A quite new Special Trait was up in the continuing Review of the New.

  This one really made Sammy ponder and think back to her hellscape experience. She’d probably lived through it over months, effectively more time than she’d even spent in Calrenazzod, though looking back, it had a ‘condensed’ feeling when she wasn’t focusing on something.

  The ability of course spoke to her adaptation to utilize the necessity of the octo-grippers. It was no simple adjustment in a completely 3-dimensional environment full of 3-dimensional threats, without the crutch of ‘superhero’ style flight available. The best anchor to position oneself at any given time could be up, down, left, right — any direction. The growing pains had been painful indeed, but by the end, she found she was operating upside down hanging from branches without even thinking about it, with mirrors constantly referenced to avoid ambushes.

  Six arms, two legs, two heads, and another set in Azure to double-check. That was how we survived that bizarre, awful wilderness. I imagine some strangeness to that place and its mistress was due to elements of proto-existence far beyond and before our cycle. Disturbing.

  And yet, whatever trauma it had shocked her with, she’d burned through and calloused over, because destruction was the only other option. They’d cried in each other’s arms more than once… at first… where the consolation of each other had been the salvation.

  But beyond that period was a curious adaptation to a ‘new normal’ in order to match the horror. Something inherently personal. The dread of the next madness to encounter became complex problems of necessity to solve, and then devolved again into nothing more than a chore. Weeds to chop, grooves to fit. The grind of an alien machine they lived within — that they carved their own identity out of, hideous substance that it was.

  Somewhere on the other side of how alien it felt, how inhuman, it began to feel familiar. At first, she thought perhaps she’d brought a little humanity into it.

  No. Identity… carved out of it. I became its product, and it reminded me of what I really am. Inside.

  “I think I’m a good quarter monster-alien now, Jeeves,” Sammy said, smirking at his mirror as it floated up.

  The butler in the mirror raised his eyebrows. “Oh? I thought I detected some existential loathing in progress. What’s the full breakdown, now, Madam?”

  “Half-human, quarter goddess, quarter monster-alien. One percent cosmic horror, as extra.”

  “I’ll be sure to invite Cthulhu over for brunch sometime, then. Perhaps a 64 Atomic Claret as a table wine, to go with a soufflé of polenta mixed with the blood of the innocent?”

  “Hmm, maybe, but he probably only likes seafood.”

  “Salient point. Madam… I should think your humanity intact after the evidence of your compassion for Agatha so recently.”

  “Ehh, so I’m a clannish monster, then. The Momma Bear. Just watch out when I get mad.”

  Jeeves sighed. “Moving on, Madam. I wanted to say that I had noticed a large productivity and efficiency increase in the realm’s operations since your return. Something like a general intelligence boost you might say, where our growth was previously more straining progress than anything. After your review of [Multitask Magician], I believe that is the lion’s share of why.”

  “Ah! Compartmentalization improvements. Technically everything you all do is using my psyche.”

  “Quite so. I thought you might like to know about a secondary ‘perk,’ as it were.”

  “I do. Thanks, Jeeves.”

  “Of course. I do want to re-emphasize the need for more Servitors, however. We can make all the better use of them now.”

  “Understood. I will do it soon.”

  Jeeves bowed and excused himself as Sammy turned her attention to the next thing — an entry under [Slayer].

  Nice. Channeling Ralli will make just about anyone take me seriously.

  [Jack of All Trades 2] had an enhancement.

  Well, that’s an entry that keeps things simple and stupid. Tee hee! On that note, let’s check out Brute’s skill before the other thing…

  Heh. Bar room brawls, here I come. Actually, I find this neat. It only reinforces my desire for a specialty enchanted shank. Rule #24 of the Sammyverse: Always have a shank!

  Next up was a Snekky addition to Ascendant:

  Sammy felt movement from the Ring of the Cheater and glanced at it to see the nagi smiling cheerily with her eyes closed, holding a thumbs-up briefly before shifting back into the default pose.

  “Aww.” Sammy grinned and returned the gesture. “I’m glad you approve, cheaty snek friend!”

  The golem provision under [Magical Invention] was her next review target.

  Cool. Certainly no free lunch, but a permanent badass warrior-drone should take a little effort, after all. Natural tanks. It’ll be on the itinerary to make one or two at the least. Golem Creation Limit? Huh. Anyway, now’s it time for the chuckle-inducing new modifier on something I don’t even remember reading!

  Despite that she was ready for it, Sammy was still a bit scandalized. She shook her head. “Incentivizing me being nude, Ozzy? Really? You’re such a pervert!”

  Calling yourself a pervert, great move...

  Bit of extra writer's commentary, but I dig a lot of these I came up with for this... took a shitton of time to conjure out of the vaguer concepts in my head while writing. I legit had to spend two entire writing day equivalents just to re-read the sections, collate and summarize, take notes, then filter it into what I wanted. In contrast, writing the final forms wasn't too bad.

  Some things are influenced in varying degrees of indirection by an obsession with replaying through Fallout: New Vegas and its DLCs in ill-advised off time. I went all the way through the STILL BUGGY bastard on the first playthrough, suffering crashes aplenty. For the second playthrough, I dumped a metric shitton of mods in to stabilize and smooth. Dear Goddesses, it's so much better! It's 200 or so from the mod pack Viva New Vegas using 'Wabbajack.' But anyway...

  The wine Jeeves quotes above is from Old World Blues. 'Sonic dog bark attack' also came from there probably, lol. Not intentional in that case, just the nature of imagination and influence.

  One might also make a case for the alienation of the environment, the paranoia and such, coming from various FNV stuff. Dead Money is among the most dreadful of environments imaginable, as are certain irradiated vaults.

  Next Chapter...

  We're not even done... *pant, pant*...

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