With everyone taking a break from an incredibly busy reality (literally), John was taking a bit of time in a separate simulation from everyone else to let him 'take it easy' as both his girls and sister insisted. According to his System, it could even reduce the recovery time required… By some fractional percentage.

Which was good enough to convince the others to give it a try. Fair enough, John ALSO wanted to not feel so bleugh, he wouldn't complain much.

Fairly quickly in this new experiment though, an issue came up: Man, 'relaxing' is hard!

So he did what he usually did when left alone: Found something more interesting to do!

John poked the model. "I don't think this WORKS anywhere else. In fact, I'm pretty sure that this shouldn't work HERE in the first place… They are just plant shaped after all, solidified spells. There's no reason why they should be edible like that. But they are, so YOU should be too. Right?"

His current audience (an attempt at creating a solidified Essence matrix) didn't really respond, but to be fair: It was a cookie.

Sort of.

This was an attempt to Craft stuff without actually using normal materials… To design 'Templates' like the Sunflowers here, where you could just pump energy into a pattern and spawn an object.

Case in point: An Essence cookie.

Should he have started with something more simple? Like creating a Template for a rock or something?

Yep.

Would he though? Nah.

No one wanted an infinite number of rocks most of the time… And if he needed any, his Pocket System could Craft a bunch from the energy and mass generation modules that were in the background just grinding away. They'd all been heavily improved from the old days of frantic trash recycling and using Essence interactions to generate cobblestone.

But THIS new method of fabrication would be something VERY efficient! Even the replication technology from the Borg required specific amounts of material and energy to operate with a noticeable chunk of wastage, even if the amount lost was negligible compared to the other methods he had at hand, like Crafting.

This new ability, if John could ever nail it down, should HOPEFULLY allow patterns to just generate finished products when enough energy was provided!

Take a scan of something with his many available sensors, automate the generation of a Template, do a bit of cleaning up on the pattern to ensure no potential issues… And BAM, he'd be ready to convert power directly into a desired product with nearly ZERO energy loss during conversion! A dream come true!

…Mind you, considering the near infinite amount of resources John could generate? Well, that made this new advancement less impactful than it COULD have been… But anything that allowed him to do things more efficiently would ALSO enable him to achieve more with less effort, regardless of what he wanted to do at the time.

Plus he could upgrade all the Crafting Chests in all his [[Homes]], which would help a bunch of people that John didn't directly interact with every day.

The issue here is that he didn't want the finished product to be Conceptually tied to the Template like it was in this Realm. What if someone incarnated as his Template Cookie? And became Bob-Cookie or something, shifting ALL Essence Cookies produced this way into tiny little Bobs?

No thank you.

It didn't much matter HERE, where the Templates were half sentient and all of reality was under observation, but John's reach was multi-Realm at this point. Best to avoid issues before they could crop up, really.

Anyway, his first attempts at decoupling Concepts from Template production had gone… Odd. Hence why he was doing more in depth research about the odd stuff with LOCAL attempts.

Like how Crazy Dave could eat plant bits in the first place.

Because, again: Should be impossible! Plants vanished after they were 'consumed' beyond a certain point after all, shifting back into raw Sun energy.

Despite that fact though, zombies could still gather fragments from those plants and sell them off to the crazy dude without issue.

But like, how though?

John poked his recent attempt… And gave up, shifting some space to one side and 'planting' a Sunflower Template matrix.

The cheerful flower began to boogie… And he poked it a few times. "You don't mind if I try to pluck a leaf or something, do you? I mean, I don't remember caring back when I was all the Sunflowers, but I don't want to assume."

The happy little guy just kept the groove train a movin.

Well… Alright then! "Pardon me, please…" [[Pluck!]]

…Huh.

John stared at the… Normal looking leaf. Which was a broken fragment of a solidified mesh of magic and raw Sun. And shouldn't be stable, or detachable, or collectable in any way.

As for the uncaring Sunflower, it just kept dancing even as the Sun it gathered began to regrow the lost leaf at a hyperfast pace.

…Wait, no. It was now doing the samba.

Um. Was that important? Did that mean anything? Crud. Uh… "I'm just going to mark that down and let the girls look into it later."

