Saturday, 23 November, 2075, 2048; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The man calling himself Felix ducked his head back into the room in response to Vexboy's shouted conjecture. "Don't know how much it cost. It belonged to the old lady we killed and ate to get this place. Now get some sleep."

A few minutes later, Vexboy was reading a text back from his sister: <<Can you let me know where you are, at least?>>

"Some guy named Felix. Lives in the glow. He is awakened." Vexboy said. He took a pistol out and laid it on his lap with his hand on the trigger. And waited looking at the door. "If you are a Ghoul I better take precautions..."

Saturday, 23 November, 2075, 2048; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

In response to Vexboy's voiced concern, the man calling himself Felix manifested himself in the middle of the room.

His astral form was subtly different - everything below the neck was hazy, misty, and the face wasn't quite the same. The eyes were bigger. You are a good kid, I can see that. But what you have to learn....Eef you'd ever scene - or smelled - a ghoul you'd know better. I was going more for psycho serial killer. But learn to SEE, and you'll be able to know for SURE who's Infected and who's not. And who's crazy, too, if you're good. I think you will be. Get some rest.

"Hey... I can see your astral form! I thought that wasn't possible." strangely Vexboy started feeling sleepy. He didn't think Felix was causing it but rather just overwhelmed with how fortunate he was today. It could have gone a lot worse. He slept.

He still clutched his streetline special though. Even in his sleep.

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1008; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The man called Felix apparently liked his sleep, because no one roused Vexboy until he heard the thin, Hispanic-accented voice calling him to breakfast. There were huge piles of pancakes and a platter of eggs and bacon. No coffee in sight, only milk.

Tiddybombom and Fluffle-oh-Seven were seated at the table unmoving, unblinking, empty plates before them.

But before Vexboy could sit down, the man handed him a fly swatter.

"There ees a fly in the pantry. Breakfast after you kill it." He pointed to a doorway. It led to a small room, sort of a walk-in closet off the kitchen, lined with shelves of foodstuffs. Walking in, Vexboy did spot a small housefly - not the big ones that buzzed, one of the little silent ones. Before he could swat it, though, the door shut behind him and the light - controlled by a swith outside the room - went out. He heard the lock click, and then, "Geeve a shout when eet's dead."

And there was Vexboy, locked in the pantry in pitch blackness. With a fly.

"I have thermographic vision though..." Vexboy turned his eyes red as he looked around.

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1010; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

Vexboy was able to see the fly easily and swat it.

Calling out just a few seconds after being shut into the pantry, the door opened.

The man calling himself Felix asked, "You keel it already? Okay, come eat."

As they ate, the man asked, "So maybe you're a quicker study than I gave you credit for. Tell me, how did you do it? What did you see?"

"I used Thermographic vision. I tried to tell you. But you pushed me into the closet." He pointed to his red irises.

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1010; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The man calling himself Felix laughed out loud. Tiddybombom and Fluffle-oh-Seven remained motionless, staring straight ahead.

"Not laughing at you. The joke is on me. I thought I had come up with an amazing teaching technique to guide the young paduan to greatness. The truth is, I was up half the night thinking of that. You see, I have never taken a student before, and while I have the skills you require, I really don't know how to convey them to you. But listen, I think there was a lesson here. You may not have perceived the fly's aura, but your thermal vision. You are neither a dwarf nor a troll, and I sense no implants polluting you. How is it that you can see in that part of the electromagnetic spectrum?"

"It was just an adept power that manifested is all." Vexboy switched to hazel eyes. "This is my true eye color I just keep low light vision on for convinence." He switched back to yellow.

