Augmented Aspects [Steampunk], [Progression], [Gamelit]

Cross-ing The Line (Part III)

Everything was going exactly as planned.

In hindsight, that should have been the first warning that something odd was going to happen. Who knew, I mean I was already reading the threads of Karma correctly.

As expected, Jhonny was the first, getting his Mojo Dojo guild condensed down to a singular worded Dojo Guild. Not the best of names, but hey, goes to show that naming things that aren't copyrighted and are new is tougher than expected. As for the creation of a daily Thieves Guild quest to steal that Dojo Guild's sign, well that is just to ensure Jhonny and his disciples are paying attention. Besides, where would I be as the Thieves Guild leader if I didn't provide the obvious daily quest to everyone.

That was all for Jhonny, Gwen too was gone, as was Rune-Ulacrum who was busy posing as the Mage's Guild leader, Princess Octavia, which left me all alone with the one person who I was suddenly far more aware of, than I was previously.

Fluster.

Turning to face the very talented and first triple-graduate of SVC, I paused suddenly feeling a lot more tension than I had previously.

It's odd, I know this is years of repressed hormones coming to life and being allowed to finally process within my mind but it doesn't make this moment any less awkward for me. Particularly as we have been alone hundreds of times before this point. Hours of contented silence have been clocked between us as she worked diligently on an assignment I provided during class. Only for me to work on my own next project while I waited for her to come up with a question.

Hours.

Literally, hours of times before.

Yet, now that my brain can get a full spectrum of emotions, I suddenly realize just how impressive Penelope is. Which is why I this moment suddenly feels extremely awkward.

Glittery sweat.

Yes, I am suddenly nervous and I can feel mana condensing water being released by my teenage body. As if I had a long break, and suddenly get thrown into the deep end of puberty all at once.

"You okay?" Penelope asks, her voice filled with nothing but concern and suddenly I feel tense. I can't exactly say that I am waiting for karma to rear its head and give Penelope her own Guild, now can I? Well I could, but that would ruin the look of surprise and joy I want to see on her face. Also, thanks to my pixie curses, I can't exactly lie, which makes this next part even more of a potential minefield.

"Yeah, I'm great. Just teenager things, you know." I reply.

"Teenager?"

"What, I'm almost eighteen," I quip, only to correct myself, "well seventeen with a few hundred days under my belt, but close enough, if you round up."

Chuckle.

With that Penelope laughs and I feel my heart flutter a bit. This is so frustrating, as I am still not used to my body being like this. If I had grown up with these full range of emotions available I don't think this would be nearly as ridiculous right now. Still, I have to go on. I am stuck filtering through thoughts in my head, when Penelope cuts me out, after the same music cuts in for a fourth time in the distance.

Dun-dah-dunda-da-dun-da.

"What is that song?" Penelope asks, hearing the catchy rhythm but apparently unable to place where that particular song comes from. Pausing it takes me a minute for my own memory of that song to return, but when it does I answer immediately.

"Oh, it's that Beverly Hills Police Officer theme song."

"Police officer?"

"Maybe not police officer, but something like that."

Rhythmic clapping.

At that, the crowd seems to erupt as something cool apparently happened.

"Shouldn't we go out there?" Penelope asks, a note of concern filling her voice as she seems to have never been late to anything. Then again, I too want to go, if only to not miss the moment, but still something keeps telling me to stay back here to wait until karma has finished coiling its way around Penelope.

Seeing the coiling spring of karma wrap its way around Penelope I see that it isn't ready yet. As in we might need to push it along. That's when I have an idea of trying to take some of my golden karma that I have accumulated to this point and sharing it with her.

It's messy, as it will clearly bind our fates together, but it will get her the karmic bond that she so deserves. I also have some reservations about using any of my good karma right now before the regional qualifiers, but sometimes there are investments that are worth the risk, and to me Penelope is one such investment.

That is why, I begin casting with the foreign energy.

Almost like trying to forge and wield slime, I grab hold of the threads and try to push them over towards Penelope's karmic tether. Almost instantly I begin losing golden beads of karma that seem to sweat their way from my forging karmic threads the same way sweat beads down anyone after their first full use of their peloton. Still, I focus, weaving the oddly ephemeral goop, realizing that I can't just toss or fling it as I would with mana. I can't clump it into a ball the same way I would with ethereal energy, and I can't just let it flow in waves the way Qi would.

