Trail 50: A Friendly Day Full of Ups and Downs.

--- Jon ---

“Alright, that should just about do it.” His Ma nodded, stepping away from a machine. “How’re the cameras looking?”

“Everything is looking good.” He told her, his eyes flickering between the two dozen or so cameras set up around the station. “Though I’ve got to wonder, why wasn't the station rigged with this many cameras in the first place?”

“They claim it's because all of the important parts are covered by the cameras they have and having more would needlessly split the security’s attention.” His Ma answered before explaining that, “The real reason is that before I brought internal affairs down on this place like a sledgehammer, the cops wanted a way to avoid getting caught doing shady shit such as forcing confessions from the uninvolved or accepting bribes to release arrests before interrogations.”

“Which explains why there are no cameras outside of the interrogation rooms, and the ones inside them conveniently avoid recording half of the room.” He frowned.

“Yeah, those things are hard built at those angles. I'd actually have to take a sledgehammer to them to get them changed.” His Ma sighed. “On the plus side, at the very least I got them to put cameras throughout the holding cells. So inmates aren’t getting any more… unexpected visits at least.”

“I guess that’s something.” He shrugged, before frowning as he went over the controls. “Hey, did we mark the ones we aren’t supposed to use on kids?”

His Ma blinked. “We’re letting kids run this thing?”

“We always let kids run these! That’s why I made the color chart!” He reminded her because, (How could she forget that?!)

His Ma glanced at the trap map they’d set up, and that he’d then covered in colored outlines. “I thought that was to measure the scariest traps?”

“It is!” He nodded. “That way we know what not to send the kids into.”

“Again, I was mostly intending to use this to scare my co-workers into submission.” His ma pointed out.

“Just… just give me those colored markers.” He told her, running a hand down his face.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to helping(/restraining) Ma’s haunted house gained 1XP to Psych Warfare and Childcare.

--*Skill Level Up* Psych Warfare Lv. 5 (0/12)

--Currently: Trap Making Lv. 7 (8/16)

---

Their current project had originally spiraled out of some conversation they’d had about using magic as a cooking implement, at which point he’d brought up a small enchanted oven he’d once made at camp with Miss Edna. From there Daisy had proposed creating something smaller and more situational, while Travis had helped him refine his [Warm] enchantment with a weak [Water] enchantment that would allow it to recycle and reheat any moisture trapped within the paper.

After applying this enchantment to a few dozen sheets of baking paper they proceeded to make a simple dough that they broke into different batches and rolled around until they became smooth little balls of dough before wrapping them in the baking paper and setting the enchantments off.

Roughly an hour later they had more than a dozen steamed buns, cooked at various ratios to get the recipe just right.

“It’s a shame we’ll have to toss half of these batches for being over or undercooked though.” Travis frowned looking at the buns that hadn’t worked out as intended.

“Hmm, if we recook the undercooked ones, I could hand them out to some of the homeless people around my neighborhood on my way home.” He offered. “That’s what I made too many things to eat myself.”

“Ah, that’s so sweet!” Daisy smiled before clapping. “Ooh, if we’re going to do that we should go all out and give them a real treat. Let’s make another batch but fill this one with meats, jellies, and veggies!”

“You going to be okay doing that on your own?” Travis asked. “I know some of the city’s homeless can be a bit rough, if they’re in Dealer territory.”

“If I’m the one giving them food I doubt there will be too much of a problem.” He shrugged. “Besides, I'm technically in Mad Dog territory so there are fewer drugs on my street corner.”

“If we get Tru involved I’m sure he and his people would love to help. After all, a lot of his guys are homeless people he took off the streets.” Daisy told them.

“Maybe, but I’m not sure if I want to get him involved in organizing this kind of thing.” Travis admitted with a grimace. “If you remember he tends to escalate things like this until they go out of control.”

“That’s why I’ll call his mom to organize instead.” Daisy assured them.

“Well, if my Ma was involved I’d be on my best behavior.” He shrugged taking a bite out of another steamed bun.

Scene Consequences

-For attending cooking club gained 1XP to Cooking and Enchanting.

--Currently: Cooking Lv. 9 (9/20) and Enchanting Lv. 4 (9/10)

---

“Oh, shit!” Noctis cursed before immediately leaping away to a small patch of shadows.

“W-what’s wrong?” He asked, heart pounding as he watched the monster pat at his smoking arm.

“Fuck, it’s the daylight.” He answered glaring at the sky before turning his gaze onto Jon. “Why would you summon me in daylight?”

“Uh, why wouldn’t I?” He frowned in a mix of concern and confusion.

“I’m a ‘monster under the bed’.” Noctis rolled his eyes, as if that explained everything. When he eventually realized it didn’t, he elaborated. “My people only come out at night, and light wards us off. Broad daylight outright burns our skin. If not for wearing a second skin I’d be covered in burns right now.”

“Oh, that’s bad.” He couldn’t help but grimace. “If you want Pix can patch you up? She’s got healing magic?” He offered, causing his little fairy friend to perk up at her name call.

“Nah, don’t need that. Will heal before the sunsets.” Noctis dismissed before looking around the park clearing. “So, uh, why exactly did you summon me? Doesn’t look like anything is going on.”

“I figured I should uh, get to know you before asking you to fight for me?” He tried to explain, only realizing how bad it sounded after he said it.

Noctis gave a snort of amusement. “Yeah, you don’t need to bother. As long as you point me at some creep hurting kids, you don’t really gotta offer me much else.”

“Oh, but uh, isn’t there something you want for your help or something I can offer you as thanks?” He asked.

