Doomed doomed doomed doomed...

  James had been pacing around the nest for the past few minutes under the worried gaze of the ratlings, shaken down to his core - he could tell there was a pun to be made here but he wasn't in the mood - by what he had learned about Aspects and what people thought of them. More precisely, the Transformation Aspect.

  "Maybe it's not Transformation and just looks like it! Yes! Let's just compare a few tell-tale signs based on the list that's linked in the article. Ok, let's go..."

  "Transformation can be used on anything, from inanimate objects to living things with corpses in-between. The difficulty of the transformation - or corruption, infection, purification, or infusion, depending on who you ask - depends on the complexity of the target, the materials it is made of, its mass, and, in the case of a living entity, its willingness."

  Ok, there's no denying it, that's exactly what I've been doing with shadows. At least I know it works on living things and corpses too now, though they don't specify any side effects.

  "Infusing a non-elemental object is easier than transforming an elemental one, and trying to infuse an elemental object with its opposing element is much harder - the Vallenian Scurge, being attuned to the Earth Element, was heavily slowed down once it assaulted the floating city of Monttaie, constructed entirely out of materials infused with the Wind Element and populated by numerous Aeromancers."

  Oh. Good to know. If infusing a phone was enough to send me in the cords for a couple of days and block my shadow stuff for a while, I don't want to know what a more complex object made with better materials infused with light - I guess? At least based on usual elemental shenanigans it's what shadow's opposite should be - would do. Or well, I do, but I don't want to experience it.

  Curiosity about how far his abilities could reach eased his mind, and so James jumped on the opportunity to turn to a more enjoyable train of thought.

  I should try to figure out which Aspects I have, shouldn't I? Well, Transformation is obvious, but what about the rest?

  James went over the list once again, taking in every single detail - though he didn't know how useful it would be to know this article was made by some Alan Leone. What were the chances he would ever meet the man? Though, thinking about it, considering this world's twisted sense of irony, he was probably setting up a flag. Oh well, having a professional opinion wouldn't hurt.

  I can't test out any new stuff since my shadow abilities are still locked - or blocked, or sealed, or jammed or whatever - but I should still be able to establish a basic diagnosis. Let's get to the obvious one right off the bat, I'm a shapeshifter. But how does that work? Apparently, there's light and heavy shapeshifting, what's the difference?

  Again, who better to ask a question you quickly wanted the answer to than the Internet? But, this time, James found something a little different. Not an article, not some wiki page, but a forum.

  "HardCored: Confused Cored helping each other."

  Well, that seemed promising. The only downside was that he required an account to view the different discussions, so he simply just made one. Well, he had to make a mail address before that, he planned on something random on a random host platform, but, when he began to fill the different spaces, an address he had never made automatically filled in. James looked at the ratlings who all shrugged before shrugging himself. It probably came with the phone infusion if he had to guess.

  Ok, one last look at the rules... Blah blah, no illegal content... Privacy Policy... Hu, you can't publish personal information, not even your own. Probably to preserve people from getting taken by Villains or something? Oh, and what's that?

  "This forum is not for boasting, it's about asking people for help on how to manage your abilities and what to do in which situations. Any boasting will be viewed as a faker and will be banned."

  I guess when people CAN throw trucks around like they were paper planes, some people will try to gather attention by pretending to be all-powerful.

  In a couple of tentacle taps, James' account was set up. It was simple, default avatar, no bio, only the bare minimum to use the site really. He wasn't in the mood to set up anything more complex and, honestly, it wasn't like he planned on using the forum much afterward. Once he had asked a few questions and received a few answers, he wouldn't have any reason to use it anymore.

  He did take the time to make a good username, not something overly thought-out but enough not to seem suspicious. Someone who was simply called "Bob" or "Joe" on the Internet probably was hiding something.

  James quickly checked over the numerous threads that existed and quickly gave up on browsing them. He didn't want to bother looking through a dozen different versions of "help, I set my house on fire" just to get a hint at the information he actually wanted. And, thankfully, the forum had some kind of live chatroom he could use.

  James looked down at the screen before sighing. What had he expected, genuinely helpful people on the Internet? Things seemed to be good at first but they clearly weren't focused enough to help him. At least, until he saw a notification at the corner of the screen, something about someone sending him a private message. He shrugged, he had nothing to lose trying.

  Was James willing to tell someone else the basics of his abilities to help narrow down which Aspects he had? Yes. Was he ready to tell them everything? Of course not. His self-diagnosis on Transformation would definitely stay secret, for example, and preferred to keep his shapeshifting secret too, just in case someone went after him.

  So, James had Body, Might, Will, Soul, and Transformation. Well, at least he had a plethora of choices to deal with the Titaroach once he got his powers back, as well as after some training. That thing clearly was stronger than him right now, so he too would have to go through some sparring with the rats to learn how to deal with an actual opponent.

  And maybe he would check on his notifications on the forum from time to time as well. Although they hadn't been that useful they seemed like a merry bunch, and hey, that Saray had been really nice. Maybe he would take them up on that offer.

  He just had to find a story to tell about his homeland that explained why he didn't know anything about everything in this world.