Chapter 213: 213
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Like senseless lambs wading through tall grass by a cliff's edge, they fussed over him while he was on the verge of turning into a nuclear bomb. He managed to somehow communicate his 'too much everything' state and Cray volunteered to take some of whatever that 'everything' was. The archer had did so out of concern but Hunter and Cole had a friendly yet opportunistic gleam in their eyes.
It didn't matter why. As Cray opened the spiritual channel between them, Hunter sent out a feeble thread of intent and Cole lined up his heart point with Orison the way Hunter suggested; an outpouring of excess flowed to its destination of greatest attraction. In the momentary laps of pressure, the young mage looked inward to see what was going where.
Following the physical and spiritual pattern already established, the young mage saw his past physical progression take shape but without the influence of conflicting spiritual bloodlines. Within the space, as his slightly clearer memory recalled from times before, soul and void expanded as it matured, taking in the materials available to do so. Despite the overwhelming rush of growth that should have obliterated him many times over, the budding growth of delicate latticework unfurled and spread out, sipping up what was usable to him. With pure sources and friends acting as flood irrigation, it had no dangers to face as it completed it complex routes of connection.
Dense spiritual essence pushed against the mysterious hollow point of his soul ring, piercing through and establishing connection with the stormy borders of creation. The sudden influx of potent chaotic creation far from added to the burden. His space began expanding at snails pace, the outer edges blurring and filling with alien geometries. A second, calm layer sprang into existence. Like a volcano, it erupted under the spilling of formed material unsuitable for the first layer's building maelstrom, out into the infinite nothing.
From that point, an opposite scenario occurred for a few eternal seconds. He desperately fought to keep the 'nothing' from pulling him inside out as some natural osmotic law tried to move all the 'somethings' to diffuse into the unfathomable void. With frantic effort, he encouraged the emerging maelstrom of the first layer to spin and roil, to produce the funneling counter force required to keep everything in.
No sooner did the young mage think the danger had passed, the triangular object burst. Most of the objects within it were instantly destroyed by the violent expulsion before the surviving things were pulled to the second layer. It wasn't a total loss, however. Unlike the original space that absorbed the nebulous concepts of what it consumed while giving little to its host, the new space was a natural extension of himself. He wasn't strong enough to absorb whatever the nebulous concepts were that felt much like the 'colors' produced by the key but they were there waiting for when he could, subdued and laid dormant.
He wanted to explore that further but a box on the second layer disintegrated, revealing a collection of mini trainers that looked much more complex and fragile. He blanked as they activated all at once, intimately connected with the newborn portion of his spiritual self. Working on nearly instinct alone, he shunted the overwhelming influx of knowledge and experiences contained within to where it seemed naturally fit to send them.
There was no choice but to let most of it go. Despite four minds and souls to take it in, they were simply unable to bear more than a fraction apiece. There was one good thing to come of that, however. Hidden within was some kind of compulsion, a mental and spiritual conditioning to dedicate one's existence to the First Family. It was the very first thing to be discarded along with reliance on crystal sparks and the operating systems that ran them.
Despite sharing between a group and the rapidly dwindling golden essence maintaining wholesome existence, all of their lives were in danger. Whether spiritual rupture, seizures and brain hemorrhages or a plethora of other complications, there just wasn't enough time to adjust. Clutching around him in desperation, Orison's hand found a bottle of Long A** Night and forced some down everyone's throats. Again and again he did so until the four bottles he had were gone.
Fighting against the sleep such a thing should provide, he kept blindly reaching and pouring until darkness claimed him. Even within the deep trance sleep, soul and spiritual consciousness kept executing orders like zombie soldiers, knowing nothing of the joys and pleasures brought by temporary oblivion. Utterly taxed to the limit and beyond, from scalp to soul core, it was unsurprising that he was the last one to recover to full conscious wakefulness.
That didn't mean there weren't other, less sensible, waking moments. Figments ran through his groggy mind and provided clarity by a relentlessly eidetic spiritual memory. He could somewhat control that but saw no reason to run from the surprisingly mild aversion to what he recalled.
He remembered the childlike revelry with his companions, admiring their improved features and glorious 'youthful maturity' while their logical minds were on downtime. He remembered breaking out more to drink but thankfully only the 'super' vodka. He remembered taking out the 'glasses cases' lined with black marbles in his calm space and slurring out 'warranty!'
Mutual shock at coming face to face with Lily again stood out vividly. Still hopped up on essence and drunken revelry, he hugged her and expressed from the bottom of his heart how happy he was to see her well, completely uncaring about his or anyone else's state of exposure. If a little subdued, she returned those sentiments and felt relieved at seeing so many of the accursed faulty TSSRR suits in one place.
Things became fuzzy for awhile after that but he remembered how she spilled her woes over her father's mistakes and the deep 'karma' debt she had taken upon herself with 'The Company'. He remembered putting 'the kids' to bed. And Cray, who had hit a second wind, joined him and Lily in further indulgent revelries.
