Augmented Aspects Chapter 399 Admitting to Your Mistakes (Patreon)

Chapter 399

Admitting to Your Mistakes

For a moment, I felt like Neil Armstrong must have. Everything seemed the same at first, the overly large and complicated mechanical suit that would be impossible to walk in on my own. Well nearly, had it not been filled with hydraulics and of course the sentient mind of Raygunnr who somehow occupied the hull of this suit and still never got angry about my taking over his autonomy.

Then the world seemed to change as both body’s updates seemed to merge and fuse into Raygunnr’s recent changes. Rather than being a well-endowed, if overly compensating mechanical minotaur-like vessel, he now looked a bit more respectable, even if he was now sporting a broney-tail that connected the rest of his extendable antenna to a socket in his back. Riding around in a mechanical construct of a broneytailed minotaur, I expected to feel odd.

For the first step everything was fine, as we were fine. Then I felt the moment something clicked into place, as the seed of fire that had been burning within me still glowed, but seemed to release the reigns of control that were now holding me in place. I could still feel the geash, that deep promise made to the spark of power. The promise that I would fix my mistakes. Where those mistakes were currently, I did not know. I remember resenting them a few months ago, on my last visit here. When they were tending to me and all but squeezing out every ounce of energy I produced each and every day, all in order to try to convert this rock into a habitable location.

At the time, I didn’t see the point. I thought it was bound to fail, but now that I can see that the change I did stuck. No, not just stuck, but actually made a difference and kind of grew on its own, I can’t help but be impressed.

More still, there seems to be a sampling of native fauna that are already growing and taking root in this place, despite rain having to be manufactured by spells. Spells that I can feel Terra-Ulacrum’s distinctive blend of magic on it, along with Tier II water magic from not just one but three different people along with the guiding hand of the once frighteningly indomitable spirit of this world.

Just seeing the work, I realize that while I might have started the operation, the only reason why the moon was able to adjust and grow as much as it has is due to the work that others have put in while I wasn’t looking. Seeing the traces of everyone else’s efforts, I realize “it wasn’t me.” Or rather it wasn’t just me.

Just as I am having this existential thought, that’s when Raygunnr breaks into my perfectly good thoughts and sidetracks me with his nonsense.

“But she caught me on camera.”

Just hearing him force his thoughts directly into his mind, thanks to his overly powerful broneytail just makes me cringe. As I first try to understand what he is in fact referring to.

“Oh come on,” he begins, and then tries to project thoughts with a falsetto tone, “picture this we were both buck—”

“Stop, just stop.” I say, waving a hand and forcing Raygunnr to mirror my actions due to my being in the pilot seat. For a moment I want to test out my new Hyperspace Carapace evolution, but I still feel hesitant. Almost like knowing that I can swim in the ocean, versus getting over my own fears and actually going into the ocean for the first time. I can tell that Raygunnr feels this fear of mine, and fortunately he does not push. Instead, he drops his impromptu singing performance and decides to distract me with his next random tangent. Or at least I can tell that he wants to distract me, even as I hesitantly begin walking us towards Terra-Ulacrum, Charlaine, and the other two Cthulhu creatures I need to correct, before I can fully move on with myself.

“You know, we should try to get this over with quickly,” Raygunnr comments.

“I’m not,” I begin, trying to cover up my own insecurities, only to find that my own lie prevention process is kicking in. While I might have apparently evolved into the form of a Colossal Phoenix Infused Aethereal Nympho, a classification I am still trying to get used to, I still have the same exact evolutionary flaws that came along with every previous bloodline advancement. Making it so it is still impossible for me to blatantly lie, though stretching the truth is still possible. That is why I switch, “I will fix this, so we can both move on.”

Raygunnr nods and seems to leave it at that. As we walk, each step feeling somehow lighter and springier. After the third step, I find it much more fun and enjoyable to just bounce with a literal spring to my step. Each step down, the precursor to a one-legged jump that sends us high in the air.

“Cough, cough, cough,” Raygunnr mentally projects the idea of needing to cough into my mind, as if that is not annoying. Though I know what he is getting at. Realistically, I don’t need to walk right now to get closer to Terra-Ulacrum and the others. Instead, I am using this moment as a chance to mentally prepare myself for what I have done wrong, and how I can fix this mistake. Being sympathetically bound to me, Raygunnr pushes, knowing that we could just Teleport to wherever Terra-Ulacrum is at the moment, and be mostly done with our actions. I want to, part of me knows that just ripping the Band-Aid off will be faster. The sooner I am there, the quicker those three are healed and the less time that they will have to suffer. That alone should make me want to Teleport there immediately, but I still have a moment of hesitation. For the first time in years, I feel anxiety. My mind races, as I try to think about fixing my mistakes. The idea being that if I was this wrong this time, what else have I been wrong about? What else can go wrong that hasn’t already? Or is already wrong and I just don’t realize it, because I have turned one of three blind eyes on it? This on top of being in space, on feeling almost nothing around me, and being back here, it causes my heart to beat faster, I can feel sweat beading on my face and body, and worse, I can feel the embers in my newly advanced wings glowing brighter, a few crumbling down and landing in Raygunnr’s hull. This is why I wanted to take a moment to focus and center my mind, as I knew this might be painful for Raygunnr. Who despite being the recipient of my molten fears takes everything with his typical joking attitude.

