Well the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy shortcut isn't gonna work here. It seems like anytime I try to ask for directions or indications on the best choice in a situation I get a faint pushback from my concept, and a cost that feels astronomical. After my brainstorming session I decided that a few questions should have priority.
- How do I use powers like Mr. White demonstrated?
We need a better way to fight back, plus it feels like I might be able to completely fill this node, depending on the amount of detail I want in my answer. As I focus on the answer I want I get the sense that the node expands or contracts based on how thorough the answer I am looking for.
2. How long until the wildlife reaches tier 2.
This question feels much cheaper than the question of when the wildlife will stop mutating and also more relevant. The animals we have seen so far have not seemed insurmountable foes, but that could change with time. I don't know the exact difference between a tier 1 and tier 2 being, though I’m sure I’ll be asking that later, but I can imagine that it will be trouble for us.
3. Are the squirrels we killed safe to eat?
Lastly, I'll ask this question if I have essentia left over. Observe and harvesting didn’t have much to say on the edibility front and I can sense us eating a lot of mutated creatures in the near future. It seems prudent to make sure before we make them a staple in our diet.
I look out onto the web of nodes as I focus on the first question.
I start to move the essentia down my body and into the transparent line that connects me to the node. It is slightly farther away and much larger than the last time I attempted this. I feel the warm current of essentia flow down my arms and out of my hands. The effect still takes all of my concentration, but I am already learning. I feel how the swirls of essentia respond to different mental tugs and twists. The expansion and contraction as It syncs with my breathing. The differences between the essentia from conquest and the motes flowing into me slowly every second. I reach a state of mental haze. My consciousness flows with the stream of energy. I push and pull, a tide breaking and receding yet still gaining ground. I feel as my core empties and the thin stream entering me does little to refill it. The emptiness is different, but not wholly unpleasant. It's a comfortable emptiness. I am not starving, yet I know I could devour a great amount of essentia at any time.
I break through into the node. The essentia is a golden swirl and I am part of it. It whispers secrets and insights to me. I want to know more, it is a calling, and I am eager to answer.
The essentia oozes into the node and I feel my sense of time and self fade to the background, still present yet not important to my conscious mind. A feeling of euphoria wells up from within, the wave emotion threatens to overwhelm me. It almost succeeds, there is a paper thin barrier between the overwhelming emotions this mystical act is engendering in me, and the mind consciously processing what is happening. I feel fulfilled. I feel fulfilled in a way I have never come close to experiencing before. The addictive feeling of purpose burns beneath the euphoria. Even before the node fills I have an answer to a question I never thought to answer.
I was made to seek KNOWLEDGE.
I’ve been the proverbial cat much of my life. I have poked at the world around me as the child with the grasshopper. A mild interest, a passing delight in knowing a little more. It was overshadowed by the needs of my material existence. Smothered by the growing need to decide on a career, to woo women, and to be useful to the people around me so I would not be left behind.
I am more now. The system has come and it must be a god. Only a true god could have reached inside me so easily and shown me who I truly was. My concept is an embodiment of my ideal self in a vacuum. Without the influences of the flesh, of society, of my experience.
The wave of euphoria sweeps me up and the node is full. My soul relaxes into bliss.
My eyes snap open.
[You Have Embodied Your Concept]
[Vitality: +1]
I am back in my body. I am shaking. My muscles feel like threads stretched too far, now hanging limp. I take two deep breaths, and allow my head to fall onto the bed behind me. That was overwhelming in every sense of the word. Physically, mentally, and emotionally, I'm running on fumes. I lolll my head to the left and see it is dusk out the window.
Its august so its some time between 5 and 6:30. With herculean effort I straighten up and try to go through what I gained from the node while the last vestiges of the intense euphoria I felt melt back to my center, becoming a warm and fuzzy knot of good feelings.
You have to be shitting me.
“Uuugghhhaaa”
I roll my eyes so hard it makes an audible sound. The contents of the node literally comes down to ‘anything is possible if you believe hard enough.’. While asking the question I tried to keep the answer fairly vague so the cost did not get out of hand, yet I had not considered how vague vague was in this case. Well, the answer has some concrete information which will be enough to get me started. It seems the essentia techniques, as the answer to my question so helpfully labeled them, come down to three main components. Movement of internal essentia, medium of use, and visualization. Coming right down to it, you move your internal essentia, it affects external essentia, and a combination of symbolism, materials, body movements, or a million other possible mediums combine with your visualization and will to create an effect. For example, I move the essentia in my right arm while punching and visualize a ball of fire leaving my fist and voilà, mother fucking magic.