A haze of frizzy red hair, the scent of sweet incense mingling with a faint one of smokehouse wood and other, earthier fragrances stimulated his senses. Soft skin and rough hands led to momentary awkward confusion, a little pain and a lot of pleasure. In the moment and under the influence, there was little hesitation, only surprises and new experiences.
In a clearer moment before exhaustion claimed him once more, Cray fallen out far before, Lily had cried. When he asked what was wrong, fearing that she was ashamed or regretful, he had been proven right but not for the reasons he had thought. Despite her appearance, she really had been quite old, approaching the end of the maximum life span allowed for her kind by reality. Orison and the half asleep Cray dismissed her shame but shared her regret.
With her debt of karma cleared enough to allow it, she planned on returning home to rebirth as phoenixes do, even those with other fiery bloodlines. She didn't know if she would remember him but she imprinted his, and to mixed feelings, Cray's spiritual signatures. With the message of promises to return to their side, no matter her form or theirs, no matter how long it may be, she roused them both and staked an emotional claim.
Shaking the cobwebs loose, Orison went to the bathroom to clean up and walked in on Cole and Hunter taking matters into their own hands while watching a tablet-like screen showing material he never thought to see in what he believed was a medieval fantasy world. All parties startled and apologetic, Hunter quickly explained that the 'viewer' was a gift from Lily to 'keep two healthy young men from going strange with no one else around to court'.
Orison sighed and said, "Well, it might be from magic brews and trainer granted memories but you two should theoretically be emotionally and physically mature enough to make such decisions for yourselves. If you ask me though, the two of you are plenty strange already. Maybe not in the way she meant but..."
In a sudden intense bout of defensiveness that rivaled his father, despite bearing an uncanny resemblance to Devon, Hunter said, "Oh, and what you were about yesterday was normal!? Don't you dare-"
Orison smiled and raised his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa. I tease as a friend. I'm not making accusations. Besides, I'm not human. Not anymore, at least."
Warily, Cole said, "What ARE you, anyway?"
Hunter added, calming down but still agitated, "Yeah, if anyone around here is 'strange', it's you."
The young mage said, "I'm an outsider of the alien outer realm kind, kid tested and mother approved to be in structured reality. Compared to my wild cousins, I'm about as vanilla as it gets."
The budding wizard said, "How does that work? A couple weeks ago, you were just a mysterious human warlock named Al."
In utter confusion, the young feline man said, "What in Osomo is the alien outer realm?"
Orison chuckled and said, "Have Hunter explain Lovecraft mythos to you... Even before I became what I am now, my soul had a lot of mileage for as bland and unenlightened as it was. That aside, I played host to another soul that I voluntarily allowed to eat me away. I passively participated in absorbing larval outer god essence. I also rode around with the other soul, eating dead baby Great Old One and 'mad god' variety Old One flesh.
"Add to that, I pretty much exploded the core of my being to push my guest back into structured reality, a story that makes even less sense the more I explain. The finisher is that I briefly merged with a reincarnation of my one time spiritual hitchhiker that had a special type of soul mine is now modeled after. Probably still as clear as mud to you and, I assure you, me both."
Hunter looked Orison over appraisingly and said, "You look human to me. Can you sprout tentacles or something?"
The young mage suppressed a sigh and said, "I'm going to demonstrate once and only once, since there's only two emergency fixes for what I'm about to do if I can't fix it myself... Cole, when I go fuzzy edged, touch me... with your left hand, if you don't mind. Unfortunately, the image of where the right one's been is acid etched into my brain."
He closed his eyes and focused on letting go of his physical pattern after making sure it was memorized. It didn't feel pleasant and it all but wiped out his magic reserves in one shot but he managed to do it without damaging anything. Focusing back outward, he saw a spirit sight version of Hunter and Cole look at each other before they both madly scrambled to touch him first.
It was no contest. Cat-like speed and reflexes wasn't just a metaphor for Cole. The feline young man easily was the first to reach Orison and he even managed to remember using the 'sinless' hand to do it. The young mage wasn't fond of the placement of that hand on the suddenly top heavy feature he possessed and had to narrow his eyes in warning to get Cole to remove it.
In curiosity, he looked into the mirror and had to admit that Cole had some nice, if slightly exotic, taste. Shockingly white hair on caramel skin. She was a cold beauty painted in warm colors by nature's brush. The only thing recognizable was the eyes. It seemed that no matter what form he wore, they would always remain the heterochromatic blue/green that looked like Caribbean water from a short or further distance away.
In the mirror, Orison caught Cole staring at another prominent feature behind him as the feline young man swallowed loudly in the silence and said, "How long are you going to be like this?"
Orison shrugged and grabbed a large towel off the rack. "I have to wait for my magic to refill and my instinct to say it's safe. Longer than a couple of days and I'm going to use something else. It's only been a couple of minutes and I can already tell that Sammy made the right call luring the girls away. Especially since they had tag along men of their own already.
