I had fallen asleep so unexpectedly that when I did finally awaken, I hadn't even realized that I had moved from my resting place.
Or... had I? I was floating in an expansive, black space, filled only with wispy smoke that seemed to be floating up from the black abyss below.
Moving was an odd affair; rather than stepping forward, I had to sort of will myself to float in a given direction. I wondered if this was what things felt like when an astronaut was in zero gravity, minus the ability to just make yourself move.
Of course, the how wasn't as concerning to me as the why. Why did I wake up in that egg, just to get out and fall back asleep? I hadn't died again, had I?
I laughed a bit at that prospect, but, the more I thought about it, the less ridiculous it seemed.
Something had forced me to gain Jasyn's power, and that something was the only reason I was maybe still alive. Just because I had to do it didn't mean that I was actually able to without some sort of drawback. There was a solid non-zero chance that I had worked my newly born body far too hard and had a heart attack or something, I couldn't know for sure.
I sort of floated forward thoughtlessly as I pondered my situation, almost not noticing the body I had nearly floated straight past.
I didn't even need a half second to realize who it was. It was me, or, more likely, Jasyn. He was floating, just as I was, but he seemed to be well and truly unconscious. His face was perfectly serene, without the slightest motion, like a glassy mountain lake.
Without hesitation, I reached out and tapped him on the shoulder, honestly not knowing what I was expecting.
It certainly wasn't a fist right against the bridge of my nose, but that's what I got.
"Oh, shit, my bad, I didn't expect to get woken up by... Jackie? Is that you?" He asked, looking at me sheepishly.
"Yeah, it is." I grunted, rubbing my face instinctively, realizing only seconds later that I didn't feel any pain.
"Wait, am I dreaming? I just fell asleep in bed." Jasyn said, his face scrunched in confusion.
"At least you got a bed, I just passed out on the ground." I said with a laugh.
"Yeah? Fucking weird. Does that mean that you..." He paused, staring at me for a few moments before reaching out and grabbing me by the collar, pulling me towards him.
"Did you die, Jack?" He asked, his face half an inch from mine. I could count the number of times he had ever spoken in such a serious tone on one hand.
"Yeah, Trenton and a bunch of his little cronies ambushed me outside when I left. They did a number on my skull." I explained.
It would be difficult to accurately describe the feeling Jasyn gave off as he looked back at me, nodding his head as he took this information in. His face was coldly still, just as it had been moments previously, when he was asleep. It was like he was wearing a mask.
Finally, after nodding for a few more seconds, he gave me a serious look, before opening his mouth.
"I'll make sure he pays for that, Jack. I promise..." He said, his eyes uncomfortably focused on mine.
"'Course," he sighed. "I'm not even sure that I can get back home, since I've ended up in another world."
I felt my eyes widen when he said that.
"You too? Where did you end up exactly?" I asked.
"Well, I was born in some castle basement. Apparently my mom is a-"
Whatever word left his mouth was completely obscured to me, as the moment he began to say it, a sharp buzz filled my ears. Even stranger, his face blurred in the brief moment it took him to speak whatever word he had said. Apparently he had noticed too, as he stared at me for a moment before trying again.
"Uh... yeah, so my mom's name is-"
It happened again, his words were drowned out and his face blurred. When his face was properly visible again, he looked decidedly vexed.
"Well, shit, it's like something's trying to keep me from telling you." He said, stumped. "You try."
"Uh... well, I had to tear my way out of an-"
The moment I tried to say the word "egg", I felt a strange sensation engulf my head, sort of like I had been shoved headfirst underwater, but wasn't struggling for air. When my lips had finished saying "egg", the sensation disappeared, just as quickly as it came.
"Okay..." I said, thinking about whether or not I could circumvent this little blockage."
"Uh... let's try this, I am a very, very tiny Godzilla." I said.
Jasyn stared at me, nonplussed, for a few seconds before my meaning reached him.
"You're some sorta lizard?" He asked.
"Yeah! Awesome... what about you?" I asked.
"Well... uh, I'm a... Dracula." He said.
"So, a vampire?" I clarified.
"Yep... I live in the Queen's Palace, as far as I can tell; didn't get to see too much to be quite honest with you." He shrugged.
"That's more than I got. I woke up just seconds before I was expected to fight to the death with my brothers." I complained.
"Holy shit. How did you make it out of that?" Jasyn asked.
