I was a Scientist when the Void-bound System reached my world, and I owe my survival to my love of &^&%￡&￡&. That led to my skill selections, which led to my class, which led to the Trait indomitable. Which is the only reason I am still alive.

But my nature is that of one who asks questions, so I will briefly mention what I have learned of the origin of the System. The race that created it apparently intended it as a form of diplomacy, a game they would play to mesh with others.

It seems several worlds took objection with this, and one day, a Grandmaster of Plasma awoke their star and politely asked it to immolate their world. This destroyed their primary controls for the System. A game was made of hunting down their administration teams for their respawns, and they were wiped out.

Once they were gone, there was none left who could control the system, who knew how to influence it. No administrators. The gods are just spintronic sentients who play the game just as we do, just at a different level - much like those in the prison that is mockingly called the afterlife. There are none who can impose the limits and constraints upon the System that would allow for the tailoring of the System to a world. That would allow individuals, even worlds, to opt out of the System. Since that day, it has spread like a plague.

May your gods – your true gods – watch over you.

- What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, by &*%:”%^%

It was the shock that woke him, like he'd just stuck his finger in a power socket, only all over: but it was the light that captivated his attention, shining right in his eyes. This was of particular note as he was lying in bed, his face in the pillow - which made the source of the toxic green light a very interesting question indeed.

The question got even more interesting a moment later, when it formed into a rectangular square, lined in neon blue, and filled with a cascade of different colours - and a flashing bar at the top, scored into segments that a four year old had coloured in with pastels. He had a pounding headache to accompany it, too. Both the headache and the flashing line resolved themselves a moment later, as the bar transforming into the words,

Calibrating System to user's paradigm. Please hold.

He blinked a few times: Nope, it was still visible, Eyes open or shut. Then - Oh frabjous day! - The rest of the eye watering colours shifted into words he could actually read.

Time until System Instantiation: 1154 seconds

Name: Jonathan Black

Age: 45.2 Standard Stellar Revolutions (SSR)

Level: 1

Class: None

Respawns: 4 remaining

Attributes

Strength: 4 Dexterity: 5 Stamina: 5

Intelligence: 7 Perception: 4 Alacrity: 5

Charm: 5 Looks: 4 Luck: 7

Essence: * Magic: * Creativity: 7

Skills

As he considered this, mind slowly realising that something really weird was going on, he noted a few odd things about the display. His age, for example: He was twenty-eight, not forty-five. Also... Respawns? He was apparently having a fairly weird dream, with a rather odd countdown, but it was when he yawned and stretched he finally became aware he wasn't dreaming – and that his bedside alarm clock read 2:34 AM – He'd had less than three hours sleep. That explained the headache, right? Or maybe not.

He focused once more on the floating boxes, by which point the timer at the top of the box read 943 seconds. A bit of mental math suggested he had around fifteen-minutes before things... Instantiated - which, as a programmer, he knew meant he better get his shit sorted out before then, if this sheet was representing him when the 'System' went live.

It seemed his life was going to be like those books his cousin kept recommending - so he took a look at the skill list, and his eyes fixated on the fifth drop down.

Number of Skill points available: 45 (One per SSR)

・ ACADEMIC...

Basic Life Skills

・ CREATIVE...

・ CONFLICT...

・ MAGIC...

・ ROTE...

・ SOCIETY...

・ SPIRITUAL...

Magic? In computer games, he always played the magic-user: sliding into either the slot of a Healer, or direct DPS. As he focused on the entry, it opened up...

・ MAGIC

◦ ELEMENTAL...

Solid

Gas

Plasma

Fluid

Time

Space

◦ ARCANE...

Life

Death

Karma

Void

Creation

Mana

It didn't look like any system he was familiar with, but he grew excited nonetheless. Experimentally, he focused on 'Life' Magic... and it incremented.

Life

Thoughtfully, he mentally prodded it again and again, testing the system - It hit Initiate 12, and then switched to Beginner 1... Then at Beginner 12, to Apprentice 1, then at Apprentice 12, to Journeyman 1... Confident he had an idea of how the ranks went, and realising perhaps that he'd gotten a bit too focused on system testing. Consider the countdown, he tried to decrement it... and failed.