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1010; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

The man calling himself Felix tsked. "My young friend, you will never get anywhere if you persist in writing your gifts off as something that just 'manifested is all'. Leesten, to perceive the Pattern, the first step will be to perceive the Force. What they call mana. Life energies. Now, people are on a spectrum. On one end are most people, who will never ever be able to access such vision, even if the mana level rises considerably. On the other are those whose nature connects them constantly with such expeerience. You..." and here the man had used his hands to point to imaginary ends of a line on the breakfast table, and now moved one finger from the end towards the center, "...must move yourself farther along thees spectrum. For many like you that have the potential, the greatest obstacle is believing they can...believing they have the raw capability, or believing they can control and build on the talent they have already manifested. You have already developed - not manifested - developed the ability to see farther along the electromagnetic spectrum than most. And many other abilities as well. But as long as you short-change yourself by thinking those things just happened, that you have no credit to take for them, then you will never make the leap to being able to manipulate the direction of your development. What you need to do is spend some time in contemplation, to hearken back through your life, to see what theengs you have done - whether consciously or not - that positioned and enabled you to develop on your natural gifts. That will be your first step."

"You know now that you mention it. I did manifest the powers as I was doing things. Like running or jumping or sneaking." Vexboy said in contemplation. "Maybe... I need to find something to manifest the Astral Perception power... Like medotating or something."

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1011; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

"Meditating is good. You should do it every day if you are serious about coming closer to the Force. But eet ees passive, no more than a supplement to active, conscious deevelopment of your powers. Like running every day to a baseball player - essential, but only indirectly tied to his skills. Leesten, I am not familiar with the full catalogue of your abeelities, but I would guess they fall into two categories. The first would be things that many excellent athletes can do, but you can do better. Things that do not in themselves seem fantastic. Maybe you can run a bit faster than you otherwise could, or jump farther. For thees category, it may be hard for you to pinpoint when exactly your power developed. The second category would be things that those without Gifts seemply cannot do - like seeing the infrared light spectrum. These things are not matters of degree, but completely separate skills. Think back specifically to what you were doing when you manifested these abilities - and I will bet it was not simply meditating - and then maybe we can find the sort of springboard that may be effective in helping you perceive the Force, young paduan."

Vexboy thought for a long time... Then he spoke. "Its funny. Low light vision came as a defense mechanism of sorts. When I was a young kid I had to live on the streets. I needed to keep hidden and with only the occasional lamppost as a light source I needed better eyes. One day I woke up with yellow eyes and it was never a problem again. Thermographic vision was trained as a suggestion from my totem to help with detective work. I tried to manifest it for a month straight then one day I was helping my sister with a case and looking for clues and after a while of focusing and sort of trying to will it, I got red eyes and everything went colorful. Made me jump when it happened. After that powers stopped manifesting. I guess I thought I hit the wall. But maybe thats just a subconcious suggestion... In one of the Green Lanturn runs Hal figures out the reason his ring can't affect yellow is because he believed it to be so. Maybe I just believe really hard that I can't manifest new powers so I don't. Maybe I just need to find the off switch for my magic limiter."

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1012; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

"Bravo, bravo. Now you are getting it. You see that your thermal sight manifested as a matter of conscious, directed effort, and with the active guidance of your totem. It can be so now. Indeed, it must be so. Eef your wish is to see the Pattern, and now that I have explained to you that you must first perceive that which boring academics call the mana flow in the astral but which I prefer to call the energy flows with the Force, then you must set about perceiving those flows with full confeedence that it can be so. Remember, there is no try, only do or do not."

The man calling himself Felix smiled just enough to show that he knew he was being a bit geeky, then continued. Now let me ask you this - when your thermal sight manifested, you were not only actively and consciously willing it so, but you were at that eureka moment engaged in an act of goodness. Do you think that second factor was material, ir immaterial? I ask the question without bias, since the answer may vary by individual."

