Chapter 39

February 4th, Evening

The Docks, ABB Territory

Lung was annoyed.

Really annoyed.

“B-boss! Boss, please, show mercy!” The man’s voice was muffled by the fact that his entire face was covered by a large, calloused palm - Lung’s palm. His fingers applied pressure, slowly but surely, clenching just enough to apply bone-deforming stress throughout the thug’s entire skull.

His voice was grating - high, wavering, cowardly. The pressure slowly built, and the scent of urine invaded Lung’s nostrils. His nose wrinkled in disgust.

“GAH! I swear-! I-I-I did not run, that fucking gaijin, Avalon, he just went through the fucking roof like it was paper and I was already on break s-so I just thought, you know, I would go call for-”

Excuses of the weak.

CRACK!

The man’s skull, already weak in the grip of his superior physical strength, cracked and folded as he clenched his fist. The sight of gore squelching between his fingers, falling heavily onto the dirty warehouse floor, invoked nothing but angry satisfaction. 

‘No, not annoyed’, the Dragon decided as he tore the dirty rag out of one of his underlings’ shaking, extended hands and carelessly wiped the sticky blood and goopy gray brain matter off of his fist. It barely cleaned anything. ‘I am pissed.’

Three years.

For three fucking years, he’d done what many had thought impossible and united multiple Asian gangs beneath one banner, his banner, and taken Brockton Bay by storm. The Azn Bad Boys had been the first gang he’d ever joined after coming to America, and their original members - the ones who thought to lord their seniority over his head - were now either dead and buried, or kowtowing to him in deference.

Now, he used the name to invoke fear all across the East Coast… a reminder of his dominance and power; the fact that he’d taken a gang, ripped it asunder single handedly, and filled his ranks with countless other Asian gangs who could do nothing but die or bow their heads.

For three years, he’d reigned as the strongest parahuman in the city, feared by all, even if they were too prideful to admit it. Kaiser and Coil were the only two gang leaders - because that’s what they were, despite their disappointing attempts to lampshade their real intentions - who mattered after he tore the Docks apart and established himself as the sole dominant figure that side of Brockton Bay.

Through his own blood and sweat, for he cried for none, Lung had established businesses that raked in passive income every week - human trafficking, prostitution rings, drug trade… hell, the citizens paid him taxes because he demanded it. He was content here, watching over his own personal kingdom and daring either hero or villain to invade his walls.

Some did, of course. With him and Oni Lee as the only capes, it was obvious that ambitious fuckers would slip in between the cracks. Only, he never lost - not in a true sense of the word, at least. They could swarm him with as many numbers and dishonorable tactics as they could, that was fine - he would always escape, always return to fight another day.

It was why he kept Oni Lee as his second. Not because the man had stayed by his side all those years, starting with one of the first gangs Lung had ever taken out. Neither was it because of some idiotic sense of camaraderie or friendship, because those were no longer things he held value in.

No, it was because of the man’s power and skill. He was an excellent assassin, too mentally absent to ever betray him and too morally black to hesitate in whatever tasks he was given. Oni Lee was the perfect underling - one that made managing such a large gang much easier. He was a weapon, sharpened through years of combat and murder, and one that Lung maneuvered often in his plans.

Correction, had maneuvered. The thought stoked the fiery embers burning holes beneath his flesh.

“You,” Lung gestured at one of the kneeling thugs not shaking in their boots at his casual display of violence. He somewhat recognized the Japanese boy’s face - young and weak-chinned, but brave. “Spread the word throughout the Docks, to both ABB and civilians. I want ‘Avalon’ found, his location given to me, masked or unmasked.”

“Hai!” The boy’s voice was just as annoying as the man he’d just killed, but Lung could respect the speed in which he stood and hustled for the exit.

“The rest of you,” he rumbled in that gravelly growl that he couldn’t control, turning his head to glare at them through the eye holes in his mask. “Assist him. Spread the word. Do not fight the gaijin, contact me however you can. I will be here.”

