Halloween Cheer 5: Like in the Animes

I did it! I finished this caption in time to post it on Halloween!

But this series is still not over. I hope to finish it this year, so Halloween Cheer is going to go right past October and into overtime!

Battle Vixens! - 111

First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

I know you might be wondering where the fifth Halloween series caption for this year is, given that it's now only a couple of days away from Halloween istelf. The fact is that I have ideas for three or four more in that series, and the very next one more than half written, but the past couple of weeks or so suddenly became very busy for me in real life, and some writer's block with that series piled on top of that. I'm optimistic I'll finish the one that's more than halfway soon, but it may not be up in time for Halloween, and I think it's realistic to expect myself to still be writing the last of it into December. I was hoping to keep up a pace of two a week, but it just didn't turn out to be realistic. As for why a story part like this is posting, well, one of my best ways of handling writer's block on one project is to go do another one, whichever one I feel like I can do.

---

Episode 111: Hello, Goodbye

Not wanting to hang around on the street long enough for the news crews to show up, the other vixens made their way into the restaurant Rory and Light had eaten at. It was empty now, temporarily evacuated due to the monster attacks. Sam got out her phone to call in for someone to come pick up Void, since it would look suspicious for her to carry a supposed coma victim to the VI in her own car.

She hung up the phone, turning to Amp. "We got a few real coma victims comin' in real soon. You mind goin' with her to wake 'em up?"

"Not at all," she said without hesitation.

"Good. You'll take the van with her so you won't be seen...maybe ride back with Dr. Quinn, in human form?"

"That works."

"How's my husband doing, anyway?" Rory asked. "And Magus?"
"Rowan didn't say, so...can't be too badly hurt."

Amp got her phone out to check on the news, waving Rory over to read over her shoulder.

Sam leaned against a wall, staring up at a corner between the ceiling and the wall silently, for a moment, before appearing to remember something. "Light, Gemma."
"Y-yes?" Emma snapped out of some nervous fidgeting at hearing her 'other' name. Light was sitting at a booth, leaning way back with her face pointed up at the ceiling; she sat slowly up to turn her head Sam's way.

"Listen, power sharing—and now fusion too—are more 'r less open secrets among the leaders of VI's allies, and several individual teams all over. Bit like Amp there." The blond vixen looked up from her phone briefly, taking a second to smile and wave cutely before returning to pointing out the news to Rory. "The line we're givin' the public is that these're secret techniques that 'require mutual trust and understanding', and fusion even more so. Just so y'all know."

"So, wait—are other teams doing fusion too?" Emma asked.
"Certainly. Tenpo and Shuriken out in Japan, for instance."

"Well—that's a relief," Light said. "Means it's not yet another thing 'only we can do'."

"I..thought it required Amp's help to do it, though?" Emma said. "Or, uh, at least having a certain level of power..or, something?"

"Seems like it isn't easy," Amp chimed in, "but yeah, several teams managed to do it today. So far, it looks like it tends to be under some extreme circumstances, so maybe the uh..'emotional boost' is pushing them over the threshold to where it's possible."

"Lift tried with me once," Void chimed in. "No luck."

"'Lift' being...someone else on your team?" Amp asked.

"Leader," Void nodded.

"But, so, wait—you're...uh, 'power sharing', with her?" Emma asked, and Void nodded.
"Only one-way. We fought, she won."

"Seems like that way of getting access to someone's power is the bigger secret at this point," Sam remarked.

A few minutes of quiet waiting later, Light's phone rang. She put it in front of her face and saw that the call was through the VI app. "..Huh. 'Lift'."

"Please remember she's 'unconscious' right now," Sam said, gesturing Void's way.
"Right..."

"Yoo!" A woman's voice came through, along with the kind of noise that would come from using a car speakerphone. "Light, right? I never used this to call someone I don't already know before."
"..That's me," Light said.

"I just heard on the radio you guys beat the stuffing outta that giant bird that swallowed Void! I was on my way to help, but—looks like you didn't need it, heheh...guess I really shouldn't be surprised at this point! Either way, sorry our troubles wound up dumping on you again."
"No problem...wait, 'again'?"

"Sure. You pretty much helped bring Braille back from the dead after that crazy girl killed her in her sleep, yeah?"

"You mean...Tobias, the puppeteer. The one with the blindfold?"
"That's her all right. Oh, yeah—I didn't even introduce myself, hah!"

"Lucille Bates, A-K-A Lift: 'Touch No Evil'."
"'Touch No Evil'?" Light repeated.

"Yeah. I have ALS—you know, the Stephen Hawking thing? Pretty close to paraplegic in human form. By some weird coincidence—or, I dunno, maybe the Giver's whim or whatever—all the fox-girls in our town have got disabilities that being in fox-form cures, so our team's 'No Evil'. Braille's blind, 'See No Evil', Void's 'Hear no Evil'—she's actually deaf, but I guess you can't really tell right now since she's a little busy taking a depowered-nap."

