Chapter 53 (Patreon)

“You’re not just taking her.”

“Mom-”

“No, Victoria! I know I’m not a perfect mother but damn it there are laws and boundaries to be respected. Amy isn’t conscious to consent to being taken, and this is her home. You have no right.”

I stared down into the furious, almost animalistic eyes of Carol Dallon, my Amy held firmly against my chest. While I couldn’t necessarily blame her for taking offense to me pushing past her and teleporting through her house the second I heard Amy scream, I also couldn’t help the broiling anger burning its way through the pit of my stomach. Every fiber of my being was simply telling me to stop this ‘humble God’ act and just do whatever the fuck I thought was right, but I also recognized the fact that crossing that line would mar my immortal soul for as long as I lived.

I wasn’t a fucking Homelander. I could be civil. I would be civil.

But this… this wasn’t going to fly. Amy was clearly suffering here, and that was all I really gave a fuck about.

“Sue me, then. Or call the cops.” I deadpanned, twisting on my heels and shoving my Avalon costume back into its place in my Dimensional Closet. In a blinding flash of silver mana, I seamlessly switched into a pair of baggy camo pants, black Doc Marten boots, and an oversized graphic tee that had some half-naked anime girl posing on the front - just a casual outfit to wear during a kidnapping. Truly stylish criminal clothes.

Beside me, squinting angrily at a teary-eyed Vicky, Cass paused and did a double-take at my shirt. “Yoko-chan? Avalon, what-”

“The name’s Jason Black,” I drawled, adjusting Amy slightly so that her head leaned more comfortably against my shoulder. “Sixteen years old, my date of birth is September 14th, and I was born and raised in Brockton Bay. I don’t have a lawyer but something tells me hirin’ one won’t be a financial issue.”

Carol, having taken a step back during my magical boy transformation, turned pale. “If you think unmasking gives you the right to abduct my daughter, then you have another thing coming. This isn’t a battle you can win by just breaking rules and batting your lashes. I’m a lawyer.”

“I unmasked because your hands were starting to clench aggressively, and I didn’t wanna be forced to chokeslam my future girlfriend’s adopted mother inside her own house. Ain’t about my pretty face.” I responded evenly, a lazy smirk pulling at my lips. “Now, look - I won’t pretend to know legalese, because I don’t and I really don’t care to know… so this is what I’m gonna-”

Victoria stepped forward, brushing Dean’s hands off of her shoulders as she did so. There was a clear panic in her eyes, Hidden Intuition whispering to me just how shaken and unsure this entire debacle was making the normally cocky heroine. “Avalo- no, Jason, please. I swear to fucking God, Amy is not in any danger here! I just-”

“Glory Girl,” I interrupted, not even bothering to look away from Carol. “Shut up for a minute, ‘ight?”

Her boyfriend bristled, one arm wrapping protectively around a crestfallen Victoria’s waist. “Hey now, buddy, Vicky didn’t mean-”

My anger almost got the better of me, but I was bigger than that. Instead of filling Dean with enough pain to make him shit and piss himself simultaneously, I simply flipped him off with both hands.

Enshrouded by my magic, Amy’s unconscious body floated gently in front of my chest.

Dean bristled. “... Ooookay. Rude. Look, this is getting really close to criminal activity, and if I need to call Ar-”

“How about!” Cassie butted in, her voice nearly shrill with a delicate mixture of frustration and anxiety. She moved to step between me and a hawk-eyed Carol, her shoulders brushing against Amy’s unconscious body. “Instead of fighting like we’re frickin’ savages… we talk. Like super cool, super friendly adults. No, um- fist clenching. Or fighting. Please.”

Carol scowled down at her, an imperious edge sharpening along her brow. “Because you know you’d lose?”

Whether or not she meant in the more physical sense, or in a battle of law was unclear. Regardless of her meaning, though, a spark of steel straightened Cassie’s spine. Her voice dipped ever so slightly lower, becoming colder, and a note of near pity entered its tone. “Because I know we’d win, and I don’t wanna put Amy through that kind of trauma.”

The woman’s eyes flashed. “You’re-”

“We,” I interrupted coolly, gathering Amy back into my arms. “Are leaving. You know my name now. You know my face. Tell the cops to hit me up at the Boat Graveyard later if they wanna arrest me, but we’ll see how Amy feels when she wakes up. ’Till then, mother-in-law, I’m taking her with me and there ain’t shit you can do about it.”

I hadn’t wanted to just force it like this, but it was clear from every tiny cue in Carol’s body language that she wasn’t planning to submit in this instance. Whether or not she actually cared for Amy as a daughter wasn’t completely known to me, though my Intuition was telling me no - but it was obvious, knowing what I knew from canon, that she would always have it in for me in some way… no matter what.

