The "Best" RPG Ever-84

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---

Ian found herself back in her living room again, with Clera sitting across from her. She looked down, taking in her 'dream self' appearance once again. "..I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."
The winged girl tilted her head. "Do you not like it now?"

"No, no," Dr. Kellen shook her head, "it's not that." She looked down, running a hand through her hair. "Despite this representing a full adjustment of some kind, and the fact that I do feel more comfortable in 'our' body since this happened...some part of me is still expecting to wake up and find myself back how I was before any of this happened. The experience of such drastic change is simply..a kind of shock one never entirely recovers from, perhaps."

"I guess I don't really have the experience to know," Clera shrugged. "Having basically just swapped hair and feather colors, for the most part."

"Well, no matter." Ian looked up again, with a small smile. "The disorientation doesn't last long. Perhaps I'm just as much expecting to wake up with wings by this point."
"Plus, we didn't get 'extra' memories," the winged girl pointed out. "Maybe the gods or whoever's responsible for all this thought it'd get confusing with three identities floating around in here." She waved at the surroundings. "Plus, I guess they figured a mage and a doctor together would have the mental fortitude to handle what we've been saddled with, without that 'extra help'."
"Which we do," Ian nodded, agreeing.

Clera sighed. "So...do we tell them? I mean, do we point it out? Aloud?"
"I thought I was asking you that," Ian said, pointing.

"We're both conflicted. Just not with each other this time, I guess."
"Your opinion in detail?"
"Well—new memories means they all have a sense of it. It's not really..something you think about consciously all that often, though. Not until gray hairs and wrinkles start coming in, anyway."

Ian nodded. "It's much less complicated back on Earth: A single shared average lifespan. But no idea how long you really have until either it's too late to know, or someone pronounces a woefully short period remaining, panic afterward."
"You say that awfully calmly," Clera said, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't forget I've had to be the one pronouncing. I am..less than stellar at being warm and sympathetic, but remaining calm, clinical and professional can be just as helpful in some cases."

"Right. Anyway," Clera said. "I just don't think it's sunk in exactly that some of them are immortal, while others might have..less time to live than they did before."

Ian sighed. "I'd like to review the data aloud. I hope it won't irritate you significantly."
"Go right ahead."
She counted them off on a hand's fingers. "Humans: About the same, maybe slightly longer with magical help. Canis rarely live past seventy; Vulpin eighty or so. Felis a little longer than humans. Avians twice as long as humans, with half-avians more or less splitting the difference with the other race..."

Clera nodded. "And shifters and elves are immortal."
"Wait. If elves never become elderly, then why does Tsaron look so old?"
"For one thing, he's a psion," Clera said. "He can 'look' however he wants. Presumably he wants to seem ancient and wise, or maybe just unassuming and frail—and that means 'looking' old. For another, do you have any idea how rare true, pure-blooded elves are? Just a little of some mortal race in the ancestry, and they can start to show some age after a millennium or so. A majority of elf blood still keeps them from actually dying of old age, though."

"I don't understand the mechanism of the immortality in the first place," Ian said. "That is—of course magic is involved, but..."

Clera shrugged. "Some say the gods blessed a group of humans for some great act of service or something, and that's how we got elves. The gods can do whatever they want with mortality, pretty much."
"Do they say the same thing about shifters?"

"Mmn. Nobody really seems to know where they even came from. But they ultimately look how they want to look—how they think they 'should' look—and nobody really thinks they 'should' look old."

"Ah," Ian said, getting it. "So their own powers prevent them from suffering the physical symptoms of aging. Their powers are too slow and weak to treat sudden injury or the rapid assault of disease, but more than enough to prevent the comparitively slow damage from age."

Clera realized something. "Hang on. Aria probably doesn't know this at all. It'll be great news for her!"

"We couldn't very well tell her without her or someone else becoming curious and inquiring for the rest of the story, however," Ian said.
"True. Anyway, how're we supposed to even bring it up? See her at breakfast tomorrow morning, say 'congratulations! You're immortal." She leaned forward. "I dunno how anyone would take that, exactly..."

Ian sighed. "We have no extra memories. So no idea how old our body is."

"Yep. And, it'll be a while before we get a clue, too. Half-avians—human mix, like I am and we look to be—stay looking young until around eighty; full avians until a hundred fifty. I've always wondered why it's so long compared to other mortals."
"Perhaps it's simply the evolutionary shadow being pushed forward," Ian said. "Some magic may be involved as well, but..avians in general have difficulty with physical contact and intimacy, correct?"
Clera made a face. "Uhh.."

