Aetuornos Beta 2-9

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2-9: Propositions and Plans

"And then we all beat up the big forcefield together until it exploded!" Fiori spread out her hands excitedly.
"Uh...more like it shattered," Thora corrected.

"Sounds a lot less stressful than our experience," Noire said, "though falling into that pit may have been relatively harmless, for reasons of magic. One can never really be certain with wizards."

After taking their artifacts and being warped back out to the front of the tower, the seven of them more or less agreed they'd had enough adventuring for the day and started off toward town, exchanging stories of their experiences along the way—beginning with Ronin.

"Either way, I get a shield now," the berserker continued, raising her left hand with the ring in it and closing it into a fist. A brief flash of yellow fire in a tall, rectangular shape appeared in front of her, indicating the placement of a mostly-invisible force field similar to the one they'd worked to break. "But if I'm being honest, uhh, I may end up bashing enemies with it as much as I actually block attacks. Just how my 'class instinct' goes."
"My amulet lets me make bombs just by wanting 'em," Jack said. "I mean—there's a limit to how often I can do that, and the explosions don't do that much damage for being, y'know, explosions, but..bombs! It's like I'm playing Zelda or somethin'!"

"Anyway, I guess I have to play again..at least once, to spread around this 'secret fire' thing," Ronin said. "I don't really have to judge by the criteria that witch gave me; I can tell just by looking either way—and it won't work on anyone here. None of you are 'pure enough' mages, I guess."

"If it's absolutely crucial to the plot, I doubt they'd leave it in the hands of just one player," Noire said. "But strategically speaking—if we must have a final boss fight with a demon queen someday, I do hope we get all the help we can."

"Oh, yeah—so like...I guess demons are the main bad guys, then," Fiori said. "Is that uh—offensive to actual demons or anything?"
"Well uh—we don't exactly have a perfect track record in the first place," Thora said. "Demonic foci are still banned because of the last time some guy thought he'd take over the world with an army of demons. A lot of us feed off of negative emotions or, uh, harmful behaviors at least. Anyway, it's different from uh...human racism in a lot of ways. Lots of demons get to be good guys or at least ambiguous in all kinds of stories, and even the demon bad guys still don't all fit one stereotype. So, it's fine."

"Besides all of that, we're in the beta," Noire pointed out. "I think the demon queen is only the first arc of many, so there's plenty of room for this game to have many other antagonists as things progress."

"Yeah, maybe we'll have to fight a big dragon someday!" Fiori said. "Oh wait, dragons're real too, huh..."

"It's best not to dwell on it," Zef said, speaking up for the first time. "The most recent crisis our world faced involved the irresponsible use of celestial magic, at a scale which was only possible for the descendants of my kind."
"And you fought those guys yourself?" Grigori asked; the monk nodded. "Neat. I mean, I don't know that I'll ever do something as momentous as that."

"It would be better that nobody has to suffer through such a conflict again."

"..Say, I really would like to hang out with you some IRL. Or at least play this with you again. Maybe I could give you my number and we could text some?"
"..I do not have a phone."
"Uhh..email?" Zef shook her head. "Look, I'll just give you both and if you feel like contacting me, I'm sure you'll find a way."
"If you wish."

"Wait, hold on—just how old are you?" Ronin asked. "Uh, I mean, not to be rude but..."

"I was created two hundred and thirty-eight years, four months and five days ago," Zef stated bluntly.

Grigori whistled. "Wow. And, Celestials are 'made' as already fully-functioning adults, right?"
"Those who are created directly by Sol, such as myself, are," she replied, apparently indicating that this distinction was necessary.
"Okay, now I've got to meet you in person sometime.

"Look—I'm in the third year of a PhD in history. Recorded history has gigantic holes in it, because it was written by humans still under the veil! Part of what I'm trying to do is fill some of those gaps, at least the major events that all us nonmagical humans missed out on. A primary source who lived through some of that would be incredible. If you wouldn't mind, I mean."

Zef considered it for a moment or so. "..I suppose getting a better grasp of history is a noble pursuit, at least. I should be able to spare some time for such an inquiry."
"Great! Over lunch or something, maybe? Well, find you a way to call me at least, and we can set it up."

"Oh, yeah, you guys should come to my restaurant if you're ever in town," Thora said. "I mean uh—it's not mine, but I cook there. Maybe I can find a way to make properly cooked meat taste raw..."
"Uh, what," Ronin said.
"Long story, mostly to do with me," Noire said. "I'd look forward to trying it. You know werewolf tastes, I'm sure—any meat at all is still good."
"Wait, you're a werewolf?" Jack interjected.

</hr>

"Hmmn." Fiori paused at the door to the stairwell at the inn.
"Something vexes you?" Noire asked. Zef and the boys had already gone upstairs to log out, leaving the three of them behind momentarily.
"Aah. I just feel like I'm gonna miss being this brave. Err, socially, I mean. Like, IRL I can barely even strike up a conversation with someone I don't know. I always stutter and fidget and often people say they can barely even hear me...even some with animal ears. I kinda like being loud and stuff, I guess. At least a little."

"There are ways to change yourself if you truly dislike it," the catgirl said. "Not magically or mind-damaging, I mean—just good old fashioned, mundane psychiatry."

"Eheh, yeah, I know. I guess I would be at least a li'l bit bolder if I didn't enjoy being a bit of a loner sometimes."

The rogue nodded. "There is some advantage to not being tied to a large group, as well."

She glanced back and forth between the two of them; Thora was, if anything, looking like the shy one right now. "Well, it must be quite late in the real world by now, and my body quite sore in that undersized pod. I've got a wife waiting on me besides, so—I'll head on up. See you two later!"
"Uh—yeah," Thora nodded.

