The "Best" RPG Ever-85

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---

"Soo, do you know where Jacob lives or anything?" Rayna asked, following the other two out of the door to town.

"No, but his letter said he would probably be at the library," the catgirl replied. "I get the impression he practically lives there, anyway."

After only a short pause, the fox-girl said, "Hey Zack."
"Can it not just be quiet around you for ten seconds?"
"I guess not!" she said playfully with a small shrug. "Especially when I think of something to talk about."

He sighed. "What."

"I was just curious whether, with the curse and all—are you, attracted to guys? Like..?"
"Yeah, obviously. It wouldn't make much sense for it to leave that alone, would it?"

"Soo, you're not..?"
"I don't feel anything toward girls right now, no. At least not that. Why do you care."

"Well, like I said, I was curious. You are living with a bunch of pretty girls now, so..."

Zack sighed again. "Even if I did still feel attracted to women, that wouldn't matter to me. Except for making everything more awkward."

"Really?" She moved up next to him. "You think you wouldn't stare? Or 'appreciate'? Even a little?"

He threw up his hands. "I don't know. Maybe it hasn't occurred to you how bizarre a situation this is in the first place, or that I've never been in one like it with my real body to compare."
"You can't even speculate?"

"I don't want to."
"Sooo, what happens if we do get rid of the curse eventually, but we're all still here?"
"Well I know everyone now, so I'm not gonna just start acting stupid. If it got too weird anyway, I could just move out, go back to living at the inn or something."

"There wouldn't be anything wrong with your being attracted to us, in my opinion," she pressed. "I'm a little curious who you'd find the most attractive, though. Or could even end up with!"

"I refuse to have this conversation. Anyway, we're nearly there." He picked up the pace slightly to get away from her, and hurried into the library.

He seems at least a little flustered to me, she thought toward the catgirl.

Are you surprised? You've been male about as long as he has; how would you like to be asked all that?

Well—I've been asking it of myself for a little while now. I think I would hold up very poorly if I was turned back and faced with all the temptation—seriously! So I was just looking for a unique perspective on the matter—since, unlike the rest of us he hasn't been female very long, much less 'raised' as one. Right?

You really need to put something like that more gently if you want any reply other than grunts of general annoyance, Katherine advised.

Noted.

After they caught up to Zack and the wolf just past the front counter, the catgirl picked up Jacob's location and nodded to the others, leading the rest of the way to him. This time, he had commandeered a table at a somewhat secluded corner of the library, and had several papers of handwritten notes, complete with diagrams, spread out on it, a stack of several more laying off to his right. He was bent over it all, scribbling something on a differently-colored sheet, presumably his own personal notes, and so didn't notice their approach.

"Hey," Katherine said quietly, but it was still enough to jolt him slightly. He looked up, and briefly between the three of them in what seemed to be confusion. "Uh, I got your letter?" she offered.

"Oh, that. Right. Er.." While he shuffled the leaves back toward the stack, Rayna noticed that a couple of the diagrams present looked rather familiar. "I didn't expect you to show up quite so soon."

"Well, we didn't have anything planned for today. Unless this isn't a good time?" the psion said, leaning ever so slightly forward and to her left.

"No, no, this should be fine." He lightly tapped the upright stack of pages against the table a couple of times to further straighten them. "Honestly, the sooner this part is over with, the better. I've known, what it is I need to know, for a while now, and there's nothing in this new information to modify that much."

"Well. You know Zack," the catgirl said with a small wave, "and his wolf. And this is Rayna; she's an illusionist."

"Pleased to meet you," he said, placing his own notes at the top of the stack and finally putting the whole thing away before standing up and politely nodding toward her. "I can see how that power might be helpful here."
"Sure. Say, where'd you get those papers from?"

"Er.." He hesitated for a second, but his eyes flicked toward the psion briefly and then he was over it. "Well, I see no particular reason to hide this. The Captain commissioned me to use some information she had translated toward a certain end. Some kind of, ancient research found in some ruins of late. The..content of the research itself is potentially dangerous, but what I've been asked to develop is either useless but harmless, ooorr perhaps helpful—depending."

"She tell you much about those ruins? I did pick up an interesting journal from some and hand it over to her just the other day," the fox-girl said.
The elf shook his head as he came around toward the front of the table. "I learned more about the facility from those notes than from her. I imagine, however, that if you recognized something in the notes, it could be the very same place."