"I'd like to believe that we're all nice and respectable people but it's best not to push temptation right under someone's nose for a few deprived months. People can have weak moments. And after you cross some lines, it becomes all too easy to cross them a second time. People rarely become monsters overnight. It's a gradual slide of compromises with the darkness inside that can take a long time."
As Orison went to check up on Cray who was outside, Cole said behind him in a dry voice, "Could you maybe-"
"Nope. Don't p*ss me off by finishing that or any other requests related to my little experiment in the usefulness and limitations of my new existence," he said without stopping.
Seeing Hunter's cool but curious expression that was almost identical to his own when he looked in the mirror, Orison wondered what he would have looked like if he had chosen the budding wizard instead. For a moment, he received a dim flash of himself mostly needing to accept default appearance to finish transforming. Apparently the poor guy didn't know what he wanted, had a completely different way of perceiving desire or wanted so many different things that it was open to personal interpretation.
For a split second, the shadowy outline of a light eating, reality cutout key wavered in his vision. It was weak and unstable but made its appearance so that its owner was aware of it. Picking up on his curiosity, it showed him a brief flash of Cray's version as well before going dormant inside of him, worn out. The revelation made him feel embarrassed and would have likely made Lily mad should she know.
He thought, "The 'What might have been' key. No, Entanglement Key. It works off a quantum field theory idea. When its stronger, its going to be capable of some real interesting things I think."
Brain cells firing a little differently in his new temporary form, he suddenly remembered something. "Hunter, after I'm done catching up with Cray, we need to have a powwow. Lets help each other fill in the blanks."
As if someone had given him a Christmas present, the budding wizard agreed eagerly. Misinterpreting that eagerness, Cole gave Hunter a small flash of irritated jealousy before it quickly disappeared. Orison was more convinced than ever in Sammy's call.
Stepping onto the front porch, Orison saw Cray sifting through the wheelbarrow full of junk with cracked gems and broken enchantments on them. The blank look on the archer's face spoke of complex thoughts that were outside of things he was able to easily process. When the man looked up, he was stunned.
"Orison? When did- How did... Who touched you?" Cray said, visibly trying to stuff the confusion and a touch of illogical anger away.
The young mage explained his experiment.
Displaying a little of his own jealousy, Cray said, "Should of let me do it."
Orison sighed. "There's only one large bed and two bunks. Cole is a light sleeper and Hunter's curiosity isn't constrained to just academics. Don't you think it would be a little mean spirited to take the form of your... preferences and then have you share sleeping arraignments with it, knowing full well nothing's going to happen because I don't WANT anything to happen."
The archer, having difficulties with nature and instinct's insistence to ogle Orison's towel wrapped assets, looked towards the burrow's entrance and said, "Guess we got plenty of time to pull all the knots out of things. But you gotta admit, if you stayed as a gilly, it would make problems a lot easier."
The young mage laughed angrily before he pushed it back down and said, "Easier for you. I happen to like being a man and like the things men typically like. I'm a lot more open minded on some things but that's not one of them. Besides, if you're thinking you can throw that at me because I have a choice, I can introduce you to a small bottle that'll let YOU choose to be a woman since you think it's a tidy solution. How does that sound?"
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Like senseless lambs wading through tall grass by a cliff's edge, they fussed over him while he was on the verge of turning into a nuclear bomb. He managed to somehow communicate his 'too much everything' state and Cray volunteered to take some of whatever that 'everything' was. The archer had did so out of concern but Hunter and Cole had a friendly yet opportunistic gleam in their eyes.
It didn't matter why. As Cray opened the spiritual channel between them, Hunter sent out a feeble thread of intent and Cole lined up his heart point with Orison the way Hunter suggested; an outpouring of excess flowed to its destination of greatest attraction. In the momentary laps of pressure, the young mage looked inward to see what was going where.
Following the physical and spiritual pattern already established, the young mage saw his past physical progression take shape but without the influence of conflicting spiritual bloodlines. Within the space, as his slightly clearer memory recalled from times before, soul and void expanded as it matured, taking in the materials available to do so. Despite the overwhelming rush of growth that should have obliterated him many times over, the budding growth of delicate latticework unfurled and spread out, sipping up what was usable to him. With pure sources and friends acting as flood irrigation, it had no dangers to face as it completed it complex routes of connection.
Dense spiritual essence pushed against the mysterious hollow point of his soul ring, piercing through and establishing connection with the stormy borders of creation. The sudden influx of potent chaotic creation far from added to the burden. His space began expanding at snails pace, the outer edges blurring and filling with alien geometries. A second, calm layer sprang into existence. Like a volcano, it erupted under the spilling of formed material unsuitable for the first layer's building maelstrom, out into the infinite nothing.
