The "Best" RPG Ever-38

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Nora stood in something resembling a grand cathedral, in between the end of two long rows of tall, white candles burning in every color of the rainbow, before a towering statue that threatened to scrape the roof. She was wearing a cermonial dress of some sort that was mostly obsucured by a white cloak on the outermost layer; it made her feel uncomfortable, disconnected from the world around her, but it seemed that dulling those senses was the point of the outfit. She was...supposed to be focused on the statue, or more specifically, who it represented.

A god, of course; one of those she had read about the other day at the library. Specifically, she who goverened nature, shaped like a centaur with a strong horse's lower body and the upper body of a beautiful woman. She had a scar across her horse half's right flank, represented in statue form by a long, deep cut hewn into that part of the stone, traditionally only after the rest of the work was complete. Nora's talent of reading and manipulating nature was like a frail echo of the goddess's own, and at the same time recognized by those here as a gift from her, to be used in her service.

Why was she here now...? Part of her felt as if she hadn't been here in years, and part as if this was just another step in the daily routine. But ultimately, it felt like this was because of what had happened last night, or...earlier tonight? There was noon sunlight coming into the cathedral, but a part of her knew it was really still night. She had meant to use the goddess's power for good, of course, to protect and heal others, and destroy abominations against nature—monsters, demons, undead, anything else like that. But it hadn't gone that way tonight, had it? Instead she'd been used by one, her hand turned against an ally. Was this...supposed to be penitence for that?

No...this experience, standing here in front of the statue, wasn't about apologizing. It was about doubt. This was...the day before she had left. Of course, she wasn't supposed to leave for at least another century, not until...something had happened, the idea of what was vague at the moment. Days before this she had stood here and planned the escape, thinking only of how useless it was to have a power like hers and spend her days here doing little more than gardening, listening to lectures, standing in this place. There were people hurting and dying out there, and even the priests here would be loath to follow her to the frontier, as dangerous as the journey was supposed to be.

This was the last time she stood before the statue, and she was saying goobdye. If the goddess didn't want her to leave, she could leave a message in her dreams tonight, or a vision to one of the priests, warning them to stop her. No such thing had happened, but then, the gods often seemed reluctant to stop a mortal who really wanted something, even to the point of allowing a follower to go directly against their wishes. It was just that if that happened, the god often felt it right to punish that mortal sometime afterward. Nora didn't feel particularly punished at the moment, but in the context of what had happened tonight, the doubt from back then that she should leave took on a new meaning: Should she have waited? Was there a risk of her power, the goddess's great gift, being wasted or misused further just because she hadn't learned everything here? But surely, the good she had done since leaving, instead of waiting around here for longer than some races even lived, was more than enough to make up for a few missteps. Was it?

Nora received no answer; the statue was as silent as always. But as she was about to remember turning and leaving this place, she did hear a dog...barking and whining outside. That hadn't happened before, a part of her said. It was worth investigating. She turned and left in more of a hurry than it felt she really had back then, but as soon as she began running between the rows of candles toward the exit, she awoke with a start, sitting up in bed, the feeling of too much covering her skin fleeing as the covers fell off of her torso.

The elf bolted upright, eyes wide open, and then turned quickly to the source of the noise. Zack and Katherine's beds, next to each other tonight, were empty, the former's looking like a real wild animal had stayed in it recently. And the wild animal the group knew best was on his hind legs, forepaws on Zack's bed, and he was barking and whining in distress, probably at sleeping through his 'alpha' disappearing.

Behind her, the witch gave an obnoxiously loud yawn. "Huueeehh~...what's all the ruckus about?" "Z-zack's gone." Nora stood up and went over to the wolf, bending over slightly and putting a hand close to the top of its head in an offer to comfort him. He paused to growl briefly at her, but then just pushed his head up to the hand and rubbed it a bit anyway.
"Oh, yeah. Kath woke herself up to get him to the healer."

"I see." She fixed her eyes on the wolf's, rubbing its head gently. "He's g-getting help. That's good. They'll be b-back soon." The wolf gave a mollified sort of whine and ducked back onto the floor, out of her reach again. He gave a soft bark that seemed like a 'hmph' and moved over to the door to go out and downstairs. Mika opened it for him.

"So, uh, how'd you sleep?"

"Well, I s-suppose. I had a strange dr-dream."

"Hey, if you don't like those you could ask our resident catgirl to bridge you into the multi-dream with me," she said. "Way more chill than a blast of subconscious confusion."