"What kind of crummy system design is this?" He railed aloud, his voice echoing slightly in the empty apartment, after trying for almost ten minutes to remove points: his tone irate, as he glanced at the timer at the top once more.

Time until System Instantiation: 458 seconds

Crap crap crap, he was running out of time, and had... eight skill points left. He wanted some offence, so he tossed four points into Plasma - it sounded cool - and opened up CONFLICT.

・ CONFLICT

Kinetic Blades (KB)

Magical Blades (MB)

Plasma Blades (PB)

Gravity Blades (GB)

...

Pressure Based Projectiles (PBP)

Muscle Based Projectiles (MBP)

Electromagnetic Based Projectiles (EPB)

Mana Based Projectiles (MAPB)

Photon Based Projectiles (PHBP)

Electron Based Projectiles (ELBP)

...

Every weapon list was like that: dozens of different options, tailored for different types of weaponry - the list scrolled on and on and his eyes started to glaze over: then it moved into things that... well. Weren't weapon skills, at least?

Small Group Command (SGC)

Medium Group Command (MGC)

Large Group Command (LGC)

Naval Small Group Command (NSGC)

...

And so on, the pattern repeating for naval, then airborne, then space-based...? And on and on: Then armour skills, following a similar pattern - Fabric, metal, and exotic stuff he had no reference for - What the hell was Malophisic Internal Plate?

He looked at his clock again, realising he'd been staring at this colossal list - close to three hundred entries in this alone, if he was any judge - for a while...

Time until System Instantiation: 196 seconds

"Shit shit shit shit shit.." he muttered - it took a good few seconds for the System to recognise his prompts (It was slowly getting faster, presumably as it calibrated) and with the scrolling speed of the list, he was rapidly running out of time. Scanning rapidly through what he saw, he could have sworn he'd seen it... Ah-hah. Something that he figured Life magic might synergise well with: He poured his last four points into it, with 103 seconds left on the clock.

Unarmed Martial Arts (UMA)

And with that? The screen blanked, and new messages appeared.

Congratulations! For being the first to achieve a Journeyman skill on your World, you are hereby awarded 20,746 SMU to spend in the Store.

Congratulations! For having the highest rating this month in Life Magic on your world, you are hereby awarded 20,746 SMU to spend in the Store.

As soon as he finished reading these, they blanked out - and before he got to wonder about the store it was referring to, new information appeared.

Calculating... Based on your skill selection: You gain:

3 Initiate Spells or Perks in Life Magic.

3 Beginner Spells or Perks in Life Magic.

3 Apprentice Spells or Perks in Life Magic.

1 Initiate Spell or Perk in Plasma Magic.

1 Initiate Perk in Unarmed Martial Arts.

1 Attribute Perk in Magic.

These should be selected within 82,944 seconds of System Instantiation.

For completing Character Creation with 170 seconds remaining on the clock, you are credited with 163 SMU to spend in the Store.

Your Store Balance is: 41,655 SMU.

Prepare for System Instantiation!

The moment he finished reading that, his whole body shook; his mind went blank, and the next thing he knew he was lying on the floor, his head hurt from having bashed off the dresser, and... He... KNEW.

Name: Jonathan Black

Age: 45.2 Standard Stellar Revolutions (SSR)

Level: 1

Class:

Respawns: 4 remaining

Home: Apartment 5, 126 Orchid Avenue, San Francisco

Balance: 41,655 SMU

Health: 84/84

Mana: 140/140

Attributes

Strength: 6 Dexterity: 7 Stamina: 7

Intelligence: 7 Perception: 4 Alacrity: 5

Charm: 5 Looks: 4 Luck: 7

Essence: * Magic: 20

Creativity: 7

Skills

Basic Life Skills

Life Magic

Plasma Magic

UMA

The first thing that jumped out to him was the way his body felt: He felt fit, like he'd undergone a good few months of physical training, and he slid easily to his feet. He could understand so much about his body, how it went together, he just... knew how it worked, the underlying principles of life seemed so... obvious.