No, seeing the beads of energy forming like condensation on the outer shell of a karmic band I do something that has oddly become like second nature. I rotate, or twist the karmic strand like I would a jump rope. Instantly the centripetal force of the rotation causes the forming beads of karmic sweat to get sucked back into the karmic bands, allowing me to lasso whip the karmic string into a solid thread that is able to snap out and attach itself to Penelope's karmic threads.

Melting goo.

There is a sickening moment when my whipped karmic thread connects with the golden karmic threads that are wrapped about Penelope. For a moment I wonder if I have somehow messed up, particularly as my karmic thread seems to be melting into Penelope's, then a process that looks like reverse-mitosis occurs. In this case, the reverse-mitosis involves my karmic thread melting into and then fusing with Penelope's own karmic bands.

For a moment I feel a bit of nausea at the sight of two gelatinous blobs meeting each other and then fusing into slightly larger and slimier versions of themselves.

Flash.

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Then a second passes before my karmic thread seems to be accepted and as I sort of predicted fuses my positive karmic value to Penelope's manifesting karmic value. Again, I'm not really giving her a new karmic value, but causing her own positive karmic values to be awarded faster. The equivalent of throwing a bit of nitromethane fuel (nitro) into a combustion engine. Allowing for a more powerful burst of energy for a temporary period of time.

With that burst of nitro, the golden slime seems to flash solidify, going from a bright golden gooey color to a darker tarnished golden color. The process clearly burns away at least a portion of good, or golden, karma from me as I am still not used to forcing karmic events for others using my own karma as a catalyst. Still, it the entire process is gross, particularly as gas bubbles get pushed out of the slimy substance releasing what has to be glowing sickeningly green gas.

"Ohh, that was so pretty!" Penelope calls out.

Bleh, "what?" Is all I manage, as I am trying to avoid seeing the entire gooey process, and keep it from being burned into my retinas, or however my mind is able to convert energy forms into light. Yet, the more I try to think away the thoughts of what I just saw, the brighter the after image remains.

"What did you just do? It looked so pretty?" Penelope asks, apparently not hearing my utter revulsion that is coursing through me.

Okay, I think I've met my match. I can see karma, I can apparently gain karma. I can even use it on myself, where it is not so oozy, but I don't think I will ever use it again like that. For a moment, I wonder why this is the case, as I already have a number of Karma related skills, I even have the Title for unlocking both Karmic Bond Casting and Voodoo Bond casting.

I remember being sickened by just getting the Voodoo bond casting title, but why didn't I stop myself from using it now? Only after a moment do I realize that I managed to complete that quest by simply constructing the spell based on an idea I had. At which point I was rewarded with the experience, skills, Titles, and badges.

Only after thinking about that past moment, and realizing the difference between casting and not casting, did I feel a mental gear click into place in my mind. As if I somehow met the next set of enlightenment needed to increase my understanding.

Chime.

Just seeing the levels I knew that I couldn't put off making my selections as now all three classes had options to choose from, but fortunately it seemed that the tying of my karma to Penelope's karma, by conducting a positive event. One that I mentally imagined as a Positive Event Catalyst.

And almost as if on cue, the system chose that moment to read my thoughts and come up with an oh-so unhelpful name for what I just did.

Just seeing that power and its description, it seemed lame, but I remembered this was how every amazing fantasy movie from the 1980s began. A person who was lost, found a person who gave the main character an item, a direction, or a spark that started them on a grand adventure where they had to fulfill their true destiny.

Looking at it, that is exactly what I was forcing upon Penelope right now, as I was forcing her destiny to be kickstarted as I knew she deserved to be a guild hall leader the same as Jhonny did. The only difference being that Penelope got her system recognized degrees a few days after Jhonny, and thus should not logically receive this perk until a few more days from now. However, I being the impatient pixie that I am, chose to kickstart her future for her.

Best part, the way I'm seeing the spell, that 10 percent is just extra. Not truly taking anything away, just ten percent back to me for believing in Penelope in such a way.

Of course, the system wasn't done as I still had a lot more effects to be pushed through.

The skill for Bond-Sharing was a lot better for my social Attributes than the negative modifiers I would get for practicing Voodoo Creation Casting.

Even the title seemed nice, I believe this was added to the 10%, making it 12.5% karma gained for helping others.

Silence.

There is a moment of silence as Penelope just stares at me for a moment, her eyes going glassy as she is no doubt reading the various system prompts that are erupting in her head.

