Ozzy sat for a while continuing to enjoy the tea and sandwiches. They were quite good, especially compared to the standard of food he’d had so far in this… in between. As Vonder referred to it. There was some kind of meat and even a spread inside. He wasn’t going to question exactly what materials, or animals were used, but it tasted a bit like a nice chicken sandwich. Besides he felt he needed to just take a break again. The last couple hours had been another whirlwind of introduction, swapping stories, and no payoff. It was quite a letdown. Everyone he’d met here so far was so jumpy and sensitive for unknown reasons. Even though Vonder had explained his reasoning it still felt a bit confusing. At least he’d gained some knowledge from the meeting. He didn’t want to turn into a shut-in, but every time he spoke to someone here, their behavior made him want to get back to his own haven, or back to exploring. Both the havens around him, and the how and why of things.
Ozzy couldn’t really blame them though. This place wasn’t exactly conducive to maintaining a well rounded mental state. If he’d had to kill cats instead of rats, or the baby-like imps in the dark at first he would likely be as messed up as either Cederick or Vonder seemed to be. Granted Vonder at least had his shit together he was just a little odd. Which made sense as Cederick had met many people that he was cagey about just how bad the experience had been. Though Vonder, and apparently Benjamin, had other experiences that altered them in different ways. Benjamin had apparently become a hermit, and Vonder was made a bit preachy.
While minorly disconcerting to repeatedly meet people who eventually just walked off or asked him to leave it also felt a bit reassuring to know that everyone else here was just another person lost in the mess of things. It at least gave Ozzy more information to work with and goals to strive for. While he was making progress with understanding things himself it helped to get other points of view. Especially when it seemed that their experiences and viewpoints were so drastically different from his own. The havens not being the only planes of existence in between was a revelation if ever there was one. Though it made some amount of sense. The havens were obviously some kind of life form and they’d have needed somewhere to initially come from.
The fact that Vonder could feel if he came or went from this haven even while not present was interesting as well. While he couldn’t see energy or likely see into the haven as Ozzy could it was good to know. Which reminded him that the intelligent rat had somehow detected his entry into its haven. Though that was likely since his domain had entered while it was inside. Maybe that was why Cederick hadn’t detected his entry as he’d done it while Cederick was still in the rat havens. Vonder had said his choice of advancement had allowed him sight which others lacked. Although it appeared much of it was a feeling rather than sight. It was still an advantage over a straight physical modification. He wasn’t sure if it was nearly the level of advantage Ozzy himself had gained with whatever happened to his own mental reservoir. Vonder might even have agreed. What with the mumbled mention of him possibly not being injured after all.
Ozzy continued to go over all the things he’d heard and observed as he finished his tea before returning to his haven. For a moment he contemplated taking one of the cups, or the teapot with him, but he had no idea how Vonder would react to that. With how much stronger he appeared to be it wasn’t a good idea to poke the bear. Besides, Whatever they could make, he could make. While the fact that every person he’d met did concern him, all of them except Cederick had turned their havens into something they could call a home. With amenities and niceties that made it comfortable and livable. Upon his return home he examined the fifty odd connections he’d been able to gather from Cederick's haven. There were two of them he was pretty sure had some kind of clay in the soil. One of them was more of a suspicion but the other actually looked like clay.
Connecting to that one first he found what he was hoping for. The entire square was indeed clay. What he didn’t find was anything living on either the top or underside of said square. Eventually he began to scoop up some clay to bring back when he felt his domain brush against something. Under the surface of the clay was a strange looking object. Ozzy would have assumed it was some kind of potato or root, if the surface didn’t deform and pop back with such fluidity. Digging around the anomaly and revealing its entirety resulted in a screeching little gremlin that resembled a frog, but he was pretty sure there wasn’t any frog that looked like an oversized avocado with legs. Not that he’d seen anyway.
The strange thing was that before digging it out he hadn’t seen any energy or indication of a domain at all. Yet after revealing the animal one had flared up around it as if it had been dormant. As interesting as that was, he had no desire to find out why right now. With no further delay he ended its existence and pulled its core back home, adding it to the pile under his recliner. He was annoyed that he hadn’t yet found the next step to take with his domain to utilize all the cores, but he had some hints from both the imps, and the conversation with Vonder to go on. For now he wanted to create some basic necessities he could use to improve the next few days for himself.
The fact that the avocatoad was hidden under the clay was a boon for him. He’d been thinking he’d try to work with and shape the clay with his hands. Since he’d already used his domain in this new monster’s haven he now directly used it to shape the clay as well. This first lump he made into a large jug that could hold several gallons, though he wasn’t sure exactly how many it was. Before firing he also made a medium sized cup. Just as he’d already used his domain to shape the clay he was able to hold it in shape while it cured over a fire he also built with his domain.
