NOVEL NEXT 2.30 A Perky Facelift
[LEVEL UP!]
[Welcome to level 4!]
[Ancestry Perk: Elven Glamour
To be wonderful is to provoke wonder; to be terrific is to beget terror. Elves can choose how much of their fae nature they show to the world, granting a +1 to Willpower. This degree of exposure also gives relevant bonuses to dominating lesser minds or avoiding their notice, but the effect is lessened for targets who have scrying abilities or already know you.]
"Huh, so you got an 'ancestry' perk at level 4, just like Tapper. Won't call it a set pattern until the same thing happens to me, but what is this about you being an… elve?" Ricky asked, talking half to himself and half to Phanya as a pen tapped against his notebook.
"Elf," Phanya corrected. "I don't know how I know that or what an elf is, but 'elf' is the singular. No idea what 'fae nature' is supposed to mean, either. So far the perk just feels like there's a… dimmer switch in my mind, I guess? And it's just marked 'Less' and 'More' with the middle as its natural rest point. I tried playing with it already, but I feel the same and look the same in a mirror so…" Phanya realized she was wringing her hands and quickly shoved them into her pockets. She wasn't sure why she suddenly felt so nervous, but she wanted to distract Ricky and his attention bore lasers into her now.
Ricky looked up at her and asked, "So? The description says the effect will be lessened for me, but I should still see something. Let's go, crank it up!" Phanya huffed a small laugh. Sometimes Ricky could be as enthusiastic as Tapper, and it helped break her nerves. She stared into the middle distance to concentrate, started cranking the odd mental dial more and more towards More, and Ricky gasped.
He had never seen her numan markings before. Tapper saw them all the time, but his descriptions did nothing to prepare Ricky for the sight. Delicate turquoise swirls glowed with gentle blue light, playing off her golden hair to shine like a resplendent halo. The markings started somewhere under her shirt and bloomed outwards, growing up to her high cheekbones and flowing down her arms and legs. The largest and brightest swirls were as thick as Ricky's thumb and followed the general direction of Phanya's arterial veins, branching out into progressively smaller designs until the faintest wisps circled her fingers. Ricky wanted to trace those lines like a map, until he looked up and locked eyes with Phanya.
Her face had grown sharp. Her eyes, nose, jawline, even her ears elongated slightly, filed down to points that looked like they could leave ripples in her wake. Phanya was still beautiful, but not in the way that other people would find attractive. Now she looked terrifyingly beautiful and dangerously graceful — beautiful like a lightning strike in roiling storm clouds, graceful like a predator silently stalking its prey. Especially her eyes. The endless depths of her rich brown eyes stripped away Ricky's defenses to leave him feeling bare and wanting under her gaze. He would, not could, fall into those eyes if he wasn't careful.
"Merrick. Speak unto me."
Her voice had grown just as sharp as her face. Phanya's words cut straight through and echoed around Ricky's soul, compelling him to heed her command. His throat responded by making noises, though Ricky wasn't consciously aware of any words in her response. But she reached for him and his hindbrain screamed of impending doom, and Ricky barely managed to tear his eyes away from Phanya's siren call. He may have also screamed slightly, just a little.
"Ricky! What's happening??" Phanya's voice had returned to normal, the only edge to her voice now from her panic.
"I'm okay, I'm okay!" Ricky answered back, holding up his hands. He couldn't look at her yet, as his senses worked at readjusting to reality. Ricky didn't realize it at the time, but he had been completely tuning out everything in the world that wasn't Phanya and now all the scents and sounds of the surrounding night came rushing back into his attention. It felt as if he had just woken from a dream, and the things Ricky had felt and thought now sounded silly in retrospect. But a phantom afterimage of Phanya's inhumanly sharp face still floated in his eye, reminding Ricky of the impression she left on his psyche. He blinked rapidly to banish the image as he slowly looked up, but any lingering fear instantly evaporated.
