Tanya opened her interface. She took a moment to roll her shoulders and find a flicker of contentment in all this. Outside this room, she'd have to cut off an arm soon. But here, in this busted-up kitchen, it was just her and a Class she would have dreamed of as a kid

She hoisted her legs onto the stool, and it spun slightly, screeching in that delightful way that old stools have a habit of. She grimaced, but there was a smile deep in there somewhere too. She stared down at the black and white checkered linoleum tiles as she opened her Interface, pulling up all the level-ups she got in her last fight.

The Attributes would help her for sure, but she didn't have the time to grind them further and there wasn't any choice to be made with them. She looked down at her hands.

22 Dexterity. I'm more dexterous than any human was alive before this.

Excitement built in her chest—until she remembered that her next tattoo would come after cutting off someone's arm. The feeling split in two. Part of her still savored it, the way she always had when designing tattoos. It reminded her of her apprentice days, sitting in her room, drawing so intently that night seemed to fall in an instant. She'd captured some of that feeling again while making Phantom Brand. It had been a long time since she'd feared a tattoo might not work—though never under circumstances like these.

The other half of her wanted to curl up in bed and pretend life was boring again. If she sat in this worry too long, every misplaced memory of horror movies and medical shows would come rushing back. Like some little man in her brain had carefully filed away every amputation she'd ever seen—just to make her spiral.

It had only been 3 days since this all started. 3 days ago, she was cussing out her coffee machine for nearly choking her with an unground bean, right before Maria arrived.

She stared at the coffee machine now, surrounded by those putrid, plasticky red cupboards she'd always meant to replace.

Focus.

She looked away, slapping both cheeks with her palms and wiggling to get comfortable.

There were all the level-ups she'd taken mid-fight, as well as two new ones.

* * *

Level Up!

Assistant is now Level 3

You have unlocked a Major Ability Crossroads. As this is a Sentient Summon, the choice will be decided between you and the Summon.

Would you like to see your choices?

Summon not present.

* * *

Level Up!

Phantom Brand is now Level 2

You have unlocked an Ability Crossroads.

Would you like to see your choices?

* * *

She realised she'd never even chosen Assistant's Level 2 level-ups with the fighting. Flicking over to her Attributes, she grinned properly.

Vitality: 5/17

That's gotta be enough.

She stared down at the hand on her wrist. It was so strange seeing her living, moving Summon still on her skin like a normal tattoo. She chuckled at the ludicrousness of that thought. It wasn't that long ago that the idea of her tattoos moving at all was incredibly freaky.

With a slow blink and deep breath, Tanya summoned Assistant. The room was quiet and still, and her Concentration was higher than it had ever been. It felt like touch that had no other senses to get in the way. Even though she could see the wooden wall trimming and hear the low rumble of Mrs Eceer and Ishita next door and smell the sweat radiating off her clothes, she could twist her attention off it and cut it off entirely.

The first movement was subtle—a tiny shift beneath her skin, just below the ink. It didn't ripple but it did contort, more like stretching. She'd created so many tattoos with the way skin moved in mind: bugs' wings flapping on the back of a knee or elbow, a wishbone snapping, a book opening. If she zoomed right in, she'd have assumed this movement was on a joint, then she'd have looked closer and been unable to work out which way the bend was stretching it at all.

Then her skin moved—a single finger pushed up from inside like something trapped, testing the surface. It pushed and pushed, moving further out. Her instincts said it was too far, that her skin would tear, but somehow, it never did. She blinked. And the finger was out.

It jutted from her wrist, small and pale, flexing experimentally against the air. A shiver ran up her arm. It was so strange but felt like she'd been designed in some way with it in mind—the way it curled, adjusting to the space outside her body, the way her skin gave way without resistance. She barely believed that she'd first experienced this 3 days earlier.

Then, the rest of the hand followed.

Assistant crawled free in fits and starts, gripping onto her wrist with half-formed fingers, wiggling, twisting, pulling itself out joint by joint. She felt everything. Every brush of knuckle, every press of palm against her flesh as it fought for purchase. It was like a baby kicking, that deep, undeniable sensation of something inside her moving in ways it shouldn't—but at the same time, never wrong.

