There are many forms of politics out there. If you really think about it, all social interactions can be boiled down to a form of ‘politics’ in the long run. That doesn’t mean we all have to be politicians about it though! Events unfold including but not limited to: Ill-informed books being studied, Hannah ends up wishing she had a tail again, And new clothes are created, for science!

 

Lightning magic cannot be ‘aimed’ like fire magic, nor can it be formed like ice, moulded like water or channelled like earth and wind. The key to controlling lightning magic is to remember that it will move between receptors only. You must form up your magic into a conductive shape, outside your body, and then send bursts out through that shape to ensure you do not electrocute yourself at the same time as you attack.

Many lightning mages choose to adopt a conductive weapon, be it a sword or similar, which can be used as both a safer means of ‘aiming’ their attacks while also potentially working as a safe grounding line to disperse built up magic through without harming themselves afterwards.

Lightning magic is wild and almost impossible to dodge in a duel due to its speed, but it can also be affected by a relatively large number of nullifiers which can be put in place ahead of time.
Even Normals have discovered this trait with so-called ‘natural’ lightning and have built their transportation devices, known collectively as ‘auto-mobiles’, specifically in the shape of a grounded ‘cage’ to disperse such attacks, often described as a ‘Phara-day shie—’

Powers damn it—
...He was doing so well too!...
A ‘Phara-day shield’?— Seriously?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not expecting a miracle here.
For such a recent entry into such a famous book series on elemental theory, it’s been pretty helpful so far, but would it kill them to do even five seconds worth of research into any ‘normal’ topics they branch into?

You know, just enough to realise that the effect they’re talking about is spelled ‘Faraday’ after the original cages inventor Michael Faraday, perhaps?

Why do mages always have to be so stupid?!
...Bad genetics, maybe?...

That’ll do on this chapter for now, I guess.
At least I’ve got a general idea of what I’m doing when casting elemental spells with my new lightning affinity, if nothing else. I’m gonna have to look into getting a metal weapon of some kind, maybe borrow one of Fena’s resonant rods again to make myself a staff, or just get a sword from somewhere instead.

It’s a shame I can’t just create one with magic, but one of the biggest downsides to transmuting items, or even just conjuring them from nothing, is the magical residue that gets left behind.
If I’m going to be channelling tons of high-power electricity through the bloody thing then the last thing I need is a sword that’s contaminated with my magic already and, at worst, one that could potentially decide that it wants to keep all the lovely magic I’m pouring into it for itself until it explodes in my face or something equally stupid.

Okay, let’s see here...
What’s the next chapter on lightning magic?
Ah hah! Found it!

Lightning mages are often known for their easily distracted nature which can frequently come across as inattentiveness or just plain stupidity. Neither of these impressions could be farther from the truth, though:

Mages with lightning elements often find that it provides them with both an innate boost in situational awareness when other people or nearby animals are involved, in much the same way that wind mages can learn to ‘read the wind’ and sense movement around them with little to no effort from an early age, along with an often disruptively high boost in the electrical ‘signal speeds’ between parts of their brain.

Lightning mages have been known to show signs of this improved ‘signal speed’ through the intellectual advantages that come from it, as early as one year of age, with many being gifted near-photographic memories from as young as two years of age, as well.

In the most extreme cases, these factors have been said to come together in times of panic or fear, providing the user with an almost unnaturally improved reaction time which some have described as ‘slowing down time itself’ for brief periods until the threat is gone.

Due to rapid brain growth in early development and the frequent over-stimulation of certain brain centers while in the womb, lightning magic is considered to be the most dangerous element for a small child to be born with.

Children born with lightning magic can often be seen to display a mix of potential mental disorders at an early age including Autism and Asperger’s syndrome. These problems can take decades to be repaired by the child’s magic, even after their Awakenings come upon them.
This has lead many old families to put in place a blanket ban on allowing lightning mage children to progress after birth, often by drow—

Oh, Powers! Fucking idiot mages!
...Fucking old families!...

They have innate magical abilities in the palms of their hands for generation upon generation, and instead of either trying to find a way to help or even just getting used to having a few children who temporarily have mental health problems until their early twenties, they just bloody drown them instead!

That could have been me for Powers’ sake!

The more I read about lightning mages, the more a lot of my younger years have started to show some worryingly close parallels to what these books describe, in places, and if I’d been born into one of the ‘families’, then apparently I wouldn’t have lasted long enough to take my first bloody steps!

