26 Suns

--- Jon ---

“You know you’re being a lot more delicate with that than I was expecting.” His ma admitted, as he used his knife to dismantle the (sixth) trap his ma had set around the house.

“You trapped my kitchen.” He pointed out.

“And your room,” His ma nodded before continuing her list with “the bathroom, the living room, and well everywhere but my room really.”

“Yeah, and that is perfectly fine.” He told her, slipping his knife through a small crevice in the frame of what he thought was a (smoke bomb?) “I don’t have any problem stepping around those wires or just flat out cutting through them and stepping out of the way.”

“But they’re not the kitchen.” His ma finished with a roll of her eyes.

“If I set any of these off it’ll make a mess of the kitchen and I won’t be able to cook until I’ve cleaned the resulting mess.” He explained, defusing the (yep, smoke bomb) before frowning as he realized, (it’s flour based, she got into my pantry!)

“You know we could always just pick up breakfast somewhere else, like that burger place that does the-” His ma tilted her head out of a knife’s path, letting it pierce the wall with a dull ‘thunk’. “I’m going to take that as a no.”

“That’s a good idea.” He admitted, using his back-up knife to sever the trip chord that had been rigged to the milk.

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Knives and Trapmaking

--Currently: Knives Lv. 3 (4/8) and Trapmaking Lv. 8 (12/18)

---

Once his ma was on her way to work he made his way towards his room and got to work on the missing piece needed to complete the spell script that would hopefully solve Pix’s magic shortage.

Flipping open Arcane Affinities for an Arcane Apprentice, he skipped over the opening section -since De Sade had made sure he knew how to study affinities outside of his own- and flipped to the first concept in the book ‘magic’. Or rather the concept of (distilled) magic, given how the section in question was all about learning how to remove one’s own affinities from their innate magic. A feat that surprisingly enough would actually be easier for him because he wasn’t an Arcane.

Due to the fact that his magic was gathered by his amulet rather than an innate spell system, he only had to keep whatever magic he drew from the amulet from being affected by his affinities. While Arcane on the other hand had to first extract their affinities from the magic and then keep their affinities from re-influencing it.

(Finally something Practitioners can do better.) A part of him thought bitterly.

Now the reason such an advanced sounding technique was recommended as one of the first for both Arcane and Practitioners to learn was due to the fact that learning how to extract one’s affinities from their magic made learning concepts outside of their affinities notably easier.

Which explained why De Sade taught him how to do it while he was learning [Heat], [Warm], and [Cool], but not why the man didn’t teach him the [Magic] concept itself.

(He probably wanted me to figure it out on my own, and I shouldn’t complain since he taught me three concepts in a single day.) He figured with a sigh as he remembered the way his head had been pounding after that mental exercise. (At the very least learning Concepts I had an affinity for got easier after that.)

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he forced away the headache that that memory had drudged up and instead focused on the part of the book pertaining to the symbology linked to the [Magic] concept and necessary for anyone trying to use it in Enchanting or Script Craft.

Scene Consequences

New Concept Learned: Magic

-For learning a new Concept +1XP to Occult.

--Currently: Lv. 6 (2/14)

---

It took him a couple of hours to work everything out, but eventually he was sure he had a basic layout for his MP Charge Script, or at least the parts he could make without Pix’s assistance.

(Thinking of… ) “Hey, Pix! I need your help with something.” He told the little fairy, and when he didn’t get an immediate response he took a glance around his room. “Pix?”

Seeing a glow coming from the plants he’d set up as a makeshift garden, or rather the plants he was just now realizing had managed to overtake both his window sill and a decent portion of the space beneath it in just under a month.

(Pix does good work.) He’d already known that, but still.

Walking over he found Pix using her magic to finish growing a few of the plants he was most familiar with using back in Blackwell.

“Hey these look just about ready to harvest.” He told her, once she finished.

The little fairy nodded as she began to happily trill about the garden.

“That’s fantastic, and if this stuff works the way that most anima-enhanced plants do then this also means anything else we put in it will grow much faster.” He smiled, rubbing a finger between Pix’s fuzzy little antenna. “You’ve done a really good job here pix.”

The little fairy puffed up in pride as she basked in his praises.

“In fact you’ve done such a good job that I’m going to bake you whole blueberry pie all to yourself.” He told her, earning an exciting chirping of his own as Pix did several loop-de-loops through the air before darting out of the room.

(Guess she wants that pie now.) He laughed to himself before following her to the kitchen.

Scene Consequences

-Garden is now active.

--At the start of each week (Turns that end in 1 or 6.) Jon will automatically harvest a small sample of plants from the garden.

--Current Plant Slots in use (3/5)

---Note: A plant slot must be switched out at least 3 turns before a harvest to be available for that harvest.

---Current Plants: 1 Anima-enhanced Plants, 1 Mystical Medicinal Herb of Blackwell, and 1 Poisonous Plant of Blackwell.

-Garden management has been added to Magic Menu

-Pix’s Nature Manipulation has leveled up.

--Currently: Lv. 3

-Grown a bit closer to Pix.

---

Once Pix had settled down with a few blueberries to munch on while her pie baked in the oven, he herded the little fairy back into his room so he could show her the script he’d been working on.

“Alright, now theoretically this should allow you to rapidly build a small amount of magic to help refill your system.” He started explaining while holding up an otherwise blank notebook card he’d drawn the spell script on. “The problem though, is that in order to get this particular script to work I need you to infuse it with your [Mend] concept.”

Pix nodded once before tilting her head and giving a curious trill between bites of her berries.

“It’s basically the same thing as when we’re doing an enchanting project together.” He told her, before pointing to a pair of quarter sized circles on each end of the card. “The circles are a bit smaller than usual because of the paper I’m working with, but the main idea is the same. You just need to push your concept into here until the whole thing is glowing and changes color.”

Admittedly it was significantly more complicated than that on his end, and he was fairly certain this script might actually be a fair bit above his pay grade, but he was nothing if not determined. (Especially when it comes to my friends and family.)

Pix finished off the last of her berry before cleaning her hands off and floating over to the card where she set her hands along the circle’s edge and began pushing her magic into the spell circuit at the same time that he began pushing his own into the opposite circle.

Merging two different concepts was significantly different from simply applying a single concept to an enchantment, or even using his contract bond to fuel said enchantment. And despite not knowing how to actually use two concepts without Pix’s help, those two techniques had given him a decent starting point for creating this make-shift script.

Unfortunately that starting point wasn’t enough to keep the notebook card from catching fire.

(Not supposed to happen, not supposed to happen!) He told himself, while rushing the card to his bathroom sink to put it out.

Pix gave him a trill that he couldn’t tell if it was sad because the script failed, or disappointed that he’d set something on fire without meaning to again.

“Um… I uh, I wasn’t actually expecting the first script to work.” He admitted, pulling a handful of cards he’d spent the day making. “Which is why I made these to try and brute force it.”

The little fairy that was maybe a sixth of his size gave him an unimpressed look that made him feel surprisingly small.

“I’ll make you a second pie if you help me.”

Scene Consequences

-Made (Makeshift) MP Charge Script (x3)

--Allows a character to temporarily spike their MP production allowing them to generate the next turn’s MP immediately. (Can only be used once per turn, per character with a natural recharge.)

-Gained 1XP to Script Crafting.

--Currently: Lv. 3 (5/8)

-Pix’s Magic Assistant skill has leveled up.

--Currently: Lv. 5