[SS 2.80] Wet and Wild (Part 2/3) (Patreon)

After a brief touch, Angie vanished, and all of the knowledge she’d learned flooded into Angelica, along with a good chunk of experience in Ambidextral Mastery and the various Destruction Skills, but not enough for a level in any of them. Besides the new combat techniques she’d learned, there was a lot of information on animals, more specifically, aquatic animals. More more specifically, a particular octopus she’d wanted Angie to research. Well, there were plenty of details about a full aquarium’s worth, but the octopus had been the main intent.

She went and filled up the tub a bit, though not all the way, since in her studies, found that they didn’t need to be completely submerged. Honestly, she probably could have done a better job tempering the water for the octopus’s needed conditions, but with how long she planned to be in that form, it shouldn’t be an issue. So she hopped in, and shrunk down into the betentacled creature. And then… uhhh, how do I change color? 

Angelica now knew the gist. They manipulated their skin cells somehow through specific muscle contractions, but… how? The instinct wasn’t there. She tried flexing her squishy body, but that just made her bunch up. This was definitely different than when she turned into a dog to unlock Hunting Nose. She understood how that worked. Dogs had a better sense of smell, and could follow it. Hmm, maybe there was a better test she could try.

After hopping out of the tub and drying off as a human again, she turned off all the lights in her bathroom. Since there was no window, it became quite dark, with just a little bit trickling in through the bottom of the door. Then she turned into Purrfect, her cat persona. Immediately, her vision improved, which fell in line with what she knew about cats as a bit of a kitty fanatic. They had more light-gathering rods. But despite that improvement, it still wasn’t nearly as good as what she understood cats were capable of.

And that came down to a similar lack of understanding about the second part. She knew they could widen their pupils to allow more light to come in, but again, how? Sadly, that was not something she understood innately, or could really learn how to do through more research. It was like when humans tried to learn how to wiggle their ears. That often resulted in failure if they just didn’t learn it naturally. 

So she needed to understand it from a cat’s perspective—get into their mindset since they couldn’t speak. Or at the very least, have a scientific understanding with it broken down into a way that she was forced to understand. And as for how to get that, well, there was just the Skill to buy. If she hadn’t gotten Muse already from how much she obsessed over her kitty, it was never going to come for free—well, maybe if she fell mad in love to an unhealthy degree, but finding that was definitely not a viable solution.

[Active Skill: Muse Lv.1 unlocked | Remaining GP: 3]

Even if the Skill didn’t work out like she hoped in this case, it would still be needed so that future Runes didn’t slip through her fingers. And if it did work like she hoped, it could open the door to so many new animal powers. Angelica left the bathroom, and took a mental picture of Cherub who was actually using his special stoney Hell cat bed for once. 

Immediately, it was like the picture became framed in her mind, hung at the very forefront of her thoughts. She couldn’t see it outright initially—not intruding on her peripheral vision or anything like that—but she could pull it up, as if it were ready to go in her pocket at all times. And as she remembered in the Skill description, it let her view that same image from new angles, like she had a full 3D-rendering of the sleepy kitty. Very adorable. 

As for the new knowledge, it was actually kind of a lot. She immediately knew all of his proportions and weight, could feel how comfortable he was while sleeping, and if the Skill was higher, she may even be able to tell what he was dreaming about at that moment. And besides that, there were a lot of random factoids she suddenly understood: his favorite flavor from the canned food variety pack she usually bought, along with his preferred treat—actually very helpful. With additional Skill levels, she could tell there would be a whole plethora of knowledge waiting to be uncovered about her Muse.

When she thought about his body further, she could tell the very specific spots where he preferred to be scritched, including a spot on his belly that apparently wouldn’t be a trap. And when she reflected on his eyes, even though they were closed in the picture, she suddenly understood it all, how it all worked, what she would see through his eyes in a dark situation. Back to cat she went, slamming the bathroom door closed with her hind legs. Wow, what a difference that made. Now her pupils adjusting actually kicked in like instinct, and it was as if the room were almost as visible as with the lights on. Everything was muted and gray, but she could see just fine. 