Focusing on the sheet that still shone before his eyes, he noticed his top three attributes had jumped - but nothing like how his Magic score had spiked: And what the hell were perks?

Intrigued, he prodded at the option just next to magic, and was awarded with this message:

Perk Selection: Due to lack of any existing System Experience, you may select from the following list:

Magical Awareness - add Magical Fields to your primary sense. Knowledge of a subject's Mana is added to your primary sense.

Magical Aptitude - 24% Time reduction in spellcasting.

Magical Synergy - 4% Mana cost reduction in cross-class spells.

Magical Power - 24% Increase in effectiveness of your spells.

Magic Resistance - 24% Reduction in effectiveness of harmful spells used against you.

Magical Aptitude - 24% faster Skill development in Magical Schools you are proficient in.

Additional Spell Slot - gain an additional Slot for Spellcasting.

Magical Mastery - Reduce Skill requirements for spells by value 3.

Magical Comprehension - 9% chance of understanding the requirements of observed spells.

Looking over the list, he grabbed Additional Spell Slot - He'd played enough D&D to know the value of having more spells per day - and was rather nonplussed with the confirmation message read:

Current Spell Slots: 2

This gave him a sinking suspicion that that had not meant what he thought it meant - either that, or the magic system sucked.

Moving on - since the System didn't seem to bother with confirmations or changing your mind - he looked at his magical perks, first: He wanted his spells, and he had a nasty suspicion that when the time limited ended, there would be monsters. That's how these stories go, right?

Opening up his Life Magic, he was prompted to grab his first initiate Spell or perk: without delaying, he grabbed the spell – and then, without any choices being given, had this appear for his perusal:

Hygiene! - 4 mana: This spell, once cast, will perform a deep cleanse of the subject and his garments, removing any potentially hazardous infections or debris from the surface of the body, openings to the body, and any open wounds.

He was... nonplussed by this result, and amused by the language – it felt like a bad translation: He'd expected a choice – and largely to see if the pattern repeated, for his next initiate option, he chose 'perk', opening up a list this time.

・ Peak Conditioning - Your body is permeated with Life Mana: Injuries heal 27% faster, you age 27% slower, and you are immune to infection.

・ Life Sense - Knowledge of a subjects present Health is added to your primary sense.

・ Cancerous Touch - Your strikes with UMA cause cascading failures in life systems: 27% additional corruptive damage.

・ Vampiric Touch - Siphon Health with a successful UMA attack: 27% of damage dealt is added to your Health.

・ Siren's Touch - Convert 4% of damage inflicted with a UMA attack into Mana, which is added to your reserves.

・ Healing Aura - you radiate Life mana; Those within your reach heal 27% faster.

・ Life Analysis - contact and a moment of concentration with a living being will tell you their Physical Attributes and Perks.

・ Life Resistance - 27% reduction in damage from harmful Life spells.

・ Life Aptitude - 12% faster skill development in Life magic.

・ Life Synergy - 12% Reduction in mana cost of Life spells.

・ Physical Enhancement - gain the ability to channel mana into your Physical Attributes.

・ Mental Enhancement - gain the ability to channel mana into your Mental Attributes.

・ Looks Enhancement - gain the ability to channel mana into your looks Attribute.

・ Green Fingers - Plants you care for grow 24% faster and have 27% greater fecundity.

・ Balanced Biorhythms - You require 27% less sleep, and you recover from strain and injury 12% faster.

・ Flowers in your Footsteps - You leave no tracks when moving through living land.

・ Poison Resistance - take 27% less damage from toxins, poisons, and venoms.

・ Sustenance - Your body no longer requires food, surviving on the Mana sphere.

・ Pheromones - 27% more appealing to your desired gender.

・ Toxic Humours - Your blood and flesh become toxic. Those whom consume it take points of poison damage for a number of cycles based on amount consumed.

・ Scentless - Your body no longer gives off any biochemical traces.

・ Verdant Fecundity - You have conscious control over conception.

・ Perfected Code - Your body is purged of genetic disorders or structural flaws. 12% damage reduction against Corruptive magic, 27% increased lifespan.