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He’d run out of sticks and branches he’d stockpiled while building it so tore some branches off some of his trees to add. Making a fire directly out of them would be difficult but since he already had one going, adding them to the fire worked as the branches dried then began to burn. Though this fire produced quite a bit more smoke than his previous one had. Enough that he saw it begin to slowly fill in his haven where the previous fire hadn’t caused such an issue. Jumping to the underside of his haven helped. The smoke did permeate there as well, but not quite as much. He decided future fires would all be on the underside to help mitigate the issue. Even if they were with dried logs.
Thinking of it turned his attention to his trees and what he could do to get nice dried wood for both fires and building with. The new utilization of his domain as a tool and not just a weapon was giving him all kinds of ideas. While waiting for his jug and cup to properly form he began to experiment with forming a saw using his domain. Even as he did so it dawned on him that he didn’t need to be limited to tools he could just hold. For a moment he contemplated how he could make something like a chainsaw, but realized he didn’t even need to do that. If he could spin something he could just create a circular saw blade and spin it with his domain.
After forming a disk of membrane several particles thick Ozzy began to experiment with it. Up until now his interaction with and utilization of his domain had been something of an intuitive process. That intuitiveness seemed turned on its head after watching Vonder utilize his own form of domain. He’d formed something his mentor called a core and utilized it at a great distance with seemingly nothing to intermediate that force. His description of forming said core suggested that what Ozzy saw as his domain was nothing but a multitude of smaller weaker cores. Vonder’s suggestions of how someone would progress in making such a core lined up as well. He’d said it started with controlling the energy. Which had been what Ozzy had experienced. Initially he couldn’t really see, just control.
The next step was described as coalescing the energy. Which both Ozzy’s direct experience and what he saw the imps do lined up with. The spaced out and weak particles grouped up and became denser as the imps and Ozzy had gained strength. Even what he’d observed with the last few imps also seemed to corroborate this. As when finally isolating the stronger imps cores they’d decayed into two different particles and enough excess energy to create at least another fully densified particle. With all that being the case, then it strongly suggested the way Ozzy moved his domain didn’t work the way he felt like he did.
It wasn’t an arm, or some other appendage like he’d been thinking. There weren’t muscles that made it up which moved it about. He could turn it into membranous material which would do exactly that. However, the implications of the things Vonder said paired with his own experience suggested there were other options. With that in mind Ozzy focused down until he had only two of his domain’s cores in his mind's eye. Then from one he projected a force to the other. Forcing it to swirl around in a clockwise pattern. Then he had the other move itself around. Then utilized both of them to move a third nearby.
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After several iterations of testing he found that some basic rules applied to moving his cores around that didn’t fit with the intuitive way he’d thought it worked. Any one core could move another, or several, or even itself. The most counterintuitive part was that a core seemed to be least suited to moving itself. Needing several times the energy to gain the same speed. It also appeared that a core didn’t need to be touching another in order to move it. The influence of each core was only something like a dozen centimeters but that was very different than he’d thought. It also appeared that while there was a drop off it was more abrupt than he’d assumed when he realized there was a domain for each of his cores. Up to about ten centimeters from each core it had effectively the same efficiency as it would directly touching what it was moving. Afterward the energy required to apply a force quickly skyrocketed until completely failing to move things after only a couple centimeters further. He was in the middle of postulating ways to utilize what he’d discovered when he realized the fire had gone out.
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His first attempt at pottery had gone reasonably well. The cup had a hole he’d somehow missed but it was rather close to the top. Setting both of his projects onto the stone path to cool he reached out to his new catalog of planes available to him. There were a few that were marshy and could provide lots of water, but a couple were more interesting. Both of them appeared to be entirely made up of water. Reaching out to one he found a square of water as he expected, and this time he could see its occupant swimming right in the middle. Something akin to a shark, was soon dead leaving a growing stain in the water and its core was brought back. Unfortunately the resulting square was as salty as any water he’d ever tasted. The ocean was always more salty than you remembered it tasting the last time. That would actually be quite useful, but not what he was looking for right now.
The next haven was lit closer to dusk and its water was murky. He could still see the resident due to its domain and it quickly joined the last haven’s occupant in swimming upside down. Pulling it’s core back he found another water tile sitting on the other side of his recliner. This one, while still murky, was at least freshwater. Placing a bit of his blanket over the top of his jug he was able to fill it with the murky water. Resulting in the second cleanest water he’d seen in his entire time in the middle of nowhere.