Chapter 9: Have Aura, Will Travel
After their bargain was struck, Jaune got down to the meat of the matter. The issue at hand. The real talk.
"Okay, tell me what you have for me, Lisa. Am I going to fly? Shoot laser beams?" ...X-ray vision?
His new partner in universe-hopping fixed him with an amused look, one eyebrow raised, lips twitching in mirth.
"Slow down there, hero-boy." Unhurried, Lisa took the time to brush back her blonde hair over an ear. "Trust me, I can understand why your mind went straight to the flashy toys, but even though they may seem attractive upon first glance, this is a multifaceted problem requiring a multifaceted solution. As such, I recommend you take a more holistic, long-term approach while always keeping in mind the synergies that may exist between the purchases, if any, made today and those tabled for later on." She held up the scroll, and tapped a finger on the surface for emphasis. "Our best path forward is to set up multiple channels of advancement which, with the critical acquisitions, will result in a cascading effect that jumpstarts you to success." She punctuated her speech with a confident grin, then looked at him expectantly for a reply.
Wow, those sure were a lot of smart words!
"All of that sounds so, so great," he complimented, and Lisa visibly preened. "Although, I have just one request: can you put it in smaller words for me, please?" Because me dum dum.
"Ahaha…um." Lisa grew distinctly nervous, fidgeting as she turned her head to peer out the window. Away from him.
"Lisa?" He moved to enter her view, then kept doing so as she refused to meet his eyes. "Tattletale? Hello?"
Cracking under the pressure, her words came out in a rush. "Basically, you can't fly any time soon. On the other hand, you can have the amazing ability to fall at a very safe speed. You know, if dropping from great heights was somehow a constant problem for you."
It was, in fact. The lack of a landing strategy has always been a (thankfully nonfatal) weakness of his. Was fixing it worth his family heirloom? Will he make that trade for the chance to be… Slowfall Man?
No.
"Tell me you're joking."
A helpless shrug was Lisa's answer. "Anything decent costs too much. The ones in our price range either outright suck, or have multiple tiers that you have to purchase. The latter isn't a flaw by itself and I normally might have called that an investment, except for a glaring issue."
Jaune cocked his head, awaiting an explanation.
"Like, how strong are you?" Lisa asked in a leading tone.
Thinking of the best way to demonstrate, he searched the room for a set of weights. There were none, of course, and his gaze soon returned to Lisa, whom he picked up by the waist, raising her high with ease before putting her down again.
"About that strong, I guess."
"..."
"What?"
The girl stared at him, mouth half-open. Her statue impression stretched on until it became downright uncomfortable, prompting him to reach out and poke her on the shoulder just to make sure she was still alive. The contact broke Lisa from her daze.
"W-well, that was quite…interesting. So that's what it's like to not have my powers screwing with me." She coughed into a hand, and moved on rather than explain. "Nice lifting. You made it look easy. Here's the kicker, though. Most of it is thanks to that Aura stuff, right? Your natural baseline is lower."
"Yeah, the Aura stacks on top of what I have. Is that relevant?"
Lisa pulled up a store page, spinning the scroll around for him to see the name: [The STRENGTH of Two and a Half Men] . It sounded underwhelming until she directed him to click on an arrow icon, and the 'Two and a Half' part changed to a 'Nine and Three-Quarters'. Another click, and it was now 'Forty Two'. Then, 'One Hundred and One'. He stopped once it surpassed the 'Ten Thousand Thirty Two' mark (costing a cool 500,000 Points for the Tier).
"I'd say it's crucial," Lisa said, tearing her eyes from the screen and reactivating her powers, "because this [Skill] here and the ones like it improves your physical and mental attributes. They're split into Tiers, and start out pretty cheap in exchange for a modest upgrade; each rank costs more than the last. It gets ridiculous on the higher end."
It sure did. Phrases like 'breaking the sound barrier' and 'punching the moon' in the descriptions painted a very enticing picture. He wanted them. All of them.
"And the catch?' he asked, not blind to the despondence surrounding Lisa.
"The effects for this series are really just multipliers. They rely on those weird metrics in the Status app. STRENGTH, SPEED, INTELLIGENCE, CHARM, and so on."
After a few seconds, he got it. "We have no idea what the numbers are in reference to me."
"Yeeeep. Or me. Farewell, my fleeting dream of being the smartest person in the universe."
At the moment, the Status app was stuck on a snapshot of its old owner. Under the list of attributes sat a small pile of unallocated stat points, grayed-out and impossible to interact with. Even if they could spend them, Jaune gave it equal odds of affecting the dead man instead of him or Lisa. If he cannot increase his own numbers, then that was a major part of the [Skills] cut off at the knees.
It was as she said. The things of use laid out of reach. What was attainable, brought with them flaws.
"Being broke sucks."