"Oh, I get it. We've..already called the VI to bring her to their headquarters so they can wake her up," Light half-lied.

"Yep, I thought as much. That's why I'm still headed your way, to pick her up after. Well—that and, maaaybe I could pay you guys a short visit on the way? Gemma might like a look at my powers, I thought, as a little thanks for the extra work we accidentally dumped on ya."

Light glanced Emma's way, and when she nodded said, "I'm sure she'd appreciate it. Is the rest of your team okay?"

"Hahah, yep, yep, just—totally exhausted. It's been a rough day, so we were pretty close to the brink when that invader from Sesame Street showed up, and I was mad as heck when it just took off after swallowing her whole. Aaanyway, I'll get to your town in like half an hour, maybe? Too bad my car can't break the speed of sound the way that bird did. Oh yeah—you're a speedster, right? You ever break the speed of sound running?"
"I don't...think so?" Light couldn't remember ever actually trying to run quite that fast.

"Bet you could. But I guess you got that light-iport thing if you need to get somewhere really quick anyway, right?"
"..Right."
"Okay okay, bye for real now. See you soon!"

"...She seems nice," Amp commented.
"Nice, yes," Void said. "Very high...en-er-gy."

A little while later, Sam looked out the window. "Looks like our ride's here. Void, lie down on the booth if ya don't mind. Rory, help me carry her."

"Youuu got it."
"Are you coming with, Light?" Void asked while she lay down.

"No, sorry. I'm...exhausted. I stuck around here so I can hide Amp and make a convincing illusion for you until you're in the van, and then...I'll probably just go take a nap."
"Too bad. Your text is very helpful."
"I'm..sure they've got at least one sign language interpreter at the VI headquarters. Right?" she asked Sam.

"Sure," the gray-haired vixen nodded.

While the four of them headed outside, Light addressed Emma and Ning: "We're 'not here' as far as anyone outside can see. You want to slip out with me?"
"I'd..appreciate that, yeah," Emma nodded.
"Sam's my ride back to my shop, sooo. I'm okay being visible," Ning said.
"Got it. I guess we'll need to figure out where to meet Lift whenever she shows up..."

"Outside the apartment, maybe?" Emma suggested. "We've been seen fighting monsters out there plenty of times, so it uh..doesn't necessarily mean we live there."

"Good enough."

---

Petra's head appeared leaning over Karis. "You alright there, dear?"

"Fffhh..okay, mostly. Just a little..hhhhh..winded." When offered a hand, she took it and carefully got up onto her feet, dusting herself off while looking around. "Weellp...guess this block won't be usable for traffic for the next three years."
"Heeyy, I can patch things up faster than that!"
"Oh, yeah? Can you rebuild pipework? Electrical lines? All the other infrastructure down there?"
"Nooo...but, I can make it really easy to reach, and re-bury it too."
"We'll discuss rebuilding after everyone has had some time to rest," Rowan said, taking over the conversation. Already in human form, he waved everyone toward a single location. "In the interest of that, let's just do our debriefing here."

He paused, looking around at the group. "...Where is Magus?"

"Oh, I think she's resting in there," Karis said, pointing. "I'll go get her."
On her way, Zeno ran up next to her. "Coming with you."

"..'Kay." Behind them, Rowan and Clark's phones both went off at the same time. They continued into the restaurant.

"Hhhheeey.." Magus was sitting at a table near the entrance, leaning her chin on a hand on an elbow on the table, and used the other arm to wave. "Pretty awesome fighting once I got outta the way, huh?"

"I won't even dignify that insinuation," Karis said, coming up to her. "Oof, you don't look so good. I know it was pretty noisy out there, but...you didn't take a nap or anything?"

"Well, like..my body tried, but..every time I started to doze off I kinda..felt like I was in freefall again..and panicked back awake...hahaah.." She gave a smile that was probably supposed to be reassuring.
"Listen—the VI has some licensed therapists on retainer," Zeno cut in. "You need someone to talk to, let me know. We can set it up so you talk through the app if you wanna keep anonymity."
"Uh..sure. But, I don't think it's that bad or anything. Just, y'know..how recent it is and stuff...nngh." She took Karis's hand to stand up, wobbling in place briefly. So Remedy came out and kept a hand on her shoulder to keep her stable.

"We gotta debrief outside, and then you can take a real nap, okay?" Zeno said. "Then we'll get you home."

"Y-yeah, that sounds..nice."

"Good, everyone's here," Rowan said. "First, some news: Another team had a monster eat one of their members, and instead of sticking around it took off. The Giver sent Dr. Quinn and I both a warning that it was headed Light's way. It isn't likely that any of us could get there in time to help, but most of us aren't in a condition to anyway. I'll keep an eye on things just in case."

Clark nodded; he and Simon were back in human form now, too. "Sent my wife a text she can use my powers, but she didn't reply—maybe didn't take her phone with her. Knowing her, she'll probably just assume it's fine anyway."

