Left on the canvas of the hammock, Vera would not have expected to be comfortable. Her limbs were splayed in just the way she'd have tossed and turned if trying to sleep in her bed. The numbness that pervaded her body was the likely culprit for this unexpected comfort, though she doubted the hammock's quality was poor by any measure. It was fortunate, as her small attempts to reposition herself only resulted in more bizarre poses. It was only after thoroughly reinforcing the shape-shifter's assertion for herself that she remained still as he'd prescribed. Despite his palpable worry, Titon remained out of sight, possibly speaking with his miniature twin.

While her physical self and senses remained numb and bleary, their metaphysical counterparts remained crystalline in there clarity. Well, as crystalline as Vera had ever known them. The mass of energy or magics at her core hadn't ever been the most defined. The dulling of her other senses didn't change this but rather allowed her to focus on the singular input. Vera had a far greater degree of control over the sense than she'd ever known. Seeing as she hadn't even been aware of the sense a week prior, this was no great statement, but it was encouraging nonetheless. It took some experimentation and a few accidental flexings of her kidney before she squinted her perception of the metaphysical organ out of which she'd been squeezing magic. As far as her perception could tell her, the organ didn't have any particular position in her body. She spent a moment attempting the same visualization with the organs she was expecting, but the physical bounds of her body was hazy and indistinct.

The indistinct rumblings that Vera knew were voices tingled at her hampered hearing, and her curiosity drove her to extend her newest sense in their direction. It stumbled along the way as, like many, Vera was unaccustomed to a sense she had to actively manipulate like a limb rather than passively enjoy. But complexity comes with versatility and Vera felt no resistance from the wall that met her on the way. The scope of this perception had begun as a shadow of her physical body, its outer bounds a thin membrane outside her skin. Once she directed it away from herself, it expanded until it was nearly twice the volume it had been. Even with this expansion, as it passed through the wall in the direction of the voices, the volume she could view left her body and an ethereal chill pervaded her resting body.

It was terribly similar to when her mother would rip the blanket off her when she'd sleep too late.

Vera hesitated to go further, but the innate knowledge of her body's location pacified her nerves. The cloud of perception proceeded through the wall, following Vera's will. Her view of the wall was as hazy as her physical form had been, though Vera was far more interested in the voices. Now on the other side of the wall, the air itself moved. Her perception grasped out blindly until one edge brushed against a form. Repositioning the scope of her sense, Vera centered it around this new form. It was clearly a person, and quite a large one if her understanding of scale was still accurate. Her view of the figure was only as precise as if she were looking through a heavily frosted window, but it wasn't hard to recognize Titon.

By his posture and vague movements, Vera gathered he was conversing with someone. Despite her perception now encompassing the large man, his words still did not come through to Vera any clearer than what she heard with her mundane senses. Accepting she wouldn't be able to listen in on the man's conversation, Vera pushed the scope of her vision to include the space of Titon's expected conversational partner. She excluded the lower half of the large man in the process to free up part of the perceptual volume. Moving that part to where Vera would expect Riley's head to be, she was surprised to find only the barest top of a much shorter figure's head. Dropping the volume slightly explained why Titon feet had been shuffling incessantly as the figure, possibly a gnomish man, was gesturing angrily. So angrily Vera's hazy impression managed to convey his ire.

This could, of course, be the shapeshifter, but even in a rage the gnome kept a posture far more rigid than the comparatively languid rogue. Assessing the man as not her newest acquaintance and emboldened in her ability to manipulate this perception, Vera swept the volume around Titon. Gradually moving away from the large man, her perception moved in a slow spiral. She stopped abruptly on a third figure sitting only a few meters away. Vera would guess they were sitting at least. The body itself was in a seated position, but there was no stool beneath them, blurry or otherwise. As her perceptual volume rested on the figure, they raised their head. They didn't look back at Vera, her vision coming from a sensory volume rather than true eyes. Instead, the figure first looked straight ahead, then looked toward where Vera knew her body still rested. They stood and Vera understood they'd actually just been sitting in a pocket of fabric suspended from the ceiling. She hadn't been able to distinguish it from the figure's clothing. Now as they moved in her direction, she had to rush to move her scope to follow. Assuming the approaching figure would be Riley, Vera tilted her head to meet their gaze.

