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Yesterday, 05:32 PM
Author's Note
Strike Out! Chapter 5
"-ey nerds..." I heard as I made my way through the forest, following the buzzing of a connection that had to come from the titular owl house. "... nerd quest?"
"Laying it on a little thick there, Eda," That must be Luz talking, "But yeah, we found Phillip."
I heard Eda's "woah, seriously?" right as I stepped out of the woods and into the clearing by the cliff the owl house stood. Standing there were The witch Eda: A pale woman in a torn red dress with a massive mane of gray-white hair, heterochromatic gray and yellow eyes, and a golden fang sticking out of her lip.
Next was Luz, a Hispanic teen witch with short hair in a blue and white cropped hoodie, shorts, and white slip on shoes. Also, she had a rusted medieval helmet on with chain mail hanging down like shoulder-length hair for some reason.
And finally there was Lilith. Eda's sister, she normally had long straight hair that was navy blue or perhaps indigo, streaked with a single band of gray but it was covered up by a sunhat and a bandanna. Her eyes were also heterochromatic, one gray and one ice blue. She was wearing a modest tunic with a vest, a red skirt, a wore circular black rimmed eyeglasses.
"Yeah, He stunk" Luz said with a face you'd see on customer service employees after a really bad day.
"I punched him in the face." Lilith said proudly, a glowing smile plastered on her face.
"Groovy, auntie." Luz said, shooting finger guns at Lilith before stopping mid fire and turning her head, "Hey, who's that?"
Oh, the saw me now. A pulse of social anxiety flashed through my system and all I could do was wave lamely. God I'm such an idiot.
"Great, another unexpected visitor." Eda said, crossing her arms and walking up to me, "now who the hell are you?"
I bent back slightly from her glare, "uh, Hi! My name is Aster Moore, and well, I think there are several things we could help each other with, Owl lady."
I dramatically lowered my hood. Or tried too, a stray bit of fabric from my hoodie caught in the folding arm on one side of my glasses, pulling them off. Trying to correct for it, I let go of the hood and grabbed them, trying to pull them away from the hood, which only pulled the hood with them, which pulled my hair along with it.
After ripping the glasses out of my hoodie, putting them back on, and pulling the hair out of my face, I finally finished my dramatic reveal by tucking my shoulder length hair behind my ears, revealing the round, human, lobes.
"A HUMAN!?" Luz yelled in surprise, running up and pushing Eda out of the way, "How'd you get here? Is there another door? Or did you end up here the same way Philip did? Wait, how exactly did Philip end up-"
"Luz, focus" Eda chided.
"Right." Luz said, nodding seriously.
"Well..." I didn't want to tell Luz about the limitless multiverse full of fictional properties. She'd taken the first opportunity to isekai her that presented itself, and then doggedly tried to learn magic even without the biology for it. If she knew what was really out there? Who knew how that'd affect the kid. But I couldn't keep my powers a total secret if I wanted to help stop Belos.
"Three days ago, or was it two? Anyway it was Friday night and it was raining. I had received a mysterious package. Before I could open it I was zapped by lightning and ended up somewhere... else." I said, trying to keep it to the facts while avoiding the multiverse implication. "I learned I had the ability to travel here and to Earth, that looks, sounds, and from the singed grass I leave everywhere acts, like lightning."
"YOU CAN TRAVEL TO THE HUMAN REALM!?!?" Luz screamed. Eda, Lilith, and I had to cover our ears.
"Yes?" I had the sinking suspicion I had said something wrong.
"I can go home." she said, dazed.
"Well... I haven't actually had the chance to test if I can take people with me, only that I can take things. And with the whole singed grass thing I'm not eager to try." I deflected, or tried too.
Lilith stepped forward. "Then we simply need to run some tests. You see, Luz here is stranded in the demon realm after Edalyn's portal door was... er, destroyed."
"Sure. Tests." I said, teeth gritted. They could figure out how my power worked, and the lie I just told. I'm such a goddamn idiot. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuuuuuuck!
"Anything for Luz," Eda nodded, "But we'll have to start tomorrow, everyone's had an eventful day."
"Right, but I can I have a word with you first, Eda?" I asked, doing my best to keep myself composed.
"Sure, you two head inside" Eda waved to her sister and Luz.
I heard a faint 'aww man' but the two did go inside.
"Ok, brass tacks," I said, clapping my hands together, "I can go to earth, you can't. I don't have any of the local currency, you ran a business selling earth trash. Cut me in for twenty percent, and I'll restock you as many times as you need."