“Eww, spicey!” Is Raygunnr’s mocking response, one that lets me know he is fine and already being healed by my secondary Robealing Aura. Focusing on him, I feel the tension in my own mind lessen, which is when he goes in for the distracting kill. Rather than making it about him, or what we still need to do, he instead directs my attention to something else entirely.

"You know, with how we are going, you will be able to rework the entire Taxonomic Hierarchy of Biological Classifications that everyone has followed for years," Raygunnr begins. Hearing him speak, I pause, as I realize I do in fact have multiple titles related to Taxonomy as a whole. But I feel that this is not what he is getting at.

“Wow, that’s a lot of big words, that you don’t hear often,” I begin and continue my thought as I realize I might have come across as rude without completing my full thought.

“I know, had to look it up for a story, and kind of stuck with me,” Raygunnr began. As he speaks I can’t help but sympathetically nod in agreement. Then before I can get lost in my own thoughts, he continues, “but I mean it, when I saw we can.”

"We can?" I ask, curious about where he is going with this.

"We can. We just go with Dr. Spiritlight’s new world order." He continues, but I just stare up at him, unimpressed with how this is going. My mind already telling me that this is going to end in another of his terrible puns or jokes. Then he proves me to be correct, "yeah we will just change it to kingdom, phylum, Cass, orders, Raygunnr, and finally species."

"It's genus, not genius," I comment, cutting him off before he gets a big head from his own joke here. While it was pretty crafty, I force my mind not to share that it was funny. Still, it doesn’t matter as he is already onto the next joke.

"So you admit that you do order me?" Raygunnr continues, but I quickly cut him off.

“Well yeah, otherwise you would do something dumb like strap an antenna to your chassis in a lewd manner.”

“It was the only place it would fit,” he admits, and I can feel that he is still embarrassed by the actions that just occurred. Fortunately, nothing had been set in stone, and we were able to make minor adjustments to the placement of materials to avoid any major issues.

“Well, it did give you the most open area to work with—” I comment, before exhaling.

There is a momentary silence that follows, one that seems to be magnified by the fact that we are in space. Despite the outlines of a magically infused atmosphere forming around us, it is clear from all my senses that most of these changes are new and still taking root. But, Raygunnr accomplished his goal. He distracted me when I needed him to do so the most.

At this point, I realize that I still have some control over the world, and feel my mind automatically assigning a quest to Raygunnr, despite this still being well outside of my normal area of influence. For a moment I pause, wondering if this was always the case, or if this is something that has become available now thanks to the glowing spark that still burns brightly within my chest. Regardless of the reason, I find myself quickly filling out and delivering a quest board to Raygunnr, just as I would for any of my students, or people I wished to reward on Biprism.

Hidden Quest Given: Paying Kindness Forward: You have recognized Raygunnr for his random acts of kindness and for helping you through a hard moment, even when it wasn’t needed. Rewards: Experience, variable.

I gave the reward to Raygunnr, and I could feel him opening the quest, the same way one might instantly open a wrapped holiday gift box. As he opens it, I can feel a condensed piece of energy break off and enter him. This was a minor aspect of my own energy. An aspect that was replaced the moment I gave it to Raygunnr, making the expenditure ultimately nothing from me, but it did flow directly into Raygunnr.

“Woohoo! I got the moon equivalent of EXP fun bucks!” Raygunnr commented.

I paused, only to realize that Raygunnr apparently suffered from the same affliction I did while here, in that we could complete quests, but would only get error readouts when it came to the experience.

“That said, the One Free Anything Goes Gift Card from Dr. Spiritlight is a nice touch and will be used greedily,” Raygunnr states.

“The what?” I demand, trying to figure out what he is talking about, only to realize I did leave a variable option for the quest reward. For a moment I almost wonder if this is true but quickly stop myself as I feel Raygunnr’s mental laughter at my response.

“Oh, your face is priceless, I wish we were still on camera right now, so others can see this,” Raygunnr finally gets out, through bouts of mental laughter. I almost want to get angry, but again, I realize that by now I am well past any signs of a panic attack, as my mind is clear of doubts and fears. Realizing that this was Raygunnr’s ultimate goal all along, I again mentally thank Raygunnr, before Teleporting to Terra-Ulacrum. As the moon that had at one time seemed so large, now felt smaller and more manageable.

Poof.

***

(Charlaine)

Being relatively Immortal very few things had come to bother Charlaine. After being inundated with hundreds of pain filled days, Charlaine had developed effective Resistance Skills to almost every affliction that the pixie had offered.