I felt my face heat up, slightly embarrassed despite not really having anything to feel embarrassed about.
"Ah... well, actually, I uh... I used your Symphonic Battle Spirit." I said.
He looked at me, eyebrows raised as he thought in silence.
"So it worked, huh? Well, that's at least one positive." He mumbled.
"What worked?" I could barely get those two words out. Shouldn't he be at least a little freaked out?
He eyed me for a moment, his mouth twisted in an odd way as he spoke.
"I, uh, well I may or may not have put a bit of my power into you when I created Symphonic Battle Spirit. It was meant to activate when you were in danger and there was absolutely no way for me to intervene. It was called... uh... Twin Soul." He explained.
"Wait, what?! Why am I only finding out about this now?!" I asked.
"Well, fuck Jack, it's not like we ever discussed our powers. We only sort of guessed what the other could do. Besides, it's not like you needed another reason to shoot off at the mouth and get into arguments." Jasyn grumbled.
"Well... I needed to get a range of emotions for my power to improve." I mumbled, turning my eyes away from his face.
"Exactly, and it's not like I fucking knew that, right? So, naturally, I decided to add a bit of a fail safe to keep your ass alive. Fair?" He said.
"Yeah... that's fair." I said.
"Good, now, how did you do with it?" He asked.
"Well, I only got a few hundred songs, and I'm missing a lot of your auxiliary functions. I felt like I was a puppet on a marionette when I was using it... it... it made me kill them." I said.
Somehow, I had forgotten what I had done, and just now the reality of my situation crashed down onto me.
"Yeah, Symphonic Battle Spirit is built entirely to get rid of threats, plain and simple. I guess it decided that the best way to keep you alive was to kill them. It happens." He sighed.
"Wait... Jay... have you killed people before?" I asked.
Jasyn looked at me with a surprisingly sad smile and shrugged.
"Gotta plead the fifth on that one."
We sat in silence for a moment at that, and I watched as his face morphed through several emotions, before once again settling on his typical cocksure smile. With a clap of his hands, he 'jumped' upward, floating a few inches above me.
"Well, ignoring that, let's see if we can't fix up the bit of SBS in your head there." He said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Ah, well, I can't give you all of the auxiliary functions, but, I can expand your playlist to about full. I know it might not sound like much but the song selection is actually more vital in my opinion that any of the other things SBS can do." He explained, his eyes rolling upward as he thought about something.
"Oh, uh, sure." I said.
With a snap of his fingers, I froze in place, eyes locked straight ahead as something forced its way into my brain.
[Host Seed detected...
Connection with Host Seed established...
Granting access to Host Seed...
Access Granted]
It felt like a jar of worms had been opened right in the center of my skull. Itching and burning pains ripped across my nerves while flashing lights assaulted my eyes from somewhere beyond the reality in front of me.
Jasyn had tilted his head to the side as he worked, looking like an inquisitive dog. It would have been funny if I weren't in absolute agony.
[Updating playlists... one moment please...]
It felt like an eternity had passed, but, in reality, I had only had enough time to take a few haggard breaths in between when it had begun and ended.
[Your playlists have been successfully updated. You now have access to 17,855 total tracks.]
The cool, feminine voice stated this so matter of factly that it almost seemed inconsequential, but I was no fool. I had only gotten to see Symphonic Battle Spirit used by my brother through his eyes for a short moment, and my own use was limited to a desperate last gasp for survival, but I knew that this power was likely going to be enough to keep me alive for whatever was to come.
Jasyn looked at me for a moment, then smiled and nodded.
"Cool, just remember that if you want to be able to use the auxiliary functions, you'll have to unlock them yourself. I'm going to be completely candid here and admit that I have no idea how you're supposed to do that, since I just sort of built them into SBS over the years, but..." He trailed off, looking out into the empty abyss that surrounded us. "Well, you're smarter than me, so, I'm sure you'll figure it out." He shrugged.
"Thanks... actually. I wonder if I can do the same with Dialogue Tree..." I said, more to myself than to him.
"Oh, is that what it's called?" He asked, interestedly.
"Yeah, should I give you a proper introduction?" I asked, half-jokingly.
"Abso-fucking-lutely." He laughed.
"Oh, shit, well: Dialogue Tree is a predictive, speech-driven power that uses information gained from speaking and listening to others to determine likely responses to input from myself. Strictly speaking, its ability is to know what you're going to say before you even think about thinking about saying it." I said, puffing my chest out proudly.
