Chapter 15: Date With A Tomgirl

Elaine's head was still spinning when she woke up the next morning. Becoming a mindless monster didn't appeal. Becoming ageless and watching most of the people she cared about slowly wither away didn't appeal either. But a world full of monsters? Did that hold any more appeal? Did she have the luxury of being scared about her future when the future of the entire world was at stake?

The thought of making love to Jeanne and Rachel was certainly intriguing, especially with how prettily Jeanne had blushed at the prospect, but it wasn't intriguing enough to risk turning into a monster afterwards.

Apparently strength of will was required to succeed with the ritual. She'd always thought she had willpower in spades but when it was the only thing that would help her survive something she was beginning to question her own assessment.

Thankfully the Professor hadn't pushed her. He'd made her an offer, let her think about it. The idea held enough appeal that she didn't dismiss it outright but as things stood something drastic had to happen for her to consider it. Right then she was powerful enough. If something happened that would make her need more power then she could always decide to go through with it, couldn't she?

Either way, that morning she had something else to worry about. She had a date with Cassie. She knew a little bit about him but there was one topic she was sure she could intrigue him with. He had only recently come into his own magic and so he was likely desperate to learn about it. And given that, unlike her other Shard Bearers, his magical aptitude was innate rather than purchased there was quite a lot more she could teach him than she could the others.

**

Cassie was slightly harried. Not only had he been excited about going on a date with Elaine, he'd also had to do a bit of prep, just in case things went the way he hoped they would. It may have been slightly presumptuous but he'd rather prepare in vain than be unprepared.

Then of course there was the question of what clothes to put on. They were supposed to wear their uniforms inside the compound but there was no dress code for what they had to wear underneath the uniform. The uniform itself was already pretty neat, with a nice, understated femininity to the cut that accentuated just how effeminate he looked, but he could add to the appeal with the right underwear. So he decided to go for the lacy white lingerie he hadn't gotten to wear in way too long.

When he felt presentable he decided to head out. He'd already seen Elaine at breakfast and they'd exchanged some blushing looks but this would be them meeting for their date. He took one final look in the mirror, made sure that the ribbons holding his bangs and braided ponytail together sat just right, and headed out.

**

The way Elaine looked at him had him feeling all warm and fuzzy. Not only because of the obvious desire in her gaze but also because of that look of recognition when she checked out his hairstyle. Yeah, she knew exactly where he'd stolen it from. The tall, muscular, badass soldier lady was a nerd just like him.

“Did you wait long?" Elaine asked as she approached.

“Not at all," Cassie lied. He hadn't wanted to be late so he'd showed up early and had done some people-watching while he'd waited for her to arrive, which she'd done right on time. “So, did you have something in mind?”

Elaine bit her lip. “I was wondering if you were interested in learning a little about your magic.”

“Is that a trick question?" he asked with a grin. “I've been dying to learn more about it.”

She smiled. “Just checking. Some people here don't really seem that interested in learning magic. I'm guessing that's not you.”

He snorted. “Not even close. I've been playing fantasy games all my life, wishing that could be real. And now not only do I learn that magic is real but also, by the way, tag you're it. Not only that, but hunting monsters is our freaking job description.”

Her smile turned into a grin as she recognized a like-minded spirit. “Let's head to the training hall then.”

**

“I get pretty excited about this stuff so tell me if I'm starting to bore you, okay?" she asked.

“That won't happen," he said. “If anything I'm glad that I'm not imposing.”

“Hardly," she said. “This is the first time I'm able to teach a born mage about magic. It works differently for us than it does for the other Shard Bearers so I can teach you things they don't need.”

“Sounds good," he said.

“So, have you tried out your magic yet?" she asked.

“A little...," he hedged.

“How'd it go?”

“Terribly," he admitted. “I kinda sorta managed to cool my soft drinks down, but I can't say it's clicked for me yet.”

“Show me," she said and handed him a bottle of water from her Ring of Holding.

He reached deep inside himself, trying to focus on that feeling he'd had before. Slowly, sluggishly, the glowing threads around him stirred and he yanked at them with his mind, then directed them at the bottle. When they were swirling around that he willed them to cool the bottle down and bit by bit they did. When he saw condensation on the outside of the bottle he stopped and then he had to take a deep breath from the exertion.

“There, how terrible was that?" he asked.