That is just the beginning though, the effect of the essentia technique comes down to a combination of how much essentia you move internally, and the effectiveness of your medium. Take the fireball punch for example. You could instead create a symbol in the air that means fireball, and let that cast it for you, no movement required and probably a better fireball. What is the symbol for fireball is exactly? Apparently goddamn doesn't matter. Well it kind of does and it kind of doesn't. The answer to this particular question left many a gap. If I am interpreting the impression I'm getting correctly, a combination of personal belief, human consciousness, and repetition lend weight to whatever symbol you chose. Instructions unclear, going to blow myself up at least once.
“Hmmmmmmmmmm”
Time to experiment and blow myself up? Or to ask another question? I do a quick check on my internal reserves. The sensation is much easier to grasp than it was the first time. Just a few minutes of focused unfocusedness, I can feel that my core is a sad little puddle compared to what it was. I still feel the essentia in the two nodes and I have already filled, not feeling diminished really, more like a pleasant emptiness. Well another question feels beyond reach, and I have dangerous things to try, how exciting.
I flow down the stairs disjointedly, my body still not recovered from the expenditure.
“Ahh sleeping beauty returns”
Tactus is a master of the whisper shout.
“Try and keep it down, Mother and Amelia are both meditating on the couch. Calder and Carter already took their turn and managed to find their ‘cores’. You were up their for a little over 4 hours I think.”
My shorter brown haired brother is standing behind the kitchen island, putting the finishing touches on what looks like breakfast. A mountain of scrambled eggs is accompanied by the heavenly smell of bacon and hashbrown.
“Have I ever told you that I love you dear brother?”
“No, and please don't start now.”
“I feel like this apocalypse is a great chance to deepen our brotherly bond.”
“And I think it's a great chance to kill you and feed the body to a monster duck.”
My hurt is feigned but my hunger is all too real. Breakfast for dinner is the ultimate meal. I hear a shifting from the couch.
“I hope I didn't just hear my beloved sons threatening to go Cain and Abel on each other right in front of their mother.”
Mother’s gaze holds the driest of amusement. Her short stature and cocked hip give her a distinct impishness.
“Of course not mother.”
“I am a good Christian boy. I love my brother.”
Our replies overlap one another. I snatch a piece of too hot back and shove it in my mouth before taking a seat in an armchair around the coffee table. Victoria comes through from the other side of the house. Her cold blue eyes scan the room.
“I see you are all busy distracting Amelia from her meditation. Me and Clayton have finished barricading the rest of the house. After we eat I am going to take a turn sitting around doing nothing.”
She finishes her sentence with a small huff and collapses in the armchair across from me. At her mention of Clayton I finally notice him leaning against the wall by the north window again, overlooking the backyard. That sneaky fucker, his concept is already working overtime it seems.
“Well family, dig in.”
Like it was some kind of magic word, the family surrounds him like a pack of hyenas, baying for blood. Calder and Carter materialize from the laundry room off the kitchen, they seem to have sensed sustenance was up for grabs. After the light shoving match that was filling our plates, the family was seated around the dinner table tucking in.
“So good news guys, I know how to use techniques like Mr. White now.”
“Blasphemer”
A cat-like whisper drifts from under the table.
“Its a little weird and vague as hell, but I figure after dinner we could explore a little of the yard and maybe try some stuff where we won't accidentally blow up the house.”
I explain the basics of essentia techniques as best I can. When I am finished I smile around at the family, feeling like we can finally start making some progress instead of just surviving like we have done for most of the day.
“I don't know, I think it will take more than walking a few feet into the yard to keep the house safe from your reckless behavior son.”
I truly cannot tell if Calder is making fun of me or just concerned about the safety of the house, and that makes it hurt all the more.
“Take it easy on the poor guy, he is trying his best. He can't help it if he is naturally destructive.”
Amelia is quick to rise to my defense. She seems more vibrant and upbeat than now that she has found her ‘core’ also.
“You all should have more faith in me, I am doing the best I can with what I have here. Anyways, the animals outside of the killer squirrels don't seem so aggressive so it should be safe enough. We should discuss what you can all do with your cores too. Maybe I can ask questions to help you also.”
“I have faithhhh”
That damn cat is going to be a pain in the ass, I can just tell.