"Material or Immaterial? Probably both. Magic in general focuses on manipulating material forms or the material universe by means of Mana Flow being used in some specific way or combination of ways. So the realization would most likely just swing one way harder then the other but would have aspects of both. Hm... I guess I just have to... I dunno. I have never seen the Astral period. I wouldn't know what to look for. I had looked through the Thermographic specturm by artifical means prior to my manifesting the power so I kinda knew what to look for. I guess... I dunno... Hey are there any spells that allow one person to percive the astral through another's eyes? If I saw the Astral I could focus on it enough and maybe trigger the manifestation! Either that or deepweed which I would rather not do."

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1013; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

"The deepweed is a crutch you should avoid, si. As spell that would let you see what the Sighted see? For a talented practitioner with time, you can write a spell for almost anything falling outside the immutables. But I don't know it. Good idea, though. How can we give you a taste of what you are looking for? When I spoke to you last night in my manifested form, you were in fact seeing the astral - I was displaying it to you. Tiddybombom and Fluffle-oh-Seven can do it as well."

He nodded and both giant cats faded, their corporeal forms dematerializing but their energies remaining, ghostly images still visible to Vexboy.

"There, you are seeing a small piece of the astral right now, as they will themselves visible to your eyes. Study them closely."

Vexboy stared closely at them. As if taking a picture with his mind.


For about 2 hours standing perfectly still...


Then he spoke out of nowhere. "Well I think I got the gist of it. Could you summon another spirit and have it go astral? But not in front of me. I need to find it."

Sunday, 24 November, 2075, 1224; Glow City, Redmond Barrens, Seattle Metroplex

"Sure." The man calling himself Felix had been puttering around the house as Vexboy concentrated. "Pawssanova? Weell you join us please?"

Vexboy walked around looking for "Pawssanova." Vexboy looked under tables and in closets...

It wouldnt be that simple.

It took a few days to even begin to find Pawssanova. In the off hours from searching Felix began having Vexboy perform menial household chores. Except for some reason when doing the chores he began to feel a heavy mental pressure that blurred his sight. This was put on him to force him to keep his eyes closed and rely on "astral sight". Other then that he was forced to meditate instead of sleep. Days became weeks and while it was slow he began to adapt to this. Slowly but surely he started seeing glimpses of color throughout the day. The blurred sight started to decrease instead of him It started slow but he finally gained a low end version of Astral Sight untrained but servicable.

Pawssanova was on the fucking couch. Licking his fur. Been there the whole time apparently. Vexboy pointed this out to Felix. "He never tried to hide at all huh?"

Ooc: I know I have been flaky. Sorry. I have been busy with work. I should be on later this week.

"Paws, he don't like to mateerialize, si? But he's a good friend. Not as funny as Tiddybombom, though. He just doesn't have the timing."

Indeed, once he had seen Pawssonava, the other two spirits appeared completely different to Vexboy. Though their physical appearances were the same, instead of blank automatons, they were ceaselessly verbal, always telling jokes and gesturing animatedly. Sadly for Vexboy, who was feeling a bit worn down after weeks of headaches and household chores, the jokes were apparently all cat humor. They sent Felix and his three companions into convulsions of laughter, but Vexboy could never understand the punchlines.

He asked Felix if the problem was his budding astral sight. The man merely shook his head and patted Vexboy on the shoulder. "No, you're hearing them. If you want to get the jokes, you have to tnink like a cat. But that might be a tall order for someone unfortunate enough to have tied his fortunes to an eemaginary lizard."

Ooc: Adamu you ok?

"Imaginary Lizard? You mean the Dragonslayer?" Vexboy inquired. "OH HELL NO. I AM NOT A LIZARD!" He said thoroughly offended.

"Sorry. I confess, I have never been sure. Ees the Dragonslayer a dragon that slays, or a person who slays the dragons?"

"Slayer of dragons. He prefers warrior shapes." Vexboy had to see something. He sat on the couch and showed the cat spirits a pic. "Im just damn curious about this. What do cats think of catgirls?" He showed them some Tokyo Mew Mew stuff.

Felix took Vexboy's 'link, and Tiddybombom and Fluffle-oh-Seven gathered around. Pawssanove never moved from the couch. "No materialize, no see the commlink, si?," Felix explained.