“Pretty terrible," Elaine admitted. “You were brute-forcing something that should have been super easy.”

He winced. Apparently she wasn't going to mince words.

“You were yanking on the Winds, trying to make them do your bidding," she said. “That's your mistake.”

“What am I supposed to do, then?" he asked.

“The Winds don't need to be pulled and pushed," she explained. “They swirl around emotions. The more emotions are in the air the more Winds they attract. That's the idea behind ritual magic. Get a whole bunch of people together and push them to all feel similar, strong emotions and you've got a ton of Winds to work with.”

“So what should I do?" he asked.

“Reach inside yourself again but this time try to focus on an emotion inside you," she said. “Focus on something you're feeling right now or conjure up a memory if you need to.”

“How about frustration that I can't do this?" he asked, half in jest.

“That's a good one," she said.

He blinked. “Okay then.”

And so he tried. He let the frustration run through him. He didn't push or pull the Winds, he just focused on the feeling, making himself angry with it.

When he looked back up he saw glowing threads swirling around him.

“Well fuck me sideways," he muttered.

He could have sworn he heard a whispered “Maybe later” from Elaine but he wasn't certain.

His frustration was washed away by excitement and that only served to attract more Winds to him.

“Now what?" he asked.

“Shit," she said. “Should have started with that. How much do you know about computer science?”

He frowned. “What's that got to do with magic?”

“A ton, actually," she said. “You know who John Dee was?”

“I doubt you're going for a 'Deez Nuts' joke, so I'm drawing a blank," he said.

She gave a snort. “John Dee was Queen Lizzie Tudor's court mage. Among other things he wrote the Enochian Keys.”

Cassie gave her a blank look.

“Enochian is the language of the angels," Elaine explained. “He claimed that an angel had come down from on high and given him wisdom. That being said, I have no idea if the Enochian in the Enochian Keys has anything to do with the language the angels speak amongst themselves. Either way, what is kinda freaky is that John Dee's Enochian has grammar eerily similar to a programming language except it predates computers by more than three centuries. That leads us to think that Dee was, at the very least, not a total hack.”

“Okay," Cassie said. The impromptu history lesson was kinda cool but he had no idea how this was relevant.

“Now, for why this is relevant," Elaine said. “Magic works a lot like coding. What you need to do is weave algorithms into the Winds of Magic. And shit like John Dee's Enochian Keys tells us that people have known this for centuries.”

“Let's assume I wouldn't even know how to program a 'Hello, World' window," Cassie said.

“You screwed up," Elaine said with a smile. “You'd need to have at least a bit of a clue to know that a 'Hello, World' window is basically the first thing you learn in computer science.”

“Yeah, I had the subject for three years," he admitted. “But I hated it so much I've tried to purge it from my memory.”

“It's not that complicated," Elaine said. “Remember that magic is first about emotions and intent so a lot of it comes naturally. You really only need to add in the complicated loops for more complicated spells.”

“Like making your blades come back to you?" he asked.

“Like that," she agreed.

“But isn't it a pain to keep having to program the same spell over and over again?" he asked.

“It is," she agreed, “which is why we don't.”

He frowned at her.

“You know how you can train a dog to respond to a certain stimulus?" she asked.

“Yeah," he said. “But I don't really like where this analogy is going.”

She rolled her eyes but she was smiling about it. “The same thing applies to humans. We call the process 'naming'. You practice the same spell a hundred times and call it by the same name every time and eventually your mind will just instantly assemble the spell when you use its name.”

“I don't think I've ever heard you call out a spell's name," he said.

She grinned. “That's because spell names don't have to be spoken words. Any kind of stimulus can work. The only rule of thumb is that if you are using spoken words, do not use a language you speak regularly. Summoning a fireball every time you say 'fire' is only awesome when you never, ever have to talk about fire.”

He nodded in understanding.

“That's why mages tend to like dead languages so much," she added. “Because you're rarely in any danger of speaking that language out loud. Dee's Enochian is especially good because absolutely nobody speaks it.”

“So what are you using as names if you aren't using spoken words?" he asked.

“Rhythm," she said and then exaggeratedly tapped a hand against her hip in an odd rhythm before the Winds started swirling and a crystal sword formed in front of her. Then she tapped out another complicated rhythm before the sword floated behind her and began hovering at her back.

“Wow," he said.