"Preach~"
Damn it all. He was so excited about getting some help, too. So long, easy life.
Lisa winced, having yet again read his body language for his thoughts. "I can help! But we need to start small. That [Mobile Merchant] you mentioned is a good first goal—and it's not a paywall scam, FYI."
His ten thousand lost Points said otherwise.
"Listen. No matter your opinion on it, that [Skill] increases the efficiency of our job." She was speaking faster and faster. "[Dimensional Pockets] is a good alternative. The downside there is you still have to retreat out of the world to sell your haul. It could be useful for carrying supplies, though. Either way, they provide more benefits to you in the immediate term than combat-related abilities or weapons. Your Aura and sword-shield tinkertech covered those bases to an extent, anyway."
A particular memory surfaced, and he recalled a night where he used Crocea Mors as a crowbar to pry open the rooftop access door of the dorm after someone locked it with him on the outside. His sword was a tool for many occasions.
Lisa nodded along in satisfaction. "A lever is always valuable. Look at that, now you don't have to sell your precious family blade. Aren't you happy? Of course you are, you hated the idea of parting with it in the first place! And you know, a flying power takes a ton of Points, but who's to say we can't work around the problem? I'm talking about jetpacks. Rocket boots. A robo-suit featuring both. Eh? Ehhh?" She waggled her brows, smirking victoriously at the change that came over him upon hearing of the sci-fi inventions made real.
In a magical store that sold everything imaginable, there was always an alternative, a way to continue on despite the obstacles. Yes, they were more limited in what they can do than the best toys. He'd take them, nevertheless.
"Executive decision: we're going on a Jump." he declared. Snatching up the scroll, Jaune navigated to the portal-making app.
"Already!?" Lisa squawked in astonishment at his haste.
"Why not? It's good to analyze and scrutinize, but there comes a time when thinking must give way to action. And when the thinking is rocket boots, that time is now, now, now."
A familiar message soon appeared.
Searching… searching… temporary connections established.
A remnant of hope compelled him to scan the list for the names Worm and Brockton Bay. No dice. Only one of the options matched the previous group, a 'Nier'. The rest were new.
"What do you think about this Instance? If I had to guess, we'll face a haunted house in a city full of raccoons. Easy-peasy."
Lisa peeked over his shoulder, and immediately shouted, "Nope! No way! That's the same danger rating you said Leviathan had. Once was enough, thank you. I almost died in that battle. Twice!"
"That's the fear talking. C'mon, we can handle it."
"I'm of the opinion that you would benefit greatly from thinking less about 'can', and more about 'should'," Lisa echoed word for word an earlier sentiment he expressed. "A smart villain starts out by casing the easiest targets before ramping up from there. They don't go and rob a bank for their first crime." She paused. "Except Skitter. Don't be a Skitter."
"Fine, fine," Jaune idly said as he continued checking through the available choices. "Your analogy is terrible, by the way. And you're going to have to tell me stories about this friend of yours sometimes. Seriously, she's nuts."
He moved down the list while excluding Instances carrying a danger rating higher than a 4/10. As expected, the loot rating sank like a stone in response. The groupings of three-stars, two-stars, and even a one-star were a sad sight, pitiful in comparison to their treasure-rich peers. The fantasy of a tinkertech pile laying on the roadside withered in his heart, and he privately—or as privately as possible when standing next to little miss My-Supervillain-Name-is-Tattletale —wondered if these worlds were even worth the trip. Then again, he supposed that was a good reason to at least try them out. Making an informed decision required him to possess more than a single data point. A safer place may also afford him the opportunity to scope out the area and see what was worth taking—
"You really aren't mad at me, huh?"
Jaune half-turned his head to meet Lisa's gaze. She hadn't been looking at the scroll, but at him.
"For?"
"I promised a bunch of stuff, and that stupid phone made a liar of me," the girl said, choosing her words carefully. "My last team would have started bitching about it by now, and made all kinds of demands."
Jaune waved it off and went back to the scroll. "You tried your best to help even when you could have left me to wallow in my misery. I can't claim to understand your every thought by looking at your nose or whatever—that's your schtick—but I at least tell you don't have bad intentions."
She scoffed. "How you manage to not get yourself killed by now with that goody-goody mindset, I'll never know. The world isn't so kind." The line was delivered in a lower tone, as befitting such a dire warning. Jaune had to roll his eyes.
"Meh. That's nothing new, since my world is full of Grimm. But if you meant people, then I think you'd find it shocking just how nice they can be." A certain friend who forgave his lies and crimes, and went further by spending her nights training him, was one such. "As for getting myself killed? The risk of that comes part and parcel with my future line of work. 'My grave might say hero, my grave might say fool, but by the Brothers, it's a Huntsman's life for me' or so a folk song goes."
The giggle coming from behind him brought a smile to his face. Turning to her, he pointed at a particular Instance on the screen. It was the safest he found, and earned Lisa's endorsement.
