The "Best" RPG Ever-94

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

"Okay, so: A 'troll' in that sense, is someone who says crazy things just to get a reaction out of the audience, regardless of how they really feel about a subject," Aria said. They were in the restaurant, waiting for the food to arrive.
Loren raised an eyebrow. "So, like you?"
"Sometimes, sure," she shrugged. "I think it comes from folklore about trolls being monsters who guard bridges and demand people pay tolls to cross...actually, I have no idea how that meaning relates to this one. Maybe it was something to do with fishing...?"

"At least I know what you meant, now." He hesitated to say something for a second, and then decided against it. Of course: Zack had also known what she meant immediately, and while it wasn't unreasonable to say she could've taught him that...every coincidence was another step toward suspicion.

Loren, fortunately, wasn't interested in investigating this matter. "What about yelling 'jinx'?" he asked instead.
"Oh. When two people say the same thing at the same time...it's, like a superstitious thing originally, I guess whoever says 'jinx' first dispels a fake curse. But these days it's mostly just a kids' joke that adults like me repeat 'cause we still think it's funny."

"And..adults like Zack don't. But at least it breaks the tension," Loren remarked. "I'll have to start using that one, if I ever get an opportunity."
"Heheh."

"..My turn, right?"

"If you want," he shrugged. "I wasn't aware we were taking turns."

"I'm just checking if I can start asking questions now."
"Any time." He put a hand forward, palm-up, for a second.
"So: In a couple of places, not me but the others encountered these animated armor things, patrolling around and attacking anyone in sight. They were powered by magic crystals with like, fire and lightning in them; I'm told they're called 'constructs'."

"I can almost see where this is going," Loren said.

"Yeah. I wanna know how you make something like that, how it thinks, how to tell it what to do. And can a person's mind be put into one?"

"Well..constructs are pretty old technology. Experts on them these days are few and far between, and..I'm certainly not one of them," he began. "You learn about them in history classes at any mage college, though. To make one, you need to build a body with 'channels' for the right kind of animating energetic magic to flow through. The easiest thing is to make a body modeled after a kind of person or animal, with channels similar to the way nerves are mapped, but it's possible to give them just about any physically functional shape. It's a tremendously delicate process, but there was a kingdom or two a long time ago that had secret techniques to practically mass-produce them. Their records were all lost, and today's experts are people who've partially reverse-engineered whatever those old kingdoms did. Generally there isn't much interest because it's so expensive to make just one these days that the resources are better spent elsewhere."

"But...how do they think? Which part governs that?"
"Er..." He scratched his head. "I don't really know. I suppose it must be distributed through the network somehow, or possibly a component of the animating enchantment. Either way, they tend to be pretty stupid, interpreting commands very literally and understanding less words than your common housecat."

"Mm-hm..and the other thing?"

He nodded. "There..have been records of people binding their souls into constructs more or less resembling their original bodies—presumably using their own will in place of the 'thinking' part of the animation. It takes someone truly desperate to do something like that...usually the mind can't cope, and goes mad not long after being placed inside, compelling someone else to destroy them. Even if that doesn't happen, again, very few know how constructs work, much less how to repair one. You don't feel pain normally to tell whether you've been hurt by something, and if you're the expert then not only are there are loads of things you can't fix on your own body, but maybe an injury loses you the ability to even tell someone else how to fix you. I can't even imagine how...why are you grinning?"

Aria did have the biggest grin on. "Oh, sorry. Not about the endlessly tortured existence thing, just...do you have any idea how hard it is, with that stuff I showed you before, to even make something slightly stupider than a newborn kitten?"

"Probably..very?"
She nodded. "We still haven't managed anything even close. If someone could marry a rudimentary 'animal' intelligence that can follow instructions given in words to some high-level programming, you could get something better than either of our worlds' best ever state-of-the-art. I mean: Natural language processing—trying to understand what a human is saying and talk back—takes loads of power and work back there to get working. To fit that into a package as small as a human body, say, and then give it some data to access and computing power to calculate with...well, I used to know people who'd dream of something half that good.

"I'm convinced: I've got to build a working computer in this world," she concluded. "That's the first step needed for anything like that to be a reality."
"I won't try to stop you, but you should probably expect to get a few funny looks," Loren said, "telling someone to imprint those diagrams from earlier."
"I'm used to that. I mean, I think people in this town are already aware I use a demon sword that constantly craves blood, so this should be nothing by comparison, right?"

"I suppose you're right..."

