Cards, chips, and tension; this was his element.

Hank smiled easily, knowing that even with a two and an eight, he was going to win the hand. He wanted it and had the moxxy to take it. He spun one of the dirty and worn poker chips across his fingers. Moments like these, he definitely appreciated the additional capability gifted to him by the System. Just added a little extra spice to the storytelling.

And honestly, wasn’t Hank doing them a favor? Wasn’t every day that you could lose money to a modern day cowboy. He just needed to do some groundwork to set up the perfect scenario. “Y’all ever hear about the first time I fought Alana Donal?”

The two-night duty officers looked up, awe and anticipation glimmering in their eyes. They sat in one of the break rooms of the station, keeping watch for any associates of the men Hank had brought in to show up for some sort of daring rescue. Or, honestly, to silence the captives. Not that either seemed likely, but this group had proven their unpredictability several times over.

For now, Hank didn’t call the prior bet. He wanted to be sure that their minds were thoroughly distracted before he gently reminded them they were playing cards. “The day was warm and cloudless. I had just-”

Hank’s pupils dilated as the wall behind them caved inward, blasted to smithereens by fire and concussive force. The two guards’ were frozen, likely without enough Reaction to even register the sudden attack with the speed that he did. Drawing his heavy metal revolver, Hank stood. The chair tumbled slowly back in the air behind him. However, as he turned to unleash a focused mental pulse to protect the guards, it occurred to him that this wasn’t the outer wall, but the inner one.

The explosion came from the holding cells.

Unpredictable, indeed.

Hank left his hat on the table as he stepped forward with enough force to puncture the explosion and leave it sagging and hot. A few tongues of flame mixed with the smoke and charred plaster in the next room, but largely the destruction receded once it had been struck, vanishing as quickly as it came. He found a profoundly annoyed-looking Annie next to the ragged-looking entrance to the cell, her arms crossed and her foot tapping.

“They wanted these expendable pieces to get captured,” Annie grimaced. “Had bombs implanted in their bodies. Likely without their knowledge. Fucking savages.”

“So they-” Hank began, but he paused as he saw that while most of the cell was scorched concrete, one corner was encased in ice. The young man who threw the wind-image metal circles seemed to be asleep, completely covered in ice and thoroughly un-exploded.

“You… managed ta get ta him in time?” Hank asked mildly.

Annie nodded, her eyes still fixed on the mostly empty cell. Her mind seemed to be chewing furiously at the development, a dog gnawing its way through an aggravating bone. “Yea. Luckily he was on the far wall, while the others were over there. So when the first started erupting, I could draw my bow and fire an arrow before the signal reached him. Gonna be a real bitch unfreezing him and taking out the bomb… We will probably have to go into a Dungeon to make sure we don’t lose this lead.”

Hank remembered the way that the guards’ in the poker game had seemed motionless to him. Then he imagined the Reaction required to see several bodies pulp themselves on one side of a cramped holding cell, react, and fire and arrow with enough speed, image power, and capability to freeze a person. His jaw worked, saying a private thank you that Annie was on their side.

“Ugh, and Zone 1 is going to throw such a fit,” Annie shook her head in disgust. “I bet they will somehow make it my fault that I needed to freeze this guy to save him from the bomb planted inside of his body. They better not try to accuse me of kidnapping when I take him away.”

Dozer, good on ya, mate. Hank’s lips twitched.

Annie, on comedic cue, finally turned to Hank and asked. “Hey, you know anything about persuasive interrogation techniques?”

*****

Randidly sank into the Sea of Dreams, the constantly developing World Tree wrapped around his body. Almost immediately, the colors crashed against him and rubbed at the edges of his image shape. Already, the training began. The colors were excitement made physical, reds and oranges and purples that teemed around his ankles as he waded forward past the easiest portions of the sea.

Yggdrasil stood firm against the assault, confident and composed as it endured the grinding refinement. In a way, it was like allowing his thoughts to be done over by a sand-blaster spewing barbed diamonds. Randidly’s lips twitched; certainly, it took a certain sort of individual to walk purposefully into the constant barrage of emotional abuse that crashed against him. But he had long ago resigned himself to being exactly that sort of individual who chooses the hard path. Often not because of the benefits, but because he didn't trust the easy way.

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Randidly acknowledged that it was exactly this strange masochism that had allowed him to survive so long. Then he let that thought slip away and concerned himself solely with emotional affect, while the colors crashed into him and left him with brief image impressions that threatened to destabilize him.

That was why he was here. To let the shape he scrubbed away and prove his emotional understanding of himself to be true.