Phanya looked plain. So plain that Ricky didn't recognize her at first; where her presence before demanded Ricky's attention, now his attention rejected her presence. She simply blended into the background of Ricky's mind, so forgetful that his gaze slid right off Phanya, even though she didn't actually look any different than normal. She had the same face as always, but her skin lost its healthy glow and her golden hair looked merely blonde. Even her neon clothes dulled to something unremarkable, and Ricky's brain refused to recognize them as the same person until he made a concentrated effort to stare her in the eyes. Those same eyes that threatened to swallow him whole a few seconds ago now just looked scared and concerned for Ricky's safety, and he took a deep breath.
"Okay, so. First thing's first: I assume that the mental dial is turned way down right now, yeah?"
"Um, it's pretty much at zero," Phanya answered, her voice timid and hands wringing again.
"Do me a favor and turn it back up. Just a little bit, I know it sounds crazy but it's hard to remember that you're standing right in front of me unless I stare at you." Phanya hesitated, but eventually something imperceptible clicked and Ricky's subconscious stopped rejecting her presence. Then he described the entire ordeal as Ricky rapidly scratched notes into his journal, stopping several times to reassure Phanya that he was okay. She looked unconvinced, but he looked thoughtful as a few concepts slid into place.
"Hey, did you actually call me 'Merrick' before?"
"What? No dude, I know how much you hate that name."
"That's what I thought. But I definitely heard it, so that means my brain upped the weird factor on its own… hmm, I wonder what else… can you do it again?"
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Phanya just looked aghast, and Ricky fought to not roll his eyes at her overreaction. "Ricky. Rickster. You looked downright horrified and… weirdly reverential. Just a mix of all the facial expressions you don't want someone to look at you with. I'm not doing that again."
"Please?"
"No."
"Come on, I'm fine. The phantom afterimage is even mostly gone by now! It's for science!"
A new tinny voice called out from the other side of the jitney, "Hello? My friends, are you there? Your debts to society have been paid in full!" Phanya whispered a quick thanks to the Great Invisible Hand for delivering Tapper just in time, and whistled for his attention. Still wasn't sharp as Ms. Uxral, but it worked. The robot rounded the corner, walking in that improvised fashion that only he could manage, and Ricky's excitement renewed.
"Tapper! Check it out, Phanya got an ancestry perk like you! Hey, do you know what an 'elf' is?"
"Most interesting! Unfortunately I do not have any knowledge regarding elves, but thankfully the line in my character sheet for my golem ancestry expanded to an explanation."
Phanya frowned as she stared into the middle distance again. "Well I don't have a line for ancestry… wait, now I do. Huh." She barely noticed Ricky push the notebook back into her hands as she read the entry out loud.
[Ancestry: Elf
Dance in the trees and laugh in the wind. All elves carry the fae in their blood, which frees them to dress in their own outlandish styles and act by their own imperceptible customs. This makes them the most mysterious and unpredictable of all sapient races, with truly wild elves just as likely to throw gold coins in greeting as they are to play deadly pranks on non-elves. As such you will receive progressively stronger advantages and disadvantages depending on how much of your fae nature you embrace, starting with a +1 bonus to all spellcasting checks and a mild allergy to cold iron. Further evolutions can include darkvision, nature communication, and replacing sleep with sunlight; at the cost of stronger allergies to all metals and penalties when living by the constraints of mundane society.]
"I'll be honest, I'm not sure how I feel," Phanya eventually said. "This description makes it sound like I'm supposed to be a spellcaster, and some alien freak to anyone that isn't an elf."
"Nonsense, Phanya! When black and white rules make you fools, in the gray you shall play," Tapper instantly quipped. "The description merely describes an optional path for you, to what degree you embrace the tropes is ultimately your own choice."
Ricky pretended to ponder the description and said, "Though to be fair, you are already dressing for the outlandish part."