---

After buying the night's necessary livestock, Rayna and Katherine headed back toward the center of town, where they were to meet back up with the others before returning to the house, the psion pulling the cart with two small crates along behind them telekinetically. Eventually they ran into a familiar face.

"Katherine!" Jacob waved, walking up.

"Oh, hello," she said, smiling slightly more than usual. As he came closer, he noticed the boxes, and leaned over toward them for a second before working out what was in them.

"...Dare I ask what you require a pair of live chickens for?" he said.

Rayna and Katherine exchanged a brief glance. I think we can trust him, the psion said.

Up to you, the fox-girl shrugged.

Then, turning to him, she said, We have a witch on our team. Do I need to spell it out for you?

I suppose not. Jacob shook his head slightly. Well, if you trust her then I'll try not to worry about it.

He followed them as they kept going. "Did you manage to track down the source of that 'loud' thought?"

"Yeah. Zack's wolf personified himself. What I felt was Zack's shock, though; he got to watch."

"I see...perhaps the lack of chaotic magic in him the other day was related." He had a thoughtful look for a moment. "Do you think he would object to a brief scan?"
"She," Rayna corrected, "and I doubt it. She's a lot friendlier than before."

"Hm." Jacob nodded. "That's not unheard of, I suppose. Though I can't say such a drastic alteration is exactly common, self-personification does tend to result in a form reflecting the new person's desires."

"She wanted to 'fit in with the pack'," the catgirl said.

"I suppose that makes sense."

"Anyway," Rayna said, "we're supposed to meet up with them on the way back if you wanna come along and ask her yourself."

"All right."

After reaching their meeting place, they had to wait a short while for the others. Nora was wearing a bracelet on each hand with pieces of the crystal from the ogre set into them, suggesting that their mission had been successful. I suppose that's her? Jacob asked mentally, watching the shorter wolf-girl following Zack.

Right. Oh and, so you're not too surprised, she talks a little weird, the psion replied.

Once they were in conversational distance, Rayna said, "I suppose messing with magic gems does take longer than buying chickens, eh?"
"The Captain found us; already had those papers together to sign. You have to wait long?" Zack asked.
"Not too long, nah. We found an elf," she added, waving toward Jacob.

Lupa ran up to the 'new' person, stopping just slightly inside his personal space as he started to lean away from her out of fear she was just going to keep going and knock him over onto his back. "Hi! Hand-waver, right? This one knows the smell."
"Er, hello." He politely offered a hand to shake, awkward as that was at this distance. "My name is Jacob."

She stared at the hand for a second or two before appearing to realize something, and grabbing it to excitedly shake it. "Lupa!" After she let go, he was left rubbing his arm, grateful she hadn't really wanted to tear it off.

He cleared his throat and took a small step back. "I heard you had personified. There was..something I thought might be worth checking on, if you wouldn't mind me taking another look."
"Okay! This one can sit still," she said.

"Maybe we should head back to the house first," Katherine suggested.

On the way, the fox-girl came up next to Nora. "So, can you only do two elements at a time?"
"No?" The elf tilted her head slightly, then held up her right arm. Two more bracelets appeared on it, then the one that was on it disappeared. "I c-can swap them out quickly, or wear as m-many as I need at once." She returned to just one bracelet and dropped the arm. "It j-just feels a little strange, so I'm t-trying to get used to it."

"That's cool. It's just good to know our limitations before we get into another fight."

"Heyy!" Aria's voice came from nearby, and she ran up not long after, Loren following at a slower pace. "What have you guys been up to?"

"Just running a few last-minute errands," the fox-girl said. "You two have fun?"
"I don't like the way you phrased that," Aria frowned, putting her hands on her hips.

"Neither do I," said Loren, coming up next to her. "We were just about to split up, so...I guess I'll leave you to it."

"Yeah," she nodded. "See you again soon!"

Back at the house, Lupa stood in the center of the living room patiently while Jacob used a scanning spell similar to those he'd used before. Eventually he dropped his hand and took a small step back, his expression a mixture of concentrated thought with a touch of confusion.

"Well?" Zack said.

"I've..never seen anything quite like it," Jacob said.
"Like what?" asked Lupa.

"The..chaotic magic is swirling in toward you, as if you're drawing it in or—perhaps it's naturally attracted to you somehow. I saw a similar flow pattern around you two days ago, and around the beast-type monster today, but with a far lesser gradient—ahh, I mean, not nearly as extreme. Yet, once it actually reaches your body it's just—gone. There's less chaotic magic in you than in me; I'd even hazard a guess that there's none at all." Lupa nodded once or twice, watching him talk with keen interest, but only seemed to partially understand the explanation.

