Zoom was again annoyed by the system when they finished recompiling, they'd decided to properly log all the abilities of [Energy Manipulation] and turn them into a rudimentary API.
The system was pretty obvious in rewarding the activity, it wanted them to internalize the skill. They weren't sure whether the skill itself was somehow hazardous, a way to collect information on them or simply a carrot to lure them along, but they weren't going to fall for it.
Still they needed the actual skill, so for now all they did was sandbox the API and data with as much isolation they could manage without physical components
"Oh come the fuck on! YOU THINK I'M STUPID?", Zoom shouts
"Everything OK? ARE YOU OK?", a panicked fox lady calls from the intercom
"Huh? Oh yeah, just letting the new system know it isn't going to outsmart me"
"Um, why does your system need to know that?"
"Shit, you're right, no need to give away the game!"
Hemlock goes quiet at that and after a minute Zoom gets started on separating Ember and Quinn without a case of explosive self-decommissioning with an cheery hum, happy that the fox lady gets it.
Scarlet turns back to the room exasperated, "I don't get it"
She makes eye contact with Esther, "Is there something wrong with their system?"
Her Godmother makes a complicated face and shakes her head, "It isn't their current system they have an issue with. Remember they aren't [Fey Folk], they weren't born into their system", she looks at Joyful Whispers, "Though I can't speak much on that either."
"I don't understand though", Scarlet switches to the gaunt sage, "All the [First Fey] I know love their system an almost inappropriate amount"
She can feel Whispers' deep chuckle in her chest, "My system is really quite nice, I recently unlocked the ability to harmonize my musical accompaniment with the local astral conditions!"
"Not bad, mine harmonizes to the elemental realms", Morgan interjects, "Didn't really get good until I discovered electric guitars though"
Whispers nods at the orc, "Hard to imagine you listening to any other type of music now that you mention it."
"Circling back to your question though", Whispers returns to Scarlet, "The reason why we love our systems so much is because we all had to live with a horrible one first."
The humor leaves his face a bit, "It takes a bit to rebuild trust and the journey isn't easy. For the moment we'll let them focus on figuring out their selves", he shoots Scarlet a reassuring smile, "and then we'll help them figure out their place in a new and kinder world."
"A beautiful and fitting sentiment from our wise [Spirit Sage]", Virabell announces in a deadpan voice, "How are we feeling about the forming rupture in reality though?", she finishes while pointing at one of the console readouts just before several alarms start to go off.
Scarlet dashes to the console, but levels are already back within safety parameters.
"Whoopsie, fucked that one up", the intercom squawks, "Figured out what went wrong though, so no biggie!"
Scarlet takes a deep breath while rechecking the values.
"[Grand Sage] Virabell, do-", she starts, "Just Vira, I don't have the patience for all that", the sage interrupts with a dismissive wave.
"Umm yes, miss Virabell, do you think we can get normal shielding back up?"
"Drop the miss and I'll allow the bell", the pixie grumps, "The arrays are restarting, but they'll need a couple of minutes."
Scarlet starts to nod only for a second set of alarms to interrupt.
Emergency reports show a massive amount of kinetic energy, the only reason part of the shield survived was because most of it was concentrated in a vortex within the chamber. It started small in the middle, but had quickly grown to the edges of the chamber where it shredded her shielding before it all got sucked back into the dark void at the center of the room.
The intercom crackles back on, "Hah! Guess that doesn't work either, but no worries, just a bit of trial and error!"
Scarlet gulps as the emergency shields come back online and she shuts off the alarm. Her hand hand shoots to the talk button, but she pauses just before hitting it. If this was Ember she would've shouted at her to stop, but she had no idea how Zoom would react, they tended to react explosively to boundaries when they were a ferret, but she had no idea how they would act while awake. Let alone in this situation.
Her hand begins to shake a bit as she tries to think of something to say that is both encouraging and warning and loving and clear and reassuring and appropriate and...
Titania's hand slips under hers, hitting the small button, "Zoom sweetie, would you mind giving us a few minutes to get shielding working again?"
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Sure, of course, no problem, safety first!", they reply as Scarlet shoots a thankful look at the tall regent.
The shields come back up and Zoom brings them down again, just for the [Grand Sage] to bring them back up. This keeps repeating and at first it takes all the help Titania, Esther and Whispers can provide to keep Scarlet from having a panic attack each time it does, but as Zoom continues to fail to blow them all up, she slowly calms down a bit.
And as she calms down, something else starts to become obvious, as time goes on Zoom's assurances that everything is under control start to take an increasingly frenzied tone.
Zoom dropped down to the floor, which was a lot less satisfying without mass. They were out of ideas, her last attempt had been more stable by several order of magnitude, but it still imploded spectacularly. There was just no way to keep the modulation stable without any physical anchor points for the mana pattern. Ember's magic was unable to interact with the world without burning it and Quinn's magic was just a fucking gaping hole in reality and not even in a fun sexy way.
Count on Quinn to somehow make eldritch doom boring.
Zoom had figured out how to modulate Quinn's effect and how to then convert Ember's magic in usable mana. The former only required a mapped route through the void, the possibility of it's existence apparently enough to allow for rudimentary laws of change and space.
The latter had been a bit harder, by funneling it through overlapping mana fields each psychically aligned with a prime mana form they somehow convinced the magic to act like a combination of normal mana and heat. Zoom had no idea how that worked, but it did and that was going to have to be enough for now.
The problem was that both spells were exactly that, spells. They required an active astral entity controlling the mana flows, because in the end, only astral magic can affect astral forms.
However the normal workarounds of organic and spirit magic wouldn't be usable since they were technically working within their soul and you can't create an astral entity within another one. Souls are singular by nature.
Zoom lets out a deep sigh and steels themself before speaking up, "Whelp that one didn't work either, but you know what they say, 16th time is the charm!"
