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"speech"
'thought'
"English"
Void and veil-learning curve
0254 my clock read and Hatenna was asleep beside me. I had begun reading at around 1900 (7:00 pm) and Hatty had fallen asleep about an hour ago. The old book, The circle of Magi, had explained a few things, though I was only halfway through.
Skipping past the flowery language and full history of the order. It had been founded to contain, destroy and combat hostile entities and abnormalities. And to assist and camouflage friendly entities. Whereas, Neutral beings were left alone unless the veil was lifted.
Speaking of. Apparently, a balance must be maintained to stop the veil from being lifted. The more beings who know of it, the weaker it becomes, and the more the void bleeds into this world. That might not seem so bad until you remember that includes cthulian-like creatures straight out of things like bloodborne. And the two dimensions were entwined more so than others, where do you think pokemon originated from? Giratina's domain, the Distortion World, was a part of the veil acting as a shield along with its guardian.
*Sigh*
That ghost girl in Hammerlocke just moved up on my list of things to do now.
When Hatty had fallen asleep, I had begun looking through the other books I had acquired from the tower. Alchemical symbola was from a brief look showing alchemical signs and symbols, per the name. It reminded me of what you would see in shows like Full metal alchemist on earth. That made me think, so I began looking for coding and ciphers through a few pages, but I had nothing so far.
After a few failed attempts at finding a cipher, I moved on to, Alchemical Elementa, which was basically a chemistry and math textbook all rolled into one. It went through the periodic table and noted the elements and amounts making up common things like types of stone or metals, percentages per weight, and so on... It was... Complicated, but understandable weirdly enough. I'd need time to wrap my head around it, though it looked like the book had instructions to assist beginners and was broken down into parts rather well.
I had admittedly had longer on these two books from having studied them in the tower. Thankfully, I was getting my mind around it bit by bit, the concept wasn't the hard part. Judging elemental components and the amounts, then knowing what to put in and take out and where to get them was the hard part. Still, with the book as a crutch, I had a chance.
Lastly, I had a look at Curses: benevolent and malevolent, it was... Interesting, not as calculating but still requiring its own elements and preparation, most curses it seemed, required herbs and gemstones or precious metals depending on the strength of the curse, and whether ritual or spell were prepared differently sometimes using specific shapes. Old chants were commonplace, usually your own with specifically selected words, but the biggest requirement was the state of mind and intent.
I closed the book, putting it back in the draw, following the witch-to-be's example, I laid down to sleep.
As I awoke I found myself with a weight on my face, Hatty I knew. Sitting up, and slowly removing my partner from my face realized that I wasn't having difficulty, I felt pretty alright, Huh.
I stretched and looked at the clock at 0912 am, not bad. I got up and moved toward the mirror hesitantly to check myself over from yesterday. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if I had bloody horns this morning.
Looking into the mirror, I saw I was... Normal? What, why is that more shocking? I checked myself over, removing my jacket, I seemed fine, hell I felt fine. OK, I was hungry again, not starving, though.
What the fuck though, in two days my body has gone from bleeding randomly, to massive spikes in pain, then cannibalized itself, and finally fully recovered? That's... I should be dead, metabolism, human metabolism anyway, wouldn't be able to do that, Nor compensate for it. My body has adapted way too rapidly, my body would have cooked itself from the inside out under normal circumstances. It hadn't obviously, the energy, that I could now access was compensating somehow while requiring more energy input in return.
I am going to have to chalk this one up to the supernatural, same as when I tried to figure out how an adult mind can function in a child's body, or brain as it were. I'll look into it more when I have a better understanding of the what and the how.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
I was broken from my thoughts by the thudding on my door. "Jerry," Came Sonia's tired voice through the white door. "You up yet?" Sonia yawned.
"Yes!" I yelled back, maybe a little too frantically. Feeling Hatenna stir mentally, I looked over to the future witch, I caught only a flash of energy before feeling a familiar weight on my head.
"Mornin' Sonia," I greeted my sister, as I opened the door.
"You look better today," Sonia looked me up and down. "Yeah, well, I feel better too," I really did.
"You're up early," I cocked a brow at my sister. "Ready for training, huh?" I asked her.
Sonia yawned again, "Yup, I meant what I said yesterday. I'm comin home and, well, I don't want to disappoint Gran or my cute little brother." Sonia went to ruffle my hair before noticing that my hat was present. So, she did the next best thing and pinched my cheek, 'Damn it.' This however irritated said hat.
"Quit it, Sonia," I brushed her hands off me, which only served to amuse her.
"Come on," Sonia waved me after her as she started down the hallway.
*Sigh*
'At least it won't be as bad as-,' Nope, not finishing that thought, not taking the chance. My partner giggled from the top of my head, at my thoughts. 'Come on Hatty, let's get some food first,' I changed the subject, luckily communicating wasn't causing any pain now.
