31 Suns

--- Jon ---

“Ah, I just remembered something I’ve been meaning to tell you all week.” His ma told him as they were coming to the end of their morning run with Brutus at their side. “You know how it’s October, and I told you about how hectic this month apparently gets, right?”

“Yeah?” He nodded, wondering where she was going with this.

“Well, apparently every Halloween when morale is a bit low after the rough month, a couple of the stations throw these parties to try and keep people somewhere relatively safe rather than wandering the streets.” His ma explained, in a way she reserved for when she was purposely trying to bury the lead.

“Given how crime spikes on Halloween, it’s probably a good idea all things considered.” He admitted. “I’m guessing your station is one of these ones throwing a party?”

“Yes, but that’s not the important part.” His ma told him with a smirk.

His face scrunched up a bit. “Then the important part is?”

“Apparently they do a yearly haunted house.” His ma smiled in a way that would frighten most.

“Oh!” He smiled himself, seeing exactly where she was going with this. “You volunteered to run it?”

“Of course.” His ma scoffed as if there was no other answer. “But that means we’ve got three weeks to put together something worth remembering.”

“You act like our Haunted Houses weren’t memorable.” He frowned, knowing that their yearly haunted houses had always been a hit in their old home town. (Well with the people brave enough to attend them anyway.)

“I mean this is our first haunted house in Santa Rosa,” His Ma reminded him. “we’ve got to give them something to make sure everyone knows the Whitakers have the best haunted house each year.”

“Ah, wait…” He grimaced, remembering just what happened during their last Halloween in their hometown. “We’re probably going to have to dial it back compared to our last one, aren’t we?”

His ma considered it for a moment, before dismissing his concern. “These are city folk I’m pretty sure they can handle a few scares better than those cowards out in the country.”

“If we’re lucky.” Because while he’d never made a Haunted House for Blackwell he doubted he could actually scare the country town that had portals to six different hells. “I just don’t want our first Haunted House here to get us banned from making another one within city limits again.”

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to reminiscing with Ma gained 2XP to Psych Warfare.

---Currently: Lv. 3 (6/8)

---

Knowing he still had a few hours until his meeting with Ying he took a seat beneath a tree in his usual clearing before taking out a book as Pix flew off to mess around with the various forest plants.

Given how he was trying to help Wolf with her Wolf Pack spell, as well as the fact that his little (pack) was beginning to grow to a decent enough size, he decided to try studying the vary concept of [Pack] something he felt shouldn’t be too hard given how many Hunters employed Pack tactics in the wild.

Based on what he could piece together through a mix of both DeSade and Miss Edna’s books, the concept of [Pack] -in the context that he was using- was one of the few ‘group’ concepts that functioned not as an individual Concept but rather a supplementary Concept to whatever he attached it to.

What this meant was that on its own the Concept was most effective if combined with another spell effect, something that would make said effect stronger the more people it was applied to, at the obvious cost of making it weaker individually.

(All things considered, this might actually make a cool experiment for those rings I got from Ms. Delacroix.) Though to use it to its full potential he’d need to start working on fusing two Concepts into a single spell formula, something just a little above his skill level at the moment. (Either way, I can still probably get something interesting even without a second concept fused into the enchantment.)

He just had to figure out how to let both Pix and Wolf wear the rings given their less than human nature. (Oh, and I’ll need to get a fourth ring if I wanted to include everyone in this.)

Figuring that was a problem for later, he turned back to his notes and soon realized that thanks to the nature of conceptuality there was technically a way for him to use this Concept for a spatial compression spell. (If I actually knew anything about Spatial magic anyway.)

It was one of the more difficult branches of magic to break into if one didn’t have a natural affinity for it. Something he didn’t, given how his [Hunter] affinity would influence the Concept of [Pack]. (Still I might be able to work in a weak affinity bonus, if I can ever crack Spatial magic.)

(A series of cracks echoed through the air as another spatial effect shattered packing the Corrupted Corpses into far too small of a space to fit them all.)

(Then again, I might want to hold off on that for a bit…) He thought with just a touch of trepidation as he remembered what happened when you messed up a spatial spell.

Scene Consequences

-New Concept: Pack learned 1 Tier beneath Hunter.

--Hunter > Pack

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

--Currently: Lv. 6 (5/14)

---

Having apparently grown bored of whatever she’d been doing, Pix decided to interrupt his reading session by zapping him. It didn’t necessarily hurt -(at least when compared to a bullet)- but it was still fairly annoying, and did force him to look up from his notes.

“You do know there are better ways of getting my attention, right?” He asked the little fairy dryly.

In response, Pix gave him a number of buzzing and trilling sounds while pointing at him and herself, before putting her fists up and punching the air.

“You… you want to spar?” He blinked incredulously, earning a determined nod from the little fairy. “Why exactly do you want to spar?”

Pix continued her buzzing and trilling with a notably more frustrated tone -as well as fewer gestures- making it relatively difficult for him to decipher what she was telling him.

