Trail 64: Mischief, Family, and Manipulations

Trail 64: Mischief, Family, and Manipulations

--- Jon Whitaker ---

“Alright, so you’re still working on teaching Pix how to use her spell scripts?” Miss Edna asked as she found him surrounded by Spell Circuits and an interested looking Pix.

“Sort of… Since she wasn’t all that interested in the Spell Scripts I was trying to show her before, instead I’m trying to focus on something she actually seemed interested in.” He explained. “Unfortunately, since I’m having to translate what I know into a way she can use it.”

“And what is my grand-apprentice interested in?” Miss Edna wondered, picking up one of his circuits before blatantly telling him that, “This is illegible and unuseable.”

“Yeah, I’m aware… Like I said, I don’t really have much in the way of illusions that we can work on so instead I’m trying to teach her the theory behind using them better, but that’s kind of going in circles if I’m being honest.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “Whatsmore, I don’t have that much time left until Ma gets back so… yeah…”

“If you’re worried about your mom, you could always borrow one of Edme’s rooms. I mean, I dragged you there so that we could use the ones she rents out to her better customers.” Miss Edna reminded him.

Something he couldn’t help but frown at. “I don’t want to take advantage of them just because they’re… your family.”

“Our family.” His second parent argued, ruffling his hair as she took a seat next to him. “And again, that’s why I dragged you over there, but since you’re being stubborn about it I guess we can have today’s lesson here. Completely wasting my efforts to bully my sister into giving you free rentals.”

“Alongside everything else you bullied her into giving me.” He noted dryly.

“She’s my sister.” Miss Edna shrugged as if that justified it, before grabbing a piece of paper and some ink. “Anyway if you’re going to be working on illusions you need something that you both can work with, and luckily for you the Moon affinity can work for some of the simpler mental magics.”

“I know, I’m just… not a fan of messing with people’s minds.” He admitted with a grimace.

“You let Pix mess with people all the time.” His teacher pointed out, already half done with a circuit that would’ve taken him ten times longer than that to draw.

“Pix doesn’t have a Deity of Madness regularly breaking into her mind.” He scoffed.

Miss Edna paused, long enough to give him a concerned look. “Uh, you uh, you need any help with that?”

From her tone alone he could tell that she didn’t want anything to do with the Cheshire if she could help it -(which I can’t blame her for)- but was also willing to do whatever she had to to help him.

He honestly considered it before sighing. “No, from what I can remember of our meetings he’s more an annoyance than anything dangerous…” (He just keeps making me drink his tea and coffee while going on about how to optimize my character sheet for his stupid game.)

“The fact that you can say that at all is all sorts of concerning.” Miss Edna grinned wryly, before very blatantly switching topics. “This is the Moonlit Charm spell, not very dangerous or invasive but enough to distract someone for a few moments or to get any uptight relatives to wander into a prank they’re too smart to actually fall for.”

He gave his second parent a dry look. “How often have you used this on Miss Edme?”

“Enough times that she might have made herself immune to mind control.” Miss Edna admitted with no shame. “I’ll have to stress test that while I’m in town.”

Scene Consequences

-Pix Level Up

--Illusionary Traps Lv. 2

-Thanks to Miss Edna’s assistance both Jon and Pix have learned [Moonlit Daze]

--Moonlit Charm: Create a small light or apply to an object, any target that sees it will roll a (User’s Spell Craft Vs Target’s Willpower) check. If they fail they gain (Craft Rank) Stacks of Charmed* towards the affected object/light.

-For teaching Pix how to better use Traps and Learning a New Script Jon has gained 1XP to Trapmaking and Script Craft.

--Currently: Trapmaking Lv. 9 (11/20) and Script Craft Lv. 5 (5/12).

*Charmed: This unit uses their turn to move towards the target of this effect if possible, otherwise they Pass. Remove 1 Stack every Turn. Only one target can be had at a time.

---

“I’m surprised you’re still here given the holiday tomorrow.” He admitted while flipping through the book DeSade had given him on detailing several of the more infamous dealings with the eldritch in an attempt to prepare him for his own.

DeSade gave him an amused scoff as he made several notes at his desk while occasionally glancing at the void core. “Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday my family celebrates beyond an occasional political manipulation or a surplus funding to the local charities to buy the favor of the locals.”

“So it’s a purely political thing for you, rather than a family thing like with me?” He figured, a bit surprised since the one redeeming feature DeSade had was his love for his daughter.

“To be fair, the plymouth thanksgiving that the holiday stylizes itself after was a multi-day event that was used to establish a hundred year treaty between the local pilgrims and the natives. Meaning that it was always political.” DeSade explained, continuing with his paperwork. “That or religious, given how there were many Thanksgiving days that were established after a bountiful harvest or particular military victory where the people would spend the day praying thanks to their variation of god. This was of course more common in New England with the pilgrims than the southern states founded by other countries, and so was a point of controversy when the government made the tradition a state’s right.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

DeSade began to twirl his pen as he continued his impromptu history lesson. “A singular thanksgiving was only established around the time of the Civil War due to Lincoln hoping to maintain unity in America, similar to how he took a southern unionist as his vice president. The political nature of the holiday continued with Roosevelt using it as a means of trying to control the economic boosts of the holiday season. The actual familial part wasn’t actually added until the urban rural divide began to split families and thus it became a reunion holiday with an add on of sports due to their cultural popularity.”

The Dark Lord turned his attention towards Jon. “Neither of which my own family were interested in, the first due to having firmly established ourselves as the owners of Blackwell and rarely having more than one child per generation. The latter due to our sporting interests being in… more interesting games of blood and magic.”