・ Tailored Code - You gain conscious control of what genetic traits you pass on to your offspring.

・ Arcane Insight - 4% chance to learn an Arcane spell upon experiencing it.

・ Arcane Resistance - 4% reduction in damage from harmful Arcane spells.

・ Arcane Synergy - 4% reduction in cost of cross-discipline Arcane spells.

・ Arcane Aptitude - 4% faster skill development in Arcane Disciplines.

Jonathan blinked. From no choices at all to choice paralysis: Looking over the list, he wanted most of them: the question was, was this just the choices for his first perk? It certainly seemed in this system that Life magic was more than just healing, and some of those options - Verdant Fecundity? Seemed a little... odd. Aware he was on a time limit, he tried to hurry his decisions and to keep an ear out for any monsters, eventually settling on Peak Conditioning, with the reasoning that healing faster would always be a good thing.

Moving on, for his final Initiate choice, he selected Perk again - and gleefully, saw the same list: although Peak Conditioning now showed up as Peak Conditioning (II), offering an additional 27% boost, though it was unclear if this was additive (For a total boon of 54%) or multiplicative - that is, just an additional 27% based on whatever value the previous 27% had resulted in. Regardless, he grabbed Vampiric Touch next, taking the idea that the faster and easier it was to recover health, the easier it would be to survive: He did find the synergy with his combat choice satisfying, though.

Also of note, those last four seemed to indicate that Life Magic was just a Discipline of a greater type of magic, Arcane, that he could also develop proficiency in: mention of cross-Discipline spells seemed to confirm this. But time was a wasting, and for his first beginner choice, he grabbed a Spell again, glumly curious as to what they were like on this level.

Heal - 6 mana: By touching a target, heal 9 points of damage, and halting further health degeneration.

That was more like it, but still... His mind drifted back to the perks again, and he gave into his desire to view the Beginner perks for his next choice – he wanted options, dammit.

The list, however, was the same one as before ・ though Vampiric Touch had also updated to an upgrade version ・ and he grabbed Life Aptitude and then promptly went back in again, to grab Life Synergy. He repeated this pattern for the Apprentice options, grabbing the spell -

Mend - 12 Mana: By touching a target, regenerate 4 points of permanent health loss.

And the perks Sustenance (On the basis that if he didn't need to worry about food, surviving in the apocalypse that seems to always follow these stories would be a lot easier) and Balanced Biorhythms - noting, when he did so, that unlike the previous perks, Sustenance vanished from the list.

The next prompt asked him to select his UMA perk: He braced himself for the list.

・ Penetrating Strikes - your UMA attacks ignore 4% of target's armour.

・ Supernal Awareness - 27% increased awareness of incoming attacks.

・ Flexibility - 16% Increased joint mobility

・ Limbs of Aluminium - You may parry and with your bare limbs without harm.

・ Flesh of Onyx - 3% reduction in physical damage received.

・ UMA Analysis - By observing a Subject with your Primary sense, gain an understanding of their level in UMA.

This took a bit of deliberation, and he was rather surprised at the smaller list: was he number available based on your rank? It seemed a reasonable hypothesis, though he put it to the side as he decided on Supernal Awareness - promising himself he'd grab either Flesh of Onyx or Limbs of Aluminium - why Aluminium? - when he next got a UMA perk, Finally - after a quick dash to the window, to look for monsters: The street appeared normal, well lit with the new LED street lights they'd installed just last year, and he moved on to grab his Plasma Magic perk or spell, grabbing a spell this time, since he didn't see much point in buying the perk if he couldn't cast any Plasma spells.

Spark - 3 Mana: Ignite any flammable materials within your reach.

That done, he experienced a brief sensation of disorientation, before his sheet blinked before his eyes once more.

