The "Best" RPG Ever-80

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Rayna lay on her back on the bed. She had come upstairs to look for the psion, and then heard her voice..purring from Nora's room. It wasn't that she didn't expect to, maybe, hear that at some point, but...Nora of all people? Unlike, say, Mira, she had always seemed so shy and innocent about the world. And given Katherine's disposition toward the idea as recently as one or two days prior, whatever had made either of them agree to petting, much less both with each other, was beyond her. It was also, she tried to remind herself, not any of her business actually. It wasn't why she cared where the catgirl was at the moment, so...let them have their fun. The relevant thoughts and memories in her head weren't exactly going to disappear anytime soon.

Eventually, despite trying not to listen in that direction, she did hear doors unlocking and opening. She waited judiciously, until it sounded like someone was going into the stairwell, and then slowly sat back up, ran a brush through her hair, and then followed. If it wasn't Katherine who went downstairs then she could just come up after her. Fortunately, it was, as evinced by the voice in her head saying Hey, what do you want? as soon as she started thinking semi-loudly about where the psion was right now.

I need your help sorting through something mental. Actually I'm just going to send you the precise memory of what happened when I went to ask about the magic crystal we found. She started downstairs, remembering the entire event in detail. Fortunately, it didn't hurt to remember the "mind hurting," so that hadn't been erased along with whatever Tsaron had cleaned up. Otherwise this would've been really frustrating for both of them. At the same time Katherine directed Rayna to the kitchen, where she was about to get ready to make supper. The fox-girl couldn't remember whether she'd helped with a meal or not recently, and while she didn't have the talent of Lynn or Clera (for example), even a psion could find a use for a couple of extra hands.

This is, yeah...the first I've heard of 'painful' information. I hate to admit it but I think Tsaron was right to just scrub it out right away. I'd hate for you to be in pain for a while just because I've never seen something like that before.
 Rayna got to work cutting some vegetables. You know what I think? It has to have to do with the frontier. Something...maybe whatever's in the center. You never saw a dangerous thought, and I never Saw anything that made my mind hurt before, until we came out here. The evidence we've got so far suggests nobody knows what's at the center. Maybe it's because that information literally hurts?

It's a reasonable guess. But if that's true then we shouldn't even be trying to figure it out, either, the catgirl pointed out.

Nonetheless. Why do I see in my memory what I don't remember seeing? Is there anything else I remember and don't?

Not that I can tell. I can feel...a connection between the mental image with the dried blood and something beyond my reach, and the exact same kind of connection tying together what you 'Saw' of the crystal's past to the regular sensory information of looking at it in the Captain's office. I think the reasonable conclusion is—as you've sorta already guessed on your own—the origin of both is your power. I can't touch mental magic, or—I dunno, at least it's difficult for me to interact with. What you have isn't mental magic, but it's not exactly physical either. It's not like Nora's 'extra sense' where I can read off her sensory information and understand about as much as she does; it's like somehow a part of your mind is hooked into the 'veil peircing' powers so deeply that it's hard for you to tell where one starts and the other ends. While for me, well, I get this weird sort of half-picture of what you're actually experiencing when it comes to that.

Is that true just for these two things, or..?
No. You know how you have a heads-up display thing that lets you see people's names, genders, races, where North is, so on so forth? Yeah, that's not part of your sensory input from what I can tell. But it's in your memory of what you saw when you looked at a person anyway. There's a black box in the middle—your magic obviously—where I can't see what's happening at all.

And the bad news is, that means you can't tell me what the blood in the ruins means, Rayna concluded. Not even some kind of deep-subconscious scan is likely to find anything useful, because that's not where the knowledge 'is'. If whatever it is, can even be called knowledge, or information, in the first place.

Also correct. But I did notice one thing—not in the whole ruins memory, but in that little bit you saw that made your brain hurt.

The fox-girl paused what she was doing to look at Katherine for a second. What's that?

The background of that brief scene with the hand and the voice/voices, is blank. Conspicuously blank. You know how you can sort of snip out a background in an image editor and replace it with transparency, but there are little artifacts? It's a little like that, with both the visuals and the sounds.

So...the 'painful thought', which Tsaron expunged from my mind...

It was either the contents of that background, or it was very closely related. I believe he is powerful/experienced enough to have been extremely surgical and only delete what he had to. So when you spoke to Ezra you only told her what was in the foreground because you couldn't think about what was in the background. It hurt too much.

Rayna sighed. I'd very much like for somebody else to get this crystal cut up into useable pieces so I never have to even glance at it, ever again. Nora's probably the one who'll actually use them anyway, since she's always needing somewhere to pull elements to fight with from. So maybe it should be her.

