The "Best" RPG Ever-92

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There was only one closet and one dresser in Zack's room, so the first part of unpacking everything they'd bought was reorganizing things so each could be split more or less in half. After dealing with that, the bed was easy enough to set up with four people—one of them a psion, and one, arguably two, possessing super strength.

"Well, it's a good thing Rayna bought a couple of extra covers," Mira commented, laying out the comforter Lupa had picked out on top of the bed. "Even if it was just in case somebody didn't like something or tore one of them up. It just goest o show, you never know what can happen." She stepped back from her work, clapping her hands together a couple of times. "Is that everything?"
"We bought some axes, but Lupa's keeping those," Zack said.

"Great! Soo, I would get out of your hair now, but there is just one other thing," the witch said. "Before I even found out about our furry friend over here—" (she indicated Lupa) "—I was thinking we're probably more than strong enough to take on another of those demons. And now we've got someone super strong and itching for a fight too, right?"

Katherine crossed her arms. "Everyone has to agree. No matter how strong we are, every demon fight so far has been another member of a series of increasingly worse near-disasters."

"Well—poll 'em then!" she said, waving her arms. "You guys are okay with it, right?"

"Sure, whatever."
"This one can fight!"
"Like I said, I'm okay with it if everyone else feels ready," the catgirl said. "I guess I'll ask around..."

After a short pause encompassing several brief mental conversations throughout the house, she said, "Seems like everyone else here is ready, too. I doubt they'll say no, but Aria and Rose still aren't back yet."
"At least it's a majority either way?" Mira said. "Iiin that case, I'm gonna need a couple of chickens. I mean—the ritual needs any two of the same kind of bird, so that seems like an easy kind to pick up."
Katherine sighed. Rayna had volunteered her help buying any sacrificial animals necessary just a second ago. Nora was having thoughts of going to get a certain magic crystal turned into something she could more easily use before the fight, too. "We'll take care of it," she said. "Maybe after supper, though."

This conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door to town downstairs: A few loud hits on the door with long, irregular pauses between them. While Zack and Mira started toward the bedroom door, Katherine stood still, informing them: "Rayna's got it."

Downstairs, the fox-girl headed for the door from the library, Lynn behind her, and came to open it. A tall, dark-blue-haired Felis man was on the other end, standing somewhat unsteadily and smelling very strongly of alcohol. "Hey...?" she said, while seeing that this was the 'Randall' she'd been informed of earlier, and noticing that her HUD did in fact indicate how drunk a person was when applicable, and in this case it was 'very'.

"Oi there, miss. Lynn," he said, waving to the human. "'S everybody home?"

Now he pays attention to me, Lynn thought—although his focus was clearly much more on her friend even now. "Almost. Aria's still out," she said, leaving out the dragon-girl as this technically wasn't her home anyway.

"Ahh, good enough. Zz'zra suggested I ough' to take a look at your weapons," he said with a mild slur. "Armor too, if that applies much."

"And do..what with them," the fox-girl said, lowering one of her ears slightly.

"Fix 'em? See if they need fixing, at least," Randall hiccuped. "Err, allow me to introduce myself, miss. Name's Randall, I'm an earth mage," he said, extending a slightly shaky hand down toward her.
"..Rayna. Illusionist," she said, accepting the handshake after a second. "Are you in..any condition to do that right now?"

"Pfff. I c'n do this much in my sleep," he said. "Just le' me get a look at them, and I'll be out of your hair again."

"Well, all right." Katherine was already tapped into this conversation early on, and everyone except for Nora and Clera headed downstairs—neither of them having used a weapon so far (so Clera's sword was undoubtedly fine), and Lupa following Zack regardless, as usual.

As soon as he came into the living room, Randall flopped down onto the middle of a couch. He could stand, but he was clearly a bit unsteady on his feet at the moment and preferred not to. After that, he watched people coming out of the stairwell, and sat up noticably when the new wolf-girl appeared. "Oi, who's this, then?" he said.

"I suppose the Captain didn't tell you?" Rayna said. "Our wolf personified himself."
"Oh. Right lovely form to choose then, ey?" he said in her general direction. Lupa's ears folded back and she took a small step away.

"Big cat stinks," she complained.

Randall's response to this was a roar of laughter. "Hahaha! Tha' I do."

"You wanted to look at our weapons," Zack stated, already interested in making this encounter as brief as physically possible. "Here." He held out his swords to the Felis—currently being in Light form, so the smaller sword was present rather than a shield. Randall took them one to each hand, then set the smaller one down so he could place the main one across his arms.
"Hmm. Well-made, this one. Lesser blades would'ave bloomin' shattered under the abuse it's been through." He moved it so the hilt was in his left hand and the tip pointing at the ceiling, then moved his right hand around the blade, a slight silvery glow surrounding the weapon as some visible nicks and dents in the metal repaired themselves. "There, good as new," he said, offering it back.
"Thanks..." It did look much better, even to the knight's less-trained eyes. Zack put the weapon away again.

