(Second Collab with EpicKDP) As they flew to the dorms, William finally spoke, his voice just above a whisper, "La'Tavia, can we talk?" “Bout time you woke up!!” La’Tavia replied in excitement. The two were almost at the dorms. She spotted some benches near by and headed for them. Landing, she let William down and sat on the bench. Stretching her her body long the bench she sat on, she melted in exhaustion. “What did you want to talk about?” William propped himself up on the bench and said, "Well, to make a long story short, I come from a family of Magi, Magi who record and guide the story of Humanity towards some imaginary Golden Ending." He frowned. "I fancied myself the Hero-Sage who would bring that ending about, and became an arrogant ass trying to do so. But now... I doubt whether sich a Golden Ending exists after all, that Humanity - No, Sapientkind's - story will ever end. "Because stories are made up of cycles of conflict, cycles that never end, and part of me believes that my family has been lying to Humanity to keep them happy and calm even as their nature keeps driving them to both heroism and depravity." “Story......Ending?” Words which usually had straight forward meanings now threw La’Tavia for a loop. The way he described everything was like he was some king of ‘super being’ who had some kind of dumb duty. “What do you mean ‘End the story?’ What story are you trying to end?” "My family says that Humanity can be guided into an eternal paradise of happiness, a golden heaven of ecstasy and bliss," William said. "I had a vision of it, either at birth or as a toddler; my memories are uncertain. Point is, I think I've been living a lie for all my life, and so is my family." La’Tavia’s head popped up quickly as the words passed into her ears. “THANK GOD!! What kind of asshole tries to decide everyone else’a fate?” William looked at her, "Me. And if I stop trying to do so, I lose my Magic. All of it." La’Tavia sat all the way up. And placed both her hands onto the part of the bench that was exposed between her legs. The red haired girl the turned her head towards William with a look of disbelief. “What are you talking about? Explain it now! How does your magic work again? The long story, this time.” William says, "My magic is _Story Magic_. You see, there are stories all around us. That latest tragedy where a bus tipped over a ravine? A story. An underdog candidate winning an election? A story. Or, more understandably, Wars, Romances, Crime, those are all stories. Any event, if they fit into patterns like 'A leads to B', is a story. And stories are made up of various parts. "For example, have you watched Lord of the Rings? In that story, the Kingdom of Gondor is besieged by a large army of Orcs and Evil Monsters, while the good guys muster an army - _Two_ armies, in fact - to save it. But they don't come up with that army or those armies out of wholecloth; the armies have to come from somewhere, the beings who make up said armies have to decide to go, and finally, the armies have to reach the battlefield in time. "The Ascot Family Power can interfere with any stage of that. They can make it so that the place the armies come from are struck by a sudden blizzard, send omens to make the people in said armies decide not to go, or just delay the armies so that they don't get there in time. Note - We're on the side of the heroes, the side of the good guys. Most of the time." “Okaaaay,” La’Tavia said while trying to take everything in, “so what does that have to do with losing your powers?” "Because the powers only work when you are trying to influence someone else's fate. When you are trying to change or edit what has already been written," William said. "For example, you want to save The Little Match Girl. But you can't just give her fire or food because that won't make a good Story. Instead, to save her with Story Magic, you have to make it interesting." A pause. "And by interesting, you get Santa Claus to swoop in in his sleigh and marry her to The Little Mermaid. Or give The Little Match Girl super powers. Or just have a kind rich man decide to take pity on her and adopt her by getting said rich man's carriage wheels stuck together right in front of her." “From what it sounds like, your magic is really scary.” La’Tavia sat back as she looked to the sky beginning to change to night. “It’s like it was created to do something really bad and it’s waiting for the right dummy to make it happen.” William nodded. "Yes. That's why I'm afraid of it and afraid that my family is deceived or decieving others. Note that aside from duplicating weapons of legend, my other powers are fairly weak. The first allows one to touch a person or object and show everyone images of things that have happened to them or it, the third distorts fate and probability to allow allies to arrive just in time to save you, and the fourth allows you to come to the aid of your allies at the right time if they call on you using that same distortion." “That’s pretty O. P. Ha ha ha....” La’Tavia laughed at how absured his powers were. Everything had such an extreme consequence no matter how you looked at it. However, such an ability is still too wishy-washy. Everything has a drawback. The scale of doing something has to have some kind of bad reaction somewhere. At least her mind thought that. “So what are you trying to say? Are you asking for some kind of help? Or just wanted to share something with me?” William said, "I think you already gave me what I needed; another person's perspective. And a reminder that I can't just do what I want with other people's fates." “Definitely, people might do horrible things but many more do good things, at the same time. People change their own fate EVERY SINGLE DAY.” La’Tavia then pointed her right index finger at Williams heart. “This might seem sappy but you need to decide what you want to do with your power. The thing about magic is.....once you know how to manipulate mana, what you can do is expanded upon, exponentially. Besides, I think your magic has roots in things that you might be able to learn something.......”. Her mind went blank from all the talking. He head was hurting from the thinking and she just wanted to go to bed. “Let’s get to our rooms. Mind walking a lady to her dorm? I kind of don’t want to be alone with my thoughts just yet.” William gets up, "I will be glad to do so, milady." A smile, "By the way, contact me when you reach your eighteenth birthday; we can head out for dinner then." “Oh no.....” she said playfully, “he became some charming knight in armor. Ha!” It was amusing seeing him use that kind of language. She could not take his seriously. “You know, I will drain your pockets for everything it’s worth right?” "It's all right; it's not like I have many friends to spend my coin on," William's faint smile continued as he walked with La'Tavia towards the dorms. “Uh huh, then you can be my underlying.” La’Tavia stopped walking and got in front of William. “That does it. You are hear-by inducted into the group known as Outcast. Everything you do is for the betterment off the people. We help and we beat people down who hurt others. Anything done out of the ordinary will be punished by me and I’m sure you know how I operate. William had no reason to refuse but he couldn’t refuse anyway. William's smile grew wider. “Good. Now that that’s settled, my next command is simple.” She stood up dignified as her face become stern. “Study your magic and master it. Don’t let it rule you, you rule it.” William nodded, tempted to cry tears of joy but refraining from doing so. His expression was off. Was he about to cry? “The hell’s wrong with you?” "I... I've never been treated this kindly before. Not even by my family - Granted, it was because I was acting like I was the best thing since sliced bread, but still," William was honest. “You never acted like that for the short time I’ve been around you. “ she felt a bit awkward ad hoped he was not catching feelings. She then began walking again back to the dorm Another set of nods, as William turned silent; they had almost reached the dorms anyway. “Well this is my stop. Thanks for everything. Just don’t disobey my orders!” William waved bye, before going back to his shared room/dorm.