Name: Jonathan Black

Age: 45.2 Standard Stellar Revolutions (SSR)

Level: 1

Class:

Respawns: 4 remaining

Home: Apartment 5, 126 Orchid Avenue, San Francisco

Balance: 41,655 SMU

Health: 84/84

Mana: 140/140

Spell Slots: 2

Attributes

Strength: 6 Dexterity: 7 Stamina: 7

Intelligence: 7 Perception: 4 Alacrity: 5

Charm: 5 Looks: 5 Luck: 7

Essence: * Magic: 20 Creativity: 7

Skills

Basic Life Skills

Life Magic

Plasma Magic

UMA

Perks

Additional Spell Slot - Increase spell slots by 1

Peak Conditioning - Injuries heal 27% faster; you age 27% slower, immune to infection.

Vampiric Touch - 27% of damage dealt is added to your Health.

Life Aptitude - 12% faster skill development in Life magic.

Life Synergy - 12% Reduction in mana cost of Life spells.

Sustenance - Your body no longer requires food.

Balanced Biorhythms - You require 27% less sleep, and you recover from strain and injury 12% faster.

Supernal Awareness - 27% increased awareness of incoming attacks.

Spells

・ Arcane

◦ Hygiene - Clean and sterilize yourself and your wrappings!

◦ Heal - Touch: Heal 6 points of damage

◦ Mend - Touch: Regenerate 4 points of Permanent damage.

・ Elemental

◦ Spark

- ignite an object within your reach.

Apparently one of those perks had improved his looks attribute – damned if he knew which. Dismissing the screen with a thought, he glanced at the time again – 2:53 am – and then his thoughts stuttered for a moment. Wasn't all the technology supposed to be dead or something?

He pulled out his phone – full reception – and texted David, his best friend. They'd met in college, almost a decade ago, and when David had been recruited to work for Arvix, He'd finagled things to get Jonathan a job, too: They'd spent all of Saturday playing Sybara Online with their guild: The game had just come out last month, and they were trying to build a group that could challenge the first of the big dungeon bosses. He somehow suspected this – whatever it was – would be holding their attention instead, though.

'You up? Something freaky going on..?' he sent.

He got a response less than a minute later – his phone rang.

“It's fucking wild, Jon!” Dave said, as soon as he picked up. “I thought I was fucking dreaming at first, but fuck! I can do magic!” Dave, it should be noted, had a very prim and proper vocabulary at work – but out of work, swore like a sailor: Apparently, a habit he picked up from his mother.

“Me too! I thought the tech was gonna crash or something, but I don't see no monsters, everything's working fine, and I just learned martial arts and spells! Its bit of a weird system, though.” he, shook his head in amazement, still coming to terms with what had just happened. “Fuck, I don't know whether to play with it or go to sleep, hoping it was just a dream. What'd you grab?”

“I'm a Beginner Time mage, a Beginner Space mage, and an Initiate Creation mage, Bro! Gonna build myself a fucking TARDIS!” Dave proudly declared. He was a long time Doctor Who fan-boy, Jon should have expected it. “That it? I'm a Journeyman Life mage and an Initiate Plasma Mage. But the spells...”

“I fucking know, right? Weak ass shit so far. But I figure it's fucking level one shit, y'know? Glad we got a fucking healer for our party, though!“ Jonathan snorted. “Wonder what everyone else we know picked. Im'ma gonna stay up all night – My cousin loves these sort of stories, and he tells me that monsters always follow the magic, but then he says it kills the tech, too. So I don't know what the hell is going on, but just to be safe..”

“Yeah, fuck, man. Be safe. Best fucking Perk I got? Gives me Fucking Danger Sense. So I'm gonna fucking sleep for a bit, play with it when I fucking wake up, and assuming fucking Godzilla doesn't appear and ruin all our fucking plans, we can compare notes with the crew at work, yeah?”

Jonathan considered this for a moment. “Yeah. Oh, Fun little titbit: I was apparently the first person to grab a Journeyman ability, and hold the highest rank in Life magic... in the world.” There was a slight pause as David digests this.

“How far up the system is Journeyman, Exactly?” he asked, carefully.

“Thirty-seven points: twelve per section..” Jonathan replied, before expounding on what he'd discovered, and resulting in a slight pause at the other end of the line.