...You're trying really hard not to think about what you heard when you came upstairs, huh.

Rayna almost winced at that. Ironic process theory strikes again. You could distract me, but I can't distract me.

Maybe I should just explain so you don't have to wonder? the psion offered.

No! No explaining; I don't want to know! It was two scant nights ago I asked a certain witch to pet me because I couldn't stand it anymore. I'm probably gonna do it again really soon. The less I think about it today the less likely I am to accidentally refer to it tonight since I know she wants to pet you too!

Okay, okay. How about I teach you how to brown meat, since you somehow don't know that part?

Only if you can guarantee I won't ruin it, the fox-girl thought. That's a lot of meat there to waste.

Hey, your biggest problem is confidence. Well, and laziness. Having someone else around to always cook for you is the worst way to learn how to cook, you know.

---

Zack got out of the tub and put on the fresh clothes he'd brought with him. His hair and fur, especially that tail, weren't going to be dry anytime soon despite some effort and the use of three separate towels, but it was good enough. He honestly felt better than he had in a couple of days or so: More relaxed, looser somehow, and even slightly more positive than usual mentally. He opened the door to Mira's room to find the wolf still lying there, and prodded its side gently with a foot.

He sat up with a single loud bark, turned quickly around in place before realizing who it was, and immediately started wagging his tail, looking up at the knight. It was hard to believe it had only been a week or so since this animal had been openly hostile and trying to "take over" Zack's "pack." He knelt slightly to rub the wolf's head a little bit, and then it got out of the way and followed him out to the hallway.

Nora could just pull the water out of him, he thought, wondering where she was just now on the way to his room to put away the dirty clothes. That wasn't necessary, really, as he nearly ran into her in the hallway. "Oh..hey Nora," he said. It didn't escape his notice that she was a whole head shorter than usual. And also part cat.

"Um. Hi." Her ears and tail twitched nervously for a moment.

"You look different." She had not only the tail and ears; even her eyes had those tall feline slitted pupils and seemed to mirror the light a bit more than usual—just like a certain other catgirl's.

"Uhh..yes. Kath and I um.."

"I think I can guess," he said, continuing on to his bedroom. She turned and followed.

"I can um..well, I'm actually not entirely sure that I can, really," she said.

"What, explain? You don't have to. I really don't care. Like really," Zack said. He realized after a second that putting it that way sounded kind of catty (ha), and turned around after opening his door to face her again. "I mean: I do care, but I don't mind," he said, reaching up his free hand to put on her shoulder. "Okay? If she's happy, and you're happy, then I'm happy for you. I'm sure it'll be good for all of us for you to be able to look that way, too. What is it, faster? More flexible? Balance?"
"Pretty much," she said. "Also, I've been testing it for the past few minutes but um...I don't seem to stutter, in this form. For some reason."
"That's great news." He managed to flash her something resembling a smile, and continued on into his room. "If you can figure out what's different about it maybe we can get it fixed for good."

"So you're um. Not mad or anything?" she said.

"I don't know why you think I would be angry," he said, turning around after dropping the laundry in its basket. "We're all stuck with these stupid, weird animal instincts that make us want to do weird things with other people just because we like them. I don't blame her at all. I think it's a good choice to fulfill that need in a way that benefits everyone else, plus we all get to share one big embarrassing secret together, which is no different really from how it was before. Look, I don't really know what else to say to convince you not to worry about it," he said.

"...Oh." Zack did think of one thing, after a short pause. "Do you have a plan to explain it to everyone else?"

"Uh. Kath had a pretty good idea. To tell people she, examined the memory of the time when I got wolf powers aaannd, um. Try to recreate a similar mental space, but use the feline part of her own mind in place of the canine to try and draw out that kind of power for me."
"Heheh." He chuckled very slightly. "A 'similar mental space', huh? That's one way to describe it."
"Um...are you, okay?" Nora said, looking at him with a mildly concerned expression.
"Yeah, why?"
"I don't think I've ever heard you laugh before."
Zack's ears folded back in mild annoyance. "Got this from Katherine already, you know. Look, I can laugh. I have sense of humor. I'm just in a really good mood right now," he said.
"Okay."

Zack was going to wait for her to leave and then close the door, but she just stood there so he waited, looking at her pointedly to hurry up and say whatever else it was she wanted to say. "You um.." She looked around as if checking to be sure there was nobody else there; both of their animal-ear hearing knew there wasn't. "You have...a nice laugh. A good smile. I wish, I could see it more often," she said slowly, blushing.
"Well. Come to my room tonight, then," Zack said. "I'll try and smile for you then."