"how do I even know you can do what you say you can do?" Eda asked, narrowing her eyes.
In response I disapared in flash of green lightning, swiped a branch off a live oak, and Re-apeared on the boiling isles holding it. Then I fell over.
"UGhhh what was that?" I asked, suddenly feeling really drained.
"Well you disappeared and reappeared with a twig of weird green leaves" Eda deadpanned.
"I meant to do that I just-" As I got up I realized the buzzing from the owl hose was quieter. The exhaustion suddenly made sense. "Son of a bitch! I can't lightning strike back to back! its draining something, too quick."
"Is that really what you call it? 'Lightning striking'?" Eda asked with air quotes.
"I'm sorry, would you prefer it if I called it jumping, hopping, or skipping between worlds?" I shot back.
"I'd prefer it not be such a mouthful," Eda said, rolling her eyes. "In any case, I'm convinced. You've got a deal, five percent of the profits go to you."
I narrowed my eyes "ten"
"Eight"
"Deal!" I said, not much caring. I was aiming at ten anyway, two percent less wasn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things... As long as eight percent was enough to cover basic living coasts. It probably was.
We shook on it and I called it a night, Crashing at the Rabbit's place again. Hopefully for the last time.
With the help of Luz and Lilith mostly, We tested the bounds of my powers. I had been moving so fast, trying not to think about anything other than solving problems right in front of me, that I didn't think to ask any questions.
What were the principles my powers operated under? Points of interest, places that have meaning, seemed to pull something into focus. A direction, a connection. A path to the next world. A blazing star in the sky I have the power to reach out and pull myself towards.
Once I know the path, once I've grabbed hold of that star for the first time, It's mapped, added to the sky painted inside my mind, and I can use the other stars to navigate back. But I always end up the place I left, except for the first time in a new universe, seeming to put me... where? Close to 'important' things? The silent hill sign, LA in roger rabbit, The Forrest a stone's throw from The Owl House, and the exact spot I left in the parallel world I first arrived at.
But why did it act like that? Why did I disappear and reappear in a strike of green tinted lightning? Why did I find myself close to important events and places? Why was I limited to re-entering a world the last place I left it?
The broader implications of my powers were concerning, and those thoughts churned in my head as we tested the concrete effects of my powers.
To simplify things we came up with terminology for my power. I decided on calling it Striking, after the Lightning like effects. Luz had argued for The Star Path Betwixt Realms after hearing how worlds felt to my power(She and everyone else were still under the impression that it was just the two, her earth, and the demon realm.).
Leaving a world would be Striking Out, entering one would be Striking In, and generally moving about would just be Striking. The map of stars in my head would be the Strike Map, and well. You get the idea. Slap the word Strike in front of something if it was related to my power to traverse the multiverse.
I admit the naming of the power was... Fuck it, it was cringe. The sparkledog of power names. But I liked it, and I'm a huge dork. Sue me.
Anyway, testing: let's do bullet points of interesting things I learned about my power so I don't have to write long paragraphs about it. Okay? Okay.
"Come on, just let me inject a little Pestilence Essence to see how it reacts?" Lillith begged, holding a concerningly large needle.
"NO!" I yelled, throwing my hands up. "I might be immune to diseases, but I'm not about to take chances when I don't need to, especially with dangerous things called stuff like 'Pestilence Essence'."
"YOU CAN ALWAYS STAB ME, LULU!" Oh god the bird tube was here.
So we were doing tests in the clearing in front of The Owl House and Hooty had been butting in now and again. I rubbed my temples, the loud, grating sound of his voice aggravating my headache. A comic relief character in real life was hell to be around.
"Are you alright, Aster?" Lilith said, a look of concern and confusion on her face. "Are you injured in some way?"
"No, just a headache. Its normal. I just. uh. Haven't taken my medicine in three-?" I wondered out loud, couldn't remember how long It was "-days. Wish my power cured my mess of mental health issues."
"Oh Jeez that's the worst!" Luz said, sitting up from a log where she was writhing in a journal of some kind. "When I'm off my meds It feels like someone's ringing a bell with my skull."
"You take medicine?" I asked, shocked that a girl from a children's cartoon would need anything like that.
"Yeah, for ADHD and Autism." Luz said like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Which. huh. for me it was? Why was I making such a big deal out of this? I couldn't recall any friends that weren't on some medication, with 99% of them being neurodivergent.
