A few hours later, I exit the metro near the northern edge of the city with two tired girls, more mentally than physically. I bought a simple dress for Leda, but she insisted on using the skirt I made, so she’s wearing that and a gray t-shirt. Tåke, on the other hand, wears a very pink top and some basic gray leggings, modified to free her tail. I also got them underwear. Underwear is important.

From here we only need to head north for a short while, and then we’re in the forest. “｢C’mon Leda, just a bit and you can take on your full form.｣”

“Yes!” She says happily, her desire to take to the sky shining through the bond for a while now. Her speech has improved tremendously, and while she has difficulty pronouncing certain sounds, her vocabulary is more or less what you’d expect from a kid of her apparent age. Hopefully, both she and Tåke got a better grasp on Aspect of the Human by now.

As for Tåke, while she looks like a teenager, her behaviour is like a young child’s. I think someone thought she had mental development problems, though they might’ve been speaking about someone else. Either way, it’s a bit unsettling to see see a teen act like that. Even if she’s definitely not that old.

With practiced ease, I take to the sky, followed by Leda, and then Tåke with some help from me. Levitating above most buildings, I quickly find the correct direction, and off we go. A minute later we land in a grassy field, at the edge of the forest. There’s no people, which isn’t that strange since the rain just let up. In other words, it’s perfect.

“｢Leda, you can take on your full form now.｣”

I enter my apartment, Tåke in tow. I convinced Leda to stay at her nest, mostly because I made her choose between that and leaving the egg in my apartment whenever we’re going out, though her knowing how small (compared to her full form) it is might’ve helped. I gave her some ‘homework’ in the form of studying magic and possibly making better human forms, as well as speaking, teaching her the [Singing] ability as incentive.

Tåke didn’t want to go to the Den, but it’s fine. I can leave her home if I have to do something, and she’s human-sized anyway. I take the dyes out of my bag, realising I need a better storage system, and that with subspaces and/or spatial enlargement I could probably store things very compactly and efficiently. I wonder if I can made a subspace big enough to fully enter? Or at least send a puppet into. Considering my puppets do fine in the [Shapechanger] subspaces, it should be doable.

Tåke has laid down in the hammock, and seem to be asleep or at least nearly so. I let myself smile as I store the groceries, the fuzzy feeling returning as I sit down at the computer to pick up from where I left. Is this how parents feel towards their kids? That would explain a few things. Back to the forums…

Gods are real. Possibly all of them. Yesterday, an indian official was part of some hindu thing as a show of goodwill. The gods, however did not have goodwill for him. When the video of that came out, more anecdotes quickly popped up, some even have proof. Like the serial murder who went to a church to pray not to get caught and was cursed to confess everything. To the police, that is, not in that catholic confession box thing.

So a bunch of people have tried praying to gods, some successful, others not. Those who succeed seem to ask for pretty small things, like a temporary strength boost. Not all of them prayed to the gods from the world religions either; the ancient greek, roman and egyptian pantheons have allegedly shown results.

Should I try as well? Let’s see… One of the old pantheons, and let’s make it related to what I have been doing. Artemis, perhaps? That’s the greek hunting goddess, right? ‘Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness’ and some stuff not really applicable to me. Yeah, that’ll do.

Now, how do you even prayer? I fold my hands on my desktop and bend my neck slightly, closing my eyes. “Uhh, Artemis, hear my words. Grant me your boon, and I shall hunt in your name.” Does that work? Do I need to end the prayer somehow? “Uhm, that’s it.”

Nothing? Eh, kinda ex-

Ability granted: [Tracking]

Oh. Oooh. I did not expect that to work. Wait what? The ability starts with power level 3? That has to be an effect of it being a divine, well, boon. And ‘novice’ skill level, too. That’s that I guess. Let’s post my results. I should probably mention that I have been hunting with the wolves.

Eventually I get hungry, though before I can make us dinner I have to clean up and give Tåke some potty training. The dinner itself is quick and simple - norwegian style sausages - and is well received by my new roommate. Basically everyone likes that though. At least in Norway. That the go-to ‘just make something everyone likes’ food works with wolfkin gives me an idea.

But that’s for later. I call my uncle, the host of tomorrow’s family barbeque. He picks up shortly. “Hello, Lars.”

“Hi. Regarding the barbeque tomorrow, could I bring someone?”

“You’re bringing someone? The women are gonna pester you constantly,” he laughs. “That’s fine. How much does she eat?”

“Uhh,” Actually, let’s not not correct his assumption that I have a girlfriend. Or tell him I’ll bring both the girls. It’ll be easier to just show, anyway. “Quite a bit. I was thinking I should bring some food myself.”

“Oh, you don’t need to. We have plenty.”

Yes, I do need to. “I’ll bring it anyway. if it isn’t used I’ll just bring it back home for another day.” Not that that’s gonna happen.

“Was that it?”

“Yeah. Oh, it’d be nice if you keep it to yourself. They’ll see tomorrow anyway.”

“Hahaha, I’ll try. The wife will notice, but I’ll try.”

“Well, see ya tomorrow.”

“See you.”

Right. Tomorrow will be interesting. They live a bit outside the city, in a small… It’s not really a town? There’s houses where people live, and a kindergarten, but I’m not even sure if they have a grocery store there. Aside from from that, there’s farms and a forest in the general area. In other words, I can fly over there with Leda. While there she’d best stay in the human puppet form, though.