"Okay. Uh..I'll be there," she said, and slowly turned around to finally go away. Zack closed the door and shook his head, wondering why he'd chosen to put it that way. It just felt like the right thing to say in the moment; at least she wasn't worried he was "jealous" or something anymore. This was such a tremendously stupid thing to be jealous about and he felt like he already knew what it looked like from the outside, from seeing Katherine's expression after that first night with Nora.

Not that she'd been actually jealous of...this, at the time, he corrected himself after a moment. Right?

...Right. It was high time to stop thinking about this topic for the entire rest of the day.

He realized he'd forgotten to ask her to help him dry off. Well, she wasn't his personal hairdryer or anything; he could just be patient and let it dry itself instead.

---

Aria found herself standing on the all-too-familiar cliffside, looking out at a gigantic demon in the distance. "Wha—oh. Oh, great...I fell asleep," she said, crossing her arms. "I dozed off. Me! Dozed off. Like a tired old man or something." There was no particularly great reason to think aloud, but there was nobody else to be bothered by it anyway, and it sort of drowned out the droning pumping of blood pervading the area. "I guess this is what I get for lying on my bed, on my back, while..thinking about stuff, huh," she said, starting to pace back and forth a bit. "Well—I mean it should be suppertime soon, and then somebody will wake me up. Probably. Katherine should have no trouble telling I'm asleep or popping me awake again if I don't come down. Yeah. So, I only have to be in here for maybe thirty minutes to an hour, or...something like that..."

The shifter trailed off, hearing disruptions in the wall of static—the kind she hadn't heard since the head injury. She slowly turned around toward it, trying to focus and catch the snippets of speech. It turned out that concentration wasn't actually necessary, as the "signal" now grew steadily stronger, until only the faintest trace of static and flickering was left.

In this scene, Ares was sitting at his desk in a little office, Loren leaning back in a chair opposite it. The light from the windows suggested late afternoon—what registered to Aria right away as closing time, just after work. "Well, I still think you should take the job," Ares was saying. "Look—how often does someone get the chance to meet a dragon and live, huh? Much less see his hoard! Hey, maybe he'll let you pick up some sweet artifact or something."

Loren gave an exasperated sigh. "People often meet dragons; it's meeting one and surviving to tell the tale that's r—." A small burst of static disrupted the scene, but not so much that it wasn't obvious what he'd said. "What he wants is extremely difficult, a crystal that'll only work for him? Do you have any idea what level of cryptomancy is necessary to build gl—s that'll do that?"

"Nope," Ares put his arms out. "You know some good crypt—cers, though. Tell him you need to contract that part out, and split it among three people you wanna scmhmooze for 'secrecy'. He'll totally buy that."
"Are you suggesting..scamming a dragon too? Gods, Ares, it's like you want me to come back as a scorched corpse!"
"It's not a scam, it's giving him exactly what he wants. If only one person makes the code then they'll know how to break it, right?" Ares said. "Plus it's extra insurance for you if he understands that you don't know how to break it since it's outside your area of expertise in the first place—in other words he doesn't have to eat you to keep the secret. I'm lookin' out for ya here, man."

Ares leaned back, putting his arms behind him in the chair. "Anyway, he only sent that r—st to like six telemages across the whole country?" Ares said. "What do you think the odds are none of the others want anything to do with him? That they're getting good and ready to teleport themselves and everything they care about to the most distant parts of the F—ier right now so he can't practically enact that 'burn your house down if nobody responds adequately' stinger. You do this, and you'll be a hero to those other mages and their families too. It's a little beside the point, but they'll owe you after that too, y'know."

"Not if I'm dead and he burns their houses down anyway," Loren said. "I just don't know why you're so set on this one, Ares. It's immensely risky to come near a dragon at all. Plus you and I are kno—ends, so he'd come after you too."
"Hah, well there's my self-interest angle, you know," Ares leaned in and pointed at the dark-haired shifter. "I know you can do this, and keep our whole town safe, because you are the best telemage in the entire land. Anyway, if you do fail and he starts comin' this way, I'll—hey, I'll pull that demon sword out and start swinging it at him. That'll be a nasty surprise, yeah?"
"Don't even joke about that thing, Ares!" Loren said, indignant. "What's in that sword might be able to kill gods and it might make whoever pulls it out actually try to do it, too."

"Well, I guess you'd better do a good job, then," Ares said, leaning onto his elbows on the desk with a sly grin.

Loren stared at him for a long moment. The bursts of static became moderately more frequent, the image a little harder to make out...but before it faded entirely he sighed agian. "Fine, y—in this time. I'll...at least—with a proposal and present it to him, anyway. But if this is the last—r see each other then I want you kno—entirely your fault."
"That's the spirit!" Ares jumped out of his chair. "Heheh, hey if it's the last time I see you then we should—ut for a drink tonight." He strode confidently around the desk to pick Loren up under an arm, onto his feet.