From that point, an opposite scenario occurred for a few eternal seconds. He desperately fought to keep the 'nothing' from pulling him inside out as some natural osmotic law tried to move all the 'somethings' to diffuse into the unfathomable void. With frantic effort, he encouraged the emerging maelstrom of the first layer to spin and roil, to produce the funneling counter force required to keep everything in.
No sooner did the young mage think the danger had passed, the triangular object burst. Most of the objects within it were instantly destroyed by the violent expulsion before the surviving things were pulled to the second layer. It wasn't a total loss, however. Unlike the original space that absorbed the nebulous concepts of what it consumed while giving little to its host, the new space was a natural extension of himself. He wasn't strong enough to absorb whatever the nebulous concepts were that felt much like the 'colors' produced by the key but they were there waiting for when he could, subdued and laid dormant.
He wanted to explore that further but a box on the second layer disintegrated, revealing a collection of mini trainers that looked much more complex and fragile. He blanked as they activated all at once, intimately connected with the newborn portion of his spiritual self. Working on nearly instinct alone, he shunted the overwhelming influx of knowledge and experiences contained within to where it seemed naturally fit to send them.
There was no choice but to let most of it go. Despite four minds and souls to take it in, they were simply unable to bear more than a fraction apiece. There was one good thing to come of that, however. Hidden within was some kind of compulsion, a mental and spiritual conditioning to dedicate one's existence to the First Family. It was the very first thing to be discarded along with reliance on crystal sparks and the operating systems that ran them.
Despite sharing between a group and the rapidly dwindling golden essence maintaining wholesome existence, all of their lives were in danger. Whether spiritual rupture, seizures and brain hemorrhages or a plethora of other complications, there just wasn't enough time to adjust. Clutching around him in desperation, Orison's hand found a bottle of Long A** Night and forced some down everyone's throats. Again and again he did so until the four bottles he had were gone.
Fighting against the sleep such a thing should provide, he kept blindly reaching and pouring until darkness claimed him. Even within the deep trance sleep, soul and spiritual consciousness kept executing orders like zombie soldiers, knowing nothing of the joys and pleasures brought by temporary oblivion. Utterly taxed to the limit and beyond, from scalp to soul core, it was unsurprising that he was the last one to recover to full conscious wakefulness.
That didn't mean there weren't other, less sensible, waking moments. Figments ran through his groggy mind and provided clarity by a relentlessly eidetic spiritual memory. He could somewhat control that but saw no reason to run from the surprisingly mild aversion to what he recalled.
He remembered the childlike revelry with his companions, admiring their improved features and glorious 'youthful maturity' while their logical minds were on downtime. He remembered breaking out more to drink but thankfully only the 'super' vodka. He remembered taking out the 'glasses cases' lined with black marbles in his calm space and slurring out 'warranty!'
Mutual shock at coming face to face with Lily again stood out vividly. Still hopped up on essence and drunken revelry, he hugged her and expressed from the bottom of his heart how happy he was to see her well, completely uncaring about his or anyone else's state of exposure. If a little subdued, she returned those sentiments and felt relieved at seeing so many of the accursed faulty TSSRR suits in one place.
Things became fuzzy for awhile after that but he remembered how she spilled her woes over her father's mistakes and the deep 'karma' debt she had taken upon herself with 'The Company'. He remembered putting 'the kids' to bed. And Cray, who had hit a second wind, joined him and Lily in further indulgent revelries.
A haze of frizzy red hair, the scent of sweet incense mingling with a faint one of smokehouse wood and other, earthier fragrances stimulated his senses. Soft skin and rough hands led to momentary awkward confusion, a little pain and a lot of pleasure. In the moment and under the influence, there was little hesitation, only surprises and new experiences.
In a clearer moment before exhaustion claimed him once more, Cray fallen out far before, Lily had cried. When he asked what was wrong, fearing that she was ashamed or regretful, he had been proven right but not for the reasons he had thought. Despite her appearance, she really had been quite old, approaching the end of the maximum life span allowed for her kind by reality. Orison and the half asleep Cray dismissed her shame but shared her regret.
With her debt of karma cleared enough to allow it, she planned on returning home to rebirth as phoenixes do, even those with other fiery bloodlines. She didn't know if she would remember him but she imprinted his, and to mixed feelings, Cray's spiritual signatures. With the message of promises to return to their side, no matter her form or theirs, no matter how long it may be, she roused them both and staked an emotional claim.
Shaking the cobwebs loose, Orison went to the bathroom to clean up and walked in on Cole and Hunter taking matters into their own hands while watching a tablet-like screen showing material he never thought to see in what he believed was a medieval fantasy world. All parties startled and apologetic, Hunter quickly explained that the 'viewer' was a gift from Lily to 'keep two healthy young men from going strange with no one else around to court'.
Orison sighed and said, "Well, it might be from magic brews and trainer granted memories but you two should theoretically be emotionally and physically mature enough to make such decisions for yourselves. If you ask me though, the two of you are plenty strange already. Maybe not in the way she meant but..."