It was at that point Lilith returned from some kind of background hijinks with Hooty, carrying some kind of... finger? Bug?? in a jar. "Time for live animal testing!" She said with childlike glee.
I grimaced, sighed and accepted the bug.
*BOOM*
Well, it was intact. I had to wait at least thirty seconds before I could Strike out anyway, so I watched the jar for any changes.
The finger??? Bug???? Was happy as a clam and seemed to be building some kind of cocoon from... nail clippings? God, the boiling isles can be so incredibly gross sometimes. It's not even horrifying, just gross.
Enough time had passed that my power was ready to head out again. I sighed and pulled at the star that held the demon realm and-
*BOOM*
-arrived back to hand Lilith the jar, telling her of what I observed during the cooldown period. She started scribbling in a notebook and set the jar down on a table with a contraption full of magnifying lenses on it to presumably study. Which gave me a break.
"What is all this racket!" A nasally child-voice yelled, "Did Luz find another legendary hammer of power? Did Hooty eat Luz's phone charging lightning bugs? Is it the double blood moon already?"
It felt like the ground beneath me was shifting as a small skull faced demon in a dog collar walked in from the direction of bonesburrow. King. Eda's adoptive kid/pet, secret last living titan, and adorable little guy.
The buzz that had been present in my mind, the focus shift from the point of interest that was The Owl House, warped, as the sense my powers gave me was distorted.
Then I remembered. Titan's blood was a necessary ingredient in a portal between worlds.
And then something clicked. The vibrancy of this place, the alien feeling I noticed when I got here, that I had just chocked up to it being actually alien. No. It was just something that was out of focus.
Long ago no one believed the sun and the stars were the same kind of celestial object. That the planets were rocks you could set foot on. The sky was so far away. How could anything so small like a star be anything like our bright and burning sun? How could those faint moving lights in the sky be anything like the endless horizon of our own earth?
Without the right tools, without telescopes and star charts and math, it would all be nonsense. Without the focus of a lens, Mars looks like just another star.
The worlds I could connect to, and were connected to, were bight stars. I couldn't make out their contours, their detail, they burned too bright, and were always too far until I was already on them.
I was literally standing on the corpse of a being that acted as a bridge between realms, and then I just met a smaller one, a younger one. And it all made sense.
I had been feeling a connection all this time, but I was literally standing on it, so I didn't notice it as something I could use my power on. Not until I had another of its kind to compare to. Not until I felt my senses warp like light in a gravity well. If I could just reach out-
*CRACKLE*
"ASTER!" Luz yelled, pulling my hand away from King before a bolt of green electricity left my hand and charred some grass. Oh, god. I had almost done that to King. Was that enough electricity to kill? Did I- Was I almost going to-
"Oh god." I whispered, falling to my knees. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."
King had backed up all the way to the house. I saw fear in those eyes and it broke my heart. Luz said something to me, but I didn't hear her. I kept imagining what my uncontrolled power would have done to that kid. All the ways he could have died. Electrocuted, torn apart by spatial rifts, teleported somewhere in the multiverse further than my own home, Burned, exploded, bleeding, dead, Dead, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!!
I was handed something warm, a cup, and on instinct I took a drink. Earthy, warm, hint of apple and something... coppery?
Slowly the room came back into focus and I realize I had been dissociating. god that was a bad episode, even my memories were patchy and that almost never happened. And my headache felt like someone was crushing my skull.
"I think I'm coming back" I said, noticing Luz sitting next to me on the couch, the owl house's couch, and Eda and Lilith sitting across from the coffee table. I took another sip of tea to ground me. "how long was I out?"
"About half an hour" Eda said, rocking her hand back and fourth.
"What was that?" Luz asked, curiosity tinged with fear. My heart felt like lead.
"The uh, shooting electricity thing, or the dissociation?" I asked before changing my mind "No I should probably explain both.
"So. This might not be the most coherent, I'll start with the dissociation. It's... when I get stressed sometimes I just. Stop being present, I'm on autopilot. My thoughts don't engage with the world, I'm stuck in my own head, its uh... its not pleasant."
"I've had my fair share of blackouts" Eda said, "I getcha."
"No you don't. I was here the whole time. I'm always here. I remember Luz pulling me inside and making me sit down, I remember her asking if you had any tea. I remember... 'Bone Apple Tea'? Really?-" Luz gave a shrug at that, "Anyway I was here, just paralyzed by my thoughts. I could have killed that Kid and that was all that was on my mind."
