As John was currently a bit broken and on the floor, and leaving this locked down place was a bit tricky to begin with, he attempted to start up a lovely little conversation with his box roommate, who he was mentally calling 'Boxy' for short.
Unfortunately, when he informed Boxy of their new name, that apparently distracted the cuboid creation from wishing to return to boxtopia or wherever for a little bit.
Because they insisted they were NOT a box, which confused John greatly.
After only a TINY amount of arguing, the young girl convinced John that she wasn't a box, she wasn't a new born magical baby box girl, all magical boxes did NOT give birth to twelve year old girls, and that she did not actually wish to be in the box to begin with DESPITE the awesome bone chains and the jerk demonic statue and stuff.
Which left John with a bit of an issue. "Then uh… Can I have it?"
The little girl, Zatanna Zatara (Awesome name!), just gave him an exasperated look. "Can you have what?"
John pointed behind her as best he could, what with the nerve damage and all. "Your box. And all the non-box related stuff that came with your box. Like, I'm already going to eat that jerk statue, but the chains are made from dragon wing bones I think… Or angel? It's hard to tell with all the curses and stuff."
She threw up her hands in exasperation! "FINE! THEN will you take me home!?"
Huh? "What do you mean? I was ALWAYS going to get you out of here… Just, you know. My spine broke a little bit." He twisted slightly. "It's getting better, but it turns out it is faster to let temporal damage unwind itself than it would be to just swap out my Body for a new one."
She stared at him with confusion. "What?"
John wanted to throw up his hands! "I KNOW, right!? You'd think it would be easier to just Craft up a new meat suit and hop right into it, but NO! When you smear your existence across so many temporal axis layers and stuff, then you end up with your Soul and Mind getting wedged in there good and it all becomes a mess!"
He glared at the now empty box. "I hope the scans of this thing are good enough for my sister, because it was a hassle to even get here! You'd think arriving from outside of reality itself would drastically simplify the process, but I was almost grated like cheese over the spatial warping just trying to show up in this place."
Zatanna looked concerned. "That sounds… Bad?"
Meh, he waved that off. "Frustrating a bit, and I almost got exploded a little until everything stabilized, but honestly? I'm just a bit grouchy from my fractured spine and that jerk statue that used to be locking down your box in Space and Time. That guy was a jerk."
Hopefully the thing would at least taste delicious when torn into snack sized bites… "Anyway, since we will be stuck here for a little longer until my Body finishes fixing itself, I'd like to go back to what I asked earlier: Can I have the chains and stuff?"
The girl blinked, having been staring at the malevolent glowing bone chains. "Huh? I mean, I guess… I don't want to get near them though, they feel angry and hungry."
John grinned. They felt hungry? What a coincidence! They LOOKED tasty! "Sweet! Right, let me put all that stuff away then… [[Pocket.]]"
And the area felt MUCH nicer now that it only contained the two of them. A hazy fog seemed to have lifted, a heavy burden no longer crushing the local Concepts and energy fields.
Zatanna stared at the missing chains and box in shock… And then glanced at John. And back. She held out a hand. "[[Enob sniahc, laever flesrouy!]]"
Nothing happened.
Um, what? "What was that? The thing you said, I mean… It felt T̸̨͜͠i̷͏̛̛n̶͜͟͝͡g̢͞͡͡l̶̢y̡̛."
She shivered at his words for some reason, but also looked confused. "It's magic, like what you did. Although I've never heard of a spell called 'Tekcop' before. Is that a different language? Mom can cast stuff in all sorts of languages, but I've only been able to get stuff using English so far…"
John blinked. "Wait, you know Magic!? Really!?" Oh this would be FAR more efficient than studying that stupid old statue and box! "Would you mind teaching me? I can pay for lessons!"
She was giving him an odd look again. Why? "No really, I can do all sorts of stuff and I got all kinds of money and food and stuff! I promise teaching me won't take long, hopefully, but I've only managed to dabble in Essence and some Conceptual stuff, the closest I got to working with Magic was Crafting some Magical torches that I basically copied from another place…"
And honestly, John wasn't even SURE if Minecraft torches WERE magical, or if they had only BECOME magical due to being formed from Essence and placed in a Realm with magic like where Doe Park was.
If another place was made of Essence or had other such issues, would his stuff still count? Or would his potions and torches and stuff from Steve's Realm alter themselves once more?
Best to learn actual Magic from an actual source! "If I'm too old or something I can make myself younger, if I'm not biologically capable I can alter my Body, if I require a specifically shaped Soul I'm sure I can work SOMETHING out… Please! Please teach me, Zatanna!"
She stuttered… "But… But you can already use magic! I saw you?"
Huh? Oh, his use of [[Pocket.]] That didn't count. "My ability to pull things in and out of reality using my [[Pocket]] is just cheating. I'm using that aspect of my existence to manipulate materials, energies, and all sorts of stuff by yanking things around in impossible ways from outside of all creation. Boring stuff like that can't compare to the amazing wonders of ACTUAL Magic!"
He began popping out and in random stuff from his inventory as he continued to explain. "Sure I can alter myself to Craft or Store or Alter stuff that I am able to Gather or Collect or C̨̧̨̀͢o̵̧ǹ̴͟͏ś͡u͏̛m̶͟ȩ̡̡͡͝ or whatever, but THIS? Magic Zatanna! Spells and charms and stuff! Please teach me!"
Why had she shivered again?