Rowan continued: "..That aside: Good work, everyone. There's no denying the..scale of the collateral property damage here," he said, gesturing at the giant hole. "But nobody was severely injured, and the buildings are still standing. Other monsters of that kind have demolished entire neighborhoods before they were stopped."

"Yeeaah! Go team!" Simon pitched in. Rowan gave him a brief look before continuing.

"Anyway, once the monster headed for Light's team is taken down, the person inside will join several other new coma victims that'll be flown our way for treatment. Nothing for you to worry about mostly, except that there may be some unfamiliar vixens at headquarters later this afternoon. Now...go get some rest. No telling what'll get thrown at us tomorrow."

---

"Um..sooo..."

Amp was sitting across from the formerly-deaf vixen in the van, on its way to the VI headquarters.

"I feel dumb asking this, but. How can I..best help you understand what I'm saying?"
"Talk slow. Small words. Sorry," Void said.

"No no no—it's, not like you did anything wrong, right?" she said, taking care to enunciate each word slowly.

"I did not."

"..Hmmnh. Do you know about the..dream thing?"
"Place the Giver talks to people?"

"Yeah," Amp nodded. "That place translates between different languages. I wonder if it would work with sign language too?"
"It is a language."

"Right, of course."

"..Would you mind, showing me a few basics?"
Void nodded, and then patiently helped her learn a few simple words and phrases. Even though Amp wasn't the quickest learner when it came to making the signs with her hands, teaching this occupied the time of the ride, and even seemed to cheer Void up a little bit.

---

After the two of them fielded a brief interview (even the newscasters knew they needed a break today), Sam and Ning headed back to the latter's store in the former's car. Sam got out to briefly survey the property damage they and the monsters had done to the area together, trying to assess just how long it was going to take to fix it all. It...didn't look so bad, compared to what they were probably dealing with back in the city.

"Guess this is bye for now, huh?" Ning said.

"Yep."
"Hugs?" She raised her arms expectantly.

Sam returned a confused look. "Err..."
"What?"
"It's just..knowing we're both old men deep down, I wouldn't expect you to offer that out of the blue," she shrugged.

"Well—I'm already committed to staying like this the rest of my days, and I've felt like a young woman ever since the first time I was 'Ning'. Besides, it ain't outta the blue exactly." She put her fists on her hips. "We fought four giant monsters together, not to mention all those puppets the other day, so that entitles you to a goodbye hug in my book!"

She dropped her arms and exhaled after this. "Not that you should feel obliged to or anything."

"Naw, it's fine."

"Okay then! Hugs~!" She actually approached this time with her arms held wide. Since getting eaten by a giant worm and her body 'upgrading' itself afterward, Ning was a bit taller and decidedly, well, bustier than Sam was, and she went for a full-on tight hug—if a brief one—while Sam just returned it politely and gently. It..felt nice, honestly; for as strong as she was, Ning's body was still very soft.

"There," she said after, hopping back a few steps to get out of Sam's personal space again. "You feel better? I know I do." That much was obvious: she was grinning wide, and her tail was wagging—despite the considerable effort doubtless required for the big fluffy thing to do so. It was...very cute.
"Well, I don't feel no worse," Sam shrugged. "Anyhow..better go report in. Y'all let us know if you need more help on your end; the offer's open to provide what we can."
"I can't speak with authority on our side, but I'm still sure the feeling's mutual," Ning said. She hadn't stopped grinning since the hug. "See ya!" With that, she raised a hand up in a brief wave and whirled to go continue working on her shop for a while longer...probably all the way until her grandkid was due to get out of school. Sam went back to her car to drive back to the city.

---

The first thing Cynthia did after reaching VI headquarters was go looking for Dawn. She wasn't in her room, so the next guess was the cafeteria. And, indeed, she found the tall, dark-haired vixen sitting at a table staring down at a plate which had probably contained food in the recent past. Her ears twitched and turned, and her head followed suit. "Yo." She was still a little hoarse. "Good to see you're okay."
"Uh-huh. Guess you're up and walkin' already too, huh?" The redheaded vixen came and sat next to her, pulling into a side-hug which Dawn seemed happy enough to return.
"Mmh. Took a nap, and woke up starvin'."

After coming out of the hug, Cynthia turned her seat around to face Dawn. "Listen...I know we made a promise and all, but. After seein' what happened when you remembered somethin' big in the middle of a fight..."
"You just wanna know? Get it over with?"
"Yeah."

Dawn visibly hesitated, looking away to one side. "You're gonna hate me. You—hated me before. For it."
"I sure don't remember ever hatin' you. I remember bein' mad, mad enough to scream and yell and punch you in the face. But not hate."

She sighed. "You'd hate me more if I refused to say, an' then you figured it out."

"Maybe I'd be angrier. Still ain't gonna hate you."

"You got every right to, though."