"Are you gonna be one of those mages?" they asked. Their words were still fuzzy, but Vera's mundane senses had recovered enough that she could generally parse their words this close.

"What mages?" she asked in answer, still avoiding lengthy responses.

"Those ones that watch you with their eyes closed."

"What?" Vera asked as her eyes flew open. She'd been focusing on her newest sense and had forgotten she'd shut her eyes to block out the extraneous sensory details. Now, despite her vision still lacking dramatically compared to normal, the overlaid perceptions made her head swim and she instinctively withdrew the perceptual volume.

"Phew, much better," the rogue said when the volume no longer encompassed them. "Just so you know, those who recognize the feeling, hate being engulfed in a mage's Sight." They gestured before remembering the poor state of Vera's vision. "Can I sit?"

"Yeah," she said after attempting a return gesture and only flopping an arm randomly.

"Generally, you should only graze a person with your Sight. Anything more is considered invasive in polite society."

"Too hard. Awkward." Maybe Vera could try longer sentences at this point, but the lazy, hammock-dwelling part of her resisted.

"Yeah, you'll get better with time. I'm pretty sure spines can actually help with that."

The reminder of the magical poison-like spine that put her in this state drove Vera to make a face. It must have not been exactly the face she'd intended as Riley sounded genuinely worried.

"Do you need a bucket?" they asked, half standing.

"No," Vera groaned lazily. "Poison spines suck."

"Well, you did take a way more potent spine than you should've." They sat back down before continuing, "But yeah, they can be annoying. It's nice to be able to passively train though."

"It's like being drunk without the perks," Vera said with minimal slurring.

"That was your most coherent sentence so far," the shapeshifter responded with mock encouragement.

Vera attempted a mock punch to the rogue's shoulder, but misjudged wildly and socked their jaw. They rolled with the punch, but their voice had a note of incredulity when they said, "Ow!"

"Sorry, arm's drunk," Vera said lamely. "Why's Titon here?" She'd been curious before, but had been more concerned with her dysfunctional mobility.

"He works here apparently. Nearly pissed myself when he came storming out to me to ask what I was doing with you." The shapeshifter paused to consider before continuing, "It probably doesn't bode well for society that he was the first question what a shifty person such as myself was doing with an unconscious demoness."

Vera only grunted in answer. Having her perceptual volume enveloping her once more, was reminiscent of stealing her blanket back from her mom. Of course, she'd never had the guts to attempt such a feat, but she could imagine it was like this. She was stuck on her back and had no bedding so she couldn't properly snuggle into the hammock, despite her best efforts.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"I would've insisted on taking you on to your dorm, but figured a hammock store would be just as good. Plus, I'd say he didn't trust me as far as he could throw me, yet I've got a feeling he could throw me quite far." The rogue scratched their head and the muffled sound of rattling spines reached Vera's addled ears. They swung their legs up and reclined opposite the demoness. "How ya feeling?"

"Sleepy. Drunk. Sleepily drunk," Vera mumbled. "How often do you do this?"

"If I'm not deployed, I use inhibiting spines whenever I can afford them."

That cut through the daze Vera had been letting herself drift into.

"Are they expensive?" she asked. She injected false casualness into the question as she squirmed in a futile attempt to check for the monetary spines she'd had.

"Don't worry," the rogue said with a nervous chuckle. "That one was on me. As an apology for you passing out in the street. And as a bribe so you hopefully don't tell Fern."

"The first time's always free," Vera said dryly.

"Yes, yes," the shapeshifter said dismissively. "But it's not addictive."