Rayna crossed her arms. "Something bad definitely happened there. But if she trusts you with this stuff, then I do, too."

"Glad to hear it," he said with a touch of uncertainty.

"Anyway," Katherine interjected. "We have a location in mind where some cat monsters were living pretty recently, and probably still are. Or if not, it should be easy enough to track them a short ways or find an alternative."
"Lead the way, then," Jacob nodded.

---

The witch mounted her broom and took off on a wide, upward-spiraling path, but no sooner had she ascended past the height of the house than she noticed a pair of gigantic golden wings glinting in the sun to the east. Waving to the dragon-girl, she took her time floating down to the backyard and set the broom upright next to her, waiting only a moment before Rose landed nearby, flapping her wings to slow her descent but digging some long ruts in the ground all the same.
"Hii~!" She hopped excitedly out of the holes her foot-claws had made, waving. "How are you today?"
"Pretty good," Mira said, nodding. "You seem to be in a good mood."
"Heheh. I'm just really happy to see you," Rose said. A second or two later she visibly backpedaled, "Um, I-I mean, you know..just, uh.."

"It's fine, you can be happy to see me. I know I'm happy to see you~," the witch teased, drawing some embarrassed giggling. She took a couple of steps closer, putting the broom away and getting out the letter.

"Vae was pretty prompt in sending you a letter," she said, offering it toward the dragon-girl. Rose reached for it at first, and then seemed to really notice her own hand and drew it back again, holding onto its wrist with the other one.

"Um..M-maybe you can open it for me?"
"If you want." Mira set to work on carefully unsealing the envelope.

"'Vae-din'," the dragon-girl read aloud, rocking back and forth on her feet. "Wonder why she just said 'Vae' yesterday?"
"There's all kinds of reasons someone might use a shortened name," the witch said. "Here we go." She offered the letter, pre-unfolded and face-up, toward Rose, mentally noting that she could apparently read, so there was no need to offer that service. After carefully taking it up in just the palms of her scaly hands, the dragon-girl stared intently at the paper for a moment, slowly nodding and making small "mhm" noises to herself the entire time. With the way she was holding it, Mira didn't need to lean or move closer to catch some of its contents; she had plenty of experience reading upside-down anyway.

Please come at your earliest convenience at one of the following times...

...In addition, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to visit your Domain two days hence, once I have concluded certain delicate projects requiring, if not constant attention, continual proximity in case of any unexpected change...

...I will endeavor to make my own travel arrangements as necessary...

Rose pushed the paper back toward Mira, who took it and carefully folded it together again for safekeeping. "Um..so like..I don't actually know what 'time' it is right now. Do you have any..uh.."
"Clocks? Sure. There's a few in the house, at least." Thus far nobody had deemed it necessary to purchase a watch, especially when Rayna had the power to always know what time it was.

"I kinda wanna see her whatever the first of these times is," she said, following the witch toward the backdoor. "Um, I spent a lot of time thinking of cool stuff I might be able to tell her..or show her...picking up a few seeds and clippings and stuff..."
"Heheh. Well, I'm sure she'll appreciate your enthusiasm," Mira. "Just remember not to talk over her too much."
"I-I won't talk over her!" Rose protested.

Once they were inside, Mira quickly determined that the first time listed in Vae's letter had been much earlier that morning, and so was already past, and the next was near sundown, leaving a wide gap in the middle of the day for Rose. Nora was in her feline form, lying on her back across the living room couch with a book held above her head; Lynn was sitting on a nearby chair. Before long, first Aria and then Clera also emerged into the living room, the examinations done.

"Well, there's no good reason for us to sit around here doing nothing all day," Lynn said. "Maybe there's an easy-ish job posted."
"Yeah, I should probably kill something soon," Aria agreed.

"Um..?"

"Blood-hungry sword and all," she clarified for a slightly confused Rose.

"Oh, r-right! Well..I guess I'm not busy either right now, sooo, I can help too!"

"Well then. Off to town, I guess," Mira said, waving vaguely in the direction of the door to town.

"I will...be out after you, um...in just a moment," Nora said slowly, her eyes still glued to the pages.

A short while later, Aria grabbed a piece of paper off of the request board and waved it around enthusiastically—too much so for the others to read. "Aha! Bird monster spotted!" she said.

