"Darius, I was nice enough to give you an extra day," yelled Matilda first thing in the morning."
"It is…" Damien poked his head out of his tent, and took a look towards where the sun is. Only to remember that he never learned how to tell time based off the sun's positioning, "Early! You shouldn't rush perfection, give me a few more days."
Their shouting match woke up the other lovely campers, who peered out of their tents to watch how this situation would go wrong.
"Of course, I'll just take Amelia, and we'll-" started Matilda.
"Point taken," interjected Damien as he jumped out of his and Krisha's tent."
Krista was deeply interested at what the man with seven affinities would come up with as a synergy. Krista felt that she knew a good bit about Damien, so her mind raced with all the possibilities of just what his synthesis might could be. His synthesis had to be of a mental augmentation, elemental affinity considering what he had written on his guild card and, out of the three, elemental was the one he was the most proficient in, especially with wind and fire.
"Which affinity have you developed an affinity for?" asked Matilda excitedly.
"Augmentation, I had a rush of inspiration after watching Fierce," as he spoke, a thin, bubbling layer of red aura surrounded his body.
"Oh my, Darius your control has significantly improved!" Amelia praised, "I do notice that your aura isn't perfectly still though, but you know what they say, practice will continually make you slightly better."
"Every night, Teach," agreed Damien.
"I told you to stop calling me that!" complained Amelia.
"So, Darius, don't keep us waiting," Matilda prodded, tired of waiting, "What have you come up with for you augmentation synthesis?"
. "It's nothing special," Damien said as he perfectly replicated Kristina's voice, down to the tone and cadence, "I just developed a way to augment my voice."
"That's just creepy," said Krista.
"I can do more than that, guess this one," Damien continued as he put on a scowl, "Jikan, get your lazy ass out of your tent, or this dagger will find itself in your larynx."
That got a laugh out of everyone except Raven himself, Dante especially, "Hey, hey do me next!"
Damien wasn't too keen to comply, but Krista pulled him into a whisper, "I get that you hate him the most, but come on, how are you supposed to learn anything if you keep being so rude to their leader. At least try to get on their good sides."
He frowned, but ultimately decided to listen to his friend, "This one's for you Cleo," he said before switching voices, "My darling Cleo, I'm sorry that it took so long for me to tell you the honest truth. I love you, I've always loved you, ever since I first ever meet you. Please would you make me the happiest man and-"
Raven had appeared beside Damien, and man… did he looked angry, "Do. Not. Use. His. Voice. To. Say. Such. Vulgarities. Ever. Again!"
Cleo, on the other hand, looked incredibly happy, "Come on don't stop now. Raven leave him alone; he just wanted to show us something nice."
Even Jikan poked his head out of his tent to say something, "Yeah Raven, leave the poor guy-" was all he was able to manage before Raven dragged him out the tent, head first, and shoved it into the dirt.
An awkward silence covered the area, "Well, that wasn't very nice," said Damien using Dmitri's voice.
The ridiculous idea of Dmitri's voice breaking the silence caused another wave of laughter to ring out. With his attempt to ruin the fun left a failure, Raven stopped away, preparing himself for their departure. In the meantime, Damien continued to play with his new synthesis, copying the voices of not just all the other humans, but the animals too.
In between the fun, Damien whispered into Kristina's ear, "Think that'll get me a good enough rapport?"
"So, you've chosen a vocal augmentation for your synthesis?" Matilda inquired of Damien, "Most men of your age tend to go for some form of strengthening or physical alteration synthesis, so I'm pleasantly surprised. At least now I can give you your next assignment!"
Damien groaned but this was an eventuality that he was expecting, "Could you at least wait until after Amelia finishes her assignment, that way I won't get too far ahead in the 'curriculum.'
"Oh that, Amelia come here please," Matilda called out to which Amelia quickly complied, "Would you be a dear and branch to an elemental affinity?"
Amelia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, when she opened them, they had taken on a light yellow color, "Flame," she said as a small puff of fire appeared in her hands.
"She could branch to the wave affinity too, if you wanted to see," Matilda remarked, "Her understanding and control over wattiez is pretty masterful, even if her output is a little on the lower side. I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to branch even further."
"So, I'm behind, is what you're telling me?" said Damien with a bit more competitiveness than he wanted to let out.
A fact not lost on Matilda, "Luckily, I have the perfect assignment for catching you up. I want you to develop a synthesis with your other affinities. I'll even give you until we reach Aurora."
"Cleo, about how long until we reach-" started Damien.
"12 days," interjected Raven.
"Matilda, shouldn't he focus on further developing the synthesis he already has?" Amelia said trying to come to a reasonable agreement, "A synthesis is something that should be developed with care, his current one is only in the fledgling stages off-"
"That's fine, I have further plans that requires him to just have a feel for synthesis with all his other affinities," Matilda said with a less than subtle layer of subtext, "Deeper development of any single synthesis will be left to his own discretion. I promise you Darius, my plans will interest you far more in the long run."
Damien knew Matilda as many things but uninteresting was not one of them, "Fine, I'll go along with what you say, so you'd better keep your promise, Matilda."
"It will be my pleasure," she finished.