29 Suns

--- Jon ---

(Yep, using traps was a mistake.) He admitted, as he hid in his little forest sanctuary. (A very big, very bad mistake.)

Apparently his ma had taken ‘inspiration’ from his little bout of tactical creativity and decided to play tag again. Only, instead of only trapping the field while he was it, she’d trapped the entire field for the entire game, making it so he couldn’t go three steps without triggering something unless he moved with utmost care and delicacy. Meaning he’d spent the majority of this training session as a paranoid bundle of nerves scared to leave the small fox hole he’d built for himself.

(At this rate my Ma’s going to give me PTSD…) He couldn’t help but think with a bitter chuckle, before remembering, (Well more PTSD anyway…)

“Come out, come out, wherever you are~” His ma called from nearby.

(No thank you, no thank you, I’d really rather not~)

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Ma’s ‘help’ gained 1XP to Stealth and Awareness.

--Currently: Stealth Lv. 6 (11/14) and Awareness Lv. 8 (10/18)

---

Shutting yet another dud of a ‘relationship’ book, more specifically after reading a scene where apparently a guy thought kissing a girl to make her quiet was a good idea rather than a form of shutting someone up that was little different from physically covering their mouth with your hand. (And she wasn’t offended that he didn’t actually care about what she was saying! What the heck?!)

Figuring that this was another bust, he put the book back where he found it before making his way towards the cafeteria in the hopes of finding Aliyah so that she might explain how that was supposed to relate to relationships. (After all they say girls are supposed to be better at that kind of thing.)

Of course before he could actually track the shy girl down he watched an odd series of tumbles as a student in the puddle and losing his lunch tray as it flew half-way across the room before landing on a table in the middle of bunch of girls who then proceeded to panic as the wasted food splashed on them. Inciting a stampede that ended up knocking over a number of other students and leaving a fair portion of the student body on the ground, in piles, and covered in spilt food and drinks.

“Oh no.” He gasped before rushing over to try and help as many of the fallen students as he could. (I hope no one’s hurt too badly.)

Scene Consequences

-Jon’s ‘Nice Guy’ Reputation has increased around the school.

---

The entire mess in the cafeteria had taken an entire class period to clean up and make sure no one was hurt, while also putting a bit of damper on the day for everyone who’d been present for the pile up.

He couldn’t help but shake his head at the wasted lunch period, both from that mess and the fact that he’d wasted a fair portion of the period reading another trash book filled with what he knew had to be misinformation about healthy functioning human relationships.

Which is why he was hoping the book on non-humans he was buying would be a little more informative about things.

(Especially since half of my relationships are technically with non-humans.) He thought with a huff of amusement.

“What are you laughing about?” Samantha asked, taking the book from him.

“Nothing important.” He told her.

“Whatever.” Ms. Delacroix shrugged before smiling as she read, “Contractor’s Creature Compendium. You know this is actually one of our best selling books amongst non-magic users.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, everyone loves learning about all of the wild creatures out there in the multiverse.” Samantha explained, scanning the book. “I mean the animals on earth are cool and everything, but the guys this thing has are animals, magic, civilizations, and aliens all at once. That’s like four different niche topics right there.”

“Makes sense.” He nodded, since a couple of those topics were technically the reasons he was buying the book himself.

“Oh, before you go what’s your phone number?” Ms. Delacroix asked, handing the book over.

“Uh, why?” He couldn’t help but wonder as he pulled out his cell phone.

“We’ve got this whole weekly sale thing we do for our more regular customers so if you want I can put you on the weekly newsletter, so you know when certain stuff is cheaper than other things.” The shopkeeper offered, pulling out her pen and notepad.

“If it’s just a weekly text then… Sure, why not?” He shrugged, before giving her his phone number and saving the store’s number to his own.

“Cool, since it’s a mass text you’ll have to wait until Sunday, but you should start getting them every week from here on out.”

Scene Consequences

-Added to ‘Witches’ Wares Mailing List’, every 1st and 6th turn a new sale will be available for the remainder of that week.

-Gained Contractor’s Creature Compendium

--Reading this book counts as both Occult and Contracting training until both are Lv. 5. (Note: Other Book Bonuses do not stack with this.)

--If Occult or Contracting is Lv. 5 or higher, grants [Creature Codex] perk if read at least 5 times. (Currently read 0/5 times.)

---

“Alright, so we’re having another spar today?” Ying asked from next to their picnic as he summoned Wolf to the clearing.

“Sort of.” He admitted, giving Wolf a few pets as he welcomed her. “What I was really thinking is that it’d probably be good for all of us to go a few rounds with each other. I figure that way we can each get used to fighting different kinds of enemies while also seeing what we each can do. Oh, though that first part might not give you as much Wolf since Ying and I are both human.”

“Ish.” Ying tacked on, as Wolf gave him a reassuring whine of sorts.

“Well in that case it’ll be your job to patch each of us up between spars, alright Pix?” He asked, turning towards the little fairy who was currently sitting in the empty fifth of a blueberry pie tin. “Pix that was for everyone!”

The little fairy looked up from her food before giving him several buzzes and trills that he was fairly certain translated to something along the lines of, ‘But I need to keep my energy up if you want me to keep all of you healed.’

He simply narrowed his eyes at the little fairy. (You know what? I’m glad I didn’t tell you about that back-up pie.)

Shaking his head at the gluttonous little pixie, he turned his attention back to Ying and Wolf. “So who goes first?”

---

“How did I lose to both of you?!” Ying pouted while eating a sandwich.

“It-it’s not that bad.” He tried to reassure her, which only earned him a dragon-eyed glare.

“I don’t want to hear that from you.” Ying practically growled, her teeth sharpening as she said, “Not when you managed to beat Wolf and I both, at the same time.”

Even Wolf seemed a little down about that detail, the girls having decided that since they couldn’t beat him one-on-one, they’d try teaming up on him instead.

(Too bad I’m used to fighting four or five guys at once.) The Corrupted were very fond of swarming tactics. (Especially when half of those guys are wolves.)

From there all he’d really had to do was take advantage of his favorite tactic of throwing his enemies into their allies’ attacks. A tactic that he’d happily abused back in Blackwell once the more mystically inclined Corrupted had begun coming into play.

(His arrow pierced the corrupted bird, and he looked away as its bubble of spatial distortion collapsed crushing the three Corpses inside with a sickening squelch.)

(One end of his trip arrow pierced a Jack O'Lantern as the other pierced into a Bearserker pulling the much lighter humanoid Corrupted into the beast and setting them both ablaze in an explosion of flame that’s heat licked at him as the blazing beast bellowed it’s death.)

(Avoiding yet another lightning shot, he proceeded to pepper the crowd of corrupted with a set of metal shafted arrows, before the smell of cooking meat began to quickly fill the clearing as he watched his actions cook the Corrupted alive.)

He let out a shuddering breath, earning a concerned look from a healing Pix as he was suddenly glad neither of his combat companions had been throwing around things on par with the Corrupted. (Also, I need to make sure I never bring my bow and arrows to these spars.)

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Combat and Contracting

--Currently: Contracting Lv. 4 (2/10)

--*Skill Level Up* Combat Lv. 6 (0/14)

-*Pix Skill Level Up* Mending is now Lv. 7.