---

A dark, four-door sedan pulled into the parking lot north of the apartment complex, taking an unoccupied space relatively far from any nearby building. The driver opened the door and stepped out: An average-height, average-build young woman with short blond hair, foxlike ears and a tail both sporting dark orange fur with white at the tips, and a notable scar running a line from just below her left eye to her right chin. She had on some fairly tight jeans and a black t-shirt with a logo on it that depicted a hand with its index finger stretched out as if to touch something, all of which was behind a red circle with a line through it. The back of the shirt said "Touch No Evil", with the latter two words highlighted with bright shadowing for emphasis.

She looked around expectantly for a couple of seconds before finally noticing three words floating impossibly in the air just in front of her: To your left.

"Ah." She turned, finding Light and Gemma (the latter currently in her two-tailed, combined form). "Hey there!" She raised her hand and waved, then ran up their way. "Nice to see ya. You know, Light, you look taller than you did in the interview—on the news?"
"I..am taller. A little," she said. "Long story."
"Hah, like how Ning 'grew up' I guess? Only without a monster eating you involved, huh? Anyhow, Lift. Gemma?" She offered her a hand.
Emma returned the gesture. "H-hey..." Lift's shake was predictably aggressive, but in a friendly sort of way. She gave the same to Light afterward.
"It's a real treat to see you guys in person, though, lemme tell ya. Some of what you said in that interview really resonated with me. You write your lines ahead of time?"
"Not exactly..I did sort of try to practice some," Light said. "I'm..I wasn't really ready to be famous, to be honest."
"Hahah! Is anyone?"

Lift paused, looking around. "I'm guessing we're invisible, seeing how there's not a crowd of people around." Light nodded. "I'd totally make a public spectacle of our meeting myself, but I'll respect ya'lls' wishes. You've had a long enough day already, I s'pose. At least I get to show off a little, though." She addressed Gemma: "Check this out!"

The blond vixen swept her right hand in an arching motion, seemingly producing from behind it a set of five kunai. Each one stayed in the air where she put it, pointing straight up at the sky, and after she'd produced them, she made a twirling motion with the same hand, causing the knives to make a spiral-shaped motion through the air, following each other in a train. She then snapped her fingers and they all promptly obeyed gravity, falling to the ground with a little bit of clattering. Emma watched all of this with visible interest. "Pretty cool, huh? It's not just my own weapons I can pick up too, but I got a pretty low weight limit most of the time. I mean—I can throw people around if they let me with some effort, and one time I got real angry and knocked over a monster by like, force-slapping it."

Gemma nodded. "It's just 'force'. Um...like, directly making..what's-it-called...kinetic energy happen?"
"That sounds like the right term," Light commented. "You..wanted to be able to move again. And pick things up, and use them..."
"Well, yeah," Lift said, crossing her arms. "Wouldn't you?"
"Sorry," the white-haired vixen shook her head, "I mean—everyone who got a power, wanted something, and the power is usually based on that 'desire' in some way."

"..Huh. Really?" She paused, prodding the tip of one of her ears with an index finger. "That actually makes a lot of sense with everyone I know, now that I think of it."

Emma, meanwhile, was busy bringing out one of her own knives, carefully letting go of it while holding the other hand out toward it. She was able to exert 'force' on it, but only enough that it fell slowly instead of doing it at a normal speed. "Hmmnn..." She put the hand that had been holding the knife under it, palm-up, and with a little more effort it stopped falling.

"That's..huh. I can actually feel you doing that," Lift said. "But part of it feels different?"
"It's the um..'opposite'," Gemma explained. "I'm 'stopping' it with my left hand, and 'pushing it up' with my right."
"Ah. Neat! So you could use 'stopping' to block or slow down an attack coming at ya or something?"
"Probably? It's...n-not very strong. My 'imitation' powers never are, at least not by themselves." But with Amory's help...

"Well, I'd say you've shown everyone that a dozen 'imitations' can be better than one 'real thing' sometimes," Lift said, grinning. "At least with a li'l creativity."

Emma blushed lightly, catching the knife in her left hand and then dismissing it. "Uh, th-thanks."

"How'd you...get that?" Light asked, gesturing to her own right cheek. "If it's not too personal."
"Oh, y'know...Void and I had a disagreement. It turned kinda violent," Lift shrugged. "I'm lucky she didn't really wanna hurt me, and pulled the blade back the instant she started seeing blood. Although—I did kinda take advantage of the hesitation, too. It healed okay, doesn't hurt or anything, and I think the scar makes me look cool anyway. More battle-hardened, y'know?

"Anyway—guess I should be going. You two get some rest, yeah?"
"I've already been on that," Light said, "aside from this meeting." Gemma just nodded.

"Great. Anyway, hopefully things will calm down someday soon and we can just hang out. That'd be nice, right?"
"Yeah," Emma actually responded, nodding. But would things ever actually calm down?