Oh crap, this meant he had to go back and identify ALL the previous flower dances observed. And how they changed based on 'damage' acquired or samples collected.

John poked the plant once more… Nope, still samba time. "...Could you choose a different dance, please?"

The flower ignored him entirely. Oh well, it was worth a shot! "Right, going to pick your other leaf now. Just… Say something if this bothers you, alright?"

Boogie boogie boogie!

…Welp. "You had your chance." [[Pluck!]]

Another leaf, get!

As for the flower? Nope, it seems to be samba or nothing from now on. "Did I even cause you to change dance moves earlier, or are you just messing with me?"

Boogie boogie boogie!

Sigh. "Note: Check logs to verify what previous dances were observed during earlier testings, and what altered the dance moves chosen if any such deviations were detected."

[[Note recorded.]]

Moving on! "If I pump more Sun into you, will you heal faster… Or just produce more Sun balls?"

Boogie boogie boogie!

…Sigh. "That is less than helpful, but I appreciate your attempt at contributing regardless. Welp! Let the Sun shine!"

John tossed a ball of yellow happiness and… [[Poing!]]

Huh. "Note: Forcing raw Sun into a Sunflower causes… Issues."

One of the missing leaf stems was trying to grow into a new Sunflower head, extra roots were being put down, this upper part seemed close to bursting… Maybe new growth? The entire mess was more than slightly destabilized now though. "You doing alright?"

Boogie boogie boogie!

Well, alright then! "Have some more Sun." [[Poing!]]

Boogie boogie boogie?

That didn't look good. "Can you handle any more?"

Boogie boogie boogie!

That wasn't a no! "Here you go!" [[Poing!]] [[B̫͔͉̻̰̪̲̪͔A̗͖̭̲̲̱̳̖̞̪̼̪M̫̟̤̻͇̹̲̝̰̤̰̪͖̠!̮̞̩̰̞͕̩̙̟͕͔̬̖̥͉]]

Oh.

Oops. "Note: Any raw Sun added to an existing spell matrix needs to be… Directed? Guided at least, SOMETHING more stable than this. Eugh, what a mess…"

There were happy bits of flower EVERYWHERE! Eww, it was in his hair too!? Darn it!

Gently pushing the remains to one side, John planted another Sunflower Template matrix. "Hey! Please ignore the mess, the last instance of you uh… Well, don't worry about it. Are you alright with me doing some stuff that may or may not carry some small risk of exploding?"

Like the prior spell bundle, the Sunflower apparently would rather choose to groove rather than try to reply.

Boogie boogie boogie!

John felt an urge to make a point though. "Seriously, the last one of you guys didn't tell me no or… Well, didn't tell me ANYTHING, in fact. Turns out that overdosing on Sun can be very impactful… So you'll warn me first if anything feels off or explody, right?"

Boogie boogie boogie!