In a sudden intense bout of defensiveness that rivaled his father, despite bearing an uncanny resemblance to Devon, Hunter said, "Oh, and what you were about yesterday was normal!? Don't you dare-"
Orison smiled and raised his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa. I tease as a friend. I'm not making accusations. Besides, I'm not human. Not anymore, at least."
Warily, Cole said, "What ARE you, anyway?"
Hunter added, calming down but still agitated, "Yeah, if anyone around here is 'strange', it's you."
The young mage said, "I'm an outsider of the alien outer realm kind, kid tested and mother approved to be in structured reality. Compared to my wild cousins, I'm about as vanilla as it gets."
The budding wizard said, "How does that work? A couple weeks ago, you were just a mysterious human warlock named Al."
In utter confusion, the young feline man said, "What in Osomo is the alien outer realm?"
Orison chuckled and said, "Have Hunter explain Lovecraft mythos to you... Even before I became what I am now, my soul had a lot of mileage for as bland and unenlightened as it was. That aside, I played host to another soul that I voluntarily allowed to eat me away. I passively participated in absorbing larval outer god essence. I also rode around with the other soul, eating dead baby Great Old One and 'mad god' variety Old One flesh.
"Add to that, I pretty much exploded the core of my being to push my guest back into structured reality, a story that makes even less sense the more I explain. The finisher is that I briefly merged with a reincarnation of my one time spiritual hitchhiker that had a special type of soul mine is now modeled after. Probably still as clear as mud to you and, I assure you, me both."
Hunter looked Orison over appraisingly and said, "You look human to me. Can you sprout tentacles or something?"
The young mage suppressed a sigh and said, "I'm going to demonstrate once and only once, since there's only two emergency fixes for what I'm about to do if I can't fix it myself... Cole, when I go fuzzy edged, touch me... with your left hand, if you don't mind. Unfortunately, the image of where the right one's been is acid etched into my brain."
He closed his eyes and focused on letting go of his physical pattern after making sure it was memorized. It didn't feel pleasant and it all but wiped out his magic reserves in one shot but he managed to do it without damaging anything. Focusing back outward, he saw a spirit sight version of Hunter and Cole look at each other before they both madly scrambled to touch him first.
It was no contest. Cat-like speed and reflexes wasn't just a metaphor for Cole. The feline young man easily was the first to reach Orison and he even managed to remember using the 'sinless' hand to do it. The young mage wasn't fond of the placement of that hand on the suddenly top heavy feature he possessed and had to narrow his eyes in warning to get Cole to remove it.
In curiosity, he looked into the mirror and had to admit that Cole had some nice, if slightly exotic, taste. Shockingly white hair on caramel skin. She was a cold beauty painted in warm colors by nature's brush. The only thing recognizable was the eyes. It seemed that no matter what form he wore, they would always remain the heterochromatic blue/green that looked like Caribbean water from a short or further distance away.
In the mirror, Orison caught Cole staring at another prominent feature behind him as the feline young man swallowed loudly in the silence and said, "How long are you going to be like this?"
Orison shrugged and grabbed a large towel off the rack. "I have to wait for my magic to refill and my instinct to say it's safe. Longer than a couple of days and I'm going to use something else. It's only been a couple of minutes and I can already tell that Sammy made the right call luring the girls away. Especially since they had tag along men of their own already.
"I'd like to believe that we're all nice and respectable people but it's best not to push temptation right under someone's nose for a few deprived months. People can have weak moments. And after you cross some lines, it becomes all too easy to cross them a second time. People rarely become monsters overnight. It's a gradual slide of compromises with the darkness inside that can take a long time."
As Orison went to check up on Cray who was outside, Cole said behind him in a dry voice, "Could you maybe-"
"Nope. Don't p*ss me off by finishing that or any other requests related to my little experiment in the usefulness and limitations of my new existence," he said without stopping.
Seeing Hunter's cool but curious expression that was almost identical to his own when he looked in the mirror, Orison wondered what he would have looked like if he had chosen the budding wizard instead. For a moment, he received a dim flash of himself mostly needing to accept default appearance to finish transforming. Apparently the poor guy didn't know what he wanted, had a completely different way of perceiving desire or wanted so many different things that it was open to personal interpretation.
For a split second, the shadowy outline of a light eating, reality cutout key wavered in his vision. It was weak and unstable but made its appearance so that its owner was aware of it. Picking up on his curiosity, it showed him a brief flash of Cray's version as well before going dormant inside of him, worn out. The revelation made him feel embarrassed and would have likely made Lily mad should she know.
He thought, "The 'What might have been' key. No, Entanglement Key. It works off a quantum field theory idea. When its stronger, its going to be capable of some real interesting things I think."