Jasyn seemed slightly less impressed than I'd hoped.
"Well is that all it does?" He asked.
I sighed, floating up to be on eye level with him.
"If this was D&D, you'd be a fucking perfect charisma build. To *you*, the knowledge of what someone might say when you make a certain argument might seem insignificant, but, to the average person, it might just be the most powerful thing someone could have access to." I explained.
Seeing that he still looked unconvinced, I decided to change the angle.
"Okay, let's say for the sake of argument that we've both reincarnated into the same fantasy world. How much do you know about the race that you've been born to?" I asked.
"Well... my mother cast a spell on me right after I was born that gave me all of her knowledge, so, I should know quite a lot." He said.
"Dude, first off, how the fuck did you get so fucking lucky with your birthplace, cuz you got all of the cheats like right at the start. Second, how about the other races in the world, assuming there are others?" I asked.
He ignored the first question, focusing instead on the other.
"Nothing at all. I've only been there for a few hours, and most of that time was spent trying not to freak out about the change of scenery." He laughed.
"Well, wouldn't it be awfully nice to have he ability to speak the language of all of those races despite having never heard them before? How about having an understanding of their cultures and customs, without anyone needing to tell you?" I continued.
He fell quiet as he thought about it, finally he gave a shrug.
"I mean, yeah, that sounds pretty handy." He admitted.
"Well Dialogue Tree can do all of that and more, and there's no need to unlock any auxiliary functions. Speaking of which, why exactly does your power need auxiliary functions to do other things?" I asked.
Jasyn stared at me for a moment before his eyes went wide, his hands pounding against his knees with unbridled excitement.
"That reminds me! I can't believe I almost completely forgot!" He shouted, his eyes alight.
"Forgot what, exactly?" I asked, watching as his joy sent him bouncing around the abyss with his unintended motions.
Finally, he came to a stop, his chest heaving as he turned his face back to me.
"Right before I fell asleep, I started the process of making a new Power Seed." He laughed.
"A.. a what?" I asked, perplexed.
His grin faded somewhat, but returned moments later when he began to explain.
"The reason why my Symphonic Battle Spirit has auxiliary functions is because I built them in *over time*." He said, his grin somehow widening. "When you made your Dialogue Tree, you had to add all of the functions at once, right?" He asked.
I thought about it. In truth, the moment where we began to develop our powers was an odd one, brought forth by our mother offhandedly suggesting that we focus on ourselves, and try to make ourselves better. This was the start of Jasyn's almost reverent fear towards our mother, and, although she might not have intended for it, it marked the moment that he sort of withdrew from her.
I, even at this point, have no idea what it was that she had done, but, that very night, a voice began to speak quietly into my head, instructing me on how to develop my gifts and create my own power.
It was true that the voice had explained that I needed to be sure of what I wanted my power to do before I finalized anything, since I wouldn't be able to go back and change things.
But, according to Jasyn, he *can* change his power. That was fundamentally different from what the voice had told me. What could he have done that made something like that possible?
He watched me with undisguised amusement as I tried to figure out what the difference between the two of us was.
It seemed like an hour had come and gone before I came to only conclusion that made any sense. There were so many possibilities, but the only one that I could justify in my mind was:
"You made a power that makes powers?" I asked.
The smile on his face blossomed into a smug grin, and he nodded his head.
"Yeah... honestly, I was a bit surprised that you didn't think of something similar, but, I guess that's just something to chalk up to the differences in how we think." He shrugged.
"So, Symphonic Battle Spirit is a power that you made with your *real* power?" I asked.
"Yep. You know how I am, Jackie: I always prefer to do things on my terms. Creating the Seed Generator was my way of telling that voice to go fuck itself. I was gonna have whatever powers I wanted, and now, I can."
With a snap of his fingers, a tiny silver light burst into being along his palm, shining with an alien brightness in the abyss around us. He flicked it towards me, watching as it sunk into my chest without resistance.
His face twisted into one of contemplation as he watched it disappear, then, with a sharp crack, his own palm slapped across his lower jaw.
"Yeah, probably best for you to work on a new power here. There's basically no sensation of pain here... wherever this is."
He snapped his fingers again, and the screeching voice that first gave me Symphonic Battle Spirit erupted into my mind.
[Seed Detected, assessment of host body required.]