And they moved too, slower than the boy, but too scared of him to even think about refusal - at least a dozen men, a couple women, only a fraction of his people who’d reported in after news of Oni Lee’s death circulated the streets and the internet. Them coming to him to check in after realizing that his lieutenant had just died that same day was brave, in and of itself - the higher ranking ‘leadership’ had only reached out via texts and phone calls, too frightened to risk angering him face to face.

His eyes drifted past the still-warm corpse lying only a few feet away, and a gruff snort - like a beast huffing steam from its nostrils - got muffled by his mask. Perhaps they were smart.

But so was he.

Avalon, Lung knew, was his biggest threat right now. He’d already watched the videos on PHO, as much as he disliked wasting his time on the phone. He’d seen the things the boy could do, and was… reasonably impressed. He held no real hatred for the boy for his skin color like those Empire dogs - all foreigners were put on the same level of ‘ambivalent annoyance’ for him, and whether you were black, yellow, or white did not matter… strength did.

Strength that Avalon seemed to possess in spades.

But was he as wary as he’d been when gearing up to fight the Leviathan? As scared as he had been when that woman had forced his head into a brick of cocaine, slowly but surely suffocating him to death whilst giving him his very first heart attack?

No, he wasn't. Lung chose his battles very carefully these days, and he was certain that Avalon could be defeated. Not for his skin color, but because he’d destroyed Lung’s most useful resource, and that was unforgivable. Insults of that magnitude needed to be paid in full, and he had no interest in waiting on his backfoot as the boy worked with the heroes to undermine even more of his operations. That morning it had been one of his smaller brothels. In a week or two, it could be an entire chain.

Avalon was a threat, a dangerous one, but one who would fall just like all the others. That was something he promised to himself. Heroes rarely hid, and it was only a matter of time before the boy showed himself. He was arrogant and a showboat, like a lot of younger heroes, and seemed to think that Mover and Blaster powers made him invincible. Foolish.

Lung would fight, and he would not lose. 

The heat in his chest - the very real fire in his body - ignited again, practically begging him for release, but his enemy wasn’t in sight just yet. That heat would have to settle and smolder, prepare itself for when he’d finally found his foe.

For now, Lung made his way back to his makeshift office, leaving the corpse of the coward cooling near the entrance.

‘The time of your reckoning will come…’

It was only a matter of time.

____________________________________________________

February 4th, Evening

The Sanctum

“Aaaah-” I froze, that frustrating tingle of ‘pre-sneeze’ flaring in my nostrils and bringing a tear to my eye. “Aaa- ahhhhh~”

“Sneeze if you’re going to sneeze already, damn. The noises you’re making are weird…” Tammy grumbled, though her voice was less annoyed and more thoughtful as she sat, cross-legged, on the loveseat I’d dragged into the Training Hall for her. She’d finally taken her torn and tattered robes off, leaving her in a form-fitting black long sleeve and similarly tight leggings - her ‘combat uniform’, apparently.

I just thought she looked like an edgy yoga instructor. 

“Ahh, ahhhh-... CHOOOO!”

The sneeze was forced out of me with explosive force -  thankfully before it faded away and left me dissatisfied and edged to the fucking extreme. The saliva sizzled away on contact with my passive Aqshy field - something that I’d gotten very used to keeping up at almost all times - and I idly wiped my nose with the back of my hand.

Huh. No snot.

Tammy shot me a cringed-out grimace, wiggling back in her new black cushion. “Fucking gross, dude.”

“I’ve already transcended past bodily waste, Tams. You really think I’d snot all over myself?” I smirked, showing her my silky smooth, ridiculously clean hand flesh.

Her overpowering silence was answer enough.

“I’m offended.”

“Weren’t you going to go check on that mark on your face, Mr. Snotty Nose?” She rolled her eyes at my nonchalance, but couldn’t exactly hide the almost infinitesimal quirk of the lips before her ‘oh woe is me’ brattiness kicked in and a deadpan scowl took over. “Your eyes and ears, too. Your eyes are all… starry, now - or, at least, the right one, and you’ve got fucking elf ears. What the hell did you do?”