"Why did you almost zap King anyhow?" Eda asked, her voice sharp.
"My power." I said, "It... reacted to something in King. Some kind of inherent magic maybe. But It was like the universe was bending around him. As if reaching out and touching the center of it all would let me tap into all that. I didn't realize I was moving, or that my power was even charging I was just so focused on him, on what it could mean to my power... I couldn't process the outside world"
I finished my half-truthful explanation, leaving out the parts that would make it seem like I knew too much about King, or gave away too much about my power. But I felt like I owed them a better explanation, at least about my power.
"Luz would you mind getting me more tea?" I asked.
"Sure thing, Aster." Luz said taking my cup and running out to the kitchen.
"Okay," I said, keeping my voice low and serious, addressing the two sisters that remained. "I haven't explained everything about my power. I haven't been to Luz's Earth. But I've been to other earths. My power seems to shove me at seemingly random worlds, only four, five if you count my original world that I can't reach anymore. Everything else I've said about my power is true."
Lilith gasped and put her hands over her mouth in shock. Eda scowled at me
"so why did you send Luz away?" Eda asked.
"Because. if she would run away to a world of magic like her make believe world and pursue being a witch with no magic, I don't know how she'd react to the possibility of going to seemingly any world. If you want to share this with her then go ahead, I just don't want her to believe I can take her to her Azura books, that might break her heart."
"I think she's tougher than you give her credit for," Eda said, "But If what you're saying is true it's Big. And Luz is already wrapped up in too many big things for a kid her age. I'll play along."
"I'll defer to Edalyn's expertise in this matter." Lilith said, eyeing me strangely.
"Here ya go Aster, Bone Apple Tea!" Luz said, walking in with a new cup and saying the pun like she came up with it.
I accepted it with a smile.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Luz asked, absentmindedly rubbing a hand on her arm. "you said you were off your meds earlier, but you've got access to the human realm, right?"
"I don't have a choice but to be okay." I said, sighing. "I- its complicated, but I lost access to the place I was living, my wallet, all my documents, and my phone got fried the first time I Striked. I have no money, and no way to get medicine."
"So that's why..." Eda mumbled.
Luz looked towards Eda, "I know we're tight on money right now, but could we get Aster some medical potions?"
What?
"well..." Eda looked thoughtful for a moment, "It did work out alright for you when you ran out of your earth pills."
Then she turned to me "but it'll come out of your pay, if you're still willing to sell me earth garbage."
"Wait wait wait," I said, holding my hands up "How the hell were you able to get your prescriptions matched? Pharmaceuticals are named in a language too arcane for even witches and demons to decipher."
"well there was a visit to a healer, I explained what I needed medicine for and had a few spells cast on me and they wrote down what potions would work. Then I just bought them from Morton."
"You didn't have to try different potions until one worked? I went through so many different meds as a kid until I found ones that worked for me"
"Well," Lilith Interjected "That certainly used to be the case, but once the potion coven was formed there was pressure from the healing coven and the emperor to advance medical potions research to the point that healers didn't need to know much of the craft themselves to do their job. This led to more efficient, broader symptom managing, and less side effect prone medical potions. The elixirs Edalyn and I use aren't specifically tailored to our curse and do not need to be, as a more effective potion for the task just could not be concocted."
"Huh." I said.
We sat in silence for a while.
"So how about it?" Eda asked, "Ready for some good old-fashioned boiling isles medicine?"
"-ey nerds..." I heard as I made my way through the forest, following the buzzing of a connection that had to come from the titular owl house. "... nerd quest?"
"Laying it on a little thick there, Eda," That must be Luz talking, "But yeah, we found Phillip."
I heard Eda's "woah, seriously?" right as I stepped out of the woods and into the clearing by the cliff the owl house stood. Standing there were The witch Eda: A pale woman in a torn red dress with a massive mane of gray-white hair, heterochromatic gray and yellow eyes, and a golden fang sticking out of her lip.
Next was Luz, a Hispanic teen witch with short hair in a blue and white cropped hoodie, shorts, and white slip on shoes. Also, she had a rusted medieval helmet on with chain mail hanging down like shoulder-length hair for some reason.
And finally there was Lilith. Eda's sister, she normally had long straight hair that was navy blue or perhaps indigo, streaked with a single band of gray but it was covered up by a sunhat and a bandanna. Her eyes were also heterochromatic, one gray and one ice blue. She was wearing a modest tunic with a vest, a red skirt, a wore circular black rimmed eyeglasses.