Amy was too important to New Wave, and I… well, I was pretty sure I just reminded Carol too much of a certain man. She’d decided to hate me before she even met me.

Gently, I pushed off of the ground, turning around and floating ever so slowly towards the staircase under the guidance of my magic, and Cassie, after looking up and clocking the finality in my expression, proceeded to back away after me.

“Avalon, don’t you dare turn your back to me in my own home. You have no right. You have no right!”

My Second Sight blinked into existence after a murmured command spoken beneath my breath, and distantly, I watched as Carol lunged forward and Victoria lashed out, grabbing her by the forearm and yanking her back. Heavy, dense mana suffused the room, ready to fill its space with dozens of golden spears, but neither of them attacked me or Cassie. 

Hushed words were hissed back and forth, words that I could have possibly picked up on if I would have put some magical pizzazz into the attempt, but I didn’t bother.

Carol is enraged. Carol is torn. Carol wants to attack you.

Victoria is sad. Victoria is torn. Victoria is guilty.

Dean is angry. Dean is confused. Dean feels useless. 

But what they thought truly, truly didn’t matter. I’d been as civil as I could stand, and the back of that camel was blown the fuck out by now.

The Dallon Family (plus Dean) didn’t follow us down the staircase, and neither did they come to lock the front door behind me once I firmly shut it. 

But, as I wrapped an anxious Cassie in the winds of Azyr once again, raising both of us into the sky once again-

I heard two voices, feminine and cracking with emotion, raise to a fevered pitch of loud, angry yelling.

And I left the Dallon Household behind, sans one member. Fractured and broken.

______________________________________________

Amy was still clonked the fuck out after I got back to the Sanctum.

She had to have been exhausted, judging by the dark circles lining the sunken skin beneath her eyes. Her breathing was even and soft, but Amy didn’t even stir as I laid her in our bed and snugly tucked her into the comforter. It was both adorable and saddening, the way her entire body seemed to come undone all at once, unconscious stress and pressure easing off of her brow as she snuggled deeper into the over fluffed pillows. 

I paused, looming protectively over the sleeping girl, and my hand drifted down to tuck a strand of messy brown hair behind her ear. The anger still festering in my stomach roiled as she soundlessly whimpered and nuzzled into my caress, and I allowed Azyr to flow between the cool winds surrounding her form, protecting her from what was bound to be a somewhat impassioned discussion.

“Totally burning my Glory Girl posters,” Cassie murmured coldly, kneeling beside our dresser and fumbling with the drawers. She had grabbed Amy’s little suitcase on her way out of the house - rather smoothly, might I add - and as she spoke, she began carefully extracting bundles of wrinkled clothes from it. “Wh- what even happened? I knew there would be some drama with her mom and everything, but like…-”

Giving the slumbering Amy one last look, I straightened my back and turned towards my girlfriend. “Victoria’s aura - it basically magnifies whatever emotion you’re currently feeling by a lot. I’m guessin’ Amy was anxious and scared, Victoria was already in a shit mood, and her aura just… went outta wack.” 

It was the most logical explanation, and all the signs were there. The guilt and panic on Glory Girl’s face wasn’t fake.

Cassie clicked her tongue, shoveling Amy’s clothes into an empty section of the dresser with an aggression that was definitely unneeded. “The dumb bitch gave her a frickin’ panic attack. I know what those look like… the gasping for air, the sweat, the way she looked like she was about to faint. Those are fucking scary to experience, Jay.”

“Trust me, I know.” A dry, wry smile formed on my lips - utterly humorless, with a touch of nostalgia. Panic attacks really weren’t fun. “But it was definitely an accident. If it wasn’t, I woulda put you in stasis and blew their whole fuckin’ house up.” 

I moved away from the bed, reaching for the zipper-like protrusion inside of my soul and activating Dimensional Inventory. Our bedroom wasn’t the largest, but we had enough empty space after Sherrel took the dining table - freshly cleaned and repaired - back downstairs. The blue rift tore through the air like a gash torn across the fabric of space, and casually, I reached inside.

It was about time I cleaned it out.

With a small grunt, Cassie stood to her feet and closed the dresser with the tip of her shoe. When she turned towards me, there was a worried grimace on her face, her bottom lip held softly between her teeth. “What are we going to do? I- I did some research on the law while we flew back, and if Amy wants to be here we can’t be charged, but… I’m worried. I want Amy to stay with us, even if she doesn’t wanna be, y’know, with us. But what happened with her family is fucking horrible, Jay.” 

Her arms wrapped around her stomach, a furrow deepening her slim brow. “I know how it feels to basically run away. How lonely it feels without your family. I’m worried about her.”