Ah, right. That.

Anxiety bubbled beneath my skin, but I girded it with a healthy dose of internal logic - sure, activating my Reality Marble seemed to have some sort of physical effect on me, but I also had the perk Immutable Form, which meant that I could just as easily say ‘fuck off’ or even store any physical changes for later use. That was the only reason why I even allowed my magic to change me after I’d ended the Reality Marble and brought us back into the Training Hall - a mixture of strong curiosity and the knowledge that I could, quite easily, reverse anything that I didn’t want. Usually I’d play it a little safer than that, but Immutable Form was Grimmy-backed, so I held the utmost trust in what it told me it did.

If I couldn’t trust my own soul, after all, then what could I trust?

I turned away from Tammy’s piercing and mystified stare, murmuring words of power beneath my breath, and channeled the exorbitant amount of Chamon in the air to cast Replication of Levorg. The Winds in the Training Hall was much thicker than normal, possibly a side-effect of me having invoked my Reality Marble in the exact same place, and the spell went off without a hitch, a gleaming and positively gorgeous standing mirror materializing in a haze of Yellow Wind.

When I stepped in front of it and finally laid eyes on my own reflection, my new eyes widened in both shock and amazement.

“What the fuck happened?”

I was still the same ridiculously handsome teenager I was before gaining the ability to temporarily make reality my bitch. I had the same youthful face, smooth, chocolate-brown skin, messy black dreadlocks, and gleaming, perfect white teeth. It wasn’t as if I looked like a completely different person - everything essential stayed the exact same. That is, if you ignored the fact that my ears were an entire size bigger, the tips of which were sharp and angled up towards my scalp. 

You could also say that I looked the same if you ignored the fact that my previously brownish-amber eyes were now an almost glittering, starlight silver - the right one of which had a more void-like pupil, with a bright silver star smacked dab in the middle.

And, beyond both of those totally tiny changes, there was the mark that Rune had mentioned - dark and branching up the side of my face, like a lightning bolt or blossoming tree. It went through my right eye, going up towards my hairline, and I slowly raised a hand to feel along it.

It… tickled, but there was no raised skin or lesions. It felt less like scar tissue and more like a fully healed tattoo. As I ran my finger down the marking, tracing its shape, my index finger quickly reached the collar of my shirt.

“Tammy,” I spoke up, keeping my voice cool and lighthearted even as my blood rushed quickly through my veins, “You may wanna close your eyes. Don’t know if a black man’s strip tease’ll burn your retinas out or not.”

The joke flew right over her head. I could see the way her eyes widened in the mirror, a rush of heat and trepidation consuming her face as she suddenly found the ceiling extremely intriguing. “D-don’t be stupid,” she spat, crossing her arms petulantly, “I’ve already seen you shirtless. But announcing it like that is freaking embarrassing…”

“You’ve already seen my Inner World,” I chuckled, gripping my graphic tee by the collar, and tugging it over my head. My voice was muffled by fabric when I continued, “Can’t get much more intimate than that, I guess. Might as well watch.”

Even with my eyes temporarily covered by my shirt, I could feel the small flare of Aqshy that burst from Tammy’s direction. The Red Wind came through as a spicy smell, like toasted wasabi, and I allowed Hidden Intuition to murmur its insights into my ear at her silent reaction.

Tammy is embarrassed. Tammy is flustered. Tammy is conflicted.

I could hazard a guess as to what she was conflicted about.

When I finally slipped the shirt over my broad shoulders and tossed it lazily over my shoulder, I caught the smallest glimpse of Tammy’s flushed cheeks and conflicted, wide-eyed leering before her face was covered by my errant clothing. She yelped in surprise, collapsing back in the black loveseat and wrestling the shirt off of her head.

“Hey! Asshole…”

But I ignored her grumbling, all amusement bleeding away into wary curiosity as I caught my first glimpse at just what the marking had done to my body.