I’ll never really know for sure, due in large part to my golden domes and messed up core-replacements getting in the way of nature itself but, looking at my earliest memories from an outside perspective, I have a strong suspicion that ‘young Al’ was at least partly afflicted by Asperger’s syndrome or sat somewhere on the Autism spectrum to some degree or another.

I’d have to look up more information on both of them to even know where to start with that theory, but it’s there now and I can see it making a horrible amount of sense in hindsight, just like the whole ‘Fena is a vampire’ thing from yesterday, really.

Lightning mages are considered to be almost as dangerous as fire mages in earlier childhood, apparently due to the often volatile and powerful nature of their elemental outbursts, but they are also held in a lot lower regard too at the same time due to the potential mental problems that can come from their powers.

There aren’t a lot of ‘normal’ health problems mages tend to even consider as a real threat at all, usually, so having a one-in-six chance that your child could even possibly be born with such ‘mundane’ normal illnesses, with nothing but time to cure it all, must be kind of terrify—

======

“Hannah, time to put the book down, we’re almost here...”

With a little shriek of fear I practically jumped out of my seat making Eris grab fistfuls of my sweatshirt to stay in place, even as she giggled at my dramatic over-reaction to the simple shoulder pat John just gave me as he spoke.

“Whoa! Sorry, didn’t think you were that deeply into it, Han.”
Eris giggled again as I almost dropped the book to the floor in my haste to bring a hand up and cup it over my wildly beating heart.

It’s been a long time since I got so deeply into a book that I lost track of things that badly.

I guess technically all the time I spent in my Realm could count in the me-losing-track-of-things stakes, but that was different because I didn’t have anyone around to pull me out of it all once I got started, so I say it doesn’t count an—

“Han? You okay in there?”
My head snapped up to stare at John with a confused frown on my face for a few seconds.

The confusion bled away into a mild pout a few seconds later, when it became obvious from the look in his eye that he was at least partly teasing me, even if he was also kinda worried over my reaction at the same time.

“Sorry, John, I was miles away.”

He offered me a kind of reassuring, if unintentionally so, cheesy grin in response.
I could feel my lips tugging upwards slightly at the edges moments later in response, despite myself.

“We’re currently circling the airfield; Paul wanted to scout out the area before he let you out for the brief walk to the jet. You were reading so I figured you wouldn’t mind the extra wait?”

My smile got ever so slightly wider, and I settled back in my seat a little better with a mildly amused huff which he seemed to understand easily enough that I don’t really think I have to answer him properly at all, luckily.

Slowly, my eyes drifted over to stare out the window instead.
For an ‘airport’, I have to say that there’s a lot more ‘wide-open space, grass, and trees’ than I would have expected, honestly.

While it’s not exactly unusual in Oregon to find yourself in this kind of setting, it still feels a little odd to be driving along an old runway with mountains on all sides coated in trees and the only sign of life being a few tiny buildings in the middle distance, which I think could be considered what passes for a ‘control tower’ around here, even if they are lacking the whole ‘tower’ part of that definition.

It didn’t take me long to pick out Pauly and his team of soldiers as they held a completely pointless, in my opinion, set of defensive positions around a big slab of metal on the runway ahead of us, set in the unmistakable shape of a rather large personal jet.

A small shiver ran down my spine at the idea of flying in that—thing—in all its common-decency-defying glory. I didn’t have long to get too worked up over it though and within what felt like moments, our stretched Jeep was rolling to a stop in the center of Pauly’s little perimeter of gun-wielding people.

“Ladies... and Hannah.”
I shot John a dirty look automatically for the jab but it didn’t make him hesitate in the slightest as he continued on in his annoying ‘game-show announcer’ voice, smirk planted firmly on his lips through the entire thing.
“Welcome to Happy Camp Airport!”

A snort of amusement came from behind me at almost the exact same moment as I let one off myself. I didn’t even need to turn my head to know it had come from Sarah, we do have the same sense of humor after all.

“You literally picked this place because of the name, didn’t you?”

For a long few seconds, John made un-amused eye contact with me, but it was a terrible attempt at best and wouldn’t even convince Eris that he was seriously hurt by my comment, which I think might have been his actual intention, judging by the little giggle said starfish impersonator gave off a moment or two later.

