Mist of Shadows
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Traveling Magic Shop Part 11
🕑 Added 2024-04-13 07:28:23 +0000 UTC"Over twenty pages of smut, but we only get two pages about their trip to America to hunt super mutants and buy computers, that's bullshit," Rose complained when the story skipped Harry's adventure to America and finished with him going back to high school.
"Yep," Myst agreed as he read the last of the story in his head, causing Harry to reappear wearing the clothes that were far too large for his five year old frame and carrying a shoulder bag that was almost dragging on the ground. "Welcome back."
"In my defense, I was four," Harry reminded them as he used his shape changing ability to change into his teenage form, trying to avoid a lecture.
"It worked out," Myst replied, not particularly worried about it now that he was back. "How was your trip to America?"
"Fantastic," Harry replied cheerfully, a bit surprised that the shopkeeper didn't look angry since the old one would have blown his top.
"Do you have the computer? The book was annoyingly short on details," Rose complained.
"I wasn't going to leave it," Harry replied with a grin as he opened his bag and pulled a thin and shiny silver laptop out. "Why was it short on details?" he asked as he put the laptop on the table and opened it, wanting to show Rose the pictures he'd taken of the various dungeons and his trip to America.
"Too much smut," Rose complained.
"Huh, first time for everything," Harry muttered as he turned the laptop on.
"First time for everything?" Rose asked as she watched the 'Vault Tech' page load on the computer.
"I can't see the other Rose complaining about smut, she liked reading romance novels," Harry admitted as he studied his sister's face, realizing that he didn't actually know her as well as he'd thought.
"There's a difference between romance and smut," Rose argued.
"I'm pretty sure she's just jealous that you got all of the girls on your adventure," Myst offered.
"Rose helped rescue the girl and she didn't get anything," Rose complained.
Harry glanced at the book that was sitting on the table. "Weird, half the time I was left dealing with the loot while she had her way with the girl we'd rescued."
"Okay, that makes me feel a bit better," Rose admitted, smiling when she saw the background image of Rose with two attractive and half naked catgirls in what looked like an alien ship. "What's with the background and the alien blasters?"
"Tonks took us to a convention," Harry replied with a grin.
"Us?" Rose asked.
"What happens in the convention stays in the convention," Harry replied with a grin.
Rose blinked when she recognized Harry's eyes and glasses on one of the girls. "Seriously?"
"I won a bet and we got Tonks naked, it was a good couple of days," Harry replied with a smile as he thought about the convention.
"How long were you stuck as a girl?" Rose asked.
Harry gestured at his face as he changed from his normal appearance to match the cute catgirl in the picture. "About forty five minutes, I kept getting hit on by nerds without any tact or concept of personal space."
"Yuck," Rose complained.
"Yeah, I would have dropped it after I won the bet but there was a really cute girl dressed like Shego that liked flirting," Harry explained.
"Shego?" Rose asked, not recognizing the name.
"She's a fun loving yet morally questionable minion for a mad scientist on an animated series," Harry replied as he brought up pictures of a busty young woman with black hair that was dressed in an almost sheer black and green costume that clung to her curves.
"Worth it," Rose agreed. "What other powers did you get?"
"How much did the book explain?" Harry asked as he set up a slide show to show off all of the convention pictures.
"It was a bit light on details," Rose complained. "It described you conjuring a blade and upgrading it but it didn't explain why you charged the orc or why our parents let us risk our lives in a dungeon."
"Between magical healing and our defensive gear, we're not exactly risking our lives against anything in the local dungeons, especially if I'm tanking because my Ironwill talent prevents metal from hurting me."
"How does that work?" Rose asked.
"Magic," Harry replied smugly.
Rose sighed in frustration. "That's not what I meant."
"Sorry?" Harry offered, only half seriously. "Joking aside, it's just a magical talent, it lets me manipulate metal and it keeps metal from harming me."
"Does that extend to enchantments on the blade?" Myst asked thoughtfully.
"Generally," Harry replied with a shrug. "There are a couple of cursed blades that I need to avoid but for the most part the orcs aren't a problem and the bracelet helped a lot."
"You're welcome," Myst assured him, glad that he'd survived his adventure.
"Half naked girl with tentacles?" Rose asked when she saw a half naked girl wearing a large t-shirt that was ripped in all of the 'right' places, a pair of goggles, a lab coat and a bunch of mechanical arms coming from something on her back.
"Rule sixty three Doctor Octopus," Harry replied.
"Rule sixty three?" Rose asked.
"For every fictional character, there exists a gender swapped version, it basically lets people cosplay as whatever they want," Harry explained.
"Cool," Rose replied with a grin as the image on the screen swapped to Rose standing next to a sexy looking girl wearing a Supergirl costume that had flipped her skirt up to show off the fact that she wasn't wearing underwear. "How did you talk Mum into letting you go?"