Knowing that he didn’t want to know what those games were he instead pointed out how, “For someone with no interest in the holiday you sure know a lot about it.”

DeSade crossed his hands in front of his face. “Remember Jon, everything is a tool. History simply tells us why some failed and why we built others. If you’ve ever have an idle curiosity for why something is the way it is or how it came to be, don’t simply accept the existence of the tradition. Understand its purpose and then decide whether the tradition deserves to be preserved or should be burned where it stands.”

“And how does the Arcane Nexus fit into those traditions?” He wondered, knowing that if they were jailbreaking the Nexus then they were probably breaking a lot of those.

“The Arcane Nexus…” DeSade paused, seemingly contemplating how he wanted to answer. “The Arcane Nexus is an interdimensional Spell Engine that was meant to function as a control valve of sorts for every dimension that exists within the more corporeal side of the Black Briar. The Nexus allows cross dimensional travel while also limiting the number of Bleeds that are capable of forming alongside a number of other functions that preserve dimensional integrity while also preserving both knowledge and functioning as an interdimensional ark in extreme cases.”

“Okay…” He nodded slowly, as he processed all of that. “That all sounds like things we should be leaving exactly where they are.”

“And you are correct.” DeSade assured him. “Except for the fact that we aren’t actually going to be breaking any of the Nexus’s traditions so much as the Arcane Association’s. I believe I mentioned before the risks of summoning a Madness entity as well as the fact that you should be able to summon a lesser Madness entity as you are, yes?”

“Yeah, I remember the warning label on all of this.” He confirmed, as DeSade pulled out a laptop from his desk. (Which is more surprising than I was expecting.)

“Well, if we were to compare the Nexus to a computer system, every user possesses different permissions based on a number of factors. Catalysts can function as passwords to temporarily access specific parts of the system, if with limited access to those different subsystems.” DeSade explained, showing him a small box full of black and white text. “By jailbreaking the Nexus we are essentially hacking it to grant your user ID greater permissions than you -and later on I- should normally have. Of course, even with these permissions neither of us will be able to, let alone willing to, access the parts of the Nexus used for its more permanent functions.”

“And so doing this won’t let us break the main system, even by accident?” He asked, feeling the need to double check given how important all of this apparently was.

DeSade seemed to consider this once more. “Mm, I believe only the actual Admin could disable any of those functions, and no one is entirely sure who that is. Though the leading theory is… an entity I’d rather go without meeting.”

“Who?” He frowned, wondering what could make DeSade wary given the things Jon knew the Dark Lord usually got up to.

DeSade gave him a dry look. “The Cheshire’s Wife.”

“Ah.”

“Quite.”

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to DeSade gained 2XP to Occultism and Contracting: Summons, and Computers.

--Currently: Occultism Lv. 8 (13/18), Contracting: Summons Lv. 6 (8/14), and Computers Lv. 1 (3/4).

---

“I know I don’t usually spend Thanksgiving with you guys, but does he normally get like this?” Miss Edna asked from where she was watching him on the sidelines.

“Yeah, though usually not to this extent.” His Ma nodded, still looking exhausted from being woken up early by all of his cooking.

“That’s because not only do I need to make Thanksgiving dinner for our family, I’ve also got to make things for people who aren’t coming to our house, and I need to have all of this done in time to deliver it as well as get back here before everyone else shows up.” He ranted while flitting between five different pots, bowls, and pans.

“You know we could just order chicken or something, I mean that’s what me and John did up until you took over cooking.” His Ma pointed out as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “No need to put so much stress on yourself.”

He gave her a confused look. “But I’m not putting any stress on myself?” (I mean it’s not like I’m picking a fight with a Demon or anything… today.)

“Okay, well how many people are you planning on cooking for?” Miss Edna asked him instead. “Because I’ve seen you cook for three dozen at the camp before, but you’re usually a bit more put together than this mess.”

He thought about it for a moment. “Are you eating with us or Miss Edme?”

“Eh, I usually go to my sister’s but I figure since I’m here already I might as well meet the rest of the Whitakers.” Miss Edna shrugged. “Might visit later though since she’s not too far away.”

“Then food food for eight, and desserts for… The Petrovichs, the Valentines, the Jeffersons, Miss Edme’s family… you think I should make something for Ying and Artemis too? But then should I do something for Audrey and Val if I’m making something for Artemis…”

His Ma paused coffee half to her mouth. “Ying, Artemis, Audrey, and Val?”

“I know who half of those girls are.” Miss Edna confessed.

Not really paying attention he continued doing a tally. “Then there’s also Daisy and Travis from the cooking club, I know they’re probably set since they can cook, but they mentioned a cooking contest type of thing. I should also send something to the station since I haven’t done my monthly ‘don't fear my mom’ thing.”

“Which you don’t have to do since I want them to be scared of me!” His Ma called a little louder, before turning back to Miss Edna to continue (whatever they’re talking about.) “So who are these girls exactly?”

“There’s also the homeless… I haven’t really given them anything in a while…” He frowned as his mind drifted from people he should give food to to people he didn’t want to take anything to, (but there’s also DeSade I guess… he’s missing thanksgiving with Rosalind because of me and the Horror… And, if Miss Edna’s here then is Quartermaster Rogers stuck by himself?)

After a moment he took another look at the kitchen clock, before being forced to admit that as much as he was willing to just cook the whole day, (I can’t actually make food for everyone… There’s just not enough time…)

He ran a hand over the back of his neck, before telling himself, “I need to prioritize.”