[Scanning host body. Scanning Dermal Integrity. Scanning Organ Integrity. Scanning Bone Integrity.]
"So, Seed Generator allows me to make powers that are altogether smaller in scope than the power that the voice helped us make. In order to make them work properly, I have to add drawbacks that sort of serve to balance them out. For example, Symphonic Battle Spirit requires me to have a constant connection to music that I can listen to, or, in my case, play. If I don't get the music that i need, I lose songs over time until they all fade away. I wouldn't lose my musical talents or anything, but I wouldn't be able to use SBS to boost my attributes.
He watched my face as he spoke, and quickly caught the look of underwhelmed confusion on my face.
"I know that the requirements for SBS may not seem to be that serious in comparison to the benefits, but I promise you that SBS isn't as powerful as you might initially think. It doesn't just give you random boosts of strength and speed, it takes them from your own personal reservoir of stamina. SBS on Earth might have made me a bit of a monster compared to others, but in a completely new world, it's hard for me to claim that it's enough to keep me, or you, for that matter, alive."
"Ah, well, that might explains why I conked out right after it wore off." I said. "It can't overwork you to the point where you die, can it?" I asked.
"Nah, but it can put your ass in bed for a month or so if you make it draw out everything you've got " He said.
This reminded me of a moment just after the two of us started middle school, where he had been incapable of getting out of bed for nearly the first full month of school. I thought that he had been faking some sort of injury or illness to get out of going to school, and then got bored before deciding to go back, but, thinking about the timing, his explanation gave me a bit more insight into what probably actually happened.
With a third snap of his fingers, a bright red star appeared just in front of his chest, shining like the sun just inches from me.
"I started formulating this power just before I fell asleep in the new world. Hopefully it'll be done by the time I wake up. But, for now, let's talk about how you use the Seed I just gave you to make your own power." He said, moving so that he seemed to be sitting cross legged while floating.
"First thing your gonna need to do is activate the Seed. You do it by saying 'Activate Seeding Protocol, Standard'. Then, you specify the type of power you want to make: Physical, Mental, or Esoteric. Symphonic Battle Spirit is a Mental power, whereas a power to make your skin able to harden to extreme levels would be physical. Anything that you can't initially determine whether it's physical or mental, that'd fall under esoteric."
He waited until I was ready, having said the words for myself.
"Activate Seeding Protocol, Standard; Physical." I said.
"Cool, now you need to specify what you want the power to affect. Obviously, you need to give it concepts and ideas that make sense on some level or else it'll spit out a power that doesn't work how you want it to, and, let me tell you, that's a quick way to end up dead. So, try and think about what you want the power to do, then tell the Seed what it will affect." He continued. "Say, 'Gift Seeding', then, if the thing it affects is singular in focus, say, singularity, if it affects multiple things, then say 'Overlap'.
"Gift Seeding, Overlap."
"You're doing great! Last part. Describe the actual effects that you're looking for the power to have. Tell me what you want your power to do so I can help walk you describe it properly."
That was an interesting question: what exactly did I want my power to be? I thought about it for a few seconds, before my irony loving brain had a fun suggestion. The Salamanders had called me a No-Scales, so why not have this power coat my skin in brutal scales and spikes?
"Uh, I want it to give me really strong scales and protruding spines." I explained.
He nodded his head, obviously thinking about the wordage that would get me what I wanted.
"Uh, let's see... it should be: Overlap; Dermal Plasticity, Dermal Elasticity, Bone Protrusions." He said after several minutes of thought.
"Overlap; Dermal Plasticity, Dermal Elasticity, Bone Protrusions."
The bright white star that had submerged itself inside of me reappeared, emerging from my chest as it increased in intensity. Finally, when it had grown bright enough to be genuinely blinding, it rushed back into me, leaving us in the inky darkness.
"Is that it? Did it work?" I asked.
"Well, it certainly accepted your instructions, so, it should give you more or less what you're looking for. Once you finally get a chance to use your new power for the first time, it'll make you decide on a way to balance it out. I'll leave that up to you, since we seem to be barred from discussing the specifics of our situations." He said.
We sat in silence for a few moments, a plethora of questions rushing to my head, but none actually making it to my lips. Jasyn was content to sit there, bobbing his head as though there was music playing that only he could hear. Thinking about it, there probably was.
"Come to think of it... I wonder what Mom's up to?" He said.