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*****
And the person responsible for most of Wednesday's current chaos was, at that very moment, doing absolutely nothing responsible at all.
Ethan lounged on the thick branch of an old pine deep in the woods, one leg dangling lazily, the other braced against the trunk.
In his hand, he swirled a small glass vial filled with dark red liquid.
Rowan's blood.
Don't ask how he got it—it was better for everyone's sanity not to know. Ethan considered it compensation. After all, he saved Rowan's life. A little fee wasn't unreasonable.
"Since he is a DaVinci," Ethan muttered to himself, "this should net me at least… six hundred points?"
He tapped the vial.
A soft ding echoed—not from the glass, but from somewhere far less physical.
He smirked and flicked his finger.
"Recycle."
The vial dissolved into motes of blue light, scattering like digital fireflies.
Then the system chimed again:
[Da Vinci blood detected]
[Recycling…]
[Recycle halted. Suitable trait found in blood.]
Ethan froze mid-lounge.
"…Huh? That's new."
His brow furrowed. Hyde blood hadn't triggered anything like this. Nothing had. This was the first time a "suitable trait" popped up in the readout.
He waited.
The system—as usual—offered him no explanation.
It simply continued its silent, mechanical process.
[Extracting the trait Telekinesis]
[Extraction complete]
[Initiation merging with Host ]
"Merge wha—?"
A red sphere blinked into existence right in front of Ethan's face.
VSSSH—!
It shot straight into his forehead.
Everything went white.
"G—aaahhh—!"
The pain hit like a sledgehammer through his skull. His vision blurred, his ears rang, and the branch under him suddenly felt a mile away—because he wasn't on it anymore.
THUMP!
He hit the ground back-first, the shock forcing the air out of his lungs.
"Kh—!"
He curled up, palms digging into the dirt as the pain kept climbing. It wasn't just a headache—it felt like something was twisting nerves, forcing new pathways into his brain with a hot drill.
His pulse hammered in his ears.
DUM-DUM-DUM-DUM.
His eyes flashed red. His fangs shot out. His fingers clawed at the grass like he was trying to ground himself.
"STOP—stop—fuck—!"
But it didn't.
A wave of anger punched through him out of nowhere, sharp and feral, like something else was pulling on his instincts.
He staggered to his feet, half-blind, grabbing the nearest tree for balance—
—and instead he crushed the bark under his fingers with a CRRRACK.
He didn't even mean to. The surge in his body was that overwhelming.
"Rrgh—!"
He pulled—and the whole young tree tore out of the ground in a shower of dirt and snapping roots.
Before he could think, he swung it.
WHAM!
The uprooted trunk smashed into a thicker tree. Bark exploded off it. The impact echoed through the forest with a deep THOOOOOM.
Ethan stumbled back. His hands were shaking hard now—not with anger, but with the aftershocks ripping through his skull.
His head throbbed in pulses.
THROB—THROB—THROB.
He fell to one knee.
"Aaaaaa—shit! Shit, shit—!"
It felt like someone was peeling open the inside of his brain and rewiring it, piece by piece.
He pressed both hands to his temples.
His fingernails dug into his scalp.
Finally—after what felt like minutes—the pain began to ebb, leaving behind a ringing numbness.
"That… was not awesome," he panted, collapsing onto the ground. "Holy—telekinesis really screws with your head… No wonder Rowan acts like he's two steps from a breakdown."
The system window flickered quietly beside him.
Ethan glared at it with bloodshot eyes.
"And you—a warning! Just one! Is that too much to ask? I'm not a damn puzzle box you can shove random powers into!"
The system didn't respond.
It just floated. Unbothered.
Like almost turning him feral was a normal Tuesday function.
Ethan groaned and lay back against the splintered remains of a stump, rubbing his temples as the last vibrations faded.
"Good thing I'm in the forest," Ethan said under his breath. His head still throbbed in dull pulses, like someone tapping metal against bone. "If that happened at school, I'd definitely have broken something… or someone."
He looked at the mess he'd made.
A whole tree lay on its side, roots sticking out of the dirt like snapped wires. He didn't even remember grabbing it — just a blur of pain and irritation before everything went sideways.
As he stepped around the fallen trunk, he noticed movement — small, careful, way too intentional to be an animal.
A hand-shaped silhouette clung to the side of the bark.
Ethan stared at it for a moment.
"…Thing?"
The hand froze, as if hoping he hadn't actually seen it. Then it slowly curled its fingers inward, like someone caught eavesdropping.
Of course.
Wednesday must have sent him.
Ethan let out a quiet sigh. Not annoyed — just tired.
"So she's already spying on me," he said plainly. "Figures."
Thing gave a tiny shrug, more apologetic than defensive, as if to say it wasn't my idea.