"Per..haps it would be more accurate to say they are extremely cautious and discerning. I bring it up since it could mean that early on, only those who remained viable after many years passed on their genes. This could have caused your race to go extinct, but the evoluntionary gamble evidently paid off."
"Or, I dunno, the gods knew we'd be that tough to keep around, and used magic to extend our lifespan so we wouldn't just die out after a couple generations," Clera said. "Anyway, we're getting off topic."

Ian nodded. "I fear I may be avoiding the subject due to the unpleasantness of the conversation it could foster."

"We must address this, however," she said, putting on a determined face. "It's important, especially if none of them have thought seriously about it before. How old do we think any of them are in the first place?"

"Well—Rayna and Lynn have been all over the world. They must be...in their mid or late twenties? Given the amount of youthful energy they still show. Katherine's story made her sound pretty young, maybe early twenties. Mira might be the youngest, but I think that much demon magic probably makes one immortal and we don't actually know anything about witches or warlocks from our research anyway. Zack's..uh..hm."
"What?"
"Well, a knight's training lasts pretty long," Clera said. "It sounded like he was fairly high-ranking in his order, too, which takes even longer. He's probably in his thirties, maybe even thirty-five or pushing forty? But he sure doesn't look like a thirty-plus-year-old Canis. Not a day over twenty-one, in my opinion."
"Zack's body was changed drastically by the curse," Ian pointed out. "All evidence suggests that said curse's target appearance is 'attractive female' and that would naturally include the appearance of youth. But..I can imagine no reason for a curse to actually improve one's health. With how reckless he always is...we should take a look at his overall health."

"I agree," Clera said. "Seems like Nora's been the only one healing his injuries thus far, so we haven't exactly had a close look at him ourselves."

"It's worth doing a general checkup on everyone," Ian said, thinking. "It would be much easier to introduce this...particular reality check inside of that context."

"Calm, clinical and professional, eh?" Clera said. "It wouldn't hurt to be a little warm, though, if we're going through with this. I might can help with that part." She held up an index finger, making a small candleflame just above it and grinning at her own visual pun. Ian crossed her arms and shook her head, not nearly as amused.

---

Mira came to the breakfast table with a small stack of envelopes and papers in her hand. "Great news, I found our mailbox!" She began shuffling through them. "Not that it was hard to find or anything, just right next to our front door in town. Anyway, looks like there's something for Kath, a few days' worth of newspapers, this one's for Zack...hmn." The last envelope was for Rose, with "Vaedin Fysel" listed as the sender. "Well, here's Rose's. If she doesn't come here I might need to make a trip out there to get it to her." She dumped the newspapers on an empty part of a counter, the dragon-addressed letter on top of them, and held out the other two envelopes vaguely in the direction of their intended recipients. Katherine waved to bring it to her psionically while she sat down; Zack just took his and tore it open still standing. After staring at it for two or three seconds, he tore the paper in half, crumpled it into a ball and threw it away in one swift motion before continuing on to the table.

"Whoa, what was it?" the witch said, following.
"Ad."

The catgirl opened hers a bit more carefully (without needing to touch it) and unfolded the single sheet of paper inside.
"An ad specifically for you?" Mira said. "You'd think we'd all be getting spam, or even like.. just collectively as an address."

The knight sighed. "One of the hairdressers from the other day says her friend designs outfits and wants a model."

"Yeah okay, your reaction makes way more sense from that."

Katherine's letter folded itself up and drifted over on top of the paper pile Mira had started, the envelope trashing itself just as gracefully. "Mine is from Jacob. He says the 'situation has changed' and now he wants to try and scan a live beast monster in the field."
"With some of us guarding him, I suppose?" Lynn asked. The psion nodded.
"I think me, Rayna, Zack would be perfect for this one. Ideally Rayna can just keep them from noticing us at all; if she doesn't then I can draw aggro or stun them to get away; and if that doesn't work Zack and the wolf can just kill them anyway."

"Seems smart," the fox-girl said. "So all we need is to find a place with beast-monsters for him to scan."

"We only thinned the numbers in that cave a couple of days ago," Lynn said. "I wouldn't be surprised if those cats were back. Or if they're not, they probably left some kind of trail at least."