"Give me that," Lynn said with a touch of annoyance, snatching the loosely-held sheet. "Mm-hm..another like the one we fought before," she nodded slowly. "They're hoping to get it taken out before it starts airlifting livestock and people this time."
"Yeah! And I want a rematch. I can do all kinds of ranged stuff now!" the shifter said.

"No illusionist to draw its fire this time," Clera pointed out. "Although, we have much more overall firepower, ranged capability, and people who can actually pursue it through the air present..."

"What, like all six of us hunting it?" Aria protested. "There's hardly any challenge at all in that."
"We do not hunt down monsters to be challenged," the winged girl said.
"Maybe you don't."

Mira cleared her throat quietly, but just loudly enough to get their attention. "Maybe it's better to say that it could be a bit of a waste for us all to go after the bird instead of just whoever's necessary. You know, when the rest could be taking care of something else. I suspect a carefully-chosen trio will do, so that we could split off evenly."

"Yeah, exactly!" Aria agreed immediately, although it obviously hadn't been her stance until a second ago.

"...Very well, then. At least one person who can fly should go, however, and since you are still extremely prone to injuring yourself, that will have to be me," Clera said.

"Makes sense, yeah," the shifter nodded. "And Rose should be with the group I'm not in. Otherwise they won't have a good tank."

"Um..tank..?" the dragon-girl said, confused.
"You know, a real heavy-hitter? Someone who can draw fire and take hits?"
Her eyes widened ever so slightly. "Fire?"
"Uhh, not literal fire. Like...get the bad guys' attention, away from more fragile people," Aria said, with some unhelpful but energetic gestures.
"Oh! Yeah, okay, that makes sense," she nodded.

"Well then, I'd like to go with Rose," Mira said, "if that's alright with you." Aria nodded her assent, and of course the dragon-girl had no objection.

"That just leaves me and Nora," Lynn said. "I guess it'd make sense for me to help with the bird, since I have a good ranged attack..."

"I dunno..that leaves all of the good elemental coverage with them," Aria said. "Say we encounter something only weak to ice on the way there or back."
"I have ice arrows," the archer pointed out.
"Yeah, but that's not much."
"Come on, you're talking about putting both of the healers in the same group," she protested further.

"Rose can do healing too," Aria rebutted.

"Excuse me," the object of discussion said quietly.

The shifter took note, turning toward her right away. "Yes?"

"Is there um..some particular reason...you want me to go?"

"Well, Lynn's already fought something just like this bird. If we do that party, it's like we just took Rayna out of our original group. And we're trying to mix things up as much as possible to be ready for anything, yeah? Plus, you don't have much experience fighting a flying foe, even though you definitely have the right powerset for it—right?" (she didn't pause for an answer) "So, since I think the two of us—now that she can throw fire and all—could maybe take it if we had to, it'd give us a chance to try working together in a...well, I wouldn't say 'safe' but way less risky environment than we might encounter later?"

"I see...that makes sense." Nora nodded slowly. "If we...can find something for the others to do that has, um. Either an easy fight, or no guaranteed fight and a low risk of something terribly dangerous...then, perhaps an 'actual' healer with them will not be necessary. If not...then, I should remain with Rose and Mira."

"Good point! I'll get looking," Aria said, turning back to the board and shuffling through the papers again.

After digging through them for only a moment more, she pulled another out with a triumphant "Aha!" before displaying it in the others' general direction. "One dire bear."

Lynn's initial response was a flat "What."

"Yeah, they're a little strong, but no match for a dragon! I bet Rose could kill something like that by herself, right?"
"Um, 'dire'?" the dragon-girl questioned, while Lynn examined the request a bit more closely.

"You know," Mira said, "the giant monster-bears as opposed to normal bears, which—aren't exactly small, but small-er and less aggressive?"

"Oh yeeeah! I'm sure I've killed a few of those," she nodded. "Usually bears can be good for my forest, but the huge ones like to trash things a little too much, and sometimes they won't take the hint to leave, either."

"Seems like this one's come too close to town a few times...the guard drove it off but it's been more aggressive and taken longer to flee each time. The usual, 'danger to livestock and life in general'," Lynn said. She sighed slightly. "I guess this is fine."

