Normal POV
The arcade I decided was too damn loud.
Lights buzzed overhead, arcade cabinets chimed, and blared in overlapping rhythms. The air smelled like grease, soda syrup, and slightly burnt cheese from the Pizza that was being cooked.
Overall, the place was quite lively.
"Raiiiii!" came the familiar nickname.
I barely had time to react before Flat Escardos practically materialized in front of me, arms thrown wide.
"You made it bro!!" he said brightly, blue eyes sparkling like some sort of little kid "dude, this place is AWESOME. They've even got a limited-edition Mortal Kombat cabinet over there. We should totally check it out after eating."
"...Good evening to you too, Flat," I said, in a deadpan.
He laughed like that was the funniest thing he'd heard all day.
"Oh right, I forgot!" he snapped his fingers "welcome to my top one spot in all of London. Joe's Arcade & Pizza best Pizza, best games, and no grouchy professors to yell at us."
That last part sold it.
I followed him toward a booth tucked near the back, past rows of cabinets that flickered like artificial constellations. The booth itself was cracked vinyl, the table scarred with years of scratches, and graffiti carved by bored hands.
Flat plopped down first, stretching his arms across the backrest like he owned the place.
"So," he said, leaning forward with a sharp grin, "you wanted to ask me a bit more about my magecraft right?" he whispered
I nodded and we began talking about what he did back in class with bigger depth for the next few minutes or so.
A waitress soon appeared to take our order mid-discussion. Flat ordered for both of us without asking two large slices, extra cheese, and a soda that was probably more sugar than liquid.
The moment she left Flat leaned back again, hands behind his head.
"Look man the point is I just treat everything like game resources, y'know? You don't wonder why the button works. You just press it and bam something happens!"
"I think I get it...say Flat could you make a bounded field to cover us I want to try something" I muttered.
He swooned "ooh your going to finally cast your first spell!" Flat whispered back just as dramatically, before casually snapping his fingers once.
There was no visible flash, no chant, or circle.
But I felt it.
The noise of the arcade dulled not vanished, just pushed aside. Like someone had lowered the volume slider on the world itself
"Oi, I'll have you know this is not my first spell," I grumbled before getting to work.
I reached for the saltshaker in the middle of the table ready to get to work.
Then I paused.
Because my hands were shaking.
Not from fear but rather from anticipation.
"Alright," I breathed quietly "let's try this."
I closed my eyes and switched all 25 of my circuits on.
From there instead of imagining symbols, circles, light, or power I imagined a screen.
"Computer Sequence Code: Open!"
The image snapped into place with unsettling clarity.
A vast, empty blue screen hovered in my mind's eye, edges clean and absolute, like an operating system waiting for a command it had always been designed to accept.
Flat's voice faded into background noise, along with everything else inside the arcade, the lights, and the smells. The only thing that mattered was the screen and the cursor blinking patiently in the upper left corner.
Input Sequence:
I didn't think in terms of gravity.
That would've been wrong.
Instead, I thought of something far simpler.
Inevitability.
The feeling of being pressed down not by weight, but by rule. The sensation of the world telling you this is how it must be.
That image aligned itself naturally along a path I now recognized not consciously, but instinctively.
From there taking what I learned from the Kabbalah I thought of Gevura which in a way represented strength.
Strength can be used to make something heavy.
Sephirot Routing Confirmed:
Gevura → Tiferet → Yesod → Malkuth
Force, tempered by harmony.
Harm restrained by proportion.
Concept carried into reality without breaking any rules.
Parameter Entry:
Direction: Downward
Scope: Localized (Target: Object)
Intensity: Minimal
Duration: Momentary
Now to give it an invocation.
For said invocation, if I wanted to give the spell more power and mystery to it then I would need to use an older language then just English.
In my past life since I figured that I would be working with people of different nationalities. So I studied and learned a good deal of languages.
Spanish, French, Persian, Italian, Greek, Korean, and Japanese.
Amongst the two Greek and Japanese probably had to be older...maybe wasn't all too sure.
But to make things simple I borrowed a bit of onomatopoeia Japanese.
With this I now had a meaning, image, intent, and somewhat of a mixed foundation.
Command String: VITA
Flat was watching me now, head tilted slightly, grin gone replaced with genuine curiosity.
"...Whoa," he murmured "you're actually doing the thing."
I didn't answer.
I wrapped my fingers around the saltshaker.
"Execute Command Code: Vita" I softly chanted.
There was slight flash of white.
Then the saltshaker simply...dropped.
Like it had suddenly remembered an obligation it could no longer ignore.
The table creaked.
Wood groaned under a weight it absolutely should not have been bearing.
My wrist jerked downward as if someone had suddenly tied an anchor to the shaker. The object had become heavy and quite unreasonably so.
My fingers strained.
My forearm burned.
And when I let finally released it go.
THUD!
The saltshaker punched a small dent into the tabletop, rattling the table and other seasonings.
The effect vanished instantly.
The shaker was now just...a normal light shaker again.
Silence hung between us for a moment until Flat t slowly leaned forward, eyes wide, pupils practically vibrating.
"Dude," he whispered, "that was freaking awesome!" Flat suddenly cheered.
A smile broke out on my face as I shyly scratched my cheek "I mean I just... followed a bit of what you told me and some framework that I picked up from the Kabbalah class I went to earlier. Concept first, rules second, and well everything else kind of fell into place. Only except instead of following game logic I went with what was easier for me and worked it out like a computer code sequence."