“Now, try making a proper spell to cool down the bottle," she said, getting back on track. “You don't have to make up a name for it. This is such an easy working that giving it a name would be a waste.”

“Okay," he said and tried it.

He drew on the Winds still swirling around them and tried to work his will into it, focusing on just how cold he wanted to make the drink. To his surprise it flowed easily and when he was done he merely gave the construct the slightest push and it activated, cooling the drink down rapidly. Soon enough not just condensation but actual rime coated the outside of the bottle and ice crystals were forming in the water.

“That was so cool," he gushed.

“That was great," Elaine said, honest praise in her voice.

“Though it does make me wonder," he said. “I just cooled that bottle down from the inside. What's to stop me from cooling, you know, a person down from the inside?”

“Good question," she said. “And the answer is that their aura would stop you.”

“Aura?" he asked.

“Every living thing has an aura," Elaine explained. “For most people their aura does very little but there is one thing it does for everyone: It makes it harder to cast spells into us than at us. Torching someone with a fireball is easy, burning someone from the inside, while not impossible, takes tremendous amounts of power.”

“I see," he said.

“Unfortunately Outsider magic is unaffected by this," she added. “Allegedly our Fortitude stat strengthens our aura to the point where it will eventually block Outsider magic, but I'd rather not rely on that if I don't have to. Anyway, I've heard that Necromancers enjoy killing cats by reanimating the bodies of rats and other small animals they've eaten.”

“Charming," Cassie said. “So, does it work the other way around?”

“Huh?" she asked.

“Do Outsiders have auras?" he asked.

She opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again. Finally she said: “You know, I legitimately don't know. Technically they aren't part of this universe so they shouldn't have auras.”

He grinned. “I guess we should try it out on our next trip, then.”

“Yeah, let's," she agreed.

She hadn't noticed it until now but they'd gotten pretty close while talking. They'd sat down after Elaine had demonstrated the sword trick and now they were close enough that their knees were touching.

“That's a great expression you have," Cassie said, his voice a little husky.

“Yeah?" she asked.

“Yeah," he said. “You look as if you'd rather be doing something else right now.”

“And what do you think I want to do?" she asked, her own voice coming out raspy.

“Not sure," he said with a smirk. “I'm just glad you actually seem into me and that you aren't just hanging out with me because Ophelia made you.”

She bit her lip. “Baby, I would have wanted to ask you out anyway. Ophelia telling me to just eased my conscience.”

“Conscience?" he asked.

“If my girlfriends give their approval to date someone else that means I'm not a cheating bitch," she explained.

“It's kind of sweet that you're worried about being faithful when you're surrounded by so many people who want you," he said.

“So you want me, huh?" she asked with a smile.

He licked over his lip and leaned in, close enough to make his intentions clear. “I'd be crazy not to. You're way too sexy.”

It was the final push Elaine had needed. She leaned in and kissed him, eliciting the sweetest little moan from Cassie. His lips were shockingly soft, the strawberry lip gloss unexpected but welcome, and almost immediately the gentle kiss she'd been going for turned into a hungry exploration of each other's mouths that only ended when their lips were puffy and swollen and they were out of breath.

“Wow," Cassie breathed. “How are you this hot?”

“Right back at you," she said and reached out to stroke a hand over his braided ponytail, feeling the silky blond hair under her fingers. “So, why are you wearing your hair like Astolfo?”

He smiled. “Because I like his character," he admitted. “I know he's gotten a little overhyped but I like the way he treats his gender identity.”

“You're emulating him, aren't you?" she asked.

“A little," he admitted. “He never claims to be a girl. He just lets people come to their own conclusions. But we're not quite the same in that regard.”

She nodded. “Astolfo doesn't wear traditionally female clothes. His clothes leave his gender ambiguous and it's mostly his face and voice that make people think of him as a girl. Well, until Fate/GO gave him a bikini and ruined the theme.”

He nodded emphatically. “One more reason to hate gacha games. Chuck it onto the pile. Anyway, we're not the same. I like it when people think I'm a girl so I do wear girl's clothes. Plus, they make me feel sexy.”

“I mean, the uniform isn't that feminine," Elaine said.

“You haven't seen what I'm wearing underneath...” he teased.

“Don't tempt me, baby," she warned, a low growl in her voice.

He gazed into her eyes and bit his lower lip. “Should we go to your room?”