"No clue, Tonks handled that part of things," Harry admitted. "I think she called it an educational experience."
"Sounds educational," Myst agreed with amusement as the picture changed to show a girl in a sheer Spiderman/Venom costume pressed against a wall like they were trying to climb it.
"It was fun," Harry agreed as he pulled a second laptop out of his expanded bag. "We had a great time and Rose made enough posing for pictures using her illusion bracelet as different characters that we could buy an extra laptop."
"Sweet!" Rose squealed as she grabbed the slender metallic red laptop that Harry handed her.
"I also picked up some cables so we can play against each other," Harry told her, looking forward to actually winning.
"Cool," Rose replied, looking forward to trying the new games and looking through Harry's collection of pictures. "What else did you get for magical powers or spells?" she asked as she set the laptop on the table, opened it up and turned it on.
"Oh, right. Flight, a bunch of destruction spells of various elements, a solid understanding of creating magical contracts, resistance to magic, a nice collection of illusion spells and a repair spell. My runic tattoo on my wrist creates a swarm of glowing 'pixies' that can consume magical creatures for power. As long as they consume ten percent of a creature that I'm involved with slaying or severing a limb, they can acquire one of the creature's abilities."
"Does that mean you can work your way up to becoming a god?" Rose asked.
Harry shook his head. "I doubt it would work on a god. Besides, I can only use ten of the abilities at a time and I have to be able to defeat the creature in question first."
Rose covered her mouth as she yawned. "That's still pretty cool."
"Speaking of cool, I also picked up a Moon Blessing from the unicorn figurine that gives me regeneration, enhanced durability and sense of smell, the ability to manifest claws and low end supernatural strength."
Rose stared at Harry. "Are you a werewolf?"
"All of the powers, none of the downsides," Harry replied smugly as he changed his fingernails into claws before letting his appearance return to his normal teenage appearance.
Myst checked Harry's abilities with his Upgrade ability. "Nice, your Ironwill talent covers the fact that the Moon Blessing doesn't cover silver and your magic resistance doesn't interfere with beneficial spells. Do you want it upgraded from twenty percent?"
"Are there any downsides?" Harry asked, wanting to make sure the ability didn't include something they'd missed in testing.
"It just reduces the damage you take and the duration of harmful effects you're under by twenty percent which means I should be able to boost the percentage without causing any side effects," Myst replied as he checked the rest of the page, wanting to make sure he wouldn't cause any problems by upgrading his ability.
"Go for it," Harry replied without hesitation.
Myst spent the mana to increase Harry's resistance to harmful magic, increasing his resistance up to twenty five percent. "Give me a second to check everything then I'll boost it the rest of the way."
"I need to find some magic resistance gear," Rose mused.
"It's on the list," Myst assured her as he double checked to make sure his ability hadn't caused any unwanted changes in Harry's abilities.
"How are we going to stop him if he gets mind controlled?" Rose asked.
"Portals or drug laced chew toys," Myst replied with amusement. "Joking aside, we should be able to find some magical items that offer mental protection. Even if we can't, I should be able to give everyone mental protection with my warlock power so I'm not all that worried about Harry getting mind controlled."
"Cool," Harry said, looking forward to being immune to harmful magic.
"Worst case, we toss him through a portal," Myst replied with a grin as he spent the mana to boost Harry's magic resistance another twenty points, wanting to do things in stages in case there was a problem.
"Not cool," Harry complained, trying not to laugh.
"That's his go to power for dealing with problems," Rose complained, thinking about the number of indestructible monsters she'd lost to his portal-mancer in her D&D campaign.
"It's effective, at least until the DM starts docking your experience because you didn't actually defeat the monster," Myst offered as he boosted Harry's magic resistance the rest of the way to a hundred percent.
"I probably should have tried that," Rose replied as she looked through the games folder. "What should we start with?"
"Doom's a classic but I like Warcrack, it's an RPG that involves running around as a mana crystal addicted warlock that is trying to kill a demon army," Harry suggested, figuring it would be a fun place to start.
"Have fun," Myst told them as he headed over to the counter to get a milkshake, looking forward to seeing what type of games Harry brought back and if he could download them onto some of the handheld systems to create more variety.
"That's the plan," Harry replied, looking forward to winning for a change.
0o0o0
"Is there anything else you need?" Myst asked as he took the money from the lord's steward for the seven beds and fifteen wardrobes that the man was buying for the castle since he'd offered the man an excellent deal for everything since none of the items had impressive magic on them and they'd respawn in a couple of days to a week anyway.
"That should be everything," the steward replied, happy that he'd managed to replace some of the worst beds in the castle for cheap.