With one last squirm, it was free. The fingers flexed, rolling the wrist, stretching as if waking up after a long sleep. Then it tensed its fingers, raising to stand on her arm. She exhaled.

Tanya welled up. She scooped up Assistant and held it in her cupped hands. Assistant lifted itself to its wrist and cracked its fingers with its thumb, then hopped up again and span on the spot, inspecting the room.

"Hey," Tanya breathed. "We won."

The hand snapped to attention at the sound of her voice, seeming to decide the situation was safe enough to change attitude.

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It turned on her—prodding a bony finger into her chest repeatedly and then slamming its fists down against her hand. There was a lot of finger wagging too.

"Hey, hey, what's up?" Tanya asked.

That only made Assistant angrier. It flicked its fingers out in exasperation and changed the tab of her interface, again doing the boldening and zooming thing she hadn't worked out how to do.

Vitality: 5/17

Tanya realised and scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. The hand stomped its pointer finger.

"Ah, yeah…sorry."

Assistant barrelled towards her, hitting her chest and flailing its fingers like a hail of miniature punches. It forced the air out of Tanya's lungs but didn't hurt much.

"Oof."

With spent energy, Assistant returned to her hand, tapping its fingers grumpily. If it could hiss like a cat, Tanya thought it would do that now.

"I'm sorry," Tanya said again. She winced. "Did it hurt?"

Assistant paused and then tapped once for yes. They both stayed there a moment, Tanya slouching on the stool and the hand so limp it was barely holding itself up.

"It hurt me too," Tanya whispered. The feeling of retching flashed through her memory more than she cared to admit, either from the end of that battle or when she was trying to expel the snake's poison from her body. "Ishita, the nice lady, she saved me—"

Assistant perked up, wiggling its fingers like excited stomps.

Seems like Assistant likes Classes even more than me.

"It's called Martyr. It's not one of the Unique classes like I have."

The hand stretched all its fingers out, starfishing. Tanya giggled.

"I know, pretty cool, right? I mean—not the class itself. Feels like Ishita got the rough end of the stick to be honest. Pain an' stuff for powers do not sound fun. But it's really interesting to hear what core Classes there are. One of the EastEnd Adder's told me a couple too—"

Assistant startled and dropped to fingertips, scuttling backwards and forwards on her arm like they'd be jumped any second.

"Nah, on the radio."

Assistant was still suspicious.

"Promise, 'aight? None of them are here, and we didn't make a deal with them anyway."

The hand paused a second then stamped once.

"Uh… I remember Combat Medic was one. Stitcher or something was another. I wonder what Worthy even means to this god-thing."

For once, The System had the tact not to chip in.

The hand pointed towards the door.

"Ishita? Yeah, she's here. Mrs Eceer's here too."

The hand flipped off the door at the mention of Mrs Eceer, and Tanya laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, I didn't like her much either, but she's growing on me," Tanya whispered. She said it without thinking much, then realised she meant it. "Ishita, well, her hand is a no go. She needs me—us—to make her a new one."

Assistant shivered. Tanya wondered what it must be like, hearing about a hand being cut off when you yourself are 100% hand.

"She's not on death's door or anything; Vitality is ticking down every few hours." She pulled up Ishita's interface. Her Vitality was still the same, which was a relief, even if it didn't change the fact they were on the clock.

Assistant scrolled through it, looking at the rest, before turning back to her.

"Mind if we look through your level-ups now? Don't wanna rush ya, but if you're gonna be my number 2 on this—it would be good to see what we're working with."

Assistant turned back round to the wall. They'd both seemed to wordlessly decide it was the best space for their joint floating Interface spread.

The same menu as before popped up with the two circles. This time the right circle filled with red as she stared at it instead. She focused on opening the menu and her blue circle filled too. They were in.

Unlike her level-ups, there were only two options instead of three. She noticed that each option had two dots under it.

Interestin'. So we have to agree.

If someone had asked her back when she first made Assistant, she would have said this would be impossible to coordinate. Sitting at that table, her hand refusing to work, felt like a lifetime ago. But after the battle outside, she trusted Assistant's stubbornness more. Bit by bit, it felt like they were learning to communicate.