Vera raised an eyebrow.

"Well, not in the usual way."

She raised her eyebrow further.

"I mean only sorta."

Vera tried to raise her eyebrow further, but was suddenly unsure if she were even moving the correct part of her face.

"Look," they said quickly, evidently unnerved by whatever face she'd managed to make, "Inhibiting spines are the best way to surpass physical limitations, so if you stop taking them you stall out. You've only got to keep taking them so long as you wanna get stronger."

Vera would've kept pressing them on the matter if she hadn't been distracted by trying to regain some measure of facial control. Eventually she returned to the topic at hand, though she couldn't be sure her eyebrows were relaxed.

"So if I took such a large dose, I assume I've got a head start," she said questioningly, impressed with her own simple eloquence.

"A bit," the shapeshifter said in a recollective tone. "I'd say that dosage would've carved about a month off the development of the affected areas when I first started." They bent their knees, pulling their feet closer to themself while still lying on the hammock. Vera's blurry view of their dark face was replaced with a blurry view of eerily pale shins.

"A month seems good," Vera said. "Why doesn't everyone take larger doses? Wouldn't that speed up the Corps' development?"

"Most people are worried about dying, for one," the rogue replied with a quick laugh. "That dosage isn't impossible to survive, but you're certainly lucky."

"You mentioned that."

"Yeah, well, remember it."

"But why wouldn't someone just keep taking more until they find their safe limit?" Vera asked, her mouth now mostly functional and her head no longer overthinking the simple act while engaged in the topic.

"The cost is a big part of it. You can only handle more lucrative deployments as you get stronger, and the scaling of strength is pretty well matched by the requisite scaling of cost." The changeling shrugged, the motion entirely being missed by Vera. "Maybe some rich pricks can climb faster, but the rest of us have to wait. Besides, those who can afford it, still run into the issue of spines interfering with one another. Inhibiting spines, ironically, inhibit each other."

"Wouldn't that mean people could only take one ever?" Vera asked.

"Nah, once you can handle one with no detriment, you can use another," replied the rouge. "But I don't really know the mechanics. I'm just sneaky. If you wanna know more, you should probably ask around the Mages' Academy. I assume you'll do some studying there?" they asked.

"I don't really know." Vera didn't really know what she was doing. She'd made it here by listening to a string of people she barely knew tell her what to do next. "If I can, I guess. It seems like the best place to figure out what's going on." She gestured at herself and was proud when it actually resembled the intended motion.

"You're getting accustomed to that poison rather quickly," remarked the shapeshifter. They sat up and Vera's vision had returned to a clarity that allowed her to identify the face as human, despite the spines that replaced hair.

"A large chunk of a day is fast?" She was more than over the excessive amount of sleeping lately, no matter what her teenage self would've said.

"I would've expected you to still be immobile right now," replied the changeling, the casual nature more than off-putting. "I wouldn't have expected you to walk for days, plural."

"Next time, explain the magical item before you hand it to me," Vera said with a resigned sigh.

"Yeah, I didn't expect you to immediately use an unknown magical item. I've made sure to file away that you're an idiot, so I won't make that mistake again."

Vera attempted to kick at the rouge, but her legs were still sluggish and the shapeshifter was as agile as ever. They were standing beside the hammock before the demoness could even complete her pathetic wind-up. It was only after her leg flopped uselessly that Titon joined them in the backroom of the hammock shop.

"I think I just got fired again," said the large man as he turned to slip through the doorway.

"You think?" asked Riley, still standing away from the hammock in case of a follow-up kick. "Is it open to interpretation?"

"Well, he never said that I was fired," he said, wringing his hands. "He just said to go home."

"Oh, well, maybe he just—" began the rogue, but Titon cut them off as he corrected himself.

"Well, technically, he said to go back wherever the hecks I came from, but I came from Ma's house so..." he said trailing off. Vera still could read the shapeshifters face with any precision, especially not when they were turned away, though she figured they were also confused by the whispered "hecks."