"Lessee the other one, then..." After bending over to pick up the smaller blade, it briefly looked as though Randall wasn't going to come back up. But he did after a moment, placing it across his arms like the first. "...This tied to your gem, misssss...ster?" he said, turning his head upward and only correcting himself at the last second.
"Right."
"Lemme get a look at tha' thing." He held out a hand, and after taking a second to understand which 'thing' he meant, Zack placed his gem of brightness on the outstretched palm. Randall drew it closer, leaning in to inspect it closely. "That's what I thought. It's cracked!" He held it forcefully back toward the knight, getting an almost angry expression. "Sophol's missing arm, what've you been hitting your bloomin' shield with?!"

"Uh..." Zack took it, taken slightly aback by his sudden outburst. Which continued:
"I can't fix this! You need to get that thing restored by someone who works with magic gems and the like. The damage's not too bad now, they should be able to get it good as new again—but if you leave it alone the whole bloomin' thing will shatter at some point and then you'll have to get a new one tuned. I've never tried using one of those things, but what I hear is the older you are when it's tuned the less effective it is. So be careful with it, would you?"

"Sure...thank you."

"'Course. Anytime. But take the big sword to a smith now and then, would ya? Right shame to see a beaut like that all busted up. You got armor too, right?"

"Oh, yeah.." The knight had neglected to bring that downstairs, and started to turn around.

"This one will get it!" Lupa eagerly volunteered—maybe just eager to get away from the smell for a moment.

Katherine brought her knives to him next, just floating the whole collection where he could reach them from a distance relatively safe from the stench of his breath. "Huh. These look awfully familiar," he commented, pulling at the two or three she'd used most frequently. "Not terrible wear, but could use a li'le...wait—did Ronald give you these?"
"I assume you mean Tsaron?" she said. "Yeah."

"Never though' I'd see that," he commented, shaking his head. "I suppose he's not using them much himself, though." Randall got to work repairing the slight damage he'd noticed, a much briefer version of what he'd done with Zack's main sword. "These used to be his favorites, you know. They won't rust, so just make sure to get 'em repaired now and then." After this, he offered them back.

Lupa returned with Zack's armor at this point; Randall appraised it briefly. "Hmph. 'Least it looks like you know how to dodge. Nothin' too bad here." He concentrated toward the armor briefly, fixing a few minor scratches.

Lynn held out her bow and arrow toward him next, but he shook his head. "Can't do much for wood, miss. And you have to replace all your arrows on the regular anyway, right?"
"True enough. You didn't specify metal weapons, though."

"Suppose I didn't."

"Does this count as metal?" Mira asked, presenting her own weapon. Randall looked at it, appeared to do a double-take, and then fixed it with a long stare, slowly changed his expression to a dark glare.
"I know that thing," he said finally. "Gave me this righ'ere." He indicated the scar under his eye. "Still hurts sometimes. Won't ask where you found it, but...that thing keeps itself together just fine as long as someone with demonic magic in 'em holds it. I do know it's supposed to be able to split into two smaller scythes, but no idea how."

"Oh! Well, at least I can try to figure that out now?" she said.
"You do that, lass. Just—keep the bloomin' thing away from me," he said, shaking his head slightly.

"I suppose that just leaves me," Rayna said, pulling out her fans and offering them toward him. "I don't really use these much, though, being much more effective with illusions than blunt force."
"There are things in this world no illusion can fool," he said, "Don't hurt to have a backup or three. You're right, these haven't seen much use. Old-looking nick or two to fix, and they're right as rain." After a quick repair, he gave them back. "If that's ev'ryone?"

Katherine nodded. "Pretty sure it is."

"Right." Randall physically pushed himself off of the couch. "Now, if you need me, I'll be in an inn somewhere sleepin' all this off. Or trying to, a' least." He nodded to everyone and quickly stumbled his way back out the door.

Lynn crossed her arms, watching the door close behind him. "...To repeat myself, that was a Thing That Happened."
"He sure seemed to take Lupa's personification in stride," Rayna said.

"I guess he's seen a couple of those before," said the witch. "Or he's just too drunk to care about anything right now."

"He sure cared enough to criticize me," Zack stated. "...Not that he was wrong." He stared at the gem, able to perceive the tiny cracks in it himself now that they'd been pointed out. "I'd better get this fixed before fighting any demons."

"Just join our trip after supper," Katherine suggested. "I think Nora has some business with a magic-gem shop too, anyway."

"All right."