[Scrying Eye has been enhanced to Adaptive Scrying Eye]

[Adaptive Scrying Eye has transitioned from Active Skill to Hybrid Skill]

[Adaptive Affix: Passive Ability | Your eyes will now automatically adjust to changes in visibility, doing their best to provide as much clarity as possible in any given situation]

[Adaptive Scrying Eye Lv.6]

[Lucidity has improved from Heightened to Keen]

Angelica winced as her vision changed again, even better than before. From cat’s eye to Demon eye. There was now a splash of color to everything, though it definitely still looked a little bit washed out, and the brightness had been upped again. Honestly, it kind of looked like a weird filter had been applied over her regular vision that would make it easy to forget the lights were currently off. And when she morphed back to human, that stayed the same, no longer a limitation bound to kitty form. Then when turning on the lights, she wasn’t hit with the usual blinding from the sudden change.

Really, the new function could have easily been its own Skill, under night vision or something. Perhaps Ferrul felt it dumb to add yet another vision-related Skill when there was one that every Demon already had. How much would this have helped in the hazy Zebub maze? Probably not a lot. She wondered if Gawk had the Adaptive version. Maybe not since he had bought the Clarity Skill, which was probably just a superior version that had to be paid for. 

Something to talk about next time they met up, at least, and she was suddenly missing her little buddy, wondering how he was. Since he hadn’t called her up to chat lately, he was probably busy getting his own Demon career off the ground. She could call him, but didn’t want to be a bother. Now that the Merlina conundrum existed, once she had the ability to bind more Demons, he’d definitely be at the top of the list—not that she’d actually bind him, but didn’t want to raise his non-existent eyebrow. 

Maybe she’d cast Muse on him as well to learn more about him, or would that be too much of an invasion of privacy? Well, she kind of wanted to use Muse on everything now. It almost felt like it should be classified as Gnostic with how much information it gave, but could understand it being stuck in the artsy section. If she used it enough for intel gathering, perhaps it’d become a dual-Attunement. 

The next thing she tried to Muse was herself, which unsurprisingly didn’t work, but best to check. And then she tried to Muse her shampoo bottle, because there wasn’t much else of interest in the bathroom. Except that also didn’t work, but for an entirely different reason.

[Would you like to replace your current Muse with a new one?]

Ehh, what? No. Just Muse that too.

[Muse is limited to a single subject at a time]

Ehhh, seriously?! That stinks! Hold on! Angelica pulled up the Skill description to read through it again since it had been a bit. 

[Take a mental picture so that a subject may be viewed for inspiration evermore. The memory will remain in perfect detail regardless of mental state or status effects. Cost: 10 MP. Recalling the memory has no cost. With increased levels, the original memory may be perceived in additional ways with information gleaned upon study]

“A subject.” As in, a single subject. Angelica had wondered before if that was a literal interpretation, but had assumed otherwise, because it was so unreasonable. She could somewhat understand the mentality of being focused on a single Muse at a time, because that was how they usually worked. Yes, the Skill had done what she needed it too, and she could probably work around the caveat in the future, but that didn’t stop her from feeling swindled. 

[There are two new Enchantments for Muse available for purchase in the Skill Weave. Would you like to hear about them?]

I take it that’s not a coincidence at all, so tell me about the one that will magically solve my problem, please. 

[Enchantment: Catalogue | Unlock: 1 GP | Store previous Muses so that a new one may be obtained without losing the current subject. The stored subject can replace the active Muse at any time, but there is a delay in activation as a penalty for being so flippant. Only one Muse may be active at a time. Number of storable subjects and decrease in delay scales with Skill Level, Creativity, and Fabrication Attunement. Both are hampered by Obsession Attunement. Current storage limit: 3 total]

Yes, that did ultimately solve the problem. While still restrictive, it allowed for a path of continual improvement. Most likely, someone must have purchased the Skill in the past and then had the same complaints, and Catalogue was created as a compromise that allowed the issue to be circumvented while keeping the initial vision for the Skill. The fact that Obsession Attunement—which she’d never heard of until now—affected the Skill negatively—which she’d also never heard of before—was clear evidence of that. 

Those issues were probably why it cost a single GP too, basically making it as free as it could be. She also noted that it intentionally said “three total” because that definitely would have been her next question. Someone must have complained about that too.