At first the pain was unbearable, as there were no resistance Skills, nothing to dull the pain. Just pain. Pain that was fixed by endless Healing. Now the pain was only really there if she felt for it, as her mind could section off parts of her body and help her focus on more peaceful things.

That said, she still disliked the pixie that had caused her this pain. Her emotions had begun as hatred, but that hatred had dulled over time, just as her tolerance for her state of being slowly adjusted. It didn’t hurt that the pixie made it so she could have plants, and life growing around her. Even her silent recently appeared doppelganger did things to constantly improve the moon. As the doppelganger brought valuable seeds, and plants that could be used to help create an entire ecosystem here. Not that food wasn’t poisonous, not that water wasn’t the same as acid on her skin. None of those factors mattered, as their level of pain provided had slowly eroded away, thanks to the various Resistance Skills she and the others had cultivated. Also, watering plants gave her a purpose. Tending to fields gave her a goal to work towards every day, something that was worth waking up for, and to look forward to. That was how she managed to get to this point.

Yet, today everything seemed off.

There was almost a slight chill in the air. The all mother, or devout elven spirit that had governed this planet and looked over Charlaine and the others had been getting colder. Not emotionally colder, but her the energy in her presence had been waning for some time now. It seemed that she was bleeding her own vitality into this world, wanting it to succeed just as much as Charlaine herself did.

The only reason that Charlaine had allowed the pixie doppelganger to stay was that her presence had a healthy effect on the all mother. She seemed brighter, and for a time it looked like she just might pull through, but today, Charlaine realized that it was the calm before the storm. The final second wind that most great stories talk about. For this morning, Charlaine had gone to visit the All Mother, before directing and guiding the pixie doppelganger to the fields, a task that was unnecessary for this doppelganger was seemingly worth two or three of the actual pixies as she never complained, never hesitated, and never needed prodding to continue. She would go for a full sixteen hours, and then finally stop.

Today though, today was off. There was a strong but gentle breeze, an event that might seem trivial to most, until you realize that breezes without sand had been a rarity before recently. However, that was not the case today, for today, there was a violent burst through the clouds. That was the other new feat that had come about recently, there were clouds. Always on the sunny side of the moon, but there were clouds. Which was why they first saw, then heard the sonic boom of something entering the atmosphere of the planet. It took Charlaine time, having grown up in Florida before she uploaded her consciousness to this game world, as such, she knew what to listen for with an object entering the atmosphere. She knew how to depict the deafening screeching sounds of objects entering the atmosphere from space. A deep reverberating sound that left you in awe of the power on display. That’s what she felt.

Having experienced the impact, Charlaine immediately went to see the All Mother, only to witness the impossible. The All Mother stared at her, smiled and gave a wave goodbye before her life essence condensed into a bright glowing spark. A spark that hovered for a moment, before adjusting itself, and heading immediately towards the object that impact zone.

Realizing what had happened, Charlaine had gone over to inspect the resting spot where the All Mother had been, only to find nothing but a faint outline. A minor silhouette that marked the final resting spot of the All Mother. Tentatively Charlaine touched the spot, even attempting to rub the spot to see if any ash would rub off, but nothing came. Just a mark of where a great and powerful being had once been. The only person who had seemed like she cared that Charlaine and the others were okay. She had given them a place to live, where prior debts and external obligations no longer forced her or the others to do the bidding of corrupt Legrand leaders.

Thinking back, Charlaine remembered the binding contracts she had signed and sealed with the leaders of Legrand. Contracts that would send money back to their living relatives, so long as they spied on different forces. A contract that was both binding and would require payback in triplicate from her relatives, should she renege on the terms of the contract. By and large, the contract itself wasn’t terrible, for there were hundreds of spies in the Legrand Empire, all sent out to different empires and communities. It just so happened that Charlaine had drawn the short straw and been tasked with infiltrating the Midnight Hunters, a powerful guild that up until that point had not shown any proclivity towards domination. These were the thoughts that flooded through Charlaine’s mind as she mentally ran through her whole history with the All Mother, everything from how she first met the All Mother, to her time now. It had been months of pain, which always seem to last longer than the good months, but also fly by now that she finds herself looking back trying to remember how impactful a random stranger was to her. A stranger who all but took her in, no questions asked, not that they could even speak the same language. Still, Charlaine had felt her loss, the same as she would for losing any motherly figure.

Then she could almost feel it, the distinct sensation that the All Mother’s spark was back, that she had not left this world.

Poof.

There was a rumbling of energy, and a clear warmth that felt like you were the exact right distance from a winter fire. A sensation that should feel pleasant, other than the fact that the other sensations accompanying the sudden heat were violent tremors that shook the ground.

Looking out the window of the clay hut that the All Mother used as a shelter, Charlaine looked and felt her stomach drop as she saw a giant murder bot just appear in the middle of her vegetable garden. Then all thoughts seemed to erode from her mind, as she could all but feel the thoughts of the giant murder bot force their way into her mind.

“Oh, I just stepped in something squishy—” The murder bot began, as it raised its right foot, shaking free crumpled cabbage leaves.