Still grinning big, Lift flashed a peace sign and headed back for her car. Light exchanged a brief look with Emma, and they both headed back toward the apartment complex, each using her own power to remain invisible.

---

I was actually going to title this episode "Hello (Goodbye)", until I remembered there's a song with that exact pair of words as its title. Despite the complete necessity to keep this particular story largely focused on the main circle of characters (and even that group has gotten fairly big!), I do kind of like giving little glimpses into the fact that there are thousands or millions of other such stories going on in this world, and I think the "No Evil" team is a fun group to have done that with. No telling if or how any of them show up again, but I guess we'll see.

Halloween Cheer 4: Tech Witch

It continues!

Aetuornos Beta 3a-1

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

3a-1: Fluffy Reunion / Affluent Arrival

hey

hey

remus

hey

what

where are u

it's like 530

kite's gonna be wwwwaaaiiiittttiiinnngggg on us!

look

i'll be stuk at work another hour probably

and then I have to eat supper

just start without me, meet some new people

i'll catch up with you, or we'll play together again later

k?

Scylla woke up lying on her side with her arms crossed, lightly hugging herself, as if the girl she'd fallen asleep with her arms around had simply vanished at some point. Feeling a surprisingly strong pang of disappointment at this, she quickly hopped out of bed, tapped the dresser to change into her traveling clothes, and ran out of the room and down the stairs to the first floor of the inn. As she pushed open the door and entered, she found Kite walking in through the front door—the one leading outside.

Scylla's ears lowered and her tail whipped back and forth behind her in an excited wag. "Kiiiite!"

The fox-girl smiled brightly and waved back, walking briskly to meet her, so the wolf-girl quickly ran closer and picked Kite up in her arms, into a tight, mutual hug. They even pressed their faces together, nuzzling briefly and both giggling happily at the reunion. Scylla took the opportunity to stroke a hand down from the top of the other girl's head down past her ears and through her long pink hair, and giggled softly when this was reciprocated too.

After this, they pulled their faces apart just enough to look at each other, and Scylla could see the warmth on her own cheeks echoed in a blush on Kite's. "Well..hey there, stranger," the fox-girl said.

"Hi! You weren't in our room."
"I know." Kite tilted her head a bit. "Weird, I ain't logged in once since Sunday. Some sorta bug, maybe?"
"Oh, well. I'm just happy to see you again~," Scylla said, gently setting her down and patting her head, enjoying the flushed face and brief moment of speechlessness that followed.

"S-so ah, where's your friend gone off to?"

"Bleehh, she's gotta work late," Scylla said. "Not everyone can work for themselves like us."
"Mm-hmm. Guess we gotta find ourselves another mage for a while, then."

"Yep. An' I haven't heard anything from Jesse, so I guess she's not on either," the wolf-girl shrugged.

Both of them turned toward the inn's stairwell, hearing the sound of steps coming down the stairs inside. After a moment, the door opened and another player walked out: A tall man with some obvious muscle but a more limber overall build, wolfish traits like Scylla's but with somewhat rougher fur, all of which—as well as his shoulder-length hair—was pitch black. He was wearing a set of leather armor, giving him the look of someone in a medieval military. "Ho there, ladies," he said, noting their attention on him and approaching.

"Morning~! Or whatever," Scylla said, waving to him with a big grin and wagging her tail. "Fellow adventurer? Looking for a party?" He was...cute!
"You could say that," he shrugged. "Name's Hatchet."
"Scylla!" The wolf-girl dashed the remaining distance to grab one of his hands in both of hers and make a swift handshake of it. "And—"
"Kite," the other girl cut in. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, mister axe."

"Likewise, likewise—saay." He paused, staring at the fox-girl for a moment.

"Pink fur, two tails..you a healer? Happen to have some sorta barrier magic?"
"That ain't wrong," she said, taking out her gohei and giving it a slow spin in her hands. "How come? You heard a' me?"
"Yes! There's a whole thread—ahem," he cleared his throat, apparently reminding himself that he was supposed to be speaking 'in character'. "That is—rumors abound of a girl of your description behaving rather strangely the past few nights: Blocking the way into Greenleaf, occasionally healing travelers who get through—but only if they're female—all the while giggling and mumbling incoherently. Only to collapse into sleep not long afterward."
"..I ain't been logged in since Sunday," Kite said, tilting her head. "Real strange. You sure it ain't just a rumor?"

"I know one of the witnesses personally," he said. "A rogueish feline by the name of Noire? Short, with dark hair but for a white streak down the front?"

"That..don't sound familiar. I really think it's some kinda bug," the vixen concluded. "S'pose I'll report it later."

"Well—in that case, I'm glad I made you aware of it," he said, nodding.

"At any rate—I certainly am looking for a party, if you two are in the market?"

Scylla was ready to immediately say yes, but glanced Kite's way first. The fox-girl said, "What're your skills, first of all? I've got healin', protectin', and a li'l bit of magic, and Scylla's all high-speed, close-range combat, tauntin' and tankin'."