"You kickstarted my destiny?" Penelope finally asks, a note of disbelief in her voice as she asks.

"Yeah, I guess I did." I respond still trying to understand what I just did, other than really gross myself out with slime magic.

"What destiny did I get?"

I pause, holding up one finger to correct her, "what destiny did you earn."

"I earned a destiny?" By now Penelope was clearly confused, but I wanted to point out I didn't choose her destiny, she had already chosen it, and I just laid the groundwork for her to see it start this instant.

"Yes, now as I just asked Jhonny earlier, I will ask you the same. Think about a guild related to building relics and magical enchantments."

Penelope is about to speak, but I just wiggle my finger back and forth causing her to go silent.

"Now, think of one word that you would use to describe this completely new guild but focused on building magically enchanted devices."

"What, like an Artificers Guild?"

Chime.

With that comment, I see the chains of golden karma that connected me to Penelope completely solidify and seal around the two of us. Fortunately, it no longer looked sick and slime-tentically, but my first impressions of the magic's effects were not so easily shaken off. Causing me to still feel sick at the sight of the newly fused Karmic energy.

Still, it was sort of nice, as this was a permanent tether between the two of us, or at least it would be permanent until she was done completing her destiny. Which with her destiny now being the creation, implementation, and longstanding success of the newly formed Artificer's Guild, it would be a while.

I didn't want to tell her that she was now bound to me, effectively for the rest of her life, but that thought did cross my mind and despite how creepy it might seem to others, to me it felt oddly comforting. Then as if somehow stating my stalkerish thoughts out loud, Penelope stated what I just realized.

"Wait, with this linking of Destinies binds us together for life?"

At that, I felt myself shifting slightly from side to side, not wanting to answer this question truthfully. Unfortunately, my pixie curses forced me to tell her the truth.

"Yeah, but being bound to me, isn't the end of the world, is it?" I ask, trying to spin this, I possibly could end this tether between us. Right now, all it would really cost me is all the karma I spent on the initial connection and getting her karmic value to be able to start immediately. Which, while being costly, would be far better than losing someone as important to me as Penelope is.

Fortunately, I was apparently in left field about my concerns. Which was the same field that Penelope was in.

"What? No, I, I think it is wonderful. I just didn't want you to feel you had to stick around me." Penelope noted.

"Oh, I can end this connection at any time apparently."

"You can?"

"Yeah, it will just cost the karma I spent to get your destiny to begin instantly."

"Oh," was all Penelope stated as she and I both contemplated what would happen next. Finally, she asked, "you sure you don't mind being stuck with me?"

Hearing her doubt, I decide to answer with one of dad's old sayings, "look I'm no fool, I know what side of my bread is buttered, the side that always falls face first to the floor."

Delayed-chuckle.

It took a moment for Penelope to break into a laugh at that. Then there was an awkward pause as she just stared into my eyes. I stared back, but not in the creepy way I do to get most people to stop staring at the floating pixie. Instead, I just see the fire of passion burning in her eyes, as I can see that part of her destiny has already begun.

We stare like that for a moment, the distance between us gradually decreasing until we are but inches away from each other, then we hear it.

Dun-dah-dunda-da-dun-da.

"Gah!" I cry out.

"I know, but I guess they are summoning us?" Penelope notes.

I just nod.

"Yeah, let's go, before we get yelled at. But you need to fill out your Guild settings before we start moving." I comment.

"Okay," Penelope answers not even questioning my comment.

Fwoosh.

Then when the Portal between this staging area and the main parade area, Penelope just walked through no concerns whatsoever, walking straight into traffic the way people used to do with their phones, before the roadside safety switches were installed that turned off all phones when a foot came into contact with a roadway. This lack of modern safety features, and Penelope's apparent complete trust in me was why she was caught completely off guard by the sudden lack of gravity that pulled her body upwards once she crossed the boundary from this room to the grand stage.

Horror filled my mind as I saw the event happening. Before I could even form my own Cosmic Anchor, she was gone, floating upwards into the beyond.

Poof.

Panicking I jumped out and immediately grabbed hold of her, as our bodies began climbing together ever upward. Just thinking about what lay beyond and where we were now being pulled towards filled me with fear, but more importantly, I was afraid that Penelope would be there alone, and all because of me. That was why I jumped and grabbed her without any second thoughts or reservations.

Fwoom.

Gravity worked in reverse, pulling us ever upwards into the cosmos, and for a moment, I knew we were doomed…