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted—”
He started up again, shooting me an almost superior smirk as he went.
It was one of those infuriating looks of his which totally deserved the poked-out tongue he got from me in return, in my opinion, even as he pretended not to notice it in the slightest.
“We depart here for my private jet, named the Pegasus.”

...And I thought we were bad with names...

He just had to be an ass, even when it just came to naming a plane, didn’t he?
It’s not like it’s even bloody common knowledge that he was Perseus in a past incarnation or anything!

“Gun-toting soldiers first, of course.”
John bowed forward in his seat mockingly towards our driver and his female companion for the last few hours, thankfully handing over control of the situation to them at long last so we can get this all over with, even if he was being an ass about it in the process.

“Thank you so much for that brief introduction, Mr. Maxarimus.”
...Oooh, the sarcasm is strong in her...
“We have the runway locked down and we are ready to move when you are. I’ll step around the car to open your doors, when I do, please proceed straight to the plane so Paul doesn’t burst a blood vessel any more than he already has over having to take a flight in general.”

Her piece said, the female soldier opened her door and walked around the Jeep, first popping John’s door, followed by Sarah’s, and a hatch at the back to let the others out as she came around to my side.

When she reached my door, she paused for a moment to glance up at someone across the runway from us before nodding lightly and pulling the handle at last.

I bent over slightly to grab my bug-out bag from the footwell that Felix left it in, only to find it missing, a mysterious situation which didn’t stay that way for long due to John’s little laugh of amusement, indicating that he’d taken it while I wasn’t looking.

That just left me with Eris to deal with, Trudy visibly carrying my expanded bag already as she slipped out the back of the Jeep, which naturally I managed with practiced ease.

After a little bit of shuffling, we were all up and out of the long-backed Jeep at last, Eris sliding comfortably onto my hip while the others lead the way over to the jet waiting for us from its current spot, barely thirty paces away from the Jeep we’d turned up in, if that.

When we got close enough, John leading the way, a hatch opened up in the side of the jet and eased down to create a staircase that even I could appreciate as a nice design choice, if nothing else.

John waited at the bottom of the stairs and helped everyone else get on before himself, eventually coming up behind me as I made my way awkwardly on board due to Eris overbalancing me slightly on one side.

We barely got half way up the stairs before Eris started giggling to herself lightly as she looked over my shoulder.

I really didn’t need to look to know why she was so amused all of a sudden honestly.
It’s not like John would ever walk behind me like this and not do something ‘funny’, or at the very least perverted, for his own pleasure, if nothing else.

“Touch my ass and I’ll light you up like a Christmas tree, John-Boy.”

Apparently, I guessed right because Eris giggled once more, an indication that John had either stopped doing whatever he was about to do or, at the very least, pulled a face over being caught in the act.
...Stupid John...

“Team, close in for departure!”
As I took my last step up onto the plane, I couldn’t help but flinch slightly when Pauly’s recognisable voice started barking out commands to his troops behind us.

The plane looked a lot bigger and roomier on the inside than I’d been expecting, as we stepped inside.

All the others had already picked out seats they preferred apparently.
Surprisingly, even Fena had started to relax already, her helmet sitting on the little drinks table next to her seat, despite the window beside her that allowed rays of afternoon sunlight to play across her face in a way that really should be burning her to a crisp already, or something.
...Probably tinted win—...

“The windows are tinted to block out UV light. I told everyone about it earlier but you weren’t exactly paying attention, Han.”

As he spoke, I turned to shoot John a mildly annoyed look which he shrugged off as if I’d smiled at him instead.

With my attention now entirely focused on him, a situation I have no doubt he has wanted for a while now, just on general principle, I noticed the bug-out bag in his hand or more specifically the
black bundle of cloth tucked into the handles of that same bag.

One of the big things I don’t like about flying in planes is the very real possibility that the technology involved will outright fail due to my magic being too close to it.

That bundle of cloth will help me feel a lot better about the trip to come, honestly.
If nothing else, I know for a fact that it has a quick-deploy ‘Icarus Wings’ rune-set on it, so if all else fails I can jump out and glide to safety on good old, reliable magic.

“Pass me that bag, John-Boy. I need to go get changed before we take off in this bucket of wires.”

He sobered slightly at my tense tone of voice but didn’t hesitate to pass the bag over, at least.

Eris gently eased herself back down to her feet, allowing me to get a good grip on the bag, thankfully. When I had it settled at my feet, I pulled my new suit out of the handles and tucked it under my arm before opening the bag itself up and peeking inside thoughtfully.