"Hmn." The elf responded neutrally, uncertain about the offer. Everything about the events and thoughts in that dream had felt so familiar, even though...she'd never really been to a place like that. And the bandits from before had said something about her being a priestess, right?

By the time they got downstairs, the two animal girls were on their way inside, and Zack seemed to be walking normally again, maybe even in something resembling good spirits. The wolf had been waiting at the door and practically jumped over to sniff his alpha up and down in greeting, before drawing himself back to a calm sitting position and pretending he hadn't. The witch ran up to them, Nora trailing slowly behind. "Good morning!" she said cheerfully.

"Morning, sleepyheads," said the psion. "You as hungry as we are?"

"Well, I did just eat last night," said Mika, "but I could go for some normal food too." They sat down at a booth up against the wall the stairwell was behind and started ordering.

After that was done, the witch said, "Now, I have an announcement. I want to call myself Mira from now on."
"Okay," said Zack. "Why?"
"Well, I feel like it fits my new look a lot better. Don't you?" He just shrugged.

"An-yway," the catgirl cut in, "We all have something we need to discuss."
"Last night," the knight nodded. "It didn't really go so well."

Nora looked away from the others, toward the rest of the tavern. "I'm s-sorry," she said softly.

"Hey, it's not your fault," Zack said. "Or.."
"I mean, it is a little bit, but not any more than it is mine," said Katherine. "I should be better than that at defending people against mental assaults."
"Or I probably should've done something about it," said Mira, "I mean, the mess wouldn't have started without my help."

Zack cut in, "The point is that it doesn't matter whose fault it is, or if it's even someone's fault in the first place. We just need to plan on how to prevent something like that from happening again. And.." He waved at Nora, trying to get her to look at him across the table. When she did he gave her a seroius look. "I know what it felt like too, okay? It's...I don't think either of us could really help it."

"B-but you actually did resist it," she said. "I...I c-could feel its frustration every time it looked into your eyes and nothing happened. I just...g-gave in right away. It made me f-feel something that I d-d-didn't understand, I was c-c-confused and...and curious and...I just, let it take over." She looked and felt on the verge of tears at this point.

Katherine tried to comfort her. "Nora, it's.."

"I t-t—" she started loudly, and then much more quietly but with the same intensity, "I tried to kill you! I really t—...tried. How can you..."

"Well, you're sorry, aren't you?" said the catgirl.
"Y..yes?"
"Then I forgive you. Just don't do it again or I'll make your head explode."

"I'll..I'll remember that." She calmed down a little. And then, nervously, the elf giggled a little bit. "Heheheh..."

Zack said, "What?" Unknown to them, Rose paused in the stairwell, hearing him say it through the wall.
"I d-don't know, this is all still v-very strange. Th-that kind of thing could never be a serious threat back on Earth. This whole s-situation wouldn't even make sense to a-any of us a week or two ago."

"I guess so, yeah." Zack leaned forward onto crossed arms on the table. "I'm really starting to miss having a job that's not 'risk your life and everyone else's daily'."

"Enough about that," said Katherine. "Strategy! I can buy some skills for putting a mental shield over everyone, but first and foremost we shouldn't be afraid to konk each other on the head a little if we get confused or charmed or anything else like that. Worst case we knock an ally out and they stop hurting anyone instead of continuing to come after the rest of us."

The dragon-girl hadn't moved, except to carefully maneuver her head so her ear was against the wall and the horn on that side wasn't inside said wall. The key word was Earth. Not dirt, a location that they'd been "back on" at some point in the past. A week or two? Rose tried unsuccessfully to do the math...it hadn't been an entire week since she'd arrived, she thought. This was not a one player game; they were talking about learning skills, like from a skill tree, like hers. Well, it hadn't felt like a one-player game anyway, every person she'd met had felt quite real. Was everyone she met just another player and nobody mentioned it because it was obvious to all of them? Or was it just...a few people, these four here? What about the other girls she'd met? The dragon-girl wasn't sure whether to bring it up or not, maybe someone would be mad at her for messing up their roleplaying or something. Roleplayers were weird like that sometimes. But here they were talking about it out of character in the in character tavern! But...

It sounded like they were stuck just like she was. Even if she brought up the subject, they wouldn't know a way to go back. Did she want to go back? It'd be nice to have the opportunity, to maybe lift the strange haze that hung over her mind from time to time. Rob wasn't really a fun person to be, though, honestly, and Rose was so much more...everything! There was something else, too...