The ‘branches’ trailed down and over my collarbone, breaking off into writhing, beautifully-designed ‘roots’ that flowed like veins across the right side of my chest, coming to a final ‘gathering’ point around that small area right below my sternum - the exact same place that I’d first felt that heat gather when invoking the power of my Reality Marble. As I traced the branches and roots, moving my finger all the way down the markings until I reached that spot, something inside of me roiled - like a wave in the ocean.

No, not just something - my core. The markings, it trailed from my core and up to my hairline, not the other way around. Whatever it was, whatever had happened, it had something to do with my Reality Marble’s effect on my magic, as my core was the origin of everything the Celestial Grimoire gave me. The motes of light that acted as my perks, my roaring waterfall of a mana core, and now my Reality Marble, my Celestial Grimoire made physical.

These changes, they didn’t come with an instruction manual. Grimmy gave me a rough explanation of just what a Reality Marble was, and what my specific one did on a basic scale, but it hadn’t mentioned anything about what happened afterwards. Was it normal to have more mysterious magical bullshit going on outside of your RM? Was mine just… warped or broken in some way?

‘Nah,’ I thought, clenching my fist and pressing it against the almost thorny-looking sphere of black branches that circled my core. ‘I don’t think this is a negative thing. Hidden Intuition would’ve warned me if it was…’

There was only one real way to test it out if I had no other ideas.

“Yo,” I called out to Tammy, who was now holding my t-shirt in her lap and staring down at it with a heavy, furrowed brow.

“What?” Came her distracted response.

“Be honest. If I let you out of here for a while to go take a shower and eat something, how likely are you to fuck up massively by trying to escape or attacking my girlfriend?”

The question broke through whatever weird spell she was under while examining my clothing - I’d only gotten somewhat sweaty during my chuuni-as-fuck Reality Marble incantation, so I doubted it smelled too bad. 

“... Avalon,” Tammy fixed me with an unamused glare, tightening her grip on my shirt. “Be fucking real. After everything you showed me that you could do, including but not limited to the creation of an entire fucking pocket reality, you think I want to attack your little ditzy girlfriend and get snapped out of existence? Really?”

Well, when she put it like that…

“Cass isn’t ditzy,” I supplied unhelpfully, turning fully towards her and raising a finger. “She’s just… pocket-sized cuteness, y’know? She actually made a-”

“Whatever.” 

This time, there was no hiding of a stifled smile - Tammy straight up scowled. Abruptly, cutting me off with the suddenness of the movement, she kicked off the loveseat and began making her way towards the exit. I could have stopped her at any point, honestly - she was still, for all intents and purposes, my ‘prisoner’, but Hidden Intuition’s honeyed observation stopped me from doing so.

Tammy is cowed. Tammy is conflicted. Tammy is jealous. Tammy will not harm anyone within the Sanctum, or attempt to leave.

The ‘for now’ was silent, but I was wise enough to think for myself, even with my magical cheat powers giving me hyper accurate insights. If I showed enough weakness or absolutely pushed the girl to the brink, I was sure that she’d flip out and try something stupid, but I’d treated her, if not kindly, then humanely throughout her stay here, despite the fact that I really didn’t have to. She knew it, I knew it, and Cass knew it - Tammy was a neo-nazi at the end of the day, regardless of how fucked and different my mystical charisma was making her thoughts. 

Still, it was interesting to know that she was jealous of Cassie. Maybe not too surprising - I’d met and fucked multiple racist chicks before even coming to this dimension, so I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they could still find other races physically attractive - but the speed in which it happened was somewhat unexpected.

Then again, in a world like Earth Bet, people tended to gravitate towards power, and I’d just shown her some crazy fucking power. Combined with the ‘peak of human perfection’ appearance perk and my heightened charisma, I guess the game was rigged from the start for a young, hormonal lady like Tammy. I would’ve felt pity for her heart if she hadn’t tried calling me a ‘nigger’ earlier.