Tanya read through the options.

• • •

Please select from the following two choices.

Spectral Slip

Can briefly phase through objects.

Drifting Palm

Expend extra energy to float freely.

• • •

"What do you think?" Tanya asked.

The hand tilted back and forth for unsure.

"It's a close one. Spectral Slip feels the most useful for scouting. Not only could you get through locked places and stuff, but it means if you got trapped I wouldn't have to unsummon you. I wonder where the extent of that lies. Could you phase in and out to climb up walls or whatever with that one too?"

The hand crawled up her shoulder and then neck with difficulty whilst she squirmed and laughed.

"Hey, that tickles!"

It stayed there on her chin, grasping on for dear life. When it slipped, it grabbed her hair instead, and she screeched, pulling it off. Tanya heard Mrs Eceer grumbling about the noise in the other room.

"Alright, point taken. You can climb already." She flashed Assistant some side eye. "I never said well."

It swatted her.

"Drifting Palm sounds powerful, but it doesn't say how much energy that is. Could be pretty steep." She thought about it more. "It would let you fight easier, though. You could do tattoos easier too."

Assistant tapped once for yes.

"You like it?" Tanya asked.

Assistant tapped for yes again. The red circle beneath Drifting palm swirled and filled.

"Alright then. Sounds good."

Tanya focused on the Ability, and her circle filled too.

A new screen popped up.

"Oh, right," Tanya said. "There's Level 3 stuff too."

* * *

Please select from the following two choices.

Polyglot Script

Increased speed for learning new languages.

Guiding Palm

Can press against a person or object and momentarily guide them toward a choice, path, or action

* * *

Tanya whistled at the second one. That must be the prophetic track the Boon gave it. Assistant bounced up and down.

"It's cool, isn't it?" Tanya said.

Assistant stamped for yes, enthusiastically.

"I wonder how you could use it," she continued. "It only says guide so I doubt there's any mind control in there. Could you guide me to tattoo better maybe?"

Assistant stopped moving. It stamped twice for no. It was the most passionate no she'd gotten since she'd tried to convince Assistant to do more tattoo training.

"You don't think it could?"

It stamped a bunch more times, then pointed towards Polyglot Script.

"Wait, you want Polyglot Script?"

The hand stamped once.

"But—but—" Tanya stammered. She pointed at Guiding Palm. "Fuckin' awesome psychic shit."

The red circle filled beneath Polyglot Script. The hand straightened itself completely vertically like one half of a prayer.

"You want this that bad, huh?" Tanya exclaimed. She read through it again but couldn't see the draw. It frustrated her. Obviously, she wanted the other option. She'd already thought of multiple experiments to try with it, but after Assistant's ideas with the last tattoo, she guessed she was missing something rather than Assistant being wrong. Not that being unable to work it out was any less frustrating.

Tanya felt a faint drop in her stomach, like clunking down a step she didn't see coming.

She instinctively knew to pull Ishita's Interface forward from behind the level-up screens.

3/7 Vitality. If it keeps goin' like that, I'll have about 12 hours.

Tanya suddenly became aware of the gloom of the kitchen, and she shifted Assistant off her arm onto the little table. Rustling through the cupboards for a candle and matches, she pondered whilst she lit it.

"Alright. You can have your language thing. But Ishita is still the priority, yeah? I'll help you with whatever your plan is after she's okay."

Assistant was so excited that it went back into sock puppet mode to nod properly. This time, instead of rising up on its wrist, it floated a foot off the table. It took a second for it to notice, and when it did, it flailed around randomly with fingers outstretched. A couple of big thumb flicks later, it was just about staying palm down.

"Looks like tonight is gonna be a lot of floating practice, bud."

The hand flopped and drifted down with a slight sway like an autumn leaf. Tanya didn't need to hear the exhale to know that was a sigh.

"Go practise, yeah? Your floating should help you with this tattoo, I need my own edge in there." Her stomach grumbled loudly. "But first, I need to eat."

Assistant swam through the air, inch by inch and out the door. She heard Ishita cackle at the sight before the door swung closed behind it. Tanya dug into a cold tin of sausage and beans, leaning against the counter.

Man, it's gonna be a long night.

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