Cassie was valid for being worried, for more reasons than she probably knew right now. 

Amy wasn’t the most stable girl. Even if you ignored the fact that she had one of the strongest powers in the world, and that her Shard was actively pushing her to experiment with them against her own personal desires, there was also the very real fact that she was dealing with an incestuous desire to bone her sister due to various neurosis and the fact that her sister had been subconsciously brainwashing her for years without realizing it.

She was just all measures of fucked up. But I apparently loved kidnapping and falling for fucked up women, so that was fine. I’d handle it, just how I handled everything else.

I pulled a Tinkertech assault rifle out of my Inventory, and steel racks - heavy with similar guns - followed shortly after. As they slowly lowered themselves to the floor with barely a sound, I propped the weapon against my shoulder and tilted my head back to look at Cassie. 

My smirk shifted into a more genuine grin. 

“We’ll just fill her with so much fuckin’ happiness and love that she forgets about her shitty family. So much that she gets fucking diabetes, Cass. Can’t be depressed about assholes when you’re dyin’ from Type 2, ya feel me?”

Cassie stared at me and the miniature armory I just casually extracted from thin-air. Her mouth opened to say something, but then she paused, shook her head again, and smiled. “... You’re an idiot. But I love you. And I l-like Amy. A lot. So… okay - I can agree with that, minus the ‘dying from diabetes’ part you dickhead. My cousin died from diabetes.”

I froze. “... Did they?”

“Hehe, no. But you should know that already, shouldn’t you? With your spooky mind magic, oooh~.” 

Cassie giggled as she twisted around me and kneeled to examine the guns, her mood performing a complete 180 in the face of my nonchalant confidence that everything would be okay. I could tell that she was still upset about everything, but from what I could tell about her, Cass didn’t enjoy dwelling on shitty things if she didn’t have to. She didn’t like to just bury and forget about them, but if offered a solution that works… she usually just went with that solution and tried to excise the negatives out of her brain.

A little glass of bratty sunshine, that girl was.

“I try not to use Hidden Intuition around you very much,” I replied easily and honestly, shrugging. “Would get boring if I knew everything all the time. Surprise is the spice of life, just like sex, fighting, and magic. I can’t imagine living without any of ‘em.”

“Mm.” Cassie nodded her head distractedly, one hand running over the barrel of an assault rifle - or, more specifically, the Tinkertech modifier that turned normal 5.56 into concrete-exploding laser shots capable of tearing through my magically enhanced costume. 

She was quiet for a few seconds, but just as I was turning to start extracting Coil’s desk setup, her voice suddenly spoke up again. “Say, Jay… What did you talk to Alexandria about? I know it was probably super private and important and everything, and if you don’t wanna tell me it’s fine, but - I don’t know. I’m just nosy, I guess-”

“I was talking to her about the Endbringers.”

I couldn’t see her face, what with her examining the Tinkertech, but her voice was more than enough for me to get a decent grasp on what she was feeling, no Hidden Intuition needed.

Cassie was feeling left outta the loop. And honestly, I was done making her feel that way.

She perked up, dropping her hand and turning to look up at me. “... The Endbringers?”

“World’s greatest unrestricted Thinker right here, babe,” I snorted, tapping the side of my head with two fingers. “I have a lotta knowledge about a lot of things, includin’ shit about the Triumvirate. Alexandria has connections that can leverage some of the knowledge I have in a way that’s beneficial to humanity, so I shared it with her in exchange for a few things.”

“... It’s so annoying that I can’t even call you out on your BS anymore,” Cassie pouted, standing back up and poking me violently in the chest. “Everything you can do can just be waved off as ‘haha I’m Dumbledore, bitch!’ and it’s sooo unfair! Who decided to make you the frickin’ OP protagonist?!”

“Give it time,” I grinned, patting her head. “One day some of my badassery’ll rub off on you. Like osmosis.”

“Not osmosis,” she ‘sulked’, closing her eyes and leaning into my hand. “Amy said so.”

“Heh. Whatever.”

But even then, as she pouted beneath my ministrations, I could see the small smile she tried - unsuccessfully- to hide. The specifics weren’t important to her. Just being let in on my private dealings without a compromise or debate was enough to make her feel good. Let in.

And that was what I was aiming for.

I paused, my eyes glazing over as ol’ Grimmy shuddered within my soul, pulling itself out of its little afternoon nap to skip a proffered mote of light across the rippling surface of my magic. I’d grown a very strong ‘charge’ over the last few days, and the perk that it offered - Similar Principles - wasn’t one that truly called out to me.

On first glance.