“So… you’re… jealous that I’m sparring with Wolf and Ying?” He attempted to translate.

Rather than confirming or denying, the little fairy gave him an angry huff before glaring at him as she began to charge up two bolts of magic in her hands.

“Fine.” He sighed. “We can spar if you really want to…” (Not that I’m actually going to try and hurt you.) The little fairy was just a touch too… delicate for that.

In response -as well as probably catching his unspoken caveat- Pix threw both of the bolts in her hands, zapping him. Or rather zapping where he would’ve been if he hadn’t dodged to the side. “Going to have to try better than that if you want to hit me, Pix.”

Scene Consequences

-Pix spent 8MP during this spar.

-*Pix Power Level Up* Zap Lv. 4

---

Once the little fairy had exhausted herself from trying -and failing- to zap him, he wrapped her in a little baby blanket he’d bought for her and handed her a cookie about half of her size, completely unphased by the glare she leveled upon him the entire time.

“You good now?” He smirked.

Pix narrowed her eyes before taking a bite out of her cookie and turning away from him with a ‘hmph’.

“Alright, just let me know if you want another cookie.” He told her, giving the pouting Pix a pat between her antenna.

“Speaking of, do you want one?” He asked, holding a cookie out to where Ying had been trying to (loudly) sneak up on him.

“Why not?” Ying sighed, accepting the cookie and taking a bite. “Mm, chocolate chip.”

“Mmhm.” He nodded. “Anyway since you said there was something you were wondering about magic wise I brought a bunch of my books to try and help you out.”

“I can see that.” Ying admitted, looking over the dozen or so books that would not have fit in a regular backpack.

“So, uh, what was the thing you wanted me to look into exactly?”

“Ah, yes.” Ying blinked, before finishing off her cookie. “Your Contracting, I’ve so far seen you use it to summon both Pix and Wolf I’m curious what else you can do with it.”

“Uh, what do you mean?” He frowned. “It’s mostly about making deals with magical creatures and summoning them to you in exchange for an alternative magic supply.”

“Mostly?” Ying pressed.

“Well, there’s thing DeSade’s books talk about, where you can make a Contract with a non-summon, to create a magical bond with them to use further spells.” He tried to explain, picking the book in question out of his pile. “I honestly didn’t really look into it since the whole thing seemed a little too close to his whole ‘Devil of Blackwell’ thing.”

“It fits his theme at the very least.” Ying admitted, as he flipped through the book. “Though it does make me wonder what exactly you could do with said connection.”

“Probably the same stuff I can do with my summons.” He shrugged, before finally finding what he was looking for. “Ah, here we go. ‘Contracting possesses two main schools of use: Summoning and Dealmaking.

While both of these schools revolve around the art of forming a magical bond to another entity, Summoning focuses on summoning creatures through the Arcane Nexus. An immense Spell Engine developed by some of the most powerful entities within Arcane lore as a means of promoting inter-species peace as travel between worlds became more common.

In contrast, Dealmaking revolves around the use of this magical bond to apply spells -be they harmful or beneficial- directly to another’s Spell System without fear of spell rejection, allowing both curses and blessings to be given to the Contractee depending on a number of safeguards established within the Contract.’” He finished reading, before turning back to Ying who seemed to be deep in thought about something. “Uh, Ying?”

The draconian teen blinked, before looking at him. “Yes?”

“Did that help you with whatever you were wondering about?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh, I believe it does.” Ying smiled, with a few too many pointed teeth.

“Uh, great.” He nodded a little warily. “In that case-”

“I’d like you to make a Contract with me.”

“W-what?” He frowned. “I don’t think I can… what?”

“You just said you can use Dealmaking to circumvent a person’s Spell System and apply spells to them, did you not?”

“Er, yeah.” He admitted, some small part of him feeling like doing so was a bad idea, but another large part feeling a morbid sense of curiosity.

“Well, in that case, we might be able to use this to work around my Incarnate restrictions.” Ying explained, her eyes taking a mildly draconic appearance. “Admittedly I’d still be limited to whatever magic you can apply through the Contract but if you can figure out how to apply a Contract similar to your summons…”

“I could summon you and return you to my position.” He finished, figuring out her gameplan. “Meaning you’d be able to leave your house whenever you want rather than just when your mom let’s you.”

Ying grimaced. “While that would be the ideal outcome, in reality it’ll likely only give me another hour or two each week, given how she’s still trying to fill my schedule and keep me restricted to the house.”

“That’s…”

“It is what it is.” Ying dismissed. “Still every moment of freedom counts, and if I can get a few more by forming a Contract with you.”

“Then it’s worth it.” He agreed without hesitation.

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Book Bonus and Ying’s curiosity gained 3XP to Contracting.

--Contracting has been updated to Contracting: Summons.

---Currently: Contracting: Summons Lv. 4 (6/10).

-For learning a major detail about a magical art, gained 1XP to Occult.

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

-New Companion Quest: Ying’s Free Deal- Figure out how to form a Contract with Ying.

--First Task: Look into Contracting: Dealmaker.