Thus, their course was decided. He did not press the confirmation button yet, though, and set the scroll down on the table. To his companion's questioning look, he wiggled the fingers on a raised hand.
"I'm dead broke, so I can't provide gears for you, but there's one free gift I can always give. C'mere. I'm going to unlock your Aura."
"My Aura?"
Jaune nodded. "The light of your soul."
The gravitas of that statement failed to properly impress on the girl.
"Pft. Is that what people call it, the soul? You gonna help me find my inner self, mystic man?"
"Or I could just not," he said with a carefree shrug, retracting his hand. Lisa read his action to see the truth, and quick as a flash she reversed her attitude.
"Wait! Waitwaitwait! I want soul magic, so gimme!"
"I thought you might. Also, it's not magic." Not a day had passed since he met her, and Jaune was already treasuring these moments where he got to be the smug one. Reaching out, he placed his hand on her cheek, and drew in a deep breath—
"Is this just an excuse to touch me?"
He snatched hand away. "It's part of the process!"
"Riiight. Nevermind me, then. Go ahead."
Jaune eyed her with suspicion, but she merely stood there with a grin. Was it paranoia, or did he sense an undercurrent of competitiveness under her fake innocence, a hint of smugness to that cherubic façade? Slowly, he made contact with her cheek a second time.
Hm. Without context, the gesture did seem rather intimate at a glance.
And right on cue, Lisa opened her mouth.
"Ahn~"
"Oh, come on, don't make this weird!" Jaune exclaimed, his hand pulling back as if burned.
Amidst laughter, Lisa replied, "Weren't you the person who thought that we were being intimate? What? Have you never made a girl moan before, Mr. Vir-asdfghjkl—owiiiie!" The Annoying Blonde doubled over, clutching at her head.
Jaune hid his amusement as [Blank] dialed down again. Out of a desire for privacy, he tried to project an image of the mental slider halting just a notch above the off position. It was hard to discern whether that worked or not, so he observed Lisa in detail as he spoke.
"We good? Truce?"
"You dick. Truce." Lisa massaged her forehead, grumbling under her breath.
Yeah, she wasn't a bad person, but something—perhaps the sheer inability to maintain the act for longer than a minute—told him that, at heart, Lisa also wasn't the sweetie she pretended to be earlier.
And damn him, was it nostalgic to see. There weren't seven of her. Yet, just for a brief moment, a vivid daydream struck him with the force of a freight train, sending him back to the breakfast table of the Arc household. It washed over him; the noise, the laughter, way too much teasing, and a whole heaping of good food, and…
It's been so long since he was last home.
Lisa was peering up at him, curiosity plain on her face and eyes widening as time passed. The mild interest transformed to an agog expression as she realized what he had done, and what she can no longer see.
"How did—t-turn it off!"
"Nope. [Blank] is not hurting you, or you would have said it. I reckon we should set up some boundaries if we're going to be roommates." He drew back as the girl leaned in close; her gaze roamed over his features like he's a strange animal. "What are you doing?"
"This is so weird. Usually, if I stare too hard at somebody else like this, I would have puked from the flood of TMI."
Jaune shied away even further. "Oh. Well, here's an idea. Don't do that."
Nothing against the vomit-prone, Jaune considered them his people, but he will be the first to admit that it usually leads to an unpleasant experience for all parties involved.
"Um, 'kay," she said in an airy tone of voice, and was too distracted to protest him cupping her face. The bright hue of his Aura woke her from her stupor. Or, maybe, it was the words he chanted…
"For it is in clashing that we achieve impossibility."
…because he messed it up again! Fuck!
"I don't even need my powers to tell that's incorrect." There's the return of that mocking attitude. She really cannot resist making a quip, huh?
"Through this, we become a champion of…of virtuous glory(?) for all."
"Wro-ong~ If you're just parroting half-remembered lines, there's no real meaning to it, you know?"
"Shhh. Infinity in distance and beyond all death, I release your soul and…"
The eyeroll. The dull apathy. Her casual response to the proceedings irked him. But then, whose fault was that?
She was unable to take him seriously, because he was failing to be serious.
Well then, since he's already bungled the rite to hell and back, let's forget about trying to copy Pyrrha and instead make it sincere. Let's make it his. He switched [Blank] off for a second.
"...on my word, walk beside thee."
There was no witty snark to follow, the Annoying Blonde dumbstruck.
And would you look at that, the little devil did have a soul. A soft glow came forth to encase her form. Shakily, Lisa raised her arms to stare at the apple-green layer fitting her like a second skin. She pinched the back of her left hand as an experiment.
"Woooow."
Jaune chuckled, understanding too well the reaction. "How do you feel?"
"Like everything is brighter,' she murmured. "Like I'm safe for the first time in a long time."
