There are two words you must never say to someone who is deep in the throes of rage. Those two words are "calm down."

Saying "Calm down" to an angry person is like saying that their mother deserved to die in that demonic raid. Saying "Calm down" is telling them that their suffering was their fault, that they should have been stronger.

Listen very closely: In this class, we need to use anti-logic. What is anti-logic? It is the logic that goes against logic. This might be a bit harder for the automata students here, but I need you to think. Think very carefully.

In a vacuum, some things make sense. Yes, it would be most optimal if we simply didn't feel and instead operated to the utmost benefit of ourselves and our communities, but that's almost never the case. So, you understand that you have to be careful about what you say to certain people. You have to understand their personalities. If someone is easily enraged or already sad or mentally fragile, telling them that something is their fault or putting more pressure on them will only result in more damage and no gains.

Even if it will bother you, even if it might make you mad, it is up to you. And I mean you specifically. You took this class for a reason. You have imprinted this responsibility on yourself because now you know, now you understand the value and the weaponization of empathy. You must be the one that masters and uses your own emotions, because most other people can't.

They're not trained to. Vanguards are not trained to use their emotions. They're trained to hit things, to break things, to be vicious, furious, to draw on their rage in times of desperation. But there are many different kinds of desperation, and sometimes the desperation starts at the heart. Sometimes someone is just hurt, and they don't know how to ask for help.

So in this course, you're going to listen very carefully. Because "I'm in pain and I need help" never comes out as "I'm in pain, and I need help." Most people are not honest, least of all to themselves.

So do not say "calm down." Instead, the magic words are "that sounds terrible, tell me more," or some variation thereof.

-Master-Professor Vrong McGill, DIPLO-312

218 (I) Gaslight

"Wait, Shiv, what are you planning to do?" Adam asked, sticking his head out of the portal behind the Deathless.

As Shiv finished fastening the towel around his hip, he grabbed his Mask of Stolen Paths from his cape and placed it on his face. Immediately, his Perfect Semblance activated, and he assumed Marcus's guise once more.

"It's simple, Adam. I'm going to stop time, strangle all of them unconscious, and then dump them somewhere else."

The Gate Lord sputtered, "Is that your solution to everything? Stopping time and strangling someone unconscious."

"It's the easiest option," Shiv replied.

"And what about the girl?"

"What? Oh, the one that was following them? The pregnant one?"

"Yes, the pregnant one," Adam hissed. "You think strangling her is wise? Are you trying to get a Miscarriage Feat or Skill?"

Shiv blinked. "You think there's something like that?"

"I—you—" Adam's face changed color.

"I'm just asking!"

"Don't ask something like that! You're not bloody strangling the girl."

"Alright. Shit. Fine. You're right! But—"

The banging outside intensified. "Marcus, we know you're in there! We can feel you. Don't bother hiding. Your scent has been claimed by Master Magnolia, and she will never lose your trace again!"

Shiv sighed. "Okay, I guess that explains how they found me. She has some kind of Tracking skill."

"Tracking mixed in with Awareness, perhaps," Adam theorized. "Having one's scent… That's quite wolf-like, I would say." Just then, Adam sniffed himself, and then he licked his lips. "Ah, of course. She's a Shifter."

Shiv paused. "A Shifter?"

"She's a member of the Republic's Shifter Clans. They live in the sparsely populated regions of the Yellowstone Republic, usually deep in the wilderness or on the borders. Most of them are imbued with Blessings from a patron spirit, and that allows them to have certain skills that are usually only developable by an animal, or a specific kind of monster. When they get stronger, they are also rumored to have a hybrid state, but that could be just an advanced Biomancy spell known only to their tribe."

"It's also pointless," Helix commented with a roll of his eyes. He pulled his glasses off and began cleaning them using his white coat. "Taking Divine energy into yourself so that you can shape your body halfway into an animal? It's cheap. It's shoddy work. It's best that you understand the animal and surpass it. Wanting to be like a dog or a wolf…" He nearly spat in disgust. "I can make my nose so refined that I can taste the sweet smell of a bug's droppings from 1000 kilometers away."

"Why would you wanna be smelling bug droppings from a thousand kilometers away?" Shiv said mockingly.

Helix scowled. "It was an example."

"Shitty one," Shiv grunted with amusement.

