, letting out a groan as the hunger hit him. “Oh, that was a mistake. Does anyone have a burger? Several if possible.”
“That's what you get for trying to show off.” Tessa smirked.
“Well how am I supposed to prove I'm a smoke person if I don't turn into smoke?” Greg retorted. Tessa just raised an eyebrow, then a finger, which she sharpened into a claw. Greg blinked at her, then crossed his arms. “Well you don't have to be rude about it.” He grumbled.
A pulse of pressure suddenly swept over the two of them as the Archmage fixed them with an annoyed look. “Explain. Now.” She growled.
Greg coughed. “Uh, it's basically what I already said? I'm made of smoke, I can sense and see out of it and stuff, and I can simulate anything I've dissolved with it at varying levels of realism, up to the point of being indistinguishable from the real thing, which is why I'm really hungry right now. Oh, and I just learned I can use it to pick things up and whatnot, like telekinesis. Aaand I can also connect it to things, which lets me copy them without dissolving them.” He turned to Tessa. “Am I missing anything?”
“Multiple bodies. Incapable of getting tired. Incredibly hard, if not impossible, to kill.” Tessa replied, listing them off on her fingers as she did.
The Archmage just stared at them for a moment as she put all that together, even her prodigious mind struggling to come to terms with Greg's existence before she finally made a decision. “Would you be interested in becoming my apprentice?”
Greg blinked. “What?”
“Would you be interested in becoming my apprentice?” The Archmage repeated slowly, enunciating each word. “I specialize in mental magic, specifically multitasking and analysis, with minor specializations in illusion and force magic, and I would be very interested in developing a deeper understanding of this ‘smoke’ of yours which so intrinsically melds force and illusion, while you would benefit greatly from my understanding of mental magic and development, so I believe the relationship would be mutually beneficial.”
“Because of course he has to collect yet another woman.” Tessa grumbled under her breath, rubbing her temple.
“I guess that makes sense… but I sort of already agreed to let someone study my smoke? I didn't get her name, but she was patrolling the female section in the uncivilized part of the ship last night.” Greg replied. “She apparently had some people check me out as well, because I kinda passed out, so there's probably a record of it somewhere.”
The Archmage frowned. “Did you have a pincer and scales?”
“Yeah!” Greg exclaimed, then paused. “Wait, were you one of the people who checked me out?”
“No, but I read the report.” She explained. “You were supposed to have a heat related natural mana…” She eyed him thoughtfully for a moment. “Could you transform into your other form?”
“Sure?” He agreed, instinctively going to switch into his scorpocroc form. “Gah!” Greg twitched as an intense tingle surged through his body, squirming uncomfortably as his body shifted, more smoke getting drawn in as he grew, the whole process taking about four seconds. “Fuck that tickled!” Greg cursed, turning to Tessa. “Does your shapeshifting tickle?”
“A little?” Tessa replied. “I tend to stick to minor alterations though. I don't trust myself not to make a mess if I tried to do something like you just did.”
“Shapeshifting can be dangerous if not done carefully.” The Archmage agreed, before glancing at Greg. “For most people, at least.”
Greg shrugged. “My base form is a cloud. I don't think I can mess anything up.”
“Hm.” The Archmage grunted, turning to the woman at the desk. “Would you please scan him again?”
The woman nodded nervously, giving Greg a scan. “It- it says his natural mana produces heat now!”
“I suspected as much.” The Archmage muttered, studying Greg with an intense gaze. “Can you transform into her?” She gestured to Tessa.
Greg hesitated. He'd been trying to avoid turning into other people, mostly because he didn't want to put the idea that he could rather easily steal someone's identity in his or anyone else's mind. He glanced at Tessa. “Would you be okay with that?”
“Just don't abuse the privilege.” Tessa replied, rolling her eyes. Greg nodded, enduring another few seconds of tingling as he turned into a copy of Tessa.
“Now scan him again.” The Archmage ordered.
“Sh- shapeshifting natural mana.” The woman gulped as she read off the new scan.
“Now her.” The Archmage gestured to Tessa.
