John talks at the audience for a chapter

John and Ilis had taken a quick round through the battlefield, making sure to properly loot the langtand queen and Troj-non, as well as their dead minions, before getting out of there. John’s quest log soon showed a new sub-tab containing dungeons in progress, and warned that he could only have 3 in progress dungeons open at once before his create barrier skill would seize working until one of them was cleared.

And thus John found himself, after what felt like one of the longest days of his life, with his feet up in Cynthia’s tent, petting Jack and watching Toph pop in and out of Cynthia’s pile of plushies. He was going over the day slowly in his head, eyes almost closed and his head leaned back, only occasionally moving his hand to scratch another part of Jack’s head when the cold feline murred or purred to get him moving again.

With his life having been the whirlwind that it was the past week, and having finally gotten some time to just let his gamer brain think instead of his lower one, he came to a few simple yet profound realisations. Just when he wanted to go and find someone to discuss his findings with, the flap of the tent got pushed open and Cynthia stepped through.

“Honey! I’m home!” she called out in a sing-song voice. Only to stop for a moment as she saw John sitting there like he owned the place. “I’ve been expecting you, Miss Cyn,” came the reply in an old, mock decrepit voice. Jack purred ominously in time as John made the chair swivel around.

Cynthia stared back at him. “Oh no, it’s Mister Evil!” She giggled as she put her bag away.

“Doctor! Evil, but no, I was going for Blowfeld!” John muttered in indignation. Only to smile warmly as he got up to kiss her properly. Jack jumped off his lap as he did and made a beeline for her too, acting more like a housecat than the fearsome leopard he had been most of the day as he wrapped himself around her ankles, trying to get some scratches from the actual owner of the tent.

After trading a few hellos, kisses and almost tripping over Jack, Cynthia and John were soon on the couch. John spoke up as they were just snuggled up together. “So, babe, can I talk at you for a moment? I’ve got some things running through my brain and, well, I could use someone to listen. Sometimes just talking out loud makes things click, you know?”

Cynthia gave him a small nod. “Of course, go for it. After the day I’ve had, and you can bet your ass I’m telling you about it later, I could use some rest too. I’m curious what’s gotten into you. Hit me with it!”

“Well, short story long. This morning I kinda found myself helping some girl from the Wild Hunt, it was in, like, a downtown styled barrier, then later, I was out exploring one of my own dungeons with Ilis and something just felt a bit… off. If that makes sense. Like, when I’m hunting with you, there’s foliage, there’s plants. There’s places to hide properly and blend in. This morning I felt, in a way, naked. I had a few spots to hide, but mostly I was out in the open. Then in this barrier this afternoon there were these sniper droids. And well, we had to run for our lives, literally, to get inside,” John started his explanation, getting the occasional mhm, ooh, and ah from Cynthia.

“Add to that that there’s been a number of times now that I found myself in melee combat, which at first, I thought, well, I’m a hunter, it’s okay that I’m not good at that. I kinda rolled into this bow and arrow build like the average Skyrim playthrough, but then I thought, why accept it if I don’t need to?”

“What do you mean? Do you want to take up boxing or something?” Cynthia asked curiously, sitting up a bit to look at his face.

“Well, not exactly. Dumb as it sounds. I didn’t know how to pick up a bow two weeks ago. I didn’t know how to try and blend into the greenery, right? You guys learn skills over time. To me, it’s just, click, clack, boom, I know kung fu. Why not take advantage of it? I keep being told how amazing I am for being a late bloomer. But I don’t think I’ve been taking advantage of it till this point. I feel like the Abyss has tossed me around and around without me trying to make an effort to take back control. Well, sitting down just now made me think: Why not take the things I feel like I’m missing and try to learn them too?”

Cynthia opened her mouth and then closed it again. Her eyebrows furrowed briefly as she thought about what he said. “If anyone else would’ve said that, I would’ve called them crazy. But, loveable geek that you are, you are making a bit of sense. Worst that can happen is that Gaia laughs at you for failing, right?” she asked with growing enthusiasm.

“Exactly! So, right now, I think my biggest weaknesses are fighting outside of the forest and fighting in melee, right?” John started to get more amped too. “Then I thought, well, what if we can make the forest come to me?”

“Starting to lose me again, babe, explain? Do you want to go out and tame ents?”

“Well, no, not necessarily. If my powers are so much bullshit like you guys like to say, why don’t I try and get some magical skills that allow me to grow plants and the like? I mean, picture this. You’re one of the Collector’s goons, you laid out this elaborate trap to catch one of us. You made sure there’s not a speck of rubble around so that we hide and shoot types don’t have anything to hide behind. Well, they miscalculate, capture me and poof! Suddenly plants start sprouting everywhere, trees rise up and before you know it the terrain is terraformed and now favours us.”

“Interesting, I’ve heard of people influencing plants with their mana. Take the Wild Hunt’s demigods for instance. So it ‘could’ be possible. Perhaps we should go and have a chat with Dad later. He might know someone that can teach you some basics? See if that triggers some of your skills?” Cynthia proposed, unsure where this sudden burst of initiative came from. But she made no secret of the fact that she actually really liked to see this side of him.

“Gladly! I’m already picturing the looks on their faces when suddenly the trees start speaking Greek.” John let out a hearty laugh. Only to then continue, “As for melee. I prefer to fight from a distance, easier to stay alive and such, but when I do need to fight, being more proficient with a melee weapon might actually be a good thing. Do you know if the Hunters have any martial arts or melee weapons like the Wild Hunt, or do you think I should just pick up a weapon and just… start swinging it around?”

As Cynthia opened her mouth to answer, everything just suddenly stopped. The entrance of the tent remained half open in the breeze, Toph was frozen in the air and Jack seemed to have paused mid pounce towards her. To John's surprise, though, he could still move. When he turned his head to look for a potential culprit, he could hear a voice speaking in his head unlike anything he’d heard to this point.

“PERHAPS I CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT, JOHN NEWMAN.