But then, I glanced down at Cassie - still half-smiling beneath the heft of my palm - and my heart jumped as a thought drifted through my head. While I wasn’t necessarily interested in the melding of technology through magic, I was also not living for just myself anymore… I was living for Cassie, too. And she was a fucking nerd, someone who’d already been thinking of ways to visualize magic in fucking coding languages. If anyone could make things shake with this kinda perk…

I grasped onto the mote of light, feeling its weight… and reeled it in.

[Similar Principles (Lyrical Nanoha) - 400 CP]: It’s strange how similar concepts can be between dimensions, no? The line between magic and technology just doesn’t seem as thin as it otherwise should be, especially in your hands. 

The TSAB system combines both, and while this doesn’t let you start building Devices from the ground up, you understand the principle enough that you can combine magic systems from other worlds with technology. Guns that fire beams of mana, helmets that create a telepathy-based chat network, wristbands that let you form an outfit from thin air...spells can be made into technology much more easily, and the technologies play a bit more nicely with magic in your hands, even if 6 a particular system of magic isn’t fond of being ‘simplified’ by science. 

How about that?

I knew nothing about the TSAB, or magic girls, but the knowledge that burrowed itself deep within my brain, purely just from the magic that I currently knew… it was like opening a treasure trove filled with designs from a new fucking age. My knowledge on mundane technology was limited to the things that I’ve seen in modern day, along with some rough ideas from the occasional sci-fi flick - the ideas were there, enhanced by mana, but they felt watery. Distant. Similar Principles was all about bridging the gap between technology and mana, not necessarily giving you droves of information on how to create the baseline tech itself. 

With some study and learning, especially with certain perks I possessed, I was sure that I’d be able to do some crazy shit. Like magical lightsabers powered by glass and mana crystals, blaster pistols inscribed with runes of Chamon, capable of turning men to statues of gold with one shot - but as cool as they were, I wasn’t necessarily an engineer.

And with Cassie being a Tinker… I could only imagine the ideas she would get.

“Babe,” I grinned crookedly, pushing through the perk’s weak attempt at forcing me into a fugue. “I got a gift. Consider it an early Christmas present.”

“It’s February,” Cass drawled, taking a step back and nearly tripping over the weapon racks. Her eyes squinted with trepidation, and she raised her fists. “You’ve got that dead stare thing going on again, Jay. And I just wanna say for clarity: I am not going to leak all of the Dallon Family’s dirty laundry all over PHO and get them shut down by the citizens of Brockton Bay in a fiery uprising of outlandish proportions just because you ask me to!”

…

“...”

Cassie is projecting.

“Cool. But anyways… clench your jaw and close your eyes, chick. I’m boutta bless you with knowledge.” I cut through whatever the fuck that just was, reaching deep within my sea of magic and extracting my most recent acquisition. It glowed beneath my internal grasp, ready to revolutionize the gap between magic and tech.

It would fit nicely inside of Cassie.

“Oh- crap, your eyes are glowing. You’re actually about to do something. Wait! What is it? Did you get another magical perk?!” Excitement replaced trepidation, and Cassie shimmied forward with her ‘combat stance’ reduced to a surprised cupping of her hands against her mouth. 

I tilted my head, Power-Granting Deal wrenching open Cassie’s soul in order to directly bless her with the perk. “Something like that. Honestly, I’m kinda jealous, but I’m not really one for tech shit… was always a fantasy nerd before I was a sci-fi geek.”

Her excitement became inflamed, Cassie’s entire body quivering as she glared up at me. “No freakin’ way. I’m getting magical tech? Like are we speaking Pod, or…-”

“Close,” I chuckled, taking one long step forward. “Congratulations, Cassie… you might just be the first Magitech Tinker on the entirety of Earth Bet. That’s some high class shit.”

“... You’re fucking with m-”

The mote of light passed between our souls like the smoothest tennis pass ever, and found itself buried deep within the core of Cassie’s being, nearly taking her breath away. She staggered back, eyes growing wide, nearly bulging, as knowledge and ideas that I couldn’t even begin to fathom began warring for space within her brain. 

Having expected some sort of reaction, I merely wrapped her within tendrils of invisible Aethyr, keeping her body steady so that she didn’t fall into the assault rifles.

It took her nearly a minute to recover.

When she did, it was with a quiet, pain-filled groan. Cassie went to rub her forehead, realized that she was entrapped within some sort of magical binding, and blew a raspberry at me. “You could’ve told me you were gonna try to lobotomize me, you jerkbutt!”

“That’s my bad,” I waved a hand, my Evil Eyes glinting, and the golden glow of Hysh shot through Cassie’s body, healing whatever migraine she was suffering from. At the same time I relinquished control over her movements, allowing her to stumble forward and exhale.

“Healing magic. Hehe, friggin’ priceless.” She straightened, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, and stared at me. Hard.