‘At least she’s not mentioning the whole ‘Shard and Entity’ conversation,’ I sighed, turning back towards my reflection as the girl slammed the door shut behind her. Honestly, I’d been worried that just the memories of what we’d talked about in the Reality Marble would trigger some sort of hidden failsafe in her Shard once it regained complete connection with her Corona, but we’d been back in the Sanctum for about ten minutes now and everything seemed fine. 

Honestly, I was probably overthinking it badly. That wouldn’t stop me from doing my damndest to make a few Rings of Mind Shielding™, but I mentally reminded myself to calm down and stop seeing the huge fuck-off space whales as omnipotent bogeymen. If I allowed shit like that to paralyze and stop me from making moves, then I’d never end up getting the fuck out of Earth Bet.

“Woooosah,” I breathed, calming my racing thoughts. “One thing at a time, Jay.”

And the thing I wanted to focus on right now?

Figuring out what the fuck these markings meant.

How did I plan to do that?

Well, by blowing shit the fuck up of course.

My mana, a bit below halfway empty due to my experimentation with the Reality Marble, sang inside of my core as I brought my magic to the forefront. I didn’t use any particular ability or attempted to channel any specific spell - I simply gathered my mana, spread it throughout my body, and looked at my reflection to see what happened.

It didn’t disappoint.

All across my chest, going up my neck and the side of my face, the markings gleamed a deep, startling silver, flecked at certain branches with traces of a warm, molten gold,  like stars dotting a constellation. It didn’t glow so much as it simply glinted, like a twinkling star that you’d catch while watching the night sky through a telescope. I stared, transfixed, and raised my hand to lightly touch the spot on my chest where my core rested.

It burned on contact, but a pleasant burn. The kind that you felt after getting into a steaming hot shower after a long, exhausting day.

The entire thing was… beautiful, almost dreadfully so. I felt that familiar sense of illogical panic as I stared at my reflection, looking like an elven Herald of the Cosmos, and that bleak, annoying question of ‘who and what am I’ reared its ugly head. It wasn’t dysmorphia, I didn’t think; I objectively knew just how beautiful I looked, but the man that I was seeing in the mirror - shining with power, grace, and magic - was such a far cry from the man I was a month ago that it felt alien.

Only the belated realization that I, once again, had Immutable Form to erase or shift away any changes kept me from actually freaking out. The panic faded, replaced by annoyance and slight embarrassment, and I allowed my mana to trickle back into my core.

The marks dimmed, returning back to a badass-looking runic tattoo instead of the shimmering, almost divine-looking cracks of magical power they had been just a couple seconds ago.

I didn’t dislike the look. Combined with the eyes, it gave me an exotic, mythical edginess, but almost certainly separated me from the mundane population. Unfortunate, but my inner weaboo was frothing at the mouth at the thought of getting rid of something so fucking badass. Maybe I’d rock it for a while, see how people reacted. At this point, due to my looks, it was almost impossible to go outside without some motherfucker recognizing me, so it was about time to get rid of the half-assed ‘civilian’ guise anyway.

The ears, though… what the fuck was up with those? A byproduct of manipulating so much of the Wind at once, maybe? I did gain the ability of a High Elf, so it was possible that manipulating Chamon - and later, to show off to Tammy after my Shard explanation, Aqshy, Azyr, and Ulgu - to the extent that I did inside of my Reality Marble pushed the perk to actually try and make me into a High Elf. But I didn’t feel much different, and my normal talent with the Winds, outside of the RM, didn’t feel any stronger.

“Huh…”

For now, I stored away the physical change in one of my Immutable Form’s innate ‘transformation shelves’. Building a ‘library’ of transformations was an understatement - I got the feeling that I would be able to hold an almost limitless amount of transformations to seamlessly switch back and forth from if it ever got to that point. 