“A child killer’s head on a silver platter?” Noctis shrugged before shaking his head. “Like I said, all that really matters to me is protecting kids. I don’t really need anything else from you, beyond knowing there’s another Bogeyman out there keeping them safe.”

“Oh, that’s… Hmm…” He frowned.

Eventually Noctis gave him a sigh. “Look I get what you’re trying to do here being all friendly and junk, but at the end of the day there’s only one thing I want.”

His eyes narrowed a bit. “And that is?”

“To watch those monsters bleed.” The monster answered with an inhuman growl as he showed off his many, many teeth.

Noctis licked his teeth, tucking them away as his mouth returned to normal. “Honestly, I’m not looking for any of this kumbaya garbage. I’m not looking for a friend, I’m just looking for someone who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty for those who don’t even know what that means.”

“That’s…”

The monster gave the clearing another once over, before giving him a look. “If there are no kids in danger, and we’re not going to be terrorizing any creeps I’m going to go ahead and head back before I get a sunburn.”

“I, uh… Alright… I guess…” He stuttered out, not really sure what else there was to say as he began to dismiss the monster.

“Cool.” Noctis nodded before pointing a finger gun at him. “And don’t forget if you do run into any creeps make sure I’m at the top of your summoning list.”

“I… right.” He nodded back as the monster dissipated into a swirl of magical motes.

Pix landed on his shoulder with a curious look, picking up on his mood.

“Well that was a bust.” He sighed.

Scene Consequences

-Jon understands Noctis a bit better.

---

After that trainwreck, he decided that instead of simply letting the day go to waste, he’d instead try summoning a spirit as described by his Arcane Shamanism with the time he’d set aside for trying to befriend Noctis. The only problem was that after several hours this was proving just as difficult for him, as befriending the self-proclaimed monster.

“What am I getting wrong here?” He asked the world around him as he went over his notes while staring at the Spell Circuit he’d put together based on said notes.

Pix gave him a shrug for whatever that was worth.

“Right…” He sighed, deciding to go over everything once more. “So, from the looks of it I’m supposed to manipulate my magic in a way that attracts the spirits to me. At which point I entice the spirit into working with me, which the effectiveness of is dependent on which spirits I end up summoning.”

His books had gone a fair bit more into it than that, but he could on some level understand why Arcane Shamanism was considered one of the more advanced forms of magic. At least in comparison to what he’d already been studying.

“So the first step is figuring out how my magic can attract a spirit.” He told himself, having figured that out a fair bit ago, but still drawing a blank on just how to do that. “Any ideas Pix?”

Pix tilted her head and closed her eyes in thought for a moment before leaping into the air and landing on the spell circuit where she began to glow the way she did whenever using her magic.

After a few seconds of this the circuit began to eat her magic and give off little motes of green light, something that the book assured him was a sign that the circuit was working properly.

(Okay, she’s channeling her magic into the circuit.) He observed with a frown. (I did the same thing, but when I did it there wasn’t any magic involved. So what’s she doing differently?)

Watching on he noticed several of the motes beginning to coalesce into a larger mote before taking on the shape of a small chubby insect creature wearing a loose coat and hat made of leaves.

The creature -that he assumed was a nature spirit- looked around curiously before gently inching through the air towards the little fairy, revealing that the creature just barely came up to her hip when put next to each other.

Pix leapt into the air before doing a loop-de-loop as she began to chirp happily, to both him and the nature spirit that was looking increasingly overwhelmed.

Looking between the pair and the circle, what he was doing wrong eventually clicked in his head.

“I’m supposed to add a magical affinity to the circuit.” He couldn’t help but groan before giving the magic circle another once over and quickly finding the section where a generic ‘determine affinity’ type of symbology was used.

Meaning that for people with an innate form of magic -(such as Pix)- the circuit would naturally draw spirits based on the user’s affinity, but because he was a Practitioner filtering his magic through the circuit it couldn’t determine his actual affinity. Or at the very least there were no spirits connected to the concepts of [Hunter], [Moon], or [Defender] present in the circuit’s search range.

“Alright, that’s a significantly easier fix than I was expecting…” He sighed, before realizing he had a curious observer in the nature spirit.

“Well, hello there little guy.” He greeted the spirit with a little wave earning a two armed wave in return. “My name’s Jon, uh, what’s yours?”

The spirit stared at him curiously with a tilt of its head, seemingly not understanding him. (Which it probably doesn't, given how the spirit isn’t human, and thus has no reason to know English.)

Giving the little spirit another once over he decided, “I’m going to call you Leaf. How’s that sound?”

Leaf gave him a little bobble of its head, perhaps not understanding the meaning of his words but at least picking up on the friendly tone he was using.

“Well, then Leaf, it’s nice to meet you.” He told the little spirit, holding his hand out towards it.

Leaf gave him another little head bobble before grabbing one of his fingers with four of the spirit’s little hands and shaking it.

Scene Consequences

-With Pix’s assistance Jon not only met but also befriended [Young Nature spirit] Leaf.

--Leaf will respond to Jon’s call so long as he is in the Forest Park.

-Jon can now seek out spirits of Affinities he knows. (Note: Some affinities may be harder to find, or beyond Jon’s level to keep calm.)

-A/N: Max number of spirits at a time and the distance they’re willing to go from their home are based on Skill Level, Perks, and relationship with a particular spirit.

--Current Capacity: (Shamanism + Occult = 10) Levels of Spirit.

--Current Distance: 100 Meters */ Relationship Level. (Negative = Divide.)

-Gained 1XP to Arcane Shamanism

--Currently: Lv. 3 (2/8)

-Pix has gained a level in Magical Assistant. (Lv. 7 > Lv. 8)