[Muse has been enchanted to Fluid Muse | GP Remaining: 2]

So yes, Angelica went ahead and bought it, because she’d feel terrible if she found herself in a situation with two or three new Runes but she could only hold onto one. Once more, she justified it to herself that this was all to help with a bunch of free Skills in the future. And with her current conundrum, besides the octopus, there was a second she really wanted to study as well, so now she’d have the third as a bonus that could be flexible.

It worked as expected. When she Mused the shampoo bottle, Cherub was thrown into the Catalogue. Then her brain was filled with a bunch of useless information about the shampoo that she’d never need and wasn’t worth regurgitating, so the Enchantment definitely took care of the issue.

But… damn it, she still felt pissed about it. Angelica was far from the type to complain to the manager, largely because her anxiety wouldn’t allow for it. And this Skill had clearly faced scrutiny before, but it still didn’t feel like it should be properly resolved. I would like to lodge a formal complaint.

[In regards to the Skill: Muse, and its Enchantment: Catalogue?]

The DGS apparently had enough wherewithal to expect it. Yes!

[A complaint will be filed. Would you like to add any specific details?]

Uhh, yeah. She honestly wasn’t expecting to get this far, so it took her a minute to figure out the phrasing. The description for Muse is deliberately obtuse and confuses the Demon about how it operates. Clearly, the issues are known about, because there’s an Enchantment specifically to fix it. The whole thing is a bait-and-switch. Catalogue should be incorporated into the base Skill with the limitations clearly defined. 

[The complaint has been submitted. If it is approved, you will receive a refund of 1 GP upon review. Estimated response time: 1-4D]

Oh, only one-to-four days? Better than I thought! If the customer service was that good, maybe she’d submit any other issues she had going forward.

[No. 1-4 Decades]

Oh… The Hell?! That was so stupidly long. Maybe in the lifespan of a Demon, it wasn’t a big deal, but she’d be an old lady by then. Or would she? Didn’t matter! How could they let it get that bad, especially when institutions like the Demon Services Office actually ran pretty efficiently? Unless… what if it was only run by a single person, err, Demon. What if Ferrul was the only one who could touch the system? That’d make sense if they wanted to keep it as secure and unbiased as possible. If that was the truth, that changed her perspective a lot, and it was suddenly a miracle that it even worked at all. Well, she may randomly get a bonus GP one day and have no memory as to why.

Right, you mentioned a second Enchantment. What’s that one? Maybe it was something else she could complain about and maybe get for free when she was middle-aged.

[Enchantment: Stalk | Unlock: 6 GP]

Hoo boy, that already sounded terrible.

[Lock-on to your current Muse so that you may increase your obsession. You will know where they are, what they are doing, how they currently look at all times through a window in your mind. Stalk will only work within a current range of your Muse. Range scales with Muse Skill Level and amount of time obsessing over your current Muse. Switching Muses with the Catalogue enchantment will reset the boost from obsession. Additional Unlock Requirement: Embraced Obsession Attunement]

Eeeeevilllllllllll. Oh Vissiem. Why did such a fritsing evil Skill exist? It could only be used for terrible or perverse means. There was probably an argument somewhere about parents using it to make sure their kids are okay, but as far as she was aware, such relationships didn’t exist in Demon society. And since it was decently expensive, that probably meant it was pretty scuffing powerful too.

What if her mother used that on her? She’d know every secret in a second. …was someone using it on her? Was that how the Demons spying on her found out where she lived? Hmm, probably not, because then they wouldn’t need to get so close and get caught in her field. But damn, it still unnerved her. The very thought creeped her out to her core. DGS, is there a way to delete memories? This was something she’d genuinely prefer not knowing about, though she’d made that request more on a whim, and not something she’d actually do. 

[Yes there is, but nothing you are currently capable of]

Great, something else she needed to worry about. It was probably Oppression Attunement, so she’d likely never see it. If it could steal emotions, then why not memories? Ugh, whatever. More stuff to dwell on later, but she had things to do, and she wasn’t going to let these bad vibes keep her from animal power fun time. It was time to head to the aquarium.