An explosion rocks the core of my being as the flow of potential reverses. I couldn't subdue Debra thanks to the lies I had made to her during our reconciliation. But Breath had given me the answer I needed. To complete the reconciliation I needed to coopt, not fight ,Debra on what she wants. I needed to grow from within, to make place for Debra in my heart.

In short, I needed to make a sincere effort in making Debra's crazy furry dream come true.

Debra senses this, and the pilfered potential is almost instantly returned to me. My strength rapidly returns and Debra's presence fades as well, merging with me, altering my very foundation. Shutting my eyes, I grab on to my first day of orientation at the Academy.

.......

You weren't interested in joining any clubs.

"No." I agree with my heart, "But I had one great unspoken desire."

The dog man stands in front of me, looking on expectantly, his tail waving up and down in a friendly gesture.

"Hello paw friend!" the dog man exclaims, "No need to be shy. I can tell you're interested."

"Is that a real tail? Or like a butt plug?" I ask, forcing away my disgust. In the original past, I kept my distance from the furry freaks in the Academy. But now, I had a good reason to seek them out.

"Its a real tail." the dog man preens proudly, "The ears? The nose? All real. None of it is makeup paw friend. None of us need a fur suit here."

"And why is that?" I ask, already knowing the answer. There's a reason why the Academy had a population of furries in the first place.

"Magic." the dog man taps the black diamond insignia woven on my uniform's blazer, "Its not easy learning the spell work to bring out our true selves, but its worth it."

My entire body shakes from suppressed excitement and the dog man grins happily. But its not my excitement on display. Its Debra's. This is exactly what she wants.

"I might be interested, yeah." I murmur back, scratching the back of my head, "Sounds like something up my alley."

"There's a problem though." the dog man frowns worriedly as he eyes me over, "Your powers are pretty weak. I don't think you'll be able to learn the polymorph spell, especially in addition to the required two sorcerer spells needed to graduate."

The dog man's image wavers like a mirage and I quickly seize hold of the flashback again. This is bad. I'm losing my grip on the reconciliation process.

You don't have enough potential to pull this off.

"I'm willing to put in the additional hours." I reply hopefully, trying to sell my candidacy to the dog man.

"Its not that." he says, scratching the luxuriant golden fur lining his chin, "To become a full member of our club, you need to master the polymorph spell. And from looking at you, my guess is that you're just scratching by as a sorcerer trainee. Two spells is your limit."

"I could just learn polymorph as part of the main curriculum." I point out to the dog man.

"Sorry, but polymorph is an elective." the dog man shakes his head, "The Academy says there are more relevant spells to learn, but personally? I chalk it up to prejudice against us."

"Yeah." I agree, racking my mind for another way forward.

We're running out of time.

"You said full member?" I shoot back, seizing the opening, "There are so few of us already, you can't be restricting membership to trainee sorcerers only."

"Yes. We do have associate members. Members who still need fur suits and make up." the dog man nods, "But I must warn you, associate membership's not an attractive proposition. You won't get club credits for one, so all the time you spend with us would be wasted. And we will be expecting you to spend plenty of time."

"What do you mean?" I query, pressing forward.

"You'll have all the duties of a club member, but get none of the extra-curricular credits." the dog man explains, "And you'll need to attend the polymorph classes as well."

"Why?" I demand, "We both know I can't afford to spend the spell slot learning it."

"The classes teach the Minor Polymorph cantrip as well." the dog man continues, "Its simple enough anybody who can wield Skills can learn it. But the work involved is tedious and the results are frankly rather useless."

"Useless? How?" I lean forward, nearly touching the dog man's moist nose.

"You'll still need a fur suit and makeup, even with minor polymorph." the dog man grimaces slightly, "So the results really aren't that great. And the Academy won't grade you on minor polymorph either. So it won't add to your year end grade for graduation."

"Oh." I say, but Debra is positively jumping with excitement. Getting ditched by Carol deprived Debra of her dream. This solution is certainly a step back, but she's more than willing to accept it.

"So I understand if you're having second thoughts -" the dog man gives me a regretful look.

"SOLD!" I shout at the top of my voice to his surprise.

"Uh, really?" the dog man mutters in confusion, "We're asking a lot from you. And I mean, a lot. You'll be getting nothing from joining us. Seriously."

"This is my dream." I grab the dog man's paws enthusiastically, "Even to achieve it halfway is more than I expected. I'm willing to put the work in. I really am."

"I understand." the dog man blinks, tears coming from his eyes, "Its hell, isn't it? Trapped in a body not our own. We would be honored to have you on board, Adam."

And with those words, Debra's potential settles completely. And another bottleneck is broken through.

Reconciliation successful

......

"It hurts!" Carol shrieks as the last of Debra's potential is pulled out of her. With the cracking of bone, her beast woman form violently begins to regress. As Carol's skeleton compresses back to Buddy's original size, I take advantage of her distraction and throw the fox off me. Grabbing the casting focus with my good hand, I'm just in time to meet Carol bounding at me again, her gait lopsided thanks to her distorted body.