After a few seconds of searching, I spotted what I’d been looking for and reached a hand in with a little sigh to pull out two of the other three black cloth bundles inside with a flourish.

As I straightened up, John shot me a curious look, one that widened with surprise a moment later when I tossed the larger bundle at him. He managed to catch it at the last minute and clutched the slick material to his chest as confusion flickered through his eyes questioningly at me.

“You didn’t really think I only made a suit for me and Sarah did you, John?”
He didn’t say anything, but his hands tightened on the suit a little bit more as I continued to explain my logic in giving it to him to wear.
“I’ll take Eris to the bathroom and help her get into hers. You can put yours on next. No arguments, John. When we’re all safe in these things, I’ll show you all how to activate the ‘Icarus Wings’ rune-sets on the suits, just in case the worst should happen.”

Slowly he nodded in acceptance and glanced down at the suit in his hands with a look of almost awe on his face as I turned on a heel, snagging Eris’s ready hand up before making my way towards the back of the plane where I assume there must be some form of bathroom somewhere.

“Uh—Thanks, Han?”
He sounded uncertain, not on whether he should be thanking me, but just in general, as if I really have caught him completely off guard for once.

I know it’s probably wrong, or at the very least childish, but I couldn’t help adding just a little teasing swing to my hips, sashaying my way down the long central hall of the jet in a way that I just know will keep his attention as we go because he’s a perv like that at times.
...Plus he’s cute when he’s flustered...
Ye—No!

I’ve won in our constant game for once, so I’m allowed to gloat over him, and that’s it!
...Denial much?...

======

“This thing feels weird?”
Eris scrunched up her little fingers in the still baggy, non-fitted ‘gloves’ of her suit and her nose wrinkled in distaste.

At least she’s put it on at this point, it took me putting my new one on first to even get this far, honestly, and I can’t shake the idea that she’s only humoring me at the moment because I promised she eventually wouldn’t be able to tell she has it on...also, she giggled a lot when my suit ballooned up during the fitting process, and I think she’s genuinely curious how it feels now, which is better than nothing, I guess?

As long as she’s wearing the suit before we take off, I couldn’t care less if she’s doing it for the wrong reasons. Her safety is more important than mine, John’s, and even Sarah’s at the end of the day, so I’d force her into the suit if I had to at this point.

“Ready?”

She bit her lip slightly nervously but nodded anyway like the brave girl she is.
My hand came up to run over the back seam of her suit then trailed delicately over the others around her limbs, activating the rune chains built into it as I went.

It’s lucky my body is so flexible these days because I’d never have been able to seal myself into my own suits, without a lot of effort, otherwise. That being said though, this new suit went on a lot easier than I remember my last one doing.

Maybe I’m just getting better at putting them on with practice?
...Probably...

Eris’s suit bloomed out making her briefly look like a giggling, oversized grape as the transmutation array on the inner lining went to work converting the tomboyish little shorts and tee-shirt combo she was wearing into its constituent parts.

I have to admit that the outfit she’s had on today has kind of been bugging me, if I’m really being honest with myself about it all.
It doesn’t look bad exactly but Eris is kind of a girly-girl, or at least my Eris is.

I can’t tell if this is simply a case of Sarah dressing her up according to her own style preferences, which often tend towards the ‘shorts and tee-shirt’ era of modern fashion, or if Eris legitimately likes this sort of clothing now thanks to either Arista’s interference, or if it’s just a case of her trying to look like her new ‘mom’ in general, like she used to do with me.
...Only one way to find out...

As her suit finished fitting itself around her to an expectedly skin-tight level and set to work recreating her previous outfit from its constituent parts, I found myself almost subconsciously dropping down into my lines for the first time since my old core exploded.

My new suit making me feel a bit safer in attempting it I guess, and even then my worries were kind of moot by the time I’d realised what I was doing, because the main ‘danger zone’ of the process I’d anticipated was done and gone already, anyway.

As always when it comes to Eris, my body made its mind up on what to do long before my brain could, sadly.

I didn’t have to go far enough to actually look at my lines yet, so that’s something, at least.

My actual lines are still a potentially dangerous area in terms of problems that could harm me and others around me at the moment, one which I’d really need to be in a magically dead ritual chamber before I’d even consider going so deeply into without immediate danger being involved at this point in time.