"I'm a samurai~!" the wolf-girl added helpfully.

"Well, I'm but a humble soldier myself," Hatchet said, "using my namesake." He took out a couple of handaxes, one in each hand. "I can use them up close, and have enough extra to throw around for long-range strikes. And I'm resilient and reasonably agile, although I'm sure any Samurai would far and away outspeed me."

"Hmmn, good enough," Kite said, "you're in. But we need ourselves a real mage, or at least someone who can do magic damage, 'fore we set out on any adventures. Guess we can look for a noble-mage to work for?"

"Seems reasonable enough to me," he shrugged.

"Hey, what d'you mean 'work for'?" Scylla asked. When both of them gave her a look that suggested she'd asked about something obvious, she blushed and grabbed some of her hair between her fingers, twirling it around. "Uhm, I only sorta skimmed the noble update announcement thingy. Did I miss something important?"

"It ain't too complicated," Kite said. "Just—rather than havin' NPCs tell adventurers what to do, or us just wanderin' around randomly, nobles are s'posed to be the quest-givers."
"When you pick a noble class, you also choose one of a set of premade 'long-term goals'," Hatchet continued. "Then, there's a set of quests you need to complete to achieve that goal. They vary from being singular, progressive quest-lines, to a scattered set of unrelated quests that can be done in pretty much any order, or anything in between. But every such quest is far too difficult to do on one's own. So nobles hire groups of adventurers and work alongside them to complete their goals. Every noble also comes with money and items 'set aside' that they can't access except as a means of payment for adventurers at the conclusion of a quest—plus they can also choose to pay more out of pocket, but aren't obliged to."

"Aahh, okay, that makes sense. Theennn—let's go find us a noble~!" Scylla pointed forward dramatically and then started bounding off to the front door of the inn.

---

Frank Tanner yawned repeatedly all morning, nearly fell asleep in his class right before lunch, and staved off similar behavior in the afternoon only with the help of an energy drink. He'd been up three hours later than usual getting two days ahead on his homework, and he'd probably be paying the price for it all the way through to the weekend. But—it was worth it.

After a hasty supper of leftovers, he stood in the living room of the huge apartment his parents had rented out for him, rubbing his hands eagerly with his eyes toward the pod which had been delivered to him just four days hence. It was finally time! He'd been watching the forums like a hawk, feeling a mounting sense of envy with each adventure he read about, but at last it was going to be his turn! Unable to stand around and wait any longer, he bounded over and hurried inside, lying down and reaching his hand for the start button.

He paused for a second—he hadn't allowed himself to do more than the basic diagnostics to ensure it was working while he still had homework to do—although that was less down to his self-control and more that he knew his character couldn't exist until they did the update. Now that he was actually here..it was rather uncomfortable, wasn't it? Lying like this for several hours couldn't possibly be good for his back. He reluctantly got up and found some spare blankets to use as cushioning material, lay back in the pod again (reasonably confident that the padding wouldn't interfere with the magical waves or whatever), and then hit go.

Frank knew to expect a sensation of falling, and only went through a brief second or two of reflexively flailing for something to grab onto before calming himself down and looking around instead. For the moment, however, it seemed as if he was just falling through an impossible, empty sky, with light to see himself coming from nowhere in particular and nothing but himself to see.

As he went to right himself, rotating so his head was in the direction he was pretty sure was 'up' and his feet 'down', the first unusual feeling he noticed was the slight upward 'wind' from the slow fall dragging his hair up and around him. There was already more hair to be tugged at than he knew his real body had, and as he used a hand to bring some of what was flapping around his head in front of his eyes, he could see its color fading out and paling, too.

The next thing to come was a stretching of his ears, and a pressure all across the rest of his body. "Aah..!" The ears grew, tingling with the growth of fur as they pulled out longer and longer, and everything else about Frank started to shrink. He could feel his frame pulling in, his clothes falling increasingly loose around him and billowing around in the wind; the only real frame of reference for his height was how far down the hem of his shirt fell, but it fell quite a bit.

"Mmh, mm~mmh.." He squirmed a bit as everything continued to push inward: Narrow shoulders, slender waist, shorter and slimmer arms and legs. "Mmh, aa~aah.." With each utterance, his voice sounded a little bit different—a little higher at first, and then a little less masculine for each time afterward. His face felt funny for a moment, and when he carefully brushed a shrinking hand across it, he found its skin soft, smooth and hairless, its shape smaller and rounder—cuter, definitely. By now his ears were finished growing into a pair of very long, fuzzy white things with rounded tips, and he could feel soft hairs brushing across them as the wind blew them up in the air above him along with the still-growing locks.

"Ah—ooh—" Suddenly the pressure on Frank's body ended, leaving him feeling rather small and..soft, all of a sudden. But this was followed immediately by a slipping, tugging feeling down between his legs—one gentle pull, then a slightly sharper one, and then the last one just didn't seem to end. "Wah, w-woo~oowhh..!" Still squirming, he heard a slightly breathy, warm alto tone coming out as his voice, felt the warmth of a blush on his face.