My ears twitched uncomfortably for a moment before they seamlessly shortened back into their usual short, stubby, human-like selves. Explaining away elf ears would’ve been a bit too awkward for me to bullshit my way through. Eyes were easy to explain away, and so was a sudden tattoo - even if it shined when I channeled mana. Maybe I’d let the elf ears breathe in a more suitable world, but for now, I already had too much shit on my plate.

“Alright,” I murmured, satisfactorily rubbing the rounded shell of my ears, “Let’s do some actual stress testing.”

The markings had to do something more than look badass, right?

I lit my body up with mana once again, and got to work.

_______________________________________________

The markings didn’t do shit but look badass. At least, that’s what I could gather for now.

Thirty minutes later, when Cassie and Tammy entered the Training Hall together, it was to the sight of me lying flat on my back in the middle of the room, a thin sheen of sweat covering my shirtless torso. My markings glinted weakly with smoldering remnants of mana, but I was practically running on empty at this point. The ceiling, and walls were scorched with blackened burns, and golden spears littered the floor in clumps of fives and tens, following a pattern that inevitably ended up being the shape of a penis.

That’s where I was laying - in one of the nutsacks. The spears faded away into motes of mana as the two approached, and I grunted as I pushed myself up on my elbows to narrow my eyes at them. 

The answer to my biggest question was as clear as day; Tammy hadn’t attacked Cassie, because she was currently wearing some of Cassie’s clothing - a black, sleeveless crop-top with ‘aesthetic’ tears in the shoulders, baggy bell bottom jeans, and what I could only guess were crocs judging by the rubbery sound of her footsteps. All in all, the fit wasn’t bad - minus the crocs, of course, but crocs didn’t go with literally anything. You either wore ‘em or you didn’t. 

It was clear that Tammy was decidedly unsure about what she was wearing because her face was crimson, her lips were in that weird stage between pouting and frowning, and she refused to look at me. It was almost cute, but I didn’t let myself get dragged down that dark path. Seduction and fuck…tion, no befriending.

I raised my brow at Cassie, and her curious face turned positively delighted.

“Soooo,” she began, grasping her hands behind her back and skipping closer to me. “You loooove me, right?”

Cassie is-

Instinctively, I shut Hidden Intuition down and gave my definitely not up to something girlfriend a measured look. “Yea-”

“Wait, what the heck?! Jay-”

And suddenly, she had dropped her whole ‘cutesy’ vibe and lunged the rest of the way to my prone body. I pushed off of the ground and caught her by the waist just as her forehead was going to crack against mine, plopping the glaring girl down firmly on my lap instead. “Chill, pretty girl. What’s up?”

In the background, Tammy slowly ambled up, her face sour and mopey as she toed her crocs against the floor.

“‘What’s up’? Don’t piss me off,” Cassie clicked her teeth, eyes narrowing as she smacked her little palms against the side of my face and attempted to tilt my head to the side. Considering she had the physical strength of an unfit gooner who ate sweets all day, that was obviously a recipe for disappointment. I, being the wonderfully thoughtful boyfriend that I was, decided to take one for the team and crack my neck to the side for her comfortable perusal.

The gentle kiss she placed against my new ‘tattoo’ was ample reward for my compliance.

“What happened? Another, um…” With her face already so close to mine, it took no effort for her to lean forward - letting me catch a whiff of her familiar and tasty blueberry shampoo - and stage whisper the next words into my ear. “Is it another ‘perk’ thing? Like the one that- mmfphh!”

 I glanced over to Tammy, ignoring the arousing sensation of Cass licking the palm I forced against her mouth, and raised my other brow.

She gave me a noncommittal shrug, still scowling. “I didn’t mention anything. It’s not my place to gossip about your powers, now is it?”

“Fair. I ‘preciate that, the sassiness aside. You good?”

A pause. 

“I’m good.”

She went to walk past me and a violently wriggling Cass who couldn’t detach her face from my palm, and paused just as she reached my side. There was a moment where she gritted her teeth, very obviously wrestling with something in the back of her mind, before sighing in defeat. “And, uh… thank you, C-Cassie, for the clean clothes. And washing my other ones.” 