“... Sooo… whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?”

“So. Many. Things. Hold on!”

Cassie smacked her hands on her cheeks, whispered something beneath her breath, and walked past me. I turned and watched her as she began rifling through one of her Boxes of Junk™, pulling out old devices and circuit boards and other small doohickeys that I didn’t really know the precise name of. She had at least four other milk crates filled with similar junk stuffed in the closet, but she was my pretty princess so I never really called her out for her clear hoarding problem.

Considering she was a Tinker, now a Magi-Tinker, I guess I shouldn’t have been too surprised.

“So magic… magic is, like, electricity, right? Or, at least, mana is. Like you said before, it powers the spells you - or we, I guess - use, exactly like how electricity powers most of modern day’s technology and even Tinkertech. It’s basically like a super advanced form of electricity, but with mystical potential,” Cassie rambled in that ‘lecturial’ voice she got whenever her big, sexy brain was working with optimal juices. She began taking certain doodads and shoving them into a different box, separating them for some reason.

I merely nodded my head along, grasping the simple concept. “Okay. I’m pickin’ up what you’re putin’ down, professor.”

“Whatever knowledge you just gave me, it basically juiced up my brain with so many frickin’ ways to harness mana in technology. In simpler, more foundational ways, like powering a generator with magical power, or creating a battery that holds mana to then power that generator. Or other devices. I could turn our normal phones into magical phones powered by our own mana, that can basically connect and communicate with each other no matter the distance, stay powered on because there’s no actual battery, are basically tamper-proof unless the asshole has magic themselves-” 

She paused to take what looked like a tangled bundle of red wires, biting the end of one and ripping the plastic off with her teeth. Those wires then went into the crate, and Cassie stood up with a victorious groan, stretching her arms above her head.

“But that’s for later! D’you remember how I described magic, Jay? As a sort of programming language?” Cassie picked up the box with a grunt, arching her back in a way that was definitely not healthy, and I casually flicked a finger up.

“Yep,” I popped the P, floating the box of tech scrap into the air.

“Hehehe…” Her hands free, she placed them on her hips and grinned cockily at me. The excitement and joy was palpable, and I found myself smiling too. “Well, I think I might know how to actually make magic codable. I’d been thinking about it before - using the Angelic script that Pod is powered by, but the issue was my tech.”

“... It wasn’t created with magic in mind,” I observed, rubbing my chin. There was a brief moment of silence as I thought over her words, and Cassie continued to grin at me expectantly. 

“Annnnd?”

Pod is-

My eyebrows shot to my hairline. “And Pod’s programmed to replicate any spells coded into his mainframe! I’m not sure if the process is automated or something… the perk didn’t give me some sort of understanding of Angelic, but-”

“If we do it, and I tap into the process and study the script more closely…” Cassie began, her excitement causing her voice to nearly quiver. “Then I can make my own magic code- uh, frickin’ magicode! If I can power my CodeLink with mana, connect it with some sort of magical battery, or- or crystal, I can program spells I learn directly into it and cast them freely! No somatic or verbal components, and all the mana is expended from auxiliary support so I stay fresh. It’s fucking genius!”

…

Wow.

For once, I was actually somewhat speechless.

“And these spells,” I pushed her on, feeling my own excitement growing in my belly, “Do you need to be able to actually cast them? What are the limits, exactly?”

With a click of her earbuds, Cassie powered on her CodeLink. Her eyes practically glimmered as she swiped between holographic screens only she could see, typing notes on thin air at speeds that made her fingers look like a blur. “Let’s see… I think the main limits would be overall mana cost for the spell. I could probably figure out a way to charge it directly with my own mana - I’ll have to practice and see how that works - but I probably won’t be able to fire off frickin’ Meteor Showers or anything like that for a while.”

“And…?”

This is where the nerdy excitement dimmed, if only just a little bit. Cassie clicked her earpieces again, her visor fading away, and clasped her hands behind her waist. Her eyes drifted away from mine. “Okay, sooo… I’ll need to actually work on the CodeLink modifier and examine Pod’s programming before I know for sure, but - I’ll probably have to learn how to do a spell the boring way before I can properly figure out the best way to code it in.”

An errant thought crossed her mind, and she furrowed her brow in thought. “Mmm, spellbooks are a fantasy thing too. I guess it depends, but if there’s an in-depth magical formula I can read and directly translate, I can probably program spells that way too.”

“But at that point, you might as well try and learn it the old-fashioned way. Just in case you’re ever separated from your CodeLink.” I prodded her in the direction I wanted her thoughts to stray towards - that is, not being overly reliant on her future ‘magicode’. The last thing I wanted to happen was her device fucking up or getting destroyed, and Cass being unable to cast spells without technological assistance.