"Yeah, He stunk" Luz said with a face you'd see on customer service employees after a really bad day.
"I punched him in the face." Lilith said proudly, a glowing smile plastered on her face.
"Groovy, auntie." Luz said, shooting finger guns at Lilith before stopping mid fire and turning her head, "Hey, who's that?"
Oh, the saw me now. A pulse of social anxiety flashed through my system and all I could do was wave lamely. God I'm such an idiot.
"Great, another unexpected visitor." Eda said, crossing her arms and walking up to me, "now who the hell are you?"
I bent back slightly from her glare, "uh, Hi! My name is Aster Moore, and well, I think there are several things we could help each other with, Owl lady."
I dramatically lowered my hood. Or tried too, a stray bit of fabric from my hoodie caught in the folding arm on one side of my glasses, pulling them off. Trying to correct for it, I let go of the hood and grabbed them, trying to pull them away from the hood, which only pulled the hood with them, which pulled my hair along with it.
After ripping the glasses out of my hoodie, putting them back on, and pulling the hair out of my face, I finally finished my dramatic reveal by tucking my shoulder length hair behind my ears, revealing the round, human, lobes.
"A HUMAN!?" Luz yelled in surprise, running up and pushing Eda out of the way, "How'd you get here? Is there another door? Or did you end up here the same way Philip did? Wait, how exactly did Philip end up-"
"Luz, focus" Eda chided.
"Right." Luz said, nodding seriously.
"Well..." I didn't want to tell Luz about the limitless multiverse full of fictional properties. She'd taken the first opportunity to isekai her that presented itself, and then doggedly tried to learn magic even without the biology for it. If she knew what was really out there? Who knew how that'd affect the kid. But I couldn't keep my powers a total secret if I wanted to help stop Belos.
"Three days ago, or was it two? Anyway it was Friday night and it was raining. I had received a mysterious package. Before I could open it I was zapped by lightning and ended up somewhere... else." I said, trying to keep it to the facts while avoiding the multiverse implication. "I learned I had the ability to travel here and to Earth, that looks, sounds, and from the singed grass I leave everywhere acts, like lightning."
"YOU CAN TRAVEL TO THE HUMAN REALM!?!?" Luz screamed. Eda, Lilith, and I had to cover our ears.
"Yes?" I had the sinking suspicion I had said something wrong.
"I can go home." she said, dazed.
"Well... I haven't actually had the chance to test if I can take people with me, only that I can take things. And with the whole singed grass thing I'm not eager to try." I deflected, or tried too.
Lilith stepped forward. "Then we simply need to run some tests. You see, Luz here is stranded in the demon realm after Edalyn's portal door was... er, destroyed."
"Sure. Tests." I said, teeth gritted. They could figure out how my power worked, and the lie I just told. I'm such a goddamn idiot. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuuuuuuck!
"Anything for Luz," Eda nodded, "But we'll have to start tomorrow, everyone's had an eventful day."
"Right, but I can I have a word with you first, Eda?" I asked, doing my best to keep myself composed.
"Sure, you two head inside" Eda waved to her sister and Luz.
I heard a faint 'aww man' but the two did go inside.
"Ok, brass tacks," I said, clapping my hands together, "I can go to earth, you can't. I don't have any of the local currency, you ran a business selling earth trash. Cut me in for twenty percent, and I'll restock you as many times as you need."
"how do I even know you can do what you say you can do?" Eda asked, narrowing her eyes.
In response I disapared in flash of green lightning, swiped a branch off a live oak, and Re-apeared on the boiling isles holding it. Then I fell over.
"UGhhh what was that?" I asked, suddenly feeling really drained.
"Well you disappeared and reappeared with a twig of weird green leaves" Eda deadpanned.
"I meant to do that I just-" As I got up I realized the buzzing from the owl hose was quieter. The exhaustion suddenly made sense. "Son of a bitch! I can't lightning strike back to back! its draining something, too quick."
"Is that really what you call it? 'Lightning striking'?" Eda asked with air quotes.
"I'm sorry, would you prefer it if I called it jumping, hopping, or skipping between worlds?" I shot back.
"I'd prefer it not be such a mouthful," Eda said, rolling her eyes. "In any case, I'm convinced. You've got a deal, five percent of the profits go to you."
I narrowed my eyes "ten"
"Eight"
"Deal!" I said, not much caring. I was aiming at ten anyway, two percent less wasn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things... As long as eight percent was enough to cover basic living coasts. It probably was.