"Pleasure doing business with you," Myst lied, slightly annoyed that the steward had knocked on the door at the crack of dawn then proceeded to spend the next two hours wandering around the shop poking at everything. 'At least I don't have to sleep anymore,' he mused as he grabbed the notebook from under the counter and worked on writing down the information on the sale, figuring he might as well at least look like he was keeping records for tax purposes.
Myst stopped taking notes when an older man with several missing teeth walked up to the counter, smelling like something had crawled up in his mouth and died. "Breath mint?" he asked, hoping that the man would take a hint.
"Is this enough?" the man asked as he held up a copper coin.
"No but I'll cut you a deal, I'll sell you the tin if you promise to use one of the mints as soon as I hand you the tin and if you give me a third of what you make selling the mints today," Myst offered as he grabbed one of the mints from under the counter and set it on the counter in front of the old man.
"Deal," the man replied as he set the dirty copper coin on the counter.
'I'm going to need gloves,' Myst mused as he used a cantrip to clean the 'dirt' off the copper coin and his counter. He sighed in relief when the man ate one of the breath mints and the stench vanished as his teeth regenerated before his eyes. 'This is worse than dealing with children at school, at least the little bastards knew they were supposed to wash their hands.'
"By the gods, it actually worked!" the man exclaimed after feeling his teeth.
Myst gestured at the man and used a cantrip to clean his hands. 'No point in letting people get sick and blaming the breath mints.' His plastered on smile turned a bit more real as he turned to look at the teenage girl next in line. "How can I help you?"
"Naughty Witches?" she asked hopefully as she held out a couple of copper coins.
"Coming right up," Myst replied as he grabbed a pack of Naughty Witch cards and used his Upgrade power to check if she had magic. 'Oh, that's enough to be a halfway decent witch.' He smiled as he used his Upgrade power to double the number of cards in the package. "Have fun."
"Thanks!" the girl replied cheerfully as she took the cards and headed over to a table to figure out what spells she could learn.
Myst smiled at the plain looking young woman that was holding a leatherbound book. "What can I help you with?"
"Do the spells really work?" she asked hopefully.
Myst used his Upgrade ability to make sure the book wasn't cursed. 'Enchanted with protection from stains and water damage.' He held his hand out for the book. "Let me see, I can probably tell you if the recipe sounds reasonable."
"Thanks," the girl replied as she handed him the book. "I wouldn't believe it but I saw some of the children using magic last night and they told me where they learned it."
"Makes sense," Myst agreed as he glanced over the spells and cooking recipes, trying to figure out if the recipes were hogwash or if they had a chance of working. "None of these look particularly harmful and most of the cooking recipes look reasonable, so it's probably fine."
"Great," the woman replied, happy that the man was willing to sell a cooking book for cheap.
Myst took the woman's coins then handed her the book. "Best of luck."
"Thank you," the woman replied as she hurried out of the shop before he changed his mind.
"Pretty sure you could have charged more," Rose pointed out as she walked out of the back room.
Myst turned and looked at Rose, rather amused to see that she was 'wearing' a blue ren faire style tunic and a clan inebriated kilt or at least using an illusion of said clothes. "Probably, but it was a price she could afford."
"Point," Rose admitted, knowing the merchandise was restocked automatically so they could afford to sell things for cheap.
Myst turned to look at the next person in line, glad that he didn't have to worry about making a profit. "How can I help you?" he asked the young man that was standing there looking uncomfortable.
"I need a bed that is large enough for two people," the man admitted, hoping that he could afford a new bed since his mother had mentioned 'donating' her old bed for his new house and he'd rather avoid sleeping on the bed that his parents had fucked on if he could help it, especially since his mother was sadistic enough to be enthusiastic in her descriptions.
"You've come to the right place," Myst replied. "Rose, can you take care of the rest of the customers?"
"Sure," Rose replied with a yawn, glad that Myst had let her sleep in.
"Follow me," Myst told the man as he walked around the counter and headed toward the door that led to the furniture room.
"Right," the man replied as he followed Myst.
"How much space do you have for the bed?" Myst asked, trying to get an idea of how much space the man had.
"Two paces?" the man asked as he held his arms out, making Myst question the man's understanding of measurement.
"We'll figure it out," Myst replied, hoping he dropped somewhere more reasonable the next time he pulled the lever.
0o0o0
"Can I pull the lever this time?" Harry asked as they walked into the backroom, looking forward to going somewhere new since they'd spent a week selling things to people in Winterfell and wanted a change.
"Go for it," Myst replied with a grin, "just understand that I'm going to hold you responsible if we end up in hell."
"That's not fair, the lever is random," Rose argued.
Myst smiled at Rose. "If he doesn't want to take responsibility, he doesn't have to pull it."
Rose shook her head. "You're just saying that because you want to pull the lever."
"So?" Myst asked with amusement.
"Worth it!" Harry exclaimed as he pulled the lever, causing everything to rumble for two seconds before the map on the wall changed, revealing what looked suspiciously like a starship.