"Yeah, I think you got fired, bud," said the rogue instead. "Sorry, I got you in trouble."

"No it wasn't y'all," said the large guy. "I just keep breaking the merchandise."

That explained the crashing.

"It isn't even my fault. He hired me to try to appeal to the larger races and corner that market before his competition, but didn't bother to reinforce the hammocks." He took a deep breath and forcibly separated his wringing hands. "Any time I mention that though, he tells me to stop making excuses."

"That just isn't fair," said the demoness from her hammock.

"Right?" Titon asked as his shoulders sagged. "But I guess I just have to accept it."

"You're a bigger man than him," Riley said comfortingly.

"Yeah, but Ma said not to kill any smaller people unless they really deserved it."

"That's wise advice," the rogue said less comfortingly. Titon merely nodded sagely.

"You said fired again," began Vera, changing the subject. "Did Vladik fire you?"

"Yeah," he said, easily accepting the change. "But I'm glad to be out of there. I checked out a bodega nearby after I dropped you off, and when I got back everything was crazy. I'm glad you must've gotten out before all that, because the boss was not dealing with his anger in a healthy way."

Vera's memory wasn't as blurry as her current sight and the statement immediately made her envision the approaching dagger with an unnerving degree of sharpness.

"I can imagine," she said in what was intended to be a flat tone. The crack in her voice made Riley look back at her but they said nothing.

"Maybe you can join the Corps like Vera and I," said the rogue as they turned back to the larger man. "A big guy like you would make a great brawler."

"No, y'all see so many cool worlds and cooler animals, but then you just kill them all." Titon shook his head as if disappointed in a thoughtless student. "Let alone petting them, y'all don't even barbecue them. If that ain't the most tragic organization, I don't know what is."

"There's a research division," the shapeshifter said defensively as they folded their arms over their chest.

"Researching how to better kill things?" Titon asked leadingly.

"Yes," Riley muttered.

"I'll find another job in no time," the large man said confidently.

"Good luck," Vera said bitterly.

"Thanks," he said with a cheery smile. "By the way, since I got fired, I think y'all might need to leave with me."

"Yeah, I figured," Vera's newest acquaintance said turning to face her. The shapeshifter glanced at her tangled legs before turning back to Titon. "I would rather not lug her around like a hefty bag of potatoes again."

"Hey," Vera objected, awkwardly raising an arm in protest.

"Sorry," they said correcting themselves. "Like a partially animate hefty bag of potatoes. Do you think you could carry her?"

"I can handle myself," said the demoness before swinging her legs off the hammock. They weren't perfectly coordinated, but Vera had confidence she could remain upright as she pushed off the fabric. The motion went perfectly up until she was at its apex and her forward momentum wasn't near depleted. Riley tried to catch her but the rogue's strength wasn't nearly comparable to their agility, and was mostly just pulled along. Her momentum was only arrested when Titon's grabbed her shoulders.

"Woah, I don't mind. You can ride on my shoulders like my little cousins."

Vera would've protested, but she was sitting on the man shoulders too quickly. He had to bend his knees a bit so she wouldn't hit her head against the high ceiling. A slight sense of falling backward drove Vera to rap her arms around the nearest anchor, which happened to be Titon's forehead. She was amazed to find her hand couldn't reach the opposite elbow.

"All settled?" the large man asked, and Vera nodded, took a moment and affirmed aloud.

"Great," Riley said, glad to not have to carry nor be carried. "Onward to the dorms."

Titon had to squat nearly to the floor to get through the doorway with Vera on his shoulders, but he insisted on not making her get down. His giggles as he walked goofily in the squatted position revealed his insistence to not be entirely of a chivalrous nature, and the demoness grinned as she bobbed side-to-side with his short waddle. They both missed it when Riley again took the form of a miniature Titon and waddled after him.