"Mom, I am home…" Ace called out as he entered his new house, the words slipping out by habit as he returned from school. His voice trailed off, however, as he took in the scene—familiar, yet unfamiliar. Unlike their previous small house, this one was enormous, like the ones on daytime television. It had seven bedrooms, and in the backyard, there was a guesthouse and a servant's quarters, each the size of a medium-sized home.
Mandy had casually dismissed it as just a big ranch house, but to Ace, it felt more like a small mansion disguised as one. Uncle Dan's house, now that was a big ranch house, he thought. The Lansky family—big with elders, children, in-laws, grandchildren, full-time servants, and many relatives visiting during holidays—had built this house to suit their needs. But for Ace's family of four, it was simply too much space. He sighed, pulling out his phone to call his mom.
"Hello, Mom, I'm home. Where are you and Dad at?" he asked, his voice echoing slightly.
"We're at your uncle's house," Mary answered warmly. "Sorry, honey, I meant to call you so you could come here directly with Danny. Anyway, come join us. We're all going to attend a charity dinner tonight. We've decided to your entire lottery winnings to charity. What do you think?"
Ace blinked, surprised. His mom, who had gone from living paycheck to paycheck to being a millionaire's mom overnight, was full of gratitude. She praised the Lord daily, hoping this sudden fortune wouldn't bring misfortune.
"I would prefer you guys buy me a car, but I guess that works too," Ace replied, chuckling. He didn't mind what his parents did with the money. Ever since he became the Toymancer, wealth had become the least of his concerns.
"I knew I taught you better," Mary said with a laugh. Her voice softened, and she added, "I forgot to ask—how was your first day at school, sweetie? You know what? Come over and tell me and your aunt in detail." Mary felt a wave of relief washing over her. She was thrilled that Ace had agreed to the winnings. It was his money, she could only advise him, so his decision made her proud.
Ace smiled. "School was the usual, Mom," he answered and then added, "But I was thinking I'd set up my new room, and you guys can come get me when it's time."
"Alright, sweetie," she said warmly. "Though it's not a black-tie event, please dress appropriately. After all, this is our family's debut in the town's social circle. People will be watching, so make sure you look your best. We'll see you at 7:30."
Ace smiled faintly as he ended the call. With a soft sigh, he locked the main doors behind him, listening to the heavy click echo through the large, empty house. He headed upstairs, his footsteps muffled by the plush carpet, making his way to his room—one of the four master bedrooms in the house. As he stepped inside, he glanced around the spacious room, the afternoon sunlight streaming through the wide windows. He took a moment to stretch, shaking off the lingering tension from the day.
He planned to use the quiet time wisely: Selecting new candidates for his toy summons and practising curse arts. But the first thing Ace did was ask Dame Wasp to set a reminder for 7 PM for the charity dinner event. Then, he asked her to pull up all the information on the Changeling Curseling on the Status Screen.
Info: The Changeling's form resembles a grotesque and monstrous humanoid shaped flesh golem. It has no eyes, a lipless mouth revealing its entire razor-sharp teeth set. It has a very flat nose with two wide nostrils and no ears, but has earholes. Its skin is heavily scarred and disfigured, with deep, red scars marring its surface. Its hands and feet have razor-sharp claws capable of cutting through block of steel at amazing speed.
They tend to attach themselves to a target with a lot of negative thoughts and feelings. They feed on these negative emotions and read them to learn their trigger points. Then use it to shapeshift into objects and people that bring up those thoughts. However, they can only be visible to their mortal target for a second or less per day, hence they are often dismissed as hallucinations. As such, a single target can last for months, and in cases of strong-minded and willful mortals, years. But if the target were to become aware of their existence, it would immediately kill them and drain their soul.
Even though they don't have eyes, they are capable of using curse location. It works by emitting short, high-frequency curse waves that bounce off objects in the surroundings and return as echoes. The Changeling then processes these echoes to create an image of the object's shape, distance, and other characteristics. This allows them to perfectly shapeshift.
i) Curse Location: Using curse energy as waves to navigate and hunt.
ii) Negative Memory Reading: Being able to read memories attached to negative energy and emotions.
iii) Shape Shifting: Being able to transform into any shape they create an image of using Curse Location. If their shape-shifting is perfect, they can be vaguely visible to mortal targets for under a second per day.
i) Curse Masters are advised not to underestimate this curseling and erase all their negative emotions when fighting it.
ii) Source: Dame Wasp, Steal Song Society archives.
iii) This data is created for human convenience by humans. Curselings don't assess to this.]
[Guys, what characters have you chosen to animate as toy summons with this Curse Core?] Ace asked through status screen, curious but composedly as he settled into a chair by the large window. He leaned back, tapping his fingers lightly on the armrest while gazing at status screen.
Dame Wasp and Emi had been meticulously combing through every creative work ever produced on Earth, compiling a list of potential characters for future toy summons. Ace's eyes glinted with anticipation, eager to see what they had produce.
They weren't alone, during his classes earlier, Ace had been multitasking. With the help of Sense Share and Dame Wasp's cybernetic capabilities, he had seamlessly read through comics without raising any suspicion. School no longer posed challenge to him. With his innate status sceen curse art, he could breeze through any written or oral exam they could throw at him. Now, attending it was simply a matter of maintaining his cover.