“You mean you dumped damn near all your fucking points into one fucking skill? I'm not fucking surprised you're the highest, most fucking people know fucking better! But fuck it, I'll yell at you on fucking Monday. My head fucking hurts, I'm off to fucking bed. G'night.” And with that, the call ended, and Jonathan sat on his bed for a moment, thinking that over.

Taking another look at his sheet, he looked at his balance again. The way the System referred to the Store, it was clearly important – but where was the store? Mulling that over for a few moments, he shrugged: He'd find out eventually – and went onto his Kindle to grab one of the books his cousin recommended, to see what they might be in for.

When dawn broke, Jonathan was already marvelling at the effect of his perks – the muzziness in his head had faded within an hour, leaving him fully awake and refreshed: and after finishing the book (It wasn't exactly long) he'd found himself considering what he knew. He seemed to know a lot about Life Magic. A lot. A lot about life, full stop – just by considering it, he knew how his body worked, he felt with a bit of effort he could read his DNA, and looking at the tulips he had growing in a box, he could see how they were put together, too, what he needed to do to make them grow or die, or alter them in strange and interesting ways.

When he had tried doing some Katas, for his martial arts, he discovered he knew all sorts of different things – it wasn't like he knew Karate, or Judo, more like he was an initiate in every Unarmed Martial Art mankind had ever thought of. He understood the basics of submission holds, blocks, dodges, strikes and kicks – he didn't have names for anything he was doing, but he could throw together combos that made him feel like he belonged in a kung fu movie – he had more than a few in his collection, and sat down with Fists of Fury to see how many of the moves he could copy. Not as many as he'd like, but enough to make him happy.

He'd looked at himself in the mirror, to see if the changes were apparent, and boy were they. He was still five foot nine, but his rather flabby build had been replaced by abs and pecs, the body of an athlete without the tan: His hair – tied back in a ponytail that reached to his shoulders – had a glossy, healthy sheen to it, a black that any raven would be proud of: his eyes were the same cloud grey, and he was convinced his peripheral vision had improved . All in all, it was like he'd spent a year in exercise and taking care of himself like TV said he should – he liked it.

Marvelling at his new capabilities, his improved dexterity and strength, he was musing on what the System must have done to him, when his mind once more accessed his new knowledge, and obligingly showed him exactly what had changed, right down to his DNA. What really struck him about it, though, was that... well. He cast Spark, just to see what happened, and in process of casting, it was like following a script – do this to gather the air together: do this to excite the electrons until they ignite: transfer that energy to the target like so.. A toolkit, like someone had put it together: it made him wonder if he could teach it to someone. Well, it did right until he noticed the couch was on fire: He grabbed the fire extinguisher, and resolved to be a little more careful.

After a nice fried breakfast, he gathered together what he thought he might need for survival – a kitchen knife, some bedding, bottles of water and the like – he was still half-expecting monsters – then settled down to read another the books his cousin recommended, and watching social media explode with chatter, ranging from conspiracy theorists who thought it was an evil plan by the Democrats to impose a class system, Republicans claiming it was all fake news from the Democrats, Religious fundamentalists that it was the work of Satan.. Ten minutes of perusal was more than enough to drive him back offline to poke at the system. He found he could call up his sheet just by wanting to, which was nice, and he started looking at the assumptions – his job at Arvix Ltd was to work on the Interface their flagship app would have with their customers, and he really was not impressed, so far, by the interface the System was using. He spend a few hours making notes, before his phone rang – going by the caller-ID, it was the aforementioned Cousin, the only member of his family that he actually got on with.

“Hey, Mike, What's up?” Jonathan asked, as he picked up the call, amusement colouring his voice.

“Can you believe it? I can FLY!” came the reply: Mike was still at college, studying Engineering at Columbia. Jonathan took a moment to processes this, but Mike continued on, excitement rippling through his voice.

“Me and Sandra were at a party when it happened, and just.. wow. We split the skills up between us, spent five minutes skimming, and everyone grabbed the roles they thought would work best – We're gonna have a rad adventuring team! I grabbed Gas magic, Space Magic, and Mana Magic with my points, and a couple dots in Linguistics, 'cause we figure it'll help talk with the aliens. Sally went all dark, grabbing Void and Creation magic as her primaries, and she's spent the morning making things appear and disappear! And...” Jonathan cut his stream of words with a laugh.

