"Welcome new constellation, to the StarStream!" A voice spoke within my head, would this become a thing?
"Up here young one." Up?
Looking up I found what could only be described as a fairy, one of the mystic entities from the plane of the Fae, a mischievous little thing that liked to play jokes on the other species, and the main survivors of that plane.
They made excellent constellations and contractors, and it was quite amusing to watch their streams both as participants and as live streamers.
To be honest I had modeled most of what I wanted to stream after them.
"Great, my name is [The Mischievous one]," that was probably closer to a moniker since most of the Fae presented themselves with a name similar to that, since they were a species that relied on the most esoteric side of magic, for them names had a deeper meaning than most, even as a constellation.
"I greet the old one." So I lowered my head and presented, I didn't offer my [Name] as that would needlessly put me at risk, she probably already knew it, but giving your name had other meanings to them.
"Good!" The Fae spoke, "Smart, not offering an easy way in. I may just subscribe to you at this point...so long you had a reason to hide your [Name] from me that is."
The eyes of the Fae turned predatory, it took most of my willpower to not cave upon the pressure it was emitting.
But the Fae seemed to relent after a few seconds, "So? Give me a [Link] at least so I can take a peek at your [Profile] if you will not give me a name."
A what?
"Will your interface for a [Link], just thing [Share] or something, we Fae use [Gossip] but some species use [Share], others [Dispense], [Bestow], [Hand Out] or even [Communicate]." The Fae said.
So I willed in my mind the words [Share], while thinking about the option on social media to share a post, it should work like that. And while thinking of that a small arrow like the one in social media manifested on my hand.
"Well? Hand it out already!" Said the Fae while flying towards my hand hovering above the thing.
"Share, like, comment, and subscribe?" I said absently minded as the little arrow floated above my hand as I offered it to the Fae.
"Neat, those ones spread live bugs, you got yourself a good way to get it." The Fae said as my subscription count rose by one, "[The Collector] huh, wish I had a good one like that."
Hah?
This Fae wanted a forbidden power?
"Don't you know about us? We don't listen to the pesky rules like you all. Part of the reason the Fae Realms are so feared by all." The Fae said with a predatory smile on its face, right.
They were among the species that were hunted as soon as they got out of control, unlike other dangerous species these were mostly left to their own devices for that same reason.
Why was it here then?
"I'm here to give you the list, yes I already knew who and what you are!" The Fae said smugly.
Right....
"So?" I couldn't help but ask, at this point, there was no way to get out of this anyway, so better pull the Band-Aid early on.
"Here is your list!" The Fae gave me a notepad, it was full of names. Most of those in this list had some kind of...Issue.
And very low potential talent, gripes, and traumas were a must on it, no overachievers, no focused ones, no people with big dreams nor motivated ones.
It was, in a nutshell, full of trash.
"Now, I am [Bound] to say this, [You are, under no circumstance, to choose a contractor outside that list. Should you pick one outside this list, you will have 5 hours to give an explanation and to rescind the contract till a board of high-ranked constellations approves it.], there you have it." The Fae said, and then after that. She flew close to me.
What did this one want now?
"I do encourage the use of loopholes, like...if you manage to find someone that has the same name and a close enough look you could get away with contracting out of the list..." The fae spoke its whispers.
Meaningless whispers I would have to add, I haven't been a constellation for long and I already know that it would be close to impossible to escape the judgment and scrying eye of the older constellations.
"I will take that under consideration." I would of course do not have such a meaningless struggle.
I needed to pick one fast so I could get a new skill to grant that wasn't on the list of forbidden powers, actually..." How does one get a new skill?" I asked the Fae.
It may know of easier ways to get powers since they liked to skirt the rules, "You take the gold coins they give you in live streams other constellations or inhabitants of the lower worlds with access to the stream and give them to the StarStream shop." The Fae answered.
Making a small flourish a blue screen similar to the ones I used but with vines and flowers on the outside materialized, it was...a shop, it had some stuff selling on it.