While everyone started to disperse again, Rayna stayed back with the other beastfolk for a second, looking in Katherine's direction with her arms loosely crossed. Keep a close eye on me. I'm really impressed he can do what should be really delicate work like that while falling-over drunk, but also I think he'd be sort of cute if he was sober.

Seriously? The psion's response was heavy with irritation. Well—I don't think that condition is likely to be fulfilled anytime soon.

As long as we're looking out for each other. The fox-girl turned and followed Lynn back into the library again.

After sticking his armor and weapons back in his inventory for now, Zack sat down on the couch, only for Lupa to squat awkwardly in front of him. "No, come on..." Making a face, the knight gestured to the other side of the couch.

"Sorry!" she popped up onto her feet. "This one isn't used to being allowed on that." She dove toward the indicated spot, landing belly-down before flipping over and scrambling up into a sitting position.

"You're gonna break something sooner or later if you keep diving onto every piece of furniture you see."

"I think it's hilarious," the witch offered.

The catgirl sighed, sitting on one of the chairs by now. "Good for you..."

The front door was unlocked again, from the outside. Katherine sat up, listening to that and feeling for minds beyond it. "Oh—Aria's here. I think she's had 'that talk' with Loren."

"Wait, which one?" the witch said.
"You know..the one she was really nervous about and asked everyone for permission about last night...?"
"Oh, yeah."

At the same time, the psion heard: Hey, just stopping by to let you know I'm gonna eat with Loren, if that's okay?

It's fine but...well, you might want to come in for a minute anyway. The sooner everyone was aware of Lupa, the better.

Okay.

Outside, she turned to Loren: "I guess something happened."
"Something bad?"
"Probably not." She opened the door properly and strode inside, him following a bit more hesitantly. Naturally, the shifters spotted the new girl right away, Aria coming up and bending forward slightly to look at her. "Ah, hello there!"
"Changer! This one changed too," the wolf-girl said cheerfully, her tail audibly whipping back and forth across the couch.

Zack cleared his throat. "Long story short, our wolf personified himself—some kind of magic buildup letting an animal transform into a person thing," he explained further, for Aria's benefit. "And became..her. Name's Lupa."
"Oh. Cool!" Did she get a class? A skill tree?

Yes, and...I don't know. We haven't checked yet, Katherine replied. It's kind of a difficult concept to even get her to understand.

Well, I can take a crack at it later if you can't figure it out.

"In some ways, this makes sense," Loren commented during this brief mental conversation, crossing his arms with a thoughtful expression directed toward Lupa. "In others even less than before. How and when did you actually stop being a monster in the first place?"

She headtilted. "This one was never 'monster'. Just big and strong. Now this one is less big, but even stronger! Could throw glasses man through the wall to demonstrate," she offered with a grin just toothy enough to partially bare her fangs.

"Um..that's...please don't do that," he said, dropping his arms and taking a small step backwards. Lupa laughed; obviously she'd been joking.

"Zaaack." Aria stood upright again, looking toward the knight. "Did you raise a troll?"
"There is no version of this reality where I 'raised' her," Zack stated. "No denying she is one at this point, though."

Both Loren and the wolf-girl were confused by the unfamiliar term; as a result, Aria and Zack simultaneously said, "I'll explain later." Their heads snapped to looking at each other for an awkward second or two of silence, until the shifter pointed and yelled "Jinx!" and he folded his ears back with annoyance in response.

Mira laughed at all of this too, but at this point she directed a mental message toward Aria, which the psion passed along: Hey.

What? The shifter turned toward the witch, which also drew Loren's attention that way.Wanna help kill a new demon tonight?

You know it. "Heeyy, Mira," she added aloud as an admittedly weak cover.

"You two planning to have some fun~?" the witch asked teasingly, a far better distraction.
"I really don't like the way you asked that," Loren replied. "Did anything else completely insane happen while were talking?"
"Not here, at least," she said with a shrug.
"Okay then. I think my headache is getting worse."

Loren turned toward the small wolf-girl again briefly. "I am glad to meet you, Lupa. My name is Loren, by the way?"
"Glasses man, Loren," she nodded. "This one is glad to meet, too. Have fun with Aria!" She waved. After nodding toward her once in response, he turned and hurried back out of the house. Aria shrugged and followed him outside, letting the door lock itself once they were there.

"I have no idea how someone can look so nice and innocent and yet be incredibly threatening at the same time," he said, shaking his head.
"I've been told I can do the same thing," Aria replied, giving a razor-toothed smile.
"Please," Loren crossed his arms. "I guess it's different when I'm pretty sure you won't actually hurt me."

"She really does seem nice, though. And the wolf was pretty consistently on our side already. Give it a little time, I'm sure you'll get used to her too," she said, starting to lead the way toward the restaurant they'd agreed on on the way there.