"Just remember they can detect us by smell or hearing too," Zack said, "not just sight."
"I can mute sound just fine," Rayna said. "Scent's a newer skill, but I have learned it."

"Hmm.." A short way into breakfast, the fox-girl stared over at the stack of papers.
"What?" Aria asked.
"Seems like I don't have to actually read any of that to 'catalogue' it in a menu where I can read it later. Now I have a nice list of newspapers to browse, and..also the contents of the letter even though it was sealed. Not that I'm actually planning to read it, but apparently I could."

"Well, I guess you could cheat at card games, huh," Lynn said.

"It never even crossed my mind," Rayna insisted.

"Before we go anywhere, something important did occur to me last night," Clera said. "Despite having a power which makes it exceptionally easy to do so, I haven't done even a basic check-up on most of you. It would be wise to have some idea of the state of everyone's health, even as a mere point of reference for later."

"Well, that seems fair," Lynn said. "Doesn't seem like there's anything pressing for our time otherwise this morning."

"Just do the three of us first, if you don't mind," Katherine said. "It isn't urgent, sure, but there's no good reason to leave a quest waiting long."

"That is acceptable."

Clera chose the "meditation room" as a place to conduct examinations, with Rayna using her power to further mute the sound within beyond its existing acoustic damping in order to grant as much privacy as possible. Once the three with permanent animal ears were done, they could leave and the sound-damping would no longer be necessary, besides the fact that the mind-reader would also be gone at that point. Zack volunteered to go first; in neither world was he particularly eager to see a doctor (or healer) when there was nothing immediately wrong, but there was no good reason to object when it was free and didn't require going anywhere. He followed the winged girl inside and simply stood still as instructed while she placed a hand on his shoulder and it faintly glowed with magic. Her eyes were closed in concentration, and after a moment he perceived a slight squint to them.

"Something wrong?" he said after she let go, opened her eyes, and took a small step back.
"Yes, nothing." Clera blinked a couple of times, and then shook her head. "I mean—nothing is wrong, but I am seeing something expected."

"What's that?" Zack crossed his arms. "Something to do with the curse?"
"Possibly..? Although I can see no reason why a curse of all things would have this effect." In response to his further questioning look, she softly cleared her throat. "Zack, how old exactly are you?"

"Thirty two." Which was true of both worlds, actually. "Why?"
"Frankly, you..don't look thirty-two. Health-wise, I mean. In fact you don't look to me a day over twenty-one.

"Just in case my magic isn't picking something up: Have you felt any aches, pains, cramps? Other than..the usual?" she said obliquely. "I mean, are you ever sore from exertion?"

"..No." Zack shook his head. "Not once since coming here, now that you mention it." That sort of thing was unerringly common for him on Earth; he was aware of getting ever closer to the age where throwing out his back was a serious risk.
"Or—since you were cursed," she said, to clarify the issue, and he nodded thoughtfully. "I, had hypothesized that the curse might make you appear younger, but as I said, I cannot imagine why such a thing would actually improve your health.

"Although I'm certain you know this already, I, don't want to mince words here, Zack: Of all the races of this world, Canis typically live the shortest." He nodded; his memories from this world were well aware of this. It was also said that their kind tended to have large families, such as his own, for this very reason. "With the way a knight's work abuses the body, even if you survived every battle you entered I would not normally expect you to live past sixty. However..."

"My situation is far from normal," he said.
"Right. Well, I suppose this is good news. I'm merely uncertain what to make of it."

"It could just be an unintended side effect," Zack suggested. "The witch who did this to me wasn't in her right mind, and I wasn't exactly giving her space to concentrate on the specifics of her spell."

"Perhaps that could be it," she said. "I simply have a difficult time reconciling a curse with an objectively beneficial effect.

"Well, at any rate you seem quite healthy. So we should move on before the others become impatient."

Rayna went in next. After examining her, Clera took a little step back. "You seem perfectly healthy to me."
"Really? I thought I was a bit overweight," the fox-girl said.
"Not exactly. You are carrying a bit, but some people simply have different proportions. You should realize that if you feel unhealthy or, especially, low on strength or stamina, it is only in comparison to those of us in this house—all of which at a glance seem to be in some form of peak physical condition."

"I guess that makes sense," she nodded.
"Not that you—"
"I know, I know, not that I shouldn't exercise. I'm getting some today, trekking out to a cat cave. Is there anything else?"