As I followed Sonia down the stairs, the little witch sent me two images. One, of my emaciated form, followed by a more recent memory of myself in front of the mirror along with feelings of relief and pride. 'Thanks,' I transmitted back to Hatty, her telepathic name at the end, to finish the sentence. Then I felt joy added to her mix of muted emotions as well.
On reaching the kitchen, I found it empty. Sonia had gone right outside without eating, boy is she going to regret that, better to puke than have nothing in your stomach. I grabbed a few of the pokeworld berries for the faux witch and myself, forgoing my usual breakfast, in favor of my new dietary requirements.
Quickly finishing the food, we followed my sister outside. I checked my mental shields and made sure I was projecting my calmness to my partner. Calmness field? Whatever. I made sure they were in place.
Finding the rest of my family in the lush garden had been easy enough. Sonia was standing next to, huh, gran was here too. "Morning," I greeted them.
"Good morning, Jericho," Gran returned. "Sonia said you would be joining us," Gran continued. 'Stupid puppy dog eyes,' I thought to myself before replying. "Yeah," Simply.
"Very well. Now while I think it is pragmatic for you both to get a head start, we need to do so safely," Gran started. "I will be assisting you two as much as I am able. However, I will also be taking some time to get up to date on teaching material," She thought for a moment. "When I am not here with you two I will be studying the required information I will need for teaching, but please come and get me if you have any questions or need anything, alright?" She continued, "In two months we will be heading to Hammerlocke, we will need to be ready by then." Gran finished her lecture to us.
'Well this should be interesting,' I thought. Sonia was far more vocal, "YEEESSSS!" She threw her arms into the air with a cheer, all while Yamper began to bark and run circles around her.
"Whyyy!?" Sonia gasped while we were running. Yes, running, Gran had us running.
"Because physical fitness is important," I replied to my sister, taking measured breaths and keeping my running form in place, thank you reincarnated knowledge.
*Bark* *Bark*
Sonia simply groaned as Yamper continued to run literal circles around her, while I had Hatty on my head along with a younger body. I rolled my eyes, "Keep upright, don't swing your arms much, keep them bent and near your chest, and lead with the flat of your foot heel to toes."
"Seriously," Sonia groaned again.
"Deep breaths, not short and shallow," I started. Sonia grit her teeth, though began to breathe long and deep. While Hatenna was taking vindictive pleasure from Sonia's suffering, 'So you know, you'll be doing physical training too.' Hatty sent me annoyance in return. 'Yup, just because it's your weakest trait doesn't mean you should neglect it,' I transmitted to her. Irritation was launched at me mentally then eventually acknowledgment, and she began to pout. Adorable.
"How *Pant* are you *Pant* keeping up *Pant* with me?" Sonia continued to talk.
"Technique," I was sweating and tired. Admittedly, it had been a while. But my older mind was helping me concentrate and focus on the task a hand, "And stop talking, focus on your breathing." She didn't respond, good, she's getting it.
As we arrived back at the front of the house, we found gran reading, though she stopped as we arrived. "Sonia, don't bend over, hands on your head, head up and open your airways," I informed her. To her credit, she did exactly that as she continued to gulp down air. How is she this tired when I'm not? She's normally like the energizer bunny from Earth.
Gran raised a brow at me then looked at Sonia, "Next tent building, then push-ups." I nodded my acceptance, and Sonia groaned, yet again. Yamper well *Bark* yeah that.
*Sigh*
I cracked my neck, break time. Well, for Sonia anyway, Hatty and I had other business to attend to. After my partner and I had picked up some pokemix from the house, which we had eaten, I had selected an Oran berry to take with us on our little excursion.
We were now walking through the same woodland as before. Ash and willow trees, with moss and ivy all over the place, as we followed the lakeside. Until we were far enough away from the house that it would be hard to see us. Henna was on the lookout for any wilds as well.
I stopped, figuring we were far enough away now I looked at the muddy embankment. "Time to catch a fish," I stated to her.
We had no fishing gear, weird considering we live next to a lake but whatever, we would be using pieces of the Oran berry to attract our prey, and Hatenna's confusion to remove it from the water. This wasn't going to be a Pokemon battle, I would help where I could, and we were aiming to kill. I checked the steak knife I'd wrapped in a kitchen towel out of my back pocket, it was no combat knife or dagger, but it'd do.
It was past noon now and time to start, I put the little which on the ground, "Ready?" I asked her, receiving confirmation. "Alright then," I cut the blueberry-looking Oran berry into several pieces and tossed one into the water, hopefully, the Arrokuda would be faster than the Magikarp.