Coding was all about efficiency and shortcuts, and I fucked with the vision, but I’d be damned before I let a girlfriend of mine end up overly reliant on gear. Not when I was damn near an archmage myself.

“Sheesh, Jay… you sound like a grumpy old man,” Cassie frowned, but bowed her head dejectedly anyway. “But you’re riiight. Like always. I’ll be a good little sorceress… just let me play with my toys. Pleeease? I’ll upgrade your phone! You can get yourself a Cassie-patented magiphone.”

She peered up at me with wide, innocent eyes, and Hidden Intuition - the sadistic asshole - saw fit to give her irises a very cute and anime-esque sparkle.

Too much cuteness made me wanna blow up forests.

“Obviously you can use your CodeLink, or MagiLink, or whatever the hell it’s gonna be now,” I chuckled, rubbing my hand down my face. “But the fundamentals are important. Learn more about magic, explore it. Safely. And when you have a grasp on what you’re dealing with, do your techwiz shit and make it yours. I’ve accomplished everything I have so far through independent experimentation and study, so I don’t want to direct or handhold your progress as a mage-”

“Sorceress!”

“Sorceress. I’ll do my best to teach you and offer advice when you need it, but everything else… that’s all up to you.”

Cassie nodded her head again, her face turning determined at the cool seriousness in my voice. She raised her hand in a mock salute, nearly poking herself in the eye. “Understood, sensei! Although… are we still going to the Boat Graveyard? Because those boxes you’re levitating… they kinda have most of the stuff I need to modify my CodeLink, annnd I was kinda maybe sorta hoping to-”

“You’re not spending the rest of the day tinkering, Cassie. It’s like 2 PM.” I snorted, waving my hand and carefully lowering the box of tech parts to the ground. “You said you needed some sort of magical battery, right? Or a crystal that does the same shit.”

Clearly a bit miffed, but seeing where I was going, Cass begrudgingly nodded her head. “Uh-huh…”

“I think I can help with that. But we work on the foundation first, remember?”

Giving her one last pat on the head, I began making my way towards the exit of the bedroom. Through my Second Vision, I could see the slumbering Amy roll over in her sleep, one arm tossed over her face and the other buried beneath silky blankets. Cassie spared another glance at the sleeping girl, fixing her disgruntled face in order to smile and give an unseen wave, before hurrying after me.

“How are you gonna help me make batteries, Jay?”

“Easy. Those jewels I bought this morning - I’m gonna Infuse them to make some jewelry for you guys, but I bought a lot of ‘em. Carving something that can hold a decent amount of mana shouldn’t be too hard if I keep trying.” I pushed the door open and walked through, idly using the ambient Aethyr to keep it open long enough for Cassie to join me. 

She jogged to keep up with my long strides.

“Ohhh! That’s… ridiculous, but useful. Ridiculous-ly useful.”

I nodded my head as we moved down the staircase. “Mhm. And while we’re out at the Graveyard, I’ll give you another gift. Something that’ll help you out once I start teaching you some spells.”

The mention of both learning magic and receiving a gift put a new pep in the newbie sorceress’ step. “Spells? With an ‘s’?!”

“Five, to start with.” I grinned, hopping off the last step and floating over the floor. The gems and crystals that I’d let fall onto the floor and between the couch cushions this morning was still there, glinting in the dim lighting of the living room, and I lowered myself down to start collecting them all. “They’re novice-level, but I only just got the perk for ‘em on our date with Amy, so I need to practice as well. Figured we could kill like four birds with one big ass stone.”

Cassie was practically vibrating with excitement at the base of the staircase. “Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit… fuck yeah! What kinda spells are they?! You have no clue how badly I’ve been wanting to cast magic, Jason. I will commit war crimes to throw a frickin’ fireball.”

“Alright, well… calm down, first off. No breaking the Geneva Convention unless I do it first, ‘ight?”

I flicked a ruby into my Dimensional Inventory - the last jewel that was stuck between the crevices of the couch cushions. “Kidding. The spells have their own ‘schools of magic’ that they’re categorized under, but I’ll get into that once we get there. Flames, Frostbite, Sparks, Oakflesh, and Fury - the first three are ‘Destruction’ magic, Oakflesh is ‘Alteration’, and Fury is ‘Illusion’. With these core five, I think you’ll be in a good position to defend yourself.”

The three basic Destruction spells would guarantee that Cassie’s offensive output wouldn’t be lacking against most mundane criminals or low-powered capes. Sparks was, in my opinion, the most dangerous spell on that small list - electricity flowed faster than most people could accurately react to, so as long as she didn’t make her movements super obvious, she’d be able to tag most non-Movers at a respectable distance.

