345 Flames

Plotline: Main

Type: Social

Madonna sent.

I replied.

she sent in Imperial Daurian.

At least my “natural” form had the alpine evolutions, for leaping and balancing on ledges much smaller than rooftops. It kept me from getting a good view, but it was really more important that I find another vacant house.

That turned out to be a longer search than I expected; there were a LOT of squatters. Home sweet home had banners wrapped around it warning that the former owners had died of Red Mist plague.

Lifeshaper. I added the Red Mist to my armory of diseases. It wasn’t particularly impressive; it was a blood-borne illness, and didn’t leave its victims suffering for long.

[You have no abilities for modifying diseases. For a list of...]

.....

Wait, what?

It spat back a list that I couldn’t even read.

[Ability: Cosmetic genetic trait lock. Requires three points of Genetic Modification Pool. Ability Cost: 5, Use Per Day cost: 1 per daily use. Focus here to purchase.]

And so on. All of the Modification abilities required Genetic Modification Pool. The costs roughly equated to one tenth the biomass a similar evolution would cost. At level one, I could do more with evolutions than by modifying my own self with Lifeshaping.

The advantages of Lifeshaping were many, starting with the ability to affect other life forms.

[Awaken Animal] was the most impressive one I found that night, at twenty development points and four points per daily use, multiple checks, and (the first time I’d encountered this) seven points of permanent cost per use (affected by something called Lifeshaper Expertise, an Inherent Ability not available until level 2). It also required more Genetic Modification pool than I could afford (ten points).

But, Gods. I could copy any of my Insight traits onto any willing animal. Plus one Insight, maximum of three.

How did the world not know about these abilities?

Once they knew, how did they forget?

It just boggled my mind; it was the sort of magic not seen since the time of the First Men, save in legends. And fairy tales. And rumor.

But I had a house to inventory and cleanse. And to eat. I found six bodies, and relocated them into a root cellar that had already been pillaged.

Likewise, the kitchen and pantry had been looted. But the tracks were old, there was no sign of recent occupation, other than my own footprints.

I needed to get shoes, and found two pairs that could be altered to fit in the entry foyer. I’d still leave tracks if I went outside after curfew, but those tracks wouldn’t shout out that a reptilian humanoid was still prowling around.

From the workshop and a small storeroom, the family had made furniture while they lived. I was tempted to continue their work, but...

For at least the immediate now, staying inside, unseen and unheard, was how to preserve my life. I only had 19/80 health. I was regaining a dozen of those points a day, but even at my full health, I’d rather run than fight an angry and organized mob.

I considered becoming Ping again, but the odds were my eyes would give me away. I’d confirmed by this point that no matter what pigmentation I chose, my eyes remained solid black. In essence, it was my “shapeshifter tell”, a thing that I couldn’t change, no matter how I tried.

Not that I had any long term plans for staying, either. Plague houses would eventually be burned, whether or not I was residing in them. I stayed up late enough to assure myself the burning crew wasn’t going for my new house as well, then rolled out my mattress and slept until morning forced me awake.

There were no help files on my Lifeshaper powers, unless I wanted to pay thirty development points to unlock them. Having only eleven of those available, that decision was easy to make.

I did end up buying six points of Genetic Modification Pool, more than enough for any ability I cared to purchase later and start with. That and the three uses per day drained most of the available Lifeshaper XP, most of which had come from absorbing or subduing diseases.

I really did want the ability [Awaken Animal], though.

If I’d any clue what I was getting into, I’d have put that on a hide-from-me list. If I had that ability in my System, which... yeah, I wasn’t spending development points on that.

For two days, I ingested every free piece of wood, three meals a day.

I sent back. And then,

I recalled that yes, the Liberation Army did such things to its prisoners.

I sighed. I could imagine such a thing happening, but it was still...

historical

I sighed; she continued.

I sent.

I sent.

I sent.