We shook on it and I called it a night, Crashing at the Rabbit's place again. Hopefully for the last time.
With the help of Luz and Lilith mostly, We tested the bounds of my powers. I had been moving so fast, trying not to think about anything other than solving problems right in front of me, that I didn't think to ask any questions.
What were the principles my powers operated under? Points of interest, places that have meaning, seemed to pull something into focus. A direction, a connection. A path to the next world. A blazing star in the sky I have the power to reach out and pull myself towards.
Once I know the path, once I've grabbed hold of that star for the first time, It's mapped, added to the sky painted inside my mind, and I can use the other stars to navigate back. But I always end up the place I left, except for the first time in a new universe, seeming to put me... where? Close to 'important' things? The silent hill sign, LA in roger rabbit, The Forrest a stone's throw from The Owl House, and the exact spot I left in the parallel world I first arrived at.
But why did it act like that? Why did I disappear and reappear in a strike of green tinted lightning? Why did I find myself close to important events and places? Why was I limited to re-entering a world the last place I left it?
The broader implications of my powers were concerning, and those thoughts churned in my head as we tested the concrete effects of my powers.
To simplify things we came up with terminology for my power. I decided on calling it Striking, after the Lightning like effects. Luz had argued for The Star Path Betwixt Realms after hearing how worlds felt to my power(She and everyone else were still under the impression that it was just the two, her earth, and the demon realm.).
Leaving a world would be Striking Out, entering one would be Striking In, and generally moving about would just be Striking. The map of stars in my head would be the Strike Map, and well. You get the idea. Slap the word Strike in front of something if it was related to my power to traverse the multiverse.
I admit the naming of the power was... Fuck it, it was cringe. The sparkledog of power names. But I liked it, and I'm a huge dork. Sue me.
Anyway, testing: let's do bullet points of interesting things I learned about my power so I don't have to write long paragraphs about it. Okay? Okay.
- There was an approximate 30 seconds of cooldown between Strikes, and pushing it would strain my power and my body, as I had seen yesterday when I pulled that trick with Eda and the oak branch.
- I could take anything with me, I was touching, so long as it was about the size of a fridge or smaller, in volume, not weight or mass.
- Momentum didn't carry between worlds. I tried Striking Out mid-jump and was on my feet when I arrived, then I tried running and tripped as soon as I Struck In when all my momentum was gone. Took awhile to figure out what was happening with that. Turns out speedy thing go in, motionless thing come out(Relative to the planet's rotation?(test this if I ever get a spacesuit and find a world with easy space travel))
- If I strike in to a place I've already been and there's something in the way of my return point, I would appear in a place of open air as close to the original return point as possible. With a strong bias towards going up and being under open sky. This *always* put me outside if I was indoors(usually on the roof), unless a window or something was open near me.
- As much as I tried, I couldn't change the place I entered a world. There was some variance in the measurements Lilith took, but the most deviation without outside interference was 3cm(and not even in the direction I wanted to appear in).
- As much as I tried, I couldn't change the place I entered a world. There was some variance in the measurements Lilith took, but the most deviation without outside interference was 3cm(and not even in the direction I wanted to appear in).
- The electricity I produced when Striking was entirely real, and grounded through me and what was traveling with me in a way that didn't affect me/it.
- According to a diagnostic artifact from the healers' coven, I didn't have *any* disease in my system. Not the dregs of earth germs in Luz, and also *none* of the native Demon Realm, despite Luz having been sick several times from diseases non-native to earth she didn't have the defenses for.(that one was weird, but also kind of makes sense if you were designing a power to travel worlds? Make it so you didn't carry the bubonic plague or COVID with you, or get turbo demon syphilis from your vacation to hell.(Though that assumes the power was *designed* which leads to more questions))
- This also extends to contamination of anything traveling *with* me.(The oak branch not dying when it came with me seems to be the same reason my gut flora remain, the effect targets hostile/invasive life... probably)
- This also extends to contamination of anything traveling *with* me.(The oak branch not dying when it came with me seems to be the same reason my gut flora remain, the effect targets hostile/invasive life... probably)
"Come on, just let me inject a little Pestilence Essence to see how it reacts?" Lillith begged, holding a concerningly large needle.
"NO!" I yelled, throwing my hands up. "I might be immune to diseases, but I'm not about to take chances when I don't need to, especially with dangerous things called stuff like 'Pestilence Essence'."
"YOU CAN ALWAYS STAB ME, LULU!" Oh god the bird tube was here.