"Because that's what the mall dungeon gave me!" Phanya snapped back. "You'll probably get something about how you forget what you're doing every time you walk into a new room."
"Who wants to see my magical corn?" The sudden non-sequitur broke Phanya and Ricky from their burgeoning bicker, just as Tapper intended. He reached into his chest cavity and pulled out two large ears of corn, quietly relieved that his torso was no longer filled to capacity with organic material. They both sparkled in the overhead lights, and Tapper made a show of holding the jeweled corn up while Ricky flipped to the "Crafting" section of his journal.
"'Bedazzled Ear: Every kernel pops with potential, and when used as an additive to potions and salves will grant one random buff or upgrade. Requires the entire ear for benefits, and attempts to sort and separate the kernels will result in failure.'" Tapper read the crafting knowledge verbatim with a heavy voice of importance, but he returned to normal as he continued, "It's very interesting, but since my logic gates run on predictive algorithms I am wary of anything that relies on random chance. Still, the system is clear that the results will be beneficial if I take the chance, so to speak."
The jeweled corn dropped and Tapper held up his other hand. The glow corn's luster had faded slightly, but its pale yellow light still held more depth and warmth than the jeweled counterpart. "This one, however, greatly excites me. 'Moonlight Maize: The very heart of the Harvest Moon will instill any concoction with the pure essence of Light. Also packed with Vitamin D! Popping is ill-advised.'"
Ricky paused his note scratching. "...That's it? Kinda super vague, Tapper."
"Ah, but you see Ricky, the description is not for light. It is for Light, as a proper noun. I can feel the importance of that distinction, even if I cannot articulate why just yet. But I am excited to find out! Until then, I shall store them in the jitney's icebox for safekeeping."
"Why wait? Let's throw a pot on and we'll figure something…" Ricky stopped as a full-body yawn overtook him, and Tapper's eyebrows peaked with concern. "Alright alright, we'll do that later. We should get going now, anyways."
"No, we should not," Tapper answered calmly but firmly. "We have had two, arguably three separate adventures in the past 24 hours, and you two are showing clear signs of exhaustion that would not be remedied by sleeping in a moving vehicle. Besides, it is past your bedtime."
"We're adults, Taps, you don't need to…" Phanya started, before she lost the fight against her own yawn. "...Dang it, fine. But what about the other two hunters?"
"Mister Jellico and Miss Jenakite are in significantly worse shape than you two. I have every confidence they will not try to ambush us tonight, and since I have not recently lost any spell components I am fully capable of keeping watch while you rest."
Ricky harrumphed and walked off to the jitney, but Phanya held back. "Thanks for the save, Tapper. Leveling up normally feels great, but this elven ancestry deal is a bit much. Ricky didn't see the face he made when I turned up the glamour." Phanya shuddered slightly, and Tapper reached up to awkwardly pat her on the shoulder.
"There there, my friend. So far I have not seen anything from this system that is truly negative, and as a bartender I know that anything can be harmful when taken to excess. All things in moderation, including feats and perks. For now, you look the exact same as ever to me! Except that your ears are now approximately one-half centimeter longer."
Phanya's sleep-addled mind almost caught those last words, before Ricky leaned out of the jitney and called, "Salazar fell asleep in his chair, I call dibs on the bed!"
"The hell you do!" Phanya half-laughed as she dove into the jitney.
Tapper followed after, worried that he would need to break up another squabble, but quickly realized that their roughhousing was purely performative. Sharing beds when space runs out is something every orphan in Fableton learns sooner or later, and within minutes the two were comfortably sleeping back-to-back from each other. Salazar had fallen asleep in the driver's seat with his headset still on, and Kakisi had turned a discarded food container into a sort of nesting spot. The setup was not as cozy as camping in Tapper's opinion, and he knew that staying quiet meant a night of boredom awaited him. But if it meant that his companions could get a full night's rest, then he would keep vigil without complaint.