"Ah, mm~mmMMMnnh..!" As his manhood melted away, it left behind a pleasant, fuzzy sensation down there that seemed to cause her to feel even softer than before..like pillows, like velvet, like a stuffed animal. "Oh, mmnh..w-wow...!" This sensation spread from her newfound womanhood out to her hips, bottom, and thighs, gently plumping and pressing them outward. A slight push from the base of her spine grew a small, leporine tail back there to match her big floppy ears. And then...

Frank's chest tingled, making her lips emit a soft, high, breathy "Aah..?" as this caused the fuzzy sensation between her legs to come back, just faintly. "Ah..o-oh..!" This was followed by a gentle push that grew a pair of small breasts there, the softness of her wide hips and roud bottom spreading up into them—and that faint feeling down there began to grow a little bit stronger. "Oh, mm~mnh..aah." It eased off..and then came back again, everything decidedly sharper and more intense than before. "Nnn~nngh..!" The new girl squirmed and flailed helplessly through the air, unintentionally rotating her position around randomly, as the small breasts began to quickly expand, getting bigger, rounder and softer, and her girlish pleasure intensified as (apparently) a direct result. This movement caused her ever-so-loose clothing to start slipping off and away, starting with her pants, which had already slid off of her hips before they widened.

"Aa~aaAAahnn~nnh.." The growth, and the pleasure, seemed to have no mercy, stealing away Frank's ability to concentrate on much of anything else. Her soft voice cried out, her face burning with a blush, as the already midsized boobs pushed out even bigger, and as her shirt slid up past her head, across her ears and hair, and blew away in the wind too. A pair of boxers were all the increasingly curvy bunny-girl had on now, but they saw fit to start shrinking and losing their leggings rather than fleeing away like the rest of her clothes.

"Oh, oo~oh, m-mann~nn~NNNNnnn~nnhh..!" No sooner had she started to recover from this than another burst of growth hit her, and at the same time something gently wrapped itself around her chest: A frilly bra pulling itself around her back and over her shoulders, holding itself loosely around the swelling breasts as if to say that she was far from done, yet. "Nngh, wah, o-o~oohh..!" This was followed by the sudden appearance of an entire dress which—if she'd been upright still—one could describe as falling onto her, but now it was much more like she fell into it. It was a white, sleeveless thing with a thin ribbon tied under its collar, with a frilly hem fluttering around her upper thighs.

"Aaa~aAAAaaah...!" The bunny-girl felt one more, especially hard and long push from her breasts, expanding them fully into a pair of enormous globes that pushed the bra and upper bit of the dress both nice and tight around them, and she couldn't help crying out in a high, adorable voice as this brought on one last, equally intense and lengthy burst of enjoyment down between her legs. She was left panting heavily, eyes closed, face in what felt like a permanent state of blush, as more clothes 'fell' themselves onto her: A black skirt covered in ribbons that pulled itself around her dress and tied one particular ribbon tight around her waist to hold itself on, and a pair of long cloth gauntlets similarly decorated, tied around her arms just below the shoulders by more ribbons, ending in wide, frilly flowing bits about at her wrists.

"Haa~Aaah..hff, ffh...wah, w-woo~oowh.." Frank slowly fluttered her eyes open, and carefully righted herself once again as she saw that there was now some ground below to actually orient herself with. There were several buildings—a town—beneath her, and directly below her was a mansion, complete with a big garden out in the front—what would be her 'home' in the game. She fell through the ceiling somehow, and then her fall slowed toward a halt, finally allowing her big, floppy rabbit ears and hair to fall with gravity—the latter flowing out across her forehead, cheeks, shoulders and especially her back, the ends of some locks tickling her very ankles as she made a neat, graceful landing in the midst of a bedroom. "Thah, that was...mmnh."

A hat landed atop the bunny-girl's head, then, and she reached her hands out on instinct, catching a pruple-and-black stuffed rabbit that fell from somewhere above and bringing it automatically into a one-armed hug against her left side. "..Mmh."

She was grinning faintly, and still blushing. "Heheh..and that was just a taste? Guess I can see why Rich..." One of her ears turned upward slightly, hearing a knock on the front door from all the way in the bedroom she was in. "Mmh, visitors! Better get into character..."

She quickly made her way through the big house—out into a hallway, through that and down some stairs, and over to the antechamber—feeling like the place was so familiar she could navigate it in her sleep. Well—to be fair, she had more experience living in a big place like this than most people, but the familiarity with this particular building was still probably an adjustment the game made for nobles to prevent inconveniences. The knocking resumed as she reached this last room and approached the door, and a girl's voice outside said, "You reckon no one's home?"

