Settling in (3)

"Fat men take a cushion with them wherever they go." – George R.R. Martin

"Is that a fat joke?" – Behzinga (Ethan), Sidemen Yoga Challenge

Chapter 8: Settling in (3)

Imagine being bestowed with the gift of being able of defying the rules of reality, to bend the world to your will with a mere thought. The power to be a step above everyone else, the fantasy turning reality at your simple command.

The thing that tingled within your chest was an emotion close to wonder with a sprinkle of childish giddiness at the quick thought of being able to do so many interesting things that long were thought to be impossible to you as a human being.

Now that you have thought about this all and have been properly painted with this amazing sensation, you may now imagine my reaction when Ozzie decided to power-slam my plans back to reality by mentioning few factual points that… I knew were genuinely infuriating as those were reasonably true:

1) My newfound magic was… different from the standard knowledge. My first case, the conjuration of a simple tin can with the right content inside, was something that Ozpin, once one of the strongest sorcerers in his first life, would have not been able to accomplish even in his prime. Conjuration was considered a 'myth' back in that era, the one before Faunus, Semblances and the Grimm;

2) While quite unique just because of the first revelation, this 'Magic' still had to abide to some rules of the world to be available to someone. Something that limits it either because of the external environment or because of the user's own ability to use it. The reason why the conjuration had been successful was because I had managed to conceptualize something that I was quite familiar with and I had managed to muster enough intent to commit the spell;

3) The precise limitations of Conjurations was something that worried me a little as the possible drawbacks and draining effect were nothing to scoff at. Was my magic closer to the Harry Potter's one, one that could easily recharge without issue? Or was it something nearer to the Nasuverse's Magecraft, which wasn't actual magic but a mere imitation of the True Form?

This very last point was actually something utterly serious in the immediate, having drunk a beverage I had conjured I was dreading the worst if there was indeed something akin to degradation willed by the world itself.

Yet the former Headmaster seemed to keep a very optimistic mindset, saying that never in his life he had seen spells collapse without an external, magical manipulation that forced this phenomenon to happen.

Now that the expected surprise started to dilute away in my mind, Ozzie decided to spend the rest of my work hours to lecture me about the responsible use of this dangerous and formidable power.

I had to keep myself from using it again until I got better at conjuring things, I had to not try and experiment new abilities without being in a place where I could safely train myself in using magic without endangering anyone.

Of course the old wizard tried to express his desire to 'teach me' about the mysterious ways of his own magic and obviously to do so he would require that I fully relinquished the control over my body for him to 'perfectly harmonize the process'.

And thus I cut down the connection the moment he mentioned such a dumb plan, feeling quite disappointed he was still going at it. While I was fine with listening to some of his sound advice once in a while, the same couldn't be said about his antics of me letting him take over my body for the 'sake of his duty'.

Returning back to work, I finished the rest of the shift with just a quarter of my mind still entertained by the idea of Magic. The ways that this new development opened were nothing to scoff at, especially since it created a new advantage I could use against Mami Salami and her clique.

While I was still the useless potato couch stuck in a wheelchair, I had the 'power' to keep up some distractions if I was ever going to deal with some spooky business during my period in Menagerie. Letting the boss pat my shoulder and praising my first day at work was something interesting, especially since the Dog Faunus, that had previously flaunted his good relations with the chief in charge of the bank, was now glaring daggers in my direction.

Silly pup, I ain't made of pillows and if push was ever going to come, I will merely shove him off.

As I was slowly leaving through the open entrance of the building, I found myself jumped by a cloaked figure. The frame was familiar, but my mind was mostly sent to panic the moment I saw the horrifying mask the figure was wearing. I am not someone easily scared of zombies, but when you find yourself staring at a closeup of a very well-made mask of an undead creature, your instincts tend to kick in with some Horror Game/Movie PTSD at the sudden scene.

A shrill yell and I was on the ground – AND I CAN'T GET UP! - as I saw the being going still for a brief moment before finally having her arms around her stomach, the mask dropping and revealing one of the worst being in the world.

You may have feline features and I might be a cat-loving (animal-loving in general) man, but when you threaten my inner masculinity with those jumpscares… you are going to get a reaction out of me.

Said reaction was actually my leg moving right out of the chair and slamming hardly on her left shin. The effect was almost instantaneous as her surprise at the action was able to make her ignore the pain for a brief moment, before Sienna fell on her knees as she started to massage tenderly the pained leg. Mirthfully glancing turned into deadly glaring, but I was more than happy to return the staring with a growl.

I had expected her to finally react, to finally snap and pick a piece of me with the downfall of her career… but she merely sighed, limping right above me and helping me up.

"P-Paint me confused, but I was expecting-" "Some violent reaction?" She interrupted with a miffed tone and I sighed tiredly.

"You do seem like you are ready to maul me up, like from day one." I retorted at the implicit racist labeling. "It's only that, nothing about the fact you are-"

Words failed to address my distress as the tiger Faunus started to chuckle in her closed hand, her eyes closed as she started to push my chair towards home. She finally noticed that I was glancing at her with a weirded out expression and she sighed with a slight hint of amusement.

"You are just… so easy to pick apart, I guess." She paused briefly slowly taking on the challenging mini-ramp in front of me. "It's not because you are a human. It's because you are quite chatty with your… predicament."