25 minutes and 8 Magikarp later, a sad goldfish-shaped, red-scaled, and yellow-finned-looking creature. We were down to two pieces of berry.
*Sigh*
I've been doing that a lot lately. Hatty was currently flowing her energy through me, so I could get a better idea of what I was doing, namely picking the Magikarp out of the water, to be fair, it wasn't the more aggressive Arrokuda so it made for good practice.
Taking a breather while Hatty jogged in place. I decided that seeing as Arrokuda were primarily carnivorous, meat might work better.
So, I stabbed one of the Magikarp through the eye... What it's a fish, and I'm hunting... Fishing, either or. It did, however, get Hatenna's attention and the feeling of shock ran through me, then curiosity. Right, she's like 5, "What? I'm going to use it to get our prey, the berries aren't working," I tried explaining. Raised in a human environment or not she was still a Pokemon and had a different thought process to humans.
Hatenna kind of cocked her head/body to the side considering then seemed to shrug, sending a wave of acceptance to me and continued training. Huh, she got over that faster than I thought she would, then again we've only known each other a couple of days. Feels like longer… Moving on.
I threw the bloody and now dead fish back into the water. In less than a minute, our prey had arrived.
Note to self, Arrokuda prefers meat.
"Hatty heads up," I got the faux witch's attention, who began to hiss rather violently as the Arrokuda tore into the red corpse.
In a burst of energy, the cork-tailed fish was flung from the water, though it wasn't nearly as passive or defenseless as the prior Magical. A cloak of water formed around the animalistic Pokemon, and the next thing I knew I'd been struck by an aqua jet.
*Smash*
Bright side turns out energy responds well to need and instinct, probably why Pokemon get so strong fighting and enjoyed it, there's less risk for them. Downside was my hasty barrier had shattered like glass, complete with sound. Side-note, "Owwww." That hurt! I'd been slammed in the chest onto my arse. Back to the Bright side, again, the brown and tan fish was now stopped and suspended in confusion courtesy of my partner. Having lost the knife in my less-than-graceful tumble, I lashed out with a right jab, half-remembered MMA classes from a prior life coming to the forefront of my mind.
I struck true. This however had the dangerous fish unexpectedly blasted back with a kinetic strike similar to a force push in Star wars. The little fucker was stopped when it struck one of the nearby trees cratering the damn thing. Pride radiated from my partner in turn.
Annnd the headache was back, brilliant. Oh Neat, it gets worse, my arm was now one big purple and black bruise, and my chest hurt from the aqua jet pretty sure something broke... "SHIT!" I continued to curse as I was hit by nausea and fatigue like a truck. I quickly smothered it under a layer of forced calm though, at which point I was enveloped in a life dew, then another, and another. The pain began to subside, "Cheers, Hatty."
I kept my eyes on the still Arrokuda and I pushed the lingering pain and throbbing aside. I retrieved my knife and checked our prey it was out cold, I plunged my knife into it with a flare of psychic energy, and now the little bastard was dead. "Soups on," I called out to my friend, she was pleased and quite smug, I could tell.
After throwing the still-flopping Magikarp back into the lake, hardy little buggers. I cleaned and prepared the fish as best an amateur could. This thing had been very weak, relatively speaking, but had nearly killed me, if I hadn't put that barrier up. I suppressed a shudder, thank you Rwby, I had been thinking of that world's aura at the time, wondering what I could do to defend myself.
*Sigh*
I finished preparation, including the nutritional guts, and you know what? It wasn't bad, tasted like an eel. After Hatty and I finished eating, I once again felt a lot better. We chucked the remains back in the lake and headed back to the house, sharing the last two berries pieces. And thanks to Hattys healing the bruising had gone down significantly, though some pain did persist it was negligible.
Back to training with the family.
When darkness began to fall, we all went back into the house, with myself returning to my room to think without interruption.
I had lowered my shields and my calmness had been literally shattered while I was under attack, only reasserting themselves afterward. Multitasking mental elements and focusing on a fight is, difficult. I would need a more training and experience, but also contingency if it failed, which was why I was now looking through the old tome I had collected from the tower library, specifically the one on curses. It would help hopefully and give me what I required, in this case a curse to prevent or dull pain and one to bring peace or dull emotions, hell maybe I'll get lucky and get an all-for-one? Yeah, right.
"Hello, what have we here?" That got my attention.
That's how the next to week would be spent, training and researching. And yet, my attempts to find any more on the white tower remained elusive.
A/N: Tenth chapter of Void and Veil done. As a heads up I will be trying to get new chapters out weekly, however I am currently working 60 hours a week leaving me very little free time hopefully they get more people in and I'll have more time for this. So if it is a bit later than expected you know why. This one is a little rushed.
Sir Da Bomb once again thank you for the feed back.