Fury was dangerous for a completely different reason - mainly because it would get you labeled a spooky ‘Master’ as fast as you could fucking blink, but against a large crowd, it was invaluable. And Oakflesh’s effectiveness didn’t even need an explanation.

Turning away from the couch with my jewels and gems successfully recovered, I arched an eyebrow at a silent and wide-eyed Cassie. “Yo, babe, did you hear m-”

“Jason,” she cut me off, her voice a ghostly whisper. “... Be completely and utterly honest with me. Please. I will cry if you lie to me, and I can cry really loudly. And then Amy will wake up and be mad at you for making me cry.”

The sudden third degree threw me off. I floundered for a second, mouth opening and closing as my brain cogs shook off cobwebs and struggled to come up with an intelligent response. All that really came out was a confused, “Okay?”

“...” Cassie wandered closer, her wide eyes transitioning into an eagle-like glare. She raked me over with a sharp gaze, examining me from my Doc Martens all the way up to my bemused, thin-lipped face. She lingered on my facial tattoo for a few seconds longer than everything else.

I couldn’t help myself. I pushed at Hidden Intuition, urging it to speak to me.

Cassie is shell shocked. Cassie is confused. Cassie is a gamer. Cassie has played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Cassie recognized the magical spells you listed.

Wait. Waitwaitwait. Oh shit-

“Now Jason, I won’t be mad if you say yes. I would just be really disappointed that you kept it a secret from me. All the signs were right fucking there, but I was just too blind to friggin’ see it. So tell me, please…”

“Cassie, look, I promise-”

She clicked her tongue and shook her head. Violently. “Are you, or are you not…”

“I can’t-”

The words came out in a shout, hurried and excited and scared all at once. “A videogame character?!”

…

“What?”

“Don’t play dumb, bucko, I caught you! I did a highschool paper on Multiverse Theory! Plus magic is apparently real - magic from Skyrim, no less! There are other Earths that either parallel ours or are still unfounded throughout the universe, too… why the heck couldn’t you be from a video game? I couldn’t find anything about you when I looked you up in several databases. Like, nothing. No family, no medical records, no nothing. And you’ve got all these different abilities that you call ‘perks’... just like an RPG.” 

Cassie’s index finger poked me in the nipple, and she glowered. “But why keep up that BS about running away from your dad? I love you, idiot - I’d marry you here, or at the frickin’ College of Winterhold, or in fucking Luigi’s Mansion. I don’t care.”

“Okay, okay, time the fuck out- that’s sweet and I love you too, but holy fuck Cassie. You are… so off right now.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh of fucking cry. How her brain got to that conclusion out of the many possibilities that could have occurred here, I had no idea. Still, it was extremely heartwarming to know that she wouldn’t care if I was from a video game - or a video game world, I guess. I ran a hand through my hair, tightening my grip on a bundle of dreadlocks and idly tugging them as I thought my next words over carefully.

Cassie was silent for a moment, in her own thoughts, before she carefully spoke up. “... Then what’s up? Why- no, how are you teaching me magic from fucking video games? Do they actually exist? Somewhere?”

The earnest desire to know and trust was raw in her voice. She wasn’t panicking or freaking out at my silence - she simply wanted to understand.

And that chipped at something in my chest. I needed to stop putting this shit off.

Setting my jaw and straightening my shoulders, I locked eyes with Cass. “Come with me to the Boat Graveyard.”

“... Jay-”

“Just trust me a lil’ bit more, baby. Some of the jewelry I’ll be infusing - it’s to hide your existence from something that wouldn’t take kindly to what I’m going to say.” I reached forward, wrapping my arms around her supple waist and bringing her body against mine, and she leaned into my warmth. My voice dipped lower, soft words that I murmured against her head as I hugged her. “But it’s about time I lay it all on the table. Okay? Just give me a few hours to make the rings.”

Cassie’s sweet voice was muffled by my shirt when she replied. “... Are you from a video game?”

A chuckle - deep and warm - bubbled out of my chest. “No. I-... I’m from an Earth similar to Aleph. We had no superheroes. But that’s all I can say for now.”

“Mm.”

She rested there, her head against my heart, and I simply enjoyed feeling her soft body pressed against mine - no horniness or depravity, just her warmth against mine. It didn’t last any longer than a minute, maybe a few seconds less, but I could tell in the clinging of her hands against my back that it was a hug well needed.

It was only interrupted by the Grimoire, awfully generous today, tossing yet another mote of light my way. This one was airy - a freebie, in other words - and, not expecting much, I casually scanned through it to make sure there was nothing about it that would fuck me over.