She tapped at the wheelchair and I frowned. "I will have you know that from tomorrow morning I will be out of this 'predicament' and then-"

"You will have to deal with -that." Now her finger was poking at my upper thigh and I flushed red at the idea she had taken notice of my chubbiness. I wasn't outright fat, but I would be lying if I said I was something slim to look at.

As I said, potato couch.

"G-Give me some time and I will not be this rusty-ehi!" She continued to poke a little more, a small smile twitching at my uncomfortable reaction and… she knew I wasn't completely offended by the whole situation.

Maybe it was because I could hardly feel any malice in her tone right now or because I feared what kind of action she might take if I replied negatively at her playing around my poor body. Of course, that wasn't a free opening to openly grope me but… she was hardly doing that.

We finally reached home and- "DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Thud

"-AD!"

My chest! Nora was giggling a little as she adjusted herself to stare right in my face, her blue eyes glowing a mad brightness. "School is so awesome!"

"R-Really, sweetie?" She turned around and I saw Ren peeking from his spot near the door with a sympathetic look at my current plight, nodding to agree at the girl's statement. Seems like he had taken a quick understanding in treating the overly-cheerful Valkyrie and made way as we all entered inside.

"Miss Cake was super-nice! She gave me a cookie when I helped clean up the classroom and I made some friends too!"

As the pain dissipated, I managed a wide smile at her description of her day. "I am really happy that you enjoyed it, Nora." She giggled as she continued to tell more about the school, the classroom and her friends, but only two details jumped to attention.

The first one was… Blake. The Belladonna child was a happy one, very open in this stage of her life and yet she was seen by both children quite alone back at school. Hardly interacting with her fellow classmates, the girl spent most of the time there to either study during lessons or reading some books.

Those were the telling signs that she was starting to grow into the outcast mentality- but of course people will ask 'how do you even think about this?' and I would gravely reply that I had been there.

Sitting alone, enjoying either a comic or a book and then ending up adopting the isolation as something 'normal' for me, labeling the rare interactions with others as something unique and… unneeded in the long-term.

Man, my childhood was that messy…

Returning back to reality I made some quick plans about this as I asked both Nora and Ren to keep to be there for the Cat Faunus and… I was then taken back from the second surprise of today.

Among the mass of Faunus children, one in particular managed to stood out from the rest of the class. Short, slightly scrawny and incredibly shy to the point of whimper at the mere approaching, Ilia Amitola was still in Menagerie in this point and time.

The girl was… still living in poor conditions, maybe her parents decided to then move to Atlas because of the lack of small jobs in the island as they tried to give their daughters some… better life.

I was supposed to feel merely sad by this development (or better, reminder) of this situation, but I wasn't. The only thing that was there was a familiar metaphorical hole aching in my chest, returning some unpleasant memories of my early life.

The crisis back years ago hit my family's income a lot. My father found his wage incredibly reduced, almost half from before the cuts were implemented, and we were all forced to move out from town.

Too much expensive living in a modest neighborhood and countryside was the best affordable at the time. School was different, the church was different and… it all felt like a cage.

A cage my parents had fought for years to either break or mold for the sake of necessity of fitting with my growth. Time passed and… things stabilized to a certain point.

Life was still uneasy for a long period of years, but I still managed to find some happiness in the little victories I could get out from the unfair system.

Sigh

I was glad that both children had gone to befriend the child and… that only Ren had managed a small success with his efforts. The girl had refused the overly-loud attempts but had been slowly coaxed out of the dark corner with some patience from the pink-eyed boy.

It wasn't a full-fledged friendship yet, but I suspected from the few words the boy relayed during dinner that he was still going to give his best to pull the Chameleon Faunus out of that sad place she was thrown into.

Speaking of dinner, as soon as I reached the kitchen I decided it was high time to return the favor to Sienna about her musings over my rusty form. The fridge had been filled with some food I had managed to buy before going to the bank, salad being something I had initially wanted to buy as something to merely look at and nothing else.

Now the simple food was going to become part of something great! As I prepared some meatballs with tomato sauce for the kids, I finished… 'cooking' the ever-green piece of diet.

Sienna's face fell the moment she glanced at the 'piece of grass' I had offered her, ready to swear a mountain if it wasn't that the children were there to listen to any 'bad words'. Trying to put up some resistance at her inherent hunger, the Tiger Faunus tried to not eat anything that day. Her stomach rumbled madly, eliciting some giggles from Nora and small smiles from Ren at the whole predicament.

But while the woman was uselessly trying to fend off her demanding belly, my hardship mostly went unheard. Munching at the unpleasant garba-delicious diet food, I found myself contemplating about why I had accepted this 'self-roast' for the sake of taking the woman out of commission for a while.

And even through I was ready to concede a moral defeat in front of this insane plate, I still managed to get a joke out of this as I offered Sienna 'some scrapes' off my plate. She glared at me for daring to add insult to the injury and the day concluded with her deciding to stay over.

Her sleeping quarter? My bed.

My new sleeping quarter? The couch.

...Seriously how did I end up like this? We aren't in any shape or form engaging in that kind of relationship and yet she deemed right to enforce this kind of situations. But in that contemplation I found out a very curious thing about this couch.

Compared to the bed, the furniture was oddly more comfortable than my own bed.

Was this a victory or a loss for me?