The three looked politely at the images Vexboy shared. It was clear that they were being respectful of their friend's interest, which left them uncharacteristically quiet. Then Fluffle-oh-Seven said, "Tuxedo," and it was as though a dam had burst - all three collapsed on the floor in hysterics.

"No Maids. Its an aquired taste I guess." He put away the commlink. "So whats next Master Felix? Assensing training? Summoning Cthulhu? A nap? Im up for anything." Vexboy said with a smile.

"First naps for everyone. Then Cthulhu."

Felix went to his room and the three giant cat people laid down on the floor or nearby furniture and instantly dozed, leaving Vexboy pretty sure Felix had been joking.

He had been serious about the nap. In fact, he and his minions spent an incredible portion of each day napping. Whenever he was awake, however, Felix was putting Vexboy through his paces. They assensed rats, roaches, and oil paintings. They visited a clinic to assense the sick and injured, they assensed the inebriated and the enlightened and everyone in between, and always Felix urged Vexboy to look deeper and deeper. Slowly, the swirling patterns of color started to make sense for the determined young adept....

Vincent nodded. “There is an errand I have to do though? That armor pickup?” He said as he was about to head out the door. “I’ll be back in a few hours Master. I can't wait! This is gonna be super armor!"

As he got on his motorcycle. He looked at himself. He wasn't even wearing his anti rad armor. He had learned where and when to wear it as well.

"What happened to fear of essence loss?" asked the Dragonslayer in his crackling background count affected voice. Vincent rolled his eyes and drove off. Once he entered the main city proper he stopped at a parking lot and got out his comm. "Hey sis? Where are we meeting?" He got a message a minute later. "At that donut shop. Cliche I know but I am craving sweets." Vincent sighed and made sure his holsters were nice and concealed. He drove off to the what could be called the "seedless" part of Seattle. As he drove in he noticed he was dressed far differently then the average person about. Wageslaves of kinder, relatively, Megas were out and about doing errands or what have you. He was sure the occasional housewife was as well. It was mostly human with the occasional dwarf or elf mixed in. Vincent made sure to stop at every red light and stop sign and obey all the traffic laws and remember that the cops were looking at him even if they weren't. They just were. Period. Time to be on his best behavior because he was NOT about to give up his beloved firearms to anyone.

He walked in and saw Jessica in her casual wear. He tried assensing her. Sure enough he saw essence holes. But he already knew they were there. She had blown half her essence on ware. He frowned. Seeing it himself was jarring. Those angry black spots. "Vincent is everything ok?" Vincent nodded and cracked a smile. "Im sad from missing you?" She smirks. "Ok cmon sappy. Lets head back to my place to drop off this bike of yours." They left together and drove back to Jessica's place. A studio apartment. It was sparce but practical. Reflecting Jessica's personality as a worker. She hated idleness and not having something to do. "Let me get into something that doesnt scream Knight Errant." She says taking off her helmet. And entering another room. Vexboy sprawled himself on the couch. He squirmed a bit in contentment stretching himself out. "Feels like home." He said to himself. "Heya kid don't fall asleep now." "I gotcha." Vexboy thought to himself.

After a minute Jessica came back in a black armored jacket and and jeans. She wore a set of boots. From her side slung a shotgun and a combat knife. She was wearing a set of sunglasses that Vincent knew had several mods. She kicked the sleeping Vincent who was jarred awake. "IM UP!" He said pulling his knife. "Cmon. We gotta pick up this armorset right?" Vexboy nodded and they got in Jessica's Ford Americar. They drove out to the shop and Vexboy got out. "You gotta stay behind. Ok?" She nodded and waited in the car. Vexboy went inside and finagled with the man. After some wait, he was with another customer and apparently the man was VERY picky, he finally got a coded locked briefcase with his new gear. He took it outside