If not everyone was a player, and if they didn't know who was or wasn't a player just like she didn't know...then they probably thought she was really a dragon from birth. If she asked them about this game business, if she told them the truth...they'd know it wasn't really her. It felt like this was really her, but in the eyes of anyone from Earth she'd just be Rob again. And in some ways she didn't like the idea of being Rob, and certainly didn't want to be seen as him while she was her! She liked being the cute, energetic dragon-girl they'd met, awkwardness and all. Besides, they would...they might not be as friendly to her if they knew who she really was, or had been...? It was fuzzy, she had a memory of being Rose for so long that it was hard to say that wasn't really who she was. So if that's who she was, then telling people she was Rob, from Earth, would then be what was lying, wouldn't it? It would give them the wrong impression, she concluded, and the impression they all had of her now was surely the right one, or at least the much more accurate one.

Grateful nobody had tried to use the stairs in the last few minutes, Rose stood upright again and shook her head slightly. That was right, she thought, that was the good way to think of it if not the only one. Fully convinced of what would be more honest now, she took the last few steps down. Oh, that sounded like the nice people who'd helped her find this town the other day, maybe she could say hello to them!

---

Lynn stood at the the front of the group, before the counter in the guardhouse. They had a fresh paper from the quest board asking for someone to track and kill a "moderate-sized" pack of goblins. The guard at the counter, a Canis man, nodded after looking at it."We had some trouble with a bunch of goblins destroying and looting caravans not too long ago. Someone spotted some more goblins in the distance on the way into town recently, and we figure, best if they don't get a chance to fill the vacuum. But unlike the ones before, we don't know where their hideout is, or even where they are. You have any experience tracking?"

"I'm pretty sure we can do it," said Rayna, nodding.
"Alright." He dug around behind the counter and pulled out a small piece of paper showing a map with the location of the town indicated near the edge and an X near the middle. Pointing at that X he said, "This is about where the traders saw 'em. Pretty much the only starting point we've got." Then he offered it to Lynn, who passed it on the fox-girl. "Best of luck to you, ladies."

"We don't need luck," said Aria, crossing her arms and grinning. Then, after a pause..."but thank you." It was kind of a trained response of hers, but she realized afterward that it might sound rude.

"Mm-hm." The guard nodded, just seeming to take it in stride. The four of them headed out.

"We don't need luck?" Lynn echoed once they were on their way out of town, Rayna of course leading with the map.

"It's a thing I used to say when I was streaming and somebody wished me good luck, like for a speedrun or a high score attempt or something. I would say—'I don't need luck. I got skill.'"
"It sounds a little...arrogant," said Clera.

"It was always true, though," Aria said. She shook her head, knowing that explanation wouldn't be enough. "It's not about arrogance, see, arrogance is thinking 'oh, I'm better than everyone else'. It's about confidence and hard work. It's saying, I put in the hours, I know this like the back of my hand, I believe I can do it, luck be darned. If I make it because I'm lucky that's not good enough, see?" She sighed. "Folks who watched my streams understood what I meant because they saw all the work and practice and heard me talking about confidence a lot. Anyway, in this case I was thinking, we don't need luck—we just learned a bunch of new skills.

"...Heh, it's a little stupid of me though, I guess, I mean it's a reference nobody else but me was ever gonna get." She made a twirling motion next to her ear. "Blame it on my low charisma and intelligence scores screwing with my personality, I guess."

"Wait, your charisma's low?" said Lynn, headtilting. "Frankly your, uh, default form isn't any less attractive than mine or Rayna's—"
"Hmph," the fox-girl in front protested.
"—well, mine at least, anyway. And even if it was you could literally make yourself as beautiful as you want, because shapeshifting."

"Well, charisma means a lot of things," said Aria. "It doesn't matter how pretty a person is if they can't get along with other people at all. I think what little score I have is just from looks, 'cause I've been super awkward socially ever since getting turned into this. And I wasn't like that before, I mean, I had tons of friends and followers..."
"Just...how much is it affecting your behavior?" said Clera, sounding concerned. "Are you able to tell?"
"A fair bit, I think." She nodded. "I'll just blurt out something and then it'll take me a minute to realize I phrased it in just about the worst way possible, or that I shouldn't have said it at all. It's like who I used to be is still in my head, playing catchup with who I am now and going 'Aria, you big dummy, nobody was gonna understand you meant that!' But it doesn't matter." The shifter shook her head again. "I mean...you guys understand me, or at least try to, even when my mouth isn't as coherent as my brain. That's enough."