"..How old are you, exactly?" the winged girl asked after only a brief hesitation.

"Uh..hmm." Rayna put a finger just under her lips and thought about it for a second. "Thirty on average?"
"I mean, how old is the body you are in right now."
"Oh! Twenty-seven," she nodded.

"You have spent your life traveling. Do you ever get leg aches? Cramps? Any...popping?"
"Uh..no. Why?"
"Hmn. You are aware of the life expectancy for your race, aren't you?"

"Sure..what about it?"

Clera hesitated a long moment, then shook her head. "It's probably nothing. But I would guess at your age you should be showing some small signs of aging, yet..I saw none. Perhaps you are simply a statistical outlier."
"Maybe. I am amazing in other ways," Rayna said teasingly. It didn't land, so she shrugged. "Through with me, then?" The doctor nodded.

After that was Katherine. Clera simply stepped forward and examined he with a hand on the shoulder like the others, and then pulled back to her original position. "No surprises here; you are not only healthy but in near-ideal physical condition for, say, a gymnast or runner."

"Good to hear!"
"...I should've done you first," the winged girl said with a small frown.
"What, because I know what you're thinking about? If you thought about it later, and I'm sure you would, then I'd still pick it up then. I know how to keep secrets," the psion said. "But—since we're in private anyway, I could help you hash it out a bit if you want?"

After a long pause, Clera sighed in resignation. "Perhaps you have some perspective on this that I am missing. I have been trying to convince myself that what I perceive is merely a coincidence, but..."

"Your instincts tell you otherwise?" Katherine said. "The 'first' coincidence already looked suspicious to you, and the 'second' one has no obvious cause to explain it like the first, not even a dubious one."

She nodded. "I imagine Lynn is of a similar age to Rayna, and in that case I would normally expect very slight signs of aging. But if I see nothing, then..."

"Should I remind you how we got here?" Katherine asked. "You're thinking about this as if we really were born on this world, instead of magic transforming us on the way over from Earth. Our running hypothesis is that we're here for some particular purpose, and that the gods are responsible. You don't think they could give us young, heatlhy bodies regardless of what our 'backstories' say?"
"I suppose so," the winged girl said, thinking of how elves were supposedly gifted immortality by the gods. "However, it seems to me that they went to great lengths for 'accuracy' otherwise, including leaving Zack cursed and Nora with a distinct speech impediment," Clera pointed out.
"Neither of those things influence how good we are in a fight. I don't think it's a stretch to think our purpose involves fighting specifically, either," the catgirl said. "And maybe they don't know exactly how far off it is, so—mortal races or no, they could've made us specifically to be immortals just in case. We already know of one immortal human, right?"

"True..however, I feel that is too much jumping to conclusions," she shook her head. "I am willing to accept that we were made abnormally healthy, at least, if the evidence continues to bear that out."

"Well, I don't need to tell you how long a lifespan you would normally expect," Clera said.

"True. I'm twenty-one, in case you're curious about that," Katherine said. "Here, I mean—back on Earth I was ten years older. You?"

The winged girl flinched slightly at being asked her age, but since the psion knew it by now anyway she answered aloud: "In my forties, thank you."
"Sorry," the catgirl said, folding her ears down in contrition. "I didn't realize I was overstepping until the word was halfway out."

"It's all right."

Mira was next, since she was eager to go looking for Rose to give her the letter. After looking her over, Clera said, "Well, as far as I can tell you are in perfect health."

She headtilted. "'As far as you can tell'?"

"Your tail is not like a beastfolk tail, nor do your wings have quite the same properties as mine. My magic can tell me whether you are injured, but I can only use it to probe for less immediate concerns in anatomy I have some familiarity with." She shrugged. "Your 'human' parts look quite well, so unless you are aware of anything out of the ordinary with the rest, I very much doubt there is any reason for concern."
"Ah. Alrighty then~."

"You're quite young, aren't you?"

"Hmn? Oh, yeah. I mean, I dunno exactly how old I am, orphanage and all. But twenty at most, I bet, now that I think of it." Mira said. "No wonder I've felt so full of energy since I got here, eh?"

"I..had assumed that was merely your personality," Clera admitted.

"Well, here it is," she said, bouncing around on her feet a bit. "I was a little calmer back on Earth. I mean—legal assistants aren't known for being unable to sit still, you know." To a brief look of surprise in response to that she said, "Oh right, you were in the kitchen when were talking about that stuff. But there you go, anyway."