[Divinity (Dark Souls: War of the Ancients) - Free]: It was the light of Flame that drew those hollow beings in, giving them the opportunity to become something great enough to challenge the everlasting. Your soul was bound to light, marking you as one of the gods who follow the Great Lord Gwyn. 

Not only is your form as captivating as light itself is, rarely muddied or marred, but your mind has been illuminated, allowing you to learn and master whatever skill you desire faster than most.

Huh. That was hyperbole, right? 

“What is it?” Cassie mumbled, pulling herself away from my chest and looking up into my distracted eyes. “... Another perk? Is it something spicy?”

“Divinity,” I replied idly, feeling out the perk again. “It’s offering me Divinity.”

“Wha- like, divinity divinity? Becoming a God?” Cassie blinked owlishly, taking a step back and gawking. “Will it hurt?”

“Don’t know, but I won’t say no to more power.”

After all, what was the worst that could happen?

I greedily accepted the new perk, excited at the prospect of learning and mastering new skills even faster. When combined with Infinite Potential and Heroic Aptitude, I was practically turning myself into a bonafide, Grade A prodigy. When we actually began traveling the multiverse, I would be set for fucking li-

Something felt… odd.

“Did you take it?” Cassie asked, tilting her head to the side. “... Holy shit, I think you did. Your eyes are glowing, Jay - and that mark on your face. Are you-”

No, fuck ‘odd’... something was burning. In my head. Across my skin. In my soul. Like purifying flames cleansing some sort of muck I wasn’t even aware I had. It didn’t hurt as much as it simply burned.

I went to say something, but my jaw clicked close. The burning sensation locked my bones in place.

Cassie stepped forward, her hand moving up to touch me, but she stopped it just short. “I don’t wanna mess anything up. Shit, Jason, what can I do?!” 

‘Just relax, princess. I’ll be okay.’ Is what I wanted to say, but no words came out. I was too busy trying to figure out what the fuck was happening inside of my body.

That was when, of course…

Something clicked into place.

And my body became ablaze with a white conflagration of fire that wasn’t hot, though it burned me all the same.

Distantly, I could hear Cassie scream - not in pain, but in fear.

However, I couldn’t move. Could hardly think. Whatever was going on, it was cleansing me. Purging things from my mind, body, and soul that held me back from reaching my full potential. Taking what was originally this weird amalgamation of mundane human, magic, and elf… and turning it into something more. 

Something divine.

The scent of burning offal filled the air, and I still couldn’t move.

So, instead, I delved deeper into myself, strengthened my resolve…

And waited.
____________________________________

Perks Accepted:

[Similar Principles (Lyrical Nanoha) - 400 CP]: It’s strange how similar concepts can be between dimensions, no? The line between magic and technology just doesn’t seem as thin as it otherwise should be, especially in your hands. 

The TSAB system combines both, and while this doesn’t let you start building Devices from the ground up, you understand the principle enough that you can combine magic systems from other worlds with technology. Guns that fire beams of mana, helmets that create a telepathy-based chat network, wristbands that let you form an outfit from thin air...spells can be made into technology much more easily, and the technologies play a bit more nicely with magic in your hands, even if 6 a particular system of magic isn’t fond of being ‘simplified’ by science. 

How about that?

[Divinity (Dark Souls: War of the Ancients) - Free]: It was the light of Flame that drew those hollow beings in, giving them the opportunity to become something great enough to challenge the everlasting. Your soul was bound to light, marking you as one of the gods who follow the Great Lord Gwyn. 

Not only is your form as captivating as light itself is, rarely muddied or marred, but your mind has been illuminated, allowing you to learn and master whatever skill you desire faster than most.

600 CP remaining.

A/N:

So, here we are. Amy is retrieved, Cassie got a lucky ass roll of the die, and then Jason becomes... a God?

Some measure of a God?

I don't think it's true Godhood, the way that you'd expect Zeus or Poseidon to be Gods. I'm not familiar with Dark Souls, but I feel like this is moreso giving Jason a spark of divinity that makes him look, at this point, damn near ethereal and makes learning things even more easier - which will kick in a lot more once he leaves Earth Bet and learns different techniques and magics. Even now, on Earth Bet, it's going to pay in dividends alongside Infinite Potential when it comes to mastering TES magic.

Anyways, how do you guys feel about Cassie's path?! When I rolled that perk my first instinct was to decline it, but then, like Jason, I paused and thought to myself... even though he's not a techy person, and has no interest in technology, Cassie can use the fuck outta this. So I kept it, and Jason passed it onto her. I'm super fucking excited to explore both her and Amy's magical journey, and see what all she can accomplish with magitech.

Her Code/MagiLink is going to be awesome once she works on it.

Happy 4th of July you dirty animals! Let me know how you feel and what you're looking forward to next.