Helix rolled his eyes so hard, some of his blood vessels popped. "Perhaps under my tutorship, I can instill you with highbrow humor."

"I beg the Challenger that doesn't happen," Whisper murmured. "Hopefully, he just kills you instead. You're about as funny as Male Pregnancy after the third time he repeats his gimmick in one day, Helix."

As Marcus's murder party continued trying to batter down his doors, Shiv could hear other people gathering outside, other doors clicking open.

One student hammered against the wall next to her room to get the group's attention. "Hey, have you considered that people are trying to study here? I don't care if this Marcus guy knocked up your sister, your mother, your dog, or you. I got a report due next week, so can you please take this family drama back to whatever rat nest you fucks crawled out of?"

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"You dare call the glorious mountain holds of Old Brunswick a rat nest?!" a new voice bellowed. Shiv guessed it was probably one of the other boys in the group. Maybe that guy with a goat tattoo over his eye.

"We're not leaving," one of the boys called again. "We're not leaving until Marcus comes out and faces a trial on blood at our hands. For what he did. For everything he did."

A new voice joined the fray, this one deep and rumbling, with an odd accent. Shiv remembered hearing this one. It was the ogre in the communal kitchen earlier. "Hey you lot, if you keep makin' a ruckus like this, I'm gonna have to call campus security."

"Get away from us, you monster!"

"Monster," the deep voice echoed, rolling the "r" in an exaggerated manner. The ogre sighed. "Okay. Very, very mature. I'm gonna go back to the kitchen, and then I'm gonna signal security. You guys have fun battering down the doors and then cleaning out all the latrines next week. We'll be sure to leave you an extra special gift after holdin' it in for two days."

Shiv felt the ground shake as the ogre stomped away. He began pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alright, Adam, if I can't choke them out, what do you suggest? Because we're going to need to deal with campus security soon too. Just great. Can't even finish washing myself in peace. Fucking, come on."

"I don't know, how about opening the door and pretending to be Marcus? And then you can just, just speak to them. Calm them down with your Psychology."

"Yeah, I don't think they want to be calm, Adam. I think they want to kill Marcus. And if they try, their weapons or their fists are going to break against me. And then I'm going to have to answer several questions. Such as, why is this Adept-Tier student seemingly indestructible? And with Magnolia being there with them, she's definitely going to notice something's up. She's a Master. And if she gets pissed enough, she'll take a swing at me using one of her axes. And boy did she come close earlier."

"Well, you didn't help things much then either." Adam winced as he remembered that too. He'd been monitoring Shiv all this while, so the Deathless didn't need to recount his encounter with Magnolia. "Maybe it's best that you don't speak with them. Alright. So how about you just come over this dimensional pathway and wait for things to blow over."

"Yeah, I considered that," Shiv said. "But they're probably going to keep waiting outside. And they're never going to stop hounding me. No, we need to find a way to finish this and finish this for good. I can't be running away from them every time I try crossing the campus grounds. I'm not doing that shit. The entire point of a Perfect Semblance is being able to operate freely in the capital. This isn't free."

And then a cunning plan formed in the back of Shiv's mind. "Helix!" he called out. "Can you add some meat and, uh, other tissues to my face and ears right now?"

"You want me to apply bits of flesh to your Perfect Semblance and disguise you as someone who looks slightly different from Marcus. Is that it?" Helix sighed, and he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Uh, yeah," Shiv said. "Something like that. Maybe I'll be able to pull something off. They'll come in, they'll think I'm Marcus, and then I'll tell them they found the wrong guy. And after that, they'll not come back around here anymore."

"She has your scent, though," Adam stressed.

"Scents can be wrong." Shiv waved him off. "I just need them to be convinced that—"

"Shiv, the Analyze skill!" Adam all but snarled. "Think, Shiv!"

"Godsdamn it!" Shiv forgot that the Analyze Skill was a thing. He barely used it, and most other people couldn't get much use out of it against him thanks to his Non-Sequitur Skill.

"You could just wait for security to arrive," Whisper noted. He used one of his knives to pick at his nails, seeming utterly nonchalant about the whole affair. "They will have to be removed for causing this disturbance, and then it won't be your matter. Or, I can help you make them vanish—"

"No!" Shiv and Adam both cried at the same time.