Luckily, between my magic’s rather helpful ‘mood’ lately, along with my long experience in both conjuring with and shutting down my own system... accompanied by my new suit’s help of course... if something goes wrong, then I should be safe just this once, if I’m careful.

Hopefully, the look on Eris’s face will be worth the effort if my theory pans out!

Her back was still to me as she stared in mute surprise at the clothes reforming over the top of her skin-suit, a situation which gave me ample time to focus and blindly guide my magic around my body towards the appropriate organ, namely my pancreas, while focusing on what I wanted with as much detail at hand as I could manage.

Eventually, a light weight appeared in my hand at last.
I opened my eyes to inspect my handiwork in an almost perfectly timed movement to match Eris turning her now wide eyes over to me with her invisible, intangible suit-covered fingers outstretched, as if she could somehow still see the gloves covering her hands despite the fact it had obviously finished its work and disappeared to all perception worth mentioning.

That look didn’t last long though when she saw the dark-red, little velvet dress in my hands, covered in every frill and ribbon addition that my moderately experienced mind could imagine, to make it into an almost sickeningly sweet ‘girly’ concoction for her, one that I know my Eris would have fallen in love with at first sight alone.

I didn’t need to hear the happy little squeal leave her lips to know that my theory was right, that deep down she still hadn’t actually changed as drastically as I’d feared, and that yet again there was still hope for fixing the damage Arista had caused to my— to Eris...

Without another word, she spun around and started changing out of her ‘boyish’ clothes on the spot. A proud little smile played across my lips as she lifted her arms up expectantly without a second thought, ready for me to drop the dress over her head like she did so often only a few months ago.

“Let’s go show the others your pretty dress, shall we?”

She giggled and snagged up my arm to drag me out of the bathroom quickly in her excitement, with practically a skip in her step that I had to work hard not to emulate thanks to my own happy little bubble of success as well.

======

“What do you think?”

Everyone looked up at us, and while the reactions were slightly mixed about just how ‘over-the-top’ her new outfit may look, in general, everyone was good at praising an obviously gleeful Eris as she swished about the cabin area full of more energy than I can remember seeing from her since I ‘returned’, honestly.

The only person who didn’t instantly offer praise, or at least a smile to her was, surprisingly, Sarah.
She appeared conflicted at first before settling into an almost resigned-looking grimace that would probably be only just enough to hide her thoughts from most people, luckily, but didn’t even begin to look convincing to me, considering how well I know her body language and facial expressions.

Rather than call her out on the odd reaction she was having, I decided to take charge and change the topic in the vague hope that a distraction would help her get over whatever problem she’s got with the outfit I made for Eris quicker.

“Alright, Sare, John, Eris—”

“Oh, that’s Eris?”

I paused, mid-speech, and turned to shoot a curious look at one of Pauly’s guards of all people as he eased himself out of his chair with an oddly thoughtful look on his face.
Several soldiers around him sniggered quietly to themselves behind their hands, for some reason, as he reached his full height and offered the smallest of bows to me before continuing.

“Sorry Ma’am, So-Com Private Ellis, I’m new. I thought they were joking earlier when they gave this to me, but apparently there really is someone called ‘Eris’ on this trip...”
His piece said, the guard leaned down to the side of his chair and awkwardly pulled a large, heavy looking orb from a black bag down there.

It took the few steps he made towards us so he could offer the orb up to Sarah, with more than a little confusion obvious on his face as he did so, for me to work out why it looked so familiar.

My mouth dropped open in surprise at almost the exact same moment that Eris let off a gleeful squeal of joy and practically sprinted across the cabin to snatch the stupid bowling ball I made for her months ago from the now even more confused soldiers hand, letting off a little huff of effort as she did so due to the weight, but not losing any of her joy for having it back in the process, even as the cabin erupted in poorly concealed laughter at the expense of the apparent ‘rookie’ being hazed with the bloody thing.

“A bowling ball?”
I shot a look over at John’s mystified face which matched his tone almost perfectly.
“Why does it feel like I’m missing something here?”

...Because you are, Duh?...
“It’s a long story. Don’t ask, John-Boy.”

“Mum, look! He brought back the bowling ball you made—for—me?”
Uh oh, quick, Sare, say something!

Sarah’s face twitched heavily for a moment or two but she at least managed to offer Eris up a pained smile if nothing else.

“Oh, I remember now. I hadn’t realised we lost it?”

My sister Sarah, everybody, the supposed actress and TV personality!
...Just because she’s on TV doesn’t mean she can act...
Exactly!