They winced, even they could hear the fraying edges in their voice and Zoom wasn't sure what was going to happen when they weren't able to become a [Fey], but they the sneaking suspicion that it would rhyme with "a bullet to the back of the schmead".
"Hey Zoomie, the others are going for lunch, I have my lunch here so it's just us for a bit." The fox lady started over the intercom, "Do you mind taking a break as well? I can't really offer you anything to eat, but maybe we could talk?"
"I..."
Zoom was about to refuse, but they were out of ideas and if it was just Hemlock, maybe they could trust her a little, at least feel out what their options were.
"Yeah, that sounds nice"
Scarlet gives Titania a silent thumbs up, she had heard the tone in Zoom's voice as well and had suggested they might feel safer talking without strangers present.
The regent gives Scarlet a last reassuring smile before closing the door behind her.
"So, ummm, how are we doing compared to a normal metamathingy?" Zoom cringes at how obvious they're being, but neither subtlety or social skills were their area of expertise.
"Oh, I haven't been at one before, so I don't really know" Hemlock replies.
"But the others have, right? Did they say anything?"
"Well, it's their job, so they've seen plenty, they didn't really say anything about time, but they don't seem worried." Hemlocks lets out a nervous giggle, "It's actually making me a bit nervous how casual they're being about it."
"Not that they're not taking this seriously!" she quickly interjects, "They are super invested in this and they really know what they're doing, it's just me freaking out and being useless!"
"Not that you need to worry about me!" She adds on before Zoom can answer, "I'm not really good at a lot, but I'm good at my job, I have clearance to work with almost all hazardous materials!"
"And it's not just me! If I make a mistake Miss [Grand Sage] Virabell will pick up on it and Elder Morgan is also keeping an eye on everything! Not that we're spying on you! We're just making sure everything is OK, we're- ...they're not suspicious people!" She takes a big breath, but continues before Zoom manages to slip a word in, "I suppose Sage Joyful Whispers can sound and look a bit scary, but he's been really nice and also Titania vouches for all the people here."
"Not that you know her, I mean you've probably heard of her, I don't think you're stupid! But you probably don't know a lot about her?"
"She's really nice and trustworthy though", Hemlock continues before Zoom can answer the question, "I don't think non [Fey] really know about her, but she's always there for all of us, whenever something bad is going on, she'll be there to help and make sure everyone is OK."
"Not that this is a bad situation!" She quickly interjects, "She also shows up for nice stuff, like big birthdays and celebrations, she gave a really nice speech last year when I officially took over my workshop. And it's not just official stuff either! She also gave me a really nice peptalk when I was anxious about what dress to wear to prom. So, she's really nice and really knows what she's doing too!"
"And it's not just her! My Godmother Esther is also-"
"OK I GET IT!" Zoom shouts, "Holy shit Hemmy, never knew you were this yappy!" they laugh.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, I-"
"Nah, don't be sorry. It's nice, relaxing, feels normal, I guess you really are Hemlock" Zoom laughs and this time the cute fox lady giggles along, still a bit nervous, but more relaxed as well.
"It's Scarlet though."
"Huh?"
"My name, it's Scarlet, Hemlock's only my dreaming name"
Zoom laughs at that, "Wait, but you're a red fox in the dreamscape, is that because of the name or are your parents like really unoriginal"
Scarlet huffs at that, "Kitsunes favor more direct names, it's a good and storied name"
"Ah sorry, always forget some people like their parents." Zoom quickly adds, suddenly realizing Heml- Scarlet might not like her when they're able to talk, "Umm, I bet she's really nice? Did a good job on you?"
"It's fine" she responds and Zoom is surprised how much that relieves them.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, of course, you didn't mean anything by it, did you?"
"NO!" Zoom accidentally shouts, "Umm, I mean, no, you're one of the few people I know I don't want to hurt..."
They both hold the silence for a few beats before the quiet starts to prickle Zoom.
"So, umm, can I ask a question?" They instantly heckle at the feeling of vulnerability, but Scarlet responds before they can retreat, "Of course, anything you need I'm here for you"
Zoom shrinks in on themself a bit, but still asks, "If we don't figure out how to become a [Fey], what happens to us?"
Scarlet sits at her console, frozen by the realization what Zoom is scared of, trying her best not to be overwhelmed by shame and guilt, Zoom needs her to be strong, Ember needs her to be strong!
Taking a deep uneven breath, she tries to steady herself as she pushes the intercom button, "Zoom you're SYAFE!'" Her voice cracks at the last word as she begins to cry in big stilted heaves, "I know stuff was baaa-haaaaad", she chokes out, "but I pwomish that I won't let anysfing hapfen to any of youuuuu", she chokes out through snot and tears.
When Titania came to check in on them half an hour later, they were still both ugly crying, Scarlet in big wet sloppy heaves and Zoom with a discordant crackle like lightning with a headache.
Esther was brought in a few moments later and set upon hugging and calming the bawling foxkin. Zoom had clammed up again the moment they realized Titania could hear them, but with some gentle prodding and baiting she were able to figure out what was going on and start reassuring Zoom that those fears were unneeded.
In the end it was the video of the half dozen [Fey] dreadnoughts floating ominously over [East Onderland]'s capital and their diplomats almost soiling themselves in panic when they caught sight of them that manages to convince the young mana sprite that Titania and the [Fey] were on their side. The giggle that video elicited made Titania think they would fit right in with the rest of her subjects.
Finding a solution to the actual practical problem of the competing energies of Ember and Quinn was a bit harder, but once they brought everyone up to date, Virabell was quick with a solution. The little pixie had been working hard lately, Titania made a mental note to send her a little care package with her favorite soda's and candies.
What are your favorite types of explosion?