"Wha—hey! I need to start making plans a—tacting people right away, I can't—"

"You've got a whole month j—put the proposal together, one less night plus a hangover won't kill you.." As the scene faded out to static, Ares led his friend out of the room, ignoring some continued protest.

Aria had been watching the entire time with intense interest. For the entire time it was "on", she couldn't even hear the pumping of blood or feel the cliff under her feet, the void behind her and the demon beyond that. It had been intensely familiar—a vivid memory that played out exactly at the same time as she remembered it, only with the bizarre disconnected feeling of seeing it from the outside while remembering it from the inside.

"Wow, so I.." she started to say to herself as the static took over completely, but paused, putting a hand to her forehead. That conversation wasn't the only one she remembered now, she realized, as the experiences seemed to come flooding back. One after another, all in that same office: Ares—her—talking to Loren, trying to convince him into taking on some new adventure. About half the time he gave up, seeing the telemage wouldn't bend, but the other half Loren gave in to whatever crazy idea it was. Most of the time when he did, everything turned out fine, or often better than fine. From that dragon's job alone Loren had built several connections he probably never could've gotten any other way, and come home with his literal weight in gold, enough to set him up for life if he just wanted to retire right then and there. Not that Ares had been about to let him...

"Hmn." Aria tried to sort through all of the memories. It was too much to perceive all at once, really...but it wasn't everything; far from it, in fact. All she could now remember was those conversations—with Loren, in those chairs—and the consequences of some of the more notable ones, with a general 'feel' for the rest. It was certainly a start, anyway. For as much as she had feared 'becoming' this Ares person, the more she remembered of being him the more she liked it. He shared the same 'nothing-is-impossible' attitude Will had always had, and among other things had managed to use it to push someone else into adventure and profit that he didn't have the right skill set to go after himself.

It was while still trying to sort through all the 'new' memories, getting a much clearer, more direct picture of the relationship between Loren and her 'old self', that Aria found herself sitting up in the bed, fully awake again. She looked around the room, dazed, for a few seconds and then shook her head, trying to clear it.

Well...this hadn't made things any easier to figure out at all! Now she just wanted to take Loren out drinking "again" and find out how much this new body of hers could take. That was...probably not a good idea while sharing a mind with a blood-hungry demon sword, but the first thought after that was How about after I merge with it, then? And until then...well, they could at least go out somewhere together, she thought. No, no, that was...bad! Bad thoughts! Aria swatted her head lightly with an open palm. Surely Loren didn't feel that way about her at all, just look at the way he—she had responded to the suggestion of a mere hug. It was—understandably—way too weird to have to accept your male friend since practically childhood turning into someone who was attracted to you now, much less...to ever reciprocate those feelings. Right?

...Maybe it was time to start thinking about literally anything else until supper, she said to herself. For starters, it seemed like now, in private, was a good time to more thoroughly test out the 'non-human' extent of her shapeshifting capabilities. Since she was apparently some kind of prodigy when it came to that power, it'd be a shame to not find out the full extent of what their race could really do, after all.

---

Mira walked into the library to find Lynn sitting nice and close to Rast on a couch in there, in the middle of telling some sort of story. The wolf-boy noticed her first, and then the human after, putting the tale on hold. "...Oh, hey, you're back. How'd it go?"
"Pretty well. I'm disappointed I didn't walk in on a different scene~," the witch teased, taking a seat across from them. "Our new buddy Vae wants to pick her brain at length sometime later. She was pretty busy when we got there, said she'd send along a letter."

"So..where is she now, then?" Lynn said. "Rose I mean."
"Oh, she got excited about sharing what all she knew and flew off toward her forest again to refresh her memory on some of it. I suggested she should at least stay for supper but she declined. Hey, how about you?"

It took both of those on the couch a second to realize she was addressing Rast. "Uh, me?" he said.
"Yeah, you. Think I saw Katherine headed for the kitchen on the way in. If you're not busy you could stick around for dinner?"

"I feel like I should be insulted it's you asking him," Lynn said.

"But—"
"Yeah yeah, I should've done it myself already. So you wanna stay?" she asked him.

"Well, ah. That's awful nice, but I'd hate to impose," Rast said.
"Please. There's always plenty of food," Lynn said. "Kath's a great cook."
"Also a mind-reader, so she'll know if she needs to make more right away," Mira said.
"Err...I dunno if that's actually reassurin' or not. But, okay. I'll take ya'll up on it if you don't think anyone'll mind."s
"There is no way they will," Lynn said. ..Right? she thought toward the psion in the kitchen.

More the merrier, the catgirl replied, having been monitoring this conversation the whole time anyway.