The woman's eyes widened as she realized what the Archmage wanted to test, quickly scanning Tessa. “It- It's the same! According to the network, they're the exact same person!”
The Archmage turned to Greg with a serious look. “And how much do you need to transform into someone?”
“Not much… some dead skin, hair, spit, blood, or- other bodily fluids.” Greg replied. “And just like a drop or so of it.”
“Remarkable… so little to essentially become someone else.” The Archmage shook her head. “The ability to alter your natural mana alone is a prodigious gift, a sign of some of the most powerful mages to have ever lived. But the ability to copy form and mana so completely… that is a dangerous tool to wield. Many valuables and secrets are locked behind an individual's unique mana signature.”
Greg blinked. “Neat? Can I go back to being me now? I'm having a hard time resisting the urge to grope myself.”
An amused twitch played across the Archmage's lips. “That would be fine, yes.”
Greg sighed in relief as he returned to his human form, scratching his chest as he finished. “So I did have an itch!”
Tessa snorted. “You're a dork.”
“You still haven't answered my question.” The Archmage commented. “Would you be interested in becoming my apprentice?”
Greg cocked his head. “I mean, obviously? I'm assuming you're one of the best mages on the ship, right? Which, I suppose, doesn't mean you're the best teacher, but I'm a pretty great learner, so as long as you have the information, I'll probably be good. The only thing is that I promised what's-her-name I'd let her study my smoke. I'm not sure if that'd actually affect anything, but I try not to go back on promises, you know? It's kinda shitty to say you're going to do something and then not.”
“Her name is Lapodala, and I doubt any study she performed would interfere with your apprenticeship.” The Archmage assured him. “In fact, a greater understanding of your natural mana is the first step on your path to becoming an archmage yourself.”
“Cool, then yeah, I'd totally be down to be your apprentice.” Greg agreed, giving her a thumbs up. “But I should probably actually become a mage first, huh?”
The Archmage laughed. “Yes, that would be for the best.”
Greg turned to the woman manning the desk. “So… shall we?”
The woman glanced at the Archmage, who nodded, before turning back to Greg. “Right this way, sir.” She agreed, giving him a slight bow.
Greg glanced at Tessa as they headed deeper into the building. “Hey, since I don't need Laladapa to teach me anymore, do you think we could get her to train you?”
“Lapodala.” Tessa corrected him. “I'm sure she'd be much more willing if you get her name right.”
“Oof.” Greg grunted. “High bar right out the gate.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “Remembering someone's name is not a high bar.”
“Depends on the name.” Greg replied. “All I remember about her name is that it makes me think of the Dalai Lama.”
Tessa scowled. “It's Lapodala.”
“Lap of the Dalai Lama, got it.” Greg nodded, smirking slightly.
“Greg.” Tessa growled warningly.
Greg snickered. “I got it, I got it, Lapodala.” He paused. “But seriously, I'll probably need you to remind me later…”
Tessa sighed. “Of course you will.”
They finally arrived at a small room with an egg-like chamber inside, which opened up to reveal a padded seat. “Please sit here, sir.” The woman gestured to the egg and Greg did so. She then began messing with her network device, the egg closing as she did, fully encapsulating Greg. A few moments later a soft light began to fill the egg, bathing Greg in pure mana before fading away. Then the egg reopened.
“Is that it?” Greg asked.
The woman nodded. “That's it, sir. You are now a fully awakened mage.”
Greg frowned, stepping out of the egg. “Huh… kinda expected to feel something.”
“Give it a moment.” Tessa commented. “It's like a new limb you've always had. You aren't really aware of it until you are.”
Greg raised an eyebrow at her. “That is the least helpful explanation I've ever heard. What, am I just going to reach for some smoke and- oh.” Greg cut off as he reached out a hand and smoke began to flow out of it. “Huh… okay, sorry, your explanation was right on point, my bad.”
Tessa snorted. “Come on, let's go deal with your new master. We still have to hit our first challenge with the squad.”
“Right.” Greg agreed, then paused. “Could we stop by the cafeteria, too?”
Tessa sighed. “Yes, we can get you food.”