Brain cells firing a little differently in his new temporary form, he suddenly remembered something. "Hunter, after I'm done catching up with Cray, we need to have a powwow. Lets help each other fill in the blanks."
As if someone had given him a Christmas present, the budding wizard agreed eagerly. Misinterpreting that eagerness, Cole gave Hunter a small flash of irritated jealousy before it quickly disappeared. Orison was more convinced than ever in Sammy's call.
Stepping onto the front porch, Orison saw Cray sifting through the wheelbarrow full of junk with cracked gems and broken enchantments on them. The blank look on the archer's face spoke of complex thoughts that were outside of things he was able to easily process. When the man looked up, he was stunned.
"Orison? When did- How did... Who touched you?" Cray said, visibly trying to stuff the confusion and a touch of illogical anger away.
The young mage explained his experiment.
Displaying a little of his own jealousy, Cray said, "Should of let me do it."
Orison sighed. "There's only one large bed and two bunks. Cole is a light sleeper and Hunter's curiosity isn't constrained to just academics. Don't you think it would be a little mean spirited to take the form of your... preferences and then have you share sleeping arraignments with it, knowing full well nothing's going to happen because I don't WANT anything to happen."
The archer, having difficulties with nature and instinct's insistence to ogle Orison's towel wrapped assets, looked towards the burrow's entrance and said, "Guess we got plenty of time to pull all the knots out of things. But you gotta admit, if you stayed as a gilly, it would make problems a lot easier."
The young mage laughed angrily before he pushed it back down and said, "Easier for you. I happen to like being a man and like the things men typically like. I'm a lot more open minded on some things but that's not one of them. Besides, if you're thinking you can throw that at me because I have a choice, I can introduce you to a small bottle that'll let YOU choose to be a woman since you think it's a tidy solution. How does that sound?"
Like senseless lambs wading through tall grass by a cliff's edge, they fussed over him while he was on the verge of turning into a nuclear bomb. He managed to somehow communicate his 'too much everything' state and Cray volunteered to take some of whatever that 'everything' was. The archer had did so out of concern but Hunter and Cole had a friendly yet opportunistic gleam in their eyes. It didn't matter why. As Cray opened the spiritual channel between them, Hunter sent out a feeble thread of intent and Cole lined up his heart point with Orison the way Hunter suggested; an outpouring of excess flowed to its destination of greatest attraction. In the momentary laps of pressure, the young mage looked inward to see what was going where. Following the physical and spiritual pattern already established, the young mage saw his past physical progression take shape but without the influence of conflicting spiritual bloodlines. Within the space, as his slightly clearer memory recalled from times before, soul and void expanded as it matured, taking in the materials available to do so. Despite the overwhelming rush of growth that should have obliterated him many times over, the budding growth of delicate latticework unfurled and spread out, sipping up what was usable to him. With pure sources and friends acting as flood irrigation, it had no dangers to face as it completed it complex routes of connection. Dense spiritual essence pushed against the mysterious hollow point of his soul ring, piercing through and establishing connection with the stormy borders of creation. The sudden influx of potent chaotic creation far from added to the burden. His space began expanding at snails pace, the outer edges blurring and filling with alien geometries. A second, calm layer sprang into existence. Like a volcano, it erupted under the spilling of formed material unsuitable for the first layer's building maelstrom, out into the infinite nothing. From that point, an opposite scenario occurred for a few eternal seconds. He desperately fought to keep the 'nothing' from pulling him inside out as some natural osmotic law tried to move all the 'somethings' to diffuse into the unfathomable void. With frantic effort, he encouraged the emerging maelstrom of the first layer to spin and roil, to produce the funneling counter force required to keep everything in. No sooner did the young mage think the danger had passed, the triangular object burst. Most of the objects within it were instantly destroyed by the violent expulsion before the surviving things were pulled to the second layer. It wasn't a total loss, however. Unlike the original space that absorbed the nebulous concepts of what it consumed while giving little to its host, the new space was a natural extension of himself. He wasn't strong enough to absorb whatever the nebulous concepts were that felt much like the 'colors' produced by the key but they were there waiting for when he could, subdued and laid dormant. He wanted to explore that further but a box on the second layer disintegrated, revealing a collection of mini trainers that looked much more complex and fragile. He blanked as they activated all at once, intimately connected with the newborn portion of his spiritual self. Working on nearly instinct alone, he shunted the overwhelming influx of knowledge and experiences contained within to where it seemed naturally fit to send them. There was no choice but to let most of it go. Despite four minds and souls to take it in, they were simply unable to bear more than a fraction apiece. There was one good thing to come of that, however. Hidden within was some kind of compulsion, a mental and spiritual conditioning to dedicate one's existence to the First Family. It was the very first thing to be discarded along with reliance on crystal sparks and the operating systems that ran them. Despite sharing between a group and the