"Voyager," Myst muttered as he read the name over the map of a familiar starship and the notice about being in a pocket dimension because the location doesn't have room for the shop.
"Voyager?" Rose asked as she checked the map. "Is that a ship?"
"Looks like a ship…" Myst trailed off as the doorbell rang, letting them know that someone had entered the shop. "That was fast," he muttered as he headed back into the main room. He paused when he recognized Tom Paris and Tuvok from the series looking around the shop in confusion and waving around what looked like tricorders. "Welcome to the magic shop, how can I help you?"
"Magic shop? How did you get on the ship?" Tuvok demanded when he noticed the man standing behind the counter.
"I pulled the magic lever in the back room and my shop jumped dimensions," Myst replied with a shrug, making a note to look into some type of temporal shielding for the shop since Voyager had issues with time travel and he didn't want to get erased or get a migraine from trying to deal with things constantly changing on him. "Technically, I'm not on the ship, my shop is just connected to your ship."
"You expect us to believe that?" Tom asked.
"I don't actually care, believe me or don't," Myst replied with a shrug. "I'll be gone in a week when the shop's dimensional translocation system recharges. In the meantime, if you need breath mints that regenerate teeth, snow globes that let you share memories, juice that restores a person's youth, magic books with interesting spells or magical furniture or plants, I'm your guy."
Tom shook his head. "Magic doesn't exist."
"If you have a better name for the energy that lets everything work, let me know," Myst replied with a shrug. "My magic doesn't require belief."
"You're going to come with us to the brig until you can meet the captain," Tuvok stated.
"If your captain wants to meet us, they can swing by the shop. I have no interest in setting foot on your ship without an invitation or an assurance of guest rights and if you try to transport us, I'll take it as an act of war and I'll destroy your ship," Myst warned him.
"How?" Tom asked, feeling the hair on his arms rise when he realized the man was serious. 'Is he delusional or does the shop have weapons we can't scan?'
Myst held his hand out and conjured a purple flame. "Magic."
"What is your problem with transporters?" Tuvok asked as he discreetly scanned the fire the man was creating, trying to figure out what they were dealing with.
"Kidnapping is a crime," Myst replied as he let the flame vanish, not wanting to get into a discussion about the transporter ripping people apart. "As long as you don't try to kidnap or attack us, I'm fine with you buying things or sticking something in front of the door so I can take a vacation."
Tuvok tapped his com badge. "Tuvok to Captain, the entity is reluctant to leave their shop."
"They're on my ship, drag them to the bridge if you have to," Janeway ordered, wishing her headache would go away and that aliens would stop randomly appearing on her ship.
"Understood," Tuvok replied as he raised his phaser.
"I suggest you put your weapon away before…" Myst trailed off as Tuvok moved to push the button to stun him or kill him and he was tossed at the door hard enough to snap his arm when it hit the doorframe. "I tried to warn him, the rules clearly state that you're not allowed to harass or attack the staff, of which I'm a member."
"What do you take for money?" Tom asked warily, deciding that trying to attack the 'alien' telekinetic was a stupid idea.
"Silver or gold coins, gems or technology," Myst replied with a shrug.
"We're not allowed to trade technology with prewarp societies," Tom told him.
"We're in a pocket dimension that basically teleports around the multiverse, are you really going to quibble about rules and regulations?" Myst asked.
"You realize that silver and gold aren't particularly valuable anymore, right?" Tom asked, figuring it was better to check than to piss off someone that could toss Tuvok like a rag doll without touching him.
"I'm aware, but it spends just fine in other dimensions," Myst replied with a shrug. "You should probably get your friend to the infirmary. Just for the record, if he hadn't tried to attack me, he wouldn't have gotten tossed out of the shop."
"I'll let the captain know," Tom replied then headed for the door to check on Tuvok, not noticing the fact that Tuvok's phaser and tricorder had vanished.
Harry waited until the man left before he dropped the illusion and walked back over carrying the tricorder and phaser. "How much do you think these would sell for at a con?"
"We're not selling them until we can duplicate them," Rose complained as she poked her head up from behind the counter.
"Take them to the workroom, we'll see if painting them red is enough of a modification to put them on the shelf," Myst told Harry.
"Why red?" Harry asked.
"Because red makes everything faster," Myst and Rose said at the same time, causing them to laugh and Harry to shake his head, not getting the joke.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
I mean, it's magic, so, maybe... on the other, they'd still want to get home in a reasonable timeframe because they have lives or at least some of them do.
MND
With a youth potion that they can probably replicate, they should not need to race home...
Mist of Shadows
Most likely yes.
Josh H
Janeway is the stupid that knows she’s always right and will destroy anything that tries to prove otherwise, so the perfect Star fleet Admiral
