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Devouring the Neverglades: (Beta Version) Chapter 14

🕑 Added 2025-06-13 00:36:43 +0000 UTC

Comments

George Cooper

Just binged all 14 current chapters. You are COOKING! Love it, I hunger for more

Miguel Garcia

Sammy and the boys when they get back: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Vicky: hiss hiss hiss The boys: Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Cypha

Pretty interesting start. The transformation power is quite awesome. Is there going to be more? :)

Caerold

Really cool now

bonk proof

So when you called it devouring then neverglades, you meant everything is edible and the mud is the tablecloth then?

Thomas Keller

Of course, this side steps the conclusions and hypotheses that can be drawn about how this spell may work when used by a Mage, aka Vicky, and its nuances there. We've directly seen how Visualization is an immensely important aspect of this spell (ref: Oozey vs Tentacle vs Xenomorph), but we haven't actually fully explored the implications of this yet. Vicky presented a very surface level image of what she wanted when she activated the spell, but what happens if she goes in deeper detail about how it's supposed to work? If she does research about the specific biological mechanisms and material compositions that would be required to create what she wants and incorporates that into her imagery? Eating the Crab provided a direct material sample for aspects that Vicky wanted from her spell (Hard Shell, Clear Shell, Optics, Claws), but what happens now that Vicky *has* those images for her visualization? Will her Spell/Magic/Personal Aspected Mana *learn* from what she's consumed, or will she need those materials to get those same results in the future? Will sufficient research and knowledge provide sufficient substitutes to bypass the need for material components/foci? What happens if Vicky gets other Aspected Manas involved and incorporates them into the base spell circle? What happens if Vicky begins to incorporate imagery regarding the Big Biological Memes of our World, like the World's Punchiest Shrimp or the Immortal Water Bear? There's so much to explore and experiment with, how exciting!

Thomas Keller

So, let's try to break down this spell. Initial Observation: Bitey (baby crocodile) turned into Bitey-As-A-Rock-Which-Seemingly-Does-Not-Lack-Range-Of-Motion. He then murdered some crawdads both literally and figuratively, where before he could potentially lethally struggle with them. We can deduce from this that Aspected Mana is involved, and that there is either a [Flesh Becomes Kin To] action or a [Creates Shape With] action, both of which are prefacing a subject of [Aspected Mana] (though whether or not the "Aspected" part of that Keyword is *necessary* is a separate question which may or may not be explored eventually). Vicky's initial experimentation heavily indicates that the [Creates Shape With] Action Phrase is the or at least *a* correct interpretation of the spell at this time, as she has so far gotten three different results (oozey, tentacle, and xenomorph) from three separate castings of the spell. The question then becomes "Why does Vicky get different results when Bitey seems to have one consistent result?" Vicky shaped her results through deliberate visualization of different end-goal shape states, that being "my mana is Oozey" "tentacle" and "hands and xenomorphs are cool/better than those other two". That then asks the question "Where is Bitey's consistency coming from?" to which I supply the answers of "instincts" and "Evolution has forgotten the crocodile for hundreds of thousands of years, of course a crocodile wouldn't even *imagine* of being anything other than a crocodile." This of course may change over time and Vicky may have accidentally released the new Apex Predator of the entire local mana ecosystem, but we'll burn that swamp when we cross it. So, we have a spell that takes Mana (which definitely *can* be Aspected but might not *need* to be) and grants it a Shape based on the Visualization of the Caster, most likely emanating from the circle and anchoring on the subject though not *necessarily* the mana provider. Now let's talk about the observered properties of Vicky's Aspected Mana, which is where things get *spicy*. Vicky's Death/Void Mana is colored Black. It feels "cold", though whether that's in an esoteric non-interactive way, because it absorbs *heat* from around it, or because it absorbs *something else* around it has not been determined yet. Twigs, that Vicky is concerned might melt in Death/Void Mana Water, melt in it when placed inside it. When this happened there was more Death/Void Mana Water. Metal containers hold Death/Void Mana Water without being melted/decayed/consumed by it. Living Humans (test subjects Old Walt and Vicky) do not seem to become melted/decayed/consumed by Death/Void Mana Water on contact. Mana that is Aspected by Death/Void seems to collect more Mana on contact and Aspect it to Death/Void Mana, though whether or not this is "simply" collection and transformation of the unaspected Mana in the air or whether this *consumes* unaspected Mana to fuel the creation of more Aspected Death/Void Mana is unknown (as is the actual difference between those two hypotheses). The three potential conclusions we can make based on the intial "does it melt in Death/Void Water?" experiments are that A) only things that have ever been living melt on contact with Death/Void Mana, though whether or not an actively living thing will melt is uncertain at this time (stick could have been dead rather than live wood, only examples of guranteed living subjects were the Aspecting Mage and a Flat and thus potentially immune to any side effects due to Being The Aspecting Mage and the mana repulsion effects that Flats have on ambient Mana), B) the Mana Aspected by Vicky-the-Caster only Melts what Vicky-the-Caster wants/consents/doesn't-disapprove to being melted, or C) Death/Void Mana may in fact Melt/Convert Everything but different things have different melt/conversion times. We've also seen the active spell while using Death/Void Mana actively adapt, change, and refine its expression when once living materials were absorbed/consumed by the anchoring body. If we assume A or B are true regarding the Melting Experiments, that a spellblock externally powered by Death/Void Mana can be anchored on someone without a Death/Void Aspect or without a Wavelength at all, and that the spell is able to maintain and adapt itself on consumption of materials without actual direct caster guidance after the initial anchoring, then the conclusion we can draw from that is that Vicky might be able to actually Xenomorph her buddies/family and create a whole *hive* of critters to go Hunting with. There are of course more experiments that need to be done to properly determine safety, longevity, applicability, and how anchoring spells on Flats *actually* works (or doesn't work), but the potential is *very* interesting!