The Deathless sighed. "I just—" And then he paused as he looked at Adam. His cunning plan took a sharp turn. "Adam, we can disguise you. I can hide in your cape and telepathically tell you what to say!"

"What? No, absolutely not," Adam said. "This dorm has been assigned to you, and if I expose myself, people here might recognize me."

"That's why we disguise you," Shiv said, emphasizing the words. "Helix, get on that. Here, Adam." Shiv removed his cape and placed it on the Gate Lord's shoulders. "You just need to convince them to piss off, and you tell them that this room is your room, and that they made a mistake."

Before Adam could reject the idea, Shiv was already moving. He fastened his cape around the Gate Lord's neck, and Adam hissed as a wave of Biomancy crashed against his face. His nose grew a little bit longer, and his ears a little wider. Patches of meat were added to his cheeks, making him seem positively cherubic rather than lean and handsome.

"You owe me for this," Adam seethed at Shiv.

"I owe you for a lot of things, Adam," Shiv patted him on the shoulder. "You're a great guy. I'm going inside. I'll cook something for you later. Chicken wings or something. Here." Shiv wrapped his towel around Adam's body and somersaulted into the cape, earning a mock applause from the orcs.

***

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Adam grumbled under his breath. He looked down and realized he was still clad in his Legendary armor. Shiv's towel barely masked anything. "Ascendants, this…" He shaped a sheen of water over himself using his Heroic Skill and growled. "It'll have to do for now." He looked behind him. "Orcs. Stay there. Don't kill anything."

"Do we answer to you, now?" Helix asked.

Adam grunted and responded by whipping the Biomancer in the face with a tendril of water. Helix gave a squawking cry of pain as he tumbled back. Adam clicked his tongue. "Very mouthy for a non-martial in slapping distance."

Whisper and Tequila laughed.

"The bird's finding his cock," Mortar called from the other side.

Adam stomped out of the cramped bathroom while Shiv dove toward the forest of alloy, where his Voidmantid armor was still waiting.

Adam couldn't believe he was doing this shit. But compared to letting Shiv just choke these people out, or come up with another harebrained scheme, let alone whatever atrocities the orcs might inflict, this was likely for the best. Taking a deep breath, he centered himself and commanded his heart to calm.

"Relax, Adam," Shiv said over a freshly established Psychomanctic link. "Just tell them you're another student or something. Make them think they're in the wrong place—oh, shit, get the bed. Make it seem like you live here."

Adam immediately stepped over to the bed. He made it seem messier than it had been a few moments ago, flipping the sheets and leaving the pillow askew. He also pulled the chair out—and grimaced as he realized Shiv didn't have any belongings. No books, no keepsakes, no anything.

Adam placed his rapier on the table for now, using it as a distraction. If someone came in, he could say he was trying to tinker with his family heirloom, keep it away from their prying eyes if they tried to Analyze it or touch it.

As another set of bangs followed, Adam bit his bottom lip and pulled the door open. "Yes, yes, WHAT IS IT ?" he shouted, speaking into the robe-covered chest of an absolutely massive student.

The Gate Lord did a double-take. This one was practically Shiv-sized. "How do they feed these people in Old Brunswick?" Adam thought to himself. "They're in the damned harshlands."

"I kind of want to know too," Shiv whispered.

As the angry band of students gathered to murder Marcus Unblood took in the sight of the disguised Adam Arrow, he looked back at them with a gesture of pure frustration. "So? Who are you fine, overfed gentlebrutes? Who is this Marcus? And what brings you to my dorm in the middle of the night?" He waved behind himself wildly, gesturing at the rest of his room. "If you can't see, I'm in the middle of something here, tinkering with equipment. Very intensive work. Also distracting all the other people in the dorm."

The towering boy was briefly at a loss for words, but then he clenched his jaw and tried pushing Adam aside. Large as he was, though, there was one critical difference between them. Adam was a Heroic-Tier martial Pathbearer, and he most definitely wasn't going to be brushed aside by the lowest of Adepts.

The large boy shoved. Adam didn't move an inch. An irritated frown grew on the Gate Lord's face, and he simply folded his arms in mimicry of how Shiv would when he was unimpressed with someone.

"Move aside!" the large boy growled.

"I think not," Adam deadpanned.

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