So we were doing tests in the clearing in front of The Owl House and Hooty had been butting in now and again. I rubbed my temples, the loud, grating sound of his voice aggravating my headache. A comic relief character in real life was hell to be around.
"Are you alright, Aster?" Lilith said, a look of concern and confusion on her face. "Are you injured in some way?"
"No, just a headache. Its normal. I just. uh. Haven't taken my medicine in three-?" I wondered out loud, couldn't remember how long It was "-days. Wish my power cured my mess of mental health issues."
"Oh Jeez that's the worst!" Luz said, sitting up from a log where she was writhing in a journal of some kind. "When I'm off my meds It feels like someone's ringing a bell with my skull."
"You take medicine?" I asked, shocked that a girl from a children's cartoon would need anything like that.
"Yeah, for ADHD and Autism." Luz said like it was the most normal thing in the world.
Which. huh. for me it was? Why was I making such a big deal out of this? I couldn't recall any friends that weren't on some medication, with 99% of them being neurodivergent.
It was at that point Lilith returned from some kind of background hijinks with Hooty, carrying some kind of... finger? Bug?? in a jar. "Time for live animal testing!" She said with childlike glee.
I grimaced, sighed and accepted the bug.
*BOOM*
Well, it was intact. I had to wait at least thirty seconds before I could Strike out anyway, so I watched the jar for any changes.
The finger??? Bug???? Was happy as a clam and seemed to be building some kind of cocoon from... nail clippings? God, the boiling isles can be so incredibly gross sometimes. It's not even horrifying, just gross.
Enough time had passed that my power was ready to head out again. I sighed and pulled at the star that held the demon realm and-
*BOOM*
-arrived back to hand Lilith the jar, telling her of what I observed during the cooldown period. She started scribbling in a notebook and set the jar down on a table with a contraption full of magnifying lenses on it to presumably study. Which gave me a break.
"What is all this racket!" A nasally child-voice yelled, "Did Luz find another legendary hammer of power? Did Hooty eat Luz's phone charging lightning bugs? Is it the double blood moon already?"
It felt like the ground beneath me was shifting as a small skull faced demon in a dog collar walked in from the direction of bonesburrow. King. Eda's adoptive kid/pet, secret last living titan, and adorable little guy.
The buzz that had been present in my mind, the focus shift from the point of interest that was The Owl House, warped, as the sense my powers gave me was distorted.
Then I remembered. Titan's blood was a necessary ingredient in a portal between worlds.
And then something clicked. The vibrancy of this place, the alien feeling I noticed when I got here, that I had just chocked up to it being actually alien. No. It was just something that was out of focus.
Long ago no one believed the sun and the stars were the same kind of celestial object. That the planets were rocks you could set foot on. The sky was so far away. How could anything so small like a star be anything like our bright and burning sun? How could those faint moving lights in the sky be anything like the endless horizon of our own earth?
Without the right tools, without telescopes and star charts and math, it would all be nonsense. Without the focus of a lens, Mars looks like just another star.
The worlds I could connect to, and were connected to, were bight stars. I couldn't make out their contours, their detail, they burned too bright, and were always too far until I was already on them.
I was literally standing on the corpse of a being that acted as a bridge between realms, and then I just met a smaller one, a younger one. And it all made sense.
I had been feeling a connection all this time, but I was literally standing on it, so I didn't notice it as something I could use my power on. Not until I had another of its kind to compare to. Not until I felt my senses warp like light in a gravity well. If I could just reach out-
*CRACKLE*
"ASTER!" Luz yelled, pulling my hand away from King before a bolt of green electricity left my hand and charred some grass. Oh, god. I had almost done that to King. Was that enough electricity to kill? Did I- Was I almost going to-
"Oh god." I whispered, falling to my knees. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."
King had backed up all the way to the house. I saw fear in those eyes and it broke my heart. Luz said something to me, but I didn't hear her. I kept imagining what my uncontrolled power would have done to that kid. All the ways he could have died. Electrocuted, torn apart by spatial rifts, teleported somewhere in the multiverse further than my own home, Burned, exploded, bleeding, dead, Dead, DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!!
I was handed something warm, a cup, and on instinct I took a drink. Earthy, warm, hint of apple and something... coppery?
Slowly the room came back into focus and I realize I had been dissociating. god that was a bad episode, even my memories were patchy and that almost never happened. And my headache felt like someone was crushing my skull.