"You get access to the shop when you get 100 memberships, here you will be able to buy one of the skills on the list, usually they are in a similar vein to your main skill as a constellation. So you will need to buy the loot boxes and hope for a different skill. Just roll those enough and at some point, you will get a new skill that can alter your [Name] that will be the first signal that you are free of the limitations of that notebook." The Fae said with a smirk on its face.
Sure, get lucky enough to earn a skill powerful enough to alter my [Name]?
That was a pipe dream if I ever saw one, but so was becoming a constellation.
So I would attempt to do that, there wasn't anything else I could do. Even if I was immortal as a Constellation, and didn't require sleep, eat, or anything, I could still get bored. And boredom was the enemy, other constellations did contracts to relieve their boredom, or searched for new content to make.
But I couldn't.
I was limited to one contract from a very narrow list of candidates, a narrow list that wasn't limited to me, other with forbidden skills could pick from the list too...
And worse...
Other constellations with normal skills could too, as to why a few names had disappeared from the notebook already. "There aren't reserved to forbidden list users huh." I said out loud reading noticing that.
"Nope, I will take one from that list too actually, they are kinda fun to use as they need extra management just so they don't break and make you lose [Gold Coins] fixing them." The Fae answered.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
So I needed to make my choice and fast at it, "Thank you for your guidance old one." I said trying to make the Fae leave.
"I will be seeing you around [Collector]." And at least the Fae left.
Leaving me alone in this vast empty space, taking the chance to look around I found myself...Alone.
It seemed to be an empty space suffused with my presence, I was aware of everything around and could even will some things to materialize some stuff around, it was all away from a flicker of my will.
Soon enough I had my old room materialized around me, this helped me condense the huge space around me into something more accessible. Some of my sensibilities as a formal mortal could deal with it, it was easier to think and deal with things if they were closer to what I was used to.
In this confined space I could deal with things more easily, in a corner of the room was a PC, my mind had condensed most of the powers I had access to as a constellation in it. Sitting at it allowed me to see and understand my new capacities better.
It also allowed me to see more information about those that I could contract. Not only the ones on the list but everyone, that was accessible to me, most of those names came from the new integrated world yes. But the list was full of names, concepts, and history of every living thing that could make a contract with me.
At the top of it were those who shared a deep connection with my power as [The Collector], people who seemed to be ideal to me, people who could thrive and expand my influence.
People that would no doubt take my power and make something [Better], that would [Understand] what I needed and what my power could [Do].
People that in no way or form would make it to the list.
I did give it a read to the full list while reading the notebook, perhaps they would have missed one? No such luck.
It may be time to stop holding onto the hopes of having an easy time and dive fully into the list granted to me, after all, even with all the time in the world the sooner I made the contract the better since in the earliest stages of an integration was when most people would evolve and thrive.
End-of-the-world scenarios tend to make it easier to thrive, and are a good spot for new constellations to iterate through contracts, since the contractors tend to not live long, so it's easier to test stuff without having to terminate the contract from their end.
Or from my end I guess.
Now...Who would I pick...After reading it and comparing it with the full list I had a choice to make between 20 candidates, the better-suited ones for my power as [The Collector] anyway.
Isabella Taylor, Lucas Brown, Mia Turner, and Samuel Jenkins...Those seemed to be the better ones to pick, either for their talents or background, some had high talent but had bad situations yes.
But most importantly, they all had the same problem, they didn't have the tools needed to do their job, and that wouldn't be a problem should they pick him as a [Constellation]. His power would allow them to pick up what they needed on the go, either by [Collecting] it from around or from whatever form their apocalypse turned out to be.
Should it be the average [Rift] one or [Invasion] it mattered not, they would be able to get what they needed.
The problem was...who would he choose?
The one with the highest talent was Samuel, but not only was he old, he would need to use the skill to fix his health first, and if the character he could gleam from the information was something to go by...He may not want to [Collect] health from those around him, it didn't matter how they treated him.
This may be harder than he thought.