…Well, going to have to take that as a 'Yes Sir!' then. "Right, uh… First let me pluck a leaf or two so we can get back to testing stuff." [[Pluck!]]

~~~Pocket System~~~

Jessica handed out the busy work. "Grace, please review the security modules once more… The next scheduled Realm is supposed to be a stress test. We are very likely going to have to bug out at little notice, so we can't risk any problems."

The white beauty nodded. "Understood."

Good. She turned to Grace's sister. "Temptation? I want you to help me research this category of incidents that John pulled off when… Indisposed."

The woman blinked. "Ho oh? Let me see… Hmm."

Yep, they were fairly interesting. "From what my agents can tell? My brother sacrificed stability and durability purposefully to enable short term consumable style effects… And I want that to be an option for us without him having to get high on Sun and chaos."

The black skinned demoness began gently sorting the various examples into piles. "So basically burst effects? More like a camera flash than a flashlight… Yes, this would require FAR less investment and resources even if the final effect would have to be brief. Burst healing instead of regeneration, illusion over alteration, that sort of thing."

Jessica sighed. "Yes, I can see where he was inspired by some of the 'one shot' plant Templates like the Squash and the Pepper and… Well, honestly we don't have a lot of Magic examples to work with. Maybe he can direct us somewhere with more data to use for our tests, but at least for now we have SOMETHING to reference while trying to figure out HOW he pulled some of these shenanigans off."

Seriously: Her brother goes into a drug fueled haze of drunken joy riding… And ACCIDENTALLY Crafts an entirely new category of methods to alter reality. Didn't even notice he was doing it either, due to being too hyped about potentially getting to ride a zamboni.

Still, it would be useful at some point. "My plan is to start small and build up into the more complicated capabilities he displayed… Design small Templates for minor effects like a soft glow or property shift with nearly no duration or stability, then eventually get to insane stuff like altering existing Templates on the fly WHILE possessing them…"

Seriously, her brother was tripping HARD and apparently that let him sort of drip outside the box that everyone assumed they were required to exist within. Too bad the experience was too risky to deliberately attempt to recreate… Just having her brother loose with a vaguely non-aggressive goal of getting his own ride nearly destabilized all of reality.

That kind of reach was astonishing.

Grace caught her attention. "My Lady, should we wait till the Realm after the next one? For finding more examples of Magic, I mean… The one designated after this is already a very complicated destination according to the sensing modules, with time travel and dimensional layering and reality clusters all interacting with each other…"

Jessica… Just sighed. "Honestly? We should probably wait just to be safe. And I'm not even sure if this next stop will even HAVE Magic, or at least any version that would be useful for John to study… But it seems complicated enough that we can find SOMETHING there is we have my brother tune in on our desires as we enter the Realm."

Grace flinched at that while Temptation started to cackle. "We're going to ASK Master to look for trouble?"

What? "No! Just, you know… Keep an eye open for any examples of Magic when we arrive."

Temptation nodded. "Which would be trouble. Trust me, Sunnydale has Magic and it is ALWAYS trouble! The other Guardians back at the park gripe about it all the time."

That was just silly! "This next stop will probably be stupidly short ANYWAY since we are targeting a location that is SUPPOSED to stress test the security modules, now that we know they are stable, properly configured, and working as intended. We may not even stop by long enough for John to get any samples or examples of Magic to work with!"

Now Grace was looking at her with skepticism. Come on! Where was the trust!? "Look, I'll just ask my brother to aim us towards something Magical but separated from lots of other defenses and powerful entities and… All that. Just something by itself so we can get a good look, maybe take samples or just yoink it entirely… That would be all we require for better research on this whole mess."

Shouldn't be an issue, right? "Then we can let the Realm kick us out, if it doesn't ignore us completely in the first place, and move on! No mess, no fuss, no problem!"

The room fell silent, despite how clearly efficient and well thought out her plan blatantly happened to be. Even her agents were giving her odd looks for some reason.

Then Temptation turned to Grace. "Yeah. She and our Master are clearly related somehow. On like a Conceptual level."

Huh?

Grace winced but nodded. "I think the prolonged separation might have caused both of our loved ones to backslide a little… But it probably isn't that bad, right?"

What was THAT supposed to mean!? "Backslide!? I'm fine! JOHN'S the one who's been having issues, not ME!" That was crazy talk! "Agent P22, tell them I'm perfectly fine."

The agent at her side didn't look in her direction. "The SPYRAL Director has been operating with less than recommended amount of sleep and sustenance for over eight cycles. Coping mechanisms such as distracting herself with 'busywork', consuming excessive amounts of caffeinated stimulants, micromanaging operations, overly reviewing already approved and ongoing missions, and…"

Traitor! "Agent P22!"

The professional's tone was dry as sand. "Our SPYRAL Director is perfectly fine."

…Damn it, just roll with it. "See? I'm fine!"

Neither Grace nor Temptation seemed to believe her.

Damn it. Sigh… No, she was the big sister. And theoretically an adult… She had to be mature about this, right? "Fine, I'll… I'll also take a break after this, alright? Like John, I mean. But at least let me show you both what my general plans are before we leave here, alright? So stuff can keep getting done even while I'm wasting time and…" ""Yes Mistress/My Lady.""

Honestly, she didn't expect the girls to hug her, but something inside her really appreciated it anyway.