rapidly dwindling golden essence maintaining wholesome existence, all of their lives were in danger. Whether spiritual rupture, seizures and brain hemorrhages or a plethora of other complications, there just wasn't enough time to adjust. Clutching around him in desperation, Orison's hand found a bottle of Long A** Night and forced some down everyone's throats. Again and again he did so until the four bottles he had were gone. Fighting against the sleep such a thing should provide, he kept blindly reaching and pouring until darkness claimed him. Even within the deep trance sleep, soul and spiritual consciousness kept executing orders like zombie soldiers, knowing nothing of the joys and pleasures brought by temporary oblivion. Utterly taxed to the limit and beyond, from scalp to soul core, it was unsurprising that he was the last one to recover to full conscious wakefulness. That didn't mean there weren't other, less sensible, waking moments. Figments ran through his groggy mind and provided clarity by a relentlessly eidetic spiritual memory. He could somewhat control that but saw no reason to run from the surprisingly mild aversion to what he recalled. He remembered the childlike revelry with his companions, admiring their improved features and glorious 'youthful maturity' while their logical minds were on downtime. He remembered breaking out more to drink but thankfully only the 'super' vodka. He remembered taking out the 'glasses cases' lined with black marbles in his calm space and slurring out 'warranty!' Mutual shock at coming face to face with Lily again stood out vividly. Still hopped up on essence and drunken revelry, he hugged her and expressed from the bottom of his heart how happy he was to see her well, completely uncaring about his or anyone else's state of exposure. If a little subdued, she returned those sentiments and felt relieved at seeing so many of the accursed faulty TSSRR suits in one place. Things became fuzzy for awhile after that but he remembered how she spilled her woes over her father's mistakes and the deep 'karma' debt she had taken upon herself with 'The Company'. He remembered putting 'the kids' to bed. And Cray, who had hit a second wind, joined him and Lily in further indulgent revelries. A haze of frizzy red hair, the scent of sweet incense mingling with a faint one of smokehouse wood and other, earthier fragrances stimulated his senses. Soft skin and rough hands led to momentary awkward confusion, a little pain and a lot of pleasure. In the moment and under the influence, there was little hesitation, only surprises and new experiences. In a clearer moment before exhaustion claimed him once more, Cray fallen out far before, Lily had cried. When he asked what was wrong, fearing that she was ashamed or regretful, he had been proven right but not for the reasons he had thought. Despite her appearance, she really had been quite old, approaching the end of the maximum life span allowed for her kind by reality. Orison and the half asleep Cray dismissed her shame but shared her regret. With her debt of karma cleared enough to allow it, she planned on returning home to rebirth as phoenixes do, even those with other fiery bloodlines. She didn't know if she would remember him but she imprinted his, and to mixed feelings, Cray's spiritual signatures. With the message of promises to return to their side, no matter her form or theirs, no matter how long it may be, she roused them both and staked an emotional claim. Shaking the cobwebs loose, Orison went to the bathroom to clean up and walked in on Cole and Hunter taking matters into their own hands while watching a tablet-like screen showing material he never thought to see in what he believed was a medieval fantasy world. All parties startled and apologetic, Hunter quickly explained that the 'viewer' was a gift from Lily to 'keep two healthy young men from going strange with no one else around to court'. Orison sighed and said, "Well, it might be from magic brews and trainer granted memories but you two should theoretically be emotionally and physically mature enough to make such decisions for yourselves. If you ask me though, the two of you are plenty strange already. Maybe not in the way she meant but..." In a sudden intense bout of defensiveness that rivaled his father, despite bearing an uncanny resemblance to Devon, Hunter said, "Oh, and what you were about yesterday was normal!? Don't you dare-" Orison smiled and raised his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa. I tease as a friend. I'm not making accusations. Besides, I'm not human. Not anymore, at least." Warily, Cole said, "What ARE you, anyway?" Hunter added, calming down but still agitated, "Yeah, if anyone around here is 'strange', it's you." The young mage said, "I'm an outsider of the alien outer realm kind, kid tested and mother approved to be in structured reality. Compared to my wild cousins, I'm about as vanilla as it gets." The budding wizard said, "How does that work? A couple weeks ago, you were just a mysterious human warlock named Al." In utter confusion, the young feline man said, "What in Osomo is the alien outer realm?" Orison chuckled and said, "Have Hunter explain Lovecraft mythos to you... Even before I became what I am now, my soul had a lot of mileage for as bland and unenlightened as it was. That aside, I played host to another soul that I voluntarily allowed to eat me away. I passively participated in absorbing larval outer god essence. I also rode around with the other soul, eating dead baby Great Old One and 'mad god' variety Old One flesh. "Add to that, I pretty much exploded the core of my being to push my guest back into structured reality, a story that makes even less sense the more I explain. The finisher is that I briefly merged with a reincarnation of my one time spiritual hitchhiker that had a special type of soul mine is now modeled after. Probably still as clear as mud to you and, I assure you, me both." Hunter looked Orison over appraisingly and said, "You look human to