For now… Let’s experiment with Aspect of the Human. One of those mirrors taking up an entire wall would be useful for this, but the bathroom mirror will have to do. Undress, and let’s start with something simple. Can I change my hair color? Woah, that’s weird. Blond hair does not suit me.

I’m pretty sure I can, but let’s try making myself female. Huh, so this is how a ‘feminized’ me would look. The actual genetics aside, at least. And the blond hair. Let’s revert that. Ugh, these breasts are smaller than average (citation needed), but in comparison to not having them the weight is immediately obvious. So soft, though. No, not soft. They’re like… I can’t come up with a comparison. Besides, I feel like that’d be an injustice to boobs.

Moving on, I use Spider to give myself a pair of spider legs, jutting out of my torso. Nothing new here, but with Human… I watch in fascination as they turn into human arms. That’s… They look super weird. What if they are smaller? Yeah, that’s better. They sorta get in the way of my other arms, and without a proper shoulder joint they’re a bit stiff, but how many times have I wished to have an extra hand to hold something with?

Well, I got magic now. What else can I do with this… Actually, I should be able to use that same trick to give myself angel-style wings. The extra arms melds with the body as spidery legs stab out of my back, turning fleshy, then feathery. I give the a flap. Angel with black hair and gray wings, huh.

I wonder if I can make the body ‘perfect’, or at least in my own eyes. What’s with beholders and whatnot. Silky smooth skin, open and expressive, but not in the anime style, eyes. A mouth with a slight natural curve upwards, and a nose as if made by a master sculptor; a subtle touch that accentuates the rest of the face. Rolling curves from the neck and down to the lightly accentuated hips, and further down the soft-looking legs. Arms I can’t help but touch.

The enchantment breaks as Tåke nudges me, looking at the toilet. “Oh.” That was… I look in the mirror. Yeah, I will have to make that toga, or perhaps something similar. Cosplay is gonna be crazy when cosplayers gets their hands on these kinda abilities. Perhaps I’d be doing that if I had the patience to actually make something before. For now, let’s make that piece of clothing.

After some referencing on the net and mockups, I ended up with a band with the two ends connected. Putting it on proved a puzzle, but in short I had to get it around my body, then twist it on the front, pulling it over my head. Wearing it covers up what should be covered up, while still working with wings jutting out of your back (which is awfully inconvenient), and it makes a sort of X pattern over the chest.

For the legs I went with wrapping a sheet around my waist, its width reaching halfway to my knees. I made a band as wide as a leg hanging down the front, to my ankles, and hold it up with a simple waistband. It’s pretty skimpy, but it turns out it’s pretty hard to make something more substantial with angel-style wings. And I couldn’t find anyone who had really thought about it beyond ‘take human clothes, make wing holes.

Huh, while the images are of me, uploading them doesn’t really ruin anonymity, since I’ve changed my looks… That’s pretty neat. On the other hand, it’d make criminal investigations hard, or even pointless. I should probably tell Thomas that it’s possible. Let’s make a human puppet, in case I need an instant disguise. Clothes follow the forms into or out of subspace, but something like a bag could ruin it. Well, Those too can be put in subspace.

Oh, now that I think of it, let’s make a more permanent elemental-base puppet, as I’ve been planning to for a while. Google, gimme some inspiration here, regarding ‘elementals’! Hmm, not anything that stands out as both cool and doable. Righto, DeviantArt, you have these kinda things, right? Hmm, some plant stuff could be cool, but it’s not really elemental… And giant golems are cool, but not something I can really do. Not with how I usually use [Aspect Magic] at least.

Actually, can I even make earth and rocks like this? I can make some mud-like stuff, at least, and I might be able to harden it, but let’s not. I wonder if I could make a puppet outside my body? Let’s try making a generic plant humanoid. … That wasn’t hard. Starting with a tiny bit and gradually building onto it makes it ill suited for something flesh and blood, though.

Could I use materials that have not been absorbed into the [Shapechanger] subspace? Could I take a mana crystal and some soil from my little balcony garden? Hmm, how would I do this, I don’t get that same feeling of control from the crystal, nor from the dirt. What if I start by taking out a mana core?

Summoning it out lets me ‘grab onto’ the soil, but it’s more like putting clothes on a puppet. There but not part of it. Would clothes gradually… become whatever makes them feel like that? What is that feeling even… It’s… me. It feels like it’s part of me. Not my physical body, but more like hair, or even glasses or the wristwatch that I use all the time.

Let’s face the problem from another direction, a fresh view. Other image results… Weapons? That’s perfect actually. Well, not necessarily a weapon, but a tool. What for, though. Hmm. Something I’ve been doing recently? Smithing, maybe? Metal and fire. Yeah, that could work. Could be used for other stuff as well.

Without eating metal to absorb it I can’t really use Metal to make the puppet, but it can take on the properties of Metal at least. Fire, then. Fire, metal, smelting, a forge? For now, let’s keep it weak and contained, don’t wanna burn down the building. Actually, let’s go outside. The asphalt shouldn’t catch fire unless I make it far, far too strong, and if anything else catches fire I can suffocate the flames.