Cassie suddenly pinched my exposed nipple, and I yelped, yanking my hand away from her mouth.

“No prob!” she smirked, throwing a ‘V for Victory’ sign up at the clearly uncomfortable girl. “You’re the, er, guest-prisoner here, after all. Don’t want you stinking up the basement.”

“The Training Hall.” I mumbled.

Her eyes flashed, and she pinched her fingers together threateningly. “Don’t make me-”

“Yeah, well!” Tammy spoke over our bickering, and we both went quiet on reflex. “It was… nice. Talking. I’m going to go, um… nap. Yeah.” 

Before either of us could say anything, the blonde-haired girl abruptly turned away and speed-walked over to the loveseat that I had tossed at the back wall at some point during my ‘training’, if you could even call the ineffectual magical rampage I went on ‘training’. I watched her settle heavily on the cushions, my gaze thoughtful, before Cassie’s soft, flaming hot lips against the vein on my neck grabbed both of my attentions. 

She blushed beneath my suddenly heated gaze, licking her lips. “Sorry, you just- your scent, Jay. You have to do something about that. I-It’s distracting, you frickin’ perv.”

Admittedly, I hadn’t exactly been thinking about sweat when I purchased the perk. “... Hindsight’s a bitch?” I offered weakly, willing little Jason back down with sheer force of will. I sincerely doubted Cassie was ready for another round of back-breaking sex, and although I was definitely down, there were still things I needed to do today - ideas that my time in my Reality Marble had given me.

“Ugh,” Cassie grumbled, but there was no actual heat in her voice. “Okay, horniness aside - what’s going on with the whole ‘Harry Potter’ thing?” She leaned away, running her hands down my shoulders and over the hard, chiseled definition of my chest and abs. Her eyes widened as she traced the writhing branches.

“Shit… this is a lot cooler, though. And sexier. Jason Potter?”

“Hell no,” I snorted, but didn’t bother to stop her wandering hands. Her touch was soft, featherlight, and relaxing - so much so that I ended up lowering myself back down to the floor, closing my eyes as she straddled my waist. “... Hold on, y’all got Harry Potter here?”

Her hands stilled for only a moment, but I couldn’t see her expression through the comforting darkness of my closed lids. “‘Here’, huh?” There was amusement and wonder in her quiet voice.

…

I stiffened, opening my eyes-

“Relax,” Cassie whispered, easing me back down with the painted pink tips of her fingernails. “I trust you - you know this, dummy.”

Slowly, I acquiesced. I’d already known that she suspected something - my lies when we first met each other were pretty fucking obvious lies, and she had already revealed to me earlier that she already knew that I was hiding where I came from. Freaking out would be stupid. It wasn’t like I didn’t trust her with the information - I just didn’t know what would happen if I gave her Shard the knowledge that I held. 

But, with the right Infusion…

“I’ll come clean,” I promised quietly, wrapping my hand around the much smaller, paler one tracing circles on my freshly-marked chest. “Soon. I promise.”

She raised a concerned eyebrow, but her hand gripped mine tightly in return. “About the marks, or-”

“About everything.” I smirked, my heart hammering in my chest. It was a freeing feeling, knowing that, sometime soon, Cass would be fully aware of everything about me, from beginning to end. From the Celestial Grimoire to my goals on Earth Bet, all the way to my plans to become a mage that travels the entire fucking multiverse. I didn’t let it bother me because I wasn’t a bitch, but holding all of this back and having no one to share it with… it weighed.

It weighed much heavier than anything I’d ever held onto before.

Just the thought of sharing even a small part of that burden excited me, even if fear and anxiety lurked in the shadows.

Whatever Cassie saw on my face in that moment, I had no idea. All I knew was that the smile that blossomed on her lips was, by far, the most beautiful smile a woman has ever graced me with. Trust, love, adoration… I truly had a partner for life.

The moment was broken by the low, rumbling snarl of my stomach growling. 

