NOVEL NEXT Trail 68 (Pt. 2): Preparing The Path To Power
Trail 68 (Pt. 2): Preparing The Path To Power
--- Jon Whitaker ---
"You know if you wanted to create a minion focus on this it would've been significantly easier to go the swarm route rather than the domain route." Artemis noted as they continued to refine the circles, Basil sitting in the corner nomming on whatever snacks he tossed her way. The only one actually with them at the moment because he did not trust her to not eat Artemis out of house and home… literally.
"Maybe but you said you wanted to try something experimental." He pointed out as he filled in his own parts of the massive spell circuit they were drawing in between throwing small bits of muffins and cookies at Basil who would then catch them with her mouth… or her apparently frog-like tongue.
"I suppose there is more to be learned doing this the hard way." His fellow practitioner conceded. "Though whatever constructs we're creating here won't be too powerful by comparison given how much power we're putting into maintaining a field around you. In fact, I'm not sure how much of an influence whatever conceptual affinities we add will have on them… Especially with the wide range of affinities we're throwing into the blender."
"And… isn't that exactly the kind of experimental thing you wanted to do?" He had to ask, wondering what aspects of this he should link to [Void] given how it represented both the negation of something and the Madness filled [Void-Space] Basil was native to.
"It is, I'm just trying to figure out what exactly you're… envisioning here." Artemis explained with a general gesture at everything as she took a step back to look at their work. "I mean, with everyone you brought here it feels like you're kind of just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks."
He glanced her way. "And… if I am?"
"Well, it'll be interesting at least." Artemis shrugged. "Especially since you apparently thought it was a good idea to get every girl you know into a single place."
"This isn't every girl I know." He frowned, mind drifting to his Ma, Miss Edna, Jill, Miss Edme, and well, everyone else.
"Maybe not but with your void-kin summon in here, you just know they're all talking about you." Artemis smirked, a faint flush as she glanced towards the moon-eyed girl in a skin tight outfit.
He sighed. (They totally are, aren't they…?)
--- Felicia Doe-Whitaker ---
"So… should we be jealous that Jon and mi duende are alone in that shed with the bondage chica?" The latina girl -(Val?)- asked, drawing attention to the semi-annoying fact that Felicia was trying to ignore.
Namely that despite being asked to come Felicia was currently stuck sitting at this porch table with Jon's fairy friend Pix, his canine companion Wolf, and his actually human friend Ying, and his other human friend Val. Meanwhile her cousin was alone in a shack with two girls (one of whom was in bondage!)
She couldn't help but groan as she pawed at her eyes. "I do not need that image in my head…"
"Don't worry I can't hear or smell anything to that effect." Ying assured her, while petting the little fairy between her antennae as she munched on one of the many baked goods that Jon apparently carried around with him everywhere he went. (Which out of everything I've learned about his new found weirdness is the one that's most in character.)
"Neither can I." She sighed, while reaching for an oatmeal cookie to aggressively bite into. "Doesn't change the fact that that image is still in my head now."
"Well, I guess it's good to know this isn't a cuck table at the very least." Val shrugged with absolutely no shame, as the thing on her shoulder let out a cackling laugh.
"Jon 's my cousin, and half of us aren't even human." She pointed out with a gesture towards Pix, Wolf, and the bird her instincts wanted to eat. Instincts she forced herself to ignore as she let slip the fact that, "Besides, he wouldn't know a girl was into him even if she was naked in front of him."
"And even then he'd probably ignore it…" Ying grumbled.
"Wait, what?" She frowned, hellfire red eyes narrowing.
"There was this thing with a succubus and incubus and well… Jon was unaffected." Ying explained, waving her hand through the air as if she didn't just say something that deserved a lot more details.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Val snapped her fingers. "The Gamer Guild's dungeon. How far you guys get? Had to be a decent distance to meet those two."
"We beat it." Ying admitted with a grimace. "Before promptly being banned for… reasons."
"The fuck you do to get banned from the murder games by a gang?" Val asked, seemingly taken aback.
Almost as much as Felicia was. "I'm sorry, out of towner, context?"
"One of the local gangs has a Wonderlander, they hold games in their wonderland to distract and cover for supernatural problems." Val explained as if that was common knowledge for this city. "It's not really a threat since most civvies are given the 'easy mode' but they'll sometimes let Hunters and Sanctuary Agents run it with some actual difficulty."