Eris obviously sensed something was off with Sarah’s reaction, but instead of saying anything, she just hugged the ball a little closer to her chest and let her head sink down slightly in a way that made my heart ache, as my brain screamed at me to just run over and pick her up for the sake of it.

“Eris, come show me your ball, sweetie.”
Her head perked up again and she sprinted over to me, skirts flying and her grin back once more as she held the heavy ball in front of herself for my inspection.

I played it up for her, ‘examining’ the ball from several angles and smiling a lot, which seemed to be the reaction she’d been looking for from Sarah, honestly.

Eventually, even I couldn’t overplay my excitement forever, but Eris was content at that point judging by the quick, bowling ball-exasperated hug she gave my legs before running off to go claim a chair, where she could play with the ball for some Powers-known reason.

When I straightened up at last, I caught John smirking at me warmly to my side.
Sarah was stood at his side and had an odd look on her face I couldn’t quite work out however, thanks to the brief glance I got of it before it smoothed away as she realised I was watching her back in confusion and she settled her face into an oddly blank expression, for some reason, instead.

“What were we doing?”
My eyes drifted uncertainly around the cabin as my mind spun a few empty gears, trying to work out where I left off before Eris’s little bowling ball-related distraction.

Before I could pin down whatever important thing I’d forgotten though, my eye’s caught on the window to my right and I froze in shock.

“Are we flying already?”
It’s a bit of a moot question, there are clouds outside the window, after all, but it never hurts to tell everyone why you suddenly lock up in surprise if nothing else.

I’m honestly a bit mystified by the fact that I wasn’t panicking in the slightest already, despite apparently being on an airplane high in the sky, more than anything else?
I didn’t hear or feel us take off while helping Eris get changed into her suit, and that’s weird in itself!

What’s worse is that I can’t hear the telltale hum of engines beneath my feet that always fills me with dread and fear, because we’re putting our lives in the hands of something awkward like ‘engines’ and ‘physics’, above all else.

When you’re a mage, you tend to get a good feel of just how easily the rules of ‘physics’ can be broken with little to no effort, so I think my fears are legitimately logical at this point in time—and yet I’m not scared?!

Slowly, I made my way over to the window so I could look outside and double-check that we are, in fact, flying at the moment.

As I leant against the wall by the window, so I could get a better look, a slight tingle ‘pinged’ across my magic senses and I pulled back somewhat in surprise before leaning in once more to splay my fingers along the wall completely and get a better handle on that feeling again.

“This jet—is this whole bloody jet enchanted?!”
For a few long seconds I got no answer and, in frustration, I turned around to find out why, only to come face to face with a now highly amused room full of people who’d obviously all been in on the joke from the start, by the looks on their faces alone.

My hand flexed slightly against the wall and I sent a small burst of magic over its surface to prove my theory one way or another, considering no-one else is feeling talkative at the moment.

The bouncing echo I got back through my senses was a mess and hard to follow in any detail, due to how purposely underpowered the burst was, but it was enough for me to pick out what I needed, at least.

I was right! This floating, high-end ‘apartment tube’ isn’t a bloody jet plane at all!
It’s a super-complicated and really well-made, magical ‘airship’ that just happens to look like a normal jet!

“You've been holding out on me, John-Boy...”

The almost manic look of interest that I could feel playing across my lips must be pretty obvious, because John cringed heavily when I turned my eyes back to him in the few seconds that he had before I pounced.
With lightning speed I moving across the floor between us to lean into his personal space, in my rush to find out more about the suddenly ‘new’ and highly interesting ‘plane’ we’re currently flying in.

“I didn’t make it!”

Oooh, nice try, John-Boy, but that’s not going to be enough to stop me now!

Putting aside the fact that I can travel easily in this thing without being terrified, because it’s purely magical in all the ‘important bits that make us not die’ areas, this thing is interesting!

Just like the runes he used to hide his brand from sight, this whole airship-plane thing just smacks of him having something amazing in his pocket and being too much of an idiot to realise what he’s got!

I almost wish I still had my annoying ‘cat’ appendages from that stupid mess with Wizard Burger now, ‘Cat-Girl’ Hannah would have been able to get his tongue moving and spilling every little detail he has on this magical marvel of his, just on general principle alone, if I still had the ears and tail at the very least!
...Stupid perv, John...
Useful, stupid perv, John-Boy!

“Tell me everything!”