After her came Nora. While checking on her, Clera said, "How well are you able to assess your own health?"

"Um..I-I can detect certain kinds of imbalances from, either i-injuries or diseases," she said, "mostly o-only things someone would notice on their own. I c-could detect more s-subtle problems with the right training, but i-it is much more difficult for a weaver than it is f-for most kinds of healers."
"I see." Withdrawing her hand, Clera said, "Well, you don't appear to have anything to worry about."
"Th-thank you," she nodded, and moved as if to leave before perceiving that she had more to say, and stopping herself.
"Is, something bothering you?" the winged girl asked.
"No. Um." The elf wrung her hands slightly. "Old h-habits. B-back on Earth I would see doctors really often when I was little. Usually, if there wasn't a-anything new to say they'd rather I hurry out to let the next person in than um, st-stand there wasting everyone's time."

"I hope they didn't put it that way," she said with a disapproving glare.
Nora shook her head. "D-don't worry, they were very nice. Th-there were just a lot of kids, is all. I g-guess it's more that I didn't want to be in anyone's way, and sometimes they thanked me for helping k-keep things going smoothly."

"Um. Was there something else?" she asked after a moment.
"This is somewhat of an odd question, but...are you aware that your kind is immortal?" she said.
Nora nodded. "I-I've been quite aware of it since picking up most of my memories from this world. It d-doesn't really even seem like a big deal, since um..it just f-feels like it's always been this way. I suppose it was a shock when I was in my early teens and s-someone explained to me that other people do grow old and die. Weavers in general can live as much as twice their race's usual age, because of 'Haestra's blessing' supposedly, b-but a Canis priest I knew had just died at the time."

"I see," Clera nodded.

There was very little of note about Lynn; she was in similar condition to Katherine, reported her age from this world as twenty-seven (equal to Rayna's) and was dismissed not long after. Aria came in last.

"Hold still."
"I know, I know." The shifter waited patiently until she took her hand off, and said, "Well? Head look okay?"
"It seems to have fully healed," Clera nodded. "As if it hadn't been injured in the first place. The healers knew what they were doing."
"What about you? Um, any lasting problems from taking it off of me?" she asked with a slightly concerned look. The winged girl shook her head.
"I never took enough at a time to even fall unconscious. I'm quite well, thank you."

They stood there in silence for several seconds or so. "..Yees?" the shifter prompted aftwerward, already tired of the quiet.
Clera cleared her throat. "I thought it might be good to, inform you of something I learned about your race," she said. "Since your 'amnesia' prevents you from knowing it already."
"Uh-huh. What is it, then?"
"Well—shifters are known to be immortal," she said finally. "In the sense of never showing the health detriments of aging."
"Oh, okay. Cool," she nodded. "..What?"

"You seem somewhat...underwhelmed."

"Well, you know, I already think of myself as a proper immortal anyway. Otherwise I wouldn't run headlong into danger all the time!" she said, pointing to herself with a thumb and giving a winning grin.

"Are you certain you didn't already know?" Clera asked.

"Eeeh, maybe somewhere in here," Aria said, tapping her head with an index finger. "Yeah, I guess you're right, it doesn't feel like a surprise even though I've never exactly thought about what sorta lifespans the fantasy folks in this world would have before now. Or maybe...huh. I should be more impressed, shouldn't I?" she said, crossing her arms and getting a thoughtful look.

"I would certainly think so." Shaking her head, the winged girl said, "Perhaps this is simply something that comes with 'being immortal'. A part of the magic, somehow..."
"You mean like, a feeling that it's 'normal' to live forever? But most people don't even think about how long they have left until you force them to anyway. Soo, it could be that immortals just never think about it at all since there's nothing there to think about. Aaand, I could still have that habit even if I don't remember why?"

"Possibly. Well, that is all I had to say," Clera said.

Not for one person, including herself, did she see the particular signs that registered to her as symptoms of aging. While it did give her a baseline to assess later injuries by, it almost seemed like a waste of time doing this otherwise. At least the part of her from Earth couldn't entirely get her head around the idea of immortality. It was in some ways the ultimate dream of medical science—to make humanity a race that at least only died of external factors such as violence, if at all. Yet..how was this world still populated similarly to Earth, if that was the case? Shouldn't races who remain young forever have naturally dominated long ago? There were probably factors she was missing to prevent that sort of thing...