“I get it, just be safe, yeah? The tech still works, obviously, but.. The system was more than a little screwy to me. I don't think it's playing with the same assumptions we are, and I'm still expecting monsters. I read that book you kept going on about, too – I'm really starting to think it was optimistic. I have a bad feeling about this, Mike. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“Pfft, Always the pessimist.” came the light hearted reply. “We have Magic! What'd you pick?”

“You're speaking to the most advanced life mage on the planet.” Jonathan replied with a laugh. “Journeyman one. A bit of plasma magic, and some Unarmed Martial Arts to round it out.” that earned a low whistle from Mike.

“Fuck, bro. You looking to cure Cancer or something?” That had been what had taken Jonathan's mother, and driven the rift between him and his father – and even as Mike said it, knowledge of how to cure (Or cause) cancer flooded his mind, making his thoughts stutter for a moment.

“I.. I do know, Mike. I could have...” the thought reverberated in his mind – if this had happened a year earlier, and he'd have... he'd still have.. Mike could apparently tell the thought had thrown him for a loop, for his cousin stayed quiet for a long moment before speaking again, his tone apologetic.

“Sorry, Jon. I know...” he trails off. “I'll let you practice, Bro. Stay in touch, yeah?” and with that, he hung up, leaving Jonathan with his thoughts. His mother had had an aggressive brain tumour, and his father had been unable to cope – it had driven him to drink, and angry arguments with a son on the other side of the country, who wasn't there when his mother needed him – even though the coward hadn't even told Jon until she was on her deathbed, having been living in denial, trying to pretend it wasn't happening.. Jonathan shook his head, angrily: remembering the ugly events that led to his split with the man never did him any good. Pacing, he moved to the window, looking once more at the flowers he had growing there, looking out at the street outside – it was early morning, but quiet.

There was no traffic in sight, but people were out, looking around, showing off their abilities. He saw someone whom seemed to stutter between steps, moving a couple of metres at a time without passing through the intervening space: A young couple gleefully dancing in a variety of complex, acrobatic ways that you could tell they hadn't known how to do yesterday, and their sheer joy was palpable, bringing a smile to his face, making the anger ebb. He kept watching, seeing someone walk out, burst into flame, then laugh delightedly as it didn't burn them, pretending to whoosh around like a superhero – until they actually left the ground with a gust of air, and – shrieking in delight, flew off down the street in a superhero pose.

He spent the next hour or so watching the street (In case of monsters) and enjoying people's glee – before going to make lunch: microwaved mac and cheese, which he was just settling into when there was a knock on his door.

Upon answering, he found his neighbour's son – Jules – looking at him with a grin, the six year old floating perhaps a foot off the ground. “I can FLY!” the child exclaimed, in a voice rich with glee. “Gonna be Superman!”

A few thoughts ran rapidly through Jonathan's mind – The foremost of which was What. The. Hell. Given some of the perks he'd seen in what he had presumed was one of the most beneficial disciplines of magic, he shuddered to think what the tree that permitted flight – Air? - might do in the hands of a child. So he looked at Jules carefully, before answering.

“Did you see the boxes last night, Jules?” He asked, and a friendly, pleasant tone, reaching out to rustle the kid’s hair, making him squirm.

“Yep! Don't do that!” he drifted a bit away. “Didn' know what they meant. But 'ventually got a message saying..” his face scrunches up. 'Wandom Signment.' that made Jonathan pause for a moment of processing – he occasionally Babysat (Angelique, his mother, was single and a bit of a looker, although, alas, had never looked his way) decrypted what the boy probably meant.

“You mean it randomly assigned what you got?” he asked, carefully. “And it told you you could fly?” Jules nodded, suddenly dropping to the ground.

“Yep! And Mum was so cross! She keeps saying the devil did it!” and with that, the kid darted away with laughter, leaving Jonathan to his thoughts – and, not long after, bed. He needed less sleep, not no sleep, and it was finally hitting him.