Didn't matter, she seemed to be considering it! Come on! "Please…?"
The girl gave him a look. "You say you can change stuff? And that you are fixing your body right now, right?"
…Where was she going with this? "Yes?"
Suddenly she seemed FAR more invested in this. "Can you change OTHER people!? Can you fix them!?"
Too close! "I mean, yeah? But you shouldn't change yourself TOO much or it makes puberty REALLY confusing… And I don't suggest adding random robot parts, because I got some really odd looks when I started adding useful appliances like toasters and stuff for emergency toast…"
She ignored all that. "Can you fix my mom?"
Oh.
And there was a heavy weight in that sentence. This wasn't some hypothetical question.
Best not promise too much. "Maybe? I can fix any issues with a human woman's Body biologically. I can triage or adjust any concerns with a Mind if she gives consent for me to do so. Anything Soul related is a bit more tricky, especially if she has already passed on or reincarnated… If I try to fix THAT then she will probably lose very recent memories and stuff related to the time period that she was disabled."
He wanted to hold up a hand, but again: Broken spine. "But if she isn't human? If she is part of a collective of entities or bound to herself through multiple timelines or Concepts? That might take a few weeks for me to find a work around. Less if I can collect some data about whatever is wrong with her locally, and it would be even better if she is able to communicate and answer a few questions directly, but yeah…"
Man, it hurts to give harsh truths like this. "Don't expect any instant fixes here, depending on what is going on, on what she needs fixing. That's all I'm saying."
Zatanna didn't even blink. "Mom has cancer."
Huh? "What, ONLY cancer?" That didn't seem right, this Realm had magic… Oh! "Is it Magic cancer?"
That made the girl pause… "I don't think so?"
John just… Couldn't understand. "I mean, I can handle that no problem, but I kind of expected something a bit more complicated, like her Soul turning into a dinosaur or something. Especially since you and she have Magic and can cast spells and stuff…"
He ignored her shocked expression as he rolled the whole idea in his mind. "Maybe Magic is restricted here for some reason? Like, couldn't you just order any cells with cancer to die or something? Or if your Body is really messed up, use Magic to make a clone and transplant your head over… OOH! Or turn yourself into a robot! That'd fix everything, cancer too!"
The little girl jumped back! "You can turn people into robots!?"
What!? "Well, I mean sure… But can't Magic do that too? It shouldn't be THAT hard…"
She pointed at John. "You will NOT turn mommy into a robot."
He blinked. "Well of course not! Not without asking first, anyway. Turning people into robots against their will would be pretty impolite, after all… And probably spike your home electric bills, if I don't put an alien power generation source in there somewhere. I'm just saying, with magic I don't understand how ANYONE can even GET sick…"
She slumped. "Mom says that me and people like us with magic are harder to affect with spells, that we naturally resist ALL stuff cast on us."
The girl held up a hand. "[[Wolg.]]"
A ball of blue light formed in her hand. "Mom says Homo Magi, people born with magic, can safely use the magical reserves we grow and train over our lives to do all sorts of things… But if what we want is too big, we fail. And either pass out or faint as our bodies try to protect us from the backlash."
She slumped into herself. "Not even mommy or daddy is strong enough to fix her cancer. Something about not having the fine control to not hurt her too badly when trying."
Hmm. John considered the possible reasons… "Probably because Cancers are just healthy cells that are reproducing too much. So unless the spell can easily and cheaply detect which bits to affect, the power needed to ONLY alter a small percentage of a person must be huge."
He nodded. "Especially in such a negative way, since you'd want to destroy or alter all those cells to stop the issue entirely."
Much easier to just get a Scan of the woman and make her a new Body. Shove the Mind and Soul over, double check to ensure everything was alright, and BAM! Problem solved!
On the other hand, if he was stuck with only local methods… "Maybe if you break it up into smaller spells cast over a longer time period? Like a spell to MARK cancer cells, another to track those cells and any new ones they create, and maybe a curse to destroy only the marked stuff?"
John missed the shock and hope in the girls eyes as he considered this method. "Probably be safer too, since you could rest between castings and handle the issue over time. Plus, if each new 'marked' cancer cell would automatically mark those they span, you could slowly wipe out 'family lines' of cancer cells one at a time, so she'd be able to recover between healing sessions."
In fact, looking at it like a bloodline curse designed to kill descendents, if you could somehow use Magic to find the FIRST cancerous cell, the whole issue could be handled easily, right? "I still think my idea of just fixing everything at once would be faster and easier, but that would probably work too and ACK!"
He was being hugged!
And the little girl was crying!
WHAT DO HE DO!? SIS! GRACE! TEMPTATION! HELP!
[[Jessica: You've got this handled, bro! Keep her distracted while we use our Scans of her to track down where the hell her mother is, it shouldn't take too long.]]
He was too freaked out by this to know what to do, just sort of standing there like a lump while a little girl broke down in tears. JOHN NEEDS GUIDANCE NOW!
[[Temptation: Do a flip! Ha!]]
[[Grace: Go AWAY sister! Shoo! And my Lord: Just pat her back and tell her everything is fine.]]
Are you sure!? She's crying very VERY hard…
Like a rusted robot, John mechanically used one mostly unrestrained arm to pat her back. "There there? Uh… Everything is alright?"
Zatanna began to wail HARDER!
Damn it, handling this would be SO MUCH EASIER if his spine wasn't still shattered!