Flat stared at me.
Then he leaned back slowly, crossing his arms.
"Yeah, that checks out," he nodded seriously "that's basically how I do it too."
I blinked "eh seriously?"
"Totally," he said, grinning again "I just don't think about it that hard. You're like... the 'read-the-manual' version of me."
"I don't know if that's a compliment or not," I muttered with an eye twitch.
"It is!" he said immediately "not a lot of 'normies' can actually do what we do."
Our food arrived right then, cutting off whatever nonsense Flat was about to spiral into next. Two massive slices of pizza slid onto the table, cheese still bubbling, and grease already soaking into the paper plates.
Flat's eyes lit up like a child on Christmas morning.
"FOOD!" he declared, grabbing a slice with both hands.
I laughed and picked up mine.
I took a bite of my slice, hot cheese stretching between the crust and my teeth. The taste was ridiculous, too greasy, too cheesy, but so entirely satisfying. Flat was already halfway through his, eyes practically rolling back in delight as he chewed with obvious reverence.
"You know," I said between bites, "if I had this every day I may very well see heaven."
Flat laughed, crumbs flying onto his plate "I told ya it was good and it's totally worth it."
After talking and eating for a bit we spent the next hour hopping from one game to the next. Flat insisted on teaching me a racing game, screaming instructions like a general on a battlefield while I barely managed to keep my car on the track.
"RAI! TURN LEFT! LEFT! NO, THE OTHER LEFT!"
"I'm trying, bro! It's not that easy!" I screamed back.
Eventually, my car spun off the track entirely, launching into the digital abyss. Flat howled with laughter, slapping the table "oh man you suck at this"
I groaned but couldn't stop myself from laughing "oh shut up, if it were real life I would have for sure won that race"
Later, we found ourselves at a claw machine because apparently Flat had never met a challenge he couldn't beat. He practically dived onto the controls, fingers flying across the buttons like some kind of arcade ninja.
"Alright Rai, observe! A claw machine always needs the right timing and skill."
I leaned against the side, arms crossed, smirking at him struggling to grab a stuffed octopus that clearly wasn't coming out "I am sorry I can't hear you with all the epic failure I am seeing right now. You deserve to be a put on a fraud watch!"
"Oh come on man have a bit of faith in me! When it comes to games. I win every time"
"Nah, you'd lose," I couldn't resist the urge to say it.
Of course, the guy proved me wrong after ten minutes of clumsy button-mashing, the octopus plushie somehow dropped straight into the prize chute. Flat squealed, holding it triumphantly over his head "victory!"
"I call hacks!" I exclaimed.
"Come on bro don't be a sore loser," Flat laughed.
Eventually, the sugar crash from the pizza and soda caught up with us. We wandered aimlessly toward the exit, still joking around with one another.
By the time we reached the front doors, the lights of the arcade reflecting off the wet pavement outside, I felt...lighter.
This was the first time since I've ever hung out with someone let alone even make a friend without my shitty siblings scaring everyone away from me.
Flat turned to me, the glow of the arcade behind him making his grin almost surreal "man that was the most fun I've ever had in a long time."
I smiled "yeah me to bro, haven't had much time to really relax these days so I've got thank you for this."
He shook his head as we came to a stop near the entrance of an empty park with multiple streetlamps all switched on "nah man, it was no problem. If I am being honest, I think your the only person from our classroom that wanted to hang out with me. Although my roommates Svin and Caules sometimes hangout with me for a bit before they get all serious with their 'researching'" here Flat mocked the word research with air quotes.
I chuckled "well I don't mind hanging out with you on the weekends. Tonight was sort of a one-time exception since my little brother fell asleep early. Although I hope it's okay to bring him with me on a few occasions," I said.
I didn't want to always burden Miss's Harper to much with babysitting especially on a weekend when I don't have work or classes.
"Sure, I don't mind-" Flat's reply was cut off by a sudden bounded field appearing.
"I am guessing you felt that?" I asked instantly pulling out the knives I had acquired from the hobos.
"Yeah definitely," Flat confirmed.
An ominous like whistle soon sung through the air, turning around we saw a man dressed in a gray poncho, baggy black pants, and monk like shoes approaching us.
He was from what I could only guess to be of Chinese descent with pale white skin, ominous yellow-colored eyes, and had a bowel style haircut.
Said color of the hair was black.
In his hands were a pair of pitch-black short swords that rather look more like thorns then sword.
I swallowed, this guy's aura is way too heavy almost like...an intent to murder actually.
Just in case I'll use that.
'Domain Expansion: Matrix Definition'
This time I heard the sound of a heartbeat freezing in my ears, before it was followed with a thud that echoed inside my skull.
A checkpoint has been set.
"Flat, bro I think we might be in for a little trouble," I grimly declared.
The unknown man chuckled as he spun his weapons.
"Mister Sandman~ Bring me a dream. Make him the cutest, that I've ever seen. Give him to lips, like roses and clover. Then tell him that his lonesome nights...are over~" the man sang with a raspy voice.
His yellow eyes narrowed with wicked glee.
"Hello...friends hehehehe," he chuckled.
-end of chapter eleven-
Alright here we go tor- ahem I mean its looping time.
Also let me know what you guys think about Rigel's magecraft style/spell.
Does it work or make sense in anyway?
Is it strong? Or weak?
Such feedback is useful to me and I would appreciate them (politely of course. Don't be rude please)