The bunny-girl hurried the rest of the way to the door before her visitors could give up and leave, pulling it open with her right hand (the left arm still hugged around the stuffed rabbit, of course). "Many apologies~! Franka just woke up, you see," she said, taking a look at the visitors. A wolf-girl...samurai probably, a wolf-guy who looked like some kind of fighter class, and a two-tailed fox-girl miko. "Franka's usually a much much better host than this!" she added, giving the three of them a little curtsying bow.
"Awwh, that's okay," the wolf-girl said; her voice was a little higher than Franka's, and there was a sort of huskiness to it that gave the immediate impression that she was a huge tomboy. "You uh, mean you just now logged in?"
The bunny-girl headtilted. "That's, what 'waking up' means, isn't it?" She gave a 'keep rolling' sort of gesture with her free hand. "Trying to roleplay here.."

"Oh! Sorry. Anyway, what luck for us to catch you then! Your uh...nobilityness?"

"Pfft," the fox-girl giggled softly.

"Oh, Franka's no one that special, no need for titles or anything. To be—perfectly clear, Franka is who stands before you," she added, "Franka Stein."

"Ahh, yeah! Pleased to meet you," the wolf-girl said, extending a hand to shake. "I'm Scylla, this is Kite and Hatchet!"
"Two out of three named after objects, hmn?" she said, gracefully reciprocating the gesture. "Not that Franka's really one to talk, with the surname."

"But you, are some sort of noble, right?" the wolf-man said.

"Certainly! Is this Kite, or Hatchet?" Franka asked him.

"Oh—the latter."

"What kinda noble are you, then, miss Stein?" the foxgirl (Kite, by process of elimination) asked. "That is—you got any special talents?"
"Oh, most certainly! Franka is a dab hand with the needle and thread, and made this little buddy herself," she said, holding her stuffed animal out in front of her. Then she let go of it, and it floated in place in the air, its limbs and head appearing limp as ever but its body surrounded by a dark purple aura. With a slight twitch of her will, it pulled itself slightly upright and waved one of its arms in greeting. "Adorable little one, isn't she~? But feisty if Franka gets threatened!"

"...Ah, yer a dollmaster?" the fox-girl said.

"Indeed!"
"We were in the market for a mage-noble, after all—bein' a bit short on magic powers ourselves. It's just me who can do a li'l bit, but I'm a miko—mostly a healer. These two're meatheads."
"Heyy...I'm a samurai, not a meathead!" the wolf-girl objected.
"No objections here," Hatchet said. "I know my way around an axe or two, and not much more."

"Anyhow, no magic between 'em," Kite summarized.

"Well, these three do seem like versatile and experienced adventurers, at least," Franka said, drawing her 'little friend' back to herself and tucking it back under her arm. "Surely they can help Franka take down a big, nasty monster so Franka can use its soul to make something much cuter? A friend for the little buddy here?" She poked the stuffed rabbit.
"Sure, sounds like fun!" Scylla answered first, and quite excitedly continued: "What're we slaying, huh? Huh?"
"Err—well," the bunny-girl hesitated briefly, sifting through a list that had been inserted into her head for the game's sake for something 'low-level appropriate'. Scylla's adorable eagerness had also flustered her, making it slightly harder to think straight for a second. "There are reports of a pack of giant man-eating squirrels not far from here. It would surely do everyone a favor to slay their leader, would it not?"

"'Man-eating', eh?" the fox-girl said, and gently elbowed Hatchet. "Seems like you're our bait, then."
"Errm, 'tis only an expression," Franka corrected. "They eat women, too. And livestock, and poor little innocent sheepbits at that!"

"Sounds like a worthwhile venture to me, then!" the wolf-girl said. "Count us—uhh." She paused, looking rapidly back and forth between the other two. "Is this okay with both of you?"
"Sure."
"No problem," Hatchet said.
"Okay~! Count us in! Lead on!" she pointed dramatically in...well, it had to be a coincidence that it was the precise opposite direction from what Franka's implanted memory said was where they should be going.

"Very well; right this way," Franka nodded, starting off in the right direction. "But perhaps it would be better if Scylla were in front? Or Hatchet?"
"Yep~!"
"I'll watch our backs, then," the wolf-man offered.

---

I've had most of this written for quite a while, but needed a break from this story before I really felt up to finishing up this part and moving on to the next one. Three guesses who in some other story the new girl is related to!

Also: I know, I know, the title numbering is getting silly. But I promise there is at least a reason.

Halloween Cheer 3: It's a Start

It's time for the third entry! The fourth has at least been started, at this point.

Halloween Cheer 2: Werepanther!

I was hoping to have some more parts fully written by the time this second one posted, but have been struggling with them a bit. Well, that's no reason to continue to delay the release of the one I already finished.

Halloween Cheer 1: The Special Surprise

It is finally that time of year again, and I have plans to do another series, a sort of "proper follow-up" to October Tails. I've already written the first two entries ahead of time (i.e., in September), and here's the first one now!