"Soul fire won't do you any good!" Carol crows triumphantly.

"Who said anything about Soul Fire?" I snarl, recalling the new memories blooming in my mind. The hours of remedial lessons I spent with the furry club trying to become my "true" self.

Hours well spent.

"Minor polymorph!" I shout and a jolt of power runs down my good arm. The muscles grow sinewy, with patches of fur sprouting out at irregular intervals. My fingers become stubby, with a set of claws exploding out of the tips.

Debra called herself Tammy the Tiger. I don't have the power to fully incarnate her delusion. So both of us have settled on the off brand, barely acceptable imitation.

With feline speed, my arm whips out, raking Carol's face with the claws. Blood flies as she staggers back, nursing her wounds. But I don't give her any respite. Again and again, my claws tear away at Carol. With my arm's new speed and the close quarters we're fighting at, Carol has no way to dodge. She desperately backs away, flailing desperately, but a solid kick from me sends her sprawling into the dirt.

"Wha? How?" Carol mutters, dazed. Blood drips from her wounds, mixing with the dust.

"They called me Adam the Housecat in school." I taunt, "Don't mess with the cat or you get the claws."

"Housecat. Housecat!" Carol laughs deliriously, "So that's what that vision meant! Is this how things are supposed to end?"

"Get back up." I sneer, "You wanted this fight. So let's fight."

"Don't be so smug." Carol growls as she settles on her haunches, "I can still move faster than you, Adam. Let's see how you scratch me if your legs can't keep up."

Carol breaks into a run, circling me at lightning fast speed. With no way for me to catch up with her, my new claws are useless. She would just keep looping round me until there's an opening, before finishing the duel with one final lunge. The Bioform pack grows silent, realizing that this is the deciding moment. Carol's scarred fox face breaks into a grin. I raise my casting focus in response.

And see the cosmos as a whole.

Soul fire erupts from the focus, but I channel it through the minor polymorph spell. My arm grows as rigid as steel, the magic travelling down the veins and igniting at the tips of my claws. A potent, undeniable force seizes me, pulling me unerringly toward Carol. This is the power of Soul Fire. The ability to strike any opponent by fiat alone.

"No!" Carol yells in despair as my body is flung towards her, the claws slashing straight for her chest, cleaving through her meat and sinking deep.

"Die." I whisper, "So that I can live."

And Carol throws up a glut of blood all over me.

......

Psyko posted:

So guys, I've been playing the new duel mode, where you fight other player avatars controlled by the game. Has anybody gotten past the hidden custom scenario? The one with Adam as the boss?

Hard Rock posted:

What custom scenario? Duel mode is entirely procedural.

Megamax posted:

Oh! I know this. Yeah, there's a hidden scenario in duel mode. Its randomly triggered though. I only got it once. Couldn't get past Adam too.

Psyko posted:

I know how to trigger it. Select the Fox ranger companion as your character. Then select Badlands as the arena and Army Battle as the duel type. Anything else can be set as random. When the duel starts, you should see the stat boosting item merchant right in front of you. If you don't, it means the custom scenario didn't trigger, just restart until you see him. Talk to him and he'll give you a map waypoint. Go there and the battle will start.

Megamax posted:

Thanks!

Hard Rock posted:

What's so tough about this Adam?

Psyko posted:

He isn't tough, at least not at first. The army battle is easy. Adam's army is made out of civilians, you will rip through them with no problem at all. You'll get enough exp to unlock your war form. Grab it, because you'll need it. Even that's not enough though.

Megamax posted:

Adam's a low level sorcerer. His spells will plink at you and he's got a gun that hurts, but not really a problem. His gimmick is that he's got a phase change at 50% health. Once he changes phase, you will be hit with a massive debuff and Adam gets a new melee attack that he spams at close range. He also has a new leaping attack that always hits if you try to back off.

Psyko posted:

A real dick move. You're encouraged to close with him because of his spells and his phase change takes you by surprise. I can't beat him with my nerfed stats because his attacks are much faster. I can't use the fox's lunge because Adam will just interrupt me with that auto hit jump attack. Its impossible!

Gitgudscrub posted:

Adam isn't impossible. I've beaten him before.

Megamax posted:

Are you that streamer guy?

Gitgudscrub posted:

Yes. The gimmick of the scenario is in its name. "Blood of the Guilty." Meaning you can only shed the blood of the only guilty person on the battlefield, Adam.

Psyko posted:

But then I can't level up.

Gitgudscrub posted:

That's a trap. Adam doesn't debuff you when he changes phase. He takes all the experience you got from killing innocent civilians and transfers it to himself. You need to check the battle log to learn this, but its recorded there. If you don't kill any civilians, Adam can't change phase at all.

Psyko posted:

Wow.

Gitgudscrub posted:

Adam is beatable even if you're just level one. He's pretty pathetic once you don't engage on his terms. The whole scenario is some kind of moral lesson I think.

Megamax posted:

About not sinking to your enemy's level?

Gitgudscrub posted:

Dunno. I'm just here to play video games.