Nodding along, he kindly said, "Savor it, because that will pass."
He had felt the same rush when his Aura was unlocked, too. The sensation of invincibility was phenomenal…for the twenty minutes it lasted, cut short by him meeting the giant Deathstalker. It was a big world out there, filled with all manners of threats to screw up one's day. In fact, with the door to the many universes open to them, that number must have multiplied exponentially.
Jaune's face tinged faintly green.
With effort, he pushed those thoughts aside ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶e̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶ to allow Lisa the chance of simply enjoying the occasion. She cycled through a similar list of actions to what he had done in the past: jogging back and forth, jumping, attempting to lift the furniture—the bed was still too much for her, leading him to question her baseline physical prowess. She shadow-boxed for a bit. He had to bite down on his cheek to suppress the laugh for that one; a fighter she was not. Once she had calmed down enough to pay attention, Lisa was all for entering the next Instance, wanting a place to play with her newfound ability.
A tap on the app, and a kaleidoscope of colors swirled in an expanding circle upon one of the drab, gray walls. The surface of the portal oriented into shimmering half-clarity, revealing a darkened space with its sole source of illumination coming from the thinnest rays of light. A sniff, and he detected the scent of cheap beer and musty decay.
A hint of a sea breeze reminded him of recent triumph and loss. His spirit faltered at the thought that it may repeat. Seeking comfort, he asked of his companion a question.
"Just tell me one thing. Where does it lead, Lisa?"
Unsure, she pointed at the portal. He shook his head.
"My goal still seems so far away. I risked my life to fight a monster and ended up with fuck-all. Am I just arrogant, or can I hope for more than what I have?"
He expected biting ridicule. She gave a rueful sigh. "Heh. Don't think you're special or anything. That's how it goes for everybody and their dreams. The first days are the hardest, and so we give up. Which is why you should be glad that you met me." Her voice had strengthened by the end, boldness shining through. "Did you know? The store sells stable portals to different universes."
His movements ceased. Jaune forgot to breathe.
"That's the milestone we're aiming for. Permanent access to one of the cheaper worlds for us to build a base in and use it to accumulate resources for our forays. Then, we save up to buy a higher-end location; a place that—while riskier—would be rife with opportunities, which we can loot to the bedrocks. Does that seem doable?"
Numbly, he nodded his head in agreement. The future did look far less daunting when cut down to smaller sizes like that. That was not the only part he focused on. To hear of a method which would allow him to enter other universes without depending on the portal app? Jaune dared not hope, but he had a destination in mind.
A city by the sea. A world of heroes and villains.
And all it took was for him to continue pushing forward. So long as he stayed alive, no matter how many times he failed, he had a chance to keep his promises.
Yeah, that sounded grand.
-o-
The portal deposited them in what appeared to be the living room of a derelict apartment. Sunlight filtered through a gap between drawn curtains, casting the place in a gloom. Lisa—or Tattletale as she asked to be called on the job—meandered over that way, opening them to peer out the grimy windows, nose scrunched in disgust.
Much of the personal effects were gone along with some of the furniture to leave the room rather threadbare. A couch sat in the middle of the space, covered by a cloth to help it keep; optimistic, considering the damp, humid condition of the apartment. Trash and papers littered the floor, making Jaune very careful where he stepped.
"Filthy alleyway, now a filthy house, the app has a type."
"Fuuuuu—"
"Wow, look at that. A window that opened right into a brick wall? Whoever put up the next building over is a total bastard."
"—uuuuuuu—"
"Rats! There are rats here!"
"—uuuuuuuuuuck!"
"Got it out of your system?" Jaune said to Tattletale, who was rubbing at her eyes. The windows past her revealed a foggy, gray sky.
"Ugh. Yeah. I just gleaned a bit of information on this place, that's all. Maybe we should have taken on those raccoons in the evil house."
"Portal is right there if you think we should go back. The list might update, though, so no guarantees on the universes we will find. What's the problem, anyway?"
"This place got hit by a plague."
Ah. Not fun.
"How can you be sure?"
In answer, Tattletale pointed to a wall no longer darkened by the lack of lights, and the graffiti on it that said:
"BLOOD FROM THE EYES"
She then turned her finger at the windows; Jaune had to lean over her to see where it indicated. The view outside did not look much better than in here, showing an empty street and shabby, abandoned buildings. At the edge, half out of sight, sat a tall wall made from metal sheets. It crossed the road, likely blocking the path from one side to the other.
"I think we're on the wrong side of a quarantine," Jaune remarked. Tattletale confirmed it with a nod.
"You take me to the best places, Jaune. Here's hoping we don't catch a pox."
Universe: Dishonored. Location: Dunwall. Event: House of Pleasure.
Author's Notes: Finally. Less talkee, more Jumpee.
Don't try to out-smug the smug monster. You might provoke it.