"Yep!"

Once the door closed behind the catgirl, Fiori bounced around between her feet for a moment. "Y-you know uh," the berserker started awkwardly. "Shyness can be cute, in its own way. I guess, like, it feels like you've really earned the trust of someone like that if they're willing to hang out anyway."

"Mmh." Fiori nodded. "Weelll. While I'm feeling a little braver. You're cute, you wanna share a room with me?"
"Uh." Thora blushed furiously. "S-sure, I guess." It wasn't anywhere near the kind of proposition it would be in the real world—they probably wouldn't even be there very long. But still, the idea of going somewhere private with the pretty, pink-haired necromancer was enough to make her heart race. She nervously followed Fiori up the stairs and into the room.

"Uh, l-look...did I tell you? What I really look like?"
"I don't think so. Huh, guess I should say something like that too!" Fiori said. "Like I mentioned before, I'm an artist IRL. Ever heard of Chris Hagar?"
"I uh, barely know anything about art, much less modern artists," Thora admitted nervously.
Fiori had gone over to a dresser by now and was messing with her outfit, tapping the piece of furniture repeatedly to swap it from one thing to another. "Oh, c'mon, you're not gonna upset me just 'cause you haven't! I'm not that conceited." Of course she looked pretty good in everything, but some outfits were rather more revealing, hence distracting.

"Ah, well, no."

"He's this guy who does mostly dark, gory, gothic, surreal or abstract stuff. Lots of paintings, some book covers, some horror movie posters. Well—that's me, anyway."

"...Uhh...oh. S-so you're a guy?"
"Yep!" she paused, apparently satisfied with a bright pink, short-sleeved nightgown, and turned to face Thora. "I hope that's not too disappointing.
"N..not really. I'm actually, a guy too, and not really—an attractive one at all. I was going for a 'big, strong dude' look ingame, but...messed up, like I do a lot of things."
"Awwh, well, some mistakes are worth making, I say." Fiori bounced closer, reaching her hands up to the taller girl's cheeks. "Look how cute you are~!"

"H-heheh...

"S-so you're not upset either, then?"

"Nah." She hopped herself up into a hug with their faces close, and Thora found herself returning the embrace. "I say it just makes us even. Like, I'd understand if you wanna lie down and cuddle with a pretty girl for a while, 'caauuse, a guy like me knows what wanting that's like."

"Mmh. H-have you, ever dated someone before?" Thora didn't really know why she was asking this; the proximity to Fiori's blushing face, and the feeling of her soft body so close, were flustering her past the point of thinking straight.
"Nope! But still. You?"
"Uh, f-few times. Never uh, never worked out for me..."

The taller demon-girl took the hint to slowly stumble them both over to a bed and lie down, Fiori still wrapped around her the whole time. After that, the small girl carefully leaned her head forward, pressing their cheeks together while keeping her forehead low enough to not bump into Thora's horns. "Mmm~mmh. You're fun," she said.
"Uh..y-you're a lot more."

After a little while, Fiori gently pulled away—enough to look her in the eyes again. "Let's meet IRL anyway. Maybe I'll buy a potion that'll make me a girl for a few hours, you cook me some dinner..we'll call it a date. Heheh!"
"Um."
She tilted her head. "Too much? Too soon?"

"I-I'm just worried I won't uh. M-measure up to your standards—the real me, I mean. And that's kind of a big thing to..."
"Well, I'm like, worried about your standards too! That's why I'm asking now, while I'm brave."
"Um. Yeah, okay. Maybe we can..w-work something out."
Fiori booped her nose. "Text. Me."
"Uh..s-sure." Then the smaller girl leaned in again, giving another pleased sigh.

They stayed together this way for a little while longer. Yaboth logged out only after being pretty sure that the cute little necromancer had done the same, and slowly sat up in his pod still feeling a flustered mixture of confusion and happiness. Somehow or other, he'd...maybe?...scored himself a date? What?

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The beta had its own official forum, with registration open exclusively to people who were participating in it. Some people actively avoided it in order to keep away from "spoilers", only checking the company's news feed instead. But as of now—late on Sunday, the night the game first opened—most of the posts were eager anticipation of the impending release, discussion of all the concept art and promotions that had come out. Just a few topics near the top referred to ingame events:

TPK'd by super strong monster girl! X_x

Purple light in the sky, overpowered purple monsters: Related?
WHY ARE THERE SPIDERS!?

LFG for Monday night, email ITT

…

For the person currently browsing the forum—a young woman sitting at a somewhat aged desktop with a black cat in her lap—the most important post was the official announcement at the top:

Servers Down for Maintenance Wednesday Morning: Nobility Update

"Hmmh, hope my pod thing gets here by then..well, hope I can find space for it, too." The room she was in at the moment was a mess of an office: Besides the small desk that barely fit the computer on it and her chair, there was an entire wall of shelving occupied by numerous tomes in no particular order, a large cauldron taking up nearly half of the floor space, and a disorganized pile of various enchanted items, ingredients and material spell components all shoved into another corner.

The girl's pet cat meowed, and she carefully ran her hand along its back. "Heheh...I'll figure something out," she said, as if replying to the animal. "Perhaps it'll work outdoors, if I can keep it out of the rain..and keep bugs away from my sleeping self." She sighed aloud, which morphed into a vocal yawn midway through. "Just need to...make sure I get all my work done before then. Shouldn't be too hard, just got..." Pulling up another window, she flicked up and down through a spreadsheet. "Sixteen commissions...I can probably put that and that off until Friday, so fourteen...unless something else comes in tomorrow..."