(Shit, I guess this is like me and my aunts…) The fact they were malcontent was kind of an open secret most people just ignored given the stuff they handled around town.
"Right…" Taking a deep breath, she decided that whatever this dungeon thing was was unimportant, especially since a far more important question was, "So how exactly did you two meet my cuz?"
Admittedly she was more interested in Ying's response given how she was the one Jon had actually told about his plans to hunt the stupid fuck who attacked her Aunty M. Her cousin having repeatedly emphasized the point that the practitioners they were meeting did not actually know about that plan and would probably snitch them out if they were told.
"Jon told you, he and I went to summer camp with Miss Edna. Who in turn became a magical mentor to both of us." Ying answered, actually repeating less than what he'd told her.
"I'm aware that shit went down in Blackwell." Felicia frowned, as she recalled a lot of vagueness regarding undead hordes, DeSade's apparently dark lord-ness, and other junk.
Ying glanced towards Val with a look. "I'm not sure I should tell that story…"
Val raised a hand with a dismissive shrug. "I was fighting Tru Grit to get my crew some street cred as the new kids, we got thrown in front of a kid and Jon thought we were going to attack her. He then went puma fucking loco."
Ying grimaced. "Ah, I'm guessing you mean the whole…" The asian teen made a clawing motion at the air, before seemingly biting something in a way that looked like she was ripping it apart with her teeth.
"Sí." Val nodded, apparently knowing exactly what she was talking about. "Does he do that a lot?"
"All the time!" Ying nodded with wide eyes. "And I'm like part dragon and I don't do… that!"
"Do what?" She frowned, more in confusion than anything else.
Ying gave her a look while tilting her head side to side. "If you don't know… I don't think I should tell you?"
Felicia narrowed her eyes once more, while trying to ignore the desire to, (Rip out her throat! Eat her meat and feast upon her dying secrets as it squirms in your teeth!)
"Anyway, my friend Audrey thought it'd be a good idea to get him to join up with us since he was on his own and one thing led to another until we were kicking a demon's ass on Halloween." Val continued, seemingly uncaring about whatever byplay was between the other teens.
(Didn't kick it's ass hard enough if we still have to kill it.) She thought darkly as her mind shifted gears.
"Yes well…" Ying glanced between the pair of them before letting out a sigh. "I was… Corrupted by Madness and Jon helped 'cure' me as it were. Since that was also my 'Awakening' as a Deviant he and Miss Edna have been helping me to… adapt."
"Mm-hmm…" She was thinking about how to keep pressing the girls her cousin apparently spent so much time with before the little fairy apparently decided it was her time to share as she began flying in a circle between everyone else at the table while making several tweeting and chirping sounds and miming several things out. A performance that dragged on for what felt like several minutes as Pix saw fit to give them the entire story of her meeting Jon.
When the little fair finished, she plopped herself on the head of the wolf sitting at the table before making several smaller gestures in reference to the canine she was sitting upon.
"I… have no idea what any of that meant." Val confessed after a moment.
"I think I caught like… half of it?" Ying, who probably already knew the story, grimaced.
"No." The little skeletal bird piped up, before pointing a wing at the shed. "I'm calling bullshit. There is no way gringo did half of that shit."
"Yeah… I don't think Jon murdered the devil…" She had to agree with the little monster. "I mean the zombie horde I can buy, but the rest is pushing it a bit."
Pix puffed up clearly offended that she wasn't believed before flying towards the baked goods and trying to steal the whole plate in outrage, only for her little arms to struggle to lift the whole thing.
"Wait, you understood her?" Ying frowned at Felicia and the bird.
She made a so-so gesture. "Languages are weird for me. I understand it but I could not repeat it to save my life…Though there was still some stuff about Seelie and Unseelie that didn't really translate?"
"¿Que?" Val blinked.
"Son las cortes de hadas del día y la noche." The bird explained absentmindedly. "Also, the amount of hero worship for her was just… she cannot be trusted as a narrator."
That seemed to cross some kind of line for the little fairy as she stopped her futile attempts at stealing the treats and promptly proceeded to zap the little bird monster with a beam of light, causing it to hiss back with a sound like nails on a chalkboard.
"¡Perra! ¿Quieres irte? ¡Vamos!"
"Fifty bucks on Espanta." Val called as the bird and the fairy began to circle around the pastry plate.
"I'll take that bet." Ying nodded calmly as she pulled out several bills.
(These are Jon's friends?)