"I think I'm coming back" I said, noticing Luz sitting next to me on the couch, the owl house's couch, and Eda and Lilith sitting across from the coffee table. I took another sip of tea to ground me. "how long was I out?"
"About half an hour" Eda said, rocking her hand back and fourth.
"What was that?" Luz asked, curiosity tinged with fear. My heart felt like lead.
"The uh, shooting electricity thing, or the dissociation?" I asked before changing my mind "No I should probably explain both.
"So. This might not be the most coherent, I'll start with the dissociation. It's... when I get stressed sometimes I just. Stop being present, I'm on autopilot. My thoughts don't engage with the world, I'm stuck in my own head, its uh... its not pleasant."
"I've had my fair share of blackouts" Eda said, "I getcha."
"No you don't. I was here the whole time. I'm always here. I remember Luz pulling me inside and making me sit down, I remember her asking if you had any tea. I remember... 'Bone Apple Tea'? Really?-" Luz gave a shrug at that, "Anyway I was here, just paralyzed by my thoughts. I could have killed that Kid and that was all that was on my mind."
"Why did you almost zap King anyhow?" Eda asked, her voice sharp.
"My power." I said, "It... reacted to something in King. Some kind of inherent magic maybe. But It was like the universe was bending around him. As if reaching out and touching the center of it all would let me tap into all that. I didn't realize I was moving, or that my power was even charging I was just so focused on him, on what it could mean to my power... I couldn't process the outside world"
I finished my half-truthful explanation, leaving out the parts that would make it seem like I knew too much about King, or gave away too much about my power. But I felt like I owed them a better explanation, at least about my power.
"Luz would you mind getting me more tea?" I asked.
"Sure thing, Aster." Luz said taking my cup and running out to the kitchen.
"Okay," I said, keeping my voice low and serious, addressing the two sisters that remained. "I haven't explained everything about my power. I haven't been to Luz's Earth. But I've been to other earths. My power seems to shove me at seemingly random worlds, only four, five if you count my original world that I can't reach anymore. Everything else I've said about my power is true."
Lilith gasped and put her hands over her mouth in shock. Eda scowled at me
"so why did you send Luz away?" Eda asked.
"Because. if she would run away to a world of magic like her make believe world and pursue being a witch with no magic, I don't know how she'd react to the possibility of going to seemingly any world. If you want to share this with her then go ahead, I just don't want her to believe I can take her to her Azura books, that might break her heart."
"I think she's tougher than you give her credit for," Eda said, "But If what you're saying is true it's Big. And Luz is already wrapped up in too many big things for a kid her age. I'll play along."
"I'll defer to Edalyn's expertise in this matter." Lilith said, eyeing me strangely.
"Here ya go Aster, Bone Apple Tea!" Luz said, walking in with a new cup and saying the pun like she came up with it.
I accepted it with a smile.
"Are you gonna be okay?" Luz asked, absentmindedly rubbing a hand on her arm. "you said you were off your meds earlier, but you've got access to the human realm, right?"
"I don't have a choice but to be okay." I said, sighing. "I- its complicated, but I lost access to the place I was living, my wallet, all my documents, and my phone got fried the first time I Striked. I have no money, and no way to get medicine."
"So that's why..." Eda mumbled.
Luz looked towards Eda, "I know we're tight on money right now, but could we get Aster some medical potions?"
What?
"well..." Eda looked thoughtful for a moment, "It did work out alright for you when you ran out of your earth pills."
Then she turned to me "but it'll come out of your pay, if you're still willing to sell me earth garbage."
"Wait wait wait," I said, holding my hands up "How the hell were you able to get your prescriptions matched? Pharmaceuticals are named in a language too arcane for even witches and demons to decipher."
"well there was a visit to a healer, I explained what I needed medicine for and had a few spells cast on me and they wrote down what potions would work. Then I just bought them from Morton."
"You didn't have to try different potions until one worked? I went through so many different meds as a kid until I found ones that worked for me"
"Well," Lilith Interjected "That certainly used to be the case, but once the potion coven was formed there was pressure from the healing coven and the emperor to advance medical potions research to the point that healers didn't need to know much of the craft themselves to do their job. This led to more efficient, broader symptom managing, and less side effect prone medical potions. The elixirs Edalyn and I use aren't specifically tailored to our curse and do not need to be, as a more effective potion for the task just could not be concocted."
"Huh." I said.
We sat in silence for a while.
"So how about it?" Eda asked, "Ready for some good old-fashioned boiling isles medicine?"