Keeping the note of the affect constant was a struggle; Randidly occasionally brushed up against the perfect golden threat that waited within the World Tree, offering a perfect emotional resonance that he had been waiting for. Yet as soon as he managed to seize it, the act of seizing altered his emotional state. A wave of turquoise broke across his face and Randidly is left blanking grimacing, blinking through an image fragment of a wide sky, waiting to find the shifting note for another time. He remained still while he searched, just letting the liquid colors run around his thighs.

In a very real way, he can look down at the substance of the colors’ flow and feel the way a weak-willed individual would be stained by their presence.

After steadying himself, Randidly continued forward. When the liquid color deepened to his waist, his skin begins to sizzle and sting, his physical form bearing small portion of the strain of being here. To the emotions and colors, his body is an affront. They hammered him with brief moments of happiness, flashes of betrayal, and a lonely wind meandering across the desert. And he refused to waver-

Randidly sighed and paused again, this time bringing the manifestation of Yggdrasil out around him more fully. This is the best way for the training to happen, with no buffer between image and invasive color. The grinding physical pain still pulsed through his lower extremities, but it became a familiar feeling. Head bowed low, he stepped forward and allowed himself to just be the growing tree.

Nether whipped itself around through his body, straining to help with the effort, although it had essentially no avenues to do so. Randidly ignored the constant activity from his Nether Core; part of it is the interactions with the Alpha Cosmos, but his equilibrium was also somewhat thrown off by the rising star of the new Authority within his significance. Snorting, Randidly pushed all that away.

Right now, just emotions. Just supportiveness, life, growth, and then the vast sense of responsibility. A regal bearing-

Congratulations! Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs (T) has grown to Level 450!

Normally Randidly didn’t even bother to recognize Skill Level notifications, but this one managed to catch his attention. Because while the text flickered in front of his eyes, he slipped more easily into the correct mindset for swimming through the colors. His expression flickered and he swayed slightly, surprised at the shift.

The colors didn’t cease their relentless assault during this interlude, which meant that keeping himself focused was a bit fraught. But Randidly endured the distractions and found two clear expressions of the affect he needed, within the two newly evolved Skills.

Randidly sucked in a breath. He needed both of them, balanced and keeping each other in check, to achieve the result he wanted. Both surged to life in his chest, demanding attention. On the one side was Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs, a clear blast of radiant light that began everything. The glittering sun drop represented responsibility and life, being given out from the source and igniting the cosmos.

On the other hand, there was Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Waiting Carrion Grins. It possessed a malicious certainty, a jaunty, bloodthirsty patience, for when that beautiful world created by the primordial light began to shrink and tear at the edges. Because opposite the sense of responsibility was a horrific sense of purpose. He had begun this world and he possessed the capacity to crumple it into litter.

That was the brutal prerogative that suffered nothing but fealty from the natural forces of the world.

Congratulations! Your Skill Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Waiting Carrion Grins (T) has grown to Level 470!

Congratulations! Your Skill Dawn Opens the Sky and Reality Stirs (T) has grown to Level 451!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Darkness Withers the Horizon and the Waiting Carrion Grins (T) has grown to Level 525!

Randidly’s form rippled. In a few moments, his skin was bark. His emerald eyes were warmed to golden by a blast of sunlight. The toes of his bare feet stretched into the ground, digging into the area beneath the Sea of Dreams. Lapis Lazuli flows twined around his legs, trying to slow him down, but Randidly had the glee of the world’s first and only carrion.

To know that none threatened that final meal that would finally end the hunger he felt. Even the Stillborn Phoenix stirred at that surge of emotion, displaying some of its own curiosity about that result.

Easy now, He thought to himself. But despite himself, Randidly’s throat bobbed. Saliva pooled in his mouth, an echoing hunger in anticipation of the world coming to a cataclysmic end.

And he began to walk, wading deeper into the Sea of Dreams. The colors flailed and lashed, trying to slow his pace, but he ignored them. A massive crimson Kraken of color dragged its body forward after Randidly ducked his head into the colors and let the image fragments tear through his canopy of emerald leaves. This strange bundle of sentience raged and brought its tentacles whipping around, but Randidly could feel himself laughing.

He was pure. He was energy incarnate. A throbbing mental pain tugged at the edges of his awareness but he just sloshed his way through the thick medium of color. Something obstinate and determined rose up in his chest. Randidly planned to walk to the bottom of this sea of color and rip this damned Kraken to bits, for having the gall to stand against him.

Heh, great. Yggdrasil’s emotional shift has made me even more likely to engage in dumb confrontations. Randidly lifted his bark-covered hands and seized the tentacles. Then he began to pull, dragging the Kraken, which had shifted to a pale green color, toward him.

And yet… I don’t hate this about myself. If I can’t believe in the impossible, I’ll never be able to tear down the Nexus.