me. Can you sprout tentacles or something?" The young mage suppressed a sigh and said, "I'm going to demonstrate once and only once, since there's only two emergency fixes for what I'm about to do if I can't fix it myself... Cole, when I go fuzzy edged, touch me... with your left hand, if you don't mind. Unfortunately, the image of where the right one's been is acid etched into my brain." He closed his eyes and focused on letting go of his physical pattern after making sure it was memorized. It didn't feel pleasant and it all but wiped out his magic reserves in one shot but he managed to do it without damaging anything. Focusing back outward, he saw a spirit sight version of Hunter and Cole look at each other before they both madly scrambled to touch him first. It was no contest. Cat-like speed and reflexes wasn't just a metaphor for Cole. The feline young man easily was the first to reach Orison and he even managed to remember using the 'sinless' hand to do it. The young mage wasn't fond of the placement of that hand on the suddenly top heavy feature he possessed and had to narrow his eyes in warning to get Cole to remove it. In curiosity, he looked into the mirror and had to admit that Cole had some nice, if slightly exotic, taste. Shockingly white hair on caramel skin. She was a cold beauty painted in warm colors by nature's brush. The only thing recognizable was the eyes. It seemed that no matter what form he wore, they would always remain the heterochromatic blue/green that looked like Caribbean water from a short or further distance away. In the mirror, Orison caught Cole staring at another prominent feature behind him as the feline young man swallowed loudly in the silence and said, "How long are you going to be like this?" Orison shrugged and grabbed a large towel off the rack. "I have to wait for my magic to refill and my instinct to say it's safe. Longer than a couple of days and I'm going to use something else. It's only been a couple of minutes and I can already tell that Sammy made the right call luring the girls away. Especially since they had tag along men of their own already. "I'd like to believe that we're all nice and respectable people but it's best not to push temptation right under someone's nose for a few deprived months. People can have weak moments. And after you cross some lines, it becomes all too easy to cross them a second time. People rarely become monsters overnight. It's a gradual slide of compromises with the darkness inside that can take a long time." As Orison went to check up on Cray who was outside, Cole said behind him in a dry voice, "Could you maybe-" "Nope. Don't p*ss me off by finishing that or any other requests related to my little experiment in the usefulness and limitations of my new existence," he said without stopping. Seeing Hunter's cool but curious expression that was almost identical to his own when he looked in the mirror, Orison wondered what he would have looked like if he had chosen the budding wizard instead. For a moment, he received a dim flash of himself mostly needing to accept default appearance to finish transforming. Apparently the poor guy didn't know what he wanted, had a completely different way of perceiving desire or wanted so many different things that it was open to personal interpretation. For a split second, the shadowy outline of a light eating, reality cutout key wavered in his vision. It was weak and unstable but made its appearance so that its owner was aware of it. Picking up on his curiosity, it showed him a brief flash of Cray's version as well before going dormant inside of him, worn out. The revelation made him feel embarrassed and would have likely made Lily mad should she know. He thought, "The 'What might have been' key. No, Entanglement Key. It works off a quantum field theory idea. When its stronger, its going to be capable of some real interesting things I think." Brain cells firing a little differently in his new temporary form, he suddenly remembered something. "Hunter, after I'm done catching up with Cray, we need to have a powwow. Lets help each other fill in the blanks." As if someone had given him a Christmas present, the budding wizard agreed eagerly. Misinterpreting that eagerness, Cole gave Hunter a small flash of irritated jealousy before it quickly disappeared. Orison was more convinced than ever in Sammy's call. Stepping onto the front porch, Orison saw Cray sifting through the wheelbarrow full of junk with cracked gems and broken enchantments on them. The blank look on the archer's face spoke of complex thoughts that were outside of things he was able to easily process. When the man looked up, he was stunned. "Orison? When did- How did... Who touched you?" Cray said, visibly trying to stuff the confusion and a touch of illogical anger away. The young mage explained his experiment. Displaying a little of his own jealousy, Cray said, "Should of let me do it." Orison sighed. "There's only one large bed and two bunks. Cole is a light sleeper and Hunter's curiosity isn't constrained to just academics. Don't you think it would be a little mean spirited to take the form of your... preferences and then have you share sleeping arraignments with it, knowing full well nothing's going to happen because I don't WANT anything to happen." The archer, having difficulties with nature and instinct's insistence to ogle Orison's towel wrapped assets, looked towards the burrow's entrance and said, "Guess we got plenty of time to pull all the knots out of things. But you gotta admit, if you stayed as a gilly, it would make problems a lot easier." The young mage laughed angrily before he pushed it back down and said, "Easier for you. I happen to like being a man and like the things men typically like. I'm a lot more open minded on some things but that's not one of them. Besides, if you're thinking you can throw that at me because I have a choice, I can introduce you to a small bottle that'll let YOU choose to be a woman since you think it's a tidy solution. How does that sound?"