"Doesn't seem like they know where it is, though," the witch said. "Since the only interaction they've had with it is when it came near town."
"Well, I do have a bit of tracking experience," the archer said. "Obviously Rayna's powers are the best for this sort of thing, but I could probably follow the trail of a hulking furbeast like that no problem. The only thing is, if that leads us to more of them instead of just one..."

"Bears are pretty solitary overall, right?" Mira said. "So it's not gonna be an army of them. I'm pretty sure I can take one too, and the right arrows in the right places could at least slow the otherrr—let's say three tops, and prolly not all full-grown if that—down enough for Rose and I to get to them before you needed to worry."

"I suppose so. I'm staying way in the back row, though," Lynn said, half-unconsciously rubbing her previously injured side with the back of a hand.

"That's perfectly sensible," Aria agreed, nodding and relinquishing the paper to the witch. "Well, with that settled, let's go get these quests registered with the guard!"

---

"So—I understand our target needs to be alive, but as far as you're aware, does it need to be awake?" Rayna asked on their way out of town.

"Unconscious is fine. In fact, better since it's pretty difficult to scan something that won't hold still," Jacob answered. "Can you..?" he asked in Katherine's direction.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "but maybe they'll already be asleep if we're lucky. Or if not, Zack could just hit one hard enough with the flat of his sword. 'Mortally wounded but alive' is fine too, right?"
"..I, believe so. From what I'm able to tell, the relevant magic only leaves a monster upon its death, and not before."

He realized after a moment that none of them were looking at a map. "Er...excuse me, but, how do you know where we're going?" he asked.

"I'm leading us," the fox-girl said, "using some 'information' from Katherine's head since I wasn't actually there the first time. And I don't really need a map or compass."
"You don't?"
She shook her head. "It's not so much that I have a good sense of direction, as it is that I can literally 'see' where I am and where I'm going at will," she said, tapping a finger against the side of her face just next to an eye to indicate what she meant. He perceived a slight glow to her eyes when he looked there, which hadn't been present at the library.
"I have heard that the best illusionists can do more than fool one's eyes," he said. "Though details are scarce since naturally talented ones are so rare in the first place."

"I'll tell you something else cool," she said, turning forward to continue leading the way. "I don't actually know the language that journal from the ruins was written in, but I was able to See the meaning of its words anyway, to some extent. It didn't help me understand the research itself, though."

"I'll admit to being envious of that," he said, thinking back on long hours of studying ancient languages.

"Once we get close, we'll need to rely on mental communication," the psion informed him. Such as this. Just think something 'at' one of us and I'll make sure it gets through.

...Understood, he replied. "I'm, ah, not exactly the stealthiest walker if we're hoping to keep those things asleep, however."
"I can mute sounds and scents," Rayna said, looking backwards briefly. "Just a little bit, but probably enough for this."

"Good, that's..ah, good." He hadn't even thought of that.

A short while later, Katherine said, "Are you alright? You seem much more nervous than before."
"Tell the truth, I am terrified of all kinds of monsters," he said. "I've had enough time to get used to your, uh.." He waved vaguely in the direction of the wolf. which happened to be turned away from him at the moment. "..friend? But out here, I feel rather exposed to an ambush."
"Well, we're invisible right now," Rayna informed him. "And there's a pretty low chance of encountering anything along the path we're on right now. Hey, if you're that scared how did you even get here in the first place?"
"I hired passage aboard a particularly well-armed, and prohibitively expensive, caravan taking some noble who wanted to come out this way," he said. "I generally tried to read quietly and not think about what was going on whenever there was a lot of noise outside."

"That brings up the very obvious question of 'why'. I got some of it, but..just for some books? There's not some way you could've hired someone else to copy them for you at those prices?"

"Perhaps. I did think of it. But...I don't know, somehow I felt it would be best to go myself. I am the only person who would know if he ran across a reference I would be interested, but had never heard of before. And, as much as it does terrify me, getting up close and personal like this may well be the only way I have available to make better sense of the workings of chaotic magic. I don't regret being here, even though I know I'm risking my life. That..journal you found, although it's tangential to my primary research, is just the sort of finding that I would never have had an opportunity to encounter otherwise."

"Well, you know what they say about bravery," Rayna commented after a moment.

"What's that?" Jacob said.

"You know—it's not someone who's not afraid that's brave, it's someone who's scared but takes the risk anyway."

"I suppose so."