"So, where's it going then?" Zack asked, crossing his arms.

"Even chaotic magic d-doesn't just disappear, right?" Nora added.
"Usually not, unless it's being used up by a spell or other magical process," Jacob said. "Hmm...do you mind if I take one more look at something?" he asked the wolf-girl. "This should be quicker than the last one."
"Okay."

Jacob put a hand up to just above her head and briefly chanted a different spell, then dropped it off to his side again. "...Just what I thought," he nodded to himself. "It shouldn't be possible, but the numbers match perfectly, as far as I can tell. You appear to be somehow converting the chaotic magic into normal magic for your own use. I would guess this started happening while you were still a wolf, and was at least partly responsible for the buildup which allowed you to personify."

"..And she's passively using that magic to make herself stronger," Rayna said. "At least as far as I can tell. So, more chaotic magic would only make her more powerful?"
"Assuming there isn't some kind of limit to this ability. But even if it has a cost in terms of magic, it's apparently more than recouping it right now," he said, shaking his head.

"Is this...good?" Lupa asked.
"Well—it isn't bad news, at least," he said. "Given that you were a dire wolf before, I would otherwise be concerned about the chaotic flow having adverse effects...hurting you, I mean. But instead you're able to take advantage of it."

He turned his head up and to one side slightly, getting a sort of distant look. "Hm.."

"Getting ideas?" Katherine asked.
"You could say that. I have no idea if it'll work or not, but..I believe there is something else I should at least try," he said.

"Well, I appreciate you allowing me to take a look," he said to the small wolf-girl. "I think I should take my leave before I get involved in anything I can't plausibly deny knowledge of." This came with a slight sideways glance toward Mira, who just chuckled slightly in response. "Either way, I have much to think about tomorrow."
"Okay! Bye, Jacob," Lupa said, not appearing to understand most of the context.

By now, everyone had more or less gathered into the living room. "Well, the sun's down," the witch said. "If everyone's feeling rested and prepped, we could get on with the show."

"I need to get into my armor," Zack stated, starting toward the stairs. "Fine with me, after that." Everyone else had more or less the same sentiment—Katherine echoing the need to change into her own freshly-bought armor. Everyone who was already prepared sat down to wait on them. Lupa started to follow Zack upstairs, but thought better of it, and instead went and sat on the couch next to Lynn.

"..Hey, Lupa."
"Hmn?" she turned her head the archer's way.

"Don't take this the wrong way or anything, please, but..you do know you talk funny, right?"
"This one talks how this one talks," she said, but nodded. "Is bad?"
"No, but..I was sorta wondering the reason for it. Like, why 'this one' when 'I' takes less time to say?"
"'This one' is any of the pack except the alpha," Lupa said. "The pack is one; all are equal below the alpha, and only when all need to know which one, one says 'this one' to tell. Is usually bad to stand out differently from the rest of pack when there is no need."

"So it's...kind of a humility thing? You don't see any of us doing that, though."
Lupa nodded again. "Most of this pack is their own alpha, but Master is this one's alpha. So this one is 'this one'!"

"I..guess that makes sense," she shrugged. The explanation had a kind of sideways logic to it which she could tell made perfect, indisputable sense to Lupa, so it was a little hard to argue against it. It was a little like she imagined talking to an alien might be.

The stairwell door opened, and everyone who'd gone upstairs poured out before it shut. "Okay, everyone ready now?" Mira asked, standing up. After a general response of assent, she continued: "Right. Let's get this over with, then."

---

As a bit of "behind the scenes", back when this story was near its beginning and I wasn't even sure whether the setting was "real" or somehow "virtual", much less the "mundane tech level" of the world, one of the ideas I had for a member of the second party was going to be a "construct", a robot girl with sort of muted emotions and a monotone speech pattern. You can see a hint of it where Norrin's checking all the classes way back in part 6! 

Other ideas that didn't get used include one for a Felis "bard" who would impart buffs by singing and also somehow wield a microphone as a weapon, a dragoon wielding a spear, and the vague idea that what was "party 1" and "party 2" back then would be introduced to each other by some sort of arena battle against each other instigated by the Captain. It'd be wildly out of character for her now, of course, but I didn't exactly have everything nailed down about her back then.

I might as well also mention now that since this whole thing has been written sequentially, and many earlier parts before I was entirely sure of what was going on or even the precise details of what happened in the past, there are at least a few continuity snags. For example, Tsaron said something to Mira about the warlock killing "four" of his friends. That number should be two.