Aetuornos Beta 3a-1

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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.