Cassie jumped, eyes wide, before the quiet sound of me chuckling brought her out of her fight or flight state. She glared at me with the righteous, protective fury only a girlfriend could possess. "What the hell, Jay? When was the last time you ate?!”

That made me clam up. “... Uh, this morning? At, like- 5 AM? I ate a breakfast burri-”

 Her derisive snort cut me off. “Ugh, men. It’s dinner time, you big dumbass. You haven't eaten in over ten freaking hours.”

“Wait, what?”

Sitting back up, I fished my phone out of my pocket, entirely thrown off by the fact that almost the entire day had flown past without me even realizing it. Sure enough, after I swiped the screen on, 7:08 PM greeted me alongside a stack of notifications from PHO that I immediately muted with a flick of the thumb. There were other notifications that I didn’t immediately delete - Sherrel had messaged me a couple hours ago thanking me for the pizza, which I quickly sent a ‘thumbs-up’ to, and Amy…

(4:04 PM) Amy: Hey.

(4:07 PM) Amy: Got home from work early, apparently there’s been shootings in the area. Got home safe, though.

(5:10 PM) Amy: Thanks for this morning, Jason. <3

(6:34 PM) Amy: Sorry if the heart was weird, I thought it looked cute. Anyways, hope you have a good night.

My heart almost gave out at the overwhelmingly awkward innocence. I knew that it wasn’t necessarily my fault for missing her texts, considering I’d been, quite literally, training in an alternate realm of existence for multiple hours, but I still felt responsible. And-

Yep, butterflies.

 ‘Holy shit she's adorable.’

“... Alright, that’s it,” Cass muttered, staring over my shoulder at my phone screen. I flinched at her sudden close proximity, but she merely laid a chaste kiss on my cheek and stood. “Side-quest obtained, babe! Invite that poor girl out to Fugly Bob’s right now. You can tell me all about your new tattoo on the way.”

I blinked. “Wait, like right right now?”

“Duh!” Cass put her hands on her hips, staring down at me with a smug and excited little grin. “This is, like, the perfect opportunity! You’re hungry, I’m… kinda hungry, she’s…- well, I don’t know if she’s hungry, but I wanna meet her…” Her voice turned into a soft whine at the end, and she gave me the patented puppy-dog stare.

It was super-effective.

“Fine,” I snorted, waving her away. “I gotta pick up some tools, anyways… gonna make you a ring. A magical ring. Some real Sauron-type shit.”

…

Midway through typing out my response to Amy, I paused and looked up. The energy in the room had suddenly shifted, and it was making my hackles raise.

Cassie stared back at me with wide, gleaming eyes.

“... Ohmyfrickingod, yes. Fuck yes! I do, Jason Black! I do!”

“Not that kinda- … you know what? Sure. Go put on some shoes you hobo.”

Amusement and satisfaction practically oozed out of the petite hacker. “Hehehe. See ya soon, nerd!”

As Cassie jogged out of the room on bare feet, singing to herself about ‘shotgun weddings’ and ‘three-way dinner dates’, I shot the text over to Amy. I knew that she was attracted to me, physically and biologically, but whether she liked me enough to entertain the thought of dating another girl was… well, I genuinely had no fucking clue.

(7:10 PM) Avalon: Yo, wanna go out to dinner with me and Iris tonight? Our treat.

If anything, dinner would prove to be fucking interesting.

____________________________________________________

Powers Accepted:

N/A - 1200 CP banked.

A/N:

A lil' Lung POV, and then we see the aftermath of the Reality Marble. I've had people ask what Jason's RM effect inside of his body, and his changes here are nods towards that - but we will only know what they are when he triggers the effect. Simply using mana doesn't seem to do it, and there's no spellcasters here to use mana against him. Hm...

I'll leave you to guess what next chapter will entail.

For those wondering why no perks were rolled - I simply couldn't roll anything and include it organically here without it feeling too forced. We'd just gotten RM, so having him roll and